WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the EX-Rank Pet Maker Hunters Obsess Over ◈
Chapter 98: Rumors of Disaster
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Holy fucking shit...!! The Furry-Furry Fruit actually existed...!!!
That alone was shocking, but even more shocking was the suspiciously large number of suspiciously suspicious Hunters.
‘Suspicious...!! This is way too suspicious!!!’
I broke out in a cold sweat.
I’d heard furries were a major group among niche interests... but there were this many?
Had this secret furry brigade been hiding among us all along?
Thirty percent of the fruit transport team had rushed at me. Did that mean three out of every ten people on the street were furries?
That was an absolutely ridiculous percentage!
‘This can’t be real...!!’
One wrong move, and my Jelly-polis would become Furry City!!
But had I been too quick to judge based on my own prejudices?
After calmly speaking with a few of the Hunters... I discovered that most of the people who had asked...
Surprisingly, weren’t into soft, fluffy fur.
I blinked.
“So... you thought that if they kept becoming more human, they could eventually become beastfolk?”
“Exactly!! I think there’s been a misunderstanding... I’m not a furry...!!! I like bare human skin more than fur!”
The Hunter who had excitedly asked to buy an item that could make magical beasts humanoid had a dream.
A dream of creating not a furry... but a member of the ‘beastfolk.’
Like a nine-tailed fox taking human form, with animal features kept to a minimum, such as ears or a tail!
“The truth is... I like animal-ear cosplay...!!”
The sudden confession caught me off guard, but I soon came to understand.
The Hunter dreamed of having a magical beast that was close to human. If they could just guide a magical beast’s evolution properly, couldn’t they create beastfolk, which didn’t exist in reality?
Hearing that, I could finally relax.
‘Thank goodness... Some of them have normal sexual tastes...’
The future of Furry City had been averted.
The Hunter watched my reaction before asking,
“So, about that... Will this new Essentium be going on sale too...?”
Apparently, they mistakenly thought my Essentium had caused the Mist Cat to evolve.
I shook my head.
“I’m sorry, but I didn’t intend for this to happen... That magical beast’s evolution has nothing to do with Essentium.”
With mixed feelings, I looked at the Mist Cat grooming itself in a corner, now a stage-three furry.
For the record, the suspicious Hunters had auctioned it off among themselves, and the winner would be taking it home.
“...What do you mean...? You’re saying you didn’t make a new kind of Essentium?”
“That’s right. I did make the Mist Cat, but its appearance changed right after it stole and ate the fruit, didn’t it?”
I wasn’t sure whether this had happened because I’d cultivated it using fruit dissolved through Mist Dharma Arts, or whether eating the fruit would make any magical beast that suspicious.
But...
‘There’s no doubt that the cause is the special fruit containing human thoughts.’
As if something had finally clicked, the Hunter spoke in a trembling voice.
“A-are you saying... the fruit we brought back...!!”
I nodded.
“That’s right. The fruit made the magical beast evolve into something closer to a human. In other words, if you don’t farm fruit in Sichuan Province this time, you won’t be able to get a beastfolk magical beast.”
This was what you’d call a limited-time event. There was no telling when Sichuan would be cleared, or how long the fruit would remain.
The fruit from Sichuan was so popular that competition would only grow fiercer with time.
Hunters, the wealthy, and people in power all wanted it.
Joining that competition and securing enough fruit wasn’t going to be easy.
Perhaps the Hunter knew that too, because they fell silent.
Maybe they were trying to work out how much of the fruit from this farming trip would actually fall to them.
“...If you can’t get enough fruit to turn it into one of the beastfolk, its humanization might stop at the furry stage...”
“Gasp...!”
I voiced the worst-case scenario, and the Hunter went pale.
From that day onward, our faction’s fruit farming gradually began to speed up, without anyone quite noticing.
* * *
Slash!!
“Kreeeek!!”
Seogwang’s guild master, Seong Gwangho, cut down a mutated magical beast with a single stroke.
This place was full of A+-rank mutated magical beasts, but they were no match for a Korean S-rank who had even completed secluded training.
After clearing out every magical beast in sight, he looked at the fruit-bearing tree before him.
The fruit was red, of a higher grade than the fruit at the outermost edge.
For some reason, the closer they came to the center where the giant tree stood, the more unsettling the fruit’s appearance became.
The once tempting fruit now had surfaces so rough and lumpy that he hesitated to eat it.
“The fruit on the outskirts is brilliant and beautiful, but the deeper we go, the more grotesque it becomes.”
Still, considering what nourished the fruit, perhaps this appearance suited it better.
The Seogwang Guild members replied.
“It’s hardly strange. The golden fruit on the outskirts was obviously bait.”
“All the Anomalous Gates these days seem to lure humans in like this.”
Seong Gwangho sighed at their words.
“What’s happened to the world in just a year or two...?”
The existence of Anomalous Gates and Transcendent factions was unfamiliar and still hard to believe.
But the thing he understood least was that.
“Grrrgl...!!”
A bird-type magical beast spread its wings wide and cried out as its body began to swell.
“Oh... Ooooh...!! My Gudori evolved!!!”
“Congratulations, Hunter Jeongchan. Judging by its growth direction, you went with the safe option and fed it Alpha Essentium to increase its size.”
“I asked a Cheonseong Guild member who had experience raising first-generation magical beasts. They said starting the first evolution tree with Alpha was the most efficient!”
...I had no idea what they were talking about.
The moment I’d emerged from secluded training, the deputy guild master had insisted we join Jelly-polis or whatever it was called. So we had, only for someone called Director Yoo Hyun to start handing out magical beasts to Seogwang’s guild members.
Of course, I’d refused. Magical beasts were a nuisance that would only get in the way of my martial path...
But all our guild members had accepted one.
As you could see, the magical beasts evolved at the drop of a hat. More importantly, they were quite helpful in combat.
But combat wasn’t where they helped the most.
Step, step.
Several sets of footsteps sounded nearby.
When I turned toward them, I saw a group of several dozen Hunters.
They spotted the Seogwang Guild members, who had finished farming fruit, and looked us over as if sizing up our strength.
“Oh, those guys’ bags look pretty full...”
“They don’t look all that strong either.”
“But why do they have a one-to-one ratio of Hunters to magical beast pets...?”
“Huh? Hey, wait. Don’t touch them! They’re those guys... The Merfolk Island magical beasts...”
“What? Seriously? We almost picked the wrong targets...”
After exchanging a few words, they went out of their way to avoid contact with us, even turning back the way they’d come.
The closer we got to the center, the more our operating areas overlapped, and the more often we encountered Hunters from other factions.
Some of them observed us with threatening looks, just like that group...
But for some reason, one look at our magical beasts was enough to make them avoid us.
Even in an environment where people could easily steal fruit others had gathered, our faction hadn’t clashed with another faction even once.
After seeing the same thing happen several times, even Seong Gwangho had to realize it.
They weren’t avoiding us. They were avoiding our magical beasts.
They looked at them almost as if they were staring at bombs.
‘Why on earth are they avoiding them?’
Having lost touch with the world during his secluded training, Seong Gwangho had no way of knowing.
And so, without interference from other factions, the Jelly-polis Alliance advanced toward the deepest region faster than anyone else.
* * *
A few days later, at a location not far from Jelly-polis Forward Base 2.
The trees here were much denser than those around Forward Base 1, and the magical beasts that appeared were that much stronger.
“Kieeeek!!!”
“Kweeeek!!”
Ssssss!!
A hideous magical beast resembling a deep-sea Lantern Anglerfish made choking noises as it dissolved and killed the mutated magical beast struggling inside its mouth.
“Kk... Kk...”
It was an amphibian-type magical beast from the first generation of EVO models.
Lantern, an Axolotl model.
Lantern’s owner, a Cheonseong Guild member, sighed.
“...It really is strong in combat, but...”
The problem was that its horrifying appearance and vicious attacks made it hard to grow attached to it.
Director Yoo Hyun had said that even an Axolotl model would grow up pretty if raised well, but that was becoming harder and harder to believe.
...More precisely, it felt as though Lantern had taken the wrong evolution path somewhere along the way.
“Damn it... Yeongsik’s Axolotl grew up so pretty. Why is my Lantern the only one...!!”
A fellow trainer... no, a fellow Hunter who had also received an Axolotl had raised it into something like a sleek sea snake with beautiful markings.
Its grace and agility were enough to impress anyone who saw it.
Meanwhile, our Lantern had a toad-like body, short, stubby limbs, and a grotesquely enormous mouth.
No matter how kindly its owner tried to describe it, it looked like a deep-sea anglerfish.
Just how many more times would it have to evolve to change that appearance?
Just as its owner was reaching the limit of their patience with waiting indefinitely for another evolution...
An unexpected opportunity arrived.
Having finished the day’s farming, Lantern’s owner held up a red fruit. The people nearby watched with keen interest.
“...Oh? You’re going to do it?”
“You’re really going to feed it the fruit? Wouldn’t it be better to eat it yourself, or sell it and buy some equipment? You can slowly evolve a magical beast with Essentium.”
Lantern’s owner shook their head.
“No. I can’t leave Lantern like this.”
The Hunter had received their share of the fruit in advance.
All to give Lantern a makeover.
Nervously, Lantern’s owner fed it the fruit. A reaction soon followed.
“Kk...!! Kk...!!”
The short limbs attached to Lantern’s enormous body began to lengthen.
Voices rose from every direction.
“Ooooh...!!”
“So that’s how they turn into beastfolk.”
“Red fruit is Grade 3, so it’s pretty concentrated. This could be promising.”
A short while later... Lantern, the Lantern Anglerfish-like magical beast, evolved.
Long, straight limbs with beautiful lines like a woman’s.
And attached to those limbs, the body of a deep-sea anglerfish.
“Kk... Kkuhk...”
Its cry was still strange too.
At the sight of that even more hideous form, which looked as though its evolution had stopped halfway through, Lantern’s owner tore at their hair and howled.
“Fuuucking hell!!! It’s even more horrible nowwwww!!!!!!”
Looking at Lantern, now even more grotesque with its long limbs, the watching guild members each offered a comment.
“Wow... That’s a real emergency.”
“...I’m glad it’s not my magical beast.”
“Seriously...”
* * *
Meanwhile, at the base camp where Yoo Hyun was staying.
An unexpected guest had come to see him.
A neatly dressed man in a tailcoat.
I tilted my head as I looked at him.
“...Who are you?”
The man in the tailcoat made an exaggerated gesture, as though performing in a stage play.
“Oh dear! I haven’t introduced myself yet! Please, just call me White.”
“...So why have you come to see me?”
“Hmm, you don’t seem to enjoy long introductions, so I’ll get straight to the point. I hear you’ll make a magical beast for anyone who offers sufficient payment...? Is that correct?”
...I’d heard that somewhere before. Was this déjà vu?
I gave him a vague yes.
“Well, if the payment’s enough, I do make magical beasts, within reason.”
At my reply, the man who had introduced himself as White took a large wrapping cloth from inside his clothes, spread it over the table, then immediately pulled it away.
A large quantity of fruit appeared.
Having filled the table with fruit as if by magic, he smiled.
“How about this much? If that’s not enough, I can offer you some information along with the fruit! This isn’t something you can easily learn just anywhere!! It’s very valuable information!”
“Hmm... I’m listening.”
He glanced around, then cautiously approached and spoke.
“Don’t be alarmed. A terrible disaster beyond anything we mortals could imagine is set to occur here in Sichuan Province...! Arrangements have been made purely to create chaos. I don’t know exactly what the disaster will be either... but something is definitely going to happen soon! Only a very select few know about this.”
“...”
Seeing that I couldn’t say anything, White nodded.
“I understand. It must be hard to believe. I would have dismissed it as nonsense too. But the disaster will happen without fail.”
No, I’m telling you, that disaster isn’t going to happen.
I fought back the urge to argue.
Footnotes:
The “Furry-Furry Fruit” parodies the Devil Fruit names in One Piece. The slip from “trainer” to “Hunter” also echoes Pokémon.
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