WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: LilGuyBlastoise

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◈ The Economics of an Alchemist ◈

Chapter 9

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Jaeha logged onto a wholesale site and searched for smartphone cases. He sank into thought as he looked over the results filling the screen.

TPU or PC. What material should he use for the case?

It did not take him long to decide.

'TPU it is.'

TPU was the material used for what people called clear jelly cases.

Its biggest drawback was yellowing from exposure to UV light and heat, but Jaeha saw that as an advantage.

A material that forced people to replace it because it looked ugly, even though it still worked perfectly. What an excellent capitalist gimmick.

Jaeha filtered the search results until only TPU cases remained.

They all looked the same at a glance, but the price differences were considerable. There were dirt-cheap Chinese products and high-quality ones treated with oil-film prevention patterns.

He chose a premium model. Bought in batches of one hundred, each case cost 1,000 won. They were made by a large domestic mobile accessory manufacturer.

They cost more than twice as much as Chinese products, but he had his reasons.

Polymer compounds like TPU were bound to have subtly different structures depending on the production line and mixing ratio.

Consistency in the production line was the foundation of manufacturing, since it controlled defect rates. On top of that, he needed a reliable supplier that would not go under easily. Those were Jaeha's criteria for choosing a case manufacturer.

[Payment complete.]

After ordering five hundred cases for experiments, Jaeha rose from his chair. He stretched and walked over to the workbench.

'I should clean up a little.'

The place was a complete mess from when he had succeeded in breaking the carbon molecular bonds in graphite.

He looked with satisfaction at the finely ground graphite powder. The process of reaching success had been anything but smooth.

Edwin's world had standardized inks and catalysts. Reverse Transmutation of graphite, for example, used indigo ink and a Grade 3 catalyst.

Jaeha had needed to replace those with conductive ink and electricity, then test them one by one.

There was voltage, like the water pressure needed to strike and break through carbon molecular bonds. There was current, which had to flow delicately and steadily to pull those bonds apart. Lastly, there was conductivity, which allowed the electricity to flow without obstruction.

Voltage, current, and conductivity. The moment those three failed to work in harmony, the Transmutation Array became a ticking time bomb.

He was converting formulas from an alien world. Who could know how many volts and amperes the energy emitted by a Grade 3 catalyst equaled?

If he did not have the All-Seeing Eye, he would have had no choice but to start at one volt and zap it with electricity one step at a time.

Fortunately, Jaeha could read in real time the paths of electrons jumping along the circuits drawn into the Transmutation Array, as well as the microscopic tremors right before carbon bonds snapped.

'Without the All-Seeing Eye, I couldn't have guaranteed success even after tens of thousands of experiments.'

After his brief recollection, Jaeha neatly organized the workbench.

Before getting down to work, he opened the mini fridge and took out a can of cola. He pulled the tab with a cheerful pop.

Psssh!

The cold carbonation scraping roughly down his throat woke his brain cells. He chugged the cola in one go, tossed the can into the trash, then sat at the workbench and picked up a pen.

When he had first attempted alchemy, it had felt like smashing his head against bare ground. Now, he was at least a fledgling alchemist with the basics down. He could identify what he needed.

Scratch, scratch-scratch.

Jaeha listed the necessary conditions for creating the Aegis Case.

He had to preserve the framework of the TPU material while building a lattice structure that would spread external impact energy like a net.

He had drawn inspiration from the Transmutation Array for the structural phase change of iron plates that Edwin had attempted on tank armor at the military workshop.

The problem was that, at Jaeha's level, that Transmutation Array was practically a doctoral thesis.

Edwin, an alchemist skilled enough to be assigned to the development of a nation's new weapons, had designed it for an ultra-dense alloy mixed with all manner of rare minerals.

The TPU Jaeha needed to handle, on the other hand, was a soft, light polymer compound based on carbon.

'Edwin couldn't have attempted a structural phase change in armor plating based only on a sudden flash of inspiration, either.'

There had to be basic theoretical foundations, such as impact dispersion and material elasticity, that could be broadly applied to materials other than metal.

Jaeha's hand moved busily across the paper. He organized what he currently knew, along with a list of knowledge he absolutely needed to snatch from his dreams.

Much later, Jaeha put down his pen and stretched wide, loosening his stiff shoulders.

'They should arrive by the day after tomorrow at the latest, right?'

Five hundred jelly cases. His first bullets, waiting to launch him from the bottom of the capitalist pyramid to the top.

* * *

Two days later, boxes containing five hundred clear jelly cases were stacked in one corner of the workshop. That day, Jaeha's full-scale experiments began.

To record the process of failure, he kept a journal that also served as a research log. He had done the same thing since attempting the Reverse Transmutation of carbon.

His memory had improved dramatically, but he still feared it might disappear at any time. The visual satisfaction of seeing his data accumulate in writing was an added bonus.

Sometimes, the act of writing the log itself became a trigger that let him snatch the dream he needed.

[August 16]

A lucky day.

I dreamed of Edwin's first year at the Academy. Thanks to that, I acquired knowledge about "impact absorption rates and phase dispersion in elastic materials" from Chapter 3 of the Introduction to Basic Transmutation.

I applied it to TPU's molecular formula as soon as I woke up.

The result was disastrous. The case melted until it was unrecognizable and released toxic gas, forcing me to halt the experiment for quite some time.

I suspect an energy bottleneck was the cause. Before the carbon chains could change phase, they collapsed without being able to release thermal energy.

[August 25]

I went in for my regular outpatient appointment.

They said my progress was very good and began reducing my medication. It is now at 70% of the previous dosage.

Honestly, I'm afraid. If reducing the medication makes me return to how I was before, it will be as good as throwing all the money and time I've spent away.

After the hospital appointment, I returned to the workshop and continued yesterday's experiment.

I lowered the voltage by 5V and widened the circuit.

Failure. It did not melt, but it cracked like glass and sent fragments flying. TPU's flexibility was completely gone.

The cause... I have no idea. I cannot even guess.

[September 5]

It has been nearly two weeks since my medication was reduced, but I have not felt any particular changes yet. That is somewhat reassuring.

Today's experiment also failed.

Since the Transmutation Array did not even activate, the cause seems to be the new ink I ordered.

[September 11]

Yesterday, the A-phone 4 was officially released in Korea.

There were hundreds of thousands of first-round reservations, and the news kept calling its elegant design, covered in smooth glass front and back, innovative.

What caught my eye was not innovation, but the public's fear.

Just one day after release, online communities were flooded with rumors of a "sugar phone" that shattered if dropped even slightly.

People trembling at the thought of their cutting-edge devices, worth hundreds of thousands of won, getting even a scratch. It convinced me that I had chosen the right item.

The Aegis Case will become their savior. I ordered additional A-phone 4 jelly cases from the wholesale site.

[September 20]

In my dream, an Academy professor shouted at Edwin.

"Don't try to fight the material. Resonate with its natural frequency!"

When I woke up, it felt as though I had been struck on the back of the head.

Until now, I had been crudely forcing electricity into the Transmutation Array, trying to twist the case's carbon chains by force. I had not calculated TPU's inherent molecular frequency.

I need to match the frequency. I realized that I need to adjust the resistance so the speed at which the current flows through the Transmutation Array synchronizes with TPU's inherent frequency.

[September 27]

My anticancer medication has been reduced to 50%.

Even with the medication reduction, my brain's metabolic rate is still burning like an active volcano. Rather than worrying about my ability disappearing, I should probably worry more that my brain might break down at any moment.

The professor seemed to want to write a paper on me, so I brushed them off.

[October 11]

At last, the case neither melted nor shattered after the Transmutation Array activated.

In my excitement, I conducted an impact test, only for it to break with absurd ease. The impact energy was supposed to spread and disperse like a net, but it did not do so at all.

[October 22]

I thought the phase arrangement for dispersing energy was perfect.

But the impact test failed again. The case was fine, but the dummy smartphone placed inside it was destroyed.

The residual vibrations of the shockwave had penetrated inside. It was like armor remaining intact while the wearer's internal organs ruptured.

I plan to redesign the Transmutation Array into a double-layer structure that can disperse the impact once at the case's point of impact, then scatter it again inside.

[October 29]

I have begun stopping the anticancer medication.

My ability did not change throughout the gradual reduction, so I am a little less worried, but the thought of stopping completely still makes me anxious.

[November 5]

One week after stopping medication.

I dreamed of Edwin studying "the phase structure of spiderwebs." Nature's alchemy, flexible yet capable of dispersing impacts in every direction.

Maybe I can finally stop worrying that my ability will suddenly disappear.

[November 10]

The college entrance exam is not far away.

The workshop's temperature is now close to freezing, but perhaps because my brain is still overloaded, I barely feel the cold.

I have not gone home for the past week, so my siblings have been taking turns calling me. They think I am suffering at a construction site in the provinces. They tell me that it is over if I ruin my health, and that I need to eat properly and take care of myself.

[November 26]

I came up with the reverse idea of canceling impact with impact. I drew inspiration from noise canceling, which erases noise with noise.

I need to design the distance between the double layers and the frequency of the waves filling that space in antiphase.

[December 16]

I'm almost there.

The silver circuits I see through the All-Seeing Eye now pulse like the blood vessels of a living creature. There is only a small error caused by the difference in resistance between the upper and lower layers.

Clack!

Jaeha closed the diary.

Dark circles lay heavy beneath his exhausted eyes, but his gaze gleamed like a predator with its quarry in sight.

He poured three glucose candies into his mouth and crunched them down. The sugar racing straight to his brain pushed his sharp concentration to its limit.

Jaeha rummaged through a box, took out a clear jelly case, and placed it on the circuit board etched with a Transmutation Array atop the workbench.

"Whew..."

He eased his tension with a deep breath, then finely adjusted the dial of the Slidac, a voltage regulator connected to a high-voltage transformer.

Then he flipped the switch on.

Whirrr, crack!

As enormous voltage poured in, arc discharge erupted from the Transmutation Array.

Jaeha opened the All-Seeing Eye.

Within the microscopic world, carbon chains resonated at a perfectly antiphased frequency, intertwining into a divided double-layer structure.

They looked like hundreds of millions of sturdy spiderwebs, opening their mouths to swallow any impact.

Flash!

The light spewed by the Transmutation Array illuminated the workshop before slowly fading.

"...It worked."

Jaeha picked up the case.

It looked no different from the clear jelly cases given away as free gifts at phone shops. Its weight and its distinctive soft feel remained the same.

But Jaeha, who could intuitively perceive the microscopic world of objects, could see it. A case that cost 1,000 won had become something beyond all convention in modern materials engineering.

A predator that would devour the global smartphone case ecosystem had just been born.

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