Hyper Evolution with the Nymphs # 2
Kira Stone had a lot on her mind these days.
The numbers on her MeTube channel, Kira Land, had hit a rough patch.
View counts were sliding gently downward, and even after crossing the ten-million-subscriber milestone, the growth of her channel had slowed to a crawl.
Back in the day, being an S-rank awakener MeTuber had been a rarity in itself, but lately German S-ranker Weber and all sorts of other awakeners had been flooding into the MeTube market, and honestly, her competitive edge was eroding.
…Th-these blasphemers!!!
Kira scowled as she read through the comments written in languages from all over the world.
As a ten-million-subscriber MeTuber, Kira received an enormous amount of attention—and proportionally, just as much hate.
Of course, there were far, far more posts praising her and comments saying she was fun to watch, but that's simply how the human heart works: one black dot on a blank white page is the one you can't stop staring at.
Wincing at the recurring themes in the comments, Kira slowly went back over her most recent uploads.
"What Happens When an S-Ranker Goes Undercover to Coach B-Rankers"
"Jumping Out of a Helicopter Without a Parachute"
"Mana Truffle Mukbang — Viewer Discretion Advised"
"Attempting the Trending Bee Dance in Front of the Royal Guard"
"……"
Then she went back and looked at the videos she'd uploaded back when she only had a hundred thousand subscribers.
"A Raccoon I Met While Clearing a D-Rank Rift Keeps Following Me Home!"
"Training Video, Praying for C-Rank — Day 152"
"What Do You Need to Prepare to Reach C-Rank?"
The two eras had a completely different feel to them.
Of course, her subscriber count was different now, and the gap between being D-rank and S-rank was enormous too.
But how many people made their living off the jobs that spun out of her channel, Kira Land? Kira was the head of the household that put food on all their tables.
Uploading not the videos she wanted to make, but the videos she had to make.
That was the noblesse oblige drilled into her from childhood, born as she was a noble lady.
So the next video has to be a hit! It's the golden opportunity to bounce my views and subscriber count right back up! Who knows when another chance like this will come along!
Kira had been hunting for material and content in that frame of mind when she stumbled across a livestream of the Beastless Tournament—and nearly jumped out of her skin.
One particular man who appeared in that broadcast had caught her eye something fierce.
He was surrounded by adorable animals, and he even seemed to have his share of surprisingly moving episodes.
Once she learned his name was "Ha Ildo of Korea," she rewatched episode 1004 of Animal Ranch, the one featuring him, over and over.
It's him! The man who'll breathe new life into my MeTube channel is none other than this man!
So Kira canceled her entire schedule and hopped on a plane straight for Korea.
And now, having arrived at Taecho Village, the man was saying:
"I'll show you Hyper Evolution."
It was as if fireworks had exploded right before Kira's eyes.
"Hyper Evolution! Magnificent just from the name alone! My instincts as a creator are telling me! This is going to be absolutely incredible content, I just know it!"
Kira's eyes sparkled.
At the same moment, Oinoi was greatly startled as well.
"Hyper evolution…! This Oinoi is terribly curious about what that could be…! Never has this Oinoi heard of such a thing…!"
Evolution.
It was the one thing that never failed to set every nymph's heart aflutter.
Even Coris, the Ice Water Nymph who had been dozing off under the shade of a parasol, jolted awake at the word evolution.
"Hyper evolution—this Coris has never heard of such a thing either…! Whatever it may be, it must surely be a most powerful and splendid form of evolution…! This Coris wishes to see it at once…!"
Whoosh—.
The nymphs raised both hands and began circling round and round around Ha Ildo.
Only Lee Jina looked at him with slightly worried eyes.
"Hey, you. That Hyper Evolution thing…."
First, I found a rift.
A nice, manageable B-rank one—so me, Jina, and Kira all joined the subjugation party.
"It's an unregistered rift."
According to Jina, it was a rift the gangs of Macheon City had discovered and never reported.
It sat in the underground parking structure of some building in Macheon, and judging by the look of it, it had been there for quite a while.
"Lady, seventy percent of all the materials that come out of this rift—you gotta sell 'em to us, no exceptions!"
The gangs demanded an exclusive contract on seventy percent of the materials harvested from the subjugation.
I'd heard plenty about gangs running businesses off unregistered rifts, so nothing about it surprised me.
It wasn't like I'd come hunting rifts for profit anyway.
"Alright, let's go in!"
Vrrmmm—.
We entered the rift with a sensation like my stomach flipping over end to end.
A sandy beach bathed in beautiful moonlight stretched out before us, gorgeous beyond words.
"What an exceedingly lovely place…! This Oinoi wishes to bestow upon this rift the name 'Moonlight Coast'—a most nymph-friendly and romantic designation…!"
Moonlight Coast.
It was a splendid name.
Kira, filming with her phone in hand, was fussing up a storm too.
"Everyone, look at this! The rifts in Korea are absolutely breathtaking! The rifts that appear in our England are mostly dark, gloomy Irish forests packed to the brim with terrifying monsters!"
It was already common knowledge that each country's rifts had their own distinct atmosphere.
From what I'd heard, English rifts tended to be old castles, ruins, and gloomy merkwood groves, and the monsters that popped out were mostly ghosts and zombies and the like.
Of course, rifts were dangerous places no matter the country.
━Skitter, skitter—.
━Skathaaa—.
Colossal crustaceans with bodies gleaming like blood-red rubies appeared before us.
Their bodies were the size of compact cars, and their front legs ended in pincers that looked razor-sharp, jagged, and devastatingly powerful.
"Those are Ruby Lobsters. B-rank monsters, known for their rock-hard shells. They look terrifying, but word is their meat's delicious boiled and dipped in butter."
"Oh, I've tried it! It was absolutely delicious!"
Kira shouted.
She'd built her channel on plenty of eccentric mukbang MeTube videos devouring monsters and flora from rifts, after all.
I'd seen them myself.
But taste wasn't the point I wanted to make.
"With that carapace clamped down like that, Ruby Lobsters have defense rivaling A-rank monsters. Normally you'd want to hit them with a massive shock and knock their shells loose first, but—"
Pop—!
While I was mid-explanation, Keongkeongi darted forward.
He puffed up his fur right in front of a Ruby Lobster.
━Grrrrng…!
Ruby Lobsters were ferociously violent monsters with a minimum threat rating of B-rank.
In other words: an opponent you could not afford to underestimate.
"Now, it may pass by in a moment, so film carefully! Keongkeongi! Show us the fruits of your training! We're going straight into Hyper Evolution!"
HAAAH—!
With a great battle cry, I unleashed every drop of mana in my body at full power.
Sensing my surging mana, Keongkeongi let out an even louder Grrrrng…!, and at last his body began to radiate tremendous power, crackling with static electricity like tiny sparks snapping in the air.
FWAAAAAASH—!
Keongkeongi was enveloped in white light.
"Ahh—! That is truly the light of evolution…! We nymphs, too, are said to be wrapped in light just like that when we evolve…!"
"Keongkeongi is truly evolving…!"
FWAASH—!
Just as the nymphs marveled, the light finally parted, and Keongkeongi revealed himself upon this Moonlight Coast.
His fur gleamed gold, and his tail had grown longer and far more luxurious.
━GRRRRNG…!
His cry was like a thunderbolt crashing down right in front of you.
Under the weight of that presence, the B-rank Ruby Lobsters began backing away, step by hesitant step.
━Skitter…!
━Skress—.
Presumably their instincts had finally caught on to just how terrifying this Hyper Evolved Keongkeongi was.
Soon, Oinoi pressed both hands to her cheeks and cried out.
"Never has this Oinoi seen such a dog-squirrel…! A dog-squirrel of truly tremendous power…! This is without question a Hyper Dog-Squirrel…!"
In fact, I was the one who had given this form of Keongkeongi's the name Hyper Dog-Squirrel.
And the Hyper Dog-Squirrel came with a bonus effect: every one of his techniques rose a full tier in power.
"Keongkeongi! Hyper Gale Keongkeong Slash!"
━Keongkeong…!
Keongkeongi bit down on his own tail, now longer and more magnificent than ever.
Tail clamped in his jaws.
Watching the sight, MeTuber Kira nearly screamed.
"Look at that adorable pose! The squirrel just bit its own tail! What on earth is it about to do? I don't know what it is, but I just KNOW it's going to be an incredible technique!"
Spin-spin-spin—.
Keongkeongi whirled horizontally like a UFO.
Once he'd built up that centrifugal force, the friction of biting his own tail and its rebound endowed him with tremendous kinetic energy.
Vrrrrmmm—.
As the air around him began to crackle with static from the mana Keongkeongi held coiled within, he at last whipped his tail with all his might toward the Ruby Lobster.
"Gale Keongkeong Slash!"
━GRRRRNG…!!!
CRACKLEEE—!
With a deafening roar, the surrounding atmosphere buzzed and trembled.
The Ruby Lobster—a monster whose shell could shrug off mana-reinforced sniper rounds—had its carapace shattered clean through, knocking it out cold on the spot. Oinoi marveled at the sight.
"Truly magnificent…! An evolution befitting Keongkeongi, the Prime Dog-Squirrel…! This Oinoi wonders whether she too could perform this Hyper Evolution…!"
"This Coris wishes to become a Hyper Ditch Water Nymph…! This Coris is terribly eager to see whether she could become a Hyper Ice Water Nymph…!"
"Hnnngh…."
While Oinoi and Coris fussed and fawned, I felt myself go utterly limp.
The recoil from releasing my mana at full power had begun crushing down on my body.
Like a marathoner who'd sprinted the entire course, my whole body felt leaden, my mana drained as if discharged completely—and I flopped down right where I stood.
"Ahh, whew."
Sliiiide—.
At the same moment, Keongkeongi's Hyper Dog-Squirrel form faded back to his usual self.
━Grrrng…!
Keongkeongi let out an indignant cry, positively furious that his long, luxurious Hyper tail had shrunk back down.
But from the secret training I'd been doing these past few days, I'd learned that Hyper Evolution's transformation was temporary—it was never permanent.
In other words—.
Only while my A-rank special mana was being expelled at full output could I draw out the latent potential sleeping inside my animal friends.
Even so, it was an ability unlike anything the world had ever seen.
"So! What do you think of Hyper Evolution?"
"It's amazing! Is it really all right to post something this incredible on our Kira Land? The views are going to absolutely explode! I can feel it! This is truly amazing!"
It seemed S-ranker Kira, both as a MeTuber and as an awakener, rated my Hyper Evolution very highly indeed.
"Then allow me to handle the rest of this rift myself! Everyone, put on these earplugs right now!"
In visibly high spirits, Kira handed out large headsets to all of us.
Once we'd plugged our ears, Kira drew in a breath—hnnn—then shouted a great "AHHH!"
Vrrrrrrmmm—.
A sound so intense it made the very air shudder pulsed through even the headsets, and every Ruby Lobster on the Moonlight Coast collapsed, foaming at the mouth.
It was Sound Shock—the ability of Kira, ranked 30th among S-rankers worldwide.
She could manipulate sound waves as freely as her own limbs, or so she said.
An immensely powerful gift.
"I'll edit the video myself and upload it today! Il-do! Might I borrow your computer? Don't worry! As a noble lady, I shall graciously pretend not to see any, ah, adult videos that may be on it!"