Chapter 124
Chapter 124
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 124
Chapter Title: Preparation, Departure
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“Cough…! Ack…! W-What the hell is this…!”
My voice cracked completely.
I was so shocked that tears welled up in my eyes and trickled down my cheeks.
“Number Two!”
I had to get to the bottom of this right away.
What kind of disgrace was this?
Nyaaang!
But our Kami No.2 was too busy rolling around in a tight ball.
A cat through and through, huh.
…I was the idiot for trusting a thing like that.
[Want to Become the Best?][Author: Want to Raise a Dragon]
(Views: 221,404)
No taking it down now. Too many people had already seen it.
Plenty of MiTube reactors must’ve snatched it up and churned out clickbait videos by now.
Nyaaaang!
“…And that was the best way you could’ve put it?”
Nyaaang!
Number Two wagged its tail affirmatively at me.
…What do you even know.
Well, it probably did know something.
It had learned every single community post I’d ever uploaded.
That’s why I occasionally let it handle announcements for me.
Of course, Number Two’s posts weren’t exactly perfect.
Sometimes—very rarely—it reeked of AI.
‘That wasn’t just a simple molrang. It was a giant pudding slime.’
Or ‘I totally nailed the ***core*** of it.’
Stuff like that.
Naturally, to avoid mishaps, I had Jin-ah proofread everything before posting…
‘…And she let this one through?’
No wonder she looked like she was holding back a laugh when I asked if I’d written it well.
Ding!
[A new membership application has arrived.]
Well, whatever.
It might not be so bad after all?
Twelve hours after posting, including the one that just came in, a total of two hundred hunters had applied.
Seventy of them A-rank or higher—that was huge news.
Sure, there’d be freelancers, but some must’ve jumped ship from major guilds too.
They’d all sensed the appeal of Molrang.
Looking ahead, even more top-tier hunters might join us.
Ding!
[Baekya: You’re heading out to conquer Maris Gate?]
[Baekya: For real?]
Lord Juhaneun, your replies are slow today.
She was usually the one giving real-time feedback and opinions.
Probably because she was overseas.
Japan, right? Heard she went to seal a Molrang merch deal.
Japan dominated the character and merch game, after all.
[Want to Raise a Dragon: Yep. As early as two weeks from now.]
[Baekya: You going personally?]
[Want to Raise a Dragon: Nah.]
[Baekya: Oh. Thought you might for a sec.]
I wanted to, deep down.
But no one wanted that. Not even the applicants.
With great power comes great responsibility.
An S-rank hunter’s ass needed to stay planted as firmly as possible.
A special-type A+ gate?
No matter how fierce it got, could it stand against an S-rank?
Sure, there might be setbacks, but clearing it was well within reach.
No S-rank would step up personally, though.
The gap between S and A was massive.
Exaggerating a bit, it was like an adult crashing a kids’ game.
[Baekya: But is it really okay…?]
[Baekya: Doesn’t it have a high chance of failure?]
Failure?
Of course it did.
It wasn’t infamous for nothing.
[Want to Raise a Dragon: Doesn’t matter.]
But I wasn’t afraid of failure.
My top priority wasn’t success—it was recruiting high-quality hunters with real challenge in their blood.
Complacency killed growth.
For hunters, that drive was crucial.
It pushed individuals to ever-higher heights.
I hadn’t shouted “hunter normalization” for nothing when we started selling Molrangtori.
Low-rank D-ranks leeching off rice-munch gigs got weeded out.
Did that mean D-ranks went extinct?
‘Not at all.’
In fact, C-rank promotions had skyrocketed in recent months.
Guys who could’ve ranked up but hadn’t.
Guys who’d just been freeloading hunters till now.
Tap tap tap.
[Want to Raise a Dragon: The challenge itself is what matters.]
[Baekya: Fair enough. Anything I can do to help?]
[Want to Raise a Dragon: Nah, we’re good lol]
Either way, we’d secured top talent.
They’d keep hitting gates steadily, and the guild would grow like wildfire.
“Okay. Let’s try again.”
After a short break, I stretched with a hearty “Urraaah!” and dove back into research.
“Kami-ya, one more time?”
Nyaaang!
A long tentacle extended from Kami and plunged into the Molrangtex.
Soon enough, it started jiggling.
Kami’s mana poured into the Molrangtex.
‘Here’s hoping it works this time.’
I’d promised the hunters joining this risky expedition top-tier support.
And that was the Molrang Mall trio set.
A monstrous squad handling offense, defense, storage, and even mana recharge.
I thought that’d be plenty perfect…
‘But overpreparing never hurts.’
So I’d been hunting ways to max out the Molrangtex’s defense.
Currently rating an A on defense.
Like in Kang Geun-cheol’s old review, it could tank an A+ monster’s full-force hits about five times.
Honestly, that was solid enough. For high-rankers, anyway—they wouldn’t just eat hits flat-footed.
But half our expedition was B-rank or lower.
So we needed it.
Tougher Molrangtex!
Gear that’d guarantee B-rank safety!
Nyaaang.
“Ooh. Feels promising this time?”
The Molrangtex had taken on a slight dark tint absorbing Kami’s mana.
Previous tries melted it away, but this looked stable.
Now for field testing.
“Seolbaek-ah.”
Kiiing!
Six tails shot straight out.
Immense energy condensed and condensed into a sphere.
Kitsune secret technique: Foxfire.
Pang!
An energy ball rivaling an S-rank monster’s full power hurtled toward the Molrangtex.
Kwaaaang!
A harsh boom, black and white swirling together.
“Cough! Ugh…”
A bizarre smoke I’d never seen before started filling the factory—
Nyaaang!
—but Kami sucked it all up, clearing the air again.
The test result?
“…Bust.”
Sadly, a failure. The Molrangtex shredded apart.
Partly the Foxfire’s power, but mostly Kami’s mana.
Kami’s reckless absorption had slurped the Molrangtex dry.
That was what I was trying to harness in reverse. Tricky stuff.
Logged the case, called it good, on to the next…
“Eh?”
We’re out?
That last one must’ve been the final Molrangtex.
Gotta tweak the recipe again.
Tempting to hand it to the research team, but I changed my mind quick.
They were swamped as is.
They’d nailed the five-way Molrangtori split, and were pushing commercialization.
Plus, research this hands-on with monsters? That was my specialty.
“Let’s go again!”
Two weeks till departure.
Seemed leisurely, but tight as hell.
Factoring in Molrangtail production time…
‘Roughly three days?’
Three days.
I had to produce results in three.
Plenty.
Three days let me log a hundred more cases.
Cut sleep, make it 150.
Ting!
I flicked a mana stone up like a coin.
It sailed through the air freely—
Fwoop!
—till Ppangppangi swooped in with a flashy spin and devoured it.
It ballooned up like it’d burst, and I used the time to grab every Molrangtex material we had.
**
“Damn… Look at this crowd. It’s insane.”
Maris Expedition Team A-Squad leader Ji-hyuk let out a sigh.
“No kidding. What’s with all these people?”
His chatting teammate echoed the sentiment.
“Right? And today was supposed to be a rest day here.”
What Ji-hyuk nodded toward was the Molrang Mall offline store, doors shut tight.
Normally, maybe, but no reason for a crowd today.
So what was going on?
Thousands had appeared out of nowhere, encircling the expedition team.
If it was just surrounding, fine.
Click!
Click!
Reporters too, apparently—flashes wouldn’t quit.
“It’s ‘cause they announced it publicly. You guys saw it too, right?”
Butting in was C-Squad’s leader.
An A+ hunter, just like Ji-hyuk.
“Hey, hyung! You joined Molrang too?”
Ji-hyuk, old pals—Hwayeon intake classmates—beamed.
“Kid. How’d you hold out on bottom-fishing?”
“But didn’t you rake it in at Hwayeon? Why jump ship?”
Best of their class, as he recalled.
The ‘performance king.’
Annual bonuses north of ten billion, easy.
“Well. Tsk. Not all roses. The suits are total assholes.”
“Still sounded sweet.”
“Yeah, it was. Money was solid. Sucked the honey dry thanks to ‘em. Now time for some romance.”
“You earned plenty. Necessary?”
“Hey, don’t I deserve a legacy too? That’s why you’re here, right?”
Ji-hyuk nodded along.
Close enough.
“But why gather here? So many eyes around.”
Maris was Korea’s easternmost, a gate over Dokdo.
Figured they’d meet at some port, not downtown Seoul.
“Dunno. Probably promo. Been all over the news.”
“Ah, makes sense.”
“And… this is just a rumor I heard?”
The man lowered his voice; Ji-hyuk leaned in slyly.
“They’re bumping all participants to Molrang Mall SVIP.”
“F-For real?”
Molrang Mall SVIP.
A realm for those whose total purchases topped 100 billion.
Only one had hit it so far? Five tops.
Perks were insane.
Molrang Mall on down: Baekya, JH Bank, Quantum, Hunter Association, FHA.
VIP treatment everywhere.
Arguably the best membership on the planet.
“Anyway, kid. Work hard. Don’t embarrass us.”
“You too, hyung. Getting rusty around the edges.”
The man clapped Ji-hyuk’s shoulder and headed back to his squad.
Right then.
“W-What?”
“Everyone, look over there!”
A sudden uproar from the crowd.
A massive shadow had fallen out of nowhere.
Grooooar!
The majestic roar made everyone look up.
“D-Dragon?”
Three dragons filled the once-blue sky.
They descended slowly toward the group, then touched down.
“Everyone assembled?”
Someone atop a dragon spoke.
Everyone knew exactly who he was.
Blue pictogram.
Molrang Mall’s owner and Molrang Guild master.
He shouted to the expedition.
“Everyone, hop on. Time to sortie!”