Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Word of Mouth Spreads and Spreads, the Repeating Virtuous Cycle
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Word of Mouth Spreads and Spreads, the Repeating Virtuous Cycle
Ding!
Five days had passed since I'd entrusted the test of the Squishy Carrier Ver.1 to the Solo Play Fanatic.
Ding!
My Hunter Community account was flooded with messages.
[SeekingPorterSlave: Are you selling the inventory tool? I want to buy one.]
[ALE: I'll buy it. Name your price first.]
[Hwayeon Chairman: I'd like to buy all rights to the tool for 300 million won (can go higher). Please get in touch.]
Most of them were about wanting to buy the Squishy Carrier.
[AlphaRiri: Why not me? I grinded the gallery hard too.]
[NoMakeupHoes: Come get it when you're done talking shit, you punk.]
[HaHyunMom: Our baby is starving ㅠㅠ Please spare just one.]
There were still plenty of idiots cluelessly sending curses or trying to stir up trouble.
You all get blocked, no exceptions.
"The effect is solid."
As expected, nothing beat real-world testing for results. The Squishy Carrier had skyrocketed to become the hot topic on the Hunter Community in no time flat.
The Solo Play Fanatic deserved a lot of the credit.
He liked it so much he was posting ten related threads a day.
Once his steady stream of posts split opinions between "fake" and "real," things snowballed from there.
Posts multiplied on their own.
Perfect auto-farming.
The viral machine kept churning without me lifting a finger.
Of course, I didn't just sit idle.
I leaked a little source info: that the Squishy Carrier used pudding slimes.
My previous posts would've given it away eventually anyway.
[Where the hell do these pudding slimes even come from??? [Author: PHDLine]]
Searched every gate from D-rank to A-rank, fuck, can't find a single one.
-Insanely rare mob, hard to spot normally.
-Why bother with useless pudding slimes?
└Dude doesn't grind galleries.
-Sucker believes the bullshit. Can't even use 'em if you catch one.
[I caught a pudding slime tho [Author: BasementHunter]]
But when I killed it, it just melted away completely? Doesn't solidify or anything, totally useless.
-Normal for those slimes.
-lololol wasted effort.
-Told ya it's fake, guy's always been an aggro magnet.
└But the inventory's real tho.
└Solo, I still think that's faked too.
Thanks to that, a pudding slime frenzy swept the Hunter Community.
The soft, jiggly pudding slime boom.
Of course, nobody got what they wanted. If anything, it just made them crave the Squishy Carrier more.
I'd successfully manipulated the users' minds in one fell swoop.
"Huuuh...!"
Dopamine hit so hard my body shuddered.
This is why I can't quit communities. Attention is one scary drug.
Ding!
·Solo Play Fanatic: You there?
·WannaRaiseADragon: Yep. What's up?
Right on cue.
I'd figured contact was coming soon, and the timing lined up perfectly.
·Solo Play Fanatic: The prototype worked great. But this morning, I saw it'd melted down completely.
Lasted five days, huh.
I'd estimated three, but it held out two days longer.
That buys me time to push durability improvements down the priority list.
Five days is enough for three or four gate runs at least.
·WannaRaiseADragon: You have the form I emailed, right?
·Solo Play Fanatic: Yeah yeah yeah. Fill that out and send it?
·WannaRaiseADragon: Yep.
·Solo Play Fanatic: I'll write it up super detailed ㅎㅎ
No trace of suspicion from five days ago. The Solo Play Fanatic had turned completely friendly toward me.
Ready to hand over liver and gallbladder if I asked.
Well, once you've tasted it, no going back.
You've been kidnapped, buddy.
·Solo Play Fanatic: So, any chance for the next prototype...? Ah, no pressure.
·WannaRaiseADragon: If the report's solid, I'll send another one ㅎㅎ
·Solo Play Fanatic: Thank you! I'll test it ASAP!
The report form had questions on everything: usage environment, max load, material types, convenience, and more.
I'd use his report as the foundation for Ver.3.
Huh? Where's Ver.2?
Already done. Over the last five days.
"This should meet deadline."
For Ver.2, I'd mixed mana stone powder finely and coated the surface evenly, like paint.
The early version had been too sticky, so this was just that fix.
Ended up with ten Ver.2s total.
Right now, a single Squishy could produce three fragments a day.
Of those three, only one was stable enough for sale. Two if I got lucky.
Production was painfully slow, obviously.
Demand was overflowing, supply couldn't keep up...!
So I'd worked on summoning new pudding slimes and finally succeeded—two of them!
'Must be from all that training... and the recent marrow cleansing.'
Even better since I summoned them myself, not from a dream.
Squish?
"Good girl, good girl."
Thanks to No.2, I was running a two-unit operation with the original Squishy.
At this rate, a full factory wouldn't be far off.
"Heh heh...."
I bubble-wrapped the ten finished Ver.2s and logged into the Hunter Community.
[Title: Got a ton of inquiries, so... [Author: WannaRaiseADragon]]
(Photo of ten Squishy Carriers Ver.2 lined up neatly)
Seeking testers again ㅎㅎ
I'll pick ten from the commenters.
Note: This is the upgraded Ver.2, and handwritten (important!) instructions are included free.
Only join if you're committed to detailed reviews, please.
-WTF not aggro, you actually developed it????
-QuantumOfficialAgent: Bulk buy all 10 for 5 mil each.
└Quantum's legit lol
└Quantum got that kinda cash?
-Line forms here-
-Ibelievedfromdayonepickmeplease
-Hwayeon Chairman: Want to buy full production rights. PM reply pls.
└Full rights? Ballsy af
└Classic Hwayeon lol
Posted, and it shot straight to popular. Comments scrolled endlessly.
Ding!
Messages poured in again. Some with eye-popping sums.
'But no sale, ever.'
First impressions mattered.
If word got out it sold for big bucks, it'd stick as a luxury item.
Pricing's tricky like that.
If it feels overpriced compared to what you'd pay, people think, "Eh, screw it, won't bother."
Efficiency vs. porters was an easy comparison too, so I needed stable pricing after testing.
Priority one: recruit more users.
Distribute beta versions free to hook future customers en masse.
Word of mouth spreads and spreads, the virtuous cycle repeating.
Free labor for now, but chump change for future riches.
Piece of cake. Piece of cake.
**
What's the most important value when chasing big money?
Varies by person, but Hwayeon Guild always put "efficiency" first.
Yeah, efficiency. Efficiency.
It's all about max profit per cost.
Take that one logistics giant refusing AC in their massive warehouses.
AC electric bills cost more than settlements for heatstroke deaths.
Hwayeon wasn't much different.
That's how they claimed a spot among Korea's top five guilds.
Sure, their ruthless efficiency drew endless flak...
'But Hwayeon keeps growing steadily.'
Guildmaster Choi Seong-han didn't sweat it.
Haters hid behind anonymity, spewing worthless bile.
Couldn't even scratch Hwayeon's name.
Guanghwamun Square could fill with applicants overnight. Haters mixed in for sure.
Knock knock.
"Come in."
Creak.
His dedicated secretary entered politely.
"So, dig up anything good?"
Seong-han asked.
About the guy setting the Hunter Community ablaze lately.
Guilds scoured it for trends, intel, hidden gems.
Hwayeon too, naturally.
Then a true gem appeared.
One who whipped up an "inventory" no less.
A potential game-changer for the hunter industry.
"Yes. Checked all his posts... Seems he planned to use pudding slimes from the start."
"And?"
The secretary tapped her tablet, turning the screen to Seong-han. Data filled the wide display.
"Analysis team says high chance he fused them."
"Fused? That's... possible?"
"Well... Monster research says current tech can't do it...."
Seong-han could hardly believe it.
Hwayeon's R&D was top-five worldwide.
'Pay the most for the best performers.'
That logic ruled their researchers too.
Top talent, top results, top efficiency.
Even they said impossible? By some lone hunter?
Hwayeon had to recruit him, no question.
"Hunter rank?"
"Uncertain, but... First post date points to D-rank."
"D-rank?"
"Yes. Around then, newbies were all D-rank, no official promotions from D since...."
Still hard to buy.
D-rank was basically worthless.
Even high-potential classes sucked at D.
But rank didn't matter if he could make inventories.
"Full rights offer?"
"Yes. Offered up to 1 bil as instructed... Declined."
"Scout pitch?"
"Clean rejection."
"Huh."
Gutsy, whoever he was.
Common type though.
Overconfident solos thinking they could handle everything.
Business ain't that easy.
Even killer items flop solo. Nine out of ten do.
"Keep offering. Up the price, don't quit."
Won't change much.
But someday he'd need support, and he'd take Hwayeon's hand.
**
Ding!
"Ugh......"
Sudden alert jolted me.
Ruined my first real deep sleep, dreamless, in ages.
Who the hell blasts notifications at dawn without manners.
"Hwayeon...? Keep bothering me. Blocked."