“Pila, what does your family do? You said your dream was to move your family to a Terrarium with an earlier number… If they come to the 28th, I can take them in. Our Terrarium has no people right now, so we’re desperate for manpower.”

“What a bizarre Terrarium. How can the World Tree’s branches be maintained without people? Ah… no. I won’t ask anymore. It seems like a domain I shouldn’t touch. I’m dying of curiosity, but the amount of diamonds you’re casually offering seems to be telling me to keep my mouth shut.”

Loop ran out of Pila’s lab, saying he’d bring a contract form.

“My sister is a druid… and my parents run a small restaurant. Probably compared to Loop’s family… um…”

“Perfect. Loop’s family will need to make a living after they move, won’t they? Oh, but can they farm? The 28th Terrarium might struggle with food supply.”

“Is that something I need to worry about? They do tend a small garden… but I’m not sure about farming. I guess my family isn’t quite up to it?”

“No, no, for food supplies, I’d better set up trade routes with other Terrariums instead. As I said earlier, anyone capable of productive work is welcome since we’re short on manpower. Of course, they’ll have to arrange their own housing first.”

For now, with only dryads in the Terrarium, I hadn’t worried about food, but if people moved in, that would be a different story.

Even though a considerable amount of diamonds had changed hands, the Elder had stayed quiet except at the beginning, so I looked behind me with a suspicious eye. By now, they should have butted in to bother me once. There I saw Mesquite, wearing a benevolent smile, and the Elder, deliberately looking away from me.

“My master, Jae. I’ve given that Elder brat a talking-to. It wouldn’t do for that little one to get blinded by vanity and interfere with Jae’s work whenever important matters are discussed in human society.”

As expected, my angel… my Mesquite….

Pila said that Terrarium 42 is in better shape than Loop’s Terrarium, so she’d talk it over more with her family before giving an answer. However, she said Terrarium 28 is truly a dream region, so a positive response would likely come.

Loop brought both her research product and the contract at the same time. Only after signing the contract and the document transferring it to Pila did I check what the research product was.

It was… a parasite….

“Ah, I didn’t mention that, did I?”

As soon as I removed the cloth covering the glass tube, I stifled a scream and hid behind Mesquite, and seeing this, Pila spoke casually.

“Loop is a specialist in insect alchemy. She’s quite outstanding in this field, in her own way.”

I couldn’t believe I had spent 4,000 diamonds on those thread-like things swimming in the transparent liquid inside the glass tube.

This was the first time I had actually seen live, wriggling parasites. I’d seen plenty in movies about horsehair worms or videos that go, ‘Be careful when eating winter fish,’ as they pull a thread out of a red lump of flesh.

What on earth did I buy with my money? Even if I had tons of money to spare. I never thought I’d end up contemplating rational consumption even with infinite diamonds.

“Could it be that you’re not pleased with my research product? Oh, you must feel that way because I haven’t properly explained it yet.”

Seeing my horrified expression, Loop worried anxiously that I might have given her research product a worse-than-expected verdict. She was afraid that all the good terms she’d been offered for transferring the product would come to nothing.

She tapped the glass bottle containing the parasites. The thread-like parasites swam around to escape the vibrations from Loop’s fingertips.

“Still lively, huh. It’s been a while since I fed them because I was short on money.”

I wanted to give Loop a thumbs-up for her nerve, as she casually spat those words at the parasites as if talking to a pet. Having confirmed the parasites were intact—or more precisely, that their commercial value hadn’t diminished—she straightened her posture and tidied her clothes.

“From the Alchemy Tower of the 18th Terrarium of the World Tree, First-Class Researcher Loop! I will now give my presentation!”

The woman, who had looked haggard when entering Pila’s lab, had her eyes sparkling like when I offered 5,000 diamonds, now that her invention was beside her.

“My invention, ‘Loop Parasite No. 5,’ or ‘RP No. 5’ for short, follows all four conditions of Earning’s top-quality alchemy parasites, the master of insect alchemy, and also has a special feature.”

“It’s not easy to satisfy all four conditions. In that sense, Loop is truly amazing, and aside from the exorbitant maintenance costs, her invention is top-notch, sir.”

Pila chimed in from the side. He seemed almost like a parent bragging about their child at a school exhibition. I could see one corner of Loop’s mouth lift up.

“First, adaptability. My RP No.5 can parasitize any creature as a host!”

“Of course, it can also be used without issue on my invention, the wasps.”

“Second, regenerative ability. My RP No.5 can quickly repair itself even if it’s injured or infected!”

“Sir, that thing hardly ever dies with ordinary medicine. Can you believe Loop poured an entire bottle of bathroom cleaner into that glass jar during the presentation? I can still smell the pungent chemical scent.”

Come to think of it, when I got close to the jar, there really was a bleach-like smell.

“Third, reproductive control. My RP No.5 can only reproduce when the user wants it to. It excels at population control, preventing misuse, and maintaining rarity!”

“That’s the really tough part. Parasites made by bug alchemists like Loop have to perform specific actions only on certain hosts and keep the host alive for a long time, but alchemically created parasites are so robust and fertile that they drain all the host’s nutrients and ruin it. If you weaken the parasite, regenerative ability drops, and if you restrict the host, adaptability suffers.”

Loop shot Pila a glare as if telling him not to interfere. Pila, who had been chattering as if giving a lecture on bug alchemy, immediately shut his mouth.

“Lastly, responsiveness. It can perfectly control the host according to the intended purpose. My RP No.5 is an invention with unique reproductive control and responsiveness.”

This must be the climax. Captivated by Loop’s confident attitude, I focused, ready to clap.

“The specialty of my RP No.5 is the transfer and infection of ‘purpose’!”

“Huh? What’s that?”

Pila, who had been watching Loop’s cues, chimed in as if seizing the opportunity.

“Sir, didn’t you say you didn’t like my wasps eating other bees? If you use Loop’s parasites here, they will stop the predatory behavior and start infectious behavior!”

“What’s that used for? What do you mean by infection?”

I just wanted plain wasps… why do they keep trying to evolve them…? And what’s this about infection? Are they trying to make them cause diseases?

“First, I’ll have my wasps stop preying and instead attack other bees to spread parasites. Then, each bee attacked by a wasp will be implanted with Loop’s parasites, all following the original’s purpose. Training that ‘purpose’ oddly requires food-based conditioning… and that’s why the maintenance cost is so high.”

At the mention of maintenance cost, Loop averted his gaze.

What Pila said felt eerily… like a zombie virus. Infecting and controlling super zombie wasps… I was about to end up with wasps that had all sorts of weird traits I never wanted, including implanted parasites. And all of that on my smartphone!

“Sir, what would be the best ‘purpose’ for the parasites? What’s the most commercial one? If we can control other people’s bees without killing them, wouldn’t that be a huge hit? Training a high-level ‘purpose’ will likely require a lot of food. The parasites are so simple they can’t learn more than one thing at a time. My recommendation: since they’re ‘bees,’ how about distorting the message they’re trying to deliver? Make any message turn into the same words.”

“That’s just spam mail, isn’t it? A virus-infected spam mail….”

“For example, even if the message is ‘Meet at the square at noon today,’ it would be relayed as ‘Pila is the greatest alchemist.’”

“Don’t use my RP-5 for such useless nonsense.”

At Loop’s scolding, Pila shrank his shoulders. It was amusing to see him act like a frightened hamster at every little move Loop made.

“Fine, well, it’s better than having them destroy every bee out there… But do I really have to set the ‘purpose’ now when implanting the parasites?”

“You can do it later if you wish. After all, you can change it anytime you want. But if you do, the previous ‘purpose’ will be lost. And don’t forget, the purposes of all derived parasites will change at once.”

Disgusting was still disgusting, but the wonder outweighed it. At this point, it felt less like a zombie virus and more like the Trojan horse virus that wrecked my computer when I was a kid.

“Sir, may I proceed with my research now? I want to fuse Loop’s parasites with my wasps quickly! Let me warn you in advance—regarding the parasites’ reproductive control, since it replaces the wasps’ predatory nature, it will only work among the same species. More precise target setting or affecting other organisms is impossible. If you want to expand that, I’d need to do more research…”

“Ah, well… just do it as is. Only bees. Make it rough. And hurry up.”

“What about the food training? If you decide now, I’ll need to go out and get it…”

“Come to think of it, what do the parasites eat? What makes the maintenance cost so high?”

Please, don’t make it any more disgusting here. Please. Don’t make me lose all interest and go out of my way to look into other wasps despite my laziness.

“This was actually made by applying the power of the World Tree to enhance regeneration and solidify reproductive control…”

Loop began to make excuses in a trembling voice.

“Unless it’s part of the World Tree, parasites won’t even look at it… Originally, I raised them by feeding potions, but it became unmanageable…”

“…Part of the World Tree?”

“Yes, they eat anything that falls from the World Tree. Potions are essentially sap too… Honestly, I didn’t think this would actually work, but I heard there were successful cases, so I tried it out of curiosity, and I succeeded too…”

From my experience, anything tied to the World Tree was exorbitantly expensive, with diamond-like prices.

No, more importantly, wasn’t the World Tree an incredibly sacred being in this world? They fed parts of it to raise those parasites? Even dryads are born from the World Tree…?