“Don’t lose heart! You really could become the next best bug alchemist after Earning! How impressive is it that a non-dryad lifeform has overcome and survived the blessing of the World Tree! Though you’re only at the cell level, you’ve created a lifeform no different from a little dryad! The Alchemy Tower committee doesn’t even recognize that and rejects your research…!”

“…Now that you mention it, I am impressive. I want to quit research and take over the family business, but my talent just won’t let me.”

“Calling parasites little dryads… How far are you going to belittle dryads?”

Ignoring my words, the two kept exchanging compliments about Loop, and I became serious. If it’s part of the World Tree… then what about a druid like me, with the blessing of the World Tree ingrained in my soul? Won’t those parasite bastards eat me too?

I’m practically called a little World Tree, you know? This is disgusting, isn’t it? No, what about dryads…? Dryads are also born from the World Tree….

“If it’s something that has come off the World Tree, if it’s a manifestation of the World Tree’s blessing, they eat everything except living, moving things. Leaves, bark, sap, or fruit. They never harm lifeforms other than the designated host.”

“Fruit?”

“So you don’t have to pull away in disgust like that. Do you think I wouldn’t have considered that level of risk? I’m competent. I’m a full-fledged first-class researcher, practically equivalent to an apprentice alchemist. I don’t create research materials that would make users uneasy.”

Loop, elated by Pila’s praise, shrugged and said.

“But the client’s wallet will be uneasy.”

Pila muttered.

“Did you even think a druid would use those parasites from the start?”

“Because the only ones who can afford the feeding costs are druids who can earn diamonds directly. 99% of Alchemy Tower products are made targeting druids. Well, there are also alchemists at the Alchemy Tower who double as druids, so we do need to ensure safety.”

The loop looked like a living, moving quality certificate. Well, if that’s the case, lucky me. As for the fruits, I happened to have a ton of them. I had only planned to buy two, but ended up purchasing thousands of diamonds’ worth.

I started pulling unripe fruits out of my pocket. Like an in-game inventory function, a massive amount poured out of my small pocket. Pila and Loop covered their mouths with both hands, watching as transparent fruits were placed densely on the desk.

“Elder…! At this rate, you could even teach the parasites to talk…”

“Don’t say such horrible things.”

Dwarves were enough among the fist-sized creatures that could speak. If parasites could talk too, how far would they test my disgust tolerance?

Pila asked if she could use all the fruits, and I told her to go ahead since I had plenty of reserves left.

“Perfect timing! I’ve entrusted the wasps’ predatory nature to the parasites, so when they get hungry, they’ll try to eat the parasites’ food instead! The wasps’ staple diet will become fruits instead of bees now… but you don’t need to worry, Elder!”

Which meant the wasps’ palate had become refined.

While I chatted leisurely with Loop about her and her family, Pila fused the wasps and parasites together.

She handed me something like a transparent board, telling me to install it in my wallet. I wondered what it was, and she said it was a beehive… but it looked exactly like a screen protector?

“Here, this queen wasp contains the original Loop parasite, and I’ve infected the drones with it. If you want to control the parasite’s ‘purpose’ freely, just leave the queen wasp in the hive. And I’ve fed both of them well, so you won’t have to worry about food for a while.”

As she said this, she showed me one held in each hand. Instead of fist-sized wasps, small chips like SIM cards were there. With a complicated feeling, I picked up the chip designated as the queen wasp.

I poked it into the SIM card slot of my phone using a safety pin lying around on Pila’s desk, and an empty board popped out. Should I take it for granted that a phone which had lost its smartphone functions and was filled with all sorts of bizarre features didn’t have a SIM card…?

When I inserted the chip containing the queen wasp, I thought I heard a buzzing wing sound. A wasp carrying a parasite had entered my phone… I feel like sobbing….

As I tilted the dormant phone’s black screen this way and that in the light, hexagonal holograms like a honeycomb appeared and disappeared. The phone looks a bit prettier now—this is the alchemy edition.

It suddenly reminded me of stagnant players obsessed with cosmetic upgrades in phone games, eventually spending money to even decorate profile picture frames. Even if no one else sees it, it’s fine as long as I do….

A while after the SIM chip was inserted, a page popped up, like for installing an app. The fist-sized hornet I had seen before was wriggling around inside my phone.

I hoped the dwarves, who kept popping up whenever I tried to do other tasks on my phone, wouldn’t barge into this screen. The hornet’s eyes were as big as the dwarves. Our dwarves, who only know about diamonds, seemed no match for a hornet stinger bigger than their own bodies.

At first, when Pila lifted the cloth to introduce it, the thing that had been threateningly buzzing fell silent. Maybe it was because its belly was full, just as Pila had said.

So how should I use this thing when sending messages? Since it’s inside my phone, it won’t sting me if I touch it, right? I’m a coward, so I’ll use my fingernail. Tap tap.

Suddenly, two buttons appeared above the hornet.

[Enhance] [Enter Message]

“Crazy… What enhancement? What the….”

Still, I instinctively pressed the enhance button. A character status window similar to <Infinite Diamond> appeared. I used to change the dwarves’ customizations on that page. The problem was that a hornet had taken the place of the dwarves.

I could also see the equipment the hornet was wearing. It was equipped with a parasite. What a hassle.

My dryads couldn’t see my phone screen. Even when I shook my phone in front of Pila, she made a face as if there was a question mark floating above her head.

The rest couldn’t see my phone screen. So I guess I’m the only one baffled by this game screen of infinite hornets, or rather, raising hornets.

On the enhance screen, I couldn’t raise the hornet’s level or anything. I could only check its fullness. Then why did they stick the word ‘enhance’ on it?

Though it was really off-putting, I touched the parasite equipped as gear. It had more buttons to operate than the hornet did.

Reproduction count: 1. Since it said the female hornet was used to infect male hornets, that’s probably why the number is 1. Set objective, inactive state, distort others’ messages, delete others’ messages, costs 1 fruit per character, costs 1 fruit to change objective, etc.

“Sir, do you like it? This is my first time selling my research to someone else… So, could you tell me your thoughts?”

Pila looked at me with a lively expression, as if asking for a subscription or like if I found it helpful. Even though I wasn’t entirely pleased, since it was a creation, I forced out some positive feedback.

“It’s ahead of its time, very futuristic and professional. It’s more unique than mainstream.”

Anyway, since I had no other way to get a hornet besides Pila’s, I bought it with diamonds. She said she’d charge more fairly than Loop, but her asking price reeked of unscrupulousness.

“I think I need to get going since I have things to do… What about the relocation of the Loop family?”

“To move from the 59th terrarium to the 28th, we’d need to transport luggage, and there’s an elderly grandfather, so a carriage is necessary… plus, to avoid attacks from flames along the way, we’d need mercenaries armed with strong dryads…”

Indeed, moving here recklessly was problematic. I couldn’t handle it roughly with my artifact like when moving the dandelion children, because people are involved.

“We’ll have no choice but to pay a fee and travel with a wandering caravan when it visits midway. It’s unfortunate there’s no druid in the family.”

“Hmm, if we’re going to have more migrants, we’ll need to figure out transportation too!”

There were so many things to take care of for my 28th terrarium. I’d also need to control the population of flame creatures around it. Since the dandelion children would take too long to grow up and handle security, it seemed I needed more dryads. But I also had my COST issue to consider before randomly pulling out fruits.

“Understood for now! I’ll look for ways to expedite the relocation timeline. Should I contact you at this alchemy tower?”

“Yes! I plan to resign from my researcher position around moving day, so I’ll be staying here for a while.”

“You’re really going to quit…?”

Pila looked at Loop with hazy eyes. Leaving behind Pila, who had fallen into deep sorrow, and Loop, who was smiling broadly in anticipation of a new beginning, I exited the lab.

Elder had a relieved expression. It seemed Pila’s lab had been quite stuffy for my large dryads. Maybe I should have sent them into the artifact.

Until I left the alchemy tower, the administrators treated me with the utmost VIP courtesy. It was the dignity of Tree Level 1.

Having acquired the hornet, I was now pondering how to send the other one to Kalong. He had said to send either of the pair by midnight, but I hadn’t arranged how to send it or even a meeting point.

I stared at the chip containing the drone hornet, lost in thought. I should have asked before leaving the alchemy tower. It was too annoying to go back.

“What’s that?”

Elder, who had managed to stay quiet and not interfere in the conversations with the researchers inside Mesquite’s restraints, asked with a pale face. Right, he must have been itching to speak, huh? Frustrated? After all, I left thousands of diamonds at the alchemy tower. He probably couldn’t nag me about wasting diamonds like usual.

It seemed Daisy and Wolfsbane were also curious. They were looking up with wide eyes at the chip I was rolling between my fingers.

“There are hornets inside this.”

“Those big hornets that were in the box earlier? But butterflies fly around like that, you know.”

Even if you ask like that, I can’t answer. If I could explain it, I would also know how the dwarfs inside my phone move and how they extract the diamonds they mine out of the phone.

More fundamentally, I might have been able to understand why I could enter the game. This world is truly a mysterious blend of digital and reality. It’s an amazing world.

If you don’t know, you just try things out. Using the hairpin I had kept before leaving the lab, I opened the SIM chip board. I took out the chip containing the queen bee and replaced it with the chip containing the drone. The status window for the drone, simpler than the queen equipped with parasites, appeared.

There were no additional features. There was no enhancement button, only a message input. When I touched the message input, a welcome typing keyboard slid up.

Oh, it feels like sending a text. Crazy, but the maximum word count is only 14 characters.

I had to cram the message into 14 characters to convey that this hornet was one of the pair trying to send it.

This one is that one.

I fit it into 14 characters.