Chick 212
by Cristae212
Chapter The Sensation Created by an Industrial Spy
[Title: Recent Whereabouts of Lee Soyeon, Smiling Brightly On Her Way to China.jpg]
[Breaking News] Lee Soyeon Confirmed Heading to Singapore
Soyeon leaves China and is off to Singapore.
Rumor has it she’s either seeking asylum in Singapore or preparing to be repatriated to Korea.
Meanwhile, in China, after wringing everything out of Soyeon, they’re set to announce the S-rank Metallic Armor Changer—an absolutely insane mechanized transformation item.
[Comments]
- Damn, they drained her dry and just sent her packing with a smile.
- Someone who used to work in the same lab as Soyeon said on the radio that she took everything and bolted just before finishing her project, all angry about it lol
So does that mean the mechanized transformation was supposed to be ours?
- China would never have taken her without a reason. They’re all about “take and take,” you know lol
- Yeah, if you go to China, your tech gets stolen and you’re tossed aside—watch and learn, manufacturing peeps!
[Title: Is This for Real, Chinese Knockoffs Dissing Her?]
[After Dumping Lee Soyeon, China Mentions Railgun Drone During Metallic Armor Changer Launch… “Lacks Real-World Usability.”]
…In every item, practical usability is key……
…Items aren’t rated arbitrarily. If you look at things comprehensively, it’s because there are issues…
…One has to wonder how useful it is to mass-produce a weapon that can only be deployed a few times in field situations…
[Comments]
- The arrogance of these guys is unreal, damn
- Honestly, the world is just looking to downgrade Korea
But it’s not Korea getting dragged down, it’s just the knockoffs…
- So frustrating, hang in there, knockoff bro
- They said mass production isn’t feasible yet—like S-rank items that only they use aren’t everywhere. Blowing things out of proportion as usual
[Title: Railgun Drone is Awesome, Why Downplay It?]
KR: Railgun Drone (B)
CHN: Metallic Armor Changer (S)
JP: Kagehira (S+)
Huh?
[Comments]
- Hey, which country are you even from? Caught
- Nationalism aside, the grade speaks for itself…
Traitor, noted…
- No matter how great knockoff bro is, is the global stage still too much?
I mean, he’s doing amazing as is!
He’s single-handedly advancing Korean tech, and people are whining, damn
Seo Wooju had become truly busy.
Thanks to the rural variety show they’d just filmed going, as they say, totally viral, the agency faced strong pressure as every other show started flooding him with appearance requests.
Producer Hwang kept dropping messages into the cast group chat, saying “Awkward Country Vaca” was trending, sending stats on how much the hashtags had increased on Insta.
He constantly bragged about his planning skills and claimed the tambourine segment was the greatest hit in video history.
Whether or not that was exaggerated, even Groo was being inundated with casting offers.
Fortunately, thanks to the adults who looked out for anything regarding Groo like hawks, Groo’s daily life remained undisturbed.
Yet Groo, unable to hide her dissatisfaction these days for entirely different reasons, went around with her little lips stuck out whenever she got the chance.
Finding this amusing, Gidan seated Groo on his knee in the guild leader’s office.
“Groo-Groo, what’s wrong? That’s a duck’s beak, little duck Groo.”
“Groo’s not a duck.”
Groo muttered sulkily and lowered her head.
“What’s going on, hmm? Hyung, is something up with Groo?”
Joorim, reviewing job applications, finally looked up.
“You still have to get your shot.”
“Shot?”
“……”
Groo slumped her shoulders even more and snuggled into Gidan’s arms.
That wasn’t the only reason. Not the only one, but it was certainly part of it.
“Oppa, Groo has to get a vaccination.”
“Oh, really?”
“Mmm. Only those awakened have to get it. In Chick Class, only Wooju and Groo have to do it.”
“Is that what’s unfair for you?”
“…Huuu…”
Nodding, Groo’s little bottom quivered as Gidan patted her and soothed her gently, but only for a moment.
“Pffft!”
Eventually, Gidan burst into laughter.
Hmph!
“Sorry, sorry. I just couldn’t help it because you’re so cute. Scared of a shot? You’re still a baby, aren’t you?”
After glaring fiercely at the laughing Gidan, Groo got off his knee and sat down in front of her Tinyping hospital playset.
No one understood her profound injustice, so she’d prepared things to soothe her aggrieved heart herself.
As Gidan apologized and tried to tease again, Groo shrugged his hand off her shoulder, first pouring water in a cup, then preparing both the skill-laden scroll Wooju had given her and the star candy extracted from the scroll.
“Our Groo put an F-rank skill in an A-rank scroll. Unbelievable.”
Most people would save blank scrolls for Teleport or Emergency Escape.
‘This would easily fetch a hundred million on the market.’
After putting an F-rank skill in, even at minus 50 percent, it had become an absurdly expensive piece of junk no one would buy.
Amused, Gidan snapped a photo of the blank scroll embedded with the F-rank skill “Pluck Away!” and posted it in Team 1’s group chat.
Immediately, everyone started shouting, demanding to know who’d created such an abomination.
Big Boss Jongwon-hyung
This is going too far
Taeha-hyung
Damn, what kind of rich moron would—
Ah, was it you?
Groo made it, actually.
Big Boss Jongwon-hyung
Our princess? Well, if it’s the princess, it’s okay~
Taeha-hyung
No wonder I felt that luxurious princess aura
lololololololololol
Seeing Gidan’s laughter in the group chat, Groo tried to snatch his phone away.
“Nooo! Don’t do that!”
“Yikes, okay, sorry.”
…Well, I have plenty of scrolls, I’ll do what I want!
Dumb Dan-oppa, I hate you.
Hmph. Groo sulked as she picked up a star candy.
If I just show off something cool with this, that’ll fix everything.
A star candy infused with the “Pluck Away!” skill, extracted from a scroll.
If I combine it with water…
[Skill “Mold and Shape” activated.]
Ta-da!
[Pluck Away! Syrup]
All the haphazard experiments so far were just the first step to a great invention.
Groo sprinkled the extracted syrup over the potato pots lined up in the guild leader’s office.
‘I’ll even add elixir.’
Gulp, gulp.
As the nutrients seeped in, the eye of a soil rabbit poked up, swiveled its ears, then vanished back underground.
At that moment, Gidan, who was browsing through Groo’s assortment of items, suddenly let out a shocked voice.
“Huh?”
“Don’t! I’ll tell Dad!”
“No, really, I’m not teasing you this time.”
“Hmm?”
“Where did you get this?”
Gidan picked up the round Metallic Armor Changer.
Gasp!
Groo rushed over.
“T-this…? I… I got it…?”
“What?! Where’d you get an S-rank?! Did you secretly go to China or something?”
As Gidan raised a commotion, Joorim threw a sidelong glance at them.
This won’t do. If this keeps up, he’ll find out I joined forces with Chuen-unni at night to beat up a bad guy, then tried to play innocent afterward.
“Uh… uh, that’s not it, it’s a Miracle Change toy Groo made in the countryside… To transform Potato Soldier…”
“Miracle Change Potato…?”
Gidan gave the item another suspicious once-over, eyes narrowed.
He’d never actually seen the “Metallic Armor Changer” China was rumored to be launching, so he could only guess, not be certain.
But for China’s newest item to end up in a five-year-old’s hands in Korea? What would Groo be, a kindergartener industrial spy…?
‘This can’t be…’
Yet the ridiculous things Groo had done before made it hard to dismiss outright.
She’d turned a hundred-million-won A-rank scroll into trash with an F-rank skill, run anonymous business deals in dungeons at the age of four…
…So at five, couldn’t she be an industrial spy too?
Gidan narrowed his eyes in deep suspicion.
Groo, breaking into a nervous sweat, snatched the item away.
“Now, I have to transform Potatooo…”
Mumbling clumsily, Groo squeezed her eyes shut and extracted a star candy from the Metallic Armor Changer.
‘Come on, please, come out!’
[Skill “Pluck Away!” activated.]
[Star Candy of Form Alteration (S)]
‘Hooray for proficiency!’
All that level grinding and skill practice had paid off; the star candy popped out with ease.
“This, here. This is what I’ll use.”
She strove to sound casual as she pulled out a magic stone from her backpack.
Her nostrils flared with excitement she still couldn’t suppress.
Gidan focused intently as if to say “go ahead,” and Joorim covertly watched as well.
“…Combine this with the magic stone…”
“With the potato?”
“Mmm…”
Mechanically, it would need some magic, so she’d have to combine it with a small magic stone taken out of her watch.
A sidelong glance—Gidan’s suspicion hadn’t faded.
Groo hesitated, then…
“Potato trans-formation…”
Half-heartedly, she synthesized the potato and the star candy.
[Skill “Mold and Shape” activated.]
And then—
Bang!
The magic within the stone suddenly burst forth.
Streams of power wrapped around the potato, flaring up as if it were on fire.