They were running out of places to look, and in a way that was encouraging, for didn't the old saying go 'the last place you look is the first place you find it?' After this long, there were almost no lengths to which they'd go to find the coveted disk.
There had been other disks before this quest that had been hard to track down—one made a Gray Wolf, another an Eggplantern, still another the enigma that was Sumopion. Other disks were less valuable, but still made interesting curiosities, like a Pressure or Corone. They carefully catalogued what disks bore what monsters, for they were a diligent lot, and in comparing notes, they found an anomaly—the one disk said to create the rarest monster they knew of did not work as it should, instead creating a Mum Mew or Aqua Mew.
And—this was the sticking point—very few, if any, known disks of that kind did make what they were looking for. Surely, the Seekers—for that was what the group had become, now—could find it. All other quests, all other pursuits, collapsed into this one. Some Seekers grew tired of the chase and contented themselves with what they did have, while others died before their ambitions could be realized.
It was rumored that the few who did possess such a rarity had clung to the disk, never revealing what they had nor offering to sell it. It was entirely possible that some who owned it did not raise monsters at all, never knowing of the treasure that lay in the unassuming disk. But if all went well—and this information, for once, seemed accurate—all other prizes would pale in comparison to this, the rarest and most sought of them all.
Yes, if all went well the disk that the Seeker sought above all others—the fabled disk that would make Moo—would soon be in their grasp.
This Seeker was the kind who had left in years past, only to plunge themselves back into the game once they were older. They obtained special disks and even more special monsters, some of which they'd technically already owned but could never unlock before now. A Shogun, a Mermaid, and even the fearsome Bloodshed were now among their collection, and while it hadn't been easy, they now owned monsters few had even seen. Other Seekers of Moo had such monsters, while others had even rarer varieties. But none compared with Moo.
There had been little obstacle in obtaining the disk itself, the price was fair, and the print was different than the one the Seeker had tried previously, which had made an Aqua Mew. The last of these factors was what gave them the most hope.
Soon it was time. The shrine maiden Chaille took the disk and placed it in the pedestal, where it was read, and the Seeker gave consent to have it unlocked.
After all this time, if this was the one—
They knew from the patterns of light that something was wrong.
In seconds, the growing unease proved accurate, and a Mum Mew burst out of the light, stretching her arms and bobbing up and down, happy to be alive. The Seeker stood, briefly shocked, and meekly accepted the catlike monster.
The Mum Mew mewed with joy before heading off into the town square, and when the Seeker's assistant asked her name, all they could think of was "Not Moo." (The Mew, for her part, liked the name.)
"Aw, man! I thought for sure this copy of Mellow Gold would be the one," the Monster Rancher 2 player grumbled, putting the CD into an ever-increasing pile of incorrect prints.
"Guess I'll have to try again. Maybe on eBay the CD description says 'Makes Moo in MR2' or something…"
Dedicated to those who, like myself, have tried and failed to get Moo in Monster Rancher 2 with a copy of Beck's Mellow Gold. (At least in the Japanese and PAL versions it's easier. XD)