“Umm… A contract?”
Suddenly, a soft and sweet voice chimed in.
The two turned their heads toward the source of the voice and saw a chubby little dragonling standing behind them. It stood on a rock that allowed it to be at eye level with them.
Jing Nian: “Huh? Ao Ao, when did you come over here?”
Long Ao Tian couldn’t help but blurt out as it overheard and couldn’t contain itself: “…”
Feeling a bit miffed, it decided to take the initiative. With a dissatisfied “hmph,” it plopped down, and turned its head away from Jing Nian, indicating its displeasure.
“Leaving me behind!”
Jing Nian turned to the side, looking at a rather embarrassed Gordon next to the stone.
Gordon hugged his invisibility cloak, attempting to get away with a sheepish grin.
It wasn’t his fault; it was the little dragonling’s coercion!
Jing Nian, being in the automatic role of a father, had a filter of parental affection, so he wasn’t really angry. He gazed at the dragonling’s round belly and suddenly felt puzzled, asking, “Little one, did you get chubby?”
Saying that, Jing Nian got down from Huo Yi’s arms and came to the rock, reaching out to touch the dragonling’s chubby belly.
The dragonling had always been the type to climb the pole when given an inch. Seeing Jing Nian dote on it, it happily wagged its tail while continuing to pretend to be upset.
Lately, Jin Jin has ignored it many times!
So, it needed more pampering.
“Hisss…!”
The more Jing Nian touched, the more shocked he became. He realized that the little dragonling hadn’t gotten fat; it had suddenly grown quite a bit!
Even now, the once soft and ball-like belly had begun to harden, with the soft scales turning rigid!
This was a sign of the dragonling transitioning into its youth.
But Jing Nian was sure, just a moment ago, not long ago, on the other side of the forest.
He had touched the dragonling’s soft and tender belly!
It was definitely not like this!
What was going on?
Jing Nian’s shocked expression instantly caught Long Ao Tian’s attention, and it lowered its head, looking at its increasingly round belly, also taken aback.
“Oh!? Is it getting fat!?”
Gordon, who was standing nearby, couldn’t resist coming closer but didn’t notice any difference. He looked at Jing Nian in confusion, asking, “What’s going on?”
Jing Nian instantly thought of Gordon’s identity as a native of the Grans Continent and blinked, asking, “Do you feel any changes in Ao Ao compared to half an hour ago?”
Long Ao Tian’s dark, round eyes also turned toward Gordon.
Gordon, who had experienced the dragonling’s difficult temperament, felt a little uneasy. He only felt that Long Ao Tian seemed a bit fatter, but he couldn’t see much of a difference.
He could only tentatively throw out a rainbow-colored compliment under the dragonling’s “innocent” gaze:
“Did it become more formidable?”
The dragonling’s heart, which had secretly tensed up due to the “ominous feeling” from Jing Nian, relaxed and turned its head to look at Jing Nian.
Without saying it directly, the playful and subtly proud look in its small eyes seemed to say:
See, I didn’t get fat!
Huo Yi also glanced at the dragonling’s belly, as a representative of the “players,” he naturally could detect the dragonling’s true changes.
Noticing Huo Yi’s gaze, the dragonling suddenly closed its happily swaying little tail and turned around in a grudge, not letting him see.
Huo Yi wasn’t about to mind a little baby dragon. He briefly worried in his heart that the young boy’s delicate arms might be crushed by the chubby dragonling, then he looked up at the semi-transparent barrier not far away and remarked, “The time and space here are starting to get chaotic.”
Jing Nian froze. Of course, he knew this could happen, having witnessed it from the moment players started running dungeons.
However, he hadn’t expected the Abyss Canyon to experience such sudden changes.
Then, he thought about it.
The dungeon must be opening soon because, in dungeon mode, the dragonling would become a majestic adult golden dragon.
So, the dragonling was accelerating its growth, wasn’t it?
Did that mean players would soon come knocking at the door?
Immediately, he recalled the dragon-slaying scenes he had seen in the game’s promotional material.
Jing Nian frowned, feeling uneasy.
Even though he knew that bosses assimilated by dungeons wouldn’t be harmed after the world’s separation, and they could even return to their original state.
But when the victim was the baby dragon he had raised himself.
He couldn’t accept it.
Instead of watching the dragonling suffer, and being assimilated, Jing Nian felt that going back home could wait for now.
He pursed his lips and raised his hand to gently rub the baby dragonling that was still pretending to be upset and needed comforting. Seeking help, he looked at Huo Yi.
“Do you know how to achieve the world’s separation?”
It’s uncertain whether it was the calm and composed demeanor of this deity from the divine realm.
Jing Nian himself hadn’t realized that he hadn’t been flustered for a long time because of the crisis facing him and the dragon clan.
He just felt that Huo Yi should know.
Right?
After realizing his strangely confident inner belief, Jing Nian suddenly became unsure.
He gently petted the dragonling and turned its little head. Its blue eyes gleamed with a hint of uncertainty as he looked at Huo Yi.
He wanted a definite answer.
It’s difficult for anyone to bear disappointing him with those eyes on them.
Huo Yi hesitated for a moment but eventually spoke the truth.
“The world’s separation isn’t something even a demigod can accomplish. Usually, not even gods possess this ability.”
Jing Nian’s hand, which was petting the dragonling, came to a halt, and he asked, “Then who does?”
Huo Yi glanced at the sky for a moment. In the cloudless expanse, the sky seemed to darken suddenly.
“The Heavenly Dao.”
As his words fell, a lightning bolt pierced the sky.
Torrential rain poured down.
This thunderstorm seemed as if it had come for a specific purpose.
Huo Yi was well-prepared for it. He raised his hand, chanted an incantation, and created a shelter from the rain above them.
Suddenly surrounded by the downpour, Jing Nian looked amazed.
He gazed upward, surveying the rapidly changing sky.
To his surprise, he noticed that the flickering flames on the horizon seemed to be a kind of anger, intensifying the heavy rain.
Turning back, he saw that Huo Yi seemed to intend to continue their conversation under the rain shelter. Jing Nian decided to sit down next to the little dragonling, cross-legged, and with his hands supporting his cheeks, he asked Huo Yi.
“Is it the Heavenly Dao that I know? Who is greater, it or the rules? Uh… I mean, why is it doing this…”
As Jing Nian spoke, he gestured with his hands and glanced at the sky, where the dark clouds seemed to be churning again.
He was a bit afraid of the sky suddenly thundering as if it were venting its anger. So, he quietly leaned closer to Huo Yi’s ear and asked in a hushed voice, “Why does it want to merge the worlds?”
The soft, sweet scent by his ear made Huo Yi feel a bit ticklish. He discreetly pushed Jing Nian away a little and was about to respond when his cheeks suddenly grew warm.
His face was cradled by a pair of small hands, leaving him frozen and unable to speak.
At this moment, the sky rang out with a crisp sound, as if mocking them.
Huo Yi: “…”
Unfortunately, the young man was unaware of these signals.
He hastily looked up at the sky, thinking that speaking softly really worked because the thunder wasn’t as loud. So, he moved even closer.
Huo Yi’s throat constricted, and his thoughts began to blur.
There was only one phrase in his mind.
To make us meet.
But saying this was too incredible and hard to explain.
Moreover, Huo Yi didn’t want to attribute this fate to certain entities.
Huo Yi glanced at the young man who had almost fallen into his arms due to their hushed conversation and resisted the urge to embrace him with one hand before he suddenly continued, “The method I mentioned earlier to send you home, I haven’t finished explaining it.”
This time, he didn’t wait for Jing Nian to respond.
With a resounding boom, the sky thundered again, the sound noticeably louder than before.
The distant and majestic thunder echoed, making the pouring rain ripple in an S-shape.
It was a more intense form of mockery.
Huo Yi: “…”
Jing Nian, who had vaguely noticed something amiss in the sky, looked up. He didn’t expect to see the bright light of day break through the dark clouds, dispelling the rain and instantly clearing the sky.
The heavenly light shone in the beautiful blue eyes of the young man, and the forest, which had just weathered the storm, flourished with new greenery after the rain.
However, Huo Yi had no time to appreciate this beauty.
He sensed that something was amiss and furrowed his brow, looking around.
In almost an instant, with the giant stone beneath Jing Nian as the center, they were frozen in place.
The colors of the seasons slowly enveloped the Abyss Canyon, spreading out from all sides, visible to the naked eye.
It wasn’t clear how much time had passed, but this transformation went from slow to a halt.
Yet, it was as if those around them had experienced a world-changing shift.
The giant stone beneath Jing Nian had transformed into a slope covered in fresh flowers and lush grass.
The surrounding trees had become much denser, resembling an untouched, deep forest.
–
Time rewinds to just before the changes occurred.
The three older brothers who were waiting for Jing Nian in the Abyss Canyon were suddenly ejected from the game.
Upon their hasty return, they found that their login locations had changed, and the teleportation points they had previously activated were now inaccessible.
No matter what they did, they couldn’t enter the Abyss Canyon.
The three brothers exchanged glances, and the eldest brother suddenly remembered something. He opened his friend list and made a couple of attempts. His expression darkened.
“We can’t contact Nian Nian anymore!”
–
At the same time, outside the Lost Forest.
A large group of players who had joined the Temple of Light and received blessings from the gods for leveling up were gathering here.
Among them, some had already reached levels above 80, approaching level 90.
Usually, even with excellent equipment and skill boosts, players can only tackle dungeons that are 10 levels higher than their own.
But with the Light God’s skills, they were different.
Even though the Lost Forest was a level 100 map, they could venture into it.
However, in the eyes of Jing Nian, the dragons, and most creatures on the Grans Continent, the Lost Forest was just an ordinary forest.
But at this moment, in the eyes of these players, it was truly a lost forest.
It was shrouded in dense mist, and one could easily become disoriented. Once lost, they could only re-enter from the entrance.
So, they lined up one by one, each person holding onto the clothes of the one in front to ensure they wouldn’t get separated. They tightly gripped their weapons, ready for any potential attacks.
The person at the front held a compass that could guide them.
At first, they managed to maintain order. However, as they ventured deeper into the forest, the mist thickened, and there were more vines and roots between the trees. The path became increasingly difficult, and impatience began to grow among some of them.
“Are there really dragons here?”
“Yeah, the dungeon wasn’t initiated by us. What if another team has already entered it? The mist outside is just an illusion they created to delay us!”
Someone in the group complained, and their words struck a chord with everyone.
Their main quest had led them to the task of finding the dragon.
Meanwhile, the Temple of Light had a sacred bounty mission:
[Find the dragon and become a Dragon Knight. (Note: Each person who slays the dragon will be granted the title of Dragon Knight; those who slay the Golden Dragon can attain the title of Divine Dragon Knight.)]
A combination of the main quest and the Temple of Light’s highest bounty mission.
Furthermore, the first group to clear the dungeon would receive a world-first kill reward!
This was, after all, the largest boss dungeon in the game, named accordingly.
You can imagine how high the rewards for this mission must be.
As “Dragon Slayer” became the most popular game across the interstellar gaming community, its popularity had reached its peak. It could be called a game for the masses.
It was rumored that even a prince from the royal family had started to immerse himself in this game!
It can be said that anyone who achieves the world-first kill of the dragon in the game will surely become famous overnight!
When the world-first kill video is shared across the internet, becoming an esports star is not out of reach!
Even if fame and fortune weren’t their main motivation, who wouldn’t want to earn the most prestigious title in the entire game after all their hard work and dedication to leveling up day and night?
So now, all the players want to be the first to find and kill the dragons.
Because in their eyes, it’s just a game.
A battle of honor in a virtual world.
