Chương 177: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 177 - Attacking No. 2 Starter Village

The temptation of darkness was too profound. Su Nian couldn't hold out. And so he found himself suppressed by Anna, a force of justice in the world. The moment the little girl saw him reluctantly agree, she lit up and immediately hauled a full barrel of rose essential oil shower gel out of the spatial ring she kept in her human form. All-natural. Pollution-free. Extremely fragrant.

"Brother~ Anna is starting now!"

"Brother has to work hard too~" She tipped the entire barrel over the main spine as she spoke, then went at it with both hands, both feet, and her tail, scrubbing away with genuine dedication.

"These auxiliary spines are so soft and bouncy~""Hehe~ like little slimes~""So cute~" She muttered to herself as she worked, her small hands moving in careful circles, and then she took a lick. The rose essential oil was sweet and fragrant. Like eating jelly.

"Anna... rose shower gel is for bathing. It might be toxic. Isn't it bad to get it in your mouth?" Su Nian's entire dragon body jolted at the strange development. He nearly threw her off.

"Don't worry, brother~ Forget the fact that Anna's constitution is completely different from what it used to be..." The little girl licked her pink lips, wholly unbothered.

"Besides, Anna can tell from the taste, nom..." She considered it for a moment.

"This rose shower gel is just ordinary roses and slime mucus. There's even some cooling rock sugar mixed in."

"So be good, brother~""Almost done~ nom~ prprpr..." She worked for a good while longer. When all the auxiliary spines began to tremble faintly, Anna knew she was getting close. That vibration was Dragon Aura rising, boiling up from beneath the scales. She waved her hand and summoned a concentrated water orb, soft and springy. She wrapped herself inside it, then spread her arms wide and hugged the Black Dragon's vicious barbed spines, scrubbing up and down, left and right.

Those barbs were one of the Black Dragon's most powerful close-combat weapons. Whether he was pinning prey in place or driving them into the dirt, they delivered results. Precisely because of that, they deserved more care than anything else. Like a knight maintaining his longsword.... An hour later. Su Nian's dragon body gleamed. Immaculately clean. Even the brutal barbs had been scrubbed to a mirror finish, catching the light with a cold, hard gleam. They looked like they could punch through steel.

Anna was delighted. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Her magic capacity had increased again. The power converted from all that abundant Dragon Aura was nearly overflowing out of her, flooding her with a bone-deep sense of fullness and satisfaction, the kind that settled all the way down. She could get stronger to protect her brother now. Her gaze drifted to the Black Dragon, soft with affection and something quietly devoted. She should do this more often, she decided.

Massages. Help him unwind. It seemed to help both of them grow stronger at the same time, which was frankly a perfect arrangement. With her new mana pool, she could cast Windwalk on every monster in their entire force at once. The whole legion lurched into motion. A full day's march. Gone in a single night.... The first light of dawn touched Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village. Every Sakura player was still asleep.

Far from Silvermoon Forest, far from everything that had terrorized them, the stable environment had let them breathe for the first time in what felt like forever. Bodies loose. Minds quiet. No muscle-bound nightmare fire rabbits here. No seven-foot gnolls. And absolutely no bastard Black Dragon ordering his monsters to lob dung balls at them every single day. The local monsters were perfectly ordinary. Levels spread in tiers from low to high, neat and manageable.

Every player could find a grind spot that suited them. Even if you stumbled into something too strong, you could pull three or four friends together and take it down as a team. Everything was working the way it was supposed to. Life was getting better. The days were actually livable. Until a roar like a thunderclap split the air just outside the village. Years later, for every Sakura player who'd been there that morning, the sound of a dragon's roar would remain a nightmare they never fully woke from.

A conditioned reflex burned into muscle and bone. The moment they heard one, their hands would fly to cover their mouths and noses, and they would drop into a crouch. Every time. Without thinking....

"ROAR!"

"ATTACK! ALL UNITS — THROW THE SPICY DUNG BALLS!" Su Nian's bellow rolled across the sky. Every monster answered. Dark red projectiles blotted out the horizon. A plague of locusts had nothing on this. The volley arced upward and came screaming down toward Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village in a wall of stench. Su Nian had moved while it was still dark, quietly surrounding the entire village before anyone stirred.

He and Rolls-Royce each held a semicircle of sky, hovering high above, watching every corner of the settlement below. Su Nian had a plan. The village was large, it had absorbed several smaller Starter Villages and grown to house over eight thousand players, sprawling across a wide patch of ground. Simply flying in and torching the place with dragon breath would take forever and burn through Rolls-Royce's cooldowns fast. That wasn't efficient. So instead, he'd work from the outside in.

Pepper the perimeter with spicy dung balls. Drive everyone toward the center. Compress them. Then, once they were packed together in the middle, he and Rolls-Royce would hit them with everything. The foul, burning gas bloomed through the village streets within seconds. Players weren't woken up so much as they were assaulted out of sleep, yanked back to consciousness by a smell like someone had jammed a blade up their nostrils, shoved it all the way to the olfactory nerve, and started twisting. This was not a smell.

This was a full sensory execution.

"There, there are monsters, cough, cough, monsters attacking!"

"By the Emperor, I'm going to be sick — what IS this? Is this poison gas? I'm going to be sick—""Someone go report to the Young Master, ugh, " Less than thirty seconds after the first volley, Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village erupted into total chaos. Voices everywhere. Crashes and bangs from every direction as players stumbled into walls and furniture, fleeing and retching in equal measure. Akase Akayo was Ohguchi Akase's son. The players knew him as the Young Master.

With his father still absent, Akayo was the one in charge, acting village chief, responsible for everything and everyone inside these walls. He was genuinely capable. The moment the word "dragon" reached him, he was awake. No hesitation, no fumbling. He smelled the thickening wrongness in the air, caught the debuff icon strobing faster and faster on his status bar, and reacted immediately, mouth and nose covered, homemade goggles on, scrambling up the side of his building and onto the roof.

He stood on the tiles and looked out. The entire village was coming apart at the seams. Players sprinting in every direction, doubling over as they ran. Wherever the red gas had rolled through thickest, people weren't running anymore, they were flat on their backs, spitting like broken fountains, their bodies convulsing as if enormous hands were wringing out their insides.

And in the sky above it all, two dragons hung in the air, one black, one gold, wings beating slow and steady, dragon eyes sweeping the disaster below with cold, satisfied contempt. Further back, blending into the treeline and the rise of the hills, dim shapes moved in the dark. Countless of them. Shoulders winding back. The second wave was already coming. ps: Seeking power stones ➤ Next: Fooling the Brass Dragon