Chương 182: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 182 - Pride Before a Fall

"Very good, Rolls-Royce. I look forward to that day!"

"But before then, we both need to keep getting stronger." Su Nian gave Rolls-Royce a round of encouragement. This dense, lovable Brass Dragon had become his loyal follower, and after that little speech, the Favorability had shot up from 65 to 85. [Ding! Congratulations, host, on completely destroying a Starter Village. Your Exposure Level has increased.] [The respawn point for Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village players has been refreshed. Locating... New respawn point: Sakura Island No. 10 Starter Town.]"They've already built a town?" Su Nian's heart gave a small lurch. His instincts flagged it as a threat, but he let the tension go almost immediately. The players were developing around the clock. It wasn't as if only he, this one Black Dragon, was getting stronger. A Starter Town appearing was perfectly normal. He pulled up the map. Sakura Island No. 10 Starter Town was farther out than the last one, still within Anlius's borders, but hugging the coastline, right at the edge where Anlius met the Aililan Empire.

It was also the last remaining Sakura Player settlement in all of Anlius. He had no intention of provoking it. Not yet. He didn't know what new features a Starter Town came with. What if they had anti-air defenses? Charging in blind would be throwing his life away. Better to gather intel first. Right now, the priority was simple: he had a six-digit system point balance burning a hole in his pocket, and it was time to spend it. With that decided, Su Nian took to the sky with Rolls-Royce at his side.

He swept his dragon head upward and let out a long, resonant roar. The retreat signal. Every monster that heard it turned and converged on his position, falling in behind the two dragons as the whole column reversed course and headed home....

"Aya, I'm sorry. We have no choice. If we don't offer you up, those lords will slaughter the village. Please — try to understand." The old man with the salt-and-pepper beard looked wretched. Guilt pooled in his eyes, but he kept his jaw set and said the words anyway, making the demand no decent person should ever have to make. This was a small village near the Silver Moon River. The people here farmed and fished.

Their lives had been quiet and ordinary, right up until a powerful group appeared in the area without warning. Every one of them was a professional fighter of some kind, but their manners were anything but professional. They were short and dark-skinned, with fine curly hair, flat noses, and heavy lips. Their looks were rough, and their dress was rougher, clothes thrown loosely over their bodies like an afterthought.

"Why does it have to be me?" The girl named Aya bit down on her pale lip, her voice shaking.

"I already ran once. I thought coming back to the village meant I was safe. I never thought..." She looked at the faces around her — faces she barely recognized, and found nothing but despair and grief looking back at her. Tears streaked her cheeks. Her hands were clenched so hard her nails had broken the skin. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"Alas..." The village chief sighed, then steeled himself and kept talking.

"You're the only one in this village who's alone, Aya. Everyone else has family — parents, children. We can't tear their families apart."

"We voted. Unanimously. You're the only one who fits."

"Those lords want the most beautiful girl in the village. We don't want this either, but..."

"Hey! Are you people ready yet?" The shout came from outside the village, loud, swaggering, with an accent so thick that the syllables blurred together. You had to listen twice to catch a single word. The voice arrived first. The people arrived after. Five players swaggered through the village entrance a moment later. These were the "lords" the white-bearded chief had been talking about. Their leader's name was Har Gargi.

He was a warrior player, level fourteen, not quite fifteen, but that already put him near the top of his Starter Village. He'd been born into the caste system as a Shudra, pressed down from birth by a structure that had decided his worth before he'd ever had a choice. Then he'd arrived in this world, where the only thing that mattered was power. He'd seen the opportunity immediately. He'd ground through monsters without stopping, clawed his way to the top, and now stood above every other player from his village.

In this world, caste was a joke. If anyone dared bring it up to his face, he'd answer them with two fists and not a word of explanation.

"Didn't expect this, did you? Ha ha ha!" Har Gargi's eyes landed on the girl and a greasy grin spread across his face. Wasn't this one of life's great pleasures, losing something and getting it back?

"You thought you could run?"

"No woman I set my eyes on gets away. Not a single one."

"I suggest you come quietly. Otherwise, every villager here dies because of you." Aya gritted her teeth. Her head drooped. She had nothing. No power to fight back against a fate this cruel, and no heart to stand there and watch the village that had raised her burn. She swept her gaze across the villagers, every one of them had their eyes on the ground, unable to look at her. Unable to meet the hollow emptiness she knew must be showing in her face.

"I'll go with you." The words came out flat. The tears were gone; she'd run out of them. The life that had once lit up her eyes had dried away with them, leaving something dull and vacant behind.

"Please let these people go." She sank to her knees, her voice a thin, mournful thread. She'd been digging for wild vegetables by the riverbank when three of these men had first found her. They'd tried to take her on the spot. She'd only gotten away because the dragon lord had appeared out of nowhere. She'd never expected them to track her back to the village. She'd walked straight into the trap herself. The dragon lord wasn't going to appear twice.

In the end, the girl rose from her knees and fell into step behind the players, walking out of the village in a daze. There was nothing left behind her eyes. She moved like something that had already stopped living.

"Boss, how about we just do it here?" One of the players kept glancing sideways at Aya. He was a Shudra from the bottom of the bottom. A girl like this, clean, pretty, alive, was something he'd never even imagined having access to. Back home before the portal, his world had consisted of pigs and lizards.

"What's the rush?" Har Gargi snorted.

"We go back to the Starter Village first. Ever heard of a soft bed? Why would you want to squat out here feeding mosquitoes? Use your head." He genuinely despised these men. Sure, he was Shudra too, but there was Shudra and there was Shudra. He bathed once a month. He washed his hands every three days. These idiots had come to an entirely different world and still hadn't touched soap in a week. They picked up their food with their bare unwashed hands. Disgusting. Not that he was going to say much.

Everything in this world, the land, the creatures, the people, were low-tier resources for players to use. One native girl was nothing. There'd be more of them than he could count once he had real power. For now, all it took was threatening to burn the village down. These stupid, worthless natives fell into line every time.

"You're right, boss. We were getting ahead of ourselves..." The player smiled along nervously, making sure not to say anything that might cost him his share later. They walked and talked, weaving through the countryside, until they crested a hill near their own Starter Village. Then they stopped. The explosions rolled over them, BOOM BOOM BOOM, from the distance. Where the Starter Village had been peaceful an hour ago, it was now a tower of flames.

A massive Brass Dragon was tearing through it at full speed, smashing through buildings, swatting players aside, hurling screaming A-san players skyward one after another. They tumbled end-over-end on the way up, then came straight back down and hit the ground without getting up. And even further out, the source of those explosions, a small figure beat its wings in the air, cradling a Fireball in both hands that was bigger than a cargo van. Anna: I'll hit you~ ➤ Next: Diverting Trouble? — Words Unspoken