Loli Teases a Hungry Dragon

Thinking about it seriously, I realized Pandora had really been suffering at my side. Who was she? A high-ranking Imperial general, a conqueror who had once led the Pandora Legion in crushing countless civilizations. Yet when she was with me, she could only become a quiet little loli, endure junior high teachers imparting flawed basic knowledge that was "primitive" and "ignorant," and patiently coexist peacefully with the carbon-based lifeforms of this world. The little one hadn't said anything, but I figured that if this kept up, she'd soon suffer internal injuries from bottling it all up...

So, to Pandora, my command was practically a declaration of liberation. Looking at the flame of fighting spirit behind the little loli, so vivid it had nearly taken physical form, I secretly wiped away cold sweat that didn't actually exist. I thought of the legend of Pandora's box. The difference was that Pandora had opened a box, while I had opened Pandora...

Also, there really was nothing grammatically wrong with that sentence.

Under Lin Xue's stunned gaze, a layer of silver white Close-Fitting Alloy Battle Armor swiftly covered Pandora's body. A light green semi-transparent mask hid everything below her nose, leaving only a pair of pupil-less violet-red eyes exposed. Those eerie eyes were currently staring at the giant lizard in the sky with an appetite-filled gaze. Apparently, Lin Xue and I weren't the only hungry ones...

A cold, mechanical voice that sounded nothing like a human's came from behind the mask. "Anti-Proton Floating Cannon Matrix—"

As Pandora's voice fell, dozens of semi-transparent, ripple-like vortices rapidly appeared in the surrounding air. Then, dozens of silver white floating cannons, each as large as a car, extended their barrels from those vortices.

"Dispersed fire!"

All the floating cannons simultaneously emitted the shriek unique to high-energy currents. Dozens of dazzling white beams, carrying astonishing heat, shot toward the giant dragon in the sky, instantly sealing off every possible escape route.

The sudden attack stunned the dragon for a moment. In that brief lapse, the dozens of floating cannons swiftly rose into the air and surrounded it from every direction.

"Pandora 1000mm Anti-Ship Psionic Cannon!"

Pandora's right half swiftly merged with a rectangular energy cannon that appeared in the air. Thick energy conduits extended from Pandora's body all the way to the cannon's rear, continuously supplying enormous amounts of energy to that flagrantly overpowered weapon of mass destruction. Accompanied by a low hum, blue-white light rapidly gathered at the Psionic Cannon's muzzle. Three seconds later, an energy beam a full meter in diameter roared toward the dazed dragon in the sky. At the same time, the recoil instantly spread spiderweb-like cracks through the ground beneath Pandora's feet.

With floating cannons surrounding it on all sides, the giant lizard that had been flaunting its might moments ago had nowhere left to evade. It seemed that taking the attack head-on was its only option.

But as a particularly powerful carbon-based lifeform, the giant lizard before us still had a trick up its sleeve. The dragon opened its huge mouth, and a ball of leftover rice—cough, cough—a ball of blazing fire met Pandora's attack.

The two powerful energies collided violently, erupting in an intense flash. After the blinding light came an ear-splitting roar. Clearly, although its powerful dragon breath had blocked the attack, the dragon had still suffered considerable damage.

By the time the dozen or so flying lizards produced by the glare before my eyes gradually merged back into one, I realized that the dragon hadn't actually been struck by Pandora's Psionic Barrage. The guy had been blinded by the flash and plunged headfirst into the floating cannons' firing range. Its wings had been punched with a perfectly neat Big Dipper pattern...

The strength of the "food" before it had clearly exceeded the dragon's expectations. Its appetite had vanished without a trace, and now it only wanted to escape this dangerous place as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, with its wings leaking air, it had no chance of evading the floating cannons' omnipresent attacks. Before long, the Big Dipper became the Zodiac Twelve Palaces, and it was showing signs of evolving into the Stars and Stripes...

Pandora apparently wasn't in a hurry to kill the dragon, which had already lost its bearings and was flying around wildly. Instead, she put away the Psionic Cannon and focused on controlling the floating cannon platforms overhead, leaving all kinds of artistic graffiti on the dragon's body.

Watching the dragon desperately flee above our heads, I couldn't help thinking of Er Pang from next door, who had been chased by hornets at the entrance of an alley on Nanfu Street thirteen years ago...

Lin Xue, who had long been scared stiff, finally reacted a little. Pointing at Pandora, who looked like a soldier from the future, she stammered, "Li... Lily... ro... robot... turned into..."

I interrupted Lin Xue's wanton desecration of Chinese grammar. "That was a fake name. Her real name is Pandora-zero. I think I mentioned that name just now, didn't I?"

"Chen Jun!" Lin Xue cried, looking on the verge of collapse. "What the hell is going on? This can't even be described as a superpower anymore, can it? Is Lily a Future Human? A robot soldier? Don't tell me you're one too..."

Seeing that Lin Xue was starting to treat me as something nonhuman, I hurriedly cut her off. "Stop, stop! I'm a genuine human being. As for Pandora's identity... I'll tell you when there's time. Don't forget what you promised me earlier. Keep this secret, or Pandora and I will both be in trouble."

Lin Xue wasn't an ordinary girl, after all. Though she hadn't fully recovered from the shock of seeing Pandora transform into a super soldier, she still tried hard to calm herself down. Then she stared strangely at Pandora, who was not far away directing the floating cannons to bully the dragon.

"Chen Jun... I know you have a lot of secrets, and I don't intend to dig to the bottom of them. But can you tell me what Lily... Pandora is doing?"

I looked at Pandora, who was happily playing a barbecue game with the dragon, and broke out in a cold sweat. "Uh... who knows? She's probably just playing... This girl's hobbies aren't like normal people's."

Pandora really seemed to have a nasty interest in tormenting her opponents. You could see that from how she had spent an entire day and night messing with Lin Xue and Lin Feng back then. Now, she seemed to have become obsessed with this game of Loli Teases Hungry Dragon...

The black dragon in the sky had completely lost its will to fight. From the start, it had been firmly suppressed by Pandora's floating cannons. Its only defensive counterattack had earned it a neat Big Dipper pattern. Now it didn't even dare stop to unleash dragon breath. Those incredibly agile floating cannons wouldn't even leave it a chance to catch its breath. The dragon race's most prized close-combat ability had become a joke under Pandora's long-range suppression.

The game continued for about an hour, and the scent of grilled meat had begun to spread through the forest...

Wait, could this have been Pandora's real intention all along?

Just then, whether from utter exhaustion or because the dazzling beams around it had blinded it, the dragon suddenly charged headfirst toward the area under the densest floating cannon fire.

Looking closely, I noticed that the unlucky flying lizard had tears in its eyes...

Farewell, Cannon Fodder B, already medium-rare. We would forever remember your aggrieved silhouette...

Just as we thought it was about to escape its suffering and attain salvation, a distorted curtain of light suddenly appeared in the air, enveloping the dragon that was on the verge of a heroic death.

Before the light curtain completely swallowed it, I seemed to see a trace of relief at surviving disaster in the dragon's huge eyes.

The curtain of light vanished, and our prospective rations had disappeared.

What a miscalculation, what a miscalculation. I had forgotten that in all kinds of novels, dragons possessed plenty of mysterious and powerful magic. I hadn't expected this unlucky dragon's final means of saving its life to be spatial teleportation...

Pandora paused slightly, then put away her floating cannon platforms and walked toward me with a faintly unwilling expression.

"What a pity. Thirty more minutes and we could've eaten it..." Lin Xue sighed softly.

"Don't say that..." Cold sweat ran down my head. "You're far worse than Pandora."

By then, Pandora had already disengaged from combat mode, and her eyes had returned to that unfocused "blind girl state." She gently tugged on my sleeve and said, "Brother, I'm hungry..."

To be honest, in that moment, Pandora's demure little-bird demeanor plus her loli voice absolutely melted me...

But being melted didn't fill your stomach...