Purple Lightning Dragon Hatchling

Xin Jiu stared at the saber-toothed tiger several times her size, exasperation written across her face.

Something this big... how was she supposed to kill it?

She estimated the distance between herself and the saber-toothed tiger. Taking it head-on was definitely out of the question, so what about luring the tiger away from its mountain?

She placed the egg behind a rock, took out Meow-Meow-chan's slingshot, and shot a stone into a patch of grass fifty meters away from the saber-toothed tiger.

Hearing the rustling, the saber-toothed tiger abruptly raised its head, its golden pupils instantly narrowing into vertical slits.

It watched for a while, let out a low growl, then lay back down. It seemed to have no intention of leaving the grass for now.

Xin Jiu: Pretty wary, aren't you?

She shot more stones in different directions. With the rustling continuing nonstop, the saber-toothed tiger finally lost patience with all the noise around its den and grew angry.

It let out a mighty roar, the shock wave blowing Xin Jiu's hair upward.

[I swear I can smell that foul stench through the screen.]

[Jiujiu, hold your breath!]

The saber-toothed tiger headed toward the nearest patch of grass.

Seeing this, Xin Jiu decided the timing was about right and activated Rapid Speed. She crossed the dozens of meters in an instant, but just as she was about to touch the Dragon Fodder Grass, the saber-toothed tiger suddenly turned around.

"Roar..."

It was luring me out!

Its roar shook loose stones from above the cave entrance.

Xin Jiu could feel the foul wind behind her drawing closer and closer.

She turned sideways with her momentum, yanked the Dragon Fodder Grass out by the roots, and rolled across the ground.

Although she avoided the saber-toothed tiger's gaping maw, its claws raked hard across her back, leaving it burning with pain.

Those claws look filthy. Am I going to get tetanus?

Seeing Xin Jiu steal the Dragon Fodder Grass, the saber-toothed tiger roared in fury and lunged at her again.

With no way to dodge, Xin Jiu simply leaned backward. The saber-toothed tiger's enormous body swept over her head, and she seized the chance to drive her bayonet hard into its belly with a backhand thrust!

The saber-toothed tiger let out an agonized howl.

The wounds on Xin Jiu's back tore open further, and her stamina dropped to 54%.

But she dared not let her guard down. While the saber-toothed tiger reeled in pain, she activated Rapid Speed again, rushed back to where she had been, scooped up the egg, and used a Teleportation Card.

One person and one egg appeared a kilometer away.

Xin Jiu kept running, using Teleportation Cards as she went, and soon escaped more than ten kilometers away.

No matter how keen the saber-toothed tiger's sense of smell was, it would not find her for now. Even if it could, it might not be as fast as her.

The livestream viewers were dumbfounded.

[...]

[Is Jiujiu exploiting a bug?]

[N-not really, I guess.]

Xin Jiu leaned against a rock, gasping for breath. She felt as though her heart was about to leap out of her chest.

The Dragon Fodder Grass slipped from her hand and landed on the egg, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Golden patterns appeared on the eggshell.

Xin Jiu stared without blinking, and the livestream viewers held their breath in anticipation.

"Crack, crack."

After several cracking sounds, a soft little claw suddenly poked out of the eggshell. Its nails were transparent and looked very soft. Then another little claw emerged.

The two little claws pushed together, breaking the top half of the eggshell completely open.

A round little head popped out, covered in pale purple scales. Two tiny, translucent purple horns sat on top of its head, looking just like jelly.

Unable to resist, Xin Jiu poked them twice. So soft!

They felt just like jelly, too!

[I guessed right! It's a little dragon!]

[But this little dragon looks... more like a Western dragon?]

[Forget all that. If it appears in the Nine Provinces instance, it's an Eastern dragon!]

"Awoo..." the little dragon cried softly.

Xin Jiu: "..."

[...]

[????]

[Is that what dragons sound like?]

The little dragon cried out twice more, realized something was wrong, and gave a couple of coughs before asking Xin Jiu, "Who are you?" Now it sounded like a human child, its voice soft and sweet.

"I'm the one who saved you."

The little dragon stared at Xin Jiu for a few seconds before wobbling out of the eggshell into the air. It was only palm-sized, and the little wings on its back flapped furiously.

What a little unique. Quite a thing.

No, wait!

What a little thing. Quite unique.

"Are you a player?"

Xin Jiu thought for a moment, then took out her work badge and held it in front of the little dragon. "An inspector, too."

The little dragon frowned. An inspector, an inspector... It remembered someone saying that if it found an inspector, it had to stay with her.

But it could not remember who that person was or why they had said that.

The little dragon flew two circles around Xin Jiu. After looking her over, it asked in confusion, "Why are you so weak?" Weren't inspectors all supposed to be very powerful?

"..."

"But that's okay. I'll carry you through the tower," the little dragon said confidently.

If she had not rescued it from the "kappa" and then gone to find Dragon Fodder Grass for it, it would already have been offered up as a sacrifice.

How did it have the nerve to say it would carry her through the tower now?

But from the sound of it, was it planning to stay with her?

She stared at the tiny thing before her and asked with a frown, "Little thing, can you breathe fire or summon lightning?"

A Purple Lightning Dragon... should have lightning or flame skills, right?

"Of course I can! Watch closely!"

The little dragon flapped its wings and puffed hard toward the sky. Then... under the expectant gazes of Xin Jiu and the livestream viewers, it puffed out a tiny cloud of black smoke.

Dead silence.

Then everyone in the livestream began mocking it.

The little dragon spun in circles in midair, furious. "It's all that guy on the twenty-eighth floor's fault!"

"The twenty-eighth floor?"

"Yeah! He ambushed me. I let my guard down for a moment, and he knocked me all the way down to the second floor. Once I've recovered, I'm definitely going to get revenge!"

Xin Jiu froze.

The NPCs on each floor of the tower were fixed. Why had the little dragon been knocked down to the second floor? Something was wrong.

Could the NPCs in the tower have all gained sentience after the version update?

"Do you know about Lilliput, which used to be on the first floor?"

"I do, but the little guys there were too stupid, and they couldn't fight either, so the tower's administrators replaced them. Brother Qingming said they were replaced with some kind of gob... goblins?"

Administrators?

Xin Jiu seized on that key word.

"Who are the administrators?"

The little dragon tilted its head. "Three big sisters wearing cloaks and masks. I can't see their faces, so I don't know what they look like, either. But Brother Qingming said they're each in charge of ten floors. If you're curious, you can meet the first administrator sister when you reach the tenth floor. They're really powerful!"

Three administrators, each in charge of ten floors.

And they also had the authority to change each instance within the tower.

If what the little dragon said was true, this game's complexity was unimaginable.

Because the system had blocked their conversation, the viewers could only see their lips moving.

[Seriously, what is there that a VIP like me isn't allowed to hear?]

[Uh, I don't think this livestream offers a membership service.]

[Mind your own business!]

Xin Jiu suddenly felt that she needed to grow stronger quickly, because she could sense that the stages ahead would only get harder.

She ate two biscuits, and the wounds the saber-toothed tiger had clawed into her quickly healed.

"I've more or less recovered. Let's go."