Chương 162: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 162 - A Brand New Play Method

"Human! Who are you, and where do you come from?"

"Why are you attacking my territory?"

"And how many of you are there?" The moment Su Nian opened his mouth, he slipped straight into standard fantasy-world-native mode, muddying the waters for any players watching while fishing for whatever intelligence he could get.

"Keep dreaming, ugly dragon! I swear on Mrs. Sam's three-day-unwashed stockings, I am not telling you a damn thing!" David Jones had gotten over his initial shock surprisingly fast. He was a player. Worst case, a monster killed him. But selling out his own people? As a patriot who had the Stars and Stripes Flag tattooed on his underwear? Not a chance in hell.

"Is that so?" Su Nian's lips curled into a cold smile. He loved the stubborn ones. The tougher the player, the more entertainment they delivered before the end.

"Banana Wolf! I hear you've been working on something new?" Banana Wolf came running the moment the Black Dragon called. The Tyrannosaurus Stink Bug Little Red was perched on top of its head as usual. It skittered up eagerly and stopped at Su Nian's feet.

"Re, port, Master — have new method!"

"Com, plex, I, bad talker, Bolikri, know." Su Nian shifted his gaze to Bolikri. He hadn't even opened his mouth before the Kobold Chieftain launched into an explanation of his own accord.

"Great Master, yesterday Ettercap No. 2 put in a request for high-fat meat. Around five hundred jin or so."

"It said the spider breeding season has arrived. A batch of spiders are ready to lay eggs and need meat as a warm bed for raising the hatchlings." As Bolikri spoke, his eyes kept drifting toward David Jones's mountain of a body. The implication needed no further elaboration. Using a player as a spider nursery? Su Nian shot a stunned look at Banana Wolf. That was depraved. Was this really something a carbon-based life form could dream up? It was simply, simply... Absolutely brilliant.

Truly worthy of the creature that had fallen in love with Little Red. There probably wasn't a single being in the Dragon's Nest more twisted than Banana Wolf. Appointing it as the Dragon's Nest's chief enforcement officer had been the right call all along. David Jones had no idea what the monsters were muttering about. He could only catch scattered words, something about spiders, something about meat. Were they going to feed him spider meat?

Yamaguchi Mura Chicken had warned him once: the monsters here were deeply disturbed. They liked to feed humans excrement. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. So feeding him spider meat on a whim? Entirely possible. But did they seriously think that would break him? Ridiculous. David Jones scoffed inwardly. He was over four hundred kilograms. He had eaten things that would make lesser men weep.

He had personally tasted chitterlings sashimi, the single most revolting dish known to civilization. Spider meat was nothing. Even if they fed him actual shit. He would not flinch.

"Banana Wolf, that idea is excellent." Su Nian gave an approving nod of his great dragon head, looking at Banana Wolf with genuine admiration.

"Keep developing new methods. I expect great things."

"Now, let's begin."

"I want to see whether our tough-talking guest here stays tough." On the Black Dragon's command, several muscular Blazing Rabbits burst out of formation. They moved with practiced efficiency. A few precise slaps to David Jones's temples, and the man was out cold before he could even form a complaint. Then five of the big rabbits, one per limb and one for good measure, hoisted David Jones's enormous body and carried him toward the Ettercap nest.

The two Ettercaps had long since pledged their full allegiance to the Dragon's Nest. Not a shred of disobedience remained in them. Their daily occupation was breeding and training more spiders. To keep them comfortable, Su Nian had carved out a stretch of wild forest exclusively for their use, no restrictions, no oversight. Whatever they wanted to do with it. They had made the most of the arrangement. The forest was so thoroughly blanketed in webbing now it looked like something out of a spider spirit's lair.

Dense, skittering sounds rose from every direction, SHH... SHH... SHH... The trees were thick with crimson compound eyes, watching. These were the Ettercaps' spiders, peering out in curiosity. Fierce hunger glinted in those red eyes. Sharp chittering sounds clicked through the dark. But they held still under their masters' command.

"Welcome... great master..." A low, rasping voice drifted through the forest like a dying sigh, like the moan of a grudge-bearing ghost, like wind cutting through a cold hollow. It raised the hair on the back of the neck. Two strands of silk descended from the canopy. Two profoundly ugly Ettercaps rappelled down in silence, hanging inverted, and then prostrated themselves on the ground before the Dragon's Nest's master in a display of total submission. The dragon blood transformation had awakened something in them.

They had shifted from chaotic evil to lawful evil, and now possessed genuine intelligence and the capacity for speech. They were still absolutely sanity-draining to look at, though.

"I hear you need high-fat flesh as a warm bed for your hatchlings," Su Nian said.

"I've found you some." He waved a claw. The Blazing Rabbits dumped David Jones's massive body on the ground in front of the Ettercaps. The two of them had already spotted the human mountain the moment the rabbits brought it in. Now that the master had confirmed the meat was theirs, a quiet warmth settled over them. The master truly did care about their needs. This had been weighing on them for weeks. Their previous nursery stock had been spear boars, but the spear boars were Dragon's Nest mounts now.

Their leader, Zhu Bajie, had been promoted all the way to Grey Wolf's personal sparring dummy. The Ettercaps couldn't touch them. And even if they could, the animals were useless for the purpose, all lean muscle now, barely any fat, completely unsuitable.

"He's yours to handle," Su Nian said.

"But keep him alive. I still have questions for him later."... David Jones woke up in a dim, narrow cave. Silence all around. The monsters were gone.

"Oh! God! Don't tell me, am I actually saved? That's incredible!" The relief lasted about three seconds. Because his limbs wouldn't move. At all. He looked down. His entire body was wrapped in spider silk, compressed into a cocoon, with only his head left exposed.

"HEH HEH HEH..." A sound crawled into his ear. Low. Wet. Wrong. David Jones turned his head. A gnoll was riding a giant spider toward him, moving in no particular hurry. The creature had something coiled around its skull, a dark red, vicious-looking insect that seemed to regard the world with contempt.

"Human. How. You. Feel." Banana Wolf tilted its head and studied him, wolf eyes lit with quiet anticipation.

"How do I feel? I feel just fine, you damn monster! You think you've won something?" David Jones laughed.

"You have no idea what nation you're picking a fight with. We will take this place. We will slaughter every last one of you, enslave whoever's left, and plant our flag right in the middle of this Dragon's Nest! The warriors of the beautiful country cannot be defeated!" Banana Wolf said nothing. It checked its internal sense of time, then walked calmly up to the cocoon, raised one clawed hand, and tapped. Something stirred. The whole cocoon shuddered.

Tiny bumps rose across its surface, hundreds of them, pressing outward against the silk, then beginning to move.

"You're nothing but a pack of low, what? What is that — what the — DAMN IT!" David Jones never finished the sentence. Because something was inside the cocoon with him. Many somethings. And they were burrowing in. ➤ Next: The Conception of Co-evolution