Chương 89: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 89 - The Army Presses In

The Blaze Rabbit had no idea what the humans were saying. Its simple squeaks couldn't be detected as language by the players' System, because the prerequisite for that was having a concept of language to begin with. What the Blaze Rabbit did have, though, was one very useful quality: it followed orders. The boss had been very clear. Any human who walks up smiling and starts talking nonsense you can't understand, beat them. The player had long since dialed his pain sensitivity to zero. That didn't help much.

Between the Big Slaps and the oversized feet, the damage was minimal. The humiliation was off the charts. And he couldn't block the dizziness, and he definitely couldn't filter out the smell coming off those feet, so within a few minutes he was foaming at the mouth and out cold. It was summer. The Blaze Rabbits were covered in thick fur. They ran every morning and every evening and worked up a full sweat both times. They had never once bathed in their lives. The math on that foot odor was not complicated.

This was exactly why Su Nian usually stationed the monsters outside the Dragon's Nest. Too sour. The Blaze Rabbit's savagery reduced the Sakura Island players to stunned silence. Nobody asked any more questions. Not that they had the chance. Bugs Bunny was already on his way, rolling in with a thunder of paws and a full mob of Blaze Rabbits at his back, surrounding the Experimental Field from every side. His face was dark. His mood was worse.

He walked slowly toward the cluster of Sakura Island players, paws clasped behind his back. He looked them over. Up. Down. Then, pfft, he turned his head and spat. The glob arced through the air and landed squarely on the unconscious player's face. [HP -1]"Squeak squeak!" One howl, and the mob surged forward. They moved like a gang of massive, grinning thugs storming into a helpless village, fierce, feral, and deeply pleased with themselves. WHOOOOSH, Wind swept across the field.

Storm clouds swallowed the sun whole. The sky, it seemed, had decided it didn't want to watch what happened next. These players had been locked inside the Dragon's Nest with almost no opportunity to grind levels, which put them roughly on par with Blaze Rabbits. Within minutes, the brotherly rabbits had all of them trussed up in thick, unyielding vines.

"You... what are you doing to us?!"

"Rabbit-taijun, we have been diligently planting potatoes! Why are you arresting us?!" The Sakura Island players were shoved face-first into the dirt like broken ragdolls, cheeks pressed flat against the field soil. That morning the field had been freshly fertilized. The combination of ripe manure and wet earth hit their noses all at once, and more than a few stomachs turned. A creeping sense of dread was beginning to settle in. Bugs Bunny couldn't answer with words. He'd use actions instead.

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"Squeak squeak!" At his command, a cold glint flashed through every pair of Blaze Rabbit eyes. They seized the players' limbs and wrenched. A chorus of sharp crack crack crack sounds rang out across the Experimental Field. The players watched their health bars dip. A new debuff blinked into existence beneath them: [Dislocated Limbs]. These things had popped all their limbs out of their sockets. What were they planning to do with them? Feed them something awful? The players' dread climbed another notch.

Then a group of kobolds appeared, hauling a crude wooden cart behind them. Stacked high on the cart was an enormous pile of enormous underpants.

"Could it be... these monsters want to...?"

"Gentlemen. To think — humans, the dominant primates of Shuilanxing, and we Sakura people in particular, proud descendants of the Sun Goddess — reduced to washing underpants for a pack of monsters!"

"The shame of it! I... I want to commit seppuku on the spot!"

"I don't think they're making us wash underpants. They just dislocated all our limbs. They can't seriously expect us to use our mouths, can they?" The players erupted in debate across the party channel. Every theory, every angle, every angle of every theory. None of them came close to figuring out what these monsters actually had in mind. Daug arrived at the head of the kobold column. The Blaze Rabbits snapped to attention, chests out, backs straight, and saluted in unison. Bugs Bunny did the same.

Daug returned the salute with all due gravity. Then it turned and fixed the Sakura Island players with a gaze that wished them absolutely no goodwill. The Black Dragon had fallen into deep sleep. The transition from juvenile to young dragon wouldn't keep him under for more than a week, but that was still a vulnerable window. These strangely dressed humans were a liability. Daug would have been very happy to kill them all right here. But keeping them alive was the Black Dragon's standing order.

Daug might not fully understand the reasoning, but it would follow instructions to the letter.

"Blindfold them. Plug their mouths and ears." Daug turned and barked a rapid string of commands at the kobolds. This time, the players understood every word. The System had auto-translated Kobold. Horror spread across their faces. They thrashed and bucked against their bindings. Unfortunately, only their heads could still move. Watching the monsters press forward with cold, total certainty, the soft-hearted players dissolved into sobbing and begging. The hot-tempered ones went the other direction entirely.

"Kobold-taijun, did we do something wrong?! Why are you treating us like this?!"

"This is abuse of prisoners! You'll be hauled before a military tribunal for this!"

"You savage, inhuman animals, just you wait! Our brave Sakura warriors will come for you. Every last one of you!"... Daug watched without expression as big underpants were pulled down over their eyes and shredded rags were stuffed into their ears and mouths. They looked like little children with blindfolds on and lollipops jammed in their mouths. The curses and the begging collapsed into a choir of muffled, helpless mmph mmph mmph sounds. The world was finally quiet.

"Take them. Lock them in the dungeon." While the captured players sank into total darkness, at the entrance to Sakura No. 1 Novice Village, Yamaguchi Mura Chicken stood alone. He stared up at the heavy sky. He breathed in the thick, damp smell that always comes just before a storm breaks. Something in his eyes had gone quiet and still, a grief that wouldn't dissolve. No pain. The game didn't allow it. But he'd been shattered once before. Literally. There were no words for what that felt like.

It was the kind of thing that took a lifetime to process.

"Young master." Moriya Nohito's voice came from behind him, kept low.

"What do we do now? Do we press the attack on the Dragon's Nest?"

"Attack?!" Yamaguchi Mura Chicken laughed. It had nothing warm in it.

"Our equipment — gone. Lost every piece."

"Our morale, gone. Destroyed completely."

"What exactly do we attack with?! Those monsters didn't just predict we'd try to burn the forest. They built a firebreak beforehand! They were ready before we even moved!" Each word came out heavier than the last. He thought about home. Cherry blossoms. The girl he'd grown up beside. The grief rose before he could stop it. That powerful god had sent them into this world to play a game, to run an invasion, so why had it aimed them specifically at this corner of this world?

Every other novice village had normal monsters to deal with. Why them? Moriya Nohito looked at his young master, beaten down, hollow, and felt a sharp pang in his chest. He stepped around in front of Yamaguchi Mura Chicken and placed both hands gently on his shoulders. His lips trembled slightly. His voice came out soft.

"Young master. Don't give up. You still have me." Yamaguchi Mura Chicken's eye twitched. He opened his mouth to say something along the lines of what good are you, And stopped. On the horizon, out across the open plains, where the dark edge of the sky met the earth, a long black ribbon had appeared. Stretched wide. Moving. An army of monsters.. I hear everyone's got power in the morning. It's going to be the death of me. ➤ Next: Impatience in Small Matters Ruins Big Plans