Chapter 4: Welcome to the King's Game.
Before he could process the message, the panel vanished, leaving only the echo of its words in his mind and the oppressive weight of the crimson sky.
" in layman's terms... Total Domination." Su Pings expression turned grim, feeling as if an impossible task was placed before him.
Su Ping's gaze dropped to his body, and a wave of horror crashed over him, stealing the air from his lungs.
The first notification now stuck firmly within his mind.
Dark Dragon King...
Dragon King....
Dragon....
' I'm now a dragon?'
He was no longer human. His form was small, barely a meter long, his skin replaced by pitch-black scales that gleamed like polished obsidian, with glowing purple fissures snaking between them, pulsing faintly as if alive.
His hands were clawed, his legs stout and reptilian, his body resembling a lizard more than a man. He staggered back, his tail.
' Wait?! I have a..a tail!.
He steered with an incredulous gaze at the tail swishing involuntarily, scraping against the rocky ground with a soft rasp.
' I've become a monster....'
' No no no, this isn't the time to go into an identity crisis.'
His mind reeled, grappling with the impossibility of his transformation, but he forced himself to breathe, to steady the tremor in his chest.
He was Su Ping, he told himself, and no matter what this place was, he would not let it break him. After all, he'd been through shittier situations than this.
"Why call me a dragon when I don't even have wings?" he muttered, his voice raspy, unfamiliar, as if it belonged to the creature he had become.
He directed the question to the vanished panel, half-expecting an answer, but the air remained still, the only sound the distant howl of a wind that carried no comfort.
Frustrated, he called out, "Status window!"
He might have had a shitty life, but even he knew what a status window was, after all, which guy hasn't played games before?
The words felt absurd, pulled from some half-remembered game, but to his shock, a new panel flickered into existence, its surface alive with data that glowed in the same eerie purple as the moon above.
He read it slowly, each line felt like a hammer blow to his fragile sense of reality.
[Status]
• Race: "Infant" Dark Drake.
• Bloodline: Dark Dragon King.
• Level 1 Common Unit.
• Innate Talent: Dark Dragon Eyes.
• HP: 50.
•MP: 100.
•Strength: 10.
•Speed: 10.
• Will: 5.
•Skills: None.
Su Ping stared at the words, his mind churning.
"Looks like I'm an infant drake." he murmured, his clawed hand tracing the edge of a scale on his arm, the texture smooth yet calming to touch.
"But my potential is that of a… Dark Dragon King." The title stirred something in him, a spark of ambition buried beneath the fear, a whisper of power that felt both foreign and intrinsic.
The meer word dragon was always associated with great power and dragon king was even more so.
" Before I blacked out, I heard it say it's amongst the top 1000 bloodlines..."
" I'm confused as to how their could be that many bloodlines stronger than a dragons, but a dragon is still a dragon, at least I'm stronger than the other bloodlines below me."
" Come to think of it, how many bloodlines are there?" Su ping asked but, the panel didn't reply.
He closed his eyes, letting the reality of his new form settle, and his thoughts drifted to the life he had left behind, a life that now seemed as distant as the stars hidden by the crimson sky.
Back in his hometown, a dusty speck on the map where dreams went to wither, Su Ping's parents had scraped by, their faces lined with the quiet despair of those who loved fiercely but had little to give.
College was a luxury they couldn't afford, so Su Ping had taken to odd jobs, washing dishes, hauling crates, anything to send money home.
But his sharp tongue and sharper principles had earned him enemies, men with long memories and short tempers, forcing him to flee to the city.
There, he'd found work as a valet at the Grand Elysium Hotel, a glittering cage where the wealthy flaunted their excess.
It was there he'd crossed paths with Wang Bai, the blonde-haired charmer whose easy smile hid a secret life as a drug dealer.
By chance, Su Ping had covered for him during a police raid, a split-second decision born of instinct rather than loyalty.
Wang Bai, grateful and cunning, had befriended him, slipping him hush money each month, crisp bills that Su Ping sent home to his parents, each one was nothing but a silent apology to make up for the dreams he'd left behind.
A thunderous crash snapped him out of his reverie, the ground trembling beneath his clawed feet. Heavy footsteps, deliberate and menacing, echoed through the alien landscape, each one sending a jolt of dread through Su Ping's small frame.
" What on earth is going on?!" He wondered.
"From the shadows of a twisted rock formation emerged a creature that seemed ripped from a nightmare, a demonic beast like creature with a hulking, red-fleshed body resembling a monstrous pig, its four eyes glowing like embers, a single gnarled, spiral horn jutting from its forehead.
Its fangs gleamed, dripping with a viscous saliva that hissed as it hit the ground, and the air grew thick with the stench of sulfur and decay.
[Pig Demon Lvl 2 common unit]
The beast's gaze locked onto Su Ping, its eyes narrowing with predatory intent, and with a guttural roar, it charged, its hooves churning the earth into clouds of dust.
" I gotta get out of here!" Su Ping realized one more thing too late, like the system had said, he was no longer on earth, nor was he in that hellish void that would haunt his nightmares for eternity.
Instead he was now here, in the Abyss. A plainfield which was home to the most horrific creatures one could imagine. In layman's terms, he was trapped in hell.
Su Ping's instincts screamed, and he bolted, his small body surprisingly agile, his claws scrabbling against the rocky terrain. But the pig demon was relentless, its bulk belying its speed as it closed the distance, its hot breath grazing the back of his neck.
' Move Faster!'
' Faster!'
' Faster!'
' Faster!'
' Faster!'
' I don't want to get eaten!'
Fear clawed at his mind, but amidst the panic, his eyes, those strange, glowing
Dark Dragon Eyes
Caught sight of something in the distance, a floating white orb, its light soft and beckoning, like a beacon in the chaos.
Su Ping for some reason felt as if It called out to him, not with words but with a pull that tugged at his very soul, and Su Ping who knew nothing else to do, veered toward it, his heart pounding as the pig demon's jaws snapped down the next moment.