[POV: Sloth]
Legacy World Online had little to no commercial success.
It was a strange game that seemed almost completely uninterested in the usual gimmicks MMORPGs used to make money. There was no pay-to-win aspect, nor were there arbitrary paywalls forcing players to spend real money just to enjoy the game properly. In every sense of the word, LWO was cheap.
That also meant its in-game economy was unique.
Real-world economics rarely had any meaningful impact on the game. The closest it ever came to something resembling a real-world business was when someone hired people to play the game for them, creating an almost corporate structure around it.
Calling those places gamer studios was being generous.
They were closer to sweatshops.
Of course, there was barely any actual market for such services. LWO simply wasn't popular enough, and its player base wasn't active enough to sustain them. Whenever another game with a richer player base and a more vibrant economy appeared, those studios quickly abandoned LWO and migrated elsewhere.
So, what was the reason people played LWO? Not everyone was like me, who had bought it because I wanted a cheap sleeping pod. The reason was rather surprising. It was because of how therapeutic the game was.
LWO had developed a strange cult following. There were players who claimed that playing the game somehow affected them in the real world as well. They said they felt calmer, more focused, or simply better after spending time inside it.
There was never any scientific basis for those claims.
It was just a feeling.
Naturally, that feeling was enough to attract people.
Some tried the game because of the rumors and became believers themselves. Even more tried it only to conclude that the entire thing was a sham and that the supposed therapeutic effects were nothing more than placebo.
For a while, LWO gained a rather notorious reputation because of it. At one point, the controversy had even come close to getting the game shut down. I never really understood what the fuss was about. I spent half my time playing LWO asleep, after all.
In a way, I suppose it could be called therapeutic. I certainly felt rested whenever I logged out. But whatever mysterious feeling everyone else talked about had never really reached me.
Until now.
I stood at the edge of the mountain, watching the red markers on my projected map disappear one after another as blue markers swallowed them. Something was different. For one thing, I wasn't drowsy, slouching, or even feeling tired. Instead, I felt... full.
My body felt strangely energized, while my mind had never been more active. Thoughts that would normally have taken me several seconds to process were flowing through my head almost effortlessly. I wouldn't call it therapeutic, though. It was highly likely that I was just imagining it, since this body was supposed to be stronger and better than the body I have outside the game
"Sprite, can you bring your barrier down?" I gently intoned.
"Great Lord, is there a problem?"
The Nature Sprite immediately flew over and settled onto my shoulder, her tiny body hovering for a moment before she landed beside my neck. She looked up at me with concern.
I shook my head.
She obeyed anyway, and the Wind Barrier surrounding me disappeared. Rain immediately fell upon me. I held out my hand and let the droplets strike my palm. I still didn't like the rain, but the cold helped chase away the uncertainty that had begun bubbling at the back of my mind.
"Great Lord... are you crying?"
I didn't answer.
Instead, I continued skimming through the senses of my slimes with Share Senses. One after another, I watched the trespassers get covered in slime and perish under the assault of my pawn-class summons.
The assassins had barely managed to escape the forest before my slimes swarmed them. Their screams, struggles, and desperate attempts to escape were relayed through the strange network of senses connecting me to my summons.
It was only now that a particular thought occurred to me. This was murder. I stared blankly at the scene unfolding through my slimes. The thought should have bothered me more. Instead, I simply wondered whether I was still half-asleep.
Was this a game? Or was this reality?
I had no clue.
Right now, I decided that I would simply do as I pleased.
"Great Lord." The Nature Sprite suddenly perked up. She hovered beside me, her little wings beating rapidly as she looked around. "We are surrounded."
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I glanced over my shoulder and saw several figures standing behind me. They wore dark robes, each of them bearing a purple rope tied around their left wrists. It was the assassins. Oddly enough, none of them had appeared on my Map Creation: World Cartography.
That was an unexpected development.
And here I had assumed they were simply extremely low-level enemies because my slimes were slaughtering them so easily. I really was never going to get used to how skewed the variables between this world's power system and mine could be. The interactions were sometimes so bizarre that they bordered on randomness. The same thing had happened with the golden dragon I had fought.
In LWO, certain rules were supposed to govern how abilities interacted.
Here, those rules seemed to have been tossed into a blender.
The assassins suddenly parted, allowing someone to walk through the opening they created.
Unlike the others, this man wore a purple rope around his waist rather than around his wrist. He also wasn't wearing a mask, revealing a youthful face that looked completely out of place among a group of assassins.
"Are you Jin the Golden Dragon?" he asked, stopping several paces away from me.
"It depends," I casually replied. "Who's asking?"
The man's expression remained calm, then he declared. "I am Feng Ping of the Great Feng, and I've come to bargain!"
My voice was calm, but I deliberately let a regal authority seep into every word. "Leave my mountain. Leave this place, and never show your faces before me again."
Technically speaking, I had won this mountain from that dragon. That meant it was mine. At least, that was how I saw it. If it were up to me, I would rather not fight. Fighting was troublesome, and I had no particular interest in getting involved with whatever political mess these people had brought to my doorstep.
However, this mountain was the closest thing I had to home in my current situation. A man should defend his home. Besides, where was I supposed to sleep if I ran away? I would never feel safe again. Worse, I knew I would never be able to sleep properly at the mere thought that I had lost my home because I had been too afraid to defend it.
I didn't think I had any pride as a gamer.
Apparently, I did.
I minimized my projected map, hiding my accumulated intel from their sight, and continued with my grandstanding. "You trespassed upon my territory without permission. You disturbed my rest, brought your assassins onto my mountain, and now you stand before me demanding that I surrender someone who is under my protection."
Feng Ping glared at me defiantly, gnashing his teeth in silence.
"Leave me be," I said firmly. "That is your only warning. My mood is already poor. Do not make it worse."
The rain continued to fall, becoming harsher. The droplets struck the ground harder, and the wind howled around the mountain as though the weather itself had decided to reflect my emotions.
Feng Ping remained composed despite the sudden change in the atmosphere. "Great Dragon, I ask that you remain patient and see reason. We are pursuing a fugitive by the name of Sun Jian. He has kidnapped the princess of the Great Feng."
He spread his hands as though trying to demonstrate that he came in peace.
"I beseech you to understand our circumstances. Surely, we can come to an agreement. The Great Feng is willing to compensate you for the disturbance we have caused. We will even present you with treasures worthy of your status."
Treasures? Based on his words, it seemed the dragons of this world were hoarders too. That was useful information. I should probably explore the palace later. There might be treasures lying around there.
Feng Ping continued before I could think any further. "I understand that you may have shared friendship with the princess's father. The King of Feng has only recently perished, after all. You were close friends with His Majesty, were you not? Surely, a friend of the late king such as yourself can understand his final wishes. Would he not want his daughter to remain safe and sound?"
He spoke smoothly, each sentence carefully chosen as his expression hardened with resolve. "The Great Feng has been plunged into chaos. A civil war has erupted, and the war of succession is at the heart of it. The princess cannot possibly be safe while she remains with Sun Jian."
"And what of Sun Jian?" I asked.
"Sun Jian is a disgraced general of the Great Feng. He would use the princess for his own gain, and nothing more." Feng Ping placed a hand against his chest as he emotionally appealed to me. "The old general, the master whom I directly serve, would never allow such a thing to happen. He will protect the princess. Like you, he was also a close friend of the king."
The misunderstanding that I was Jin the Golden Dragon was becoming more and more frequent. This was only the third time, but it was starting to look like a pattern. The Nature Sprite looked ready to explode. I gently placed my hand on her head.
"Calm down," I said. "Take it easy. Let me handle this."
She glanced at me.
I had never seen a lie this bold delivered with such confidence before. This might actually be a first. I had seen the struggle of the little princess called Feng Cai. I had seen how tightly she held onto Sun Jian when they were reunited. I remembered the dignity Sun Jian had shown through both his words and actions. He had declared his conviction with a fire that even I could understand.
I looked toward Feng Ping, speaking with absolute confidence. "The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom."
Feng Ping blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Sun Tzu. The Art of War. Chapter Ten."
I paused, then again, perhaps I remembered it incorrectly. I had a boss who liked quoting Sun Tzu. I never thought I would end up doing it myself, yet here I was. "If your 'old general' is not that kind of general," I continued, "then he has no right to have Little Feng."
I didn't know much about governance or royalty, but even I thought it was overly presumptuous for a king to be treated as a personal friend by some general. The hierarchy was all wrong. More importantly, it felt disrespectful to the occupation itself. A general's duty was to protect his country and serve his sovereign. It wasn't to manipulate a princess for political power.
Feng Ping's expression darkened, his voice losing its previous courtesy. "You should choose your words wisely. If you continue to defy the Great Feng, then you will find yourself standing against an entire state. Do you truly believe you can withstand the consequences of opposing our wishes?"
I suppressed a laugh. Pffft... If only this guy knew.
"Did you just laugh?" Feng Ping looked offended.
The assassins behind him immediately tensed.
I coughed lightly. "I apologize. I didn't mean to insult you. I just recalled... home." By home, I meant LWO. The thought brought a strange smile to my face. "From where I come from, there was a popular story about dragons burning down entire countries."
Feng Ping's expression stiffened. "Is that a threat?"
"Not yet," I said, raising my staff and activating Wild Shape. "Tell me. Are you stronger than a dragon?"
My clothes and staff dissolved into me as my body began to change. Bones shifted. Scales emerged. My limbs stretched and grew. The transformation was almost instinctive, and within moments, the humanoid figure standing before them was gone.
In my place stood a massive Gold Dragon.
I lowered my head, staring directly at Feng Ping.
"Are you?"