[POV: Sloth]
I woke up with a yawn. My body felt strangely heavy, as though I had slept for far longer than I intended. I lazily opened my eyes, expecting to see the artificial sky of Legacy World Online. Instead, I found a tree growing above me.
"Huh?"
There was a broad canopy overhead, its leaves rustling gently in the breeze. Sunlight slipped through the gaps between the branches and painted shifting patterns across the ground. Beneath me was a patch of soft grass, and beyond it was a familiar cliff.
I slowly turned my head and peered over the edge. A vast unfamiliar landscape stretched below, though my sleepy brain was far too sluggish to properly process what I was looking at. The forest and the rest of the mountain looked different from what I remembered.
More importantly, I didn't remember putting a tree here. Maybe there had been a recent game update while I was asleep. That sounded plausible enough. I was far too lazy to investigate, though. Instead, I simply rolled onto my back and stared at the leaves. I felt incredibly peaceful. Not happy, exactly. Just... calm.
I raised one hand and made the familiar gesture to bring up my interface. However, nothing happened. I tried again. Still nothing.
"Huh?"
That was weird.
The UI should have appeared immediately. I had used the same gesture thousands of times. Even if there had been some kind of server issue, the system interface itself shouldn't have disappeared. I waved my hand around a few more times, trying different gestures, but still got nothing. I frowned lazily.
"What time is it?"
Usually, voice commands worked just as well as gestures. My frown deepened when nothing happened.
"Call GM."
Silence answered me, perhaps a little breeze of wind. A cold thought finally managed to crawl through my sleepy brain. Oh shit. Was this one of those trapped-in-the-game scenarios?
I stared blankly at the sky.
If it was, I was screwed.
I had seen enough stories about people getting trapped inside virtual reality games to know how badly things could go. Usually, the protagonist would be forced to fight monsters, survive some elaborate death game, or uncover some conspiracy involving an evil artificial intelligence.
Fortunately, I wasn't particularly worried.
Legacy World Online might have been a declining game, but it was still one of the safest VR games around. It had active moderators, extensive staff support, and numerous emergency protocols. That was actually one of the reasons I had chosen LWO for my game pod despite the newer and more advanced VRMMORPGs available on the market.
Those newer games had incredible graphics and sensory immersion.
They also had a nasty habit of overloading the senses.
There had been more than a few incidents involving players suffering seizures or other neurological problems because the developers had pushed their sensory technology too far.
LWO was different.
It had been created thirty years ago, originally designed with the rehabilitation of patients in mind before eventually being expanded into a full-fledged MMORPG. Its technology was old by modern standards, but that was precisely what made it reliable.
If I really was trapped inside the game, someone would eventually notice. Probably.
I yawned again.
"Log out."
Nothing happened.
"...Seriously?"
I tried the command one more time.
"Log out."
Still nothing. Well. That was definitely concerning. Maybe this was the sleep paralysis demon equivalent of VR. Eh, I couldn't tell. I should probably be panicking. Instead, I stretched my arms above my head.
Pop.
A satisfying crack traveled through my shoulders.
"Haaaah..."
That felt good.
My body felt strange, though. It wasn't the familiar sensation of controlling an avatar through a virtual interface. Everything felt too natural. The warmth of the sunlight, the texture of the grass against my skin, the gentle breeze passing across my face...
It felt real.
I couldn't remember the last time I had slept this deeply. Actually... How long had I been sleeping? I stared at the tree above me again. Maybe I should investigate, move somewhere, or anything.
Maybe I should—
I yawned.
Yeah, I could use more sleep.
"...Later."
Whatever was wrong with the UI could wait. I was still sleepy. I closed my eyes and settled back into the grass. The breeze continued to blow. The leaves rustled softly overhead. I fell asleep again.
Zzzzzzz...
…
..
.
[POV Jin]
The Goldenreach Mountains had been my home for longer than most mortals could comprehend.
To the people living around the mountain range, I was a local mountain god.
They had worshiped me for generations, though I had never particularly asked them to. Their prayers, offerings, and stories had accumulated over the centuries until I had become woven into the folklore of the region.
They said that my breath brought providence. They said that my presence blessed their harvests. They said that I slept for a thousand years beneath the mountains, only awakening when the world itself called for my return.
There were even stories claiming that when I finally woke, I would ascend into the heavens in my true form, and the sight of my golden body would bring good fortune to anyone fortunate enough to witness it.
Because of that, mortals throughout the surrounding villages had developed the habit of raising their heads toward the mountains whenever they heard strange sounds in the sky.
They were always looking for me.
Unfortunately, there was no good fortune to be found today.
I woke abruptly.
My eyes snapped open as an ominous disturbance passed through the mountain.
"What...?"
I had been sleeping in my human form, enjoying the long slumber I had become accustomed to over the long years. I had no servants to disturb me and few visitors worth acknowledging. The Goldenreach Mountains were quiet, and I preferred them that way.
Yet now, the dragon vein beneath my palace suddenly stirred. Qi surged through the earth. The spiritual energy that had remained stable for countless years trembled violently, as though something had forced its way into the natural order of the mountain.
I sat upright.
"This has never happened before."
I had lived here for an extraordinarily long time. Mountains changed. Rivers shifted. Forests expanded and receded. Mortal kingdoms rose and fell. I had seen all of it, but this was different.
A strange cry suddenly echoed outside.
"Kreeeeeh!"
My expression immediately darkened.
I turned toward the sound and saw an unfamiliar winged creature soaring through the sky. It had the body of some large beast and the wings of a bird, but its appearance was unlike any creature I recognized.
"What an annoying creature."
I watched it circle the mountain before disappearing beyond the clouds.
Dragons were different from ordinary beasts.
We were creatures capable of traversing different planes of existence, and our place within the natural world depended greatly on our virtue, temperament, and character. Every dragon eventually developed a duty of its own. Some protected rivers. Others guarded mountains, ancient ruins, or sacred forests.
For creatures with lifespans as long as ours, such duties became a way to occupy ourselves. The Goldenreach Mountains were my domain. I was sensitive to changes within them in ways ordinary creatures could never understand. After living for so long, the mountains had practically become an extension of my senses.
That was why the disturbance immediately irritated me. There had been spatial interference. Something had entered my mountain from somewhere else. I extended my spiritual senses.
My expression changed.
"What are those?"
There were strange creatures everywhere. Most of them were gathered around my palace. I could see dozens of round, blue creatures bouncing across the stone floors. They had no visible limbs, discernible bones, or obvious organs.
They simply bounced.
Boing. Boing. Boing. And then they ate my furniture.
One of the blue blobs swallowed part of a wooden chair. Another had somehow managed to consume a section of the wall. A third was enthusiastically devouring one of the old wooden pillars supporting the palace.
"..."
My palace was admittedly not particularly well maintained.
I spent most of my time sleeping, after all. Without servants to maintain the place, dust had accumulated across the floors, some furniture had broken with age, and various sections of the palace had fallen into disrepair.
Still, it was my home. I had lived here for countless years. These filthy creatures had no right to eat it.
"Begone, you filthy creatures!"
I raised one hand. My draconic qi surged.
Golden light condensed around me before transforming into countless enormous scales. Each scale was sharp enough to sever mountains, and they hovered in the air for a single instant before shooting forward.
Whoosh!
The golden scales tore through the palace. The blue creatures didn't even have time to react. Their bodies were sliced apart in an instant. One after another, the strange creatures burst apart beneath the assault of my qi.
Silence returned to the palace soon after.
"Strange."
I narrowed my eyes. Something was wrong. When the creatures died, their bodies didn't remain. They simply vanished. That alone wasn't particularly unusual. Some creatures possessed properties that could result in dissolving their physical forms upon death.
But I could sense something else. A faint dimensional energy lingered in the air. The creatures had been tethered to this world somehow. Their connection disappeared the moment they died, leaving nothing behind.
"Some form of sorcery?"
I examined the remnants with my spiritual senses. The more I investigated, the stranger it became. There was no corpse, soul, or spiritual core. Not even a trace of ordinary flesh. Yet they had possessed physical bodies moments earlier.
Whatever these creatures were, they clearly weren't native to the Goldenreach Mountains. I expanded my senses farther, realizing that there were far more of them out there.
The strange blue blobs were scattered throughout the mountains. Some had entered caves. Others bounced through the forests. They disturbed beasts, damaged vegetation, and consumed anything they could fit into their bizarre biology.
They were spreading.
"And they're not limited to my palace."
I had tolerated the disturbance long enough.
If someone had brought these creatures into my territory, then I would find that person. Whoever was responsible would answer for it.
I stepped outside my palace. The instant my feet touched the mountain's stone surface, my human form began to change.
Golden scales emerged across my skin, and my body expanded. My arms transformed into powerful claws, while my legs twisted into the limbs of a great beast. A pair of antler-like horns emerged from my head, and my long body continued to grow until it stretched across the mountain.
Clouds gathered around me.
A deafening roar shook the heavens.
"ROOOOAAARR!"
My enormous golden body rose above the Goldenreach Mountains, a dragon whose scales shimmered beneath the sunlight.
I looked down at the forest, spying those strange bouncy creatures scattered among the trees.
At first glance, they looked quite harmless. They were small, round, and almost comical in appearance. Yet despite their harmless appearance, they had already carved out a considerable portion of the forest. Trees had fallen. Shrubs had disappeared. Even sections of the earth itself had been eaten away.
"How troublesome."
With a single glance, I manipulated the thunder qi flowing through the world and cast it within the inferior creatures.
The blue creatures didn't even have time to react.
Thunder qi erupted inside their bodies, causing them to violently implode from within. One after another, their gelatinous forms collapsed under the overwhelming power. Their deaths were so instantaneous that most of them didn't even realize they had been attacked.
These inferior creatures possessed practically no defense against me. It took little more than a thought to bring them down. Still, I couldn't help but observe them for a moment.
Their appetite was astonishing. They devoured trees, rocks, and the carcasses of beasts that had already begun to rot. I even saw one bouncing happily toward a boulder before opening its body and swallowing the entire thing.
"You eat stones?"
I found myself genuinely baffled.
What kind of creature survived by eating everything around it?
Then again, as I continued observing them, I noticed something unexpected.
Wherever they passed, the earth seemed to become richer.
The qi within the soil was denser. Minerals had been redistributed throughout the ground, and the spiritual energy of the land appeared to have become slightly more vibrant.
"They're actually useful."
That was unexpected. If these creatures consumed rocks, decomposing beasts, and other waste, then they could potentially return the nutrients to the land. They were like strange, living furnaces that processed everything they consumed.
Unfortunately, that didn't make them any less problematic. Their appetite was simply too great. If they continued at their current rate, there wouldn't be a forest left for them to improve.
I looked across the mountains. This place wasn't merely my territory. It was home to countless creatures.
Many of the trees they had already consumed were fruit-bearing. Birds nested within their branches. Insects lived beneath their bark. Small beasts relied on their roots and fallen leaves for shelter. If these creatures continued eating without restraint, the entire ecosystem would eventually collapse.
More importantly, it would make for terrible landscaping. I had spent thousands of years cultivating the Goldenreach Mountains into a place worthy of being my home. I couldn't simply allow some strange blue blobs to eat half of it.
"No."
I shook my head.
"Whatever benefits you provide, you cannot be allowed to continue unchecked."
My gaze swept across the forest. There were still more of them. I could sense their strange dimensional energy stretching throughout the mountain range, as though an invisible thread connected every one of them to some distant source.
"Where are you, vile sorcerer?!”