1,440 minutes... I've been trapped for an entire day... God, please save me from this place!
A gigantic, hoarse voice reverberated in the empty tunnel, causing it to shake violently.
But the same sound, his own echo, was always the only answer to his question.
This only made him feel more annoyed.
Mordred felt utterly fooled by that sorceress—the NPC in his dream.
"What was she thinking... Getting out of this place? She doesn't even know anything about this dream!"
In his view, there were only beautiful giant crystals and stalactites and stalagmites staring back at him; there was no exit at all before him.
I wish that portal would appear again...
Honestly, this deserves to be called a nightmare.
Mordred's body slightly trembled, causing the crystal behind him to shake violently. But Mordred didn't care; he only stared at the crystal mountain covering the ceiling with the gaze of a dead fish.
"Hahhhhhhh..." The gigantic mouth opened wide, revealing 130 dark teeth, and he yawned lazily.
This again...
With dark bags forming under his eyes, the gigantic pupils only registered boredom. The very place he was leaning against was starting to tremble. That was because his body was simply too powerful; even the slightest movement would make these crystals vibrate.
He was starting to get bored with this dream.
"But at least give me an interesting plot."
He blinked lazily, then froze...
A sudden shadow flickered across his vision, followed by the faint outline of a truly beautiful face.
"Wait, what is that shadow..."
In Mordred's view, he felt he had spotted a woman—no, it must be a New NPC!
He should chase her, right? Mordred slowly turned his body.
The gigantic body slowly stood up, with his massive wings propped up from the ground—essentially, he was too lazy to stand properly on his legs.
Mordred calmly stood with his wings spread out behind him, displaying a sense of grandeur—no, it was the arrival of the strongest Dragon.
"NPC! I am ready to receive a quest from you!" Mordred confidently crossed his arms.
But he heard no voice answering his exclamation. Mordred opened his eyes, but his gigantic pupils with the fiery red slit only saw the ground and empty air swept by the wind.
Empty...
So where did that person go...?
He quickly turned his head to look in both directions at once, but the result was the same.
It's empty?
The Dragon grew annoyed. He decided to walk around this specific crystal, yet after hours of circling the area, he found nothing.
This is truly nothing at all. Am I entering a recurring dream loop phase?
Mordred touched his chin. He felt utterly hollow.
At least he remembered the words of his old friend: if a human can do something 100 million ways, then you cannot do it a billion ways.
"So find your own way..."
Well, whatever he said was just to avoid his own questions. "Essentially, that person was truly, truly lazy."
So, he decided: this time, he would do everything himself.
His rough, scaled face seemed to melt into concentration, and the gigantic Dragon arm began to sink beneath the ground, starting to push against the Giant Crystal in front of him.
On the surface, the Blue Crystal appeared more transparent than before. The shimmer on its surface slowly looked brighter than before.
And at the tip of the crystal, small particles of dark matter seemed to glow, wiggling like dirt.
And that dirt stared gloomily at the sky.
Stop calling me dirt...
No, that wasn't dirt; that was the gigantic Dragon, Mordred, who was **pulling the entire Crystal out of the ground**, creating a bottomless hole beneath the blue crystal.
In Mordred's current perspective, he looked like an ant lifting an elephant with one finger—or rather, with one claw.
He did this just to see where that shadow could possibly hide from him.
But after all he had done, he only saw the surface of an empty abyss, where strange sounds echoed, and there was still no NPC he was looking for.
Was he truly mistaken?
Mordred felt that, in this dream world, he was the Ruler of the World.
Whatever appeared before him was likely the Will he himself had created: everything—the sights, the thoughts, the plot, and the power.
He only needed to think that something was necessary, and it should create a new plot. If the current plot remained unresolved, he only needed to kill the plot trigger.
The terrifying face curved into a slight, wicked smile.
So, isn't this clear? All that needs to happen is a damn massacre in this cave!!!
The finger that was propping up the city-sized crystal slowly began to twitch, as if it had been coated in molten magma.
The entire diamond layer on Mordred's finger slowly melted, beginning to pour into the gigantic abyss before him like a waterfall.
It slowly filled the hole with molten diamond, then gradually hardened and returned to its original form.
"Mister, what are you doing?"
Mordred was slightly shocked to hear the sweet voice. He could describe the sound as a rotten peach being thrown toward his face as he imagined it, and he felt that was an utterly disrespectful sensation.
"Is the Mister... urinating? But that... why does it look like hot magma?" The sweet voice sounded again, now laced with a hint of disgust.
Mordred felt his dignity had been insulted, and he spun around quickly.
"What did you say? Did you say I was peeing? Are you saying I am a person dreaming who is wetting himself in front of his fake bathroom and ending up peeing his pants upon waking?!"
In his view, the NPC before him—no, that was a small Dwarf with strange ears.
What is this, a dragon!!!
The Dwarf continued to stare at him with a fearful expression in his large eyes. His red pupils seemed to be glistening like a cat's.
The scene created a strange contrast between the predator and the prey.
"Forgive me, Mister Dragon! I didn't mean it! I didn't see anything! I just dropped my spectacles, so I... I... I..."
The short-haired Dwarf covered his face with both hands, visibly crying in terror.
"Ahhh!! Don't kill me, evil Dragon!!!"
The fearful scream reverberated in the dark tunnel, slightly irritating Mordred's ears.
In his heart, he felt that he was the foolish one here.
Standing silently and staring at this terrified NPC, he was seeing something new for the first time, and the unique occurrence was happening like this.
This is truly annoying! Why are you NPCs starting to act like real people? Where is your flat, mechanical nature, you damn NPC!!!
"Arghhhh!"
Mordred's scream of frustration reverberated, simultaneous with the ear-splitting whimpers of the Dwarf.
"Stop crying! Stop being such a crybaby in front of me, kid!"
"No, you must be old, so you're an old hag! Stop crying in front of me, you're pathetic!"
The loud voice seemed to successfully shock the small, terrified Dwarf into silence.
He wiped the tears with his tiny arm and hastily retrieved the gold-rimmed spectacles before him, quickly putting them on.
The blurry view before him now clearly displayed the slightly distorted figure of the Dragon Mordred. Because of Mordred's dark, scaled skin, the small Dwarf had initially thought it was a Giant who had turned his back on the cavern with strange behavior.
But he never expected it was a Dragon, famously evil. He didn't know how he was supposed to greet the malicious Dragon before him; those Red Dragon Pupils looked like they would devour his head if he misspoke even slightly.
He didn't want to die. He was still young; he had only lived for 320 years in this world, and it would end right now before this evil Dragon...
"Evil Dragon, no... Kind Lord Dragon! Please, spare this slave's life! Don't eat me, my meat tastes bitter and sour..."
His faint voice, filled with labored breathing, was laced with utter unwillingness.
But in Mordred's view, this was nothing but an Insult—a vast insult that violated the Code of Ethics of what an NPC should be!
He lightly cleared his throat, trying to diffuse the atmosphere slightly.
"You're an Old Dwarf, and at the same time a Magnificent NPC, sent down by the RNG Gods to me right under my very nose, aren't you?! So where is the Quest? Where is that place? Show it to me RIGHT NOW!"
A gigantic shockwave tore through the Dwarf's vision, making his face and mouth gape wide from the extreme air pressure. He felt his soul would fly away with the wind right now.
Even so, the powerful wind continued to sweep through the entire area in front of Mordred, causing thousands of gigantic diamonds in the distance to slowly and simultaneously collapse and sink deeper, until finally only empty ground remained, forming a three-pointed polygon fissure before him.
The small Dwarf was safe, yet it seemed he had fainted?
"Ah, enough! It's time now..."