Chapter 184: Protagonist Mode?
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
w.a.n.g Hu looked at Di Baijun who looked half nonchalant as though she had done something insignificant and half proud and waiting to be complimented.
w.a.n.g Hu couldn’t help but smile.
No matter how many times he had seen her be prideful and say ‘no’ when she meant ‘yes’, he still couldn’t get enough of it.
She was too adorable and beautiful.
He held in his urge to annoy her more and gave her a look of surprise to say ‘wow, awesome’, which made her raise her exquisite chin even more. He smiled and finally turned to look at the black dragon.
His expression immediately turned aloof, “You are useful?”
“Yes, I am useful. I am very useful,” the black dragon seemed to see hope and immediately said reverently.
“What is your use?” w.a.n.g Hu said coolly.
Thoughts raced through the black dragon’s mind. After thinking for two seconds, he quickly said, “I come from another world. I know the situation of that world. I can share everything with Your Majesty.”
w.a.n.g Hu’s brows drew together slightly and appeared to be a little dissatisfied.
The black dragon immediately continued to say, “I also found a historical site in my world. I can bring Your Majesty to the site, and all the gains will be Your Majesty’s.”
w.a.n.g Hu’s gaze turned cold, and he said frostily, “Seems like you’re treating me as a fool.”
On his palm, a ball of energy was gathered.
w.a.n.g Hu would be crazy to go to the world this black dragon came from just for an unknown historical site.
The black dragon turned horrified. In the face of death, he could no longer care about anything else. He quickly said, “Your Majesty, I am also powerful. My power is definitely not weak by any means in this world. I can submit to Your Majesty and the Queen.”
Di Baijun appeared uninterested. w.a.n.g Hu, on the other hand, sounded interested as he said, “You have loyalty?”
“I can swear to always serve my King and Queen,” the black dragon said firmly.
w.a.n.g Hu was quiet, appearing to be thinking. Meanwhile, he secretly sent Silly Girl a telepathic message.
Di Baijun’s eye corner twitched slightly. She paused and said haughtily, “What use does he have? I want to eat dragon meat.”
The black dragon trembled slightly. He looked at the Tiger Queen and felt aggrieved.
However, he could only hold it in and quickly said, “Queen, there are many dragons in my world. I swear that I will let the Queen enjoy dragon meat from even more powerful dragons in the future.”
“Hmph! To live, this dragon even betrays its own species so easily; why do we need a dragon like him?” Di Baijun’s expression turned cold, and she said disdainfully. Her intent to kill always appeared briefly.
She appeared to recall something and continued to say, “Even raising a dog would be better than raising him. At least a dog knows loyalty, but he will definitely come back to bite us in the future.”
w.a.n.g Hu was quite surprised, and he looked at Silly Girl with the corner of his eye.
He was convinced that the sentence at the beginning was something that Silly Girl honestly felt, but he was surprised at the sentence she added afterward.
Seemed like she had watched a lot of sitcom clips and videos from China lately.
The black dragon’s body shook again. The feeling of humiliation made even his soul tremble, and he was reminded of the past.
He gritted his teeth but dared not show his hatred for the Tiger Queen, and he could only place his hatred on the dragons that bullied him in the past.
Feeling full of hatred, he said, “Queen, please understand that I’m not a dragon who freely betrays my fellow species. The dragons were the ones who did something bad to me in the first place.
“You have no idea what life I used to live in the past.
“My family background is not low, but my mother was attacked when she was pregnant with me. She had no choice but to give birth to me prematurely, which caused my bloodline to be ruined, and my apt.i.tude to be poor. My mother also pa.s.sed away as a result.
“I was looked down on by other dragons since birth. They bullied and humiliated me. If not for my mother’s good sister, my Aunt Clam; I would have died a long time ago.
“That father of mine has many children. He has never given me a proper look before. Even when my mother died from being attacked, he did not care either.
“I know who attacked my mother. It’s one of his concubines, but he pretended it didn’t happen.
“Because my mother pa.s.sed away and my bloodline is low, I’m useless to him.
“When I grew up, Aunt Clam who raised me was also killed by my brothers.
“I want to kill all of my brothers and my so-called family so much.
“Queen, if it were possible, I wouldn’t have betrayed my fellow species so easily.
“But they have never treated me as one of them; neither do I treat them as one of mine. I even hate that I’m a part of the Dragon Clan.
“Queen, please spare my life. I will swear to be loyal to you and Your Majesty, the King.
“I still have a deadly feud to avenge—my Aunt Clam’s feud, my mother’s feud, and my own feud.
“If I don’t get revenge, I will die in vain.”
The black dragon said earnestly. However, Di Baijun’s expression remained the same and was full of disdain.
She felt disdainful of the dragon family clan that the black dragon described and also felt disdainful of the black dragon himself.
She did not even wish to see him anymore.
However, she looked at the rascal with the corner of her eyes and repressed her urge to kill the black dragon.
Meanwhile, w.a.n.g Hu sensed a strange feeling as he listened to the story.
What was this?
Counterattack of a trash?
Protagonist mode?
The familiar trope surprised w.a.n.g Hu; he suspected if he heard wrongly.
If not, the black dragon may have made up the story to fool him.
The black dragon’s mother died from a familial rivalry because of him.
His father did not care about him because he had a bad apt.i.tude. He was raised by a person close to his mother and suffered from bullying and humiliation since he was small.
After he grew up, his only family was also killed.
Now, looking at the black dragon’s abilities, it was clear that his apt.i.tude had improved tremendously and had started to get revenge.
Weren’t all of these tropes from the novels that he read in his previous lifetime?
Although he was clear that many things in this world may be even more outrageous than the tropes in novels, he still felt surprised and curious after hearing his story.
He thought for a moment and decided to rein in his curiosity. With a hint of killing intent, he said, “You said you have a low bloodline and lousy apt.i.tude, yet you managed to reach your current level?”
The black dragon trembled, and he understood what the Tiger King implied.
He immediately said, “It’s because I came across some fortuitous encounters, and I worked hard to have today’s combat powers.”
As he spoke, his heart thumped slightly faster, feeling nervous that his secret might be discovered.
However, the Tiger King did not appear to intent on asking about the fortuitous encounters. Instead, he said coolly, “Fine. I can spare your life, but how do I trust that you will not betray me?”
“I swear that I will not betray Your Majesty and the Queen. I will not,” the black dragon said firmly.
“Enough, I am not interested in listening to your nonsense,” w.a.n.g Hu said coldly.
The black dragon froze for a while and became more and more anxious. He did not know what he needed to do to convince the Tiger King who would not believe him even after swearing.
Just then, a hint of hesitation flashed across Di Baijun’s eyes and quickly disappeared, which w.a.n.g Hu and the black dragon did not notice.
w.a.n.g Hu seemed to suddenly think of something, and he walked step by step towards the black dragon.
His walk was not fast, but he was like a mountain that weighed heavier on the black dragon’s heart the closer he approached.
When w.a.n.g Hu stopped in front of the black dragon, the latter almost stopped breathing. It felt like his heart was being held in someone’s hand, and he might die anytime once the person squeezed his hand.
“Let go of your soul. I shall see for myself if you lied to me,” w.a.n.g Hu looked down at him and said domineeringly. He extended his hand, and power gushed out.
The black dragon was shocked; he was reminded of those soul-searching techniques.
He did not expect that this Tiger King knew about it!
He wanted to resist instinctively.
He did not hide his story, but he did not want anyone to find out about the treasure that he obtained by chance.
He was afraid. Although the treasure seemed to have merged with his body, what if it could be s.n.a.t.c.hed away?
Once it got s.n.a.t.c.hed away, he might turn into the useless trash he once was again.
He would rather die than let that happen.
However, if he fought back, then he would really die.
His thoughts were all jumbled together.
His eyes were bloodshot, and he felt that his head was about to split apart.
When he felt the power enter his mind, he knew he had no time to hesitate.
He gritted his teeth, let go of his soul, and let w.a.n.g Hu look as he wished.
Although the treasure may be s.n.a.t.c.hed away if he did not fight back, there was also a possibility of it not being s.n.a.t.c.hed away.
There was still a slight possibility of him living and possessing the treasure at the same time.
If his treasure was really s.n.a.t.c.hed away, he would then choose to die when the time came.
On the other hand, if he fought back, it would certainly be followed by death. There would be no hope at all.
When it came to choosing between the two, it really wasn’t hard to choose at all.
He closed his eyes and held in the pain that he experienced when his mind was invaded.
Satisfaction flashed across w.a.n.g Hu’s eyes. All the effort he spent on saying so many things before this did not go in vain. He even sent a telepathic message to Silly Girl and asked her to cooperate with him in threatening this black dragon.
The black dragon finally obliged and cooperated.
He didn’t want to go through so much trouble either, but the soul-searching technique had its limits.
The black dragon was not weak at all. Even if it was injured, if he resisted with all his might, the memory that w.a.n.g Hu would have access to through the searching of his soul would not be complete. The important parts may even go missing.
Hence, w.a.n.g Hu could only go through the ha.s.sle.
He concentrated his power and went all out, refusing to let go of any part of the black dragon’s memories.
A few seconds later, w.a.n.g Hu was slightly surprised. This black dragon did not lie to him with a fake story.
Everything he just said was true.
He really lived quite miserably.
He was even more miserable than the protagonists of the novels that he read in his past life. He was so miserable that if he was the protagonist of the novel, the readers may slam it so much that the novel would fail without a doubt.
Immediately after, he saw the fortuitous encounter that changed the fate of this black dragon.
He obtained a black pearl by chance in an ocean. When he held it in his hand, it immediately entered his body.
Since then, he obtained a new ability—absorbing everything to strengthen himself.
The cultivation of all intelligent beings involved the absorption of spiritual energy or nouris.h.i.+ng items to strengthen one’s own body.
It did not seem extraordinary at first glance, but the absorption ability that he obtained was able to multiply the effects by double.
For example, if a regular dragon absorbed 500 grams of spirit stones to gain one increment, then he would gain two increments with the same amount of spirit stones.
It may appear to only double the gains, but the difference it made was huge and unimaginable.
Since then, this black dragon had a streak of good luck and came across various fortuitous encounters that brought him big and small gains. In less than two years, he evolved from an insignificant Transformation Realm dragon to the creature he was today.
Having browsed up until this point, w.a.n.g Hu felt even stranger. The black dragon really seemed to be in protagonist mode.
However, why did the dragon come to Earth and fall into his hands?
Was the dragon supposed to run away from me?
He smiled dismissively. He was not too concerned about the so-called ‘protagonist mode’.
Based on the dragon’s combat powers and the memories that he saw, apart from the mysterious black pearl, he did not think that the dragon would be able to escape him at all.
As for the black pearl, apart from giving the black dragon the absorption ability, it did not seem to have other functions. It also seemed to have merged into his body and did not exist anymore.
It did not seem to give him the ability to escape.
Moreover, even if there really was a protagonist, the black dragon would be a protagonist of its own world. Did the dragon still expect to be a protagonist on Earth when w.a.n.g Hu existed?
That would be a fantasy.
The confidence that w.a.n.g Hu possessed from being invincible in a world for years was unimaginable for the common man.
No matter who he faced, he was fearless. He also believed that he would be the only protagonist.
In the past, he might be intimidated by the dragon’s protagonist-like experience and might be worried as a result.
However, right now, he really didn’t care about this black dragon’s presumably protagonist mode.
Now that he had progressed to this point in life, he realized that many of his thoughts and worries in the past were quite foolish.
Protagonist? Only he was the protagonist. The others were just some secondary characters.
This was the confidence he had as a powerful person.
He finished looking through the memories, and w.a.n.g Hu’s divine powers started to search every nook and cranny of the black dragon’s body.
The black dragon, whose head was splitting, was filled with trepidation. He understood that whether he lived or died would depend on this moment.
A few seconds later, w.a.n.g Hu retracted his divine powers. He was surprised that he couldn’t find that black pearl at all.
Did it really merge with the black dragon’s body?
He said nothing and returned to Silly Girl’s side. He let Silly Girl look at part of the black dragon’s memories, especially the memory about the black pearl.
Then, he sent a telepathic message and asked: “Baijun, what is this black pearl?”
Di Baijun was curious for only a second and then lost interest. She said dismissively, “There are numerous strange and unusual treasures in the universe. How would I know what this pearl was?”
w.a.n.g Hu nodded and did not continue to ask. He started to ponder.
Di Baijun continued to say at this point, “However, all treasures are finite.
“Of all the mysterious treasures a world can contain, part of them is created by intelligent beings, and the other part was born naturally due to various reasons.
“Hence, no matter how incredible this treasure may be, it would not exceed the upper limits of the world that it existed in.
“This black pearl looks pretty good in terms of function, but it’s not particularly strong either.
“Considering the world that it was in, this was at most a Fifth Realm treasure.
“It’s not worth much of our time thinking about it.
“With our current speed, we would reach the Fifth Realm very soon.”
w.a.n.g Hu smiled and shook his head at ‘this was at most a Fifth Realm treasure’.
As expected of her usual pride…
What she said made him, who originally did not have many thoughts, have some ideas.
He understood what Silly Girl meant and implied.
She meant that this treasure was the same as special abilities or Dharma treasures.
All of them had an upper limit. For example, the White Tiger Battle Art was able to increase the strength of the Third Realm by five times if cultivating it reached the third stage.
However, the boost was not as significant at the Fourth Realm, and it might even not be useful by the time he reached the Fifth Realm.
That was what it meant by upper limit.
Dharma treasures and many incredible treasures were the same.
As for what she implied, she wanted him to not be bothered by this black pearl.
One’s own power was everything, and everything external was insubstantial.