Chapter 37: Familiarity

Zhang Cheng had always felt a subtle sense of familiarity with this dragon girl, but he couldn’t quite figure out where that feeling came from.

In his memory, when he first met Lu Qiuchen, this short, baby-faced classmate looked just like a middle schooler.

That was in the second semester of their first year of high school, right after the school had split the classes into arts and sciences. Because of his height, Lu Qiuchen was seated in the first row, and he was even shorter than many of the girls who had just gone through their second growth spurt. When he went out, strangers would often mistake him for being much younger.

Lu Qiuchen’s situation was quite rare in the north, where people tended to be tall, and it was during that time that Zhang Cheng first noticed his future best friend.

Perhaps it was the cuteness brought on by his short stature and baby face that made Lu Qiuchen more likely to attract attention and teasing from the girls in class. Growing up in such an environment, Lu Qiuchen developed a rather introverted personality.

When he spaced out, his bashful nature would show through in a gaze tinged with self-doubt and melancholy—an expression that stirred the girls’ protective instincts even more.

In the second semester of their third year, Lu Qiuchen finally experienced his long-awaited growth spurt. Over the course of the year, he shot up in height, though he still only barely reached the average.

As Zhang Cheng recalled the look in Lu Qiuchen’s eyes back then, it overlapped with the expression of the dragon girl on screen. He suddenly sat up straight and opened the game forum, searching for: “Calamity Dragon Dragon Girl.”

He combed through the search results one by one, carefully noting down the key points in a notepad:

Cecilia, “Calamity Dragon,” silver dragon, wanted by the Church, adult dragon, Druid massacre.

That was all the information the players had gathered. It wasn’t much. A sense of urgency rose in Zhang Cheng’s chest—he wanted to dive into the game immediately to search for more clues.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he decided he would go to the office tomorrow and buy a game helmet at the internal employee discount. Then he’d hire someone to move the beta-test promotional game pod from his parents’ home to his place.

That night, lying in bed, he couldn’t sleep. The figure from the poster kept replaying in his mind. Could it really be Lu Qiuchen? Or was it just wishful thinking? Zhang Cheng asked himself the same questions over and over.

The next morning, before breakfast even arrived, Zhang Cheng rushed out the door and headed straight to the company. As expected, his coworkers were still taking shifts and resting. The ones currently on duty were surprised to see him and greeted him.

Zhang Cheng didn’t want to waste any time and went straight to the point, asking one of them, “Do you remember the final main story boss from the game?”

His colleague was a bit stunned, still groggy from just waking up. “Yeah, I remember. Why are you asking about this so early in the morning? You’ve never cared about this stuff before.” In his coworker’s memory, Zhang Cheng rarely participated in internal discussions about the game. He was more interested in office gossip and rumors.

“I watched the game’s PV last night. I’m really interested in it now,” Zhang Cheng said with a slight smile. He casually offered an excuse—his tone was polite and composed, even though he was feeling quite anxious inside.

Although Zhang Cheng phrased it tactfully, his colleague instantly got the hint. His eyes lit up, and he said with a hint of teasing, “Oh? Springtime for young Zhang, huh? I never took you for the type to be into dragon girls… Well, I don’t know the details myself. You should ask the head of the dev team. I think Brother Li is the one in charge of that.”

As he spoke, the colleague realized that their relationship probably wasn’t close enough for that kind of joke. Feeling a bit awkward, he changed the subject and called downstairs to connect Zhang Cheng with the development department.

Zhang Cheng thanked him and headed downstairs to find this Brother Li. As he passed the front desk on his floor, he caught sight of the large promotional poster. The high-res version printed there was even clearer than what he’d seen on his computer the night before. For a brief moment, he felt dazed, and the dragon girl in the image seemed to merge with the look in Lu Qiuchen’s eyes from long ago.

Coming back to his senses, Zhang Cheng stood there and let out a self-deprecating chuckle.

I really shouldn’t get my hopes up. Getting transported into a game? That’s way too absurd. Better not set myself up for disappointment.

When he stepped out of the elevator, Brother Li was already waiting for him at the front desk and welcomed him with enthusiasm, leading him straight to a small office.

Zhang Cheng understood right away—his colleague upstairs had clearly informed Brother Li of his father’s identity. Otherwise, given that they were from different departments and had no personal connection, there was no reason for someone to treat him so warmly.

Zhang Cheng explained why he was there. Upon hearing that he wanted to know about the game’s main storyline boss, Brother Li looked a little troubled. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

His reaction puzzled Zhang Cheng. While the question was a bit improper, it shouldn’t be considered confidential within the dev team. Given that he was a company employee and the boss’s son on top of that, it wasn’t something they needed to keep under such tight wraps.

Seeing Zhang Cheng’s expression, Brother Li realized there was a misunderstanding. He sighed and said, “The question itself isn’t really a secret. I can’t talk about the storyline, but if it’s just about the character design and not the plot, then I suppose it’s fine.”

Brother Li gave a wry smile. “Thing is, it’s a bit embarrassing to say. Many of the NPCs and bosses in this project were automatically generated by ‘Beta.’ They weren’t designed by us.”

As soon as Zhang Cheng heard the word “Beta,” it all clicked. He immediately understood why Brother Li had hesitated.

The “World” series of supercomputers was the latest generation of computing systems developed by Eternal Group two years ago. There were four units in total, named after Greek letters: Alpha (α), Beta (β), Gamma (γ), and Delta (δ).

Alpha, Gamma, and Delta were stationed at the company’s headquarters, handling various research projects. Beta, however, was located deep beneath this very building. To ensure Beta’s stable operation, the company had spent a fortune constructing a nuclear power station on the coast about 100 kilometers from S City, supplying dedicated electricity to the building.

“You’re saying… this boss was generated by Beta too?” Zhang Cheng suddenly stood up, unable to contain his excitement.

If the dragon girl had simply been designed by a dev team artist, then all his prior assumptions would’ve collapsed. But hearing this from Brother Li made him feel like his theory might actually be correct.

“Yeah. What about it?” Brother Li was baffled by the strange behavior of this privileged young man. He was starting to get confused. Is upper management trying to fire me for slacking off too much lately? But some of my character designs actually made it into the game… and the higher-ups were just praising me the other day… Brother Li looked at Zhang Cheng, his mind spinning with speculation.

Realizing he was acting a bit too excited, Zhang Cheng cleared his throat and calmly tried to ask for more details. However, Brother Li, concerned that this young master might be baiting him into saying something inappropriate, firmly refused to disclose anything related to the main plotline. He only shared a few trivial details.

After seeing the satisfied Zhang Cheng off, Brother Li returned to his desk, still full of doubt. What exactly was that rich young man doing here? Was he really just asking about some game character information?

It wasn’t until Zhang Cheng got back to the operations department floor that he remembered—he still needed to buy a game helmet. Smacking his forehead, he turned around and headed back to the sales department, where he bought the latest model of the holographic helmet using the employee discount.

According to the salesperson, this new model came equipped with a live-streaming module and a built-in friends list. Players could even link their social media accounts, allowing them to interact with in-game friends through real-life social apps.

After finishing these two tasks, Zhang Cheng could barely hold back his urge to dive into the game. Still, he forced himself to finish the workday first.

Eternal World operated with flexible working hours. Since Zhang Cheng had clocked in early that morning, he was allowed to clock out early as well. The moment he got home, he rushed in and quickly put on the helmet to enter the game.

This overwhelming sense of urgency hadn’t even hit him back when he participated in the closed beta two and a half years ago. As Zhang Cheng strapped on the helmet, his hands trembled slightly with excitement.

But just as he was about to launch the game, a thought struck him—something from his conversation with Brother Li that morning.

If that dragon girl really is Lu Qiuchen, and she’s now living inside the game world… then how the hell am I supposed to rescue her?

How do you even save a string of data?

*****

Lu Qiuchen awoke from a deep slumber. Her eyes slowly opened as she groggily surveyed her surroundings—then suddenly widened in shock.

What are those blue symbols at the bottom of my vision?
They feel… oddly familiar…

LV: 120
HP: 30,000,000 / 30,000,000
MP: 500,000 / 500,000

WTF?!

Lu Qiuchen snapped fully awake. Her drowsiness vanished in an instant.

Level? HP? MP? A game interface?!

I just took a nap and now the whole world’s changed?!

The silver-white dragon remained frozen in a prone position, half-buried in the snow.

It took a long moment for Lu Qiuchen to collect herself. She stared at the interface before her in disbelief.

“Exit game!” she roared, her voice booming—but nothing happened.

Panic rising, Lu Qiuchen quickly pulled up the game menu and scanned the available options.

The main menu showed only the “Character Status,” “Skill Tree,” “Map,” and “Quest System” as accessible. All other functions were locked.

“Why is this happening?!”
She was truly panicking now. After having adjusted to life as a dragon in this strange world, she had suddenly been handed a sliver of hope for returning home—only for that hope to be cruelly snatched away in the next moment.

“Exit game! Exit game! EXIT GAME!!”

Still no response from the system.

The negative emotions she had long buried deep inside her suddenly erupted. Lu Qiuchen spread her wings, shaking off the thick layer of snow covering her, and soared into the sky. She let out her rage over the vast, snowy wasteland.

But the more she vented, the more pain filled her heart. After a frenzied bout of destruction, sorrow overtook her anger. She transformed into her human form and collapsed into the snow, wailing.

Time passed. Her sobs gradually softened. Still sniffling, Lu Qiuchen forced herself to stay calm and analyze the situation.

There’s no doubt about it—this unfamiliar yet familiar interface belongs to Eternal.

Have I been in the Eternal world this whole time? How did I even get here? What kind of state am I in now? Am I just a program—just a string of code? Is Eternal World even a real world?

Lu Qiuchen had countless questions, but clearly now wasn’t the time she’d get any answers. She forced herself to focus and calm down.

Let’s check my status first.

She wiped the tears from her cheeks and opened the character status window.

Nickname: Cecilia (♀)
LV: 120 (EXP: 1001 / 190M)
Race: Silver Dragonkin
Class: Boss
HP: 30M / 30M
MP: 482K / 500K
…

No need to highlight that I’m female!

Lu Qiuchen’s eyes were still red from crying, but the sorrow hadn’t yet faded before fresh shock swept over her face again.

I took a nap and woke up as a game Boss?!

TL Note: To make large numbers easier to read and type, the author uses standard metric abbreviations:
K = thousand, M = million, G = billion, T = hundred billion (though T probably won’t come up).