The beautiful woman transformed from the Silver Dragon walked toward the respawn point.
When she got close, she was blocked by the oval shield.
She curled her finger and knocked on the shield, making a “dang” sound.
In Little Deer’s dazed gaze, she opened her mouth to speak.
“……” Although Little Deer really wanted to know what this silver-haired beauty wanted to say to her, unfortunately, she couldn’t hear a single word.
The silver-haired beauty was stunned for a moment, as if realizing something.
Her face darkened, and she stepped back a few paces to an open area, then reverted to her dragon form and flew away.
The Silver Dragon beauty’s final reaction left Little Deer bewildered.
She had no idea what the other party had discovered, but it didn’t matter.
It wouldn’t affect her upcoming livestream—in fact, it would only add more topics to talk about.
Just now, she and her viewers had witnessed a huge scoop!
Little Deer grew excited, cleared her throat, and coughed lightly.
“Everyone’s seen it! The dashing Miss Silver Dragon just now is very likely the boss mentioned in the official launch PV! This speculation also matches the inside information we talked about in our previous program…”
*****
Meanwhile, Zhang Cheng dismissed the idea of leaving the instance.
He had thought this Silver Dragon would only appear near the end of the main storyline—he never expected to encounter the boss so early in the game.
This was fantastic for him—an excellent chance to observe!
Zhang Cheng deliberately ran to the enemy respawn point and gave away a kill to the opposing players.
While watching and carefully analyzing the replies on the Forum in his mind, he waited for the one-minute respawn timer to end.
Combining the latest player coordinates from a few replies with the game map, Zhang Cheng quickly deduced the most likely area that would be the Silver Dragon’s next target.
He chose the respawn point in that area, took a deep breath—his main goal in playing this game was now within reach!
After the now-familiar brief dizziness, Zhang Cheng found this respawn point was built beneath a Tower.
He looked around and saw no sign of the Silver Dragon, then quickly climbed the Tower for a better view.
Zhang Cheng waited here for nearly a minute, but still no sign of the Silver Dragon.
He began to grow anxious—could his calculations be wrong? That shouldn’t be!
The Silver Dragon had already visited the surrounding areas, and only this area and the adjacent one remained. These two were the most likely.
Zhang Cheng was already an impatient person.
Combined with his tense mood, every second felt like an eternity.
As time ticked by, he grew more and more anxious.
From afar, a tiny black dot appeared.
Zhang Cheng jumped up in excitement and rushed down the Tower two steps at a time, leaping the last three meters to the ground.
Only in a game could he do something so reckless—if he tried that in real life, he’d probably get hurt.
Ignoring his fluctuating HP bar, Zhang Cheng sprinted toward the direction the Silver Dragon was coming from.
Ahead was a flat plain with excellent visibility.
Zhang Cheng noticed that the Silver Dragon seemed somewhat downcast compared to their first meeting—her breath attacks looked weak and listless.
He watched as the players in the Silver Dragon’s flight path stopped fighting, then were either terrified or excited as they turned into blocks of ice.
Some players, caught up in the moment, even struck poses—this silly behavior quickly caught on, and soon nearly everyone was making various gestures toward the sky.
Hmm, some people really let loose and struck some rather indecent poses.
The Silver Dragon in the sky was probably angered by the players’ antics.
With a thunderous roar, she lifted her head, and rings of translucent ice spread out from beneath her, dazzling under the sunlight.
When her move ended, the ice shattered, and shards shot downward, growing massive under the power of magic.
As layer after layer of ice broke apart, Zhang Cheng saw the ground covered with ice crystals embedded everywhere.
Looking at the players whose HP bars were now empty, frozen within the ice, Zhang Cheng’s mouth twitched.
His luck was pretty good—if he’d moved forward another twenty meters, he would have been caught in the area of effect.
No one had expected the skill’s range to be so wide—the Silver Dragon was at least five hundred meters away from him!
The killing radius was truly terrifying.
The Silver Dragon glanced over the battlefield from the air, quite satisfied with the results.
All the little pests who’d offended her were gone, so this area was cleared.
She flapped her wings, turned, and prepared to fly away.
Seeing this, Zhang Cheng realized the Silver Dragon was about to leave.
Without caring whether she could hear him from this distance, he cupped his hands into a circle and shouted in her direction, “Silver Dragon!!!”
The Silver Dragon’s hearing was excellent.
Hearing someone calling from behind, she turned her head in confusion—only to see a figure running toward her at full speed, waving and shouting.
“Lu Qiuchen! Kid!”
*****
Lu Qiuchen’s pupils shrank as she looked at the person running toward her.
Though his appearance was slightly different from Earth, the familiar voice and his running style—there was no mistaking it, it was Zhang Cheng!
After living alone in a strange world for two years, seeing her old friend again stirred a mix of indescribable excitement and a hint of unfamiliarity in Lu Qiuchen’s heart.
That feeling morphed into grievance and sorrow, flooding her chest.
Suddenly, Lu Qiuchen was startled, realizing that her current form was not suitable for meeting people.
Her first instinct was to transform into her Human Form, but then she remembered that her human form was female—did she really want to face her old friend like this?
Not only had she become a dragon, she’d also changed from male to female, and now she was living in a game world or another world entirely.
Wasn’t this basically becoming someone from two different worlds?
She’d tried communicating with players before, but based on their reactions and the system’s warnings, it was clear they couldn’t communicate through language.
Her mindset had changed as well.
Whether it was the influence of dragon heritage or darkness hidden in her heart, she was growing colder, more ruthless, and less like her old self.
Even knowing players could respawn, she found herself enjoying the thrill of killing.
Was she still the Lu Qiuchen of the past?
Maybe the real Lu Qiuchen had already died, and she was just a string of code accidentally preserved in a database.
Even if Zhang Cheng really recognized her, what would he think after learning everything that had happened to her?
Lu Qiuchen felt afraid—afraid that after acknowledging her, Zhang Cheng would discover what she’d done, afraid he’d see her true nature, afraid he’d look at her with disappointment, and most of all, afraid he’d tell her parents everything.
How could she face all this? She’d never thought about it before.
All she wanted was to return to her hometown and the warmth of her parents’ embrace.
But could her parents accept her transformation?
Even if she made it back to Earth, after pouring so much love into her, would her parents feel only disappointment and hatred at seeing the gentle, well-behaved top university student replaced by a murderous, evil, alien girl?
Such a self would only bring disappointment and resentment from her parents.
These thoughts churned together into an indescribable pain, lingering in her heart.
Lu Qiuchen turned her head, tears sliding down her dragon eyes.
She ignored Zhang Cheng and flew quickly into the distance.
If not for the task Beta had given her still unfinished, she would have left this area already.
*****
Zhang Cheng watched as the Silver Dragon paused for a moment, then continued flying away.
His steps slowed, but his eyes were shining brightly.
Even from a distance, when the Silver Dragon turned around at his shout, he could clearly see the shock in her eyes—that confirmed his guess!
Even if this Silver Dragon wasn’t Lu Qiuchen, she must have heard that name!
This was a crucial discovery!
Zhang Cheng took a whistle from his inventory, put it to his lips, and blew.
A fully red adult Bipedal Wyvern appeared before him.
LV62 Bipedal Wyvern (Companion)
Despite the huge difference in their levels, the Bipedal Wyvern was very docile toward Zhang Cheng, but he wasn’t in the mood to bond with his mount.
He issued the command, directing the Bipedal Wyvern to fly forward.
He had to catch up—even if he couldn’t get a clear answer, he could still get more information from the Silver Dragon’s reaction!
The Bipedal Wyvern flew at full speed, gradually closing in on the Silver Dragon ahead as she unleashed magic and breath attacks on players.
As the gap narrowed, the pressure from a pure-blooded dragon on a sub-dragon grew stronger, but the Bipedal Wyvern had no choice but to obey its master, enduring the immense pressure to keep flying.
Lu Qiuchen finished clearing the area, turned to head for the next, and immediately noticed the low-flying Bipedal Wyvern behind her with Zhang Cheng on its back trying to approach.
A flash of pain crossed Lu Qiuchen’s eyes.
She intensified her dragon aura, and the Bipedal Wyvern let out a miserable wail, instantly losing the strength to fly.
It twisted, and both it and Zhang Cheng plummeted toward the ground.
Lu Qiuchen was puzzled as to where Zhang Cheng had gotten a sub-dragon mount, but after her earlier thoughts, she didn’t want any contact with him, nor did she want to see him again for now.
She flew away coldly.
With two loud thuds, Zhang Cheng and the Bipedal Wyvern crashed to the ground from low altitude.
The Bipedal Wyvern was fine, but Zhang Cheng’s HP was dangerously low.
“Heh heh—hahaha!”
Unlike the Bipedal Wyvern, who was suffering under the dragon’s pressure, Zhang Cheng laughed maniacally, almost neurotic.
After calming down, Zhang Cheng recalled the Bipedal Wyvern into the Sit Mount Space and exited the instance.
He’d gotten the evidence he wanted and confirmed his theory.
After learning the boss was the Silver Dragon, Zhang Cheng had searched the Forum for information on dragons.
He learned that Bipedal Wyverns were the lowest-ranked, thinnest-blooded sub-dragons—so low that even many sub-dragons and all true dragons didn’t consider them real dragons.
So, when a Bipedal Wyvern approached a pure-blooded dragon, it was usually seen as a provocation, and the pure-blood would strike without hesitation.
But in that situation, the Silver Dragon hadn’t attacked the Bipedal Wyvern, only used her dragon aura.
That alone showed her attitude—and Zhang Cheng had also noticed the flash of pain in her eyes, which gave him even more confidence.
Zhang Cheng logged out of the game—he still had other things to confirm.