Chapter 561
Chapter 561 - 541: Taxicab
1,896 words
•
10 min read
The triangular dragon head has red-yellow tips, and its body is covered in tank-like heavy armor scales. This behemoth, about ten meters in size, stands there like a catastrophe.
𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦
It is bowing its head; it is looking down.
The beast lowers its head, and the sulfur-scented breath is right next to the ear. Its brass-colored dragon pupils show no humanity.
The oppressive presence of high-end predators makes it an act of courage for ordinary people just to face them.
It roars and it...
"...Finding passengers back from the ancient city is difficult; I have to be hired for the round trip! At least 1.5 times the one-way price! With so many of you, it’s 30,000."
Uh, it’s bargaining...
"I can’t go any lower; otherwise, I’ll be at a loss! Even dragons need to eat and pay rent! Not to mention, the rent is quite high."
When it realized that Lu Ping’an and his party could understand the local language of the Silent Mountain Range, it became even more active.
Ultimately, the 170-kilometer flight route from Changping State Government to the ancient city was settled with a lump sum of 25,000.
Honestly, it’s quite expensive, but considering the salvage they got this time, and the fact that it would save them from the annoying, stuffy bus journey...
"Meow! Riding a dragon!"
Well, there’s no need to weave anymore; looking at the big, shining eyes behind them, the answer is obvious.
Everyone is young, and who wouldn’t want to ride a dragon given the chance? It’d be impressive to brag about once they return.
Pay the money, get on the dragon. It’s fast.
In one fell swoop, before the gatekeepers could react, the dragon flew straight up into the sky.
Surprisingly, it’s much faster and more stable than expected. The baskets on either side, used as seats, are quite level, with warm baby heaters and small stoves inside.
"Meow, there’s hardly any wind!"
Realizing that the dragon’s surface was relatively stable, with no strong winds, Meow couldn’t help but climb out.
She first crawled slowly on all fours, then gathered her courage to walk. Then...
"Holy crap, she actually started running! Is this really that stable?"
"...Don’t even try it, she’s a 2-tier Runner and a Cat-Transformed Beast Human. Her balance is already off the charts. It’s said that she can’t die from falling. Apparently, she can even fly..."
Meow energetically runs on the dragon’s back, getting happier as she goes. She even begins trying to do somersaults, handstands, and cat jumps... only to be stared down by two huge dragon pupils!
The huge dragon turned its head, its searchlight-like pupils fixing on her. The sharp teeth had appeared just in front of her eyes. Meow’s fur instantly bristles and she becomes unsettled.
She immediately loses her balance and hastily crouches on all fours, but still slips... leaving the painful-looking, long scratches on the dragon’s armor.
However, the dragon seems to be completely unaware... Just the touch of the scales feels like touching impregnable steel plates, Lu Ping’an, witnessing all of this, had to reevaluate Meow’s claws.
By the time Meow remembered that she possessed the Spider Walk ability, the temporary floating Spiritualization, and the Cliff Walker’s ability to walk upside-down in space... poor Meow finally stabilized herself on the dragon’s belly.
Then, standing with the ground above her head and her feet in the sky, she looks up at the vast expanse of the earth. Instantly, her hair stands on end, and she meows and crawls back up again.
It seems that, despite having abilities that break free from the limits of gravity, she doesn’t yet have the normal mood to ignore "height."
Lu Ping’an ignores the embarrassed cat rushing back to the basket and calmly walks to the dragon’s head. The taste of being high in the sky without any wind barriers is astonishing, and he spreads his hands wide.
Looking down, the height reminds him of an airplane... The airships in this world generally don’t fly too high or too fast.
"Yo, it seems you’ve found the weaknesses of our world. This profession is an excellent niche to exploit; the income must be pretty good."
Since they were riding a "taxi," even if it was just polite, they had to chat with the taxi driver.
Lu Ping’an, seated near the dragon’s neck, talks to this red and yellow sand dragon who calls itself Odom, using the Silent Mountain Range’s language.
As expected, these dragons haven’t been in this world for long, and their deity is the "Sun God" who succeeded in Ascension shortly after the Sun God fled.
"Oh, I know! At that time, the whole world heard the words ’I refuse’..."
Lu Ping’an’s comment almost derailed the conversation.
As for why this dragon decided to run a "flying taxi" business to make money... Lu Ping’an didn’t even bother to ask. The fact that they could quickly put aside their dignity and work honestly for a living showed that there were smart people among their deity and clan group.
"Basically, all of us who came out to work in the first batch are young people... The elders say that we, the younger ones, are quick to adapt to new things, and since we don’t have much experience dealing with outsiders, we naturally don’t have the habit of eating humans. So, it’s more suitable for us to work outside."
After chatting for a bit, the dragon shared this information on his own accord.
The Sun God, who doubles as the Dragon God, has already linked with Earth and has become a new member of the Earth Gods, striving to qualify as a Proper God.
Consequently, his clan arrived in this world quite naturally.
The Divine Kingdom’s area and environment are extremely limited, so these dragons naturally need to come out to live. Since they are living beings, clothing, food, housing, and transportation are all necessities...
"Eating meat? We don’t usually eat it. Given the scale of our clan, if we needed to rely on meat for sustenance in that small desert, all the creatures there wouldn’t have been enough for us. Haha, it seems like we did eat them all. As for meat, we can eat it, but there’s no real need... It’s sort of like how you humans eat snacks and drink alcohol."
This Odom, who had come out to work, was quite talkative. This was his seventh day doing "flying" work, and at the same time, it was his nineteenth task.
"My goodness, if you earn more than twenty thousand for each job, then with twenty tasks in a week, you can make 400,000?"
"No, not that much. Most of the tasks are within the city, like taking people for a fly around. I can’t charge too much for that, so I just collect two thousand as a token. Adding it up, I’ve only managed to save eighty thousand."
Clearly, long-haul tasks like Lu Ping’an’s were a rare and good thing for the dragon, so it was no wonder he was much friendlier.
These teenage Red and Yellow Sand Dragons, about seven or eight meters long, were already terrifying beasts. Even if they were willing to act as transportation, how many people would dare to ride them?
After numerous rejections and several encounters with special service teams, these foreign working dragons also found places to wait for business.
"Explorers are quite skilled, and when I pull out this sign, hardly any scream or flee. In fact, there are a few, like you, who speak my native language..."
This dragon was quite business-savvy, like a taxi driver waiting for passengers at the train station, who had already calculated the train arrival times.
When the time came, they would be waiting at the entrance to ask people if they needed a ride; if business came, they would take it, and if not, they would rest... This was much more comfortable than flying around with a few kids to earn some milk money.
"Although it hasn’t been long since I left, I wonder how things are over there..."
However, when Lu Ping’an heard the dragon asking about his old home, he felt the situation becoming more and more delicate.
In a sense, the fact that their races and their gods fled to reality was one of the main catalysts leading to an avalanche in their home world. And he still had the nerve to ask...
Lu Ping’an contemplated for a moment and then spoke about some public information.
As the dragon listened, it grew more and more overjoyed, perhaps because the development of the situation validated the correctness of their clan’s choice.
This dragon was clearly a "minor", and Lu Ping’an quickly figured out their situation by asking a few questions.
The Dragon God was trying to apply for Proper God status to get the associated benefits and treatment. However, considering that 100% of his followers and demigod family were of the Dragon Clan, obtaining approval would likely be difficult without presenting some persuasive materials.
The Eastern Country government did not treat them too unfairly and provided them with a spacious desert area as their dwelling place...uh, no one else wanted to compete for it, anyway.
However, living beings need resources, especially an entire clan.
As a result, quite naturally, at the official’s suggestion, they sent young dragons out to work and to collect more information along the way.
"...Your deities must be very wealthy, right? They could easily take out a few Truth-level items and exchange them for a lot of money..."
Lu Ping’an guessed the reason but needed to confirm it... Confirm whether the officials were ruthless enough.
"No can do; our high-level treasures... in your words, Taboo Items, can only be exchanged for credit points. And we can’t use those to buy the fuel, drinks, or building materials we need..."
Lu Ping’an nodded his head in satisfaction, verifying that the "credit points" strategy had more consequences, with the first victims being these foreign tribes.
Most likely, even if everything were legal and compliant, they would not be able to sell their things directly.
From another angle, it was a means of forcing them to integrate into society actively.
With demands and motivation, wouldn’t the younger generation start working actively to buy what they needed?
"...And you can’t buy game consoles, Dragon Warrior 17, Final Evil Dragon 18, lace skirt COSplay outfits, or cloth dolls..."
Uh, this final list of items sounded quite strange.
"Wait, are you female?"
"No, Odom is naturally male. Look at my dragon horns - they are so gorgeous and shiny. How could they possibly be the weak and small of the red horns?"
"But you want to buy lace and cloth dolls..."
"Ha, foolish mortal, is it wrong for me to like them? Making a long dress for dragons is so expensive... Don’t judge our Dragon Clan with your puny human perspective. For us, it’s just a collection, a perfectly normal hobby..."
This guy finally behaved like a dragon for the first time.
— End of Chapter 561 —