Jaewon’s fingers stopped at the absurdly brilliant answer.
Pride.
Dragons. Pride accumulated over hundreds of years. A race that valued dignity.
Jaewon slowly began writing something in the patch notes.
He opened the shop tab.
```
[Limited-Time Special — 24 Hours Only]
▶ Taunt Emote Package — 50% Off
Contents:
· Dragon-Exclusive Mocking Emotions × 3 Types
· Dwarf Defense NPC Taunt Lines × 5 Types
· Bonus Title: “What Are You So Scared Of?”
※ Taunting actions may have a direct effect
on the opponent’s rage level.
```
After writing it down, Jaewon looked at the notes.
He paused for a moment.
‘……Is this too obvious?’
Just then, Logue’s head, having heard the scratching sound through the crystal orb, shot upright. Jaewon could almost feel what those parrot eyes were saying.
‘What did you just write?’
Jaewon averted his gaze.
“If a dragon gets hit with a taunt emote, won’t it forget it’s scared and charge in?”
Logue did not reply.
“You know what clocking out on the dot is?”
“....”
Silence.
Logue tapped the branch once with his claw.
“……I shall look forward to it.”
Jaewon opened the patch notes again.
Beyond the crystal orb, the dragons were still sitting atop the ridge.
They had not flown away yet.
---
Atop the ridge, the dragon looked down.
The smoke was settling. The dwarf fortress came into view. One side of the outer wall had collapsed. The cannons still stood. Heat was still rising from their barrels.
The dragon stared at it for a long while.
Then he slowly turned his body.
“We return.”
It was a low, quiet sound.
On the neighboring ridge, the other dragons raised their heads.
“The power of those cannons exceeded expectations. This is enough for today.”
The dragon spread his wings.
“Humiliation.”
He said.
“Is temporary.”
Strength entered his wings.
“But gold.”
A beat.
“Is eternal.”
It sounded plausible. It carried the weight of something spoken by a being who had lived for hundreds of years. The surrounding dragons seemed to accept those words. The mood was one of agreement. They would withdraw today. They had gathered information, so there would be a next time. That was wiser.
The dragon prepared to take off.
At that moment.
One dragon beside him was still staring down below.
“……What is it?”
The dragon asked.
There was no answer.
That dragon simply continued to stare downward.
The dragon lowered his gaze as well.
It was the fortress wall.
There were dwarves.
The dwarves were.
“…….”
The dragon froze.
The dwarves were doing something together atop the wall. Bending their elbows and tucking them to their sides, bobbing their heads back and forth, twitching their knees. In a steady rhythm. Many of them. Together.
They were imitating chickens.
Atop the wall where heat was still rising from the cannon barrels. Those dwarves who had just shot down a dragon. As a group. Imitating chickens.
The dragon’s eyes slowly narrowed.
Another dragon did the same. One by one, the dragons on the ridge lowered their gazes, and one by one, they froze.
It was quiet.
For a very brief moment.
“—Those things.”
A low sound came from someone’s throat.
“Humiliation.”
The dragon spread his wings.
“Lasts longer than gold.”
“Oooooooooh——!!”
The dragons took flight all at once.
---
Jaewon looked into the crystal orb.
The dragons were descending.
All of them.
Faster than before. Lower than before. There was no smoke screen or anything. They did not calculate their angle. They just came down.
Still holding the crystal orb, Jaewon looked at Logue.
Logue was looking down at the scene from the sky.
Jaewon said slowly.
“……It worked.”
“Indeed.”
Logue also replied quietly.
Inside the crystal orb, notifications from the constellation lounge on the fortress side began erupting all at once. The sound of divine power payments rang out one after another. The dwarf constellations reacted. The human lord constellations reacted. The dragon constellations reacted.
Jaewon set the crystal orb down on the table and closed the patch notes.
Taunt emote discount.
A good purchase.
---
And the dragon constellations opened their wallets.
```
⚡ Divine Power Payment Notification
[Dragon Monarch Sponsor Account — Lord of the Abyss]
▶ Elixir Spring Summoning Ticket × 1
Creates dragon-exclusive recovery terrain
Duration: Continuous payment until the end of battle
⚡ Divine Power Payment Notification
[Dragon Monarch Sponsor Account — Frost of Dawn]
▶ Elixir Spring Summoning Ticket × 1
⚡ Divine Power Payment Notification
[Dragon Sponsor Account — Wandering Starlight]
▶ Elixir Spring Summoning Ticket × 1
```
Jaewon held the crystal orb, where payment notifications kept ringing, and looked down at the screen.
It was an Elixir Spring, the dragons’ luxury medicine and emergency rations all in one.
The structure was that when the dragons ran low on strength, they would slip out of the front line, suck from the spring, and return in peak condition. They intended to turn it into a prolonged battle. The dragon constellations had poured in divine power to support that.
Elixir Spring Summoning Ticket. The unit price was high. It was a terrain-generation item maintained until the battle ended. Several people had bought it at once.
Jaewon set the crystal orb on the table.
And then.
He stood up.
Standing in the middle of the cabin, Jaewon raised his arms.
“…….”
Logue watched him in silence.
Jaewon bent and straightened his elbows. He twisted his upper body. He slid his foot to the side. He slid it back. He pulled it forward.
It was breakdancing.
His shoulders went in. His knees followed. His steps were a mess. His rhythm was half a beat late. But he himself did not care.
“……Mr. Jaewon.”
“It’s commission.”
Jaewon said as he folded his upper body.
“Three Elixir Spring Summoning Tickets. Unit price times three. Calculate how much the commission is.”
Logue calculated for a moment.
“……Quite a bit.”
“Quite a bit, right.”
Jaewon nodded as he slid his foot to the side.
“Now every time I blink, every time I breathe in and out, every time the second hand moves, commission comes in. The dragon recovers and fights again, then when it gets tired, it sucks some more and fights again.”
His step was half a beat late again.
“It’s a perpetual motion machine.”
Logue tapped the perch with his claw.
“Stop dancing.”
“No.”
“And if the battle ends, it ends. What do you mean perpetual motion machine?”
“Don’t ruin the mood.”
---
Jaewon’s prediction was correct.
The dragons withdrew from the front line and returned. They were clearly sharper than before they had left. The fortress dwarves noticed it. They had killed them properly, yet in the next round, they reappeared fresh and lively.
In the dwarf workshop, Ttukttagi Bolt-Nut IV called Spanner Copperhead.
“Where are those things recovering?”
“I sent scouts. They say something like a spring has erupted in the canyon northeast of the fortress. The mana compasses suddenly went haywire too.”
“A spring.”
“It seems they recover when they drink from it.”
Old Ttukttagi stroked his beard.
“Send a messenger to the humans.”
Spanner raised his eyes.
“Even if they try to support us, they’ll exhaust themselves coming up the mountain anyway, so ask them to contaminate that spring.”
The messenger ran.
---
The human army began moving along a detour.
The dragon-sponsoring constellation watching that through the crystal orb issued an oracle.
```
⚡ Divine Power Payment Notification
[Dragon Sponsor Account — Lord of the Abyss]
▶ Oracle Activation Ticket × 3
“Protect the Elixir Spring.”
Delivered to all receiving dragons
⚡ Divine Power Payment Notification
[Dragon Sponsor Account — Frost of Dawn]
▶ Oracle Activation Ticket × 2
```
Oracles were not as expensive per unit as the Elixir Spring. However, they were used frequently. Every time the dragons moved, their direction had to be adjusted. It was not something that ended with a single use.
Jaewon opened the commission tab.
And then.
He closed it.
If he looked at the numbers any longer, he felt like he would start breakdancing again.
Logue was still looking at Jaewon. Ever since the dance earlier.
Jaewon lifted the crystal orb.
Divine power balance tab.
Calculated refund amount.
Jaewon compared the two numbers.
Then he blinked once.
“Logue.”
“Yes.”
“It’s been an hour and a half.”
Logue was silent for a moment.
“……Not twenty-four hours?”
“Yeah. An hour and a half.”
The refund amount had been filled. Even though twenty-four hours remained. In just an hour and a half after the war began.
The cabin went quiet.
Jaewon placed the crystal orb on the table.
“Logue, for a genius director like me, running a game is too eas—”
Ding—.
It was a notification.
Jaewon picked up the crystal orb again. It was a signal Logue had sent from the battlefield.
To share the view of the current situation, Jaewon opened the tab.
Logue’s field of vision came in.
It was atop a hill some distance away from the battlefield. Logue was lowering his altitude. There was something below.
A person.
A manifestation.
Light was settling. The light immediately after manifestation. She had just descended.
She had the form of a human woman. White hair. Her overall silhouette seemed familiar somehow.
But.
She was different.
It was the same white hair, but sharper. The same pale skin, but colder. Her eyes were different. If Pure White First Snow’s eyes were snow without temperature—this woman had temperature. They were cold, but there was something in her gaze. Should he call it venomous? Or seductive?
She resembled someone, yet was clearly different.
‘……Who is that?’
Jaewon tilted the crystal orb and looked more closely through Logue’s vision.
At that moment, she raised her head.
She swept a glance around her.
Then opened her mouth.
“Who’s the director?”
Her voice was loud enough to seem as if it would echo all the way to the battlefield.
“Come out.”
“…….”
“Come out, I said!”
Jaewon froze, the crystal orb still in his hand.
Logue was looking down at the woman from the air. Through shared vision, Jaewon was watching as well. The woman shouted again.
“I know the director is here. Hurry up and come out.”
Jaewon slowly set the crystal orb down on the table.
The cabin was quiet.
He slowly opened his mouth.
“……Logue.”
“Yes.”
“That person.”
“Yes.”
“She looks like Pure White First Snow.”
“……She does.”
Jaewon closed his eyes.
He had filled the refund amount in an hour and a half.
The war was in full swing.
Divine power was pouring in.
But that manifestation was there.
Jaewon quietly drew in a breath.
And exhaled.
“……Something’s fucked again.”
Logue did not reply.
That was affirmation.
---