The moment the emergency bell rang, a scenario unfolded in Jaewon’s head.
A dragon.
A race that valued dignity above all else. A race that could not tolerate the very fact that the inferior knockoffs they had been ignoring had become adorable. And a race that, the moment they realized the cause was some patch director hiding somewhere in the world, could decide to sweep away the entirety of Arcana Online’s civilization and search the ashes for a single cabin.
Jaewon closed his eyes.
‘……So they’ve come.’
In a way, it was fast. It hadn’t even been an hour since he’d applied the patch and stolen the bread. The dragons’ reaction speed was quicker than expected.
He leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. The patch notes lay on his lap. A notebook where the world’s code lived and breathed.
It would be nice if he could launch an all-or-nothing patch that turned the dragons into beautiful older ladies. But he had used up all his divine power for a patch that big.
Should he hug this as his last companion, or just put it down?
Deng—.
Deng—.
Deng—.
The bell kept ringing.
Jaewon waited.
……Nothing happened.
Deng. Deng. Deng.
The cabin did not shake. The roof did not burn and fly away. There were no windows, so nothing could shatter. Only the sound of bells rang from far away.
Jaewon opened his eyes.
Log was looking at him from the perch.
“……Not yet?”
“Not yet what?”
“The dragon coming.”
“It is not coming.”
“You sure?”
“We are not dead, after all. You can check the crystal ball.”
Jaewon slowly picked up the crystal ball.
---
======================================
■ Arcana Online Official Community ■
Free Board | Sorted by Newest
======================================
[Is this a wyvern patch? Or am I the weird one?]
— Traveler of the Forest Path
👍 3,847 👎 12 💬 941 comments
This total scrub of an Arca-noob went up the mountain path to gather herbs today and locked eyes with a wyvern
I didn’t run
It didn’t run either
We just looked at each other
Its eyes were shinier than what I’d seen in books
It went kyu—
Am I really back alive?
ㄴ Iron on the Anvil: Lmaoooo what the hell is kyu, kyu
ㄴ Traveler of the Forest Path: I don’t know, that’s how it cried
ㄴ Captain Ironwall: But isn’t this a bug? Split Arrow blew up last time too
ㄴ Castle Above the Clouds: No, why are its eyes shiny lol Isn’t that even scarier?
ㄴ Traveler of the Forest Path: It was scary, but it felt like it wasn’t scary? After I saw those eyes, I couldn’t move my feet. I think I stood there for about five minutes.
ㄴ Logan, Knight of the Night: Ah, I saw one too, and it really changed. Is that the same species as the mountain wyvern that carried off my little brother last year?
ㄴ Archer Farmer: Hey, it carried off your brother? lol Isn’t that the more important info? Did you somehow find his corpse in the wyvern shit and resurrect him?
ㄴ Logan, Knight of the Night: That got resolved. More importantly, the wyvern right now is way more fascinating. You’re telling me it’s the same species as that thing back then? Seriously?
ㄴ Split Arrow User Here: Apparently some village mistook one for a dragon and rang the emergency bell lol
ㄴ Walking Knights: Lmaoooo a dragon?
ㄴ Split Arrow User Here: The scales got so vivid that the reflected light must’ve changed. From far away, they say it has a dragon-level gloss
ㄴ Traveler of the Forest Path: Ah, so that’s why they rang the emergency bell. I also thought for a second at first that it might be a dragon. But when I got close, kyu—
ㄴ Iron on the Anvil: If the kyu— sound is that intense, I kinda really want to go see it
ㄴ Rusty Helmet Seller: Don’t go. That guy might’ve just been lucky, and it’s still a predator. What are you going to do if it goes kyu— and then rams through your chest?
ㄴ Traveler of the Forest Path: ……Fair point
---
Just then, Log carefully flew toward the nearby human village.
Seeing this, Jaewon tilted the crystal ball to check the screen.
And looked directly into the crystal ball.
What appeared there was what the spirit Log’s eyes saw...
The outskirts of a human village. Below a low hill, the bushes near the village entrance were in an uproar. Several residents stood at a distance, and a man dressed like a militiaman stood out front holding a spear.
Opposite him.
Three wyverns were sitting.
Kyu.
Kyukyu.
Their vivid scales gleamed in the afternoon sunlight. The three sat side by side, gazing at the militia captain with bright, sparkling eyes.
The militia captain raised his spear.
One wyvern tilted its head.
Kyu—?
The tip of the militia captain’s spear slowly lowered.
Log’s voice rang out from the crystal ball.
- “The reason for the emergency bell was ‘dragon sighting.’ It seems the change in the reflected light of the scales caused them to be mistaken for dragons from afar.”
“That worked out well. It became buzz marketing.”
“The village guard captain is currently giving pieces of bread to the wyverns.”
Inside the crystal ball, the militia captain was taking something out from his waist and carefully holding it out. One wyvern stretched out its neck and sniffed it.
Jaewon looked into the crystal ball and muttered.
“……That worked out well. But they’ve gotten more innocent than expected, haven’t they? I thought they’d bite off the guard captain’s arm.”
Naturally occurring content was running. Without using a single scrap of divine power. The emergency bell commotion had become buzz marketing, eyewitness accounts were starting to pile up on the community, and the adventurers were heating up before the Constellations could even react.
Not bad. No, it was quite good.
Jaewon was about to lower the crystal ball with a satisfied expression when he noticed Log’s gaze, fixed toward the cabin.
Log was looking at Jaewon. Its face was expressionless. As always.
But that expressionlessness was different from usual.
“……What?”
Log took a moment to choose its words.
“I just told you that the village guard captain is giving bread to the wyverns.”
“Yeah.”
“The wyverns accepted the bread and ate it.”
“Yeah.”
“All three of them.”
“……Huh?”
Log looked at Jaewon with dry, flat, very quiet eyes.
“They are being tamed.”
“...Is the body following the mind? That shouldn’t be possible.”
******
It had definitely come down to hunt.
That much was certain. It had been hungry since morning, and it knew there was a herd of wild boars near the village below the mountain. If that didn’t work, it could eat a human. It had seen one yesterday too. It only needed to snatch one.
So it came down.
But.
The wyvern lowered its gaze.
Beneath its front feet was a piece of bread a human had offered.
The wyvern was eating it. Right now. At this very moment. At the village entrance. Having received it from a human.
How things had ended up like this, even it did not know exactly.
If it had to trace it back—troops had poured out of the village. Troops meant to face a dragon. Wearing armor, carrying shields, raising a forest of spears. It was obvious they had rushed out in a hurry, but their numbers were not small. No, there were many. Quite a lot.
At that moment, the wyvern reached a conclusion it could not avoid.
……Kyu.
I’m scared.
That was the problem. These were troops that had come to hunt a dragon. Perhaps an ancient dragon would not have even snorted at troops like these, but right now, the tips of its wings were round. Its scales were vivid. Its eyes were sparkling. In that state, charging straight through an armored unit to hunt a wild boar—
There was no way to convince them that it only wanted to hunt a wild boar.
It ran simulations in its head three times. All three results were bad.
Meanwhile, two fellow wyverns came over and sat beside it in a row.
Then the militia captain lowered his spear and held out bread, and since no one ate first, a brief silence passed, and the companion sitting next to it—
Kyu—.
Cried as if asking what they should do.
Before it knew it.
……Kyu—.
It cried back, as if saying, I don’t know.
The militia captain, looking relieved, held out more bread.
The wyvern ate that too.
‘…….’
It felt wronged.
The wild boars were still somewhere behind the village.
******
Jaewon tilted the crystal ball once more.
He closed the community tab and opened another screen. The Constellation-only viewing tab. Arcana Online’s current ranking appeared.
Arcana Online was not the only world the Constellations sponsored. Among them, what rank Arcana occupied—that was the current state of this world’s health.
The ranking had not changed.
No Constellations had left. No Constellations had newly withdrawn their sponsorship. Yesterday and today were the same.
Jaewon scrolled down the screen, then stopped.
New interest registration account: 1
Account Name: Pure-White First Snow
Fields of Interest: Small creatures, cute things in general. No sponsorship history. Observing.
Jaewon stared at that one line for a while.
There was no sponsorship yet. It was observation. They intended to watch how things would develop.
Still.
Jaewon covered the crystal ball.
“One joined in.”
Log lifted its eyes from the perch.
“A sponsorship?”
“Observing. For now.”
“…….”
“What matters is that the existing Constellations didn’t leave.”
Log said nothing.
Jaewon placed the patch notes on his lap and looked up at the ceiling. The inside of the cabin was quiet. The village emergency bell had already stopped. Somewhere, a wyvern was accepting bread and eating it.
Jaewon tilted the crystal ball once more.
He closed the community tab and opened the Constellation status tab. His hand moved slightly slowly. A slowness even he did not notice.
“The dragon-side Constellations.”
“Checking.”
Log spoke first. One beat faster than Jaewon. It meant Log had been paying attention too.
A brief silence.
“No departures.”
Jaewon let out a breath.
Long. Slow. Only then did he realize he had been holding it in.
“……That’s a relief.”
“It is.”
“If the dragon-side Constellations had left.”
Jaewon wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. It was cold sweat.
“How far would the ranking drop?”
“Currently, we are 17th. Assuming the departure of all dragon-type sponsoring Constellations, the estimate is around the 50s.”
“……50th. How do you even maintain it if we drop that low?”
“Most games surviving below that are minigames maintained through advertisements.”
“Gasp.”
Jaewon was silent for a moment.
He looked down at the crystal ball and tapped his fingers on the table. Slowly. Without rhythm.
50th. At 50th, the world activity index was practically going straight to the “danger” level.
“For now, they didn’t leave.”
“That is correct.”
“Then that’s enough.”
Jaewon switched tabs. Wyvern-related status. Sighting reports, village contact cases, community reaction numbers.
The numbers were rising quickly.
“I don’t know why.”
Jaewon muttered as he scanned the figures.
“But it feels like the taming speed will be strangely fast. Normally, wild individuals shouldn’t attach themselves to humans this obediently.”
Log was silent for a moment.
“……I see.”
“It does seem like something is going on, but as long as it’s naturally occurring, it doesn’t matter. This is what we were aiming for anyway.”
This time, he used the crystal ball to check dragon-related trends. No particular movement. No territorial intrusion. No individuals moving toward human villages.
The dragons were still quiet.
He could not decide whether that quiet was frightening or fortunate. Just as Jaewon was about to check the dragon trend figures once more.
The crystal ball screen flickered.
It was a new post notification.
Jaewon’s eyes stopped.
======================================
■ Arcana Online Official Community ■
Integrated Board | Sorted by Newest
======================================
[I Address the Director]
— Sage of the Silver Scales
👍 0 👎 0 💬 0 comments (just now)
Original Poster Rank: ◆◆◆◆◆
Race Classification: Dragon Lineage
Jaewon stared at the screen for a while.
A dragon.
On the Arcana Online community.
For the first time in history.
Had made a post.
“……Log.”
“I am watching.”
“Has there ever been a precedent for a dragon posting on the community?”
“No. This is the first since the beginning of operations.”
Jaewon slowly raised his hand to open the post, then stopped.
“……I have to open it, don’t I?”
“You do.”
His finger hovered over the screen for a moment.