I am afraid.
With those three words running through his head,
Jaewon slowly brought his finger to the crystal orb and opened the post.
---
```
======================================
■ Arcana Online Official Community ■
General Board
======================================
[To the Director]
— Silver-Scaled Sage
I post this as the representative of the race
that is the oldest, the most dignified,
and the most deserving of reverence
among all beings dwelling in this world.
I am aware that, of late, the Director has made
changes to the appearances of certain races.
Let me first make it clear that our race has
no particular intention of raising an objection
to this matter.
However.
If the Director truly considers the balance of the world,
would it not be only proper to create an environment
in which every race may receive an evaluation
befitting its intrinsic value?
The phenomenon wherein the gazes of certain Constellations
are drawn toward specific races may result in harm
to the harmony of the world as a whole.
I state that this is not merely a personal desire,
but a constructive suggestion for the sake
of the world’s stability.
I hope for a wise decision.
— Respectfully, Silver-Scaled Sage
```
👍 2 👎 4,889 💬 2,203 comments
ㄴ Iron on the Anvil: What does this even mean? Someone give me a three-line summary.
ㄴ Walking Knight Order: Summary: Make me cute too.
ㄴ Iron on the Anvil: LMAOOOOOOOO
ㄴ Archer Farmer: No, but did a dragon really post on the community? Isn’t this the first time ever?
ㄴ Rusty Helmet Merchant: It is the first time. That makes it even funnier lol. Guess after spending centuries acting all dignified in the mountains, it couldn’t stand seeing wyverns get cute.
ㄴ Castle Above the Clouds: Says “no particular intention of raising an objection” while actively raising an objection lololol
ㄴ Iron Wall Defense Captain: He’s going on about the harmony of the world and whatever, but can’t he just say he wants to be cute too? lol
ㄴ IUseSplitArrow: The dragon says he wants the Constellations’ attention~ Says he wants to be cute~
ㄴ Silver-Scaled Sage: I will locate your position this instant and tear out your windpipe.
ㄴ IUseSplitArrow: LMAOOOOO ahahaha so scary lololol
ㄴ Silver-Scaled Sage: You find this amusing? We shall see.
ㄴ Logan, Knight of the Night: Is that dragon for real? Or is it a user pretending to be a dragon?
ㄴ Archer Farmer: You can tell by the rank. ◆◆◆◆◆ Normal users can’t put that on. It’s a real dragon.
ㄴ Logan, Knight of the Night: ……A real dragon is on the community saying “We shall see”?
ㄴ Walking Knight Order: lolololol a dragon who wants to be cute
ㄴ Silver-Scaled Sage: The same goes for you.
ㄴ Walking Knight Order: Ahahahaha
[1,847 comments have been deleted.]
ㄴ Iron on the Anvil: ??? All the comments just disappeared.
ㄴ Archer Farmer: Did the dragon delete them?
ㄴ Rusty Helmet Merchant: Looks like he deleted all his own comments and all the replies to them.
ㄴ Castle Above the Clouds: lolololol He must’ve realized what he was doing.
ㄴ Iron Wall Defense Captain: But he didn’t delete the post.
ㄴ IUseSplitArrow: Maybe he thinks deleting the whole post would mean he lost? lolol
---
Jaewon looked down at the crystal orb and said nothing for a while.
Log was silent as well.
A brief silence passed.
“……A dragon.”
Jaewon slowly opened his mouth.
“Is saying it wants to be cute?!”
“That appears to be the interpretation.”
“He wrote it in an archaic, roundabout way, but that’s the conclusion.”
“That is the essence of it.”
Jaewon set the crystal orb down on the table.
Then he looked up at the ceiling.
The inside of the cabin was quiet.
“……What am I supposed to do with this?”
Log adjusted his grip on the perch with his talons and replied.
“He said he hoped for a wise decision.”
“Am I a wise person who can make wise decisions?”
“You are.”
At Log’s words—praise wrung out from his expressionless face despite the look that said, “Here we go again”—Jaewon grinned and closed his eyes.
---
Log spoke first.
“To be honest.”
“Yeah.”
“I did not expect the dragons to react to this extent.”
Jaewon turned his head. Log continued while looking at the crystal orb’s screen.
“A single wyvern design made a dragon post on the community. This is the first time since operations began. In terms of buzz and everything else, you ultimately touched the right nerve.”
It was rare for Log to offer sincere praise. Jaewon liked this situation.
And yet.
“……Yeah.”
Jaewon did not readily smile.
He looked down again at the post on the crystal orb. The space where 1,847 comments had been deleted. The dragon had still left the main text intact.
“I’m happy.”
“Are you not happy?”
“I am. I’m feeling my own genius, too.”
“Sigh.”
Ignoring Log’s sigh, Jaewon slowly tapped his finger on the table.
“This is a little scary.”
Log tilted his head.
“Do you know what kind of race dragons originally were?”
“Please tell me.”
“When I first took this position, the thing I found strangest was dragons. They’re the strongest race, so I thought they’d go around showing off as much as possible, but they don’t do anything. Seriously. They build up enormous treasure vaults, shut themselves deep inside the mountains, and thoroughly keep themselves from being seen.”
Jaewon slowly rolled the crystal orb over his hand.
“You know horror movies. We have those in my world. The more often the monster appears, the less scary it is, and the less it appears, the scarier it becomes. Dragons figured out that meta on their own. Unless a treasure vault worth hundreds of millions gets robbed, or they desperately want to rob one. Until some truly unbearable reason comes up— they absolutely do not appear. That was how dragons maintained their cool factor.”
“……So you knew.”
“I knew. But I left it alone. Playstyle is a personal choice.”
At Jaewon’s firm words, Log was silent for a moment.
Jaewon continued.
“But when you look inside, it wasn’t exactly a healthy state. Lower-ranking Constellations couldn’t keep up with dragons, so their inferiority complexes piled up, and the top-ranking Constellations were bored because they themselves couldn’t actually do anything. They weren’t staying because they were enjoying the game. They were either selling their accounts because the game wasn’t fun, or enduring it because abandoning their investment felt like a waste.”
“So this wyvern patch…”
“Touched their sense of crisis.” Jaewon set the crystal orb down. “From the dragon Constellations’ perspective, they saw their position being shaken for the first time. Their lower-tier counterparts got cute, humans started taking an interest in breeding, and the Constellations started reacting. They thought, if this goes wrong, their own Constellations might abandon them, and that they couldn’t just sit still.”
“In the end, you moved the dragons.”
“I moved them, but.”
Jaewon’s finger stopped.
“Dragons are different from wyverns.”
Log waited.
“Wyverns were neglected, so making them cute worked. Expectations were low. But dragons have a different starting point. If we make them cute, it clashes with the position they’ve built up until now. But I also don’t think the Constellations will open their wallets just because we make their horns bigger or their wings larger.”
“What about raising the size cap?”
“Then the divine power it takes for Constellations to maintain a single dragon goes up. Like how increasing the enhancement level of a weapon breaks the backs of players who want to hit max level. If more Constellations leave because they can’t endure it than new ones come in, the ecosystem just collapses.”
It was more complicated than buffing the attack power of magic bows.
The cabin became quiet.
Jaewon rested his elbow on the table and held his forehead.
Simply touching their appearance like with the wyverns would not work. Raising their size or combat power would create cost issues. But if he left dragons alone as they were, there was no telling where this flow that had begun to move would bounce.
“I have to change something fundamental.”
It was a mutter to himself.
What dragons needed was not an appearance change. In the current situation, he had to create a new reason for the Constellations to want to reach out to dragons.
In a direction different from before.
Jaewon closed his eyes and sank into thought.
Log waited silently on the perch.
When no answer came even after thinking quietly, Jaewon ruffled his hair.
“What kind of dragon has no swagger? They should come out and fight more often…”
Jaewon muttered without thinking much.
‘…Is that possible?’
He followed the tail of thought that had risen from his unconscious.
“What if I make dragons move more often?”
Log raised his head.
“Earlier, you said playstyle was a personal choice.”
“I did.”
“And yet you intend to change their playstyle?”
“I’m not changing it by force.” Jaewon raised a finger. “I’m making dragons want to move on their own.”
“……Is there a difference?”
“A huge difference.”
Jaewon pulled out his chair and sat down, spreading the map on the table.
“What did I say earlier? The conditions for a dragon to move.”
“When a treasure vault worth hundreds of millions is robbed, or when they have an unbearable reason to want to rob one.”
“Exactly. Treasure. What if treasures that dragons would covet were scattered all over the surface?” Jaewon tapped the map with his finger. “The treasures of kings. We drastically increase the amount of gold and valuables held by the leaders of each region. To the point where it becomes hard for dragons to sit in the mountains and pretend not to see them.”
Log seemed to think for a moment.
“Dragons will descend into the human world.”
“They would.”
“Mr. Jaewon.”
“My goal is to give the Constellations content worth watching anyway. Whether a human king gets poorer or richer isn’t something I need to care about.”
Jaewon shrugged.
“Dragons become active, Constellations sponsor them, and the world turns. That means I did my job.”
At his cold response, Log silently looked into his eyes.
“It’s easier if you think of it that way.”
Log was silent for a moment.
Then he calmly pointed out the next problem.
“Generating new precious treasures would require a considerable amount of divine power. The same applies if we bury them underground in the form of minerals. With the remaining divine power that has not yet been supplemented by the wyvern update influx, it will be difficult.”
“I know.”
“You are aware?”
“That’s why I have an absolutely brilliant idea.”
Log’s eyes narrowed.
“……What sort of brilliant?”
Instead of answering, Jaewon pointed on the map toward the dwarven autonomous territory.
“Recently, the dwarves have been focusing on mining iron ore to make cannons, right?”
“That is correct.”
“And as a result, mining of precious metals has relatively decreased. Things like gold and silver.”
“……Confirmed.”
“So we divert the direction a little.” Jaewon picked up a pen. “Regular cannons, the ones made only of iron. Reduce their damage. Instead— change the structure so that the more precious metals are used to decorate the cannon barrel, the higher the damage becomes.”
Log froze.
“……Cannons decorated with precious metals?”
“The dwarves have that craftsman spirit anyway. If you tell them to make cannons inlaid with gold leaf instead of just hammering iron, they’ll probably get excited and make them. And if human lords want stronger cannons, they’ll have to buy precious metals and offer them up, so the precious metals scattered across various regions will naturally be released. As they gather in one place, the amount will look larger.”
“If precious metals enter the market…”
“Dragons gain a reason to roam the surface.” The corner of Jaewon’s mouth rose. “And this is the decisive part— since cannons packed with precious metals become the strongest weapons, they can also become weapons capable of killing dragons.”
Log slowly looked at Jaewon.
“The object dragons covet…”
“Becomes a weapon that kills dragons. At the same time.” Jaewon leaned back against the table. “Dragon Constellations get treasure content, and human Constellations get dragon-hunting content. Without spending a single drop of divine power.”
The inside of the cabin grew quiet.
Log said nothing for a long while.
Jaewon spoke first.
“What do you think?”
“…….”
“Log.”
“I am organizing it now.”
“Organize it faster.”
Log drew in a short breath.
“Dwarves make precious-metal cannons. Precious metals enter the market. Dragons descend to the surface. To kill dragons, precious-metal cannons are needed. To make precious-metal cannons, precious metals are needed. To obtain precious metals, one must fight dragons.”
“Right.”
“……It is a cycle.”
“Content gives birth to content.”
Log was silent for a moment.
“It is similar in structure to bugs giving birth to more bugs.”
Jaewon stopped smiling.
“……That’s different.”
“Structurally, it is similar.”
“I said it’s different.”
Log said no more. He merely adjusted his grip on the perch with his talons and quietly averted his gaze.
Jaewon pulled the patch notes toward himself and unfolded them.
---