PLAYER - CHAPTER 47

Who are they?' Kang Yu looked at the young man with golden hair who was waving at him.

'Are those foreign players?' The leader had long golden hair and a typical European appearance, wearing enviable powerful armor and grasping a golden sword.

He didn't look at all like the usual Players he ran into.

'Wait a minute…' Kang Yu looked more carefully at the Players, frowning.

Each of them held some kind of weapon: a hammer, a shield, a bow, and a staff.

The man with the shield and the dark-haired woman with the bow was nothing unusual.

But there was a short girl with golden hair, holding an onion…

'Dwarves and elves?' Kang Yu thought they were humans at first, but now he realized they were all round-faced dwarves and blond elves. 'What kind of party is this? They look like characters in a novel.'

Kang Yu gawked at them with a baffled expression.

The elf at the head of the group stepped closer to Kang Yu and loudly yelled:

— Hey?! Hurry up!!!

— Ronald, calm down! — The elf with a bow stood in front of the blond elf. — Look at the dragon! He's almost dead! —

— Oh…

— He won't hurt people anymore.

— Phew, thank God. — The elf with golden hair took a deep breath as if coming to his senses.

— Who are you…? — Kang Yu asked in their language, using the Power of the Common Language.

The elf calmly answered his question in a polite manner:

— I am the third prince of the Arnan Republic, Ronald Arnan.

— The Republic of Arnan?

— Yes. And you are?

Kang Yu, confused as to what was going on, was still staring at the group across him with bewilderment.

His mind was trying to put the puzzle pieces together: the gates opened through RNO, Arnan Republic, and Ronald.

'Did they… come from another world?'

The two facts known to Kang Yu were not enough. He knew the gate was opened through something called RNO, and along with the dragon called out of it, people had come from the gate.

What's more, these people were dwarves and elves.

The guy was increasingly inclined to believe the theory that they must have come from another world.

While Kang Yu was lost in thought, he heard Echidna make an agonizing groan.

He lifted his head and saw Echidna watching him, wounded and breathing with difficulty.

'Oh shit.' Kang Yu realized that the monster he had just tamed might die immediately.

But he had waited over a week just for this moment.

'I'll have to treat her.' If he missed the opportunity to tame this creature now, he'd have to wait three months until he was able to attempt calling another one.

'That's unacceptable.' Even though three months wasn't a long wait and the absence of a 'pet' wouldn't make him feel deprived, he didn't want to lose the pet he had only just obtained.

Kang Yu approached Echidna, who was ready to fall dead at any moment, and extended his hand to her huge body.

— Wa… wait!

— What the hell are you doing?!

As soon as he reached out to Echidna, Ronald immediately screamed at him.

Kang Yu turned his head in the stranger's direction and spoke in a serious tone:

— She is my subordinate. I don't know why you're so eager to kill her, but you better give it up.

— You lousy bastard!

— So you're the master of this dragon!

Ronald's party immediately raised their weapons and pointed them at Kang Yu.

Ignoring them, he focused on tending the dragon's wounds.

'She's bleeding a lot…' There was a continuous flow of blood coming from the long cut along her body.

Kang Yu used the Power of Blade to produce a small knife, and sliced his wrist with it.

[The Power of Revival]

Blood flowed from the cut he made.

Filled with the power of regeneration, it seeped into Echidna's wounds.

'Ew… phew… who…?'

Echidna's wounds began to heal at a great speed.

The dragon that was just ready to fall to the ground raised her head and stared at Kang Yu.

As if suddenly realizing something, Echidna mumbled in a calm voice:

'Ah… So you're my master.'

Her eyes, as large as a grown man, were filled with tears.

'I'm sorry to appear in front of you like this.'

Kang Yu didn't hear her the way he could hear people. Her thoughts went straight into his head.

He gazed at the dragon with a serious expression.

'I don't know what's going on, but like the notice said, she seems to think I'm her master. But this situation is…'

Kang Yu turned his gaze to Ronald's armed group.

It wasn't difficult to guess who were the ones to wound Echidna.

— You, show yourselves! I'm only going to ask you one question.

Kang Yu couldn't let them kill Echidna. Having to wait another three months would be tedious.

It was clear from the group's eyes that they wouldn't leave until they finished what they had started, and that Kang Yu was now their enemy, too. As soon as they'd found out Kang Yu's relationship with the dragon, their speech style changed dramatically and they no longer showed courtesy to him. Therefore, there was no need for flattering conversations.

He just needed answers.

— Why are you trying to kill Echidna?

— It's a terrible dragon!

— What did she do? — Kang Yu started interrogating the enemy group.

To be more precise, he was buying time to heal Echidna's wounds.

'First, I'll find out what's going on.'

All he'd wanted to do was summon a powerful monster from Hell.

But he ended up summoning elves and dwarves along with the dragon. It was certainly not part of Kang Yu's plans.

— He brought us drought and a plague! The magic of this dragon has killed dozens of city dwellers! Was that your order, too?! — Ronald shouted out in a voice full of hatred.

'Drought and plague…'

There was definitely a lack of detail in his story.

— It wasn't me who did all that… — The dragon mustered up the energy to speak.

— Shut up, you dirty dragon! If you didn't do it, then who did?! — Ronald grew even angrier at Echidna's words and shouted louder than before.

Kang Yu frowned and turned his eyes on Ronald's group.

'It could have been a natural phenomenon, jerk.'

Kang Yu felt like he had plunged into the Middle Ages, a period of witch hunting, when natural disasters were blamed on witches and all girls who looked suspicious were burned alive.

'Well, I won't be able to find out the truth behind what happened.' Perhaps Ronald's beliefs were actually true, and the plague and drought was somebody's doing.

After all, Kang Yu himself lived in a world where there was magic.

You can't blindly think of every strange happening as just a natural phenomenon.

'However…'

Kang Yu took a deep breath and turned his eyes back on Echidna.

He was convinced that the dragon had nothing to do with the drought or the plague.

And it wasn't because she gained his trust in the few minutes they'd gotten to know each other, no.

Simply: how could she have caused a drought?

Let's say the plague really was her handiwork, but in the event of a drought, she'd need tremendous power to dry the air to the point of causing drought.

A force capable of destroying an entire nation.

Echidna's power could hardly even be compared with the great demons of Hell, who were capable of much more.

— Is that the only reason you're going to kill Echidna? Just because of this?

— 'Just because of this?!' Do you have any idea how much suffering the drought has brought to our people? What about the fact that our state is on its way to death?!

— How should I know?

— For the sake of saving our citizens, we must kill this dragon! — Ronald declared, his eyes filled with a sense of justice.

Kang Yu narrowed his eyes as he stared at Ronald.

'I don't like these kinds of jerks at all.'

Kang Yu's most hated type of people.

Those who justify their actions as 'doing their duty,' while closing their eyes and ears to all else and blindly rushing to end things their way.

To put it bluntly, they're idiots with whom it's impossible to come to a compromise.

'Ha-ha… Ha-ha…'

Thanks to Kang Yu's use of the Power of Revival, Echidna's lost breath began to recover.

Her bleeding wounds had been healing at a tremendous rate while Kang Yu was distracting Ronald's group.

'I bought enough time.'

Deep wounds took much longer to heal, but at least the dragon was no longer at death's door.

'My subordinate.' Kang Yu carefully examined Echidna's entire 20-meter body.

Originally he'd planned on calling Cerberus, but the situation turned out different than he expected.

Still, it wasn't that bad.

'It's a dragon after all.' Kang Yu's ability to summon and conquer a dragon was proof of Kang Yu's power.

He didn't know how different Echidna was from Cerberus, but a dragon could be trained, so it was incomparable with other creatures.

'Sorry, but I can't let you kill Echidna. I've tamed her.' Kang Yu took his hand off the dragon and headed towards Ronald.

Of course, Kang Yu had no absolute proof that it wasn't Echidna who caused the drought and plague.

Even if she couldn't have caused the drought, there was still a chance that she might have caused the plague.

It's very likely that Ronald really is a brave and righteous hero, and that Echidna is a brutally killing creature.

'But what difference does it make?' All that mattered to Kang Yu was the fact that this dragon, by submitting to Kang Yu, now had a special value.

It's necessary to take care of everything that can make a difference, and avoid anything that is more harmful than beneficial.

That's why Kang Yu didn't care whether she was or wasn't a terrible monster.

She had value.

Kang Yu wasn't stupid enough to throw a winning lottery ticket in the garbage.

— You devil! — The golden-haired man shouted out, raising his sword and throwing himself at Kang Yu, eyes burning with justice.

Kang Yu grinned and said:

— I really am the devil, dummy.