The Dragon of Despair Nidhogg, who had lived for over 1,800 years, felt his heart pounding like crazy.
From the moment he was born into this world, through 1,800-plus years of ups and downs—human dynasties had changed hands several times over—in all those long years, he'd experienced so much. But he'd never felt like this before.
It was an instinctive thrill!
Forget biological instincts—as the nominal leader of Dragon Island and the strongest of the dragon race, his duty was to make the dragon race prosper, to see more dragons born. What Ren was offering was something he simply couldn't refuse...
But he also knew there was no such thing as a free lunch.
People got wiser with age, let alone a black dragon who'd lived over 1,800 years. Even if they weren't great at thinking things through, they definitely weren't idiots.
"We dragons desperately want the method you're talking about, but asking the dragon race to worship you—that's still really hard to pull off. Even though your Magic Net has been super popular on Dragon Island lately and everyone wants one, these two things still won't make anyone force themselves to convert," the Dragon of Despair Nidhogg said, trying hard to calm his racing heart.
"I'm not asking you dragons to worship me. Faith is something you do if you want to, and don't if you don't. Only evil gods force mortal beings to worship them," Ren said calmly, as if whether they believed or not didn't matter to him at all.
This response obviously made the Dragon of Despair Nidhogg even more nervous.
If a god came seeking the dragon race's faith, he could at least figure out their bottom line. But if they didn't even want faith...
The Dragon of Despair Nidhogg felt a chill run down his back. It was a panic that came from the very core of his soul. For the first time, the Dragon of Despair realized that he wasn't actually that far from despair himself.
But he still forced himself to ask: "Then what do you want? I assume that an 'ability' that could change the dragon race's destiny would require us to pay some kind of price, right?"
Ren looked at the Dragon of Despair before him with interest. This guy's performance was a bit unexpected, though that was actually better. "I can sense that many people in this Council of Elders use the Magic Net, including you. Since that's the case, you should be pretty familiar with the Magic Net, right?"
The Dragon of Despair Nidhogg paused, then nodded to show he was familiar.
This was actually one of the few interesting things in his 1,800-plus years.
"On the Magic Net, we can see that through features like the Quest Board, Magic Space, private chat, group chat, and videos, a lot of people make deals. But because they're spread all over the place, it's really hard to complete those transactions."
Ren didn't beat around the bush at all and just laid out his plan directly: "So I want to establish a 'package delivery' company to solve this pain point. Your dragon race is the most suitable group for transporting high-value 'packages,' so that's why I'm here.
Join this 'package delivery' company. Dragon 'delivery workers' won't just get paid for transporting goods and making deliveries—I'll have them accumulate points. Once the points reach the requirement, I guarantee they can have a child of their own.
If your dragon race is willing to run the entire company, I can guarantee that in a hundred years, I'll hand over the method for increasing the dragon population directly to you...
With this method, what your dragon race should be thinking about won't be how to produce new members, but rather, how many new members you want to produce at most."
"You mean... you want us dragons to deliver packages?!" The Dragon of Despair Nidhogg was completely stunned. He'd never imagined that one day, someone would propose such 'terms' to the dragon race.
"Even the strongest griffin messengers need six to eight days to cross the continent. That's way too long—it can only work as a mid-tier transport method. As for land-based methods, transportation takes even longer, easily requiring several months."
Ren's eyes were full of approval. "But you dragons are different. You only need one day to cover the entire continent. Don't you think you're naturally cut out for this job?"
"???Huh?!" The Dragon of Despair Nidhogg was lost.
The most powerful race in the mortal realm—any living being who heard the dragon race's name would instantly feel fear. But in Ren's mouth, how did they suddenly become natural-born delivery workers?
But the Dragon of Despair Nidhogg quickly compromised, without Ren even needing to say more. "You mean, as long as we dragons join this delivery company, we'll get paid for deliveries, then accumulate points, and once we have enough points, you'll help us have kids?
If we dragons are willing to fully manage this delivery company for you, you'll give us the method for having kids after a hundred years? No other conditions?"
His face practically screamed: Why don't you add more requirements? Otherwise I feel like this deal's too good to be true.
"That's right, it's that simple," Ren said seriously.
"Really no other requirements?" The Dragon of Despair Nidhogg was still panicking.
He just felt like it was way too easy. All they had to do was have dragons fly around a bit?
They had tons of energy anyway. It'd just be a bit tiring, that's all.
As for the dragon race's prestige? If they didn't even have population numbers, who cared about prestige?
Besides, even if dragons delivered packages, who'd dare look down on them? Did they have a death wish? Even if they did the dirtiest job in the world, no one would dare gossip about dragons.
I, the Dragon of Despair Nidhogg, said it!
"If you're really worried about it, you could pay to work," Ren said, a bit speechless.
"Great! Paying to work sounds good. We'll pay money and work for you, and then you help us have kids."
The Dragon of Despair Nidhogg's eyes lit up. Gold and silver treasures were extremely important to the dragon race—more important than dignity. Paying some money, then working for the God of Technology, and finally getting a child—perfect, absolutely perfect. The cost and reward finally seemed balanced.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Ren, the Goddess of Magic, and Betty were speechless. They didn't know how to describe what they were feeling right now. The situation on the ground had really gone beyond their expectations. How was this different from what they'd imagined?!
"That's not necessary. I, the God of Technology, believe in fairness. The work you're doing isn't serving me—it's serving Magic Net users. Taking their money is the most reasonable thing to do."
Ren took a deep breath. "If you really feel like you're contributing too little, you can participate in another project of mine. My other project can make a profit, but in the short term, it requires a huge capital investment. I think that should be quite a cost for you dragons, right? Maybe that'll help you feel better."
Dragons in this world were like the Smaug from Ren's previous life—they loved to hoard and never spend. Getting them to temporarily part with money, even if it'd be profitable in the future, would inevitably make them reluctant.
Ren had been thinking about how to bring this up perfectly, but he didn't expect this guy to just offer himself up!
If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.