Chapter 111: Chapter 110: There Is a God Stick in the Coniferous Forest

"Don’t just stand there, go after him," Zog urged War Axe, who was standing by the door.

"Got it, Boss," War Axe replied in a deep, rumbling voice.

It was unclear who started it, but saying "Got it" had become a trend within the Zog Group.

Zog didn’t mind. It wasn’t like he was the one who had to say it.

War Axe expertly unslung his Catapult, leaned out the window, and aimed at Little Deer, who was running toward the forest.

"Wait, Big Bro, don’t use the Catapult! If you break his legs, who’s going to play the reindeer?" Zog quickly stopped War Axe’s dangerous maneuver.

"Chase him down. On foot. Bring him back in one piece, completely unharmed."

War Axe obediently put away his Catapult. Every Beastman was an excellent hunter, so tracking a panicked deer was naturally no challenge.

Just as War Axe reached the door, he suddenly turned back. He scratched at his sparse hair with a large hand, looking like he wanted to say something but was too embarrassed.

"Spit it out," Zog urged.

Given a Beastman’s capacity for understanding metaphors, he decided against saying the second half of the phrase: "...and if you have to fart, just let it rip."

"Uh, Boss, since you just called me Big Bro, what should I call you from now on?"

"Let’s keep our titles separate!"

Zog sent War Axe out the door with a kick.

"Will my brother be okay?" Grove asked nervously.

"Of course not. Don’t worry, War Axe knows his limits," Zog reassured him.

"But what are you capturing him for?"

"To be an actor, what else could it be? He’s going to keep playing your brother in the Shadow of Evil. So there’s no need to be scared. The Zog Group never resorts to violence. We’re strictly law-abiding."

Zog’s expression was sincere, his tone earnest.

’As long as there’s no evidence, Zog is a good little Longlong who never breaks the law.’ 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

’What’s that? You say you have evidence?’

’In that case, I’m afraid we might have to... humanely eliminate you.’

"By the way, can you sing?" Zog asked Grove casually.

"Of course," Grove began singing on the spot. "I shun the low road for the high mountain trail, I seek not a maiden but a..."

"Stop!"

Zog quickly stopped him.

’He’s a great singer. He should never sing again.’

’Any further and the lyrics would get into censored territory. It had the distinct flavor of a local folk song, a pure and simple expression of the people’s desire for... amorous pursuits.’

"Next, Raul will be teaching you what you need to know for acting in the Shadow of Evil. That will take about a month, and then we’ll officially begin filming."

’By then, the snow should be deep enough, and the construction of the Ice Castle will be well underway.’

’The river surface isn’t completely frozen over yet, so we can’t harvest large enough blocks of ice.’

’Using a massive amount of Magic isn’t out of the question, but the Magic Power consumption would be too high, making it very expensive.’

’The cost would be too high to justify for a park that has to be rebuilt every year. If we fall behind schedule, we can have the Mages step in to rush the job at the end.’

’Ideally, we’ll save the scenes in the vast, frozen landscape for last. After filming, when the movie is released, the park could hopefully open for a month toward the end of winter.’

’That way, we can first cash in on the rich folks who can afford ultra-long-distance teleportation.’

’The Northern Domain doesn’t have any railways, and shipping routes are closed during the winter.’

’There will be very few Ordinary tourists in the first year, but once word gets out, the railway companies will smell the money and come sniffing around.’

’Winter City is only about two hundred kilometers from the nearest city with a railway. It would only take a two-stop extension to connect it.’

’The old saying is true: if you want to get rich, first build a road.’

’In the intervening year, we could add more attractions, though I’ll probably be back in Twin Tower City by then.’

’When the people of the Northern Domain are rich, I’m rich. After all, people have to spend the money they earn, and eventually, it all flows into my pockets.’

’That’s just how it is for the Samsung of the Northern Domain.’

’If you want people to spend money, you first have to make sure they *have* money to spend. It’s a bit of a joke to just shout about stimulating the economy when nobody has any cash.’

"Sigh—"

Leaving the interview room, Zog sighed. ’Things have been so busy lately.’

’For any project, once you get enough people involved, problems just start popping up one after another, endlessly.’

’Thankfully, a Dragon’s Intelligence stat is high enough that my big brain can just about handle it all.’

’Back when I was human, just playing a game of *Hearts of Iron* was enough to fry my own CPU.’

’But this high Intelligence only meant I had an extremely strong memory, logical reasoning, and even the ability to multitask.’

’It didn’t necessarily mean I was capable of any real innovation or discovery. That required a different kind of talent, something like inspiration, which isn’t so easy to quantify.’

’It’s like how someone with no talent for Magic can’t learn it, no matter how high their intelligence is.’

’Otherwise, I could have climbed all the tech trees the Zog Group needs by myself.’

While waiting for War Axe to bring Little Deer back—one way or another—Zog started tackling the issue of the Shadow of Evil’s soundtrack.

’He felt that without its music, the impact of *Frozen* would be cut in half, at least.’

He planned to use a large number of traditional Northern Domain songs—the family-friendly kind.

So he recruited many local musicians.

But he would keep two songs from the original work, "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?".

And that ubiquitous hit song, "Do As I Please," also known as "Let It Go."

As a Dragon considerate of his subordinates, he had decided to learn a bit of music theory after torturing the Zor Band during their last album.

The main reason was that just humming the tunes was terribly inefficient.

’He had no idea what he was getting into. Once he started... ugh.’

’As it turned out, his musical talent was absolute garbage.’

’The last class that made his brain buzz like this had been "Complex Functions and Integral Transforms."’

’However, in the process, he did bring a little "new invention" to the musical system of the Feilin Continent.’

’Numbered notation.’

’While it had significant drawbacks compared to traditional notation, especially for polyphonic music, it was easy to learn.’

’Besides, I don’t need multiple parts. I just have to write out the main melody and let the members of Zor handle the arrangement.’

’He’d also achieved perfect pitch through sheer brute force.’

’He used his powerful memory to memorize how every single pitch sounded, then relied on his lightning-fast reaction speed to cross-reference any note he heard against his mental library.’

’With this self-correction ability, while his singing still wasn’t pleasant, at least he didn’t go too far off-key.’

’And thanks to his Dragon hearing, he could pick out every individual note, no matter how many were played at once.’

’Milk Tea Lun, also known as Little Zog.’

’Using this method, Zog "independently composed" his first song: "Rice Aroma."’

’After he sang it for Furin, she was deeply moved... and asked him where he’d plagiarized it from.’

"’Like hell you had paper airplanes in your childhood.’ That’s what Furin had said."

Meanwhile, as Zog was belting out "Let It Go—"

War Axe found himself lost in an eerie forest.

As a Warrior who had followed Zog all over the continent for years, he was no stranger to frigid environments. He wouldn’t have trouble acclimating like some Subtropical Druid.

But the deeper he went, the weirder things got.

Beastmen hunt using both sight and smell, but now, the two senses were in conflict.

The trail of Little Deer’s scent and the direction of the hoofprints pointed in two different directions.

He knew Little Deer was not a real deer and might use hoofprints to mislead him, so he chose to follow the scent.

But gradually, the scent began to emanate from multiple sources. To make matters worse, he had now seen the same tree stump for the fourth time.

He, a Beastman raised in the wilds, was lost in the wilds.

’I’m done for,’ he thought. ’This can never get out. If it does, my tribe will never let me hear the end of it.’

A thick fog began to permeate the forest, and faint shadows flickered within it.

War Axe raised his War Axe. Although Zog had ordered him not to injure Little Deer, he was clearly facing more than just the Shapeshifter now.

"Come on! Show yourself! War Axe isn’t afraid of you! You insect, hiding in the shadows! I’ll crush you!"

A Beastman never fears a fight. He either finds glory in battle, dies with dignity in battle, or both.

He gripped his War Axe, his entire body tensed, ready to deliver a fatal blow the moment his enemy appeared.

However, the enemy never appeared.

He just felt an inexplicable drowsiness wash over him, and his axe slipped from his grasp, falling to the ground.

"Despicable..." he mumbled, his voice faint.

"O, lost hunter... take a message from a pious servant of the God of Nature to your master..."

These were the last words he heard before he lost consciousness.