"And here I stand!"

"And here I’ll stay!"

A ghastly wail, part ghost-cry and part dragon-howl, echoed from the office.

Ever since he wrote down the main melody for "Let It Go," the song had been playing on a constant loop in Zog’s head.

He couldn’t block it out no matter what he did.

This happened often. The memory of that desperate Level Six exam afternoon—anxious, unable to understand the reading comprehension questions, and haunted by phantom earworms—was still fresh in his mind.

The more anxious he got, the louder the singing in his head became.

But it didn’t matter now. He just decided to sing along.

It was already after working hours, so he wouldn’t be bothering anyone. Such a considerate dragon.

Zog was still in his office because he was waiting for the Zor Band to send over the fully arranged version of the song.

A small item transportation array was set up in the office.

"Let it go—"

’Huh! A new post from Furin?’

Zog had spotted a new notification on the Divine Remains Network.

He opened it.

"Beauty is in the heart, joy is in life. Went out for a walk today and happened upon a beautiful riverside view, so I did a quick sketch."

Below it was a photo of a drawing.

’What a dated caption. It fits Furin’s persona perfectly,’ Zog thought, extending a claw to tap the ’like’ button in the Illusion Mimicry interface.

This was the Zog Group’s new social media platform—an ultimate Frankenstein’s monster of Weibo, Facebook, QQ, and Tieba.

It was still in the internal testing phase, though.

Logically, this thing should have been easier to make than the auto-battler and released much earlier, since it didn’t have to deal with server concurrency issues.

The reason it was delayed for so long was that they hadn’t been able to solve the problem of displaying text and images.

Previously, the way they displayed text was by directly constructing it with an Illusion. In essence, just like the figures in the game, it was a fully rendered model.

This was fine for small amounts, but with large quantities, it took up an enormous amount of space.

The chat function in the auto-battler had a fifty-character limit per message, and all chats were deleted every ten games.

It was completely incapable of supporting the demands of a social media application.

Only recently had they finished refactoring this function. Now, text and images were composed of basic Illusion points—similar to pixels—and the server only needed to record the data.

It was on this foundation that they finally managed to create a prototype for the social media app.

Currently, it was only being used internally at the Zog Group. They would promote it heavily once the features were tested and stable.

Besides, uploading photos was still a hassle. You had to use a new type of Magic Crystal Stone storage camera, take the picture, and then upload it on a dedicated device.

A camera that could upload pictures by itself and a device that would allow ordinary people to log into the app were both under development.

’Sooner or later, I’ll piece together all the functions of a computer with a whole pile of different devices.’

But even in its current state, the app was widely popular among the Group’s employees.

All intelligent beings are social creatures. Socializing is practically a necessary requirement for survival. The need varies from person to person, but very few can completely isolate themselves from their own kind.

KNOCK KNOCK. A knock came from the door.

"Didn’t I say not to knock when you come see me anymore? Just tap the rune on the door! Do it again!"

Zog said, a little annoyed. He had just made the rule, and someone was already breaking it. He’d even put up a sign outside the door.

The door now had a newly added anti-social-suicide rune.

This was a door-opening alert mechanism that Zog had requested. The last time he was cosplaying as the Flame Dragon Hero in his office, he’d been surrounded by onlookers, a truly painful memory.

To prevent him from getting lost in his own world and not noticing the door opening, this rune, once triggered, would project a flashing "OPEN THE DOOR" message onto his vision.

It was absolutely impossible to miss.

As for not goofing off in the office anymore... that was impossible. Going a little crazy during work hours helped relieve stress.

KNOCK KNOCK. The sound came again.

"Can’t you understand the Dragon Language? You must be dying to go back to Dragon Island and shovel shit, is that it?"

Zog got up impatiently and went to the door.

He caught the scent of War Axe.

He threatened as he opened the door, "You’d better have brought Little Deer back in one piece. If you did, I’ll only make you clean the toilets for a day. Otherwise, I’m going to fly up and beat your pig head in."

But when he opened the door, Zog froze.

War Axe stood there woodenly, his eyes vacant, muttering the same phrase over and over.

"O lost one, you who attempt to revive the Primordial Deities, if you wish for your hunter to regain his senses, follow the guidance of the fireflies into the twilight forest. A devout servant of the God of Nature awaits your arrival..."

’You’d better actually know the God of Nature. Fireflies, really? Is this an RPG quest hook?’

Zog’s blood pressure skyrocketed.

He hated riddle-talkers the most. They were just like seasonal TV shows that didn’t plan for a long run; when the writers couldn’t come up with any more plot, they’d just throw in a character who couldn’t speak plainly to pad out the episode count.

If you want to see him, just say you want to see him. State your reasons upfront.

All this mystical mumbo-jumbo... If they added a few made-up words he’d never heard before, he might think it was a plot written for a gacha game.

Zog ignored the swarm of fireflies trailing War Axe for now and focused on checking his condition.

The guy called him ’boss,’ after all. He had to take responsibility like one.

He pried open War Axe’s eyes. A classic sign of being under an Illusion Technique.

He chuckled.

Who had Zog been hanging out with lately? All of the most renowned Illusionists on the entire Continent were at the Zog Group.

He was practically half an Illusion expert himself by now.

He’d have this solved for War Axe in minutes.

Several minutes passed.

He couldn’t figure it out.

’A little awkward,’ he thought, ’but no big deal. I’ve got backup.’

He picked up the camera, took several pictures of War Axe, pulled out the Magic Crystal Stone to upload them, and then activated the network’s chat function.

Red Dragon Eating Potatoes: (poke)

At first, everyone in the Group used their real names on the social platform, but ever since Zog chose his screen name, everyone else had started changing theirs to all sorts of weird things.

Golden Dragon Loves Drawing: ?

Furin replied in an instant.

Red Dragon Eating Potatoes: O Lady Furin, most powerful Illusionist on the Feilin Continent, most knowledgeable of all, the Dragon Race’s little encyclopedia of magic, the super-duper beautiful and kind one, could you please take a look and see what kind of Illusion Technique this is?

He sent a large batch of pictures.

Golden Dragon Loves Drawing: !

’What does that mean?’

Zog stared at the exclamation mark Furin had sent. No other messages followed.

’She’s probably looking into it,’ he thought.

After tens of minutes passed, there was still no reply.

Just as Zog was about to poke her again, a message from Furin arrived.

Golden Dragon Loves Drawing: I’ve arrived in the Northern Domain. I’m at the Teleportation Array. Bring War Axe to me.

’Such decisive action.’

Zog increased his size slightly, grabbed War Axe, and flew toward Winterfort, a swarm of fireflies trailing behind him.

「A few minutes later.」

"This is a very ancient way of using magic. It doesn’t use a magic model; instead, it directly utilizes elements and magic power, bypassing the authority of the Magic Goddess. However, it should still be possible to dispel it using a magic model."

Furin made a quick assessment after her examination. She spoke in a version of the Dragon Language only Zog could understand—a language they had created as children by adding a large number of secret codes to the standard tongue.

"But there’s no reason it should be this complex. Before magic models existed, creating magic based on understanding alone... the current Third Ring level was the absolute limit back then."

"Could it really be the God of Nature? Impossible. The God of Nature is dead," Zog said.

As a dragon whose lifespan was long enough to have lived through the war of the Divine Race in the last epoch, he knew for a fact that many deities had died, including the God of Nature.

Otherwise, the situation where the Church formed by the followers of the Magic Goddess held a complete monopoly wouldn’t exist.

"Perhaps he was resurrected? Just like what you’re trying to do."

"What I’m trying to do?" Zog played dumb.

"Why are you channeling so much faith into a single piece of Divine Remains, instead of dispersing it across multiple remains from different sources? You want to see if faith can create a deity, or what exactly it would create if it did."

"I just haven’t found any other Divine Remains, that’s all. Ha! I’m not thinking about all that," Zog said, his laughter a bit stiff.

"I want to see, too," Furin said in a gentle tone. "I also want to know what it would create. Let’s just say it’s for Tiamat."

The Dragon Race God had also perished in the last epoch.

"So, let’s go meet these people—or whatever they are—who claim to be servants of the God of Nature. No matter what ideas you have brewing in that head of yours, even if you were down to your very last supporter, I would be that one."