Chen Lu had always thought of himself as one unlucky bastard.
After graduating from college, he took a job at some design company. His stubborn temper often got him on the boss’s bad side, and he’d wind up working overtime until the early hours.
One morning, he stepped outside to pick up a package. The moment he was out the door, a gust of wind blew it shut. He felt around in his pockets—and realized he’d left his keys at home.
He scrambled around until one in the afternoon, when he finally got back inside. One look at his phone showed more than twenty missed calls. Great. He’d missed the train home, too. Once again, he’d have to spend the New Year alone in his tiny, empty rental.
But the worst luck of all was what was happening now.
When she woke up, she found herself trapped in a pitch-black place. It was hard to breathe, and everything around her was covered in sticky fluid. She could just make out someone outside saying strange things, like, “There’s a really sexy woman in here.”
At last, she managed to kick her way out of that sealed space. But the moment she looked up, she saw a monster woman with the face of a lizard standing in the doorway.
A few normal-looking people stood nearby, staring at her with much the same look they’d given the monster in the doorway.
The hardest thing to accept was the soft, breathy voice that had just come out of her mouth.
What was going on?
Wasn’t that a little girl’s voice?
Had she been transported to another world?
Suddenly, a flood of information rushed into her mind.
Erika Braniel.
Was that her name?
She knew nothing else.
Erika shook her head, then reached out and felt herself all over. Her body was still covered in the egg’s sticky fluid, and her skin felt so soft it seemed like it might break at the slightest touch.
Next, she pinched her cheeks, then felt her little arms… her little legs… Everything seemed to have shrunk by a lot.
Even her chest had become a small, barely raised mound.
Thump.
Her little heart gave a jump. Erika seemed to understand that she’d changed sex.
She swallowed unconsciously. With one last bit of defiance, she reached down to her private parts—and her face changed at once. There was only a smooth, narrow slit.
What the hell?! Bro, you’re really gone?!
…
Meanwhile, the icy beauty at the door had seen Erika emerge from the egg—and the first thing Erika had done was call her a monster. The woman’s cold cheek twitched ever so slightly.
After giving Erika a glance, Jocelyn turned her gaze back to the intruder in the doorway. “Great Catastrophe General Gladys Tiamar, aren’t you worried that using your power here will alert the humans outside?”
The woman called Gladys turned her gaze back. Her red lips parted slightly, and her voice was so cold it seemed to echo.
“Jocelyn, you’re the one who brought these thieves here.”
“That’s right.”
Jocelyn shrugged. Her pretty face remained perfectly unconcerned. “That dragon egg never belonged to you in the first place.”
“Then there’s nothing more to say.”
As the words left her mouth, a bone-deep chill spread out from Gladys.
The chill surged straight toward the three of them. Everything it passed over was coated in frost.
“Boss, you know this monster?!” one of the thieves shouted in fear.
Jocelyn didn’t answer. Her brow furrowed slightly, and her eyes stayed fixed on the frost as it crept toward them.
“Damn it! How did she find this place?!”
“Forget that! Use the invisibility spell!”
When the two thieves saw that Jocelyn wasn’t answering or making a move, they couldn’t wait any longer. They hurriedly began chanting something incomprehensible, like a magic spell.
The next second, both of them vanished into thin air.
The unbelievable sight left Erika stunned.
What was that just now? A magic incantation?
Well, that made sense. From their clothes and gear, these people looked like they belonged in the Western Middle Ages. She must have been transported to a world of swords and magic.
The two thieves had vanished, but they were only invisible. If you looked closely, you could still see dust stirring on the ground wherever they stepped.
Gladys noticed. She raised her slender hand. Unlike the two thieves, she didn’t need to chant anything.
The bone-chilling cold seemed to obey her command. It shot toward the spots where the dust had been kicked up at a terrifying speed.
Whoosh…
In an instant, frost began to coat the empty space. In less than half a minute, two human-shaped ice sculptures stood where there had been nothing.
Those were the two thieves?!
Erika stared at the human-shaped ice sculptures, as if they’d been carefully carved. Her brow knitted, and a sense of danger rose within her. She didn’t know if the two were dead or alive, but they definitely weren’t unharmed.
Stay calm… stay calm…
Erika kept telling herself that as her red eyes swept over everything around her.
There were only three of them left: the woman who’d broken in and wielded the freezing cold, the young proprietress of this place, and Erika, who knew nothing at all.
The proprietress called Jocelyn had mentioned a dragon egg just now…
At that thought, Erika looked down at herself, fresh out of the shell.
Oh no. Was she the dragon egg?!
Three answers came to mind.
A: The dragon egg was her.
B: Maybe the dragon egg was something else.
C: An obtuse angle.
As she thought it over, Erika raised her sticky, pink little hand and felt the two small horns on top of her head. Then she glanced back at her wings and little tail.
At last, she understood why the thieves had looked at her like she was a monster.
Because I’m not even human…
“You really didn’t hold back, General Gladys. You still hate humans as much as ever.”
Jocelyn glanced at the poor thieves, a hint of caution on her face. She slipped the pipe in her hand behind her back, bent her waist slightly, and took a fighting stance.
Gladys remained cold and beautiful as ever. She hadn’t even looked at the two thieves. “Jocelyn, you’ll end up just like them.”
“So confident, are you?”
Jocelyn raised an eyebrow and steadied her breathing. “I know you’re strong. Killing a human is as easy for you as an elephant stepping on an ant. But…”
“I’m no ant.”
As she spoke, Jocelyn suddenly swung her hand. She didn’t chant, either. A storm burst from her palm and slammed into the oncoming wave of cold.
Rumble!
A tremendous roar rang out through the entire underground trading post.
The two terrifying forces collided. The tables and chairs around them were sent flying, and the wineglass on the counter shattered from the impact.
Erika, still inside the eggshell, was knocked beneath the counter by the shaking.
Crack.
As the eggshell tumbled down from above, it split apart.
Erika hurriedly staggered to her feet. She looked around, then spotted a scrap of cloth and an old dagger beneath the counter.
She picked up the cloth and wrapped it around her tiny body. Then she clutched the dagger in her little hand to protect herself.
Feeling the ground shake as if the whole place were about to collapse, Erika gave one last glance with her red eyes at the two people locked in fierce battle.
Fight harder! Go all out! It’d be best if you didn’t have time to notice me!
She figured neither of them was any good.
Time to get out of here!
