It's been a week since Jia Hyson had arrived at Little Leaf Village and he was adjusting well.
Well. He was adjusting okay.
The free wifi plan they got from the compensation list they made previously helped a lot.
Yes, most of their demands for compensation were accepted so Jia Hyson and Bebe were a fairly happy pair. And while some of the bigger demands like the [Subtitle] special skill were still processing with the upper management they felt they could truly call this a reward world now.
Most importantly, with the amount of syringes of pure spiritual energy, Jia Hyson doesn't have to worry much about starving before meeting the transmigrated protagonist anymore.
Unfortunately, just because he doesn't worry as much doesn't mean he doesn't worry at all.
The first time he used one syringe, treating the item like a baby's bottle, he ended up greedily devouring the whole thing before just barely becoming satisfied. He had been tempted to have more if not of Bebe harshly reminding him that they had a very limited amount in storage right now.
Syringes of pure spiritual energy were pretty pricey in BeBay, going at 2,500p for 50cc. For Jia Hyson who f*cked up and impulse bought quite a few items in the last world, he could only clutch at his purse strings in distress. He still has some p left but it hurts to buy such expensive food.
Raising a dragon is too hard ah! _(:3」∠)_
But with the compensation there should theoretically be enough spiritual energy to scrape by for as long as Jia Hyson does some serious portion control.
Unfortunately, he's not very good at that so he gave the responsibility to Bebe.
Aiyah he was the type of person who will force himself to eat until he nearly pukes if the food is a) delicious enough and b) it's in front of him. Currently he's constantly hungry and malnourished. If he could restrain himself at this point he might as well change his name and call himself Buddha.
Fortunately though, the pure spiritual energy wasn't very delicious. If Jia Hyson could describe it, it would be like coconut water. It's not bad- cooling, refreshing and subtly sweet but it's not exactly the most satisfying thing in the world to consume. Even if at first Jia Hyson thought it was very tasty and possibly the best thing he's ever drank ever, it was mainly due to his own hunger than the actual taste of the energy. After the first few days of drinking that and only that, the novelty quickly wears thin.
'I want to eat the golden goose egg.' Jia Hyson whines as he drinks the spiritual energy on his back, using all four of his tiny claws to hold up the syringe shaped container.
'You know damn well that you're not big enough to eat that,' Bebe snaps, 'Now shut up and drink your energy, there's hosts starving in Africa you know!'
Jia Hyson: '...' Yes mother.
Jia Hyson sullenly kept sucking on his syringe bottle.
"Cluck?"
Jia Hyson froze, his legs were still wrapped around the syringe and his little pink tongue was poking out. He looked like a startled baby getting caught with a hand in the cookie jar.
Da Gong walked over, cocking his head curiously. His worm was always by his side except a few times in the day where the worm would slink away somewhere and hide. Even though Da Gong was very good at hunting, the worm was not only small and quick but a brown, almost bronze color. In the dirt and wild grass, it's very difficult to find the other.
However lately his worm has begun to turn a bit shiny. The body was no longer dull and rusty looking but more polished and strangely eye catching despite the minuscule change. Even Da Shen, that old dog, commented on it, commenting that, though his eyes are getting worse, there's a strange attraction to the lizard recently that makes it easier to notice it. Da Gong had agreed internally but kicked the dog angrily anyway.
Who told the dog to look at his worm?! ⋋(ಠ⊝ಠ)⋌
Da Shen: '...' Can't look at it but also must watch over it, can't touch it but has to keep it away from anything dangerous... Boss, just tell me if you secretly hate me ah, this lowly dog won't cry, really QAQ
Anyway, due to the recent physical changes, Da Gong was able to finally track his worm down. He was now used to having the little worm by his side and couldn't help but feel uncomfortable if the worm was not nearby, chirping softly and ticklishly in his earholes.
The worm was very interesting to look at and listen to. Not to mention it was almost as smart as himself. Even though they couldn't converse, the worm was very good at understanding what he wants to convey. The worm was silly but it is also very polite and obedient like a good baby.
Da Gong liked the worm a lot. (⁄⁄•⁄⊝⁄•⁄⁄)
"Cluck, cluck?" Da Gong squats in front of his worm who was in a strange position holding a strange object. Instinctively it felt the object was too alien and wanted to kick it away from his worm but seeing the small pink tongue licking at the tip of the thing.... it must not be too bad right?
"Mrp..." Jia Hyson looked down at his syringe, it was nine-tenths empty and he was just barely full. With a bit of reluctance he holds out the syringe and offers the rooster to try some. After all he knew that Da Gong would not ignore such a strange and foreign item, especial one he was holding.
Over the past few days Jia Hyson realised the bird was abnormally protective of him. Jia Hyson initially thought that it's because he had already collected quite a few shards that this caused the favourability of the rooster to naturally be so high but Bebe ruthlessly destroyed that trope for him. A Royal system is immensely large, those tiny shards he collected was barely a percentage of the whole system.
Not to mention those shards were isolated and unable to communicate with the other pieces. It was theoretically not possible for future personas to immediately fall in love with Jia Hyson because of this alone. At best they'll feel an initial attraction or interest but even that would probably require collecting a lot more shards.
While Bebe wasn't sure why Da Gong seemed so taken with Jia Hyson, especially since the 'cuteness' buff currently was so low thanks to malnutrition but it was certain it wasn't due to some stupid story trope of love being able to cross worlds and lifetimes.
Aiyah if that shit was real wouldn't the systems overseeing the reincarnation cycles of various worlds be better off as salted fish then? Think about it, how could a host do their job if one of the people they previous seduced was by chance reincarnated into the same world they had entered and fell in love with them on sight for no fucking reason? And to the point they would throw away nearly all their character settings in order to woo the host, completely ruining the story flow along the way? ╮(╯∀╰)╭Isn't that just a huge bug?!
Sure sometimes the soul of a previous reincarnation are strong enough to keep a small remnant of self in the next life but that only manifests in small things like phobias or preferences. Plus, sometimes their past love in a previous life is a completely different person with different personality traits in this life. Even though it's the same soul it's not really the same person they fell in love with, to do so blindly is not only a big bug but also a case of stupid foolishness.
While Bebe was bb-ing in it's heart Da Gong was laying down as low as possible as Jia Hyson let the bird taste the last bits of spiritual energy. His scrawny arms and small claws trembled slightly from the exertion of holding up the syringe for so long so Da Gong tried to flatten himself further into the ground so there was less effort on his worm's part.
If he could've Da Gong would've taken the syringe himself but the container and way of drinking from it was impossible for a bird like himself to hold. Even though the rooster felt a bit distressed to see the worm so weak, there was a faint sense of satisfaction and sweetness in his chest looking at how hard the worm was trying to feed him.
As an animal, the concept of indirect kisses was completely lost on Da Gong and there wasn't any hesitation when he opened his beak around the small opening of the syringe, using his tongue to taste the concentrated liquid spiritual energy. Swallowing it down Da Gong's silver eyes brightened, and quickly began to drink the rest of the energy like he had been injected with chicken blood.
Cough, well, injected with even more chicken blood anyway.
To Da Gong, the taste of the energy was incomprehensibly delicious. Even though it didn't taste like much, it felt like he was drinking something he didn't know he was craving his whole life. Once he started he probably won't be able to stop.
Jia Hyson watches the rooster drink up the energy in the syringe greedily with a faint foreboding feeling.
When Da Gong finishes and stares at him with expectant eyes his feeling gets much more profound.
"Cluck? Cluck, cluck?"
Jia Hyson who doesn't understand rooster but understood what he was asking for was crying with no tears.
It seems like his supply of spiritual energy is in danger ah.
Main character! Come transmigrate here soon! Please! QAQ
...
Tang Muxin, the super assassin main character, finally transmigrates two weeks since Jia Hyson arrived at the village.
By this time Jia Hyson has more or less gotten used to living in ancient times.
In some ways he's grateful that he's a liza- dragon. They're cold blooded and are happy in the heat and sleepy in the cold and they have scales so they're not very affected by insects. As someone who was not only picky with temperature and gets bitten by mosquitoes and harassed by other bugs regularly when he goes outside, Jia Hyson was fairly satisfied. Not to mention hygiene is much easier to maintain compared to his feathered and furry friends.
Though the first time he did his business as a dragon was quite shocking.
It should be stressed that he was a dragon, a dragon that the world consciousness had to make up an fantasy backstory to in order to justify his existence. Obviously there was going to be some weird shit in his anatomy.
One of them just happens to be pooping jade.
Jia Hyson: '...I can never look at jade the same way ever again.'
Bebe: '...' Bebe's host is so cheap but his shit is so expensive, there's definitely a joke in there somewhere.
Jade is a typical item in many chinese novels- from modern to cultivation to apocalyptic stories- which is capable of storing spiritual energy. When one thinks about it, how is it possible for dragons to provide spiritual energy to the earth so easily? It wasn't like their very aura exudes out spiritual energy for the surroundings to absorb. So they must excrete it from somewhere as a byproduct. Dragons didn't sweat, they hardly cry and using blood to nourish the earth would be too inefficient.
Therefore the world's consciousness took out a biology textbook, took up a a webnovel and came up with this nonsense which is explained in Bebe's [World Encyclopedia] skill.
[Dragons require high concentrations of spiritual energy to survive. They digest it and produce jade filled with lower quality spiritual energy. Because it's lower quality, it's safe to slowly dissipate out of the jade and into the environment to soak up and absorb bit by bit. Overtime if the ground and plant life is constantly replenished with 'jade' they would adapt, evolve or produce into an organism with spiritual energy.]
Jia Hyson: '...As a person who studied zoology I appreciate the usage of ecological principles behind this ridiculousness but as a person with opinions I can only ask the world's consciousness, 'Were you high?''
Bebe: 'Pft, as if the world's consciousness can afford the drugs.'
Jia Hyson: '…' Don't know where to comment on that.
World's Consciousness: '…' I do QAQ
Anyway, by the time Tang Muxin finally transmigrated Jia Hyson had learnt a few other things that weren't about the state of his excretory system.
Mainly he just confirmed that Da Gong is really truely a big village tyrant.
It was frankly amazing to see.
People literally make way for this big black rooster like he was a god among mortals. Jia Hyson could feel his three world views refresh each time he sees the ludicrous sight. Sure some of the more powerful people in the village like the rich Tang family treat it more like going along with a good joke but the village elder and most other people genuinely seem to revere and fear Da Gong's abilities.
This was a chicken that could beat up a horse okay? This was a chicken that was capable of extracting vengeance against the village children who accidentally stepped on its' food by ordering pigeons to harass them! This was a chicken that pushed the local thug into a pig pen!
How was this just a rooster, clearly this is a big bully with wings!
With how reputable Da Gong is, Jia Hyson's newfound presence by his side was almost immediately noticed. Unlike in the previous village, Da Gong's influence in Little Leaf village was of course much greater, so no one dared to bully the little lizard he had by his side. In fact many village animals and villagers would flatter him with small gifts and flowers in order to try get on the rooster's good side, very much akin to small officials trying to brush up goodwill with the aristocrats.
Jia Hyson finally had a taste of what it's like to hug a golden thigh since he became a host. Strangely enough the taste of golden thigh tasted like fried chicken.
Mnnn… fried chicken… Crispy double fried chicken… with korean sweet chilli glaze…
Bebe: '…' Host your boyfriend is so good to you and yet all you can think of is eating him.
Jia Hyson also recently was approved to receive the [Subtitles] skill and learnt that animals were even more subservient to Da Gong than he had initially thought.
And let's be honest, he had already initially thought they were seriously whipped so it was pretty bad.
Especially the horses. Jia Hyson had heard multiple times already that Da Gong had beat them up but damn, reading the horses dialogue it was like they regarded the rooster as the great demon king who they must give sacrificial offerings to each full moon or something. Most animals have very casual and simple dialogue, the horses were no exception but when faced with Da Gong's steely silver eyes all sorts of flowery words and praises would burst out of their neighing mouths.
Thanks to [Subtitles] Jia Hyson could now understand what everyone was saying, unfortunately he still needed to grasp how to speak the languages himself. Right now he didn't have his [Pure Golden Dragon Blood Lineage] activated which would assumably provide him with the inheritance of the Golden Dragon species such as, hopefully, the language of dragons.
This meant he wasn't aware of how to speak his own species' language nor did he have anyone to teach him. As he needed to know a language in order to communicate verbally with the other animals, Jia Hyson was stuck doing things the hard way.
Luckily, Bebe had requested for that high-level linguistic improvement pill and Da Gong, this small golden thigh was both willing to teach and willing to force other animals to teach him basic words. So these past few days he had indeed learnt one or two important phrases in various languages. Like 'Hungry', 'Help' and the most important of all 'Boss'.
'Boss' of course is referring to Da Gong.
Jia Hyson: '…' How domineering.
Anyway, though Bebe wasn't very useful for a lot of things, it could at least sense the large abnormal energy fluctuations that come when a soul from another world transmigrates to this one. So when she arrives, Jia Hyson scuttles toward the Tang residence with a bemused Da Gong following behind.
Jia Hyson had seen the original non-super spy assassin Tang Muxin around the village before. As expected, the original Tang Muxin's body was quite pretty if a bit plain. However her looks were further diminished under the thick makeup painting her face. Even with all that make up pasted there though, she still couldn't completely hide her arrogance and constant frown that only further made her seem less appealing.
Like in the original story, not many people were fond of the Tang family's stupid and ill-tempered daughter, especially nowadays where it's well known that the Tang patriarch has almost completely lost hope and patience for this daughter of his. It was to the point where he had put her on house arrest due to her latest failed malicious scheme against the main wife and the legitimate daughters of the main wife. And given how unfavored her original body was, there would be barely any servants attending to her.
This of course was just an excuse the story had provided to allow Tang Muxin, the true protagonist, to have some adjustment time after transmigrating.
It was also an opportunity for Jia Hyson to establish a connection with her like his character was initially developed to have done before the idea got scrapped.
'Host, how are we going to approach the main character?' Bebe questions curiously as they hide behind a tree in Tang Muxin's abandoned courtyard. It knew it's host had been thinking briefly on the matter these past few days but Jia Hyson had never explicitly talked to it about his plans until now.
Bebe wasn't too worried though. Jia Hyson was a cheap human being but as a Beta host he was admittedly very good at his job. His current identity is a rejected character from the original storyline that was meant to act as a mascot. This meant that the dragon will have a lot of screentime once he becomes the main character's sidekick.
In short, Jia Hyson needed to establish the character design of the dragon. This decision will definitely affect the outcome on how the story is perceived by readers.
Would the dragon be the type to act stupid, gluttonous and sell meng? Would he be the proud, haughty, tsundere type that acts more like a cat than a dragon? Would he be meek and timid and shy?
Different readers have different preferences but overall they all have the same general opinion about mascots...
They can't be too boring or annoying.
Some mascots like the timid type will constantly use the same routine all the time- be scared, cling to the people they're familiar with, slowly be coaxed by the 'good guys' and will have small bursts of courage to go against the 'bad guys' when the plot calls for it. This sort of rinse and repeat with no development in character is both bland and annoying, giving a feeling of redundancy to the character until they become slowly part of the background.
The proud tsundere types are generally the most popular type of personality in a mascot character. But that in itself can be considered quite boring.
In fact, the truth is, most mascot characters aren't really meant for long term exposure. There's a limit to their personality and the readers' patience to experience it again and again. Those that can talk have better favourability but once again, it's difficult to strike a good balance when producing a beloved mascot character.
Jia Hyson is well aware of this. In fact, his track record in mascot characters was only so-so. Some where deemed to snarky and obnoxious. Some where deemed cynical and belittling. And the fluffy, cute ones can be criticized as cliche and dull. In some ways it's better not to have a mascot character at all unless they could provide a proper functional use to assist the main characters or a likable personality that won't become grating over time.
Currently Jia Hyson has literally no functional use but the fact he's a dragon does make him more unique compared to the typical fox and kitten mascot characters in these types of novels.
'Bebe, do you know what's better than two transmigrators?' Jia Hyson suddenly asks.
Bebe was confused with this non-sequitur, 'No…'
Jia Hyson smiles, his tiny sharp milk teeth glinting under the light, 'Three transmigrators.'
There's nothing like having a story with multiple transported individuals to spice it up ah.