"Hi, my name is Mike, and I'm 20 years old. I'm a normal young man, the kind you can find anywhere.
Like any ordinary kid, I have friends, I've had a girlfriend, etc.
I have parents who love me, little brothers I have to take care of.
About my hobbies... I like various things. I love basketball, I like video games, comics, manga, and above all, I like anime.
Not only anime but the whole culture in general. I like reading light novels, I love reading web novels, I like reading manga, manhwa, manhua, and I like watching anime. Hmm, now that I think about it, could I be considered a full-fledged otaku?
Well, it depends on how you look at it. I'm not the type to dye my hair and cosplay. I also don't discriminate against people who do it, since I have friends who do it.
Additionally, I do like looking at lovely ladies who cosplay as waifus, and so does my little brother. They all are very pleasant to gaze upon for youngsters.
I enjoy everything and I am a fan of many great works, and let me mention it, the list is not small.
I am fond of many franchises.
Speaking of which, volume 22 of a novel I love came out today, and I went to buy it this morning. But I have a problem, I won't be able to read it.
I suppose one might wonder why. Although many won't care at all.
The answer is: I'm dead!
Now one might ask: If you're dead, how am I having these thoughts with myself?
Well, I'd say it's not easy to explain, but it's actually quite simple.
When I left the store after buying the new volume, I saw a little girl crossing the street. To my horror, she was about to be hit by a truck.
I don't know where I got the strength and courage, but I managed to save her at the last minute. At the cost of my life, of course.
And so I find myself in this pitch-black darkness without having any idea of time and space.
Just as I was lost in thought, I felt something, a force pulling me toward it. I tried to flee, but it was as futile as a bug trying to escape from a giant shoe.
With the pulling force, I felt I was losing consciousness. I tried to keep myself awake, but again it was futile.
The next time my eyes opened... Well, at least I felt like they opened, as everything around me was filled with darkness. I tried to breathe, but I couldn't, making me flap all seven of my limbs in panic. At least I attempted, as they weren't responding to my commands. After a few seconds of panic, I realized that I didn't have any need to breathe.
Then it hit me, 'Wait a second, why do I have seven limbs? Even if I counted my third leg, it would only sum to five... Also, where am I, and why can't I move?'
Images of blue and red flashing lights passed through my mind.
'Was that all-consuming darkness before meant I somehow survived, and I am lying in a hospital bed in a coma?' Desperation filled my mind as I realized this possible predicament.
Calming down my thoughts, I tried to come up with possible answers. Instantly, all memories of the past flooded my brain, causing me to black out in pain from the sudden influx of information. When the pain subsided, I could remember every detail I had ever heard or experienced during my twenty years of living. From my memories, I was sure that I wasn't in a coma, as now I have an above-average memory, or one would say perfect recall.
Hahaha, my brain is probably breaking down from a lack of oxygen! Maybe these are the legendary final moments in which your whole life flashes before your eyes. Well, if I am dying, I might as well continue.
Just as I was lost in thought, I felt a weird heat around me.
Again, I struggled to open my eyes and found that I seemed to be wrapped in something, and it was all black around me and very hot. It was obvious someone outside was roasting me with some kind of heat.
I struggled to shake my body, bumping into the wall, wanting to get out of here, but I found the thing containing me was too hard.
I tried to move my leg, and it moved. A familiar urge returned to me, the urge to breathe. Filled with new enthusiasm, I punched with my arm forward, hitting a hard surface. It didn't budge, so I punched it repeatedly until a cracking sound came from where I punched it.
Punching again, my arm broke through the shell, and dim light entered this egg. I quickly started to widen the hole with both of my arms while gasping for some air. Soon the hole was wide enough, so I promptly stuck my head through it.
A blinding light entered my eyes, causing me to squirm until I quickly got used to it. Above me was a beautiful starry sky with a full moon. It wasn't very bright, but for my eyes that were used to the darkness, it took a while to get used to it. I finally breathed in some much-needed oxygen, even though I felt I wouldn't be needing it. But as a former human who lived for twenty years, not breathing was quite impossible, at least for now. Knowing I could get out gave me all the energy to kick and flail with my limbs against the shell with renewed vigor.
Finally, the shell broke, and I fell to the cold ground. I stumbled upon my four limbs and looked around. A black dragon was in front of me.
However, the noise I made was just discovered by the huge black dragon inside the cave.
Instantly, a look of surprise appeared on the black dragon's face. She carefully curled up next to the dragon egg. I hadn't even had a chance to fully breathe in fresh air yet.
And then I saw a huge black dragon poking herself with one claw that was bigger than my whole body. I didn't want to die just like that, so I was just about to say no.
"Roar…"
I never thought I would make an animal-like roar. I wasn't a furry after all, unless they are Cat Girls, or Foxy Mamas, or Dog Girls. Anyway, one could understand what I meant unless they are not cultured enough.
The black dragon heard my roar. She retracted her dragon claw and looked at her newborn first child.
We both looked at each other for a while. Neither of us knew what to do. I was just about to speak.
Suddenly, a huge amount of information flooded into my brain. Along with the hints in the information flow, I subconsciously uttered my real name.
"I am Barbatos Caesar Volaric."
Even though I didn't know what it meant, my brain, heart, body, and even soul felt much better after saying it.
The young black dragon named Lilia secretly smiled beside me.
'A true dragon. I am really amazing, I gave birth to a true dragon the first time I became a mother. The things recorded in the fifth character are indeed true.'
As my stomach growled, I had already recovered by the time I began to gnaw at my own eggshell. In my newly gained memory, newborn dragons eat dragon eggs to nourish their bodies, but I found myself getting hungrier the more I ate. I quickly finished eating my dragon egg.
I even drank every drop of the egg yolk inside. But the hunger wasn't relieved. I looked at myself. Just as I was about to look at Dragon Mother with puppy-dog eyes, she looked at me.
After seeing me born just fine, Dragon Mother became extremely cold again, as she turned around and fished out a rotting huge devil shark from within the stinking gutter that was our home.
She threw it in front of me. She turned around and went back to her dragon nest, asleep with her eyes closed.
I looked at the foot of the rotting shark, my heart extremely resistant.
But the black dragon's instincts made me feel that this was delicious food. I was torn for a while, but in the end, I chose to eat it, as I was done devouring the shells already and there wasn't any other food I could see.
Megalosaurus eggshells could quickly harden the scales on a newborn fledgling, and the dragon's body primed it for combat.
When I was finished eating all the eggshells, I saw a blue screen in front of me like the ones you would find in system stories.
[The Feast Progress: 23%]
The first-tier feast progress came to 23%, but as the progress grew, my hunger was getting stronger and stronger.
Again, my eyes fell on the huge rotting shark not far away. Although deep down I refused, the smell of meat emanating from the devil shark made it impossible to hold back the hunger of my flesh.
And I directly opened my dragon mouth, revealing my short and sharp teeth, and ruthlessly bit down on the rotting carcass of the swamp devil shark.
In the end, hunger overcame appetite. After a few minutes, the body of the devil shark had already been eaten by me, with no bone residue left, and the feast progress reached 100%.
However, in the next moment, I felt a buzz in my head, as a shiver ran through my whole body. Then it seemed my consciousness entered a world of nothingness.
As time passed, I realized that all parts of my body were slowly but steadily rising. By the time I woke up again, a day had passed. At this time, my body length had grown from 2.4 meters to 2.9 meters. My body grew stronger before my eyes.
The original scales and short wings were a bit tender before, but now the scales were black, smooth, and thicker. Obviously, the defense had improved quite a bit, and the wingspan had become a bit more massive, and the skeleton was a bit wider and thicker.
[The Feast Cooldown Time: 30 Days]
[Activate the Carnivore Talent After: 30 Days]
After reading it, I breathed a sigh of relief. It's a good thing the Feast has a cooldown time; otherwise, the continuous hunger it brings really scares dragons. After all, this made me think of dragon hunting.
Although there is no love between evil dragons, once it knows the newborn wants to eat itself, I am definitely finished.
The next thing I did was to begin researching the Talent Feast.
It seems that I can prepare food in advance when the Talent Feast cooldown is over. I can eat to my heart's content at once, achieving the Talent Feast to the fullest.
The Feast skill also entered the 30-day cooldown time. Thirty days may be a bit long for humans, but for dragons, it's basically just a matter of opening and closing their eyes.
One month stacks a layer, and one year is 30 layers, which is already enough to distance myself from other dragons.
Then I suddenly thought of something, my expression changed as I lowered my head to look at my crotch.
I finally heaved a long sigh of relief. My precious! Although it's a little uncomfortable without pants, all's well if you're still there.
Lucky!
My gender didn't change. Neither am I genderless like in most dragon stories. Otherwise, I would have gone crazy. Putting aside my memory of being a straight human male for the past twenty years, judging from how I hatched from an egg, if I really became a female, wouldn't that mean I would have to pop eggs out when I breed in the future?
That scene is simply…
I shook my head, chasing away this creepy imagery from my mind.
While I was still thinking about this, I looked at the last remains of the Devil Shark. Suddenly, I smelled a fragrance coming from deep inside the cave. I tiptoed in, only to have my eyes widen.
As I saw a treasure entering my sight, the black dragon mother was laying on a huge pile of treasure with her eyes closed.
I could feel that this was a completely different scent from the dragon mother's. It's even more fragrant than hers. At this moment, the dragon mother opened her eyes.
Staring coldly at me, I was startled. Then I slowly backed away. She was warning me not to have any ideas about the massive pile of treasure.
For a dragon, treasure is like a second life. It wouldn't even spare its own offspring.
Looking at the huge dragon mother in front of me, even as a young dragon, I could only swallow my saliva and dismiss the thought. After all, I don't want to be slapped to death by my own mother just after being reincarnated.
But the drive for hoarding treasure made me unconsciously look at the dragon mother and the pile of treasure below her again. But when I saw her huge body and claws, I still suppressed the desire for treasure with reason.
'No, no.'
The next day, I heard crisp and crackling sounds behind me, so I turned to look at it under my curious gaze.
Two other black dragon eggs within the cave broke open one after the other, sticking out large, naive black heads from within. The two little ones, a female black dragon and another female black dragon, saw the arrival of the black dragon lady.
Then they each called out their true dragon names. I glanced at the two little female dragons, about 2 meters in length, with small, pointed horns and soft, droopy wings. There was still eggshell mucus on them.
But I didn't feel disgusted. Instead, it felt more fragrant. The dragon mother saw them all shouting out their true dragon names.
The mood seemed to improve. Snorting, she walked into the depths of the cave. After I saw her leave, I went to the two dragon sisters.
Seeing them still eating their own eggshells, I unceremoniously reached out my claws and snatched their eggshell fragments, preparing for the second feast.
---
POV Switch.
Emilia looked at the shell in front of her, which was several circles larger than her own.
She felt very resistant inside; this guy actually stole her things.
---
Omni POV.
I casually punched Emilia's dragon head to the ground and spooked her. I casually picked up the largest piece of eggshell in my mouth.
"Listen and let big brother taste it."
I comforted the dragon girl. Emilia wanted to resist, but unfortunately, the difference in size made it impossible to move at all.
'The despicable guy dares to treat the future Black Dragon Queen like this.'
Hannah, on the other side, saw the situation. Hastily gathering her eggshells together, she started to devour them wildly.
'I can't let this happen.'
Then I released the dragon claw that was suppressing Emilia, picked up Hannah by the neck, and put her aside. I also picked up the biggest eggshell.
'Fairness between sisters is necessary,' I thought, nodding my head.
Given the recent lesson, Hannah did not make any futile resistance, letting me take the eggshells and leave proudly.
I put the eggshells together with the remains of the devil shark. Then I lay down next to it as I was feeling sleepy all of a sudden.
….
Next Day.
As it turned out, I had underestimated the temperament of my two little newborn sisters. It seemed like they both made an agreement to attack me together.
"That was our food," Emilia screamed.
As they cursed while rushing toward me with their teeth and claws open, my own younger siblings really don't know any better. How dare they disturb their Big Brother's sleep at this time?
The corner of my mouth revealed a cold smile. First, I swept the dragon sister using my low tail, sending her flying.
Then a punch to Hannah, and she rolled back twice. The eggshells and swamp devil shark were guarded by me, and no one was allowed to get close to them, except the black dragon mother.
The two little ones that were sent flying looked at me in unison, their eyes filled with malice. Seeing that they were still unconvinced, I stretched out a dragon finger and contemptuously hooked it at the dragon sisters, as if saying,
'Come over if you have the ability.'
Seeing me taunting them, the two little girls' hot blood suddenly surged to their brains, and they wailed, rushing toward me again. My body slightly stepped to the left.
Then I dodged the dragon sister Hannah's charge.
The flexible dragon's tail behind me snapped on her dragon head, then swept her up, and poor Hannah was sent flying into the mud puddle with a grunt of pain and a few rolls.
At the same time, I landed a heavy left hook—a dragon punch—which directly hammered the dragon sister Emilia, who was attacking with a headbutt, flying away.
"How dare you provoke your Big Brother with this kind of strength?"
I looked at Hannah, who was floating in the mud puddle, burying her head in the water and pretending to be dizzy, as well as Emilia on the ground, who exposed her belly and rolled her eyes, pretending that she couldn't hear me. On the surface, I gave a cold smile, while in my heart, I was very happy. If there was no feast, and I was just born 2 days earlier, then I certainly wouldn't be the opponent of the two little dragons.
But there is no "if." I am just open.
What's wrong? A few minutes later, the snotty Hannah and Emilia raised their biggest eggshell and shouted in humiliation under their breath.
"Big Brother, please enjoy our eggshells."
I looked at the finally obedient dragon sisters with satisfaction, then took the two slices of eggshell and stuffed them into their mouths, which shocked them.
But even in their shock, they didn't waste a second. Clicking in, they ate them as soon as possible, as if afraid that I would change my mind.