Chapter 565 - 348: Zhuo · Passively Becomes Dragon King · Ge (2)

Chapter 565: Chapter 348: Zhuo · Passively Becomes Dragon King · Ge (2)

For the audience in attendance, it was a very immersive experience.

Whether from seeing the Dragon Race’s pillaging firsthand or hearing stories about Giant Dragons, this was the scene they all imagined.

Having spent so much time in Zog’s territory, the people here had almost forgotten what dragons were truly like.

Besides, the dragons in the city, who were more enthusiastic about mealtimes than anyone, looked nothing like the ones in the Shadow of Evil.

The Dragon Race members in the audience, however, had a completely different reaction.

The dragons all felt like laughing and were struggling to keep a straight face.

The dragons in the movie were all Juvenile Dragons who hadn’t even left the kindergarten. They were the type to get into fights with their own tails, yet here they were in the story, trying to act all terrifying.

These dragons weren’t very fluent in the common tongue yet. Fortunately, you could understand the gist of this Shadow of Evil just by watching the visuals, without needing to catch every line of dialogue.

In the story, Little Hiccup, who was clearly seen as a burden, took out a secret weapon he had built and aimed it at the most powerful dragon of legend: the Night Fury.

A direct hit. The small, dark figure plummeted into the forest.

Barossalis had never heard of a type of dragon called a Night Fury. ’It just looks like a Black Dragon,’ he thought, ’or rather, a Little Black Dragon.’

At first, the audience thought this would be a Shadow of Evil about the conflict between the Dragon Race and humans.

The title, *Dancing with Dragons*, sounded like it was about the strongest Dragon Hunter elegantly defeating dragons as if in a dance.

Just as they were eagerly waiting to see Little Hiccup transform from the incompetent son of the tribal Chief into a great Warrior, the plot took a completely unexpected turn.

Little Hiccup found the injured Night Fury but, after a long hesitation, couldn’t bring himself to kill it and let it go instead.

But the Night Fury’s tail fin was injured—half of it was missing—leaving it unable to maintain balance in flight and trapping it in the area.

Thus, the plot shifted to how Little Hiccup gained the Night Fury’s trust.

The human and the dragon went from being mutually wary to gradually growing familiar, and finally, trusting one another.

Little Hiccup named the Night Fury Toothless, because it could retract all its teeth.

This dragon, which had been described as incredibly powerful and dangerous for the first dozen or so minutes, acted in a way that completely contradicted its reputation.

It had adorably dopey eyes, loved fish but hated eels, and enjoyed getting scratches and chasing spots of light on the ground.

Just like an oversized black Cat.

When the iconic scene appeared—Little Hiccup closing his eyes and extending his palm to touch Toothless’s snout—the crowd in the square erupted in cheers.

And when Little Hiccup fitted Toothless with a prosthetic tail fin, allowing the pair to soar through the heavens in perfect coordination, a collective gasp of awe rose from the audience.

What a beautiful scene.

Now people understood what *Dancing with Dragons* really meant. It wasn’t about confrontation, but coexistence.

The village in the story, just like Deepwater City, chose to live together with the Dragon Race.

Their relationship was even closer than the one between dragons and people in the city.

Finally, the culprit behind the human-dragon conflict appeared: the eternally insatiable Dragon King.

Its giant mouth waited for the enslaved smaller dragons to toss in the plundered food.

If they couldn’t satisfy the Dragon King’s appetite, the little dragons who failed their task would become food themselves.

These dragons had no choice but to frequently raid human villages.

The audience didn’t know if Feilin’s dragons invaded the city-states of other races because they had no choice, but just as in the movie, they agreed that peaceful coexistence with the Dragon Race was the better outcome.

In the final scene of the film, humans and the enslaved Dragon Race stood on the same battlefront, fighting together against the greedy Dragon King.

The thrilling, tense scenes had the audience crying out in alarm, so much so that they didn’t even recognize the Dragon King as a scaled-up version of Zog.

The Dragon Race audience’s focus, however, was even stranger. They had long accepted the fact of coexistence between dragons and humans; they just didn’t understand how a group of Juvenile Dragons could possibly fight Zog.

As for Barossalis, his focus was even more peculiar. He suddenly felt that what the world needed now was a Dragon King to unite the entire Dragon Race.

Not one to fight against other races, but one to ensure the Dragon Race could fully integrate into this rapidly developing new world.

Coincidentally, Zog seemed like a very suitable dragon for the role.

The former Giant Dragon Realm had also been a rather loose nation. The Dragon God, as the supreme ruler, was famously elusive and rarely meddled in affairs.

The method for selecting the Dragon God’s draconic regent was also very typical of the Dragon Race.

Dragons would nominate themselves as candidates, then they would all fight. The last one standing—the best fighter—became the god’s regent.

From this perspective, it was perfectly reasonable for Zog to become the Dragon King. Although the Dragon God was gone, it didn’t change the fact that Zog was likely the best fighter among all living dragons.

’Makes sense.’

Barossalis stroked his beard, a momentous decision seemingly taking shape in his mind...

When the movie ended, the square filled with unending applause.

The people didn’t have a concept of "blockbuster films" yet, or they would have recognized this as an exceptionally good one.

It had a novel concept, excellent visual effects, well-placed humor, a smooth story, and an emotionally resonant, thrilling, and exciting conclusion.

For a great many blockbusters, these seemingly simple requirements are actually very difficult to meet.

It was all too common for big-budget productions to turn out to be garbage.

A child who had been frightened before the start of the movie mustered his courage again. Finding the Green Dragon, he mimicked the way Little Hiccup approached Toothless in the film: he turned his head away, closed his eyes, and held out his hand, hoping the dragon would come closer.

"Uh, I have a spike on my nose, and the spike is poisonous. It’s better if you don’t touch it," the Green Dragon said in the common tongue, its voice synthesizer crackling to life.

"Wow, he can actually talk! Mama!"

The child was scared off once again.

After this Shadow of Evil was released, it successfully closed the distance between many of the city’s dragons and its other residents.

Many people started to dare to interact with the Dragon Race.

The Dragon Race Kindergarten’s livestream channel also saw a huge increase in viewers, finally becoming a popular channel.

Every Juvenile Dragon in the kindergarten also gained their own fan groups.

Especially Little Black Dragon Nick; he was probably the most famous dragon now besides Zog.

But Barossalis didn’t join the fun. He maintained his human form, and no one noticed that he was actually a dragon.

After watching the film, he returned to his residence. On the way back, he seriously contemplated the matter of Zog becoming the Dragon King.

The more he thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.

It wasn’t necessary for Zog to lead the entire Dragon Race, find new territory for the Giant Dragons, or establish rules and whatnot.

He was just needed as a symbol—a symbol worthy of the other dragons’ trust and following.

As something of a social butterfly among the Dragon Race, Barossalis also had a habit of keeping a census of all dragons.

The numbers he came up with were quite grim.

For many years, the population had been in decline, just like their civilization.

Zog’s transformation was simply too timely.

’I don’t know what great epiphany he must have had to undergo such a complete transformation. It’s truly worthy of a dragon’s respect.’

After all, the older one gets, the harder it is to change one’s ways, and the more difficult any transformation becomes.

’Since Zog has already done so much, I have no reason to stand by and just watch.’

’The first step, then, is to let the surviving members of the Dragon Race see what Deepwater City is like today.’

’Then they, too, will understand Zog’s importance.’

And so, Barossalis found paper and a pen and began to write letter after letter, intending to contact every dragon he had on his list.

Relying on the Adventurer Guild to find them one by one in various mountains and wastelands would be too slow.

Many members of the Dragon Race were very good at hiding. Their trails were extremely difficult to find, and many remained unknown to the wider world to this day.

But conveniently, he knew where they were.

In his letters, Barossalis described the beautiful scene of dragons and other races coexisting harmoniously in Deepwater City, as well as the necessity for the Dragon Race to reunite.

He also made precise adjustments to his phrasing for each letter, tailoring it to his memory of each dragon’s personality.

He wrote continuously for several days before he finished writing to all the dragons he knew of.

Then, he placed each letter into a different Teleportation Array, sending them to those hidden dragons.

’I hope they haven’t moved,’ Barossalis thought.

Generally speaking, dragons rarely moved.

After sending off all the letters, it was as if he could already see it: the kingdom of his race, as it lived in his memory.