The Red Dragon Lord is OP, but Insists on a Pop Culture Invasion!

Actually, this wasn’t his first visit. The last time he came, there was a bit of minor friction.

He took some valuables, the Elves got the chance to build new homes, and everyone came out ahead with a bright future.

"What’s your purpose here?"

An Elf, sitting on a high platform, asked with a serious expression.

His duty was to prevent members of other races from overstaying their welcome and living in the city illegally.

There were already enough of them in the city.

However, he had to be discerning. If they had the potential to serve as manual labor, they could be let in to supplement the workforce.

After all, there was no need to provide benefits to the undocumented. They were purely expendable.

"Visiting a friend," Zog replied.

"Who?"

"Kaelan Finarfin."

There was, in fact, an Elf by that name in the city. Every Elf’s information was recorded in the Holy Tree, accessible to any Elf with the proper authorization.

"Duration of stay?"

"Until I find that Elf."

Alarm bells went off in the Elf’s mind. With no specific departure date, the chances of him trying to stay illegally skyrocketed.

"Occupation."

"Boss of the Zog Group."

An unfamiliar, strange-sounding group. And what an obnoxious name, guaranteed to annoy any Elf.

Impression points: minus one.

"Annual income."

"I haven’t tallied it up exactly, but it’s probably more than your entire city makes," Zog replied with supreme confidence.

’Visas. He got it. The higher the income, the easier the approval. Big spenders were welcome anywhere.’

The Elf stared intently at Zog.

Lying. Impression points: minus another one.

"What education have you received?"

"Self-taught. I’m a genius."

Zog said, quite smugly. Everything he knew, aside from what was hereditary, he had picked up on his own.

The Elf had already made his judgment.

A Dragon full of lies, who hadn’t gone to school, and didn’t even bother to shapeshift.

’He had already pieced the story together in his head. Kaelan had just returned from traveling, and this Dragon must have met and hit it off with him out there.’

’A male Dragon? That didn’t matter; he never questioned how... liberated Dragons were.’

’Now he’s chased him all the way to the Silver-White City State, undoubtedly hoping to use his connection to Kaelan to freeload and stay here for good.’

’In your dreams.’

"Denied!" The Elf struck a small bell with a mallet, signaling for the next applicant to enter.

Zog took out an envelope.

"What do you think you’re doing? Bribery! I’m warning you, I’m an honorable Elf."

He said, even as he took the envelope.

’First, he gave it a squeeze. It was so thin; there couldn’t be anything good inside.’

Then he glanced at the sender’s name on the envelope. It looked familiar, and it was written in the Elven Language.

"Eldron?"

The Elf shot to his feet.

"You’re a friend of Eldron’s? Why didn’t you say so sooner! And here I was, putting you through an inspection. Please, follow me."

Zog followed him into another room.

In the pure white room, there was only a white round table, on which lay a leaf faintly glowing with golden light.

He recognized this thing, a leaf from the Holy Tree.

In Elven legends, the source of all knowledge is the blessing of the Holy Tree.

So they once worshiped the Holy Tree. Of course, they’ve since wimped out and switched their faith to the Magic Goddess.

But they still respected the Holy Tree.

"Please touch the leaf of the Holy Tree. To enter the Silver-White City State, one must receive the Holy Tree’s approval. This is a mandatory regulation," the Elf said.

Zog extended a claw and touched the leaf.

’He wasn’t worried. After all, he was technically a friend of Eldron’s now.’

Besides, if the Holy Tree really had the ability to threaten him, it should have used it the last time he came to the Silver-White City State.

He’d even chewed on a few of its leaves last time, and nothing had happened.

The instant his claw touched the leaf, his consciousness was pulled into another space.

’A familiar feeling.’

’Is this tree also a Divine Remnant?’

’No, the Holy Tree is a living tree. Have I just met a living member of the Divine Race?’

As Zog puzzled over this, a Bird Spirit Body slowly descended.

It looked very similar to the Deer Spirit’s Spirit Body from the Northern Domain.

’What’s going on? Are Spirit Bodies formed from faith this common now?’

’If it existed before, I should have heard some news about it. So it’s very likely this Spirit Body also appeared in recent years.’

"Yes. I chose to awaken two years ago."

A voice entered his consciousness.

’Whoa, it can talk!’

Zog was shocked. This thing was far more intelligent than the deer from the Northern Domain.

’What the hell is this thing? A resurrected god?’

"I am not a god," the Bird Spirit Body replied, seemingly able to perceive Zog’s thoughts directly.

The next sentence was even more beyond Zog’s expectations.

"The Magic Goddess is not a god either. Her life is on the verge of collapse."

Zog panicked. Just hearing that one sentence was enough to have him condemned for high treason.

’I just want to get rich. I’m not very interested in getting involved in power struggles with gods or whatever other mysterious beings.’

Because there was one thing he knew very well: he couldn’t beat the Magic Goddess.

To his surprise, the Bird Spirit Body produced a Zog meme: a picture of him curled into a ball hugging his knees, with the caption, "Totally calm."

’He just couldn’t...’

’This is not how a proper Spirit Body should act.’

’So this must be the "unexpected gain" Old El was talking about.’

He now seriously suspected that Eldron had received instructions from the Holy Tree to trick him into coming to the Silver-White City State.

"I just wanted you to relax," the Bird Spirit Body said.

"Where did you learn this stuff?" Zog asked, very curious.

He could feel that this Spirit Body had no ill will towards him.

"The Deer Spirit Social Circle. After I awoke, I needed to learn the current language."

’Picking up bad habits.’

Good thing current internet slang hadn’t reached the point of complete abstraction. Otherwise, it would be hard to imagine a Bird Spirit Body spouting a stream of incomprehensible zoomer-speak.

"Why did you want to see me?"

Zog didn’t believe that just anyone could meet this bird. If that were the case, news about it would have spread long ago.

"You can use my power to spread the network. This might be the best way to destroy the false god."

"What do those two things have to do with each other?" Zog was getting annoyed. ’Why does building an internet have to involve so much drama?’

"Bring the network to the Elves."

"Can’t you just make them connect to the network?" Zog believed that given the Holy Tree’s status among the Elves, a single divine manifestation would be more effective than any promotion he could run.

"Cannot force an individual’s will. It violates the directive."

"Wait, directive? What directive?"

Zog hated this feeling of being part of a grand conspiracy that he knew nothing about.

"Answering that exceeds my authorization."

"Right now I really want to know what the hell you and your kind are."

"Please spread the network to every corner..."

The Bird Spirit Body went into broken-record mode.

Then, Zog left the Consciousness Space.

’I hate riddlers. No, I hate riddle-birds.’

Zog was annoyed. ’Where do these things learn to be so cryptic?’

"You were connected with the Holy Tree for three minutes and fifty seconds. The Holy Tree must be very fond of you. You’ve passed," the Elf said.

Tch. Zog pouted. ’Time in the consciousness space actually flowed at the same rate as the outside world? Don’t novels always say only an instant passes outside?’

’That Bird Spirit Body is pretty lame.’

"What’s that supposed to mean? Three minutes and fifty seconds... that’s not some kind of all-time record, is it? Does this make me the official, Holy Tree-approved City Guardian Holy Dragon or something?" Zog teased.

"You’re joking. Do you need me to show you the way?"

"No need, I’ll wander around on my own," Zog answered casually.

He discovered he could access the Holy Tree’s network anytime he wanted. The Bird Spirit Body had, in good faith, opened up its network permissions to him.

There were no complex Magic models inside.

Compared to Red Middle—which was already showing signs of becoming a "shit mountain" of code, with its messy pile of miscellaneous Magic—this was incredibly clean.

It only had one function: storing and searching the information of every Elf.

’What an ultimate doxxing tool.’

With the help of this information system, Zog quickly located Kaelan’s home address.

Getting the Elves hooked on the internet could wait. The important thing was to grab the composer. The score was the final piece of the puzzle for finishing the *Tom and Jerry* production. Without it, they couldn’t release the show.

Following the address from the Holy Tree, Zog arrived in front of a rather magnificent white house.

A full five spires.

If he remembered correctly, the price of houses in the Silver-White City State was directly proportional to the number of spires.

The main place he’d robbed last time had seven spires. A five-spire house was definitely what you’d call high-end.

He extended a claw and knocked on the door.

"I’ll get it!" a shout came from inside, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps.

The door was flung open with a BANG, as if they were afraid Zog would leave if they were a second too late.

The one who opened the door was a delicate and androgynous-looking Elf.

All Elves were delicate-looking. Even the mixed-blood Totos ended up being quite attractive as a result.

"You’re Kaelan..."

Before Zog could finish asking, the Elf’s eyes welled up with tears as they grabbed his claw.

"I am," they said in a low voice, "You’re the boss of the Zog Group, right? Can you abduct me?"

"Huh? Don’t just say things like that, I could sue you for slander!" Zog was a legitimate business-dragon now. He never did anything illegal... in public.

"I heard Sister Elsa was abducted. You can abduct me too! In a little while, it’ll be too late!"