Chapter 313: The Dragon Circling Above New York

Primary material plane, Earth, United States.

For Earthlings on September 30, 1983, today is destined to be a historic moment.

On the phosphor screen at the Colorado Shayan Mountain military base, ionospheric anomaly ripples spread like a plague. Sergeant Linda's fingertip hovered three centimeters above the red telephone, a distance enough for her to see the civilian aviation band data at the edge of the radar interface—real‑time tracks of seventeen airliners were being affected by some force.

"North American Air Defense Command calling Vulture Squadron, report optical observation immediately!" She shouted into the encrypted channel, but heard a taxi driver's curse explode from the public band: "Something's flying over the Statue of Liberty's head! Silver, damn it, it glows!"

In the cockpit of an F‑15 over the Atlantic, Mai Ke Ha Po, Major's pupils reflected an unforgettable sight. Within a two‑kilometer‑diameter thundercloud, dragon wings etched with geometric patterns churned lightning; the million‑volt arcs that should have pierced the aircraft were flowing into crystal clusters on the creature's back, coalescing in the gaps of its scales into liquid blue light.

"This is Vulture One, visual confirmation of a reptilian‑type organism," his Adam's apple bobbed, and the helmet camera emitted a wail as it auto‑focused, "Recording energy absorption process, recommend maintaining a ten‑mile safety distance—"

The warning radar's scream swallowed the rest of the sentence. Thirty‑two bolts of lightning struck the fighter formation simultaneously; amid the silver flash of the instrument panel, Mai Ke Ha Po, Major saw the creature's abyss‑deep, violet double pupils.

——

The war room's blast‑proof glass buzzed and trembled, Ma Ge Li Te Di Er Deng's coral‑colored nails nearly tore through the satellite image. In the picture, jade‑shimmering scales covered half of New York Bay, the dragon‑type creature's spinal spines pierced the clouds, and crystal clusters gulped blue‑white plasma within the ion storm.

"Weather weapon?" She slammed the photo onto the oak table gifted by Brezhnev, and the calculation of the 1945 Hiroshima blast yield slipped from the dossier, "Look at these energy readings! It's a damn breathing living nuclear reactor!"

Director of the CIA Luo Bo Te Kai En's lenses reflected the projection files from the Hawkins Laboratory. When the red marker for the "EP4-level event" pulsed on the energy‑peak curve of November 6, 1983, he smelled the tar of the president's private cigar—a scent that always reminded him of the camel‑brand cigarettes his father smoked on the day Kennedy was assassinated.

"91.7% spectral match." Kai En lightly tapped the screen with a ruler, the electromagnetic pulse waveform from the opening of the reverse‑world rift overlapping the current thundercloud data into a double helix, "Remember the Hawkins Lab's Rainbow Project? This dragon may also hail from that world."

The video feed at North American Air Defense Command suddenly erupted with static noise. Half of four‑star General Wei Lian Ke Lao Fu De's face was bathed in the radar screen's green light: "The Chromium Dome Project is ready; twenty LGM‑30G Minuteman missiles are receiving coordinates. Once the president gives the order—"

"Bomb New York with a nuclear warhead?" Di Er Deng grabbed the crystal ashtray on the table and, without thinking, hurled it: "Go tell him yourself! Let's see if you'll immediately roll back to Texas to raise cattle!"

Her roar was cut short by a sudden alarm. The war room's emergency lighting dyed everyone blood‑red, and Kai En's projector automatically switched to a live feed: over Liberty Island, Juan Ce Long's tail fin swept across the United Nations headquarters, the granite façade collapsing into floating Arcane Power runes in the silver light.

"Latest intel." Kai En unlocked the Pentagon's encrypted channel, and the screen showed surveillance footage from Wizards of the Coast.

"The creature's features appear to match those of the 'Juan Ce Long' from the tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons produced by the game company."

Di Er Deng felt absurd, tugged at the corner of her mouth and found she couldn't smile.

"What does that prove, that we're damn living inside a tabletop game?" Di Er Deng snapped her pearl necklace, the milky beads shattering against the bullet‑proof glass.

Di Er Deng's complexion turned pale as she stared at the massive creature circling the top of the UN headquarters on the big screen, feeling her mouth dry, tongue parched, and her whole body limp.

The creature that had terrified her into such a daze was watching everything around it with keen interest.

Naimi Xisi perched atop the building, feeling the surrounding Magic Net cheering the power of his arrival.

Unlike his previous simulated visit, the Earth's Magic Net had now fully completed its basic resurgence; Naimi Xisi needed only rest for twenty‑four hours to regain all his mana. A message that Doctor Bu Lun Na had sent him via Mana still hovered in his mind.

"Master, United States officials are vigorously searching for clues about you; they likely—"

Naimi Xisi cut him off: "No need to worry, human weapons cannot harm me."

Juan Ce Long arrived on Earth a day after passing through Doctor Bu Lun Na's sacrificial coordinates; this time, it used its true body.

Doctor Bu Lun Na never dreamed that the master she recognized would be a dragon over a hundred meters tall!

Juan Ce Long's proud mindset kept it from hiding; it swaggered across half of the United States and descended upon New York.

In fact, Naimi Xisi's arrival this time had more than just breaking Vickna's seal; it also aimed to collect all modern scientific knowledge on Earth.

Although the systems differ, knowledge from technological civilization can still indirectly aid magical research.

Moreover, Naimi Xisi was somewhat covetous of this technological civilization that exists within the magical universe.

Even though Earth in the 1980s was technologically lagging, with nothing of interest to him beyond a single nuclear weapon.

Yet, having been a human in the information‑explosion era in a past life, the sensory overload gave Naimi Xisi a vague notion of the developmental potential of a tech society.

!

Although he isn't well‑versed in physics, he knows that the only Legendary spell he masters is based on the quantum theory of technological civilization.

Vickna's return requires not only the "Reverse Eye" that exists in the reverse world, but also the location that seals Vickna.

Naimi Xisi, unfamiliar with this place and its people, lacks the patience to search slowly.

For him, whether gathering knowledge or locating Vickna's seal, the quickest method is to have others find it for him.

As for whether they're willing—

Naimi Xisi glanced at the faint silhouettes of distant fighters and gave a cold smile; it's no longer up to them.

Ask yourself: a being whose maximum output reaches nuclear‑explosion level (Solar Flare blast), whose endurance lets it unleash nearly five hundred peak attacks in a day, can freely manipulate nearly ten thousand people with Mind Power, can instantly teleport tens of thousands of meters, and whose defenses repel all weapons except the core of a nuclear blast.

How could Earth's civilization of the last century contend with such an entity?

(End of Chapter)