Chapter 317: US‑Soviet Conference (Two‑in‑One)

General Kelaofu De's pure‑copper pocket watch tapped a dull sound on the tactical map, and the inscription "Sulfur Island Campaign Memorial" on its face flickered in and out of the blue light.

"Twelve hours ago," the Vietnam‑War ace pilot said, unbuttoning the second button on his collar, "that dragon used some kind of spell to destroy the command vehicle of the 101st Air Assault Brigade, and the gamma‑ray dose measured on site was equivalent to twenty‑seven Hiroshima atomic bombs."

In the smoke‑filled conference room, the atmosphere was so oppressive it stole one's breath; the massive screen on the wall replayed the gruesome footage of the army fighting the Juan Ce Long, with fighter jets vaporized in an instant, tanks overturned like toys, and even the blinding flash of a nuclear blast failing to harm the dragon in the slightest.

Five‑star General Kelaofu De's expression grew solemn; he hammered the table hard, breaking the silence: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now facing an unprecedented crisis. A well‑equipped army is utterly powerless before that monster. We must reassess the situation and devise new strategies."

CIA Director Robert Kane suddenly slammed a box of the trs company's "Monster Encyclopedia" onto the bullet‑proof glass table, startling the stenographer in the corner into spilling his coffee: "Gentlemen, we may be living inside a damned tabletop game."

He adjusted his glasses and said gravely: "Our intelligence unit's urgent investigation found that this giant dragon's traits and abilities match the Ancient Juan Ce Long from the currently popular D&D tabletop game. In combat it employed the Eight‑Circle Spell 【Solar Flare Blast】 and 【Biggby Iron Fist】, as well as the Seven‑Circle Spell 【Madness Emblem】; all of which correspond exactly to the game's records."

He turned to page 243, where the yellowed paper printed in Gothic type read "【Ancient Juan Ce Long: Challenge Rating 30】".

Although House Speaker Ma Ge Li Te Ti Er Deng's eyes were bandaged, her voice remained firm: "Even though this sounds utterly absurd, we cannot ignore the evidence. The dragon's origin is likely tied to the world of the D&D game. We must determine why it came to Earth and what the mysterious location it mentioned actually is."

The oval‑shaped conference room door burst open, and four Marines escorted a shackled young man inside. His t‑shirt bore the slogan "DND Ultimate Play Furniture Club," and a d20 earring dangled from his left ear. "This is Mark Whitman, president of the University of Wisconsin tabletop gaming club," the National Security Advisor said, pulling the cloth from the youngster's mouth, "who was arrested for allegedly leaking trs company's internal data to the Soviet Union."

Kelaofu De strode forward, his eagle‑sharp eyes piercing Mark's view: "A German?"

The general squinted: "Do you intend to betray the United States, young man?"

Mark's face turned pale; only heaven knew he was merely chatting with an online friend, never expecting the other side to be a KGB operative.

"N‑no, sir. I only saw the news and wanted to discuss it with net friends. That was a Juan Ce Long, I swear, God, it had to be a Juan Ce Long!" Mark began with a stammering denial, but as he spoke on his eyes grew brighter and his tone more excited.

Kelaofu De waved coldly: "You look pleased? Do you know that dragon annihilated an entire combat force within a minute, killing over two thousand of our good boys!"

Mark furrowed his brow; like a typical book‑worm, he forgot the danger when speaking of his specialty: "Impossible! The Ancient Juan Ce Long is powerful, but I don't believe it can wipe out a modern army in an instant!"

Robert snorted coldly: "CIA agents have already laid all the information before you; who brought them in? I told you I need professionals!"

"You don't understand the rules at all!" Mark's roar echoed off the lead‑alloy walls. "The Juan Ce Long's Spell Slot limitation! The number of spells per Spell Circle level each day is fixed!" His blood‑stained finger jabbed at a photo showing the moment before the Solar Flare Blast detonated. "Look here! Yesterday at 18:23 it used the eighth‑Circle Solar Flare Blast, which, according to the Player's Handbook, requires at least one minute to cast—"

Kelaofu De suddenly clamped Mark's throat with his arm, impatiently asking: "Then why did the satellite capture that dragon releasing two… uh, what's that eight‑Circle spell within thirty seconds?"

"Su…Supermagic Feat…" Mark's face flushed purple‑red. "If it has the 【Spell Surge】 feat… it could expend higher‑Circle Spell Slots to…"

"The Juan Ce Long possesses the most powerful Supermagic Talent."

"Release him!" Robert seized the Spell Guide on the table and slammed it at the general. "Page 79! It says here that Legendary Spellcasters can use 【Legendary Casting Speed】 to accelerate spell release; if you have eyes, study the material yourself! Moreover, even if you know, our armor‑piercing rounds still couldn't breach its resistance threshold!"

"We not only cannot resist its attacks, we can't even wound it at all!"

Kelaofu De released his grip, and Mark gulped air like a drowning survivor.

Robert picked up the rulebook again and asked: "Also, according to this, the dragon should be able to release the Solar Flare Blast at most six times per day, right?"

Gasping with his hand over his throat, Mark stared blankly, then nodded: "Yes, if it's an Ancient Juan Ce Long, that's indeed the case."

"But our thermal‑imaging satellite detected the dragon's internal energy peak—equivalent to, damn it, two hundred W88 nuclear warheads!"

"That means the creature could unleash the nuclear‑like Solar Flare Blast two hundred times! Your damn rulebook is as wrong as a pile of crap!"

The entire conference room fell into dead silence, and cold sweat instantly covered Mark's nape. He suddenly realized he had missed a point: the casting motion of the Solar Flare Blast was not wrong, and the spell's details matched the book exactly.

Yet no Spellbook has ever mentioned that 【Solar Flare Blast】 can deliver a nuclear‑like strike.

Not to mention the opponent could unleash it two hundred times—that's an outrageous figure!!

Mark's teeth chattered as he pointed to a picture of the aftermath: "No, that's not an eight‑Circle spell; Solar Flare Blast never has that kind of power."

"Damn it, the spell already covers a five‑hundred‑meter impact radius; how could it cause such horrific damage? It doesn't match the rulebook! It must be a Legendary Spell—my God, a Juan Ce Long that can freely cast Legendary Spells?"

Robert looked at the collapsing Mark, shook his head in disappointment; a book‑worm like him was useless here—once reality diverged from the rulebook, he was at a total loss.

"The situation is the same? How the hell could it be the same? A real‑world monster can't be like the weak toys described in the rulebook."

After seeing the US Military reduced to toy‑like wreckage, Robert felt a vague intuition:

They might exhaust all effort and still be unable to match that monster.

Ma Ge Li Te Ti Er Deng suddenly emitted an inhuman shriek. The House Speaker, her eyes swathed in blood‑soaked gauze, clawed intricate marks into the conference table with her nails: "Something's moving in my eyes, that guy! That guy is peering at you through me!" Black slime oozed from her hollow sockets. "Ask that hippie… do dragons possess long‑range reconnaissance abilities!"

Mark answered instantly without hesitation: "The Ancient Juan Ce Long is a master of prophecy spells! It knows everything we plot!"

Robert clenched his fists, and when scanning Ma Ge Li Te Ti Er Deng's brain, he found calcified spots in her frontal cortex shaped like a d20. They had assumed it was the price of staring at the Mad Saint Emblem, but it turned out to be a window through which the dragon monitored them.

Kelaofu De seized the tactical console and roared: "Pull every library in Washington for all D&D material! Wait." He stared at the suddenly refreshed satellite cloud map: "The dragon didn't linger in Nevada; it's heading toward Indiana! Damn, what's there?"

Robert's expression tightened, a bad premonition surfacing: "Could the dragon be linked to the Upside‑Down world?"

Kelaofu De sat down dejectedly; even a hard‑line hawk like him felt fear of the dragon's power now.

Terrible destructive power, bizarre mind‑controlling ability, and ubiquitous surveillance.

"We need to sit down and negotiate with the dragon, Kelaofu De. The President has issued the order," Robert said, lowering his head to glance at the President's message, speaking to Kelaofu De with resignation.

Kelaofu De remained silent for a long time, then finally nodded wordlessly.

"You arrange it, but I won't"

!

A young staff officer stood up, hesitating slightly: "General, Director, I think it previously communicated with reporter Dan Lather and linguistics professor Erin Watson; perhaps they could serve as our bridge to the dragon."

Kelaofu De frowned: "Sending them is too risky; what if we anger the dragon?"

Kane pondered a moment and said: "But they are the only people who have ever contacted the dragon and survived. We have no better option. Moreover, since the dragon has set conditions, it shows there is still a chance for communication. We can give them instructions to try to discern the dragon's limits and needs."

"Immediately dispatch someone to contact civilian Dan Lather and Erin Watson."

——

Soviet Union, Moscow, Kremlin.

Deep‑red velvet curtains blocked outside view as Politburo members gathered around an oak long table inlaid with the sickle‑and‑hammer emblem. KGB Chairman Victor Chebrikov placed a reel of film into the projector; the footage showed the Nevada desert battlefield in the United States reduced to glass‑like craters by the Solar Flare Blast, with tank wreckage looking as if a giant hand had crumpled them like tin foil.

"Comrades, this isn't a Hollywood movie," Victor's voice rasped like rusted gears grinding, "Five hours ago our 'Crimson Traveler' network transmitted this footage—America lost the 101st Air Assault Brigade 300 km north of Las Vegas."

Defense Minister Ustinov hammered the table, emphasizing: "A creature that the United States cannot even handle with nuclear weapons could become the key to upsetting NATO's strategic balance."

Academy member Sakharov projected the data: "Analysis of intercepted US military operation reports shows the dragon's spell‑energy spectrum matches the 'extra‑dimensional oscillation wave' we detected in the Sevastopol lab by 87%, possibly linked to the new particle‑accelerator project."

KGB First Directorate chief Keliuchikoff displayed the file: "According to the 'Mole' report embedded in New York, Hawkins Town has had 17 supernatural incident reports classified as X‑files by the FBI in recent years, and last year an entire research team vanished—this place is highly likely the 'special location' the dragon is seeking."

Victor was momentarily stunned: "Hawkins Town? That…?"

The Joint Chiefs' Special Operations representative added: "The United States has built the Hawkins National Laboratory, under the Energy Department, in Hawkins; its underground facilities extend 30% deeper than publicly disclosed, matching the KGB's 1981 'Rainbow Project' blueprint."

The KGB already has conclusive evidence that the gateway to a parallel universe is hidden within the Hawkins National Laboratory.

Viktor took a deep drag from his cigar, his gaze grim: "Obtain it, and it will be our sword of victory against the United States. Capture it alive—no, even if we must die, we must seize its corpse! Upon its corpse, the Soviet Union will conquer the lands of the entire world!"

"Dispatch Alpha Squad to transport the Tesla coil matrix to that town, and also initiate the "Crimson Traveler" project."

Keliuqi Kefu's eyes flickered. Crimson Traveler? That was the ace operative team that once successfully stole nuclear weapon knowledge for the Soviet Union; it seems the Chairman's resolve is set.

"Yes, Chairman." Keliuqi Kefu bowed his head respectfully.

——

On the outskirts of Moscow, November 7, 1983, the winter was bone‑crushingly cold.

Under the floodlights, the cold fog solidified into ice crystals as twelve men in gray‑blue work uniforms lifted wooden crates stamped "Agricultural Machinery Parts" onto a train. Leading them, Major General Ao Liege Ka Lujin lifted a corner of a crate; a pale blue arc danced across the surface of the Tesla coil matrix, reflecting in his pupils like polar ice.

"Can this thing really trap mythic creatures?" The accompanying scientific advisor Anna Ivanova tightened her cashmere scarf, a faint radiation burn from the Sevastopol Laboratory visible on her neck.

"The United States proved conventional weapons ineffective with nuclear bombs." Ao Liege tapped the crate with his knuckles; the lead lining inside gave a muffled echo: "But according to the report from Design Bureau 42, a dragon's spell emits m‑meson radiation—much like the residual energy of the Tunguska explosion."

The train's whistle tore through the night, and Ma Ge Li Te Yi Li Ni Qi Na stepped out from the platform's shadows.

The KGB chief weapons engineer carried a leather‑bound cipher case; inside, the front page of *Capital* was inlaid with a miniature mental interferer, its pages soaked in a phenylpropanolamine derivative that can trigger migraines. Anyone unaware who physically touches it will bleed from seven orifices and die within three hours.

When she handed the case to Ao Liege, her nails scraped a harsh screech across its surface: "This is the organization's newest weapon—the ncnxo-15 type mental interferer. Activating it will scramble the brainwaves of anyone within a radius of 1,000 feet and erase their memory."

Then she produced a rice‑grain‑sized black dot: "Place it at the temple, and it will render you immune to the mental interferer's effects."

She looked at Ao Liege gravely: "Comrade Ao Liege, this mission may only succeed, never fail. The dragon—we must obtain it."

(End of Chapter)