DKIE CH27: All is Ready

While Rio was marveling at his good luck, in a room far away, Quill had stopped talking.

It read the manuscript again, its thoughts unknown.

Luka didn’t pay too much attention to Quill’s strange silence and continued to brainstorm.

Before dinner, he had already sorted out the outline. After supper, he took some more time to cultivate.

Luka now wished he could break down one minute into pieces to use. The water element gathered in mid-air, forming the shape of a beast of burden.

His use of the elements was becoming more and more skillful, and he had a continuous stream of faith coming in every day.

The two eyes of the little person ‘conceived’ inside him were now lit up.

“But my cultivation progress is slower than I imagined.” Luka frowned. “What’s the reason for this?”

Could it be that I’ve committed too many sins in the process of writing?

He had clearly absorbed a lot of faith each time, but his magical power grew slowly.

Quill: “Not slow.”

“Hmm?”

Quill only said, “Cultivate at this pace, and you will soon become a blockbuster.”

The starting price for faith cultivation was high. After that, he just needed to continue expanding his audience.

He hadn’t slept well yesterday, and a delayed sleepiness soon invaded his consciousness.

After forcing himself to learn a few spells, Luka angrily walked nearly two thousand meters and fell headfirst onto the bed, exhausted.

From the Holy City to Dragon Island, he had been soaring on a dragon almost the entire way. After floating in mid-air for a long time, it was a bit uncomfortable to finally sleep on the ground.

That floating sensation never disappeared, and Luka didn’t sleep very soundly.

In the middle of the night, half-asleep, he suddenly had a premonition, as if a pair of eyes were staring at him.

Luka groggily opened his eyes.

After a new round of cultivation, seeing things roughly in the dark was not a problem.

He saw that by the desk, a figure had appeared at some unknown time.

A dark shadow sat there, with an antique bronze mirror in front of it. The mirror reflected the bed behind it.

Seemingly noticing that Luka was awake, the figure twisted its slender neck and slowly turned its head.

Luka was completely awake now!

His body reacted before his mind could, quickly mobilizing the water vapor in the air to condense into a sharp blade and shoot it over.

The sharp blade pierced through the air and came before the figure, then withered back into water mist.

The figure in front of the mirror slowly walked over.

Luka did a dolphin tail flip and sat up. This time, his thoughts and actions were just as fast.

If there was something dirty hidden in the bunker, Rio would have probably discovered it long ago. At last, he seemed to think of something and reached out to touch the side. Sure enough, Quill was gone.

A guess grew from the bottom of his heart, and Luka relaxed a little.

He squinted his eyes to focus and took a closer look at the person.

The person who walked over also looked to be in his teens, with a head of neat silver short hair and extremely superior facial features.

The strange point was that his skin was very thin, like pale paper. Underneath, it wasn’t smooth blood vessels, but metal gears.

With the regular biting and turning, they injected infinite power into the body, a kind of violent beauty unique to machinery.

Luka’s gaze moved up, examining this unusually exquisite and somewhat familiar face, and he tentatively spoke:

“Alex?”

He swallowed back the word “Your Excellency” that he hadn’t called out.

Although the facial features were almost a one-to-one replica of Alex’s, they were a bit more childish. His brows were not as deep as Alex’s, and his expression was more like Quill’s.

Confirming that it wasn’t Alex who had awakened, but still led by the deformed heart, Luka calmed his racing heart and asked in surprise, “Why are you playing with transformation in the middle of the night?”

“I just temporarily made a set of bones.”

Quill recommended itself: “Didn’t you say you were short on actors? I’ll play the fake young master.”

Luka was stunned for a moment. He saw his skin slowly solidify, and the gears below were instantly covered by the shell as if by an engine. “Are you serious?”

“To play a character who bosses you around, why not?”

Luka reached out and sneakily poked the fresh face. It was a bit soft, and the texture of the skin was the same as a human’s. As for the hair color, silver-white hair was common among human nobles.

Before Quill could retaliate, he sat up straight on the edge of the bed and threatened, “Tell me the truth, or I’ll go tell on you to your parents.”

Quill’s eyelids twitched. So promising.

He didn’t deliberately hide it from Luka and said in a casual tone, “You’ve written another story that angers both heaven and men.”

Luka pursed his lips. What are you talking about? This is called art.

“The role of the fake young master is very annoying,” Quill said coldly. “When your so-called movie is released, there will definitely be a lot of negative emotions directed at this character.”

Luka vaguely caught something and quickly reacted, “Can negative emotions provide you with energy?”

Otherwise, why would Quill want to act for no reason?

“Faith can be cultivated, so of course other emotions can too,” Quill said, “but they can’t be cultivated at the same time, otherwise they will conflict and cause the body to explode.”

As expected!

Luka sneered. His premonition back then was correct.

Alex must have studied this magic art carefully, otherwise he wouldn’t have casually come up with something so fitting.

What faith magic? It was essentially a curse-style magic. Everyone who saw it would be ‘cursed’. The only difference was that he didn’t have to crawl out of the TV like Sadako; he just had to sit back and reap the benefits.

Quill said faintly, “You can call it a mobile human enchantment.”

Playing this role might be even more effective than devouring essence blood.

It unconditionally believed that Luka could make the audience feel like they had a fishbone stuck in their throat to the greatest extent.

Luka, being trusted like this for the first time: “…”

No need for that.

Luka originally wanted to continue asking if it would expose its identity, but on second thought, Quill wasn’t stupid. It naturally had a way to not have its true identity discovered.

There were no records of Alex’s appearance in the books, and the existences of the same era had probably long since turned to dust of history.

After reaching an agreement, Quill habitually got into bed and lifted the covers.

“Ahem,” Luka coughed twice. “You should change back to your original form first.”

“I can’t. This skeleton will fall apart.” It didn’t have the energy to make another one.

Luka said, “Take more calcium.”

In old age, osteoporosis is understandable.

If they continued to dawdle, they wouldn’t have to sleep again this night. Anyway, the bed was big enough. He yawned and also got into the quilt.

It wasn’t the first time he had seen Quill transform into a living person. The initial shock quickly dissipated. Luka closed his eyes heavily and fell into a deep sleep again.

Not long after he fell asleep, Quill opened its gray, deep eyes. In fact, it could have gone to another room, or even skipped the sleeping process altogether.

It was just that without Luka’s presence by its side, it always felt like something was missing.

After thinking about it, it could only be attributed to the blood pact.

Quill moved a little closer.

“Heh.”

So the equal contract has this drawback.

The next morning, Luka drafted a contract alone, stating that the movie’s profits would be split 60-40, and set off to find Rio.

Quill did not follow. Luka had to find people from outside to play the other roles, and it would mix in with them at that time.

After walking all the way until noon, Luka finally saw Rio again.

The main door was open. Rio was not in his room. Luka went out curiously and saw magic crystals piled up outside like they were free.

“The special recording stones have also been prepared.”

In the morning, Rio had helped him engrave the inscriptions, increasing the capacity and image quality of the recording stones.

“What else do you need?” There were now a group of traveling merchants near the Dragon Islands. They could get anything for the right price.

Luka was dumbfounded. This was the charm of being fabulously wealthy!

“Just, just the actors.”

The Ten Thousand Realms Gathering would continue for a few more days. Alice and the others could only come back after it was over.

Currently, several important actors were still missing. Luka considered advertising for recruitment and holding an audition within the Dragon Islands. Maybe some dragons would be interested.

When he explained his idea, Rio didn’t want to pour cold water on him, but he could only remind him, “The youngest dragon on the Dragon Islands is also over three hundred years old. Acting, in their eyes, is no different from playing house.”

Even if the promotional posters were sent out, probably no dragon would be interested.

Luka said in a low voice, “I want to try.”

With more dragons participating, even if the audience was not interested, they would still buy tickets to watch the excitement.

“…My little wealth can’t even hire a single dragon scale, so I want to pay the important actors an hourly wage of two hundred and eight.”

“Two hundred and eight?”

Luka: “Two hundred and eight words per hour, a small bonus side story.”

Rio calmly changed his tune, “For this price, I can play both parents for you.”

Double salary.

Luka was very moved and then refused Rio’s offer of a mother’s love.

Next, he had to write the second part of Beloved Three-and-a-Half-Year-Old, prepare for My Demon King Father, and pre-heat for the movie’s release.

Adding extra writing was actually a considerable burden.

But Luka felt it was worth it. After all, this theme… whoever filmed it would know.

It was for emotional distress damages.

In a magical world, everything was convenient. In less than ten minutes, Luka had made the poster.

The content was simple, recruiting actors to play the protagonist’s mother and older brother, with a special mention of the daily salary.

Because it was inconvenient for Luka to go to other dragons’ islands without permission, he could only ask Rio to host the audition. It just so happened that he was playing the role of the father and could personally pick the actors for the opposing scenes.

“This is the contract,” Luka said.

Besides the salary, there was also a share of the profits, all listed in detail.

Rio: “There’s no need for a share.”

Luka shook his head, “Business is business. The initial sponsorship money was almost all from Your Excellency.”

He was only responsible for coming up with a ridiculously over-the-top story.

Seeing his insistence, Rio did not refuse again.

After outsourcing the trouble of the audition, Luka went back to continue creating the script.

This time he had learned his lesson. Not wanting to spend another three hours walking back to his room, he wrote in a place near the door.

In the afternoon, just as he was halfway through writing, the ground suddenly began to shake violently.

An earthquake?

Luka hurriedly ran out. The billowing giant waves roared, and he couldn’t see anything outside. He shielded his face with his arm, his whole body about to be drenched by the sea waves.

Luka tried hard to open his eyes to see what was happening.

Vaguely, he saw Rio returning in the tide.

“Your Excellency Rio,” Luka shouted at the top of his lungs, “It seems like a tsunami!”

“Not a tsunami, it’s an audition.”

“Huh?”

Rio: “Didn’t you ask me to help with the audition?”

His method was fighting.

Unity was one thing, but the dragons usually fought a lot over the size of the islands they could occupy. It was a good time to loosen up their muscles.

“Don’t worry.”

The dragons’ physical bodies were too strong. In order not to overdo it, everyone transformed into their human forms.

As he spoke, Rio shook off the surrounding waves, his tone as calm as usual.

Now Luka could finally see clearly. He hurriedly shouted to the ‘girl group’ members on the left, “Stop fighting.”

Then he shouted to the ‘boy group’ members on the right, “You guys stop fighting!”

This is not a debut battle, no need to vote!

Unfortunately, his voice was not as loud as the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. About half an hour later, the boy group war ended first. A long-haired man in light cyan clothes walked over.

Rio was more respectful, “Grandpa Denton.”

Denton in the light cyan clothes nodded, his gaze falling on Luka, his tone calm. It was the giant dragon who had asked Luka about the cliffhanger yesterday.

Luka’s mouth fell open, “Grand, grandpa?”

“You can call me brother from now on.” Denton was very calm, still holding the promotional poster in his hand. He had clearly contracted for the role of [Older Brother] with his strength.

At the same time, the girl group war also ended. A lively and charming laugh came over, “I won, I won!”

It felt really good to be active once in a while.

The young girl in the light yellow long dress came directly in front of Luka. She first greeted the two dragon elders, “Hello Grandpa Denton, hello Uncle Rio.”

Finally, she said to Luka, “Please take care of me, son.”

Luka: “…” What a complicated dragon relationship.

Suddenly, he began to miss his original family.

After a brief greeting, Luka finally figured out the identity of the giant dragons outside the script.

Denton, who was called grandpa by Rio, had already entered his twilight years.

“Those little dragon cubs, I watched them grow up. They know I don’t have long to live, so they deliberately let me win,” Denton said with a smile.

Luka couldn’t help but feel a little sad upon hearing this.

It wasn’t about anything else, but a kind of complicated emotion of witnessing that even a long life will come to an end.

The eldest daughter in the light yellow long dress, named Isa, said sadly, “All things must come to an end. Grandpa Denton only has three to five hundred years of life left.”

Luka almost burst into tears.

Three to five hundred years?

It was a question whether he could even live that long.

Denton saw his expression of trying to hold back his sadness, and his expression became a little more amiable.

He’s a kind and sensitive child. I shouldn’t have scared him about the cliffhanger yesterday.

Luka composed himself and said to Rio, “We still need to hire supporting roles like maids and butlers from outside.”

Rio nodded, “You handle it.”

As they were talking, a loud voice suddenly came from near the coastline, “Rio, it’s been a long time since we had a couple of rounds. Care for a match?”

Rio moved his shoulders and walked over. Soon, a giant wave even higher than before shot up from the coast.

…

After the actors were cast, the next thing to solve was the filming location.

The buildings on Rio’s territory were all underground and were obviously not suitable for filming. In fact, most dragons loved to build underground castles.

Berlanie was an exception. He liked to read and grow flowers, so he had a small house on the ground.

Unfortunately, this was just a small house for reading and recuperating, and it also did not meet the macroscopic architectural requirements for filming.

After a hearty fight, Rio returned and heard Luka’s troubles. He said, “Let’s film on Grover’s island. That guy owes me a dragon favor, and he’s hibernating right now.”

Hearing about hibernation, Luka asked, “If we go and disturb him, will that be bad?”

“It won’t affect him.”

Dragons were also conscious during their hibernation period. As long as they weren’t too noisy, they wouldn’t be bothered.

Isa’s gaze became evasive at this moment, “We’re going to Uncle Grover’s place.”

The same expression, Luka had seen on the faces of countless children who didn’t want to go to their relatives’ houses for the New Year.

“Is he very fierce?” Luka asked in a low voice.

Isa shook her head, “Quite the opposite. Uncle Grover is a snowflake dragon. He’s very gentle to everyone. He even walks around ants so as not to step on them.”

That was a dragon that hadn’t lost its temper in a thousand years.

Luka instantly understood, “You’re worried that he’s been accumulating it all and will burst?”

Isa nodded vigorously, with a look of “you’re so good at describing it.”

Luka couldn’t help but start to wonder if he should change the filming location. After all, the content of what he was going to film was also quite infuriating.

Soon, this thought was occupied by other important matters.

In the afternoon, after Luka sent a letter to Lilian in the distant Holy City, Rio took him to see Grover’s island from afar. He saw buildings rising from the ground, streets crisscrossing, and even greenery. From a distance, it looked like a luxurious empty city.

“Grover is very fond of human culture, especially architectural history.”

He had been a little hesitant at first, but after seeing this magnificent scene, Luka unhesitatingly decided, “This is it!”

Looking at the entire domain, there was probably no place more suitable than this.

Filming was set to begin in three days.

Within three days, Luka successfully completed most of the script creation. The first part only needed all kinds of dog-blood abuse, a genre he was a master of. He also stayed up late to write two side stories.

After Quill transformed into a human, Luka could only use an ordinary pen to write his works.

One was writing furiously, the other sat on the side and watched coldly.

Under the bright light, Quill’s cold gaze fell on the pen shaft in Luka’s hand. For some reason, that pen shaft looked a bit displeasing to the eye.

He usually held it to write.

“Why did you break my pen?”

When he came to his senses, Luka was looking at him with a puzzled expression. The desk was a ‘dismemberment scene’. The original pen had been shattered into pieces at some unknown time.

Quill thought with a blank expression, the side effects of the blood pact are too great. It will also make the contractor have some possessiveness.

The desk was a mess. He was silent for a moment, but when he opened his mouth, he said, “Do you need to write so much?”

Each side story had a dedication: “To XX.”

It was clear that he was going to write a different side story for each actor.

In fact, if he strictly followed the contract, it would be fine to give each dragon the same side story.

Luka: “I don’t do shoddy work.”

As he spoke, he shook off the pen debris from the paper and prepared to change to another pen.

“Use this.” The figure with neat silver short hair threw over a pen with a bumpy texture. Luka took it and tried it. It had a metallic feel and wrote smoothly.

The feel was a bit like using Quill. He didn’t need to use too much force at all.

How magical.

Luka looked up in surprise. Just as he was about to ask where the pen came from, he saw the nine-fingered silver-haired man installing gears to repair his broken finger.

…Suddenly, he knew what the raw material of the pen was.

Quill was wishing it could drag out the inventor of the blood pact and whip their corpse. When their eyes met, its voice was cold and hard, “What?”

“Nothing, just think your middle finger is quite long.”

Luka couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked, “Aren’t necromancers best at manipulation? Could it be that the book records are wrong, and you are actually best at the art of puppetry?”

This powerful race had already perished in the long river of time, leaving only a few records.

Quill did not deny his probing of its own race and replied faintly, “For a period of time, everyone ran very fast when they saw a necromancer.”

Luka understood.

A rigid demand that was not met, a representative of self-reliance and abundance.

The pen made by ‘Pen’ was indeed very easy to use. That night, Luka noted down this kindness. Before lying down in bed, he silently prayed for it to grow flesh and blood soon.

Occasionally, when he turned over and saw the pen holder on the desk, he suddenly couldn’t sleep.

Tossing and turning, Luka finally couldn’t resist getting out of bed and pulling the pen out of it.

Quill never expected Luka to cherish this pen so much that he had to touch it again even before sleeping.

Indeed, only after using an ordinary pen did one know one’s own preciousness.

“Phew.” Luka pulled the quilt back up.

Now it was comfortable. Otherwise, it always felt like Alex was giving him the middle finger.

__

Author’s note:

Excerpt from Luka’s diary:
Can you make a robot that can do the Northeastern duo-dance? @Alex. I’m willing to pay to see it.

Alex: …

The robot version of Alex randomly drops 50 red packets.

Luka: I sent out a hundred, why do you only have fifty?

Alex: …