"Survival or death, that is the question."

"What the hell, philosopher! I don't have a choice right now!"

...

What would the pig feel like before being sent to the slaughterhouse? Probably similar to the dragon now.

The dragon never imagined that it would be captured and brought home by a human alone, let alone that its final fate would be to be eaten by humans - oh, not entirely correct, its scales would also be made into armor, teeth into weapons, and blood sucked out for bathing...

When did humans become so terrifying? Mom, I want to go home!

The dragon sadly looked at the special dragon-lock chains wrapped around its body, raised its head and glanced at the night sky outside the small window embedded in the wall above at an angle, and let out a sigh.

The distance from the ground here is over twenty meters. The sides and the back are rough stone walls and stone floors, and in front is an iron fence as thick as an arm. Although there is no strange smell, the eerie atmosphere still makes the dragon uncomfortable.

The outside corridor is pitch black, with only a dim yellow light flickering on a rundown wooden table at the end, looking like it could go out at any moment.

- Yeah, that princess said that tomorrow morning when the cook comes to work, she would slaughter herself and have a feast.

What the fuck, is this line for a creature like a "dragon"? Sister, something's fishy here! And my meat doesn't taste good at all, I can't even bite it!

The dragon argued like that at the time, but unfortunately it was of no use, and was dragged into the dungeon and locked up directly.

Plainly, just a day ago, it was still carefree, teasing the dragon-slaying team, and now it's going to be killed and eaten. It's really unpredictable, hahaha, just accept it. Maybe after death, I can meet the Dragon God and fulfill my wishes...

Bullshit! I'm still young, I haven't had enough fun in life and I don't want to die so soon!

No, it's not okay, absolutely not. I have to escape, I have to break free! After I escape, I will practice diligently, increase my strength, and then come back to properly educate that princess. She must learn to respect life!

The dragon thought so and let out an angry roar, shaking off the dust from the ceiling, making itself look filthy.

Suddenly, the dragon felt a chill down its spine, as if being watched by someone.

It turned its head and saw a man in a black butler's uniform standing silently behind the iron fence, on the corridor outside the cell. His ice blue eyes were coldly staring at the dragon.

Startled, the dragon immediately swallowed its roar.

"Please be quiet, Your Excellency Dragon," the butler politely bowed slightly, "Her Highness is resting. 'If you make a big fuss, even if you can't have fresh food tomorrow, you will be slaughtered immediately.' Those were Her Highness's words."

Although it was a emotionless repetition, the overwhelming threat couldn't be concealed.

The dragon trembled for a moment, immediately curled up in a ball, shaking with its head covered by wings.

"Goodnight then," the butler bowed again and left the dungeon, walking along the spiral staircase at the end of the corridor.

First rule of escaping, don't startle the guards. The dragon decided to write it down in its notebook and mark it as important as soon as it got back.

Okay, it's already decided to escape, but the problem is, how can I escape when I'm tied up and can't move? Frustrated, the dragon twisted its huge body, causing the iron chains to make a slight noise.

However, as the most powerful race in the world, the dragon still had some ways.

Although a powerful magic array was set up in the dungeon to suppress its power, making it unable to use any powerful offensive magic, and its physical strength was reduced to a very low level, it could still use some small magic spells that Dragons were good at.

Amidst the weak magical fluctuations, the dragon's body rapidly shrank.

Soon, the huge fifteen-meter figure in the dungeon disappeared, replaced by a white-haired young man who crawled out from the pile of tangled dragon-lock chains. His pure white scales turned into a white and red patterned windbreaker, looking quite handsome. The only pity was that due to the suppression of magic, the transformation was not complete, and he still had two short dragon horns on his forehead.

The height of the young man was only about 1.75 meters, which was not even a fraction of the fifteen-meter length of the dragon. Of course, those thick dragon-lock chains couldn't imprison him.

"I'm glad I didn't slack off during transfiguration class..." The white-haired young man transformed from the dragon gently sighed and carefully surveyed his surroundings.The second rule of escaping is that there is no perfect prison; find any loophole that can be exploited.

The first thing the dragon thought of was the iron bars. Since they were used to confine dragons, the gaps between the bars should be wider, right? Now that he had transformed into a human and become much smaller, escaping shouldn't be a problem...

Well, that was a joke!

With both hands gripping the rusted, icy cold iron bars, the dragon squeezed his face through the gap, almost tempted to ram his head against the wall out of frustration.

So close...

If only he could shrink his size just a tiny bit more, he would definitely be able to slip out! But the problem was, he was already in the smallest form he could transform into, any smaller...and he wouldn't have enough magic power.

"No, I can't give up!" The dragon slapped himself on the cheek, rallying his spirits, and slipped over to the cell door. This dungeon was so big, clearly designed for imprisoning large magical creatures. Therefore, the lock on the door for people to enter and exit should not be too secure.

With hope in his heart, he looked at the enormous lock disk...

A 64-bit base-32 combination lock! Produced by the Seins Kingdom's magical technology, guaranteed quality, with a tenfold refund for counterfeits, and free shipping, babe!

The dragon now wanted to curse. He had been annoyed by those advertisements for Seins Kingdom's magical technology when he used to travel around the human world, and now they were hindering him in this life-or-death situation! Mathematics was always his weakest subject! This darn password...it would probably take a lifetime to crack it!

By the way, a normal dragon's lifespan is over two thousand years.

But he probably wouldn't live long enough to see that.

Despondently leaning against the corner of the wall, sitting on the cold and damp floor, the dragon stared blankly at the high ceiling.

Princess, this dungeon is really tightly secured!

It's over, it's over, it's over. It seems that the heavens want me dead, and I can't avoid death. Do you know the feeling of having a glimmer of hope just to be thrown back into the abyss of despair?

"It looks like I'm doomed. Ah, mom, dad, forgive your son for not being able to come find you. The beautiful dean of the Lighthouse Academy stole your treasure and couldn't return it. Also, I'm really sorry for accidentally demolishing your castle during the fight with Altair, the princess of the Gao Mountain Kingdom. But this time, it seems I'll die in the castle, as retribution..."

The dragon, whose consciousness had completely become disordered, sat against the wall and began to repent for his past sins. For each repentance, he would violently bash his head against the stone wall behind him.

Thud. The wall trembled slightly, emitting a hollow sound.

Thud. A crack appeared on the wall.

Thud. The wall had some dents now, with debris scattered around.

(Wall: I have a damn complaint I must say today!)

...

After forcefully bashing his head more than ten times, even a dragon as tough as him started to feel dizzy and disoriented. But when he was about to give it one final blow...

Crash!

The dragon skillfully made a small hole in the wall, inserting his entire head into it.

"Huh?"

Ignoring the pain at the back of his head, the dragon's eyes widened in astonishment. Huh? There was nothing behind this wall!

Swiftly retracting his head, he quickly cleared away the rubble next to it, and then pushed open the cracked wall, revealing a square hole. A faint, cold wind blew out from inside.

"An underground passage?" The dragon tentatively stuck his head in to take a look, only able to vaguely see a narrow and winding path. Even with a human's physique, he could only crawl in.

If there was a wind blowing from inside, it should lead to the outside.

Thinking about this, the dragon's eyes lit up. Hooray, the heavens don't want me dead after all! Although I don't know who the previous cellmate was that dug this, I'm truly grateful for saving an innocent life!

There was no time to waste; he needed to leave this cursed place now! The dragon immediately curled up his body, ready to crawl inside.

But just as he was halfway inside, he stopped.

Hmm...I don't know if you have heard of this personality test, where you're trapped in a room and unable to leave. Inside the room, there is a pipe that provides the minimum nutrition you need to survive. In addition, there is another passage, a narrow one-way path where you can only move forward, with no knowledge of whether you can escape through it. If the path fails to lead you to freedom, you will likely die inside it.

Although the situation the dragon faced was slightly different, staying in this cell would also lead to death...but he hesitated.Okay, it's not because of a lack of adventurous spirit, but mainly because he is afraid of the dark.

Staring at the pitch-black corridor in silence, the giant dragon's head turned back to the corner where it had been lost in thought earlier, hands on knees, staring at the entrance with anxiety.

"Sigh, so annoying. If I just had some magic power to cast an illumination spell, I would go out immediately. It's definitely not because I am afraid of the dark... no!"

"But staying here really means death!"

"But it's so dark and scary!"

The giant dragon's mind was filled with such inner conflicts.

And so, it continued to struggle for an hour, two hours, three hours...

Not knowing how long it had stared at the entrance, the giant dragon noticed that the light in the room was gradually getting brighter. Looking up, it saw that the dark night sky outside the skylight had turned into a deep blue, with the stars disappearing gradually.

Morning had come.

The player who would die tonight is... players, please leave your last words... ahem, no, no, please ignore that.

Morning = scary princess waking up = chef going to work = my own deadline

This formula flashed through the giant dragon's mind.

What the heck! This is a joke! Who wants to die! I'm out of here!

This time, without any hesitation, the giant dragon boldly dove into the dark corridor.

Just as it had seen before in the darkness, the corridor indeed twisted and turned, with rough stone surfaces everywhere. Crawling was quite uncomfortable, and there were many unpolished protrusions on the sides. If the giant dragon wasn't tough, it would definitely have gotten bruised and swollen.

With the last remnants of its sense of direction in the darkness, the giant dragon roughly estimated that it was climbing upwards. Wow, it really is an escape route!

But after crawling for some time, it felt something was not right. Even though the corridor was twisting upward, the giant dragon had already crawled for about ten minutes and covered over twenty meters. However, it seemed like the corridor hadn't reached the end yet.

Then, around another corner, a light appeared ahead, dispelling the giant dragon's doubts.

Oh, oh, oh! Finally, it saw the light of hope! The giant dragon was so excited that tears welled up in its eyes. In its heart, it shouted "freedom!" and crawled even faster.

Bam!

Pushing open the iron grating at the end of the corridor, the giant dragon suddenly fell onto the floor.

Huh? The cold and smooth sensation on the floor doesn't feel like grass or soil. And the scent in the air is not the smell of fresh grass and earth, but a delicate fragrance?

Indeed, it was not grass or soil. It was a polished marble floor, so smooth that it reflected the giant dragon's confused face after it had turned into human form. The surroundings were a gorgeously decorated room, and from the details like the lace on the edge of the bedsheet and the dolls on the bed, it could be inferred that the owner of the room was probably a girl.

Snap.

A slender and delicate foot stepped on the giant dragon's head, feeling soft and cold. The giant dragon slightly lifted its face and saw a long and straight pair of legs, with a clear and fair complexion like the best white marble.

"You made me wait half the night, but you finally came, Mr. Dragon," the girl said.

The giant dragon smiled and typed out "GG".