Life is tough, so Honglong resorts to performing?

Chapter 36 The Flaw Lies in Poverty
"Hmm, I wonder why you insist on meeting me?"

Opposite the old man, Loren pulled out a chair and sat down, getting straight to the point.

Once he was certain that the old man before him, who had shattered his preconceived notions, was no ordinary person, Loren became extremely vigilant.

Since the other party can acknowledge the advantages of pollution treatment equipment, which only reduces pollution rather than eliminates it.

There's no reason to keep chasing and blocking a little red dragon like him, who has the potential to be used for advertising and promotion.

After all, even if we want to protect animals, everyone still needs to eat.

"Nothing much, I just wanted to see what a red dragon who could use all sorts of persuasive talk to win over my manager would look like."

The old man smiled kindly and spoke, but Loren naturally didn't believe him.

He kept staring at the other person, waiting for him to give a concrete reason.

The old man seemed a little uneasy under Loren's gaze, so after hesitating for a moment, he continued,

"What if I said I'm here to measure your threat level?"

Not so great. I can't fight you, and I don't want to really test the patrol officer's skills.

The death of a few thugs is one thing, but the death of a Grand Druid in Greenleaf City? That's a real big deal.

Loren thought to himself.

But publicly, his response was,

"So how much did you weigh out? Do you think I'm some kind of evil menace and you're planning to get rid of me?"

"of course not."

The druid smiled.

"You are much more threatening than I thought, so you are actually not a threat at all."

The old man said something contradictory, and Loren vaguely caught some clues.

But Loren still took the initiative to ask.

He no longer wanted to play those boring games of workplace unspoken rules and guessing what his boss meant.

He had some spare money left, enough to live on for a while.

"Tell me carefully."

"It's such a simple thing."

The old man ate while reading and talking.

“I can’t just let a red dragon that is inherently evil appear and live around me.”

"Especially when you are unaware of the other party's plot."

I could sue you for racial discrimination based on just that one sentence.

Loren muttered to himself.

If he really had ill intentions, he should be able to pull a recording device out of his throat right now.

Then, it's time for the Archdruid, you don't want your zoo to be like this...

Ahem, a classic scene of evil creatures threatening good species.

Racial equality, as one of the fundamental provisions of the federal government, serves only to appear in legal texts for lawyers to use in court.

"So you're here to conduct a risk assessment of me? What do you mean by saying that if the threat is too great, then there is no threat at all?"

Loren didn't stop asking questions.

Since the other party dared to say that, they were just waiting for me to ask them.

If he really wanted to deal with me, he wouldn't need to fabricate such a illogical lie.

Instead, he would speak more tactfully and sincerely in order to weave a trap for the red dragon.

Druids aren't professions that don't lie or deceive.

Loren pondered. "It's just what it sounds like. You are indeed a great threat. You are the largest evil creature cub I have ever seen. Perhaps one day, you will overturn everything."

As the old druid spoke, Loren listened with some satisfaction, since the word "evil" was something that the red dragons should be using.

"Precisely because you pose such a significant threat, the Green Leaf Rare Animal Park is not worth the gamble for you."

"Even Greenleaf City isn't really worth it, right?"

As the old man spoke, he dipped his finger in water and began to draw on the table.

He first drew a small circle and wrote the name of the Green Leaf Rare Animal Zoo on it.

Then I drew a medium circle that was much larger than the small circle and wrote "Cuiye City" on it.

Later, he drew an even bigger circle, and inside and outside that bigger circle, he drew a question mark that ran through the entire circle.

"This is the position you want, at least this position, right?"

He stopped smiling and looked at Loren.

The old man's originally aged eyes now gleamed with the predator's light, like those of a vulture.

He seemed certain of the little red dragon in front of him, harboring even greater ambitions.

What are your reasons?

Loren was shaken; even he hadn't expected it to be just a single meeting.

The image of a lazy, cunning dragon that he had conjured up during his conversation with Maurice seemed to have been shattered...

Instead, there is the image of a young, ambitious dragon, who is plotting some unknown scheme.

"That's the first question you asked me."

The old man's answer was straightforward, tinged with a hint of wry, relieved satisfaction.
"You ask me when I realized that to change the environment of the lower city, I had to win over the elves."

The conditions are equal!

Loren suddenly realized that, in the other's eyes, his little red dragon's actions were also a reflection of his younger self.

Recognizing the key to the problem's difficulty, grasping the real information and conditions, and attempting to break the deadlock by taking action oneself.

The key is that they are young, very young.

The old druid's jump must have been when he was very young, but considering the age of dragons, wasn't Loren also quite young?

Judging from the old man's own reflections on his younger self, he certainly wouldn't believe Loren's statement about living a life of leisure and doing nothing, after all, he was a professional, while Morris wasn't.

As a true senior Tier 3, or even close to Tier 4, he knew very well how much effort and money dragons would have to put in to reach Tier 3 in both physical combat and magical combat!

You've gone through all this trouble just to come here, live a life of leisure, and get a job that pays 4500 copper coins a week?
Just to fulfill the life dream of a middle-aged manager?

If you were a silver dragon or a gold dragon, I could believe it a little, but you're a red dragon!

Besides, you probably spend more than that on self-improvement every week!
Do you dare to calculate how much money you've spent on food all this way?

So when the information about the red dragon reached the old druid, he immediately realized something was wrong.

After listening to Morris's retelling of the conversation, he had some guesses in his mind.

This conjecture was confirmed after he inquired with the cannibal stall owner and the surrounding neighbors, and after meeting Loren for the first time.

This kid is so poor it's almost blindingly clean.

As a proud and greedy dragon, he didn't have a single magical item hanging on his body to show off.

Even the clothes he was wearing were probably a transformation spell used to mimic the dragon scales.

After all, it doesn't have any trademarks and doesn't look like a high-end custom-made item.

In other words, this guy was openly naked on the street, which can be described as being poor in a way that was both awe-inspiring and self-righteous.

If he really just wanted to find a place to make a living and get a meal, would he really be this poor?
Without sufficient initiative to spend money, one would never be so poor as to fall into poverty like this little red dragon.

(End of this chapter)