The Metropolitan Dragon: 10 Candies of Destiny

The lobby of the Grand Aurelia Hotel smelled of expensive perfume, freshly polished marble, and the kind of crushing, suffocating wealth that made Bara feel like a smudge on a pristine painting. He adjusted the cheap velvet box in his pocket, his palms sweating so much he feared he might ruin the ring inside. It was a modest diamond—three months of salary, two years of overtime, and an endless amount of instant noodles—but to him, it represented a future.

Bara caught sight of Cindy sitting on a plush leather sofa near the fountain. She looked ethereal, wearing a dress that likely cost more than Bara’s entire family home. Beside her sat Adrian, a man whose jawline looked like it had been carved by a sculptor who specialized in "arrogant billionaire" tropes.

"Cindy?" Bara stepped forward, his voice cracking slightly.

Cindy looked up, her expression shifting from boredom to something resembling a disgusted flea finding a hair in its dinner. "Oh. Look who decided to crash the party. Did you walk here, or did the bus driver kick you off for looking like a homeless person?"

Adrian chuckled, a sound like grinding rocks. He didn't even stand up; he just leaned back and flicked a speck of imaginary dust off his tailored suit. "Is this the charity case you mentioned, Cindy? The one who works at the call center?"

Bara ignored the sting in his chest, pulling out the velvet box. "Cindy, I know I’m not rich like him, but we’ve been together for three years. I bought this because I wanted to build something with you."

The room seemed to grow quiet. A few hotel guests, including a woman named Nadia who was busy snapping photos of her latte nearby, turned to watch. Cindy didn’t even look at the box. She laughed, a sharp, crystalline sound that cut deeper than any knife.

"Bara, babe, really? You spent three months of your salary on a rock the size of a grain of sand? You’re pathetic. Truly." She stood up, snatched the box from his trembling hand, and tossed it toward the lobby fountain. It landed with a pathetic plink in the decorative water. "Adrian, darling, pay the security to throw this loser out before he gets his sadness on my shoes."

Adrian stood, looming over Bara with the predatory grace of someone who had never heard the word 'no.' "You heard the lady. Scram. And don't bother looking for that ring. It’s trash, and so are you."

Two security guards, who looked like they were sculpted from solid blocks of spite, grabbed Bara by the arms. Before he could even form a coherent curse, he was dragged across the marble floor and tossed through the revolving doors. He hit the rain-slicked pavement outside, his clothes soaking up the muddy gray water of the gutter.

Bara lay there, staring at the blurred neon lights of the city. He felt hollowed out, a ghost trapped in a body that didn't know how to stop hurting. He reached into his shirt, his fingers brushing against the ancient jade pendant his grandmother had given him before she passed—a strange, carved dragon that felt unnaturally warm against his cold skin.

"Why?" he whispered to the rain. "Why am I always the punchline?"

His hand clenched the jade so hard his knuckles turned white. He didn't notice when the edge of the pendant’s dragon scale pierced his thumb. A drop of blood, hot and rhythmic with his fury, smeared across the stone.

Suddenly, the world tilted.

The cold rain stopped hitting his skin. The roar of traffic faded into a static hum. Inside his head, a voice erupted—not like a whisper, but like a thunderclap inside an empty cathedral.

—Host identified. Bloodline synchronization: 1%.—

"What?" Bara gasped, sitting up. "Who’s there?"

—Dragon Core System initialization complete. Status: Pathetic. Objective: Evolution. Current state: Heartbroken and broke. Recommendation: Get up, you miserable worm, before you catch a cold.—

Bara blinked. "A system? Like in those webnovels? Am I having a stroke? Is this where I finally go insane?"

—Negative. You are merely the successor to a lineage that has been dormant for eons. Your ‘Dragon Core’ is currently a flickering candle in a hurricane. Would you like to ignite the fire, or shall I facilitate your death by pneumonia?—

Bara wiped the mud from his face, his eyes narrowing. The sorrow that had been tearing him apart was suddenly cauterized by a strange, surging heat in his chest. "Ignite it. Do whatever you have to do."

—Processing... Welcome to the path of the Ascendant. First Task: Vitality Restoration. You require the ‘Mint Essence’ to stabilize your core. Located at: Alya’s Tea House, three blocks North. Time limit: Thirty minutes.—

Bara stood up. His legs didn't shake anymore. His pulse hammered in his ears, rhythmic and powerful, sounding less like a human heart and more like a drumbeat of war. He looked back at the glass doors of the Grand Aurelia. Through the reflection, he saw his own eyes.

They weren't brown anymore. For a fleeting, terrifying second, they glowed with a faint, molten-gold slit—the eyes of something ancient.

"Cindy," Bara murmured, his voice sounding deeper, smoother, and terrifyingly calm. "You think you've seen the last of me. But you haven't even seen the start."

He turned away from the hotel, ignoring the dampness of his clothes. The System’s interface flickered in his vision—a glowing blue timer counting down the seconds.

—Thirty minutes, host. Don't disappoint me. Dragons don't do 'lateness.'—

"Whatever," Bara muttered, feeling a reckless, dangerous smile pull at his lips. "If I'm going to be a dragon, the first thing I’m going to do is stop eating instant noodles."

As he began to walk, he noticed that the world around him looked different. The cracks in the sidewalk seemed like geometric puzzles, and the sounds of the city felt like notes in a symphony he was finally starting to hear. He wasn't the broken boy from the lobby anymore. He was something else. And for the first time in his life, he was hungry—not for love, but for power.

He broke into a run, the rain parting around him as if it were afraid to touch him. The game had begun.