"Uh-oh..."

When Dante took a deep breath, he stretched his hand forcefully, and then, the eggshell shattered from the inside.

Cool air blew out whirring from a machine; Dante remembered the little nurse saying it was called an air conditioner.

So there was actually this much air? The feeling he had before—that he might suffocate if he breathed too hard—was gone now. Dante felt it was very strange and continued to kick hard, widening the area where the eggshell had broken.

Until he could crawl out from this exit.

In front of him was a transparent glass box. Dante didn't realize it was glass until he bumped his head a few times. Finally, he understood this was glass because the little nurse would occasionally say to someone anxiously: "Careful, careful, don't break the glass." Weren't they knocking on this at that time? This... thing that makes a dong-dong sound?

Emerging from the shell, Dante observed his own form: all four limbs had claws, the tail was very long, and the body had scales.

What did the head look like? He couldn't see it.

Didn't the nurses usually chat about how you could see yourself through a mirror? And they said the mirror was right next to the air conditioner; isn't that the mirror over there? A neat and shiny thing. Dante decided to crawl out and take a look.

"Boom."

Falling from the incubator to the ground, Dante hit his head first. Oh no, would he get a concussion?

The term "concussion" was the Professor’s exclusive word for scolding people. Every time he scolded someone for being stupid, he’d say you had a concussion. So, if I fall once and get a concussion, does that mean I’ll become stupid?

No! It’s absolutely impossible for me to have a concussion now.

Suddenly, someone spoke from above Dante's head:

"Wow, so this is what it looks like when an egg hatches."

Dante was very angry. He looked toward the direction of the voice and saw a white ball that could talk, floating in the air. That thing had only a face with expressions that could move and laugh; its two hands were so tiny they were almost nonexistent.

Why did he have such thoughts? Hands? Face?

Dante suddenly remembered; sometimes the Professor and the nurses would lean in close and point at him. His eyes had a certain X-ray vision capability.

"Listen to me clearly. My name is Dante, not Egg." Dante made sure his voice was loud enough to be deafening.

"Ahahaha, ahahaha..." The white ball’s laughter simply wouldn't stop. "You are just a dan. In Chinese, dan means egg. And you call yourself Dante (Egg-te)? Ahahahaha..."

"You dare laugh at me!" Dante slapped it away.

"Bang!"

The white ball was sent flying far away, hitting the white wall and bouncing twice on the ground before rolling.

Its eyes became flat and its nose twisted to one side, no longer the symmetrical look it had just now.

"Pain! It hurts so much! I clearly dodged... Dammit... You can actually see me, and you can even hit me!"

It’s good that it hurts. Will you still be a smart-mouth in the future?

Dante panted, lifting his right leg, wanting to give it another stomp.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait..." The white ball’s face turned red with anxiety, stretching out its tiny hands to stop him.

"You can't stomp me. If I get stomped flat, it’ll be very hard for me to correct myself. It’s too ugly."

"Who said I was going to stomp you flat? I'm going to stomp you to death..." Dante shouted with all his might and stepped down with all his might, leaving a deep claw print in the hard concrete floor.

Four toes, three in front, one in back?

This claw print is so good-looking... Dante fell into narcissism...

"Damned dragon egg, I am your AI assistant, hatched together with you from inside your eggshell. We are, so to speak, fraternal twin brothers. You don't have to be this ruthless to me, right?"

Angry? Hmph!

Dante approached step by step, preparing to give this scolding thing another slap.

"You heartless thing, I accompanied you through your entire incubation period, and you actually want to kill me. You stupid dragon egg, if you're so capable, try flying like me, you foolish dragon egg!"

"Dragon egg? Not Dante? What is AI? What are twins?"

Dante asked four questions in a row, looking completely lost.

The white ball rolled its eyes, seeming to look down on Dante: "You don't even know you're a dragon egg? Those nurses are white people; they call you Dante (Egg-te) every day, so you call yourself Dante? Don't you think you're ridiculous?"

"You have hatched successfully now. You are a Chinese Loong, understand? A Chinese Loong with claws, able to fly, run, and breathe fire. Not a human! I am an AI, and I am not a human either! But we are not the same kind. Understand?"

"You are a Chinese Loong, the Professor is a Chinese Professor, and I am a Chinese AI. We are of the same kind, understand?"

Hearing this talkative AI ramble on, Dante became even more lost and shook his head:

"I don't understand."

Then he asked again: "What is a human?"

"I won't explain. Look at that big mirror."

The mirror was also the place Dante wanted to go. The white ball flew over, and Dante chased after it.

Dante finally saw himself in the mirror. He was so good-looking—with scales and horns, and long, thin whiskers. There was a touch of red in his eyes and on his horns.

With just one look, Dante felt that a Loong should look exactly like him; a Loong like this was the best-looking.

"Alright, your AI assistant comes with a built-in transformation function. Pick one for yourself." After the white ball finished speaking, a transparent screen appeared in front of Dante with a menu.

Man: Blue.

Woman: Pink.

Dante couldn't even fully understand the letters. He thought pink looked quite nice, so he pressed it.

In an instant, Dante turned into a woman.

"What's going on? How did I become like this?" Dante felt a wave of panic. "Why is there extra flesh on my chest? Where are my scales? Where did my scales go? Why is the hair so long? Where are the whiskers? Why does my whole body feel soft, like I want someone to lean on? Ah..."

"Tsk tsk tsk! That's what women are like! You chose a woman yourself, and now you're disgusted!" The white ball hovered around Dante, grumbling. "Fortunately, this is just a trial function. Choose again."

This time Dante chose blue, and he immediately turned into a different, tall person, very different from the woman just now.

"This isn't scientific, is it?" Dante was lost again.

"Eh? Why did the tail grow in the front? My tail was clearly in the back just now."

"You idiot..."

"You dare call me an idiot!" Dante reached out and grabbed the white ball in his hand, about to crush it.

"Let go of me... Without me, you won't be able to change back..."

"I have my own reset skill!" Dante roared.

Roar as he might, he felt the white ball still had many uses, so he threw the little thing aside in disgust.

He felt that having a man's body wasn't bad; at least he could stand taller, unlike just now when he could only crawl. Moreover, having the tail grow in front seemed less burdensome; walking wouldn't involve dragging it on the ground.

Between a man's body and a Loong's body, which one is better?

Dante fell into deep thought.

"So, what are these options?" Dante pointed at the heads on the screen with combinations of letters below them.

Among them was a very prominent man. The name under the avatar was: Yao.

During the "prenatal education," the white little nurse would write words on Dante's eggshell. However, Dante still couldn't be completely sure of the pronunciation of "Yao."

"Height 2.26 meters: Yao?" It was a trial anyway, so Dante just clicked it, and he instantly grew taller. "Wow... the tail... grew longer... what's going on?"

The white ball looked at him like he was an idiot: "You really are... a piece of sh*t..."

"Features: 24-year-old Henry Cavill. This isn't handsome enough; can I choose two?"

"You can choose many. Go ahead."

"You choose for me!" Dante pretended to be lazy, but in reality, he didn't understand human aesthetics.

"Timothée Chalamet's eyelashes."

"Zayn Malik's nose."

"Michael B. Jordan's jawline."

Like a magic trick, the white ball changed Dante’s face in less than five seconds into the handsome face it had been raving about.

"Alright, that's it. You can press 'Confirm' now. Once confirmed, it can't be modified again."

"Can't be modified? If it can't be modified, I'll crush you!" Dante grabbed the white ball again. He was very fast, and the white ball couldn't dodge at all.

"Help! It can, it can, it can! Cough... cough..."

"That's more like it."

Dante let go of the white ball and immediately clicked "Confirm."

The white ball pointed at the white lab coat hanging on the metal cabinet door and shouted:

"Put on clothes!"

"Clothes?"

Dante remembered the common sense from his prenatal education that the little nurse repeated: clothes are for wearing.

He put the white lab coat directly onto himself.

Unfortunately, it was too short.

"Ahahaha, a Qi-... miniskirt! You've turned it into a Qi-B... miniskirt..." The white ball continued to laugh wildly.

Dante panted, about to throw a punch.

In his prenatal environment, either the little nurse spoke English or the Professor spoke Chinese. For this mixed term—what did "Qi-B... miniskirt" mean?

Are you intentionally making it so I can't understand? How hateful!

The sound of an elevator came from the stairwell. The white ball reacted quickly. "Not good, run with me quickly. The Professor is coming; he will lock you up for experiments."

"The Professor?" Dante still wanted to meet the Professor. The Professor took care of him every day, but until now, he still didn't know what the Professor actually looked like.

Besides, the Professor had a very good temper and was patient with the nurses. Why run?

"Still not running?" The white ball's eyes widened like lanterns: "You should believe your AI assistant. In my settings, anyone would want to possess you, dominate you, lock you up for experiments, and make sure you never have freedom."

Is that so?

Dante thought for three seconds, and a Chinese proverb the Professor had mentioned popped into his mind.

Better to believe it exists than to believe it doesn't.

"Run!"

Dante started running after the white ball. The moment the big door was opened, they slipped out through a small door.

The space in front was a massive cylindrical pit, and the ceiling consisted of giant dark gray blocks.

"Don't look, that's not the sky; it's rock. Besides, you can't fly yet!"

With the white ball's explanation, Dante became even more confused. He had never heard that the sky was made of rock, nor had he heard that he had the ability to fly.

Isn't flying just floating in the air?

If that's the case, I want to fly too.

Oops, almost fell...

Dante stopped thinking and followed the white ball, running and running until they reached the stairs, spiraling downward. Below was a huge hole where the bottom was visible.

After Dante was certain he had run down more than a dozen floors, he finally couldn't run anymore.

His body was very heavy, but his newborn bones were soft and his muscles weren't firm. He leaned against a stair corner, gasping for breath:

"Didn't you say I could fly? Why can't I fly?"

The white ball had a proud look on its face: "Only a high-level player like me can fly. Right now, you are just a baby Loong; you are still far too away from being a high-level player!"

Dante was so angry he wanted to hit the "ball" again.

This time, the white ball didn't even dodge: "Go ahead, kill me. If you kill me, you'll be lost in this underground lab forever, never be able to gain more skills, never find food, and never find the Great Humans."

"Great Humans?" Dante only cared about this sentence now.

"You are a human right now!"

"Why do I need to find some Great Humans? Can't I just change back into a Loong?" Dante reached out to squeeze the white ball again.

The white ball dodged.

"No, a Loong needs to eat a lot of meat. If you turn into a Loong, you will starve to death very quickly. You must be a human now to have a chance to survive. Humans can eat anything and don't eat much. Humans can also have companions and can escape together."

"Eat anything? Companions?"

Dante couldn't understand this sentence at first.

Can the Professor be eaten?

Can the white ball be eaten?

Can companions be eaten?

Dante discovered that as long as he thought even a little bit, his brain began to expand slightly, as if it were growing. After growing, the human brain began to manifest images of busy traffic and brilliant lights in big cities.

"White ball, I seem to be dreaming. I dreamed of many tall buildings..."

"That's not a dream; it's the human memory gene the Professor implanted in you."

Human memory gene? How interesting.

Since being a human allows one to survive and dream of strange things, Dante decided to be a good human for now.

"Alright then, take me to find people first, or find something to eat. I'm actually a bit hungry," Dante muttered.

"Follow me. I’ve detected crystal energy at the bottom floor. I need this energy; my factory power can only last for three hours..." After the white ball finished speaking, it continued to float down the stairs.