Hit the Road, Jack! : Hit Jack, Father of Three!
[- Oy! Don't you go too far! Come… come back here!]
Jack Hooligan.
Dragon King and Supreme Ruler of Dragon King Island (2).
Elicia's Hooligan.
Jack Hooligan's wife and mother of his three children. Prime Minister and de facto ruler of Dragon King Island (2).
That was the life they were living.
Going back home had stayed in the past. Both Jack and Elicia had been inside Another World for half of their lives already, and the external world didn't mean much anymore - except, maybe, for the child they had left behind.
As happy as they were, a small shadow was casted on their hearts. What could have happened to her?
Communications with their families were null, and there was no expectative of that happening so soon.
Hundreds had already given up hope totally.
And as for Jack and Elicia… after five years of mourning they decided to start another family.
It was, really, an easy decision. After looking through, anyone with a high enough level would be able to understand that the "things" taking on the NPC's bodies were nothing but wandering minds.
Those poor things would latch themselves to an NPC brain and slowly work on it. Small personality traits would develop and the mind itself would weakly bond with the brain - then receiving, little by little, information - and then doing whatever they wanted to do.
The only problem, however, was that those minds couldn't imprint on the NPC's brains in their entirety. Unlike how the User Interface would create a new body from scratch, replicating them a brain capable of strongly bonding with the mind and being imprinted with the original owner's brain structure, the NPCs had their own simple A.I. brains and such imprinting would end up giving them a bad case of liquid brain.
So, the minds had to connect weakly at first, and then, in the span of a long time, increasingly change the brain they were connected to - except such brain would give the mind itself a new array of life experiences, so, in the end, neither the mind neither the original brain would be the same.
It was mostly reincarnation, since one's memories from their previous life would be sealed away until their brains developed enough to allow for them to retrieve them from their minds - something most could only accomplish by leveling up a series of mental resistance and fortitude skills which would saturate their brains with pixie dust - thus allowing for it to support the burden of an entire lifetime of memories being imprinted on it.
Knowing that, many players had decided to start families themselves. Of course, they didn't want soulless-eyed NPCs, but someone with a mind - or, how many came to put it, a soul.
Amongst them, Jack and Elicia did the same.
[- You little rascal, come here! Got you!]
- No daddy!
[- Getting away from me, are you? Let me teach you a lesson!]
Jack began to rub his son's belly while tickling him.
- No dad, hahahah! Stoop! Hahahah!
- Hon., get the kids ready and let's eat!
It was a little weird to think about getting a stranger as a child, and many were against that idea in the first place.
But with a town full of "possessed" NPC children behaving exactly like real-world children, with both their annoyance and their cuteness, that awkwardness vanished after a few years.
Didn't some people believe in reincarnation back on earth? How would that be different? They knew for sure they were receiving someone who once was a player as a child, but so also believed those people.
[ - Going!]
Jack took the little wyrmling under his draconic arm and playfully went inside. The little one folded its wings and let itself be carried by its father, Jack's arm holding his body's length and his arms and legs retracted, as if he was a small statue on the hands of someone over ten times his size. Just like a small newborn baby in the hands of a human.
Elicia smiled while a smaller wyrmling, around half the size of the one in Jack's arms, crawled to the oriental-style table in the middle of the room. It was a very large table - almost twenty meters long - but it was to be expected, since both Jack and Elicia were keeping the forms of Adult Red Dragons while next to their children.
Thirty years were a long time, and almost all of their skill trees had been fully completed already - except for those who were especially difficult for them to manage, like "Drowsiness Immunity".
Once they reached "Sleep Immunity", dragons were pretty much immune to drowsiness already - so it wasn't easy for this skill to increase.
It so happened for them to think that, since their children had been born as Red Dragon Wyrmlings, then the best would be for the both of them would be to assume forms that resembled they little ones.
Also, since a dragon wyrmling was a creature with a natural high intelligence, their A.I. programing was quite elaborate - meaning their children had remained as children for a quite long time already. They had begun developing their own personality traits, of course, and were nothing like regular wyrmlings. However, they didn't have their previous lives memories.
- Very well, everyone eat!
[- That's right! Gobble up!]
Jack helped himself to a large skewed whole cow which glittered with gold powder, while Elicia fancied a roasted bull with apples, gold and jewels stuffing. Dragons could be said to be the ultimate omnivores, as they could eat all kinds of substances - organic or not. But their taste buds would, obviously, fancy the taste of gold the most.
The two children begun sniffing the food near them, and then started to happily eat it as well.
The oldest, Sandro, was 20 years old. Whilst the youngest, Pietro, was five. There was Sandra as well, but the little one was still in the egg - safely sleeping while being kept warm by a small lava bed inside her father's treasury.
Even though way older than a regular human child would be, that didn't mean they had developed the personalities one would expect of an adult.
The changes on a child's personality to achieve adulthood are mostly comprised of changes on one's brain and body. With an aging speed much slower than that of humans, obviously those two were still children.
Elicia looked warmly at her two little radishes.
[- Ah!]
That is, until Jack seemed to remember something. At that moment, as if triggered by a hidden perception-related skill, Elicia's smile seemed a bit scary.
- What is it hon?
[ - Ah… nothing much babe, it's just…]
- It's just…?
[- Ahem. I might... just might… have forgotten to do a thing…]
- And that was…
[ - Eeeh… everything?!]
*sigh*
Jack smiled crookedly, while Elicia let out a little bit of bad breath.
- Just activate the Island's barrier and send some mana overseas then. It's just a couple Krakens, a small rebellion on the northern NPC colony and the old Demon King hogwash. They probably didn't cause too much damage.
[ - Ah, that's right, that's right..]
Jack munched on a piece of whale jerky.
- However!
Jack's mastication speed slowed.
- Others shouldn't be harmed because of your laziness, so why don't you repay their loses with a bit of fresh Sea King meat, Forgotten Starsea Metal and Undersea Titan Tusks? Also, you should go to the deep sea and get it yourself - that will show some sincerity, you know?
[ - BABE!]
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