Dragon Raja: Reboot

"First, there's the writing style. It's way too melodramatic, clearly something you started writing in middle school, right? You need to consider your target audience. Second, the grammar. Even I, a foreigner, can see it's riddled with errors! Nobody buys elementary school level essays, and even if they did, editors wouldn't accept them. Then there's the setting..."

Sakurai Akira stood awkwardly beside the young man, listening silently to the man's criticism of his novel, his face burning with embarrassment.

He didn't need to look in a mirror to know that his face must be completely red.

The young man looked up, his expression serious, and said, "The 'Child of Light and Darkness' setting is too melodramatic. I think it could be changed to an ordinary boy, and then, as the story unfolds, his background could be gradually revealed. For example, his father could be the strongest person of the previous era, and his grandfather could be a high-ranking member of the enemy's elite. The reason he can continue to be so unrestrained is because his grandfather is secretly protecting him, and his underlings all have to give his grandfather face... What do you think?"

Hearing this, Sakurai Akira finally couldn't help but ask, "Then why start by setting him as an ordinary person?"

"Because most of your readers are ordinary people, you need to create a sense of identification for them from the start!"

The young man shrugged and said,

"Then we'll slowly uncover his background, giving readers a feeling of 'Wow, the protagonist is so awesome, I love him!' After all, the current mainstream is still about bloodline. If you have no background or bloodline, how can you be better than others? With a heart full of justice and passion?"

Sakurai Akira remained silent: "Bloodline doesn't necessarily bring power..."

"for example?"

"A cage, imprisonment, and a sky that is forever only a corner of the sky," Sakurai Akira said softly.

When Akira Sakurai was a child, he often sat in the middle of the playground and looked up at the sky.

But when he looked up, the sky above him was always the same square patch of sky.

He sat on the lawn and named each cloud, but the next day all the named clouds were gone, leaving him still sitting on that lawn.

He then realized that that corner of the sky was everything he possessed.

"Young people understand things very well!" The other person said with a look of satisfaction.

Sakurai Akira smiled wryly. He didn't know where this guy came from, but just one glance from him was enough to make him lose the ability to resist. The other party was probably also a member of the family, and a mixed-race person with noble blood.

Law enforcement officers have said that they inherited only "trash bloodlines," while law enforcement officers inherited "elite bloodlines."

Having a bad bloodline increases the risk of going berserk.

Elite bloodlines endow hybrids with unparalleled abilities.

The latter are born superior to ordinary people.

The former was destined from birth to be imprisoned in this caring school.

How can those who are born to embrace the beautiful world understand these moles who hide in the darkness and cannot see the light?

The sound of turning pages came again.

The young man casually asked, "Did you draw these illustrations?"

He flipped through the exercise book, every corner filled with blue pen writing and pen-drawn comics.

An adventurous young man carries a giant sword as tall as himself, with an enchanted short spear strapped to his thigh, and a towering dark god stands behind him; there is also a ponytail girl with a katana on her hands and feet on roller skates.

This is an adventure story about Sakurai Akira, the son of light and darkness. He named his sword Azure Judgment and his enchanted short spear Beyond the End. His mission is to open the gate to the Azure Sky Path and create a star-sea route. To this end, he constantly hones his skills to defeat the war god Fainmin who sealed the Azure Sky Path.

During his long journey, he met Leila G. Nami, a colorless elf.

From that moment on, he and this ponytail-wearing girl with a sword formed a fateful bond...

This is a story of youthful exuberance, yet it is filled with a boy's burning ambition and inferiority complex from childhood to adulthood.

He poured all his beautiful fantasies and aspirations for the future into this novel.

So beautiful... yet so base.

Sakurai Akira replied in a muffled voice.

"How about... you stop writing novels and switch to illustration?" the young man suggested, scratching his head.

Sakurai Akira asked cautiously, "Do you think I have a talent for drawing?"

He thought to himself that if that were the case, perhaps if he practiced diligently for another eighteen years, he might become a great illustrator when he entered society at the age of forty...

"No, I just think your illustrations are at least better than your novel, though they're about the same." The young man shrugged.

Akira Sakurai lowered his head again, remaining silent.

"Alright, alright, I was just kidding." The young man got up, put his arm around his shoulder, and pulled him to the window. "By the way, aren't you on the first floor? Why are there iron bars around the window?"

"To prevent us from running around." Sakurai Akira said expressionlessly.

"Running around? Aren't you over 20 and an adult?" The young man looked bewildered.

"We... inherited a trash bloodline, and there's always the risk of us going berserk. Every night, security personnel come to lock the iron gate." Sakurai Akira's expression gradually darkened.

Because he inherited inferior blood, he was sent to a special needs school after completing the bloodline test at the age of five, and his parents never visited him; therefore, law enforcement officers would come to judge him every year, and the sword of Damocles would always hang over his head; therefore, he would have to live in a cave for the rest of his life, living a humble life hidden in the darkness...

If he could choose how he was born, Akira Sakurai would definitely not want to be born.

"Trash bloodline?" the young man asked casually. "Who said that?"

"Law enforcers...we are born demons, the most lowly kind."

Sakurai Akira murmured, as if he had returned to a nightmare.

In his dream, a demon lurked in his heart. The rain poured down, and in the cold, damp night, the demon crawled out of his body, looking at the world with hatred. Law enforcers, swords in hand, cut through the wind and rain, roaring as they cleaved him and the demon in two...

That was the deepest fear buried in his heart, which he would dream about every rainy night.

Every rainy night he was awakened, he listened to the pitter-patter of the rain outside, cowering in fear in the corner. With no one to rely on, he could only hug himself tightly, fantasizing that someone was beside him, embracing him for warmth.

The room was completely silent.

The young man did not respond.

His gaze was unfocused and wistful as he looked at the sky, which was divided into distinct sections by the iron railings.

Is this the world of ghosts?

The sky is azure and clear, yet it is always only a corner visible, like the frog at the bottom of a well.

But the frog in the well is happy because it thinks the world only has this one corner of the sky, while it owns the whole world.

But ghosts are different. They know the vastness of the world, yet they can only gaze at their own corner of the sky, fantasizing that the distant sky might be even clearer...

So in that girl's eyes, the world was like a jewel protected by a swarm of snakes, dangerous yet beautiful.

She envisions her own world within the world of anime, yet she yearns to truly escape her prison and see the real world outside...

If Sakurai Akira is a dangerous demon, then that girl is an extremely evil demon.

She should never have been born, and there was only one reason for her birth: to be a sacrifice for the birth of the new king...

Sakurai Akira suddenly trembled.

He felt the aura of authority and fury permeating the air—an authority far surpassing that of law enforcers, and a fury that seemed poised to ignite the world!

He looked up in fear and saw the young man beside him staring at him.

A torch, capable of overturning the world, burns within its dark golden pupils!

"Shall we change together?" The hoarse voice was deep and thunderous.

"Change...what?" Sakurai Akira asked instinctively.

The young man slowly reached out his hand to him, as if offering him a light that the mole would never see in his entire life.

"The future, life, the world... anything is fine, anything is possible, as long as you want it!"

Sakurai Akira instinctively backed away, "No...no...what I inherited was..."

"Raise your head!" A cold, sharp voice rang out instantly. "Why should you let others deny you and control your life? Only those with power have the right to decide their future. Do you only dare to write your dreams in novels?"

Sakurai Akira stood there blankly, his throat dry, and stammered, "I...I...can I?"

The young man gently embraced him and whispered in his ear:

"I don't know either, but if you don't even dare to try some things, you'll always be a loser. If you lose hope, what do you have left? Only overwhelming darkness. Do you want to be a mole for the rest of your life?"

He spoke in a low voice, yet it was like the roar of a lion, each word resounding and deafening!

"No... I don't want to! I haven't done anything wrong! Why am I locked up here just because I inherited the wrong bloodline?!"

Sakurai Akira suddenly jumped up and roared hysterically, yet his face was covered in tears.

The young man's figure was reflected in those eyes, which were burning with rage, just as the mole saw the azure sky and the dazzling, scorching sun for the first time.

The young man reached out his hand to him again.

"Then let's change our destiny together."

"No one can choose who they are born, but we can decide what we do."

"I promise you that I will never abandon you on this right path, until we reach the other end of the road."

Sakurai Akira trembled all over as he grasped that hand.

In that instant, he seemed to see a warm and bright sun.

It turns out the sun doesn't have to be so scorching; it can simply warm the moles' bodies and minds...