Nobita's Time Heist

"It really is a dream," Nobita thought to himself.

"And what's this about him saying 'there's another enemy waiting over there'?"

Seeing that the matter could no longer be concealed, Da Xiong sighed, "This happened a long, long time ago."

In any case, since this ruin was undisturbed, secluded and quiet, he recounted his adventures in the Winged Kingdom from beginning to end. He spoke quickly, starting from how he accidentally entered the world of the Winged People, to the Winged People who could only fly with the help of tools, to the tense and exciting selection competition, to the burning flames of revenge of a small number of Winged People against the human world, and then to how they released Feniki out of hatred.

unstoppable.

“I exiled her to space, to die. I thought that would solve a problem completely, but no, I only postponed it for ten years.” Nobita’s voice was filled with more guilt than anything else. “Now she’s back, filled with boundless hatred for me, ready to destroy everything I have.”

"Looking back now, she did nothing wrong. She was awakened from hibernation and was just used as a tool by the winged people. I brought her only pain by releasing her from her homeland. It is entirely reasonable for her to hate me."

"The Phoenicians evolved continuously in the dark universe, adapting to all sorts of extreme environments—vacuum radiation, high temperatures, ultra-low temperatures—becoming an unprecedentedly powerful being. After arriving in this universe, she usurped the throne of the Crimson Goddess, becoming the root cause of a series of chaos."

Having finally learned the truth behind it all, Jinglu was utterly astonished. She hadn't expected that this was actually a tangled web between the Silver Swordsman and the Crimson God, a tangled web that began with one side owing the other an apology. Now, it was impossible to say who was right and who was wrong; it seemed that at the same time, both sides made choices that served their own interests, nothing more.

“She won’t stop until she completely destroys me. With her abilities, leveling this last city wouldn’t be difficult. The defenses humans have set up are like paper in front of her.” A resolute glint appeared in Nobita’s eyes. Just as Phoenicia understood him, he was beginning to understand Phoenicia. “She’s waiting for me.”

"She's waiting for me to come to her door so we can have a final duel!"

"...Can we win?" Jinglu asked, her voice trembling slightly.

Nobita remained silent.

Ten years ago, facing the Phoenician entity, the only tactic was exile, banishing her into outer space. Now, even that weakness no longer exists; she has undergone a complete meta-evolution from the inside out. Having also seized the throne of the Crimson Goddess, defeating her has become virtually impossible.

……

"Clap!"

He kicked something hard, interrupting Nobita's train of thought.

It is a round stone.

Chapter 421: I've even gained experience from hatching dragon eggs!

Nobita's eyes sharpened, he stopped talking, and picked up the stone. He held it in his hand, examining it closely, his eyes seemingly shining.

"Why are you picking up this stone?" Jinglu asked, puzzled. "What time is it?"

"No, no!" Nobita's tone was inexplicably excited as he held the stone to his chest and asked, "You think this is just an ordinary stone? You're so wrong! This isn't a stone. Is it possible that this is actually a dragon egg?"

"Dragon egg?" The girl gave him a look that said, "You've finally gone mad." The silver swordsman's illusions shattered, but out of politeness, he ultimately didn't ask.

"That's right, this is a dragon egg! Look how round it is!" He patted the stone twice like he was patting a watermelon, making a thud. "It's solid; what ordinary stone is this dense?"

Nobita trusted his intuition, and he had a proven track record in this area. Once, he dug up a round stone from the rock formations behind the mountain, immediately convinced it was a dinosaur egg. Excitedly, he took it home and asked Doraemon to wrap it in his Time Cloth. While giving him a gentle look, Doraemon couldn't resist a sarcastic remark: "How can you be so sure it's a dinosaur egg fossil? It might just be an ordinary rock, or even mammoth dung!"

But Nobita withstood the pressure and hatched it, and it turned out he wasn't mistaken—it was a fossilized plesiosaur egg. The hatched baby dinosaur was named Pizhu, and it began Nobita's first great adventure in the Cretaceous period. An unforgettable and unforgettable experience.

Later, he dug up another dinosaur egg on the surface, and it turned out to be a double yolk egg, hatching into two dinosaurs, Little Chirp and Little Miao. Da Xiong felt that he could now be called a dinosaur identification master, after all, there were very few people in his time who had actually seen a dinosaur.

Having confirmed his judgment, he took out the Time Wrapper and carefully wrapped it around the stone, explaining, "This wrapper can accelerate or rewind time. In other words, even if this is a real dragon egg, it dates back five hundred years. I want to return it to its state five hundred years ago."

Tick-tock, tick-tock, time passes by second by second.

When he lifted the bundle, Jinglu couldn't help but gasp in surprise, because what lay there was indeed a green dinosaur egg.

Its surface was covered with uneven scales, and it felt very rough to the touch—it really was a dragon egg! Jinglu immediately realized that this must have been left by the Azure Dragon. Looking around, however, there was no trace of the Azure Dragon. At least in this matter, Jia Kun hadn't lied. He had even specially simulated the scene of the Azure Dragon being killed. In reality, the giant dragon that had been lurking here had already had its skeleton devoured by greedy people.

Overwhelmed with emotion, Nobita understood. In its final moments, the Azure Dragon turned its head and turned its dragon egg into stone.

Only in this way, only things utterly worthless, can survive in human hands. But once something gains value, once it possesses the blood and flesh to grant humanity immortality, the final result is like this: its bones and marrow ripped out, leaving not a single bone behind.

How ironic! Five hundred years ago, Nobita was the only one who refused to kill him. Five hundred years later, he's back here again, and it's still Nobita who takes in his last remaining bloodline. This cycle of cause and effect fills him with sorrow. He's done nothing wrong, yet this is how he ends up.

For a moment, he even felt that Jaqen's actions were quite reasonable; after all, humans can do many terrible things for the sake of desire.

"So, should we raise him?"

“First, we have to hatch it.” Nobita stroked the rough edges of the dragon egg as he spoke. “If it matures before the big battle, it might become an asset to us. I’ve never hatched a dinosaur egg before; this is my first time hatching a creature from fantasy. Is there any trick to it?”

Jinglu was a bit dumbfounded by her question, thinking to herself, how could I possibly know any tricks? After racking her brains, she finally remembered what she had seen in the story.

"Legend has it that dragons are creatures that love fire, and their blood is flammable. It seems that hatching a dragon requires extremely high temperatures... or something like that, but that's how it works for ordinary dragons. I don't know about dragons that possess magic."

Da Xiong looked at the heavy dragon egg in his hands and was caught in a dilemma. He had hatched far too many pets before, including three dinosaurs, not to mention abstract things like the "Child of the Wind Element." This dragon egg was just another small challenge, not enough to stump him.

"Anyway, let's put it in a high-temperature environment and give it a try... US dollars!"

He shouted, and with a soft hum of the engine, the long-unseen Jeep emerged from his pocket and began to transform rapidly.

This process left Jinglu, who thought she wouldn't be surprised anymore, speechless once again. She had expected this iron horse to be extraordinary, but she hadn't anticipated this turn of events. For a native still living in a medieval worldview to witness the Autobots transforming up close was a bit too much for her. The cool, clicking sounds of transformation ended, and perhaps noticing someone watching, Meijin even winked at her in a cool manner.

"We need a very high temperature environment to incubate this egg. Can you provide a stable high temperature environment?"

Meijin tilted its head in confusion, stretched out its finger, and curiously poked the dragon egg shell, making a series of strange, melodious gurgling sounds.

“That’s right, it’s alive, just like a chicken egg or a duck egg, except that a dragon hatches from it. Many animals are like that, but humans are born from their mother’s womb, so I don’t have an eggshell.” Da Xiong patiently explained to this silicon-based life form the two major reproductive methods of carbon-based life: oviparity. “We need help now, but its father is dead, and only this dragon egg is left, so we are the only ones who can incubate it.”

Meijin glanced at Da Xiong, then at the dragon egg that was nurturing life yet as hard as a rock. She gently stroked it with her metal fingers, a look of confusion on her face.

“Are you born from an egg or a live birth? Neither. You are something I created.” Realizing that Meijin was beginning to develop a certain self-awareness, Nobita’s tone became more patient. “Strictly speaking, you are different from us. The concept of ‘parents’ does not apply to you. If I had to say, you are an object that has been born with consciousness.”

Meijin lowered his head in frustration, perhaps realizing the physiological gap between himself and humans, which suddenly made him lose his motivation.

“But now there is an opportunity for you to ‘be’ someone else’s parent.” Da Xiong handed the dragon egg to him and said, “After it hatches, this little life will regard you as its father. This is a biological instinct, and it is also a great thing for us.”

"Want to try it?"

"..." The US dollar emitted a metallic voice representing joy, its chest deformed again, removing all its armor and revealing the nuclear reactor core that represented the source of power.

It was just the right size, not too big or too small, and the dragon egg fit inside.

Chapter 422: He Never Bathed in Dragon Blood

Surprisingly, the atomic furnace core worked exceptionally well. Other dragon eggs are incubated in naturally hot places like volcanoes, but this dragon egg is truly fortunate; while others rely on high temperatures to incubate, this one was incubated by atomic energy.

Even the baby dragons that hatched were exceptionally robust, their wings forming a perfectly curved shape. Fresh from their shells, they had already learned to stretch their wings and claws, emitting soft screeching sounds—the very posture of a predator. Meijin was overjoyed; he had personally witnessed the birth of new life from his own hands.

Before this, he didn't really understand the concept of "life".

He adored the newborn dragon, playing with it and teasing it every day, and never wanted it to return to Nobita's pocket. Therefore, Nobita decided to simply release the horse and drive his jeep to Andrew City.

Halfway there, Nobita was still struggling with what to name his little dragon, but since it was born from US dollars, for some reason, he decided to name it "Pound Sterling." Although historically, the relationship between the US dollar and the pound sterling should be reversed, it didn't seem to matter to Nobita, a poor student who couldn't even understand Japanese history, as long as it was a name that sounded acceptable.

The pound sterling grew faster than expected. In the first few days, it grew on the radiation from the US dollar's nuclear reactor, barely the size of a kitten. But it quickly grew to the size of a falcon, big enough to perch on a person's hand and feel noticeably heavy.

Da Xiong dared not be negligent; this was no ordinary pet like a cat or dog—it was a dragon! Upon closer inspection, its body shape was somewhat similar to Xiao Qiu and Xiao Miao, but its wing structure was completely different, much longer and more powerful, combining almost all the characteristics of a bird of prey. Pound's eyes were golden, sharp like a bird of prey, yet it was exceptionally affectionate towards the American soldier, seemingly regarding him as a father figure.

To train its flying ability, it was usually carried in the car. flapping its wings constantly, it grew rapidly. If it got tired, it would return to the roof of the car. Under this intensive training, Pound's flying ability and endurance improved significantly. Now, it can easily fly for more than three hours without food.

The radiation energy it needs each day is only a small fraction of what the US dollar machine requires to function.

The two people, the dragon, and the car traveled together across the vast wilderness at sunset, passing through all sorts of scenery. If it weren't for their journey to defeat the Scarlet God, this trip would have been quite pleasant. Sometimes, watching the scenery rushing past the window, Shizuro couldn't help but pray that this time could last forever.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

As the sun set, the sky gradually darkened. The jeep drove up a high hill and honked its horn twice as a symbolic gesture.

"Let's rest here for a while."

The pound sterling emitted a loud sound. The dragon's intelligence far surpassed human imagination; in just a few days, it had learned human language, though its vocal cord structure prevented it from responding. However, it had grasped most of the meaning. It could even roughly discern the meaning of the metallic, gurgling sounds of the dollar. Upon receiving the order to disperse, the pound sterling happily spread its wings and flew into the surrounding air, frolicking about.

"What an energetic child!" Jinglu exclaimed. "This is the first time I've ever been so close to a dragon."

“He is a native dragon species of this world, and perhaps the last dragon species.” Da Xiong sighed, his eyes lowered, revealing a hint of reluctance. “Sometimes I wonder if doing this is a bit too cruel to it.”

……

A jeep can travel much faster than a horse. The Kingdom of Lumilia itself isn't very large, so no matter how fast they rush, it will only take them two days to reach Andrew City.

However, the growth period of a young dragon cannot be accelerated all at once. In other words, by the time they arrive, the bastard will most likely still be in its juvenile stage, lacking the claws and teeth of Mori. It hasn't even mastered its signature skill of turning living things into stone. And the opponent it will face is a terrifying monster that has evolved alone in the universe for tens of thousands of years.

The sheer power imbalance—the mere flapping of its wings could potentially trigger an earthquake or a hurricane—made Da Xiong feel uneasy. His interactions with the British pound over the past few days had given him a basic understanding of its nature—it was a fearless and treacherous troublemaker.

Perhaps influenced by the personality traits instilled in him by Meijin, besides obediently absorbing radiation energy, driven by its hunting instincts, it would also pounce on any prey it could see in mid-air and swallow it whole. Although the energy these animals provided was negligible compared to Meijin's atomic core, and no one had ever asked it to hunt, it did it anyway. While doing so, Da Xiong could sense that it thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's easy to imagine that this troublemaker would only have two outcomes when facing the Phoenicians: First, he would completely back down, meaning Nobita's side would lose a valuable fighting asset. All the time and effort spent hatching and raising him from the dragon egg would become a waste. The second possibility is that he would continue to be stubborn and charge headlong into the fray, in which case the final result would likely not be good.

Nobita's feelings were complicated; he didn't know which outcome he hoped to see.

Jinglu silently lit a fire.

The crescent moon hung high in the sky, its crimson hue like a giant eye, overlooking everything happening on the ground. The pound sterling was still soaring freely in the nearby air, while the dollar, during its rest period, reverted to its Autobot form, finding it more comfortable to rest this way, even though it didn't need sleep at all.

"Do you feel a little guilty?" Jinglu asked as if she could read Nobita's mind, while laying out the sleeping bag. "Is this how it feels to involve unrelated lives in your plans?"

Nobita was surprised that she had judged his thoughts so accurately. Then he realized that under the girl's appearance was actually Shizuka's human form in the dream world, and he couldn't help but smile.

"A little. I haven't even told it what we're going to do or what kind of situation we're going to put it in... It actually understands all of this. Everyone here makes their own choices, except for it."

"If I don't hatch it from the egg, then the end of the world and all that won't have anything to do with it."

Nobita gazed at the British pounds flying through the night sky, his thoughts a jumble of emotions. He had no absolute certainty about this journey; no one could predict what the Phoenicians had evolved into. Whether the gadgets would still work on her remained an open question.

This is an unprecedentedly powerful enemy, and also the final decisive battle, and the trump card he holds is the rarest of all.

But now, he has to take a tiny, immature life, less than a month old, with him to the battlefield.

……

Jinglu looked at him from the side and saw the compassion and reluctance in the boy's eyes. In the firelight, he looked no different from a god.

It was at this moment that she finally, from the bottom of her heart, rejected the legendary story that everyone in the kingdom knew so well.

Nobinia was not bathed in dragon's blood.

He is just like us, an ordinary person with flesh and blood.

Chapter 423: The Classic Pet Goes Lost

At dawn, Nobita was awakened by a series of rapid, metallic vibrations, and a premonition immediately formed in his mind. When he pulled himself out of his sleeping bag, he saw Meijin looking around anxiously, making urgent noises like a parent who had lost their child.

"Da Xiong? That's great, you're finally awake! I was just wondering whether I should call you." Jing Lu hurriedly explained the situation to him, "The pounds are gone. They're usually waiting nearby around this time, but they weren't this morning. The US dollars have turned into the shape of a car and driven more than ten kilometers away, but we still can't find them. We don't know where they went!"

"..."

It's hard to describe the complex emotions Nobita felt at that moment—a mixture of regret and deep relief. At least he wouldn't have to worry about seeing this reckless brat charge headlong into Phoenicia in the final battle, only to be crushed to death by a single claw. Recalling their last adventure, he and the Azure Dragon were old friends who understood each other across species. Five hundred years had passed, the world had changed, and his old friend's last remaining bloodline had been awakened in his hands. To simply send him to his death like that would seem rather unreasonable.

Nobita was particularly good at comforting himself. With a major battle imminent, the farther away from the center of the vortex, the safer he would be. From childhood to adulthood, he had almost always grown up amidst setbacks, and these frequent failures had forged his resilient heart—which was understandable; if he were more petty, getting a zero would have driven him mad. Therefore, he quickly rallied, packed his sleeping bag, and prepared to set off again.

He might think that way, but Meijin didn't. This was the first new life to hatch from his hands, giving this large creature, which hovered between "living being" and "object," a special meaning. To fly away so inexplicably was undoubtedly a devastating blow. After confirming he couldn't find it and with no intention of continuing the search, Da Xiong slumped to the ground, head down, his usual fighting spirit completely gone. A remarkably human expression of dejection appeared on his metallic face.

"It's okay, don't be too sad." Da Xiong patted his metal skin, making two thuds. It was incredibly sturdy. He couldn't help but recall some old memories and laughed, "Although my family has never allowed pets, I've actually kept a lot of strange things. Cats and dogs are the most common ones. I've also kept three dinosaurs. Besides the thorny ones, I've also kept three fantasy species."

Meijin looked up, and several streams of data flashed through the blue optical lens, seemingly searching for the meaning of the word "fantasy species".

“Griffins, Pegasus, dragons… those all happened 60,000 years ago.”

“One morning, similar to this morning, I woke up to feed them, and when I turned around, they were all gone.”

"Pegasus, griffin, and dragon—I even gave them names. I was so anxious I almost flew to the sky. Where to look for them, how to look for them—I had no one to rely on. The world is so big, how was I supposed to know where they went?"

"Doraemon stayed with me, searching everywhere we could think of, but we still couldn't find them. It's like they just vanished from the world, as if they'd never existed." Nobita sighed, recalling the predicament, still feeling sad even after so much time had passed. "We had to go somewhere else, we were in a very, very hurry, there wasn't time for me to look for them. But I felt so unwilling to accept it, maybe everyone who has ever had a cat or dog suddenly disappears feels the same way?"

"To comfort me, a friend of mine told me his story." Da Xiong smiled, recalling Kukuru's simple and unadorned face. "It's the story of him and a wolf cub that was adopted."

"The beginning and end of the story are unremarkable. He just told me that he once raised a wolf cub that went missing, but eventually returned after a long migration of the tribe. Animals have this instinct to find their home and owner; it's part of their survival wisdom."

"My companions have finally returned, and now they should be living carefree in the 22nd-century fantasy animal paradise."

The bear raised its head and looked up at the boundless sky, murmuring, "I believe it will never forget us. Even if it didn't fight alongside us, it was already a great thing to be born into this world."

Meijin nodded, seemingly understanding, but it was still too difficult for him to fully comprehend what Da Xiong was saying. He only barely grasped that the sudden departure of the pound might not be a bad thing. They could still create a safer environment for it, allowing it to roam freely under the blue sky.

Without the figure that had always chased the car overhead, everyone felt a little lonely, but they continued onward as usual. The jeep's wheels rubbed against the uneven ground, and inside the jeep, Meijin played melancholic blues, making the atmosphere somewhat somber. Neither of them spoke, seemingly immersed in the tension of the impending battle.

As we drove across vast wildernesses, our destination became faintly visible amidst the swirling yellow sand and red soil.

finally reached.

Andrew City, the heart of the kingdom seized by the Crimson God. Atop the towering city walls, a crimson dragon bares its fangs and claws, as if proclaiming this a city of dragons. Within the city, a deathly silence and despair pervade the air; apart from the flapping of its wings, not a sound can be heard. Looking at the towering walls from afar, it feels as if one can gaze directly into the eyes of the Crimson God.

"Judging from the map, this is Andrew City, the first city that Scarlet Goddess conquered after arriving in this world. After that, she stayed here without moving, only continuously releasing half-dragons to attack one city after another."

Jinglu spread out the map and shared the only intelligence that the human side had intercepted. "These half-dragons seem to have no will of their own. They are like bees and ants, completely obeying the commands of the queen bee and queen ant. You can think of them as remote-controlled toys of the Scarlet God."

"Remote control toys..." Nobita sighed, thinking of the Mother of Bugs, the woman who had fought him for a long time and ultimately turned the battle into Plants vs. Zombies.

Dealing with the Zerg seems like a simple strategy of confrontation, since the Zerg she mass-produces are all disposable biological weapons. Killing them wouldn't be a big deal, and there would be no psychological burden. But the current situation is completely different. Those half-dragons are all transformed from humans. Killing them is equivalent to killing the original inhabitants of this world.

If possible, Nobita still hopes to avoid harming them as much as possible. After the battle, he plans to use the Restoration Ray to turn them back into humans. Otherwise, the world's population will face an unprecedented plunge, leaving only 88 cities with the population of just one. Such a small population is simply insufficient to revive the Kingdom of Lumilia, and may even lead to a massive conflict.

"call……"

Jinglu took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, but her heart was beating strangely fast, as if it was about to jump out of her chest.