A crowd of poor scavengers digging through the garbage mountain for anything of value all turned at once when the man suddenly shouted.
A few of the bolder men even worked up the courage to approach Da Hong and Droopy.
The man leading them looked the pair up and down several times. Once he was sure the dog and rabbit didn't seem immediately threatening, he took a cautious step forward and probed,
"You… can understand what we're saying?"
Neither Droopy nor Da Hong had expected to suddenly be surrounded by so many people.
After glancing around, Da Hong frowned again and said to Droopy,
"Droopy, I don't like this place."
"Come with me into the city."
"You want to go into the city to look for canvas shoes," Droopy said flatly, as if he had seen through Da Hong's thoughts from the start. He tossed aside the newspaper in his hand and added, "You go first. I'll come after."
Da Hong didn't hesitate. He turned and left at once.
"Ahhh! They really can talk!"
"Monsters! They're monsters!"
The moment the onlookers heard the exchange between Droopy and Da Hong, the crowd exploded into chaos.
The thug standing nearest Da Hong also showed fear in his eyes.
But more than fear, he sensed an opportunity.
A talking rabbit and a talking Droopy dog—
If he caught them and sold them in the city, they would surely fetch an enormous price.
Maybe this was his chance to change his fate and finally escape this foul-smelling Gray Terminal.
With that thought, the thug quietly stepped aside and watched Da Hong swagger past him.
"Brothers, we're about to get rich!"
After Da Hong left, the thug shifted his greedy gaze onto Droopy, who had already picked up his newspaper again and was calmly reading as if nothing had happened.
"A talking Droopy dog… the nobles would definitely love something like that!"
After staring for a few seconds, he turned to one of his men and barked,
"Go get a sack! We'll catch the dog first, then go after the rabbit!"
"Boss… maybe that's a bad idea," one of the men whispered nervously. "What if they're some kind of monsters…"
"What are you scared of?"
The thug leader glared at him coldly.
"It's just a Droopy dog. Watch this."
Before anyone could answer, he stripped off his coat, rushed at Droopy, and with lightning speed threw the coat over him.
There was no accident.
The coat completely covered Droopy.
In the next instant, the thug quickly gathered the coat up, bundled Droopy inside it, and slung the whole thing over his shoulder.
"See? Easy."
The thug lifted his chin proudly.
"You lot go catch the rabbit!"
But the men around him didn't move.
Instead, all of them stared wide-eyed at the spot behind him.
"Hurry up! What are you all standing around for?" the thug leader snapped angrily. "I already caught the dog. That proves they're not dangerous—they can just talk!"
"N-no, boss… the dog's still there!"
One of the men pointed shakily behind him.
They had all seen Droopy get covered by the coat with their own eyes. But the moment their boss gathered it up, Droopy had somehow reappeared in the exact same spot, sitting under the sign with a newspaper in hand, elegant and relaxed, as if absolutely nothing had happened.
Hearing that, the thug leader blinked blankly, then hastily lowered the coat.
The inside was empty.
He froze on the spot.
The others might not know what had just happened, but he knew perfectly well—when he scooped up the coat, he had absolutely felt weight inside it.
And yet now the coat was empty.
Worse still, Droopy was sitting right there in plain sight.
"What the hell…?"
Looking at the dog still seated there, the thug leader felt a chill crawl up his spine.
At that moment, Droopy finally raised his head and said slowly,
"Young man, don't cause trouble."
"If you remain stubborn…"
"You will die."
With that, Droopy stood up and walked past the thug leader.
His pace was slow.
But the instant he passed the man's side, his figure appeared a hundred meters away as if the space between had been skipped entirely.
Once there, Droopy lifted his head slightly and looked toward the city wall now visible in the distance.
After roughly estimating the distance, he shook his head.
Then, as if performing a stage trick, he pulled a lasso from inside his coat.
Before anyone in Gray Terminal could react, he swung his arm and threw it into the air.
The rope traced an arc across the sky—
Then landed perfectly around one of the battlements atop the distant city wall.
Everyone in Gray Terminal stared in utter disbelief, rubbing their eyes as if they had gone blind.
Because the city wall was at least several hundred meters away.
And when Droopy first threw the rope, it had clearly been short.
Yet the moment it flew into the sky, it stretched longer and longer at shocking speed.
Once the rope caught the battlement, Droopy didn't hesitate. He gave it a casual tug.
The rope went taut.
And everyone standing in Gray Terminal felt the space in front of them flicker strangely.
In the next moment, the city wall that had been far off in the distance silently drew close and came to stand right in front of Droopy—making his already small figure seem even smaller beneath it.
"????"
"What is going on?!"
"Ahhhh! That dog pulled the city wall over here!"
"Run! It's a monster!"
After a moment of stupefaction, the people of Gray Terminal finally snapped back to their senses.
With screams and shouts, everyone except the thug leader and his stunned men scattered like birds, vanishing almost instantly.
At the same time, the soldiers stationed atop the wall of the Goa Kingdom also widened their eyes in disbelief as they stared at Gray Terminal, which had somehow appeared right below the city wall.
"Damn it!"
"How did Gray Terminal suddenly end up beneath the wall?!"
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