I Have a God Simulator

As the Guardian of the Gate of the Netherworld, Harlow had always held firmly to his duty, never allowing the living to pass through this first threshold of the Netherworld.

One day, an uninvited guest arrived.

The visitor was a young, powerful Red Dragon. It looked down on Harlow, who was guarding the gate, and said with contempt, "Open the gate, Guardian. I wish to enter."

Harlow officially informed him, "The living may not enter the Gate of the Netherworld."

"Insolence!"

The Red Dragon, as arrogant and unruly as most of the Dragon Race, immediately berated Harlow. "You dim-witted mutt, you’d better open this gate! I, the great Kataro, am here on behalf of the Dragon Race to visit the Titled Deities of the Nether River. You’d be wise not to make trouble for yourself."

Harlow simply repeated what he had said before.

"Damn you! Are you trying to provoke the Dragon Race?"

"If you have the Spell for passage, present it. If not, the gate cannot be opened."

The Red Dragon flew into a rage and started cursing, calling Harlow a "stupid dog with three uncoordinated heads."

Not to be outdone, Harlow mocked Kataro, calling him a "red, piss-leaking lizard."

Both had hit a nerve, and they immediately began trading insults.

However, since this was the sacred ground of the Netherworld, both the Red Dragon and Harlow exercised some restraint and didn’t come to blows right then and there.

But both swore they would teach the other a lesson.

"You piss-leaking dragon, do you dare fight me?"

"You ridiculous three-headed dog, foolish enough to challenge a mighty Dragon? Since you have a death wish, I will grant it and send you back to the Nether River with my own hands."

The two swore oaths, one by the Nether God and the other by the Dragon Tomb, and agreed to a duel to the death in a neutral world.

To ensure fairness, the dueling ground could neither be within the Dragon Race’s sphere of influence nor under the sway of the Netherworld.

They ultimately fought their battle in a desolate Gravel World.

In that battle, Harlow soundly defeated the Red Dragon, even knocking the horn clean off the left side of its head.

The victory was invigorating for Harlow.

The Red Dragon refused to accept defeat. He claimed that he had traveled a long distance to reach the Netherworld and had fought off several attackers en route. He had not been in peak condition and had fought while injured.

Harlow’s response: ’Not satisfied? Then we’ll keep fighting until you are!’

They used a special Artifact, the [Time Shell], to synchronize the time. When the Time Shell let out a wailing cry, it signaled that the time had come.

The second battle took place one hundred years later, with the two meeting in another designated world to fight.

This time, however, the fight ended in Harlow’s crushing defeat—one of his heads was smashed to pieces.

Besides the fact that the Red Dragon Kataro was indeed very powerful, there was another reason: Kataro had brought the [Dragon Thorn Scale Armor]. This powerful set of armor covered his entire body, greatly increasing his Defense and dealing bonus Dragon Language Magic damage.

Harlow had lost because he had come unarmed.

About five hundred years later, the decisive third battle began.

This time, Harlow had rested and recuperated. He borrowed an Artifact, the [Hell Eye], from a Titled Deity and integrated it into his second head.

With a deadly weapon now at his disposal, Harlow regained the upper hand. However, at the critical moment, the Hell Eye was recalled by its master, the Hundred-Armed Giant. This caused Harlow’s second head to self-destruct on the spot, and victory slipped through his fingers.

Having lost two heads in a row, Harlow was filled with despair.

But the Red Dragon Kataro proposed, "Two more matches. Best of five. We’re forbidden from bringing any items. We’ll settle this with nothing but our own flesh and blood."

Harlow could not refuse.

The fourth battle was nine hundred years later.

Harlow won this battle easily, but he felt no joy in the victory.

Because he could clearly sense that the Red Dragon was much weaker than before. He looked exhausted, and his massive body no longer held its coiled, latent power. Instead, it had become a burden to the Dragon’s flight and movement.

There was no sense of accomplishment in defeating a weakened Kataro.

Harlow had heard rumors.

Even among the Cerberus, there was talk that something had happened to the Dragon Race. The Dragon Residence was closing, and access to it was being cut off from many locations.

All Dragons were rapidly growing weaker. Those stranded outside the Dragon Residence were unable to return and could only hide and hibernate wherever they found themselves.

For a time, Dragons of all kinds simply vanished.

"A loss is a loss. There’s nothing to discuss. As for the internal affairs of the Dragon Race, I have no comment."

Kataro’s attitude was as cold and hard as ever.

For the final battle, they agreed to meet in the human world.

The time was set for a thousand years later.

Kataro said, "I need time. The Dragon Race has matters to attend to, and I have my duties, just as you have yours guarding the Gate of the Netherworld. I will arrive on time."

"If I do not arrive, there is only one reason: I am dead."

"You should have killed me in our first duel. Now you have lost that chance forever."

Kataro said proudly, "Cherish your last thousand years. In our final battle, I will smash all three of your heads, snap your neck, and send your Ghost back to the Nether River."

Harlow shot back, "If I win, I’ll put your corpse on display so that everyone I know will learn that the Red Dragon Kataro died at my hands."

And with that, the two parted ways.

Harlow returned to the Netherworld and resumed his post guarding the gate. Having lost two heads, his Divine Body was severely damaged, and his recovery was incredibly slow.

A thousand years later, Harlow made the arduous journey and arrived in the human world, right on time.

He had been here twice before on official business.

Humanity had changed tremendously. They no longer lived beside mountains and rivers but had built countless cities, filling the world with all sorts of strange contraptions.

Harlow didn’t want to cause trouble, nor did he want to attract the attention of human Pioneers.

He simply waited and searched in silence.

Harlow was certain that the Red Dragon Kataro would come.

Kataro was a Dragon whose pride bordered on arrogance. He didn’t just want to win—he had to win on his own terms.

He waited for over a century.

Over that century, Harlow watched humans slaughter one another, war spreading across the land like a contagion. Human inventions appeared one after another, and individuals, cities, villages, land, and sea all underwent a dizzying array of changes.

Harlow only cared about when the Red Dragon would arrive.

He wandered city streets, crossed suburban fields and hills, and dove into streams and ocean currents. On islands, he sifted through bird droppings and soil for the scent a Dragon might have left behind. In the desert, he gnawed on bones and carrion, searching for any trace of a Dragon’s existence...

Not long ago, he encountered Cancong.

This Longsu Zhucong informed Harlow that the Red Dragon would not be coming. The Nine-Grain Pillar that served as a gateway here had been destroyed, and the Dragon Residence had sealed all its external passages.

But Harlow disagreed.

Because, by relying on [Hunter’s Mystery], he had found the scent of the Red Dragon Kataro in many places.

The Red Dragon’s scent was scattered far and wide: on the bones and earthenware displayed in city museums, in the mineral layers and Pottery Jars beneath the desert, within the thick ice of the Himalayas, and in the silt under the Dead Sea floor... It was as if the Red Dragon had been scattered across the entire world.

’The Red Dragon Kataro must be dead,’ Harlow thought.

’He died before I got here.’

’Does that mean I’ve won?’

Harlow didn’t know.

He kept thinking of the Red Dragon’s words.

"You should have killed me in our first duel. Now you have lost that chance forever."

Harlow continued to wander the human world.

The Dragon Race was a powerful and exceptionally gifted people. Even many years after death, their skeletons retained much of a Dragon’s power and scent.

Harlow had to fulfill a promise: to piece the Red Dragon’s corpse back together and take it away.

It was a matter of respect for his rival.

...

After listening to Harlow’s story, Luh Yao was silent for a moment. "Is it possible," he said, "that the Red Dragon’s Wandering Soul and skeleton have already been found and collected by other Pioneers?"

"..."

Harlow’s dog-like eyes slowly widened.

"I’m just throwing out a possibility, don’t mind me."

Luh Yao quickly changed the subject. "So, uh, Cancong sent you to find me because...?"

The Pirate Dog, however, seemed to have short-circuited. His eyes were wide and vacant, and it took him a long moment to come to his senses.