For the first time after a long while, the first customer at the front door wasn’t Xiong Da but actually Bu Dong’s gang. Yue Han, the Blind Bat cultivator, and Kong Xian, the Towering Tortoise Cultivator.
“Hmm, are you sure we are at Boss Jin’s place?” Kong Xian was curious yet amazed by the drastic change around the shop ever since he saw the shop roughly a month ago.
“Yue Han and I last remembered seeing the big Panda Billboard and the new shop sign, Dungeons and Pandas, but this new screen installation and the removal of shutters? This is my first time seeing this.” Bu Dong, the Angry Ape cultivator replied with slight confusion.
“Did we not enter Boss Jin’s store yesterday when we were rooting for Brother Xiong Da? How did Boss Jin change things so quickly? Is my watch functioning properly??” Yue Han took out his phone to check his internet connection to see if his watch was sync correctly.
“Trust me, if it was not for today’s pop quiz, I would not have remembered regretting not studying yesterday because we were there helping Brother Xiong Da out.” Bu Dong reaffirmed Yue Han’s doubts. Even though Bu Dong knew how crazy Boss Jin’s changes were in terms of shop layout, but this was too absurd.
“In any case, it looks like the store is open.” Bu Dong pointed at the door which previously had a digital signage to show that it was ‘Closed’, which was currently showing ‘Open for Business’. The trio entered the shop only to have the shock of their lives.
“Where did the entire shop go to?” Bu Dong cried out, suddenly seeing panda statues and some big colourful machines in the middle of the shop. He panicked a little, did Jin just got spirited away from his life?
Was the past month a one time miracle that made him captivated with the wonders of cultivation and fighting monsters?
“Ehh Bro, look at this large sign here.” Kong Xian said as he beckoned the other two who were estranged in their own delusional thoughts. “Returning customers, please use the dimensional port at the entrance over here!” A panda pointed at the sign, so Kong Xian immediately presented his phone towards the dimensional port like how he had done it a month ago.
And Poof! He disappeared with the other two quickly following suit.
“WHAT THE CRAZY SHIT IS THIS!” Bu Dong shouted at the top of his lungs to show his amazement at the current new store instance. Even Yue Han and Kong Xian were made speechless by the whole new layout. If the previous store was fantastic, the current one was magnificent beyond belief.
Jin was at the bar island looking a little fatigued, but continued to smile at his customers and greeted them as he usually did. “Welcome back.” He had barely finished the Halloween dungeon but there were still some minor tweaks he had to do before releasing it out into the public. This was one dungeon he decided not to try all by himself when he looked to review it.
“Oh, the horrors.” He thought to himself.
Perhaps it would be a good decision to delay the Halloween dungeon just for a day and let the returning customers enjoy the current new layout just for one day before he releases the new dungeon to the public. In the meantime, he could also do some publicity about the Halloween dungeon, which would allow the cultivators to be prepared. In addition, the weekend was just around the corner, making it the perfect time to release it too.
“How did you do all this?!” Bu Dong was still sceptical with the current layout and later realised that a small little pet ape was sitting right beside his shoulder.
“Wait, is this the pet that I bought from the loot box machine? Ohhhhh! Oh my gosh! I can even touch it!” Bu Dong exclaimed as he saw his pet had a small burst of smoke appearing occasionally. It was after all similar to his cultivation, the Angry Ape. Yue Han noticed it too and saw that his pet bat was flying around, not allowing him to catch it.
Kong Xian suddenly felt left out and asked if it was some reward they managed to get from the dungeon fights. “Nahh, it was from the loot box machine on the second floor. I had already forgotten all about the existence of this little rascal until now.” Bu Dong replied as he remembered he saw the ape only once when he tried the Panda Muscles instance to work out.
“You can now get it from the floor above you in the new Pet Battle vending machine instead of the loot box machine.” Jin pointed upwards as he told Kong Xian and the three decided to explore the all new layout like little kids in an adventure playground.
The trio quickly ran up the spiral stairs and found the vending machine beside the closed caravan store. They followed the instructions strictly to help Kong Xian get his personal pet. “Wahahaha, behold my pet tortoise!!!” Kong Xian brought it up solely with his right palm and the pet tortoise’s newborn eyes looked at Kong Xian with fascination. It even let out a loud squeak to acknowledge his new master.
Later, both Bu Dong and Yue Han noticed that Kong Xian had a few cards on the table and they remembered what the vending machine stated. There was a Battle Pet service instance which they could try.
Yue Han who was usually strict with the amount of money he spent each day, had decided to buy a card pack too because he was a total sucker for card collections. “Attack Up, Defence Down, Vitality Up…All these cards are enhancement cards…Oooh! Wing Attack!” Yue Han got excited to see that he received a skill card among the pack of enhancement cards.
“Shall we try to battle?” The kid spirit inside Kong Xian was burning brightly. Why would they not? They were born in the era of Digiman and Pokeman. To be able to have their own pets and making them fight with special skills was like a childhood dream come true for all of them.
Even Jin secretly created a personalised deck with his own money. Sure, the System might be getting some money from him but it was inconsequential compared to the amount of money he had earned. He liked this kind of battle pet cum card games too.
Spendthrift Bu Dong, unlike Yue Han, was similar to Jin and had already bought five packs of cards. However, he thought to open them later when they were battling or right after it. “Do not reveal your special technique unless you need to.” His cultivation master told him with regards to his cultivation techniques and he had even applied them to the card game. It seemed like Bu Dong was both a serious cultivator and a gamer at heart.
Right beside the Pet Card vending machines was the dimensional port for the Pet Battle Royale service instance which both Yue Han and Kong Xian entered without hesitation and quickly took their place at each side of the room.
Both of them booted up their Pandamonium App and the interface to the Pandamonium automatically booted the Pet Card sub-application onto their screen which showed the health of their pets and their stats. Yue Han and Kong Xian grinned at each other so widely that they simultaneously shouted two words.
“LET’S BATTLE!”
