“You must be kidding me…” Luo Bo’s jaw dropped when she entered the Event Redemption Counter. She was expecting something similar to an Arcade Redemption Counter when she entered the instance but it was more similar to the Armoury store only with more accessories and miscellaneous items in stock. The products were lined up neatly and the variety was extensive. Wall paintings, T-shirts, mugs, figurines, plushies, snacks, keychains and many more.
Luo Bo was initially taken aback by the many sizes of graphical monster paintings when she entered. Some were hanging from the ceiling and rest were on the top part of the wall. All of them were seemingly in top quality and it was so real that they could jump out of the picture. Some were imprinted on metal, others were canvas portraits. There were solo pictures as well as combinations of various monsters in those pictures. For example, Shu the Sakura Tree Treant together with Ke Mi playing with her beloved zither while her Great White Snake was lying nearby listening in peace. It did brought about a sense of serenity from within when one looked at it attentively.
The Event Redemption Counter also offered various dungeon monster figurines that were so detailed that it put famous toy production companies to shame. Luo Bo saw two dynamic fighting poses of the Werecats, Nyami and Meomi in their sleek sexy outfits. The werejackals in their half transformation with fire sparkling on their hands captured in a cool victory stance. Luo Bo could still remember the first time she got beaten after underestimating them. That was exact same pose they had used to celebrate beating her. (Along with some victory quotes, she could not remember.)
“Judging from the production value, they must cost at least over a 1000 Yuan (150USD). But damn…I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually could sell for 2500 Yuan (372USD). Maybe even more to passionate collectors.” Luo Bo analysed the figurine in the display boxes.
Working in an animation company she had dealt with her fair share of designs for many anime figurines. This had provided her with the expertise to notice the quality of plastic and the details estimating their worth.
“…not to mention scrappers…hmm but Boss Jin is not ‘that’ famous right?” Luo Bo briefly entertained the thought of gathering all these figurines as a personal collection. However she quickly abandoned the idea of doing that… at least alone. The sheer volume was just too much, but maybe she could convince her friends to help her . After all they could serve as a wonderful work inspiration. She did not know who Jin had contracted as there there no obvious toy company stamps nor any artist signature to it. Browsing through them, there was one that caught her eye and made her start to drool a bit.
It was possibly the largest, most comprehensive and likely also one of the most expensive set that was available to be redeemed. “Oh my god how long did Jin plan this for?! I did not expect this to be on sale and they have her as well!” Luo Bo squealed on the inside at the figurines on display in a glass box. She took out her phone to take pictures of it.
It was the notorious Team Savant.
Although it’s not the entire eighteen, the set featured the initial five which had become famous after crushing Bu Dong’s team. Up until now Jin had kept some of the Savants a secret from his cultivators. Some of the classes were hidden for future surprises or maybe Jin wanted to sell them as part of a second series. The ones that featured in the redemption counter were truly branded into the brain of every cultivator who had tried to beat the Shaolin Football instance.
Hence the current team on display included the Lord Knight, Lancer, Archer, Assassin and Warlock. Despite the fact that they were the ones most often encountered, Luo Bo remembered Mr Know-It-All stating that they were not necessarily always together. However, she only cared for one model at this moment, the Archer Savant.
Luo Bo grinned with joy as she took pictures of it and was excited just for the Archer Savant alone because she herself was an archer. When she first joined the Shaolin Football Instance, Luo Bo had sulked after being beaten, even though it seemed that a win was so close at first. However after watching the replay of her loss she paid extra close attention to the Savant Archer. After a couple more matches she analyzed the footage and tried to copy what she saw. Luo Bo learnt quite a number of tricks this way from her, especially skills that did not involve any particular techniques at all. For example, when to optimally shoot a scatter shot, how much she needed to nock and turn her body to release a spin shot which could curve slightly so that an enemy would not notice until it was too late. It was surprising how perfect the Archer Savant managed to display her skills.
However, the display model in the glass box seemed to indicate that it was the whole team that was to be sold rather than merely the archer on her own. Nevertheless Luo Bo decided to just ask one of the Panda Attendants whether if the archer figurine could be redeemed by itself.
“Hmm…technically they are supposed to be sold in a set, but let me check something real quick and get back to you.” The baby Panda attendant replied with an adorable smile before it went under the glass box display which had a red cloth covering the legs of the table. It seemed to be sniffing around for something for a while, but then started to move backwards. It was pulling a box out from underneath the glass box display and lo and behold. It was a solo Savant Archer figurine.
“Here you go!” The baby panda gave a childish smile which could make every humans go ‘awww’ for it.
The Panda attendant wanted to stand up to give Luo Bo her Savant Archer figurine box but because of its clumsiness, it fell down before it could stand up although the Panda was aware enough to grab on to the box tightly preventing the figurine box to suffer any damage at all. Luo Bo nearly had her heart skip when the Panda fell but more so for the box. She was relieved when everything was okay.
“You okay there little buddy?” Luo Bo squatted to assist the little Panda attendant as she rubbed the fur of the panda. Naturally, the Panda attendant responded with a slight growl and Luo Bo could not take it anymore. Giving in to her urges she picked the Panda attendant up to pet and got a slight yawn in return. Thankfully, unlike normal animals, Jin’s Pandas had a natural perfume smell instead of stench wild animals which made Luo Bo cuddle it even more.
“Misss! Your box!!!” The Panda wanted to get away but Luo Bo was not giving him any chances. Suddenly, she heard a loud stomp from the entrance of the Event Redemption Counter and it was none other than Xiong Da who was panting loudly.
“Brother Xiong Da! Why do you look so flustered?!” Luo Bo carried the Panda attendant to show how cute it was but Xiong Da hurried to the Panda attendant as if he was carrying some sort of life and death message for it.
“Where is that Panda plushie?! That large one! Fluffy one!” Xiong Da exclaimed and the Panda Attendant calmly pointed it to the left hand corner and Xiong Da being large and tall in stature immediately saw what he wanted to see. Relieved that it was still there he picked up the Panda from Luo Bo and oddly thanked her for her assistance before he rushed quickly to that place as per the baby Panda Attendant’s direction. On his way to the plushie, Xiong Da did not care if he bumped into people (he did say sorry though!) but as he reached the large Panda plushie, he saw the price and nearly vomited.
“Panda, if I combine the Raid points with my girlfriend’s, is it possible to get that particular plushie?” Xiong Da purposely took Ruo Ying’s phone when she was sleeping and turned on her Pandamonium app in case if he did not have enough points and hoped to use her points together if it’s possible.
“Sir, your request is unusual but not impossible. We are here to provide compromise and satisfaction whenever possible. Please place your phones on my paw here to redeem your XXXL Panda plushie.” The Panda Attendant who was in Xiong Da’s arm raised its paw out.
Xiong Da did not hesitate to place his and Ruo Ying’s phone on its paw and the transaction was done immediately. Xiong Da could see that Ruo Yong’s account only have four Raid points left while his was completely empty.
“Congratulations on being the first to receive this XXXL Panda Plushie!” The Panda clapped its paw as the Panda plushie which was hanging on the wall suddenly dropped down and smashed into Xiong Da’s face.
Instead of being angry, Xiong Da was overwhelmed by a heavenly cushion of comfort from the soft embrace of the cuddle from the XXXL Panda plushie. Luo Bo was curious about what was happening and sniggered when she saw Xiong Da being so comfortable with the Panda plushie.
“I did not expect a large and mature guy like you to enjoy a Panda plushie this much!” Luo Bo said as she held on to the box though she had yet to make her payment of raid points.
“I will not argue with you on this Luo Bo. Just give it a try and everything should make sense to you.” Xiong Da let go of his large new toy for a while and the Panda Plushie returned to its previous normal size. Luo Bo was a little apprehensive at first but she guessed there should not be any harm in trying it out…
She was dead wrong.
The plushie embraced her like a baby in her mother’s bosoms. Luo Bo suddenly felt whatever fatigue she’d gathered from the battles in the Goblin Raid Event was lifted from her. She could not remember when the last time was she had enjoyed such homely feeling. Even when she was deeply in love with Shi Zuo, this warmth…This softness…This comfort. She never felt anything this impactful before.
“Okay that is enough.” Xiong Da smirked as he pulled Luo Bo out of the XXXL Panda Plushie and she felt she was being pulled out with a rough awakening.
“NOooOOooooo!!” Luo Bo cried out because she wanted more cuddle time with it. After looking wronged at Xiong Da she shifted her attention the poor Panda Attendant who got scared because of her eyes burning with desire. In the meantime, other cultivators were starting to gather as they noticed the more well known cultivators in Jin’s shop were fighting over a product.
“I want that thing now!!” Luo Bo demanded and the Panda attendant shook its head.
“I am sorry Miss, your account does not have enough points to purchase this.” The Panda attendant said regrettably.
“What if I remove this particular archer figurine away from the cart. I should have enough right?” Luo Bo’s heart was getting a little agitated and the Panda attendant regrettably shook its head again.
“You are still missing over a thousand points.” The Panda answered and Luo Bo felt like flipping a table.
“Can I pay with medals instead?” Luo Bo asked with a bit of agitation in her voice as if she was really desperate and there were some other cultivators who began to try out the Panda Plushie that was for redemption too which got on her nerves. Unfortunately the Panda apologised and she could only sigh in regret.
“Why Xiong Da! Why did you have to show me this!!!” Luo Bo felt she would have prefered staying ignorant about this particular plushie especially after she found out more of its functions. Frustrated, she placed the Archer Figurine box back and started to call Shi Zuo. However, he was not picking up his phone and she knew that there was no way to return back to the recovery instance from the shop instance since it was a one way exit.
“Arggh! That does it! I will go do another goblin raid!” Fuelled by the rage, desire and the need to own one, she bought the ten ticket package and pointed at the Panda. “You better keep one for me, or I will rip you into two!”
“Miss please refrain from threatening us, we are here to help you. I am afraid I cannot reserve any items, its against the store’s policy no matter how veteran you are in this store.” The Panda gathered the courage to deny her request and Luo Bo went off in a fit of anger.
She teleported away and found herself in the same scene of the C130 where she saw Captain Bai and Hei. “Oh, you are back so quickly. Are you waiting for your other team members or joining oth-” Luo Bo suddenly banged the red button on the C130 without the permission of the Panda Captains.
“Give me a mission to kill those orcs. I will do it solo.” Luo Bo said with eyes of murderous lust to which the Captains reluctantly obliged and gave her the same monitoring ring which she had returned to one of the Panda nurses.
“I shall be your companion.” A lady walked out with a slight robotic voice and to her surprise Luo Bo saw it was none other than the Archer Savant. At least, her luck seemed to turn around.
“There are raiders chasing after a goblin merchant caravan, you can- Sigh…couldn’t you at least listen to the briefing?” Panda Captain Bai shook his head as Luo Bo and the Archer Savant jumped out of the C130 together while scaring the cultivators that were waiting for their turn to sortie.
“Do not worry, she is a veteran. Maybe someday, you can be as daring as her.” Captain Bai assured them as he continued the briefing with the others while Captain Hei closed the cargo door of the C130.
“Target on sight. Fire a few, I will later assist you with your landing.” The Archer Savant was cold in her words but calculative in her actions, a feature which Luo Bo secretly admired.
“Let’s rain some arrows on these orcs.” Luo Bo smirked as she activated her far sight and nocked her bow- She aimed with the intent to kill.
All for the XXXL Panda Plushie!!!
———————
Jin was experiencing an overwhelming success with his new Dungeon Raid Event. Many people tweeted, shared in the social media and continued the event for the next few days. Various dungeon supplier reviewers had began to take notice of this particular shop because of the hype it was producing even though it did not have a social media account. Most was spread through the word of mouth and it was surprisingly effective.
The new customers were speechless when they first joined the shop instance and the crowd it could handle despite it being just a storefront from the outside. Sure, there were some people loitering around outside Jin’s shop but the newbies did not expect it to be this grand when they were teleported in. Jin’s store really was a hidden gem, if one could overlook the outrageous prices in comparison to others.
Luckily the Dungeon Raid Event was so cheap that newbies managed to get their first taste and some of them found the prices of the other Dungeons acceptable given the dungeons’ complexity and high details.
Jin had also changed the interior decorations for the month of November again to something more goblinish in nature to reflect the Goblin War. He took inspirations from the towns of Gob Gob Kingdom and the interior layout of the tavern he visited.
Jin even made Mr Patsu and Bear Cub One wear green goblin ears and have a goblin mask at the side of their face. The restaurant train instance was also remodelled to the scenery of the Goblin World after the System had gathered sufficient information from the satellite. As the days went by, the redemption store was not only stocked with Jin’s merchandises but it even introduced local Goblin products which Qiu Yue had traded. Of course, most of the products were repackaged with more of the modern context while retaining the authenticity of the goblin theme.
For example, the beer was sealed in mini kegs with modern plastic sealings to prevent people thinking it was not airtight. The local delicacies like goblin cookies were repacked with a more colourful packaging which helped attract the sight of females. Qiu Yue introduced those modern packaging styles to the Goblin Trade Ministry and to their surprise, it also became quite a boon for their own markets too. (Qiu Yue did charge them a little more for all this cosmetic packaging which earned her and Jin quite a nifty profit as well.)
Of course, with customers sharing such a wonderful event, it did not take long for the competitors to take notice of it. Ruby Rats owned Dungeon supplier store, King’s Monster launched a similarly major campaign called the ‘King’s Advance’ to attract people. It even bundled it with major discounts to their dungeon instances for a limited time only. Being the current market leader in the region it unsurprisingly attracted quite a crowd, but compared to Jin’s store, it did not retain many customers willing to try the event again. Once seemed to be enough for most of the customers.
The whole event helped gave a commercial boost to the Tiangong shopping district and some took the chance to offer discounts to attract more people to dine or buy items when they visited Jin’s dungeon supplier store. While it was true that Jin’s store did offer food that was off the charts, a number of customers simply preferred to have a cheaper food alternative. Some of the shopping district shops just adapted and started to offer cheaper alternatives of equipment for the new customers. Clothing shops collaborated with inscribers and sold cheaper defensive options after they themselves tried samples from Jin’s store. A new weapon store was built not far from the dungeon supplier store and it was shockingly popular amongst the newbies. Even Shen Si Fang, the owner of Lele café had created a goblin themed breakfast.
Jin really did not expect such a response from the Shopping District, but he was happy that others also profited. While he wished to relax there was one thing on his mind which he did not know what to expect from. “I know that you said, that your memories are hazy and incomplete, but do you by chance remember anything about her? From what I was told Grandma Yuan has been around for ages. Surely you and Ming must have met or at least heard anything about her.” Jin asked Yun as she tended to the stores.
“No sorry, nothing comes to mind, which could help you. All I know is that she as a Guardian and that she could be considered just as influential as the Royal Zodiacs around these parts. You just have to be relaxed and yet attentive to her needs.” Yun tried to calm the anxious Jin down while she prepared an announcement signage ready to be placed outside of the shop just for Grandma Yuan’s arrival.
“Besides, she got you out of jail. You owe her that much.” Yun proceeded to tell the customers that there would be an early closure for some maintenance purpose and almost everyone jeered at that.
“Yeah right, my ‘servers’ needed rest too and I have placed the announcement since a day ago so no one should be able to complain. Those who wish to dungeon, you have five more minutes to enter an instance. The Raid Instance is closed for now and the rest of you, please get your asses out of here.” Yun said to Jin before announcing the closure of the shop through the speaker system. Mr Patsu and Bear Cub One later tried to salvage the ruthless announcement though many knew that when Yun was rough, she meant business. Hence, many obliged and decided to call it off for a day.
All except for Jin who felt the pressure mounting up and for once that time was passing way too slowly.
