While Jin had been busy discussing business with Ke Loong, the Pandawans had successfully navigated through the crowd with the help of the Pandamonium App’s navigation map system. On their way, they indeed passed a fake Grand Central Terminal, which the navigation system had utterly ignored.
When the two guys looked at it closely, they noticed the doors changed to a metallic door design with glass windows. Shi Zuo felt a little foolish for his past mistake even though it was the first time seeing the Grand Central Terminal.
As they were disguised as the Black Suits, none of the crowd bothered them. It was uneventful compared to Bin Yong and Shi Zuo’s earlier adventure when they got harassed by all the endless staring. Yet there was still something that bothered Bin Yong.
The Whispers.
Ever since he saw that prodigious black phantom that had formed from Shi Zuo’s shadow, he also heard the echoing of the whispers again. Despite it happening again, they were not as severe as the first run which Bin Yong believed it had something to do with the transformed rings or the pendants that they were wearing. But since it was muffled down, Bin Yong ignored most of the murmuring throughout the whole walk.
The rain continued to pour and the group had to make stops under some shelters to check the map since Bin Yong’s phone was not waterproof. They did not wish to risk the water screwing up his phone, which Shi Zuo complained about repeatedly. (Though Bin Yong swore he would throw his phone at Shi Zuo and bet it could still work. )
It came as a pleasant surprise but, the suits were surprisingly waterproof and so were the shirts and blouses. The only thing that got wet was the exposed parts of their bodies, which was not much of an issue for the boys, though it was a little irritating for the girls. They instead prefer to stay dry, but the guys insisted that breaking the character of the ‘Black Suits’ might be doing more harm. “Just bear with it a little longer.” Shi Zuo pleaded and the girls grudgingly agreed to it.
Within fifteen minutes, they managed to reach the real Grand Central Terminal, which was bustling with people. However, there was no little girl in pyjamas in sight, no matter how hard they tried to spot her. “Come to think of it, we don’t know how to contact her.” Shi Zuo said as he was observing the ocean of people running for their station terminals or busy shopping (or pretending to shop in Bin Yong’s view) in this iconic landmark.
“Maybe, she might have left her contact on your phone?” Jia Le suggested and Bin Yong quickly picked up to check. Suddenly, his phone buzzed on its own. He promptly answered the phone, and it was none other than the voice of the pyjama girl.
“Hello….? Hello!!? Hi There! Sorry, reception’s a little poor because of the place I am in. Took you longer than expected to reach the Grand Terminal but hey at least you reached it. Anyways, it is unfortunate that I am unable to meet you in person. The Deep Ones have found me so I suppose you have to take the train to Penn Station yourself. Remember Exit A! You will find that conspicuous Panda sitting down near the corner reading his newspaper!” The girl spoke so fast that Bin Yong had no chance to interrupt her before she dropped the call on him.
At that point, the Pandamonium Map App immediately showed an updated route, including the trains that they should be taking to Penn Station. “Do you think we have to buy tickets to ride the trains? I don’t think our MeChats wallets can work for Jin’s dungeons! Hahah!” Luo Bo cracked a joke as she began to look for the exit that they should be heading towards.\
“That will be a major rip off if Jin made such a petty, realistic move. I think I paid more than enough to play this dungeon.” Shi Zuo said, and even the spectators seemed to be agreeing to what he said. (Jin did unknowingly sneezed at that point while he was talking to Ke Loong.)
“Eh, I think we should think about moving faster rather than worry about the tickets.” Jia Le nudged Shi Zuo as they suddenly saw every individual in the Grand Central Terminal stop in their tracks and turn their heads towards them the same moment the Pyjamas girl dropped the call on Bin Yong.
“I guess, we are officially in Phase 2 of the dungeon.” Shi Zuo readied his weapon and removed the disguise pendant in case it got damaged in any way. He was also afraid the defence inscriptions might not work with the Black Suit Cosmetic Inscription Pendant was on. (An ungrounded worry, as they later would learn)
“SIX MINUTES!” Bin Yong shouted as he saw the app indicate the train at Grand Central Subway Station would be leaving soon. “We need to find the Train Platform 7!” Bin Yong shouted once more to get the attention of the crowd as they all began to transform into Deep Ones. He ran the other way while signalling the others to take the exit that leads to the subway stations.
“I am starting to have no doubts that this dungeon instance is really named Escape CITY! HOW DOES BOSS EXPECT US TO RUN AWAY FROM THESE MANY DEEP ONES?!!” Luo Bo shouted in panic and frustration as she nocked her bow and pointed it 45 degrees towards the Terminal’s ceiling. It was an explosion arrow similar to the one she used against Orc Scout previously but this time packed with a lot more power in it. By inserting as much chi as she could safely infuse into the arrow, Luo Bo hoped that it would be potent enough for the ceilings to be destroyed.
“Here goes nothing! Loose!” Luo Bo released her bowstring with all her might that she was pushed back by her own draw. Surprisingly, her inscription on her bow activated as she saw a magical red circle appearing at the front of her arrow when she shot it out. The arrow went through the magical ring and bright yellow sparks spiralled around it as a stylish effect to indicate the arrow was enhanced by the inscription activation.
Luo Bo saw and clenched her fist towards her face as if it was a sign of victory. It was a fire based inscription that caused her arrow to deal out a set amount of explosive damage at a random chance. She mainly used that inscription to make her opponents flinch or knockback since the explosion the inscription caused, was rather minor. Thus that was sufficient enough to give her an opportunity to either run from the enemy or slip in a second arrow shot to end their lives.
This time round, it was different. As she was using an explosive arrow, the explosive damage from the inscription multiplied with her maximised chi infused explosive arrow, and it was bound to make a massive explosion. To Luo Bo, it felt like time had slowed down when she saw the moment the arrow make contact with the ceiling.
*BADABOOM!*
The arrow explosion was substantial enough for the impact waves to destroy the surrounding glass windows and the entire ceiling began to collapse at the stationary Deep Ones who were still in the midst of transforming from their human disguises to their real forms.
“Oh gosh! What are you waiting for? A stray rubble to hit your head?!” Shi Zuo grabbed Luo Bo by her hand who was staring in awe by her own work and the couple jumped to the 1st floor as they headed to the basement where the subway station was located.
“Guess, we aren’t paying for the tickets!” Jia Le leapt over the ticket gate machine and threw a kunai on the floor, packed with two spells worth of vine wall barriers. Should the first vine wall barrier’s integrity drop to less than 50%, the second vine wall barrier would emerge from the kunai.
It was a nifty trick she learnt from her Western Magicians parents where spells could be placed like a simple straightforward programming code. (On a separate note, her grandma grudgingly acknowledged that was one aspect of Western Magic which Eastern Cultivation could not copy. Her mother laughed and hugged Jia Le’s grandma who seemed to come to terms with her own magician status through Jia Le. )
“Wait, where is Bin Yong?!” Luo Bo asked as she ran ahead with Shi Zuo and Jia Le was right behind her.
“He said he is taking the other exit route from outside the Grand Central Terminal and into the Grand Central Subway Station as a distraction and to learn how terrible the situation is outside.” Jia Le replied as she ran side by side the other two.
“Why is he always taking this kind of unnecessary risks. That Bin Bin!” Luo Bo shook her fist in anger when suddenly a fully transformed Deep One came out from the corner armed with a spear. Shi Zuo was ready for that as he threw his axe towards the fish man.
The Deep One was able to parry the axe but did not realise that there was a chain attached to it, causing it to wrap around the Deep One’s spear. Shi Zuo smiled as he saw the Deep One’s bewilderment and clicked on a trigger which emitted a bolt of electricity to pass through the chains and the axe. It subsequently shocked the Deep One which allowed Shi Zuo to move in closer with a spare offhand axe and slashed its head off.
This new sort of weapon was something he and the Three Headed Bear had collaborated together while Bin Yong was busy taking notes the whole afternoon. It was a one of the reward options purchasable with Goblin Raid Points.
Cultivators would buy a ticket to spend a set amount of time with the Three Headed Bear to craft a weapon together. It became such a big hit that there was a schedule that needed to be followed due to the number of people trying it out. Accommodating his customers, Jin quickly added the possibility to book a timing in the Pandamonium App. If the cultivator missed their turn, it would be a free for all for that particular time slot which Shi Zuo luckily managed to sneak in during a missed cultivator’s time slot.
The Three Headed Bear just gave a stern look at the late cultivator who had been delayed by traffic and he obediently chose another time slot (his ticket got refunded as it was not used up and thankfully, he did not need to wait for long).
Within that time slot, Shi Zuo had purposely crafted a weapon that should prove to be very effective against the Deep Ones. His only regret was that the inscription choices were rather general and the lightning inscription the shop was selling was as ‘weak’ as the one Luo Bo used. (Though, it was really useful in earlier dungeons, just not in the more advanced dungeons.)
Therefore, he decided to make a lightning based weapon with a multiplier effect along with the axe he was using. Unlike Luo Bo’s and Se Lang’s inscription, which were based on chance, Shi Zuo decided to take a flat lightning based inscription damage which was less powerful than the random chance inscription, but he figured he would make up for it with his speed
Bin Yong had noticed the new weapon of his friend, when he came back boasting about it. Still, his friend did not seem very impressed at the time and teased Shi Zuo if he got duped by the number games which Boss Jin had placed on all the weapons when Bin Yong queried. “You do know in real life, there are no floating calculable HP bars above our heads right? Those numbers are worth jackshit.”
“But what if Boss Jin somehow managed to make it calculable? Like those wuxia novels where we can have 10,000 elephant powers and our weapon provide us another 5000 elephant powers!” Shi Zuo countered and Bin Yong shook his head.
“I know you love your numbers, but don’t you think that is a bit unrealistic?” Bin Yong remarked though Shi Zuo honestly believed that Boss Jin had revealed those numbers on their Pandamonium Stat page for a reason. He might doubt any other person but Boss Jin had proven to him that nothing in this shop instance nor in the Pandamonium app was there without a reason.
Be it an experimental feature or a quality of life update, there was always something that Shi Zuo looked forward to whenever Jin implemented any changes. Everytime that happened he got even more inspired to do the same for his IT security job. In a way, he secretly idolised Boss Jin’s technological edge and would love to talk with whoever was responsible.
“Whatever those numbers are based off, at the very least his inscription works wonders.” Shi Zuo looked before him. The Deep One was totally fried and when the head was cut off, Shi Zuo retracted the axe back and proceeded forward with the rest.
That surprise attack made them even more vigilant than ever as they took the stairs down to Platform 7.
