“Three days? You kidding me, right? It felt like three years!” Jin exclaimed as he was perpetually filled with bruises and wounds on his body. For the last two days odd after his surgery (further enhanced to nearly one week, thanks to Peppers’ Temporal Manipulation magic), Jin had been furiously practising the lotus floating technique.
Worse, Zeru had been upping the difficulty whenever he felt that Jin was getting the hang of it. He threw whirlwind attacks, vast swarms of petals, and even directly attacking him whenever he tried to jump on the piece of lotus.
However, Jin discovered a nasty neat trick by overcoming the trials. All those chi control training with the Wind Energy which Zeru forced him to do, allowed him to unlock the Green Panda Wind power within him. Jin found it ironic that he wasn’t able to control it from the start but had to reverse engineer his Epic Art to understand how to utilise the wind energy from the Bamboo Cyclone of the Lazy Panda.
That enabled him to create a Wind Astral Panda to infuse into his own body, giving him the agility and chi manipulation he sorely needed to float in the air and control his movements in three dimensions.
The System later noted that his Green Panda Wind movements were similar to the cultivation of the Space Hummingbird Cultivation Style. “The similarities of chi control surpass 80%. System recommends User to read the manual to further improve his chi control movements.”
“As if I have the time to read right now,” Jin complained while lying on the smashed up floor finally enjoying his first rest since the whole ordeal, at least for his little a while.
Zeru had decided he was competent enough to pass the test though he’d preferred for Jin to practice more so he would have been guaranteed to pass with flying colours. However, Zeru also knew that Claire would open the door to Jin in ten minutes or so according to the System’s timer, thus giving him time to recuperate completely for the fight.
“And even if I did, I sure as heck would not bother reading that. Instead please give me some updates regarding what’s happening at the store, the scouting mission or other things that I should be aware of.” Jin asked as he closed his eyes just for a moment. He did not realise that sleeping on the floor could be such a blessing.
“The Store is still well managed by Yun. WunderPanda Theme Park Instance remains to be the most popular of all instances and the highest grossing instance ever since its inception. The Restaurant Instance still remains the toughest competitor with Lynn’s inclusion of the Reservoir of Deep Fishing Instance as part of the stops in the Restaurant Instance.” The System began its debriefing to Jin.
“There has been an increase of 5000% in regards to catches and the number of customers buying the various fishes for food increased by 300%. The most popular order was to stew it instead of eating it raw. Thus, the business model that Lynn introduced has been working well and it’s become a popular spot for friends and co-workers to relax. System has also upgraded Bear Cub NPCs with ‘playful attitudes’ for free to prompt customers and guilt trip them into buying more fish.”
5000% might look like a lot, but Jin knew that it was because the original number of catches in the past month was way too terrible. (Hint: it was in single digits.)
“Secondary News. A unit of 15 Dark Arts Practitioners was first captured with the aid of Minotaur Maid Sebastia. Fifty additional Dark Arts Practitioners were later captured by the Leader of the Dark Arts Practitioners. This had –”
“Wait, what? Dark Art practitioners? I thought they were supposed to do reconnaissance and/or fight Demon Rats? Are they related to the Demon Rats? Have we found the ones responsible who were manipulating them yet?” Jin threw a series of questions, and if the System had been Zeru, it would have thrown more slashes to shut him up.
“Minotaur Maid Sebastia has proven quite resourceful by infiltrating into the ranks of the Demon Rats. She previously captured the cousin of Werejackal Leader Gold, Silver, nicknamed the Silver Mage, alongside his subordinates. They had been the remnants of the rebel group known as the Jacks and Sebastia gained the trust of Demon Rats by eliminating them.” The System later summarised the list of events to Jin, and he was pleasantly surprised by the development by his monsters.
“Yeah, I should trust them more so I can focus on bigger things.” Jin smiled as he thought that when the System interrupted him with more news. “Lord Wolte has evolved immediately after he gained a demon worshipper, who happened to be the patron of the Dark Art practitioners.”
“Huh? But the last I saw him, he had no evolution trigger or meeting any criteria to evolve. Is that even normal? Or was that Demon Worshipper so powerful it caused Lord Wolte to evolve based on its presence? No wait let me guess, because of the practitioners?” Jin asked and Peppers interrupted him when the System had enough of this babbling User.
“Demons and Gods are different from normal monsters. They need worshippers to increase their powers and based on Moloch’s past tale about Wolte, it seems that he just needed worshippers to get back some of his original powers. The evolution shouldn’t be because he met the criteria, but rather his power level was way more than the current threshold the System had set, thus identifying it as an evolution. Am I right System?” The System acknowledged the suspicion firmly.
“Oh…but can he also meet criteria for evolution?”
“Yeap, definitely. Although I think the worshippers part will be most crucial to him.” Peppers assumed, and the System presented pictures of the new evolved Lord Wolte.
“What is this? A tank? How is this an evolution? He merely …wait a minute. These spotlights? ARE THOSE EYES?!?!” Jin sat up to take a closer look at Wolte’s new form.
It was definitely some sort of tank which he did not recognise, but the thing was he had eyes, a mouth and even a white moustache being merged at the front of the tank. “Do you have a video of him moving around?” Jin curiously asked, and the System presented one as requested.
“Holy wonkers! This is … HAHAHHAHA oh my god!” Jin noticed how the threads on the tank were like his hands and legs. He was able to move them at various directions albeit slightly restricted, but he was in full control of the tank. Lord Wolte was literally an anthropomorphic talking vehicle.
“Lord Wolte, in his free time had studied various forms of military vehicles, most likely to find a way to be more useful to User, despite his previously lacking strength.” The System finally took an active role to explain.
“His current form, he nicknamed the ‘Slug Tank’ is his most basic forms according to him. This indicates that there is a lot more room for evolution should he be able to obtain more followers. However, as of now, he is combat ready and has been equipped with slightly more advanced armaments than the Sherman Tank User had possessed.” The System explained which Jin thanked it for the heads up.
“Third News, Sub System Users Qiu Yue and Lynn have been deployed to the Giant World to complete a mission issued by the Cooking Sub System. User was not informed earlier because it has been their unanimous decision to train themselves up.” The System reported and told Jin that the mission was to find the missing Penguin Chieftain as they were not back from their monthly pilgrimage to the Altar of Giants yet.
“The Giant World? Oh, the one where insects can be as big as the size of an Ogre from the Goblin World?”
“Affirmative, the one User had also used the same analogy on the cats from that world, stating that they would be the same size as an Ogre.” The System replied and Jin rolled his eyes.
“What can I say? They are really all at the size of an Ogre! Only some were a bit larger!” Jin argued as he remembered Lynn and the penguins bringing back a dead Boar looking monster which was the size of an Ogre before cutting it up to use its bones and meat for the ramen broth. (The number of customers that visited the Restaurant instances required such a size to feed their hungry stomachs consistently despite the Sub System’s cloning ability of ‘raw’ materials)
“Alright, leave the two alone unless they signal for our help, but please do monitor them close enough. Call me overprotective, but I don’t trust them enough to be on their own yet. Their cultivation grades are too low for comfort.” Jin ordered the System while he looked at the reports of the ongoing construction for Pand-Atlantis.
“Under the supervision of Demon Lord Moloch, the Orcs and Goblins have completed Phase One for the foundation of the Undersea City Pand-Atlantis. A few Sandroku Golems were damaged due to the constant work, but revisions of those golems are already underway to ensure such mishaps won’t happen again.” The System noted as it continued with its report with regards to the Floating City
“Progress has been significantly smooth for the Floating City. Agriculture Sector One’s crops are at 110% growth with the aid of Ancient Treant Shu and Zither Mistress Ke Mi. Agriculture Sector Two livestock have increased to two fold with controlled temporal manipulation. Industrial Sector One has recently been completed and awaiting your choices to select what kind of industry User is looking at next.”
“I want a factory dedicated to improve and produce more of these Sandroku Golems so that the Orcs and Goblins working on it have a better workshop environment. Allocate half the industral factory space to Niu Lang and the Robot Crawlers.” Jin commanded as he explained his rationale.
“If we are going to invade or protect the Mecha World, we better start producing our own Mechas. But make sure to prioritise the repairs of Mechataur to get it up and running before anything else.” Jin said as he had already spent a generous amount of money on Niu Lang to increase his knowledge on Mechatronics via the System. The profit returns were visible from the mini game that Niu Lang created, but it was still not sufficient to cover the costs yet.
“If need be, outsource help from the goblins and Orcs who had been working on the Sandroku Golems. We need as many people on deck for this. Heck maybe get Lord Wolte since he potentially might have some knowledge on robots too. Else get him to get some tanks or planes. Continue building Industrial Sector Two as per Qiu Yue’s plan.” Jin continued to swipe the boring statistics that the System showed, and that was also when he heard a lock unlocking from the top.
“You can come out now,” Claire informed him as she fully opened the door. Jin closed his eyes for a while to get used to the outside sun before he jumped out effortlessly with no help from his new Green Panda Wind energy.
“We have verified your existence within the Isolation Ward for the past 72 hours. You may now challenge the four demon exorcist trainees. However, I will suggest using your System to teleport you back home and have a change of clothes.” Claire said as she distanced herself a bit from him with an irk of disgust on her face.
Jin looked at himself and finally noticed the amount of bloodstains he received not only on his tattered clothing but all over his skin, making it all dark red. If he hadn’t known any better, Jin would have thought that he had drowned himself in a sea of blood.
“I shall inform Grandma Yuan that you are in dire need of a bath. I am sure she can spare you another 15 minutes. Meet you above ground soon.” Claire walked away, evidently covering her nose, which made Jin wonder if it was that bad of a smell.
“Trust me, if not for the bracelet being a dimension of its own, I would have already run far away from you.” Pei agreed with Claire entirely, and the System had already opened a portal for Jin to a private Emerald Mountains Hot Spring Instance.
“Oh my god, Master! You smell worse than a rotten fish.” Mr Patsu complained as he saw his Master coming back for a bath but criticised his body odour.
“THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW!! Mr Patsu, prepare the most fragrant bath soap you can find and put it into the hot spring instance!” Jin ordered as he hastily took his clothes off.
“Sire, this is a hot spring, not a bubble bath. Besides, the soap bath would not remove the odour from you. We need to manually scrub your entire body to make sure the stains are washed off.” Mr Patsu tried to reason with Jin but he was already butt naked.
“Then what are you waiting for? Scrub away! I only have 15 minutes in real life! Get it done as soon as possible and soak the hot spring with medicinal herbs! I want to dip a little before I go for the fight!” Despite the demands, the penguins in the hot spring instance were pumped up to serve their master to the fullest.
“And somebody! Get me a bowl of cold soba noodles! I am literally starving!” Jin yelled as he tolerated the penguins intense scrubbing starting from his feet.
