It was a long haul to the police station, and most of them could not believe it when they heard the entire story from Jin. Ku Wai and Ya Bai were also ‘invited’ to the police station for interrogation but compared to Jin, they left much earlier.
“The records and videos from the Three Eyed Tigers matched with what you said. Now as for that solidified dan tian you are holding, are you willing to give it up to the police?” Detective Lee An asked, and Jin shook his head. “It is rightfully mine to keep since he had the audacity to attack me against all warning and paid the price in my territory.”
“Fair enough, we won’t pursue that, but I am just warning you that other people might come after it. Though the laws are on your side, stating that those backing him up can’t just demand it back, perhaps expect them to at least try to buy it off you.” Lee An said as he packed his files up.
“However knowing you, I doubt that you will let go of it that easily, so it should be only a matter of time until they try to acquire it by other means. It just might be easier if you put it in our hands for safekeeping.” Lee An told Jin who gave him a suspicious look.
“Sir, it is not that I do not believe in you. I do not believe in the ‘impartiality’ of the justice system. For it to be controlled and sponsored by various of the clans, I can’t trust each and every one of your colleagues to be as honest as you or your wife. Some are bound to have their own agenda, and I don’t look forward to ever face a revenge seeking De Tian .” Jin replied as he recalled the vengeful look on Ong’s face which Lee An could only sigh at that response.
“I cannot fault you for that after what has happened today. We’ve tried our best to clear up the aftermath though. Hahaha.” Lee An laughed bitterly and understood where Jin was coming from. How was he supposed to explain to Jin, that the orders from Central HQ had practically ordered them to allow that havoc to happen.
“I’m glad the weapons and armours you got from me came in handy. Though I sold it to you guys in the hopes of preventing just what had happened today… In any case, I understand there were some things that you could not control, in the end, you did fulfil your part of our contract. For that, I am grateful.” Jin bowed slightly and asked about the victims that were killed during the ‘terror’ attack.
“Captain Mao is currently trying to accelerate the process for those victims to get the most basic resurrection. There will be some loss in cultivation, a bit of memory loss but hey, at least they will come back to life free of charge as guaranteed by the government.” Lee An answered, and Jin felt more than relieved. After filling in some additional information, Lee An was done processing Jin’s statement and finally let him off.
“Oh, and eh help me thank Ren Wei for the assist. Ask him to find me the next time he visits my store. I owe him a brand new weapon customisation voucher.” Jin said before he left the police station.
He was aware that the sudden sniper fire as the Ruby Rats dispersed came from Ren Wei since Jin caught a glimpse of his cultivation with his Pandaromic Eyes. In fact, Jin was prepared that there could be an assassin waiting for him as soon as the destruction of the district started, but he couldn’t know when he would strike.
Nothing happened during his fight with Ong. Neither did he intervene in Jin’s duel against De Tian. Was he waiting for the Triad Bosses to leave? Or was he waiting for Jin’s guard to drop after everything was over for the moment the dungeon supplier would leave his back wide open?
All he knew was that the assassin was biding his time to take the shot, which was why Ren Wei managed to kill him before he could make a move. Now Jin could only hope that some kind of connection would appear who the assassin worked for. (He believed it was from one of the Triad Bosses since it was way too convenient and too weak to be a Banned Emperor assassin.) But chances were slim to know the connection, and Jin just left it as it is.
“Haha, you knew? I guess Ren Wei can’t claim to have been your secret guardian angel then. I will make sure to pass your thanks to him.” Lee An acknowledged and bid Jin goodbye.
————
“So, System. What shall we do with the new plot of land? You know I actually wanted to create one more dungeon instance before Christmas, but with all that is happening, I don’t know whether it is wise to do that anymore.” Jin asked as he called for a taxi.
“User does not have sufficient cash to renovate the Tiangong Shopping District, nor does he have any budget to make any new dungeon instances.” The System stated, and Jin frowned at his phone..
“Then what am I supposed to do? Wait for craploads of money to drop from the sky?” Jin questioned sarcastically. The System took a moment to connect Moloch into the secured telecommunication channel.
“Oh Boss? I hear you want to earn a quick buck? Why not just do what you did to us? Just invade some of the dungeons from the Dungeon World. With your current power, you may even solo clear those mid-ranked ones.”
“Funny, as I recall after I invaded you guys, you provided me with a new set of problems. The kind which only increased my daily spendings instead of alleviating them.” Jin remarked, and Moloch laughed at that prospect.
“Oh, come on. You should know that it requires spending money to make back even more money. Can you imagine the income from owning a whole city?” Moloch asked via the channel.
“Heh, but are we guaranteed to make that much money? Even if we offer unique products and services, it won’t help us, if no one comes to us. Besides, even after completing the city, we are bound to still have a lot of cost for any future projects or just trying to pay for the upkeep of our buildings.” Jin replied as he dreaded remembering the expenses on that ambitious project.
“There, there. I admit it might not earn sufficiently for the first few years to cover the costs we incurred. And as unfortunate as it seems, we are also not in any major trading routes nor are we famous in any way as of yet. King Baal did place us in a very secluded place.” Moloch didn’t deny the facts.
“But I am too surprised an ‘adventurer’ came to invade us at that point in time. Little did we know it would change our lives drastically.”
“Enough of the bootlicking. So which dungeon do you suggest to invade?” Jin queried as he saw his taxi coming forth to pick him up,
“I have several in my mind, but I need to double check with some of my sources first to verify. Give me a day or two to see if it’s alright.”
“User, you can also have Hungry Hippo Cultivator Xiong Da issue out the threats that you made previously to the Triad Bosses.” The System advised.
“What threats?” Jin could not exactly figure what it was that he said since it was in spite of a moment. The System reminded him that he threatened the triad bosses to send them the repair bills for the damage incurred.
“While I’d like to do that and am probably in the position to do so, I’m sure it would just infuriate them even further. I’ve had enough of them for a lifetime. Who knows they might use this as an excuse to incite some schemes that I’ve yet to foresee. Let’s just wait for them to approach me. It seems they want to do business with me. I can always just scam them for all they are worth then the time comes.”
“User’s worries may be valid, but System is unwilling to spare any extra cash until User finds some by himself.”
“That plot of land really did dip into our coffers, huh?” Jin wondered if that move was really the best in hindsight. He had some feelings of buyers regret, yet it was too late for him to return his purchase.
“Yes, after the acquisition of Tiangong Shopping District, the System estimates that it has only two months worth of budget to maintain operating costs.”
“Yea, I guess everything we’ve been doing so far, are long term plans. We might need to focus a bit on short term profits.”
“Alternatively, you can get your monsters to work for some of the dungeon fortresses. Sometimes, they are hiring extra monsters to defend their place.” Moloch suggested, and Jin became very curious with this scheme asking him to elaborate.
“If you think of the dungeons in our world as a store like your own, it should not surprise you that some dungeons are more popular than others. The more adventurers come to try and conquer a dungeon, the more losses on our side.”
“For us monsters, we are granted resurrection from the Dungeon Core after a certain amount of time passes. There is a limit of how many monsters can be resurrected at the same time, before the next batch. Since we don’t have a System who can just use copies of ourselves, it isn’t that rare that adventurers are slaying monsters faster than we can resurrect.”
“So in cases where a dungeon’s monster resurrection timer can’t keep up with the number of adventurers, that is when monsters for hire come in. This concept also allows those monsters who lost their dungeon cores to find a new place or those monsters living in less popular dungeons to get subcontracted.”
“While uncommon, certain adventurers do pick up these jobs and fight against their fellow adventurers. Eventually, they revive in their churches like any other adventures, but since in the eyes of the dungeon world, they had ‘sinned’ for siding with the monsters it takes a lot longer.” Moloch explained.
“Why would other monsters from lesser known dungeons be subcontracted out? Won’t it leave their dungeon vulnerable?” Jin questioned the validity of such a method.
“Sometimes, there are some dungeons that don’t have a single adventurer at all. There may be a number of reasons for that. For example, they could be in a place that’s hard to reach, making it undesirable for adventures to get there; Sounds stupid and defied the meaning of adventuring but yeah.”
“Or there may be a more popular dungeon near them. It may sound all fine and dandy, but the monsters do have quotas to hit. While we do get resources for protecting the dungeon core, it actually requires adventurers to thrive. It’s something similar to your System, the dungeon core will issue out quests periodically to those monsters.”
“Eh?!” Jin could not understand why it would do that.
“User, the Dungeon Cores utilise a similar concept as what System wished to use to trick User to kill humans permanently. However, instead of the entire Souls or Magic, the dungeon core absorbs just a part of them. In gaming terms, User can perceive them as experience points being taken away.” The System interjected.
“Ahhhh. Okay, so the Dungeon Core feeds on these things too.”
“Yeap, so when the monsters get subcontracted, the essence earnt will be taken and converted into physical vials which the subcontracted monsters can send back to their dungeons. And on top of that, dungeon dollars which the dungeon core also accepts as part of the resources.” Moloch added.
“But won’t the money be rather pitiful? Sounds like a part time job.” Jin asked and Moloch laughed.
“If you work for a top tier dungeons, part time work can pay up to a few thousand dungeons dollars per raid. The longer you survive, the more cash you might earn.”
“Why am I struggling to earn yuan when I can go the dungeon world and earn so much more…” Jin sighed to himself.
“Speaking of that, you can always hire monsters for work from the Dungeon World if you need extra workers or should we get invaded. Especially when Qiu Yue has the power to enact provisional contracts to monsters.” Moloch remarked.
“I could do that too since I am part of the owner of this dungeon core. That way, the System won’t have to worry about food, housing, and even paying for Souls since the monsters generally regenerate after being killed in the Dungeon World.”
“The only caveat would be that we would have to wait for them to travel from their Dungeon Core back to us. Still, it might potentially save us some money in the future.” Moloch, who was still in the chat said.
“Hmm, hiring monsters will be a secondary priority right now.” Jin sent his thoughts while lying dead at the back seat of the taxi.
“Yea, but as I said, the dungeon core will provide the monsters with their daily rations and stuff. We can also sell such food to adventurers and monsters, those that are already growing in the agriculture sector… When the city is fully open.” Moloch replied.
“That is WHEN the city opens. Right now, we need some major short term recovery. With the shopping town district in ruins, people probably will have second thoughts coming to visit us. I am guessing revenue will drop to less than half of what we’ve earned unless we get the shopping town up and running properly.”
“How are we going to do that? The city is still barely defensible from any attacks and not even up and running. If we stop construction, we might be overdue for an attack when the dungeon core’s shield drops. Also, we just concluded a war, and from the look of things, we might jump into another soon. That is more expenses, not profit.” Moloch questioned Jin since he was just a store owner with no real financial backing though many people thought he had. Even the System’s coffers would go dry at some point.
“You know you did say something about subcontracting and that we just concluded a war. I may have an idea instead of random dungeon runs. But keep me informed of those once you contacted your buddies.” Jin said to Moloch as the taxi driver stopped near the police checkpoint that barred people from entering the ruined Tiangong shopping district.
“You thinking of putting a dungeon store in the Goblin World?!?” Moloch could roughly guessed his idea but Jin did not reply a single word back. It was as if he was telling Moloch to sit back and watch him unveil his idea.
“Boy, this is the closest I can get you. Apparently, there was some fight that had happened here, and the police condoned the area.” The driver spoke out.
“No worries, this is far enough. Thank you, Shifu!” Jin said as he got out of the taxi and personally passed the checkpoint since he was one of the store owners. However, the Tiangong District police were puzzled why he would return to his store at such a late timing.
Because a businessman got to continue to sell things or else, he had nothing to eat.
