“So this is your world?” Hamatarou had completed the contract with Qiu Yue and looked around the Dungeon City Fortress. He saw sentient creatures that were out of his knowledge and with odd looking shape of their faces, Hamatarou could only swear that he saw such creatures in his books of myths and lore.
“Nope, this is another world which we had the opportunity to own the land in.” Qiu Yue said as she toured the area with him, allowing him to observe their work while at the same time checking on the progress of the construction of the Pand-Atlantis City. Separately, Lynn had returned to the penguin village via the System’s teleport with the Chieftain and Elders together.
The entire village previously signed a pact with the Sub System, so there were no issues of the Chieftain and Council of Elders to utilise the teleport ability of the System via Lynn. (After all, there were still some restrictions imposed on the penguins as compared to Jin’s minions like Gold who had full teleportation access.)
Even though they were under the control of the Sub System, it respected the wish of the penguin’s collective to stay in the Giant World and continue with their lives until further notice from the Sub System.
Another reason was that the powers Lynn were initially granted by the Sub System were not strong enough to execute and move the penguins to another instance. At that point of time, the System was still wary of the new Sub System User and did much to control the amount of abilities Lynn can possess.
But with the revelation of the System’s true identity as well as Jin’s growing power both in his purchasing capability and strength, the Sub System offered Lynn to give the penguins a place in the Sanctum of Worlds if needed.
The Penguin ‘Queen’ now had the ability to create a simplified home instance for her minions and was in the process of doing so. However, any additional modifications required her to complete more Sub System’s quests to gain resources for her and the System to utilise.
Qiu Yue, on the other hand, did not have any minions under her except for the minotaurs, who volunteered to be temporarily under her supervision. While she could technically influence empires at the touch of a button, the Red Panda Cultivator was in the same predicament as Lynn when she first started or maybe worse. The Empire Building Sub System did not give her much reign in their issues unless Jin allowed it.
While it looked as if she had the full complete control of the Dungeon City Fortress, there were many components or issues that were not under her purview. Many a time Qiu Yue had to ask Jin for permission to build if she believed that the new facility she thought it was useful, or she had to give her personal opinion on various issues and convince Jin to allow her to act in a certain way. It was initially frustrating to both Jin and Qiu Yue, but the Boss did console her that it would get better.
In retrospect, the Sub System gave Lynn more control over her issues than Qiu Yue when they first started out.
If the Cooking Sub System could not trust Lynn, the Empire Building Sub System treated Qiu Yue like an enemy until proven otherwise. For example, the construction of the Pand-Altantis City was based on the precise calculation of the Sub System, and when Qiu Yue questioned a specific design of the building plan despite it being perfect in theory, the Sub System was unwilling to listen until she explained it through countless simulations.
But slowly, the Empire Building Sub System learnt that Qiu Yue was becoming a valuable asset and decided to loosen its stance when it comes to certain construction procedures.
——
As Qiu Yue went down the makeshift construction escalator with Hamatarou, the Exiled Prince saw the construction of many high rise buildings within a vast dome shaped shelters.
From afar, the constructions were buzzing with activities, and every worker did not have the time to stay and chat. Thus, Qiu Yue explained why they would want to build a sea city, mainly indicating that it was out of the way from the invaders.
Hamatarou could only sigh that their technology was ten if not hundred times more advanced then what he had in his old world, especially after seeing that long slender carriage which he saw Lynn and the penguins were using. (He was in love with the combat bikes too.)
“If my subjects were to be here, will they be guaranteed a place called home here?” Hamatarou asked, and Qiu Yue shook her head.
“If they were hardworking enough under the eyes of an all seeing entity and earn enough points, they could score a house here. Else, they would be working and living under my Boss instead.” Qiu Yue replied as she greeted a few of the workers in their Sandroku Golems
The new Sandroku Golems that they witnessed were revised several times. Now it was capable of working long hours in extensively strenuous construction procedures just as drilling for the building’s foundation.
The golems were a wonderous miracle by the two races which accelerated the construction of the Pand-Altantis by a few folds, way ahead than their supposed deadline set by the System.
It was all for the sake of completing before the shield barrier of the Dungeon Core disappears, commencing the start of trade and immigration of both monsters and humans from the Dungeon World.
Additionally, the Empire Building Sub System also indicated that the Orcs had completed Industrial Sector Two of the Floating Platform City and initiated the building of a platform sector that was solely for military sorties, both offensive and defensive in nature.
And that particular sector was designed by the Visiting Defence Advisor and fellow Panda Clan Remnant, Hou Fei. He knew what facilities were needed and gave the schematics required to Qiu Yue for the Empire Building Sub System to take charge.
Other than that, Hamatarou was impressed by the scale and magnitude of the place before Qiu Yue teleported him to the Sanctum of Worlds and showed him the various home instances. The first place she showed was the Guest Home Instances which acted like hotels rooms and revealed to him how spacious most of them were. (The rooms were roughly about 100 square metres in size.)
Of course, there was some bias towards Minion Leaders. For example, Nubwort, the Black Disaster and Zieg, the Dark Templar Commander were given a larger apartment compared to the rest of their companions. The System rewarded them due to their additional responsibilities to control their fellow rank and files and deserved a bigger apartment to show that they were of a higher position so as to command respect.
At this point, Hamatarou was seriously contemplating to gather his surviving villages and bring them out of harm’s way before the Salamanders could crush all of them.
“Why don’t you talk to my Boss? Maybe he might be able to send out a punitive force and defeat the Salamanders once and for all. Before you know it, they would be your colleagues in the future.” Qiu Yue said as she subsequently brought him into WunderPanda Theme Park where people started to think Hamatarou was some costume mascot.
“If that was a joke, it left a poor taste for me.” The chubby, oversized hamster turned into a regular one which landed on top of Qiu Yue in order to avoid the numerous visitors staring and wanting to hug him for some reason which he felt rather uncomfortable in doing so.
Yet, he agreed to have talks with this Boss of hers, but she told him that he had to wait for at least a few days since Jin was busy doing his projects up.
“Very well, I shall wait. In the meantime, I will do some scouting of the castle and see if I can grasp the situation that the Salamanders are in which made them this aggressive.” Hamatarou said before smelling a scent of carrot cake which caused him to salivate almost immediately.
“…After you bring me to eat this delicious smelling scent.”
“What am I to you? Your subject?” Qiu Yue picked him up and squeezed his cheeks a little. The hamster, in return, gave an adorable looking face which inadvertently caused her to do what he asked for.
