Yun was extremely delighted that Jin had finally started to take the management of his own shop into his own hands. Before this incident, she had some doubt that Jin would not change. He said he would do things, but he would procrastinate or he would just follow things blindly anyway. No matter how much she tried, he kept staying in his comfort zone.
He had the potential to become a superpower in the next decade but how could a person possibly reach that level when his mind is trapped in a cage- A cage called indolence and apathy.
Yun knew she had to push him. Push him so hard that he could change. But how? Suddenly it hit her. How about showing him the regret of a person…The regret one feels from just mindlessly following the flow of events. And the only person she knew who would be able to pull it off was Ke Mi.
Yun started to form a plan. Even though it may have been unfair, she had to create a situation where he would not only understand Ke Mi regrets but also truly feel embarrassed about himself. She didn’t care if he never realised how much effort she put in because she just wanted to help him, not get anything from it.
He might falsely believe that she would kill others for profit, even pushing him into slaughtering people if necessary. Maybe their relationship would have a crack in it from today onwards, but that was not too bad of a price to her. Fortunately, none of those mattered if Jin finally woke up.
“Dungeon Takeovers? What exactly is that about? Is that what they call completing a dungeon in this world?” Jin was curious about that.
“No, not really, it means that we would take control of the dungeon and take control it for its resources temporarily. It is similar to how a miner/mining company would find a vein of gold and claim it for himself. So we go in, whack those monsters and grab a bunch of resources that are just lying around.” Yun replied as she sat on the table interface of the Dungeon Maker.
“Instead of grabbing a bunch of resources, why don’t we mine those resources?” Jin thought of that idea when Yun gave the example of mining which intrigued him.
“What you do mean?” Yun did not get the drift from Jin.
“Remember how Zeru gave me those crystal seeds which I have not planted yet? I wonder if there is anything similar to it in those dungeons. Alternatively, we have the Dungeon Maker. Maybe we can create a mining bot that scans the area and mines the resources while we defend it and kill the monsters.” Jin suddenly had many ideas beginning to pop up in his mind.
“Besides, you said the monsters would take some time to resurrect if they die so that means we can use that time to plant some mining bots in order to mine the resources.” Jin mind started to go wild with idea after idea and Yun laughed.
“Okay, stop right there young man. Before you get overzealous with the whole new me,” Yun calmed Jin down, “Just remember that Dungeon Takeovers are different and quite unique. If you managed to clear the dungeon entirely, the dungeon would actually give you a tribute of Matter, Magic and Souls for a month. That was where the system took the idea from to craft such a ruthless variant. To the system, why a tribute when it can get a constant source of resource as long as people are vying for the dungeon’s treasure. Maybe it’s flawed if you look at it from another point of view but the system had already calculated that this was one of the highest efficiency means of gathering at the lowest cost possible.”
“But most of the time, the dungeon would never be completed by one person because the dungeons here are long winded and demanding. Hence, a raid party is always recommended to do so and if a raid party completes it, it will be written on a wall of the dungeon at the entry so people would not be stupid to try it for a period of time since the tribute can only be given once a month. However, that is not a problem since there are so many dungeons around it doesn’t really affect the adventurers.”
“You did say vendors did that too. How do they work then?” Jin asked
“They send many raiding parties to many dungeons and the successful ones get decent pay. While it might not seem like much but high level raiding parties earn a lot of dungeon dollars.” Yun said.
“So, if we find a good resource dungeon and enter it with my bellators and monsters along with me. Then clear it by defeating each and every monster, we can get a good haul?” Jin wanted to confirm.
“I thought you would only be bringing your bellators. I did not expect you to say you are going to bring your monsters in too.” Yun was pleasantly surprised.
“Why not? I have yet to fully explore their offensive powers and abilities. Maybe this will be a good chance to learn about them and subsequently improve their dungeons too. Besides, they need to work to have their new home up and ready as soon as possible.” Jin laughed as he suddenly thought of Ke Mi and felt like patting her head.
“So do you want to go now? There is one nearby for you to try if you want.” Yun asked as she genuinely smiled at Jin.
Jin looked at his storage watch to check the time and refused. The watch was surprisingly useful. It showed the time of the Dungeon World as well as the time in his original world. It also showed how much time had elapsed to give him back a proper sense of time.
“It’s nearly eight in the morning; I promised Zhen Qing that I would provide her ingredients for her black pepper buns. Anyways, I might do that Dungeon Takeover later, but not yet. Oh, by the way, Yun, are you able to procure those items on the list I gave you?” Jin asked Yun politely.
“Well, you did not reply to me when I asked you about why you want Zhen Qing as an employee considering there’s a risk of her knowing the system’s secret.” Yun tested Jin once more.
“I think I like her. That influenced my decision and I am biased towards hiring her. But if you want a logical answer, I really feel that her buns are delicious. She might even have other tricks that she had not shown us. However, that one day was sufficient for me to understand how hardworking she is, how she preserved under the hot sun, standing for the whole day without rest apart from the toilet breaks, which was ironic since she didn’t want to use our store’s toilets.” Jin replied as he listed her traits he had discovered whilst observing her.
“She even brought her reserved stocks just to fulfil her side of the bargain. I do not think she even had a proper food break. Not to mention, I noticed Zhen Qing was really happy serving the customers and I can occasionally see her smile despite the mask she wore for hygiene.”
“Zhen Qing even declined to work further because she did not have enough supplies. From what I know about other street vendors, I am pretty sure they might have used scrupulous ways to get lousy quality food supplies at the fastest and cheapest possible way. However, Zhen Qing did not. She insisted on using her own ingredients and I respect her profession as a cook more than a simple street vendor. That’s why I want to hire her.” Jin finally gave his analysis.
“No bad points during this observation?” Yun questioned.
“Does me being a shameless stalker during work count?” Jin laughed bitterly as he spoke the truth. He had made excuses to leave his bar counter just to glance at Zhen Qing.
“And the obvious advances to keep her to the stall which she felt a little suspicious about and she may or may not be creeped out about? Yea I agree, that’s a bad point too.” Yun teased Jin.
“Was it really that obvious?” Jin blushed
“Yes, Mr Oblivious.” Yun rolled her eyes and pressed a few buttons on the table interface she was sitting at.
“The system and I have long since created a kitchen instance since we thought you might have become interested in cooking after eating the tonkatsu curry rice, but it seems our prediction was off. We might as well we give Zhen Qing the special rights to the kitchen instance since she would probably need the time dilation to prepare her items. However, remember to tell her to rest. Time dilation for commoners might be straining on their bodies compared to us cultivators.” A special access card appeared on the table of the dungeon maker and Yun passed it to Jin.
“The access card gives her the privilege to enter the dungeon at will. I have also reduced the time dilation of the kitchen instance to the minimum so it extends only 2 hours for every one hour in the real world. I hope you know what you are doing Jin.”
“I do. I will try and find a suitable cultivation technique for her…that is if she is okay with learning how to cultivate. But right now, during the time she is in the kitchen instance, I will try to create an improved mobile stall for her.” Jin added and Yun gave him the thumbs up before they left the dungeon maker instance.
Moments after they arrived back at the store, the doorbell at the side rang. “What impeccable timing.” Yun squeezed Jin’s shoulder and gently pushed him to the side door.
