As Jin went back into the room, he saw Lee Na decided to leave early as well. "Thank you, Boss Jin for accompanying us. I received a text message from Chancellor Ma Ge that required me to do some last minute work." Lee Na said and waved to her daughter goodbye. "Claire, get the bill. I will make sure you are compensated for it. Don't forget the receipt like last time."
"Yes, Mdm. And don't you worry. Jin will provide ALL the receipts that you need if I ever lose any of them." Claire said and somehow Jin felt some sarcasm from her. When Lee Na felt the room, Claire immediately stood up and did not hesitate to have a staring contest with Jin.
"Tell me. Just tell me. What was that about?" Claire asked and the entire group was confused by her actions.
"I…" Jin had clearly forgotten that the Sub System Accountant was in the same dining room as him and now she had some major questions to ask.
But instead of repeating the question once more, she took out a stack of yuan, a very fat stack of yuan and showed it to Jin. "See this money? How much time do you think you would need to earn this back via your stall? And if I might ask, how much do you think this particular stack of cash is worth?"
"Erm-" Before Jin could even have a proper reply, Claire already took that stack of cash and slapped Jin in his face with it.
"Do NOT! EVER! Use the company's money without discussing it with me." Claire said and Jin immediately went down to his knees and prostrated right in front of her.
"I am sorry. I thought I would like to show Ma Ge that the Royal Pandas should not be messed with. They wanted to stop Grandma Yuan from becoming our Royal Panda clan member. They said there will be consequences for allowing her to take up our membership and thus, I decided to throw that stack of money at him and made him listen to us instead." Jin finally explained and Claire released a puff of air from her mouth.
"Fine. If it's for Grandma Yuan, then I would let you go for wasting that amount of money." The Sub System Accountant said and the rest did not expect Claire to be this fierce. "That money could be used for the Farming World but it looks like we need to find another way to fund it."
"I thought you had investment accounts in the Black Stock Market?"
"I am waiting for several prices to rise and drop before I could do anything else. It's a waiting game for me and there's no guarantee I can earn back that amount before our fight against the Farming World. Not especially when Kraft had decided to use our funds to have his revenge match in the Dungeon World."
"Erm… Is there anything we can help with?" Su Zhen asked, hoping to break the tension in the air between Jin and Claire.
"You guys?" Claire thought for a moment and then it clicked. "Come to think of it, I believe there is something which you all could do which might alleviate the current crisis created by Jin."
"What can we do? Is it some raiding mission?" Rong asked excitedly since he would rather do something that could bring some Moolah on the table than some boring scouting mission which Jin initially wanted them to do.
"Hmm… You could say something like that." Claire thought to herself and sat beside Jin. "But this is a mission which would need Jin to approve."
"Why would you say that?" Jin asked and looked curiously at Claire.
"Sources tell me that the Farming World has a gold mine in the Eastern Region. The thing is, the place is well guarded. And it is solely because that gold mine has unique gold seeds which would allow the mining town to prosper. I asked Gold well as ironically as it sounds to show me a gold seed. He told me that he did not have a sample because it would endanger his entire stash of seeds if that ever happened." Claire said and the Demon Exorcists somehow got a little too excited about their upcoming mission.
"Is that why the Eastern Region had decided to keep their hands off the current matter? They believed they had enough wealth to prevent the Rat Demon Invasion?" Jin questioned and he knew money could only buy that much.
"Hmm, on the contrary, their nobles have been living luxurious lives because of that gold mine and do not give two hoots about current world affairs or the people's quality of living. They assumed that their private army would be sufficient to stop any incoming threats and so far it had been working quite well. Especially for the Duke of the Eastern Region. Gold had once said that it was because of the Duke's generosity that allowed him to put seed stash in every region just for political leverage. This shows the amount of power and wealth he has although we know that is insufficient if the Rat Demons come onshore or underground." Claire explained.
"And considering that we lack money, having just one gold seed would be sufficient for the System to duplicate it and start growing them. We might need a few samples of their gold product and then we can even improve the purity of the gold before we sell it into the black market."
Jin thought for a while and knew that this was his fault to begin with. Thus, he volunteered to go for the mission instead.
"Aww man, let us go instead! If not, with you too. Besides, I think you have better things to settle than hitting a gold mine." Lian said as she wanted to prove herself like how Rong had the itch to scratch.
"No," Jin said and both Lian and Rong whined while the other two was visibly disappointed. Even Claire had her eyebrows up until she saw Jin continuing his sentence.
"Scout the Eastern Region first. Prove to me you can blend in easily and learn there are any counter forces. Talk to the Farming Minions and familiarise yourself with their culture, or at least the basic one. Only after that when you guys have a viable plan, then I will allow you guys to raid all you want. Is that acceptable?" Jin said and it was pretty obvious to Claire and Grandma Yuan that the JODE Branch Manager was teaching them an impromptu lesson as well.
"Yes!" The four of them agreed with Jin's conditions willingly.
