As Ming had predicted, the faceless Zeru did emerge when Jin was closer to the end of the challenge. That one week survival challenge had somewhat become a recurring nightmare as Jin faced the younger Zeru in his prime.
Even as he wondered about his connection to Suzaku, there was no denying that Zeru was not a foe he could contend with at the current moment. All the copying and imitation of skills from other faceless soldiers might have helped to mitigate the bulk of the problem but when push comes to shove, the faceless Zeru always prevail.
Thus, Jin had decided to take a timeout by forcing himself out of his subconscious and return back to the real world. He was slightly groggy from the forced re entry but nothing he could not handle. Yet, as time went by, he started to feel that his muscles were feeling sore and it was not particularly normal for him to experience such soreness.
"System, mind doing a quick body check on me? I'm feeling under the weather for some reason." Jin requested the System, to which it replied that everything was normal.
"The System had been monitoring you since the start of your cultivation cycle and the reason you were sore was that the System had thoroughly captured each and every electrical pulse from your brain and to the rest of your body." The System answered with an almost chirpy tone to its monotonous dialogue.
"A proper short rest interval should be more than sufficient once the regeneration inscription on your body kicks in." The System added.
"So I am guessing you are able to collect, collate and compile all the nonsensical stuff that I did when I was in my dreamy state?" Jin asked as he reached out to his phone to check the app that the System had installed previously.
Previously, it was rather empty with the exception of his Astral Panda Cultivation Style as part of the collection. But when Jin opened the app, he was pleasantly surprised by the list of cultivation styles being added into the fray.
"Wow, and these are detailed …way too much information with regards to the cultivation style. Is this even real?" He was gawking through the list as he could vaguely remember using them against his opponents. But everything changed when he selected one of the cultivation styles and the technique was broadcast with a digital panda doing those movements. At that moment, Jin knew exactly what the technique was and could even recall the feeling of that particular technique.
"Has User ever wondered how you were able to say the names of the cultivation styles if what the User said is true about his challengers were faceless?"
The System poised the question to Jin and obviously, he was oblivious to it as the System rambled on stating that Jin had previously touched on those manuals before and his inverse eyes had pulled out that information from the cobwebs of his brain 'cabinet' for Jin to dictate the names out.
"Therefore, User should be grateful for the System to push you to read or at least glance through the cultivation materials at least once." The System was touting its own capabilities to the user as if it was selling something to him.
"Yeah, yeah. How is the thing we gave Lynn to do?" Jin yawned at the System's own self praise and wanted to know how Lynn was doing with the task he gave her.
"Sub System User Lynn has proven to be rather proficient in the said task." The System continued to reply to Jin regardless of his attitude towards it.
"Oh? How so?" Jin changed the app in his phone, allowing the phone to open a holographic screen for the System to portray its information out.
"She had enlisted the help of Senior Panda Executive Kong Rong and his agency for aid and ever since they met three days ago, the duo were chasing after a few possible leads on the current predicament."
"You mean what I mentioned could be true? That the Banned Emperor might be involved in the current symposium? But if that's the case, what is their end goal?" Jin queried as the System kept flashing new information on the holographic screen.
"The national symposium for Dungeon Suppliers usually draws quite a crowd mainly because they showcased prototypes in the scenes of Dungeon Suppliers. And with regards to that, people had been very, and the System must emphasize, very curious about the hardware used for User's store." The System started without answering Jin's question and keeping him in suspense.
"So much so that the committee had decided to put you as the backup site so that they could use that as an excuse to bring the crowd to your shop."
"Wait… a minute. So, no Banned Emperor or whatsoever? It's more like an inspection and getting more details about my hardware and how I operate them?" Jin asked and the System acknowledged. User had previously given an answer to allow the store to be the backup site but the System and Lynn had already sent them a letter recommending a change in location."
"Oh…that's a bummer," Jin answered, knowing that the System did not wish to be probed by anybody and having a celestial entity controlling the shop would just be one shit show to another. "But I believed they would say no if what you said to you was true. They would be dying to check out our tech."
"Correct." Lynn entered the conversation by coming into Jin's room with a stack of papers right in her hands. "In normal circumstances, nobody would be able to overturn the Symposium committee's decision because a couple of them are high ranking people with a reasonable amount of economic power in their hands but they did not know about one particular thing."
"We are the newest emerging Royal Zodiac Clan and Kong Rong's protection scheme has come in handy in rejecting one of the biggest committees in China." Lynn smiled as she showed the papers to Jin, stating that the rejection of the backup site was approved. The Royal Zodiac's Dragon Clan's stamp was there as well along with a stamp that Jin never saw before. It had two chinese words 'Panda' in a black and white fusion ink which felt oddly unique.
"That is the ancient stamp of the Panda Clan. To be able to use it once more brings much joy to the System." The collective entity said but Lynn's face turned bitter.
"However, there's some bad news along with this." Lynn did not mince her words as she said while having direct eye contact.. "The Symposium had requested us to be out of it."
