“Then just come to my shop. I see no reason why I should accommodate you more than any other customer.” Jin said bluntly, which made Yang Ling laugh while Ku Wai frowned.
“Mind your words, dungeon supplier. You might have bested me but that does not mean that you have the right to insult the Princess!” Ku Wai raised his voice despite being humble in his request minutes ago.
“No, no, it’s fine.” Yang Ling stopped laughing and reverted back to her serious face as she took out a suitcase and opened it to show stacks of neatly placed cash right in front of Jin.
“I appreciate the offer and while I admit that this amount of money is indeed very tempting, I will not just create a dungeon for you for money.” Jin knew that he had the upper hand right now in this conversation because Yang Ling had praised him. He might not know how much he could push this potential investor cum customer but he thought that trying would not hurt him. He had nothing to lose since they were in need of his help and he did not need theirs.
What he knew was that she had never experienced the joy and exhilaration experienced by the customers/spies who had actually participated and had only read through reports, which was unacceptable in his eyes. It was akin to telling a chef that you liked their food because you had seen other people eating it, but you did not wish to eat the food because you wanted the chef to create something new just for you to eat.
“Is it because you need samples of monsters? If that’s the case, our Sect has many strong monsters for you to observe, experiment and even fight against.” Yang Ling said as if it was nothing to her.
“No. That is not what I meant.” Jin shook his head before continuing to explain his ‘justification’ in a more logical sense.
“I do not know your cultivation style or grade. I do not know how you fight. I do not know the reason behind your sudden obsession with my dungeons. I do not know if you will just take my technology and recreate it since these are my trade secrets and also, you have not tried any of my dungeons before, so I do not feel obliged to help you.” Jin tried to justify himself but in the end, he revealed the real reason behind his rejection.
“My cultivation was crippled ever since the moment I lost the movement of my legs.” Yang Ling spoke seriously to which Ku Wai seemed shocked since she had spoken the truth to a stranger. If outsiders knew what the other Royal Zodiac Sects knew, that her cultivation was really crippled, they would take advantage of the Royal Zodiac Tiger Sect.
Currently, almost every Sect thought that Yang Ling was in a wheelchair to hide her cultivation from other Sects. In the previous Royal Zodiac generations, there were one or two royal cultivators that hid their true cultivation by pretending to be sick. They assumed that Yang Ling was doing the same too.
“I want you to create a special dungeon for me so that I can remember the days of cultivating and fighting. I also heard that fighting your monsters provides spiritual force. There might be a small chance that I might recover my cultivation if I absorb enough spiritual force. It’s a selfish reason but the kindness that you showed Ku Wai along with the fact that you are a dungeon supplier made me believe that I can trust you for this task.” Jin noticed that Yang Ling spoked with some truth in her words. He did not know why but he felt she was still hiding something. At the very least they were not all lies.
“Lost your legs?” Jin thought about how similar she was to Ke Mi, the Zither Mistress.
“I am sorry to ask but have you not tried other cultivation styles to remedy your injury?” Jin asked.
“Are you actually stupid? The only cultivation you are allowed to cultivate in a specific Royal Zodiac Sect is that particular cultivation and no other.” Ku Wai’s had some angst in his words as Jin displayed his ignorance to Yang Ling.
“Secretly, I did. They did not work though. The only reason my father still keeps me around is that I am very good with numbers and management.” Yang Ling replied, which reminded Jin that he still had yet to visit his ex-girlfriend for some advice on city management.
When the car pulled up, Jin realised he was back at his store. While it was easy to walk to his store, taking a car was somewhat of a different matter since the roads did not connect his house to the Tiangong shopping district.
“How’s the break in attempt being handled?” Jin asked Yun, who was still back at his house doing housework, through his phone and she replied that the attempt was just simple lockpicking. The lawbreaker did not stay any longer after failing a few times.
“Why am I back at my store?” Jin asked Yang Ling.
“Did you not say that I have not tried your dungeons so you won’t help me? Well, I am going to try them now.” Yang Ling replied and Ku Wai also insisted on coming along. “That way, you will know how I fight and I get to have a first hand look at your technology to see if they are really as good as what was stated in the report.” Yang Ling said in a way to soothe her possible ‘saviour’.
Yang Ling inwardly admitted that she was being impulsive and did not think through much since she usually got what she wanted without much effort. She did not expect that the name of the Royal Zodiac did not mean much to Jin as compared to other people. How could one be that oblivious to a Royal Zodiac Sect, much less the family that controlled it?
Besides, she could not ignore the prophecy the Zodiac fortune teller had said since half of it had already come true. “A picture might be worth a thousand words but the picture of a baby panda is worth much more.”
Despite being such a cringing prophecy, the two hundred year old fortune teller was never wrong. Many of the Royal Zodiac Sect members that had heeded her advice and managed to grasp the meaning behind her cryptic yet embarrassing prophecies always did extremely well in life. Hence, she could not help but think that Ku Wai or Jin might be the one that would be able to turn her life around.
However, even Ku Wai did not know about this prophecy of hers and thought that the baby panda photo was just based on a whim.
“Fine, considering you are some sort of a big shot and afraid that people might target you, I am willing to let you in after opening hours. But only this once. I will not entertain requests like this in the future. If you want to experience my dungeons again, you will have to do it during opening hours.” Jin said as he let Yang Ling and Ku Wai enter the shop while he asked the other black suits to move away as they could attract unwanted attention, especially since it was in the middle of the night.
“That’s more like it!” Yang Ling smiled as she entered the shop with Ku Wai. Jin subsequently tried to explain how the shop worked, totally forgetting that Yang Ling had read reports on his shop and already knew what to do.
“So Jin, what dungeon should I pick?” Yang Ling asked as she continued to look at the menu.
“If it were up to me, I would say the Music Theatre Instance.” Jin knew not many chose that dungeon because it was really too hard despite the fact that the dungeon was already modified to fit cultivator’s level.
Even Bu Dong, Bin Yong and his group or the Venus Four would not able to clear the Music Theatre in one go. Only the Venus Four managed to clear it after a few tries and they even thought that was the hardest dungeon they ever cleared. It was however very rewarding after clearing the instance.
Jin eventually told them that the Music Theatre dungeon instance was some sort of dungeons for veterans despite the modification to the difficulty level. The number of choices and the subtle choices that one could make in the dungeon made it hard for cultivators who were used to simple dungeon crawlers.
It was also an attempt to throw off the System learning capability and see if the System could subsequently recreate a similar dungeon like this. Jin also used this Music Theatre instance as an experience to create the Gentlebear instance but it was still working in progress due to the complexity in choices he wanted cultivators to make in a mystery dungeon.
“Okay, let’s go with that then.” Yang Ling agreed as she was then ushered to Station 3, which was the closest to the cash port.
After the payment, both Ku Wai and Yang Ling entered the instance with both excitment and trepidation.
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