What are you planning?” Yun said as she followed Jin into the Dungeon Maker. “Maybe not the most important of things, but I figured we should use this chance to put this up.” Jin opened up the Shop Level One Instance on the Dungeon Maker interface and added one particular feature.
The digital pet companions.
He was thinking about his little bowl hat panda, as it suddenly appeared in the dungeon maker. Jin remembered he had written a keep in view note to redo the pet system and planned to make it similar to the the Battle Cards Interface that the System introduced. He felt that this would make a nifty little subsystem for the cultivators to waste more money into digital goods just to make their pets look prettier and more interactive.
He eventually made two vending machines similar to the Battle Card Interface and placed those at the second floor of the Shop Level One instance, so people could purchase cards to customise their pets. It was easy to create those vending machines because the System already had the blueprints for the Battle Card Interface and all it had to do was to convert the existing loot box coupons into cards.
The Pet Card Interface was initially only provided aesthetics, but Jin figured if he put skills and traits into the mix, he would be able to have a battle pet instance. It could be free for all the cultivators mainly because the vending machines would be the money makers for this particular service instance.
And yes, he did create a simple battle pet service instance that was styled from the infamous Digiman that many people used to love when he was a child. He figured Digiman was better than Pokeman, Wanguard or Yu Ki Oh because of its simplicity and the cultivators would be using their pets to fight. True, Yu Ki Oh might be a better choice but the tactics required in Ambush Cards and Mystic Cards would be mind boggling for a novice in card game creation such as Jin.
Skills wise, it was easy to recreate since they were based on the cultivation manuals that existed in System’s database.
He hoped that the new battle pet service instance would attract a feeling of nostalgia from older cultivators and hype from students, just like what happened with the fishing instance. To date, Jin was actually surprised that Lai Fu had been sending waves of middle aged gentlemen that frequented the general store to try out the fishing instance. Perhaps, he wanted more information from those customers, to see if Jin was lying to him.
But Lai Fu was surprised by the positive response and feedback from the middle aged customers and could not wait to have his turn when his friends were in town. On the other hand, Jin benefited from Lai Fu’s doubt. Although those middle aged customers did not fight in the dungeons, they appreciated the fishing service instance and the joy of catching fish excited them, making them rather frequent customers to Jin’s shop. Their only regret was that there was no booze.
“Boss Jin! Give us a service instance that provides us alcohol. Judging from the quality of your shop, I cannot wait to see, smell and drink good booze it can bring!” A middle aged gentleman said with his friends and they all agreed readily.
“I have such plans in mind, just give me some time. This is, after all, a dungeon supplier store.” Jin replied and they all laughed at him.
“So, I have to fight with a monster to get my booze? Does not sound a bad idea after all! Do not make it too hard on us old men!” The middle aged gentlemen heavily patted Jin’s shoulder as a sign of appreciation for him to keep up the effort as they left the store.
Hence, Jin wished to do the same for the younger age group. Ultimately, he hoped to revolutionise the dungeon supplier industry, by providing various service instances and catering to everyone, regardless of gender, race, and age.
Jin eventually named the battle pet service instance as Pet Battle Royale and at the moment, it featured only one type of battle background. A simple room. Jin could have gone for mountains, forests, seas or a valley, but he went for the simplest terrain so that the battle itself would be the focus. (Not to mention, it’s the easiest to setup!)
He even added the NPCs and his monsters as opponents in case cultivators or customers wished to have a PvE experience more than a PvP experience. For example, Ke Mi had a miniature version of herself as the pet and even the Great White Snake possessed a pet version of itself, so customers were able to fight a variety of monsters with their pets.
After adding the Pet Battle Royale service instance, Jin also added teleportation service to the other floors of his store mainly because the Shop Instance was ‘digitised’ for the first floor. The rest of the floors were not dimensional instance based.
Jin hoped to get his level 3 dungeon supplier as soon as possible to digitalise the entire store, as hinted by Yun, so that his customers would not get confused by the sudden disconnect in the experience between the shop instance and the real store.
“Is there any way to get my level 3 dungeon supplier status faster?” Jin asked Yun as he exited the Dungeon Maker to check the Pet Cards Vending Machines but she could only reply with an unfortunate no. “Reaching the required net profit is the only way to increase your dungeon supplier level if you do not complete the System’s missions to reach it,” Yun said. It was the equivalent of saying: Do favours for the System and you will get more rewards.
Jin was then constantly being reminded that his grandfather Ming’s advice to cooperate with the System for now and reap its rewards but to do so with caution and not to follow it blindly. Jin kind of knew that, after what the System had done towards him, but the gentle reminder was also a wakeup call since he had yet to accept the partnership deal with Yang Ling. He had to remember to proceed with caution, especially when dealing with the Royal Zodiacs.
People would be dying to work with the Royal Zodiacs and Jin would also be of the same mindset, if only he did not have the System. But with the System, he could not help but feel that someone might eventually discover the specialty that Jin had.
Then they would either use overwhelming force to get the System from him or use despicable methods to force him to give it up. It would not have bothered Jin that much previously, but the nightmare he recently had, made him more paranoid than ever before. Having the nightmare and the appearance of Yang Ling on the same day, that was too much of a coincidence.
Yet, Jin felt that if he were to tread the waters carefully, he might be able to get a strong ally on his side, since he was dealing directly with the Royal Tiger Family rather than their lackeys.
“Never mind, I should take things step by step,” Jin mumbled. At the same time, he realised Zhen Qing had come in, standing near the bar island shocked, stunned or maybe bewildered by the immense change of the layout.
“Zhen Qing! How do you like the new place?” Jin figured that Zhen Qing followed the instructions and used her phone to enter even though she was a commoner since she had an account on the Pandamonium app ever since he asked her to join him in the fishing service instance.
“Oh Jin, I thought I was dreaming…this place is amazing.” Zhen Qing held onto her sling bag with her legs shaking slightly. Zhen Qing could not imagine Jin being able to create such a big spacious space and she already figured it was probably the dimensional technology that Jin always talked about.
As Jin brought Zhen Qing around to see the new features, she stopped him and said. “I need some time off in the afternoon to be in the kitchen instance if possible. I would like to research and experiment on the new main dish that I had in mind.” Zhen Qing requested time off for the first time and Jin immediately accepted her request even though it would be a downer to see the caravan not in operation in the new Store instance at it’s opening.
“The caravan is just a temporary measure. My goal is the restaurant instance.” Jin reinforced the statement in his head as he seemed confident of Zhen Qing and saw something more than just her cooking ability in her. Aside from liking her, Jin felt that she had more to offer if she could excel in her cooking and cultivation.
“Show me your best main dish.” Jin smiled as he sent off Zhen Qing to the Kitchen Instance.
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