“Digital Evolution.” Those two words were in red as they came out right in front of the Angry Ape’s face when the light continued to envelop it. Both Yue Han and Kong Xian were shocked by the change of developments.
“Oh…so the card did work. Hahaha! NOW! Bow down to me, you minions!!” Bu Dong was laughing loudly as the light around the Angry Ape finally faded away to reveal a brand new pet (albeit temporary) in the arena.
The Angry Ape now had bigger fists, sharper teeth and even a face painted with red tattoos. It was initially slouching but with its evolution, it stood up straight. The Angry Ape looked even nastier and perpetually angrier than it ever was.
Only then in the Pandamonium Pet interface, it showed the name of his new evolved pet. ‘Angrier Ape’, the name of the pet was also shown in the pet interface of Yue Han and Kong Xian to which they could not help but laugh at the name.
“Angrier Ape! Hahahaha! I will bow down to the almighty Angrier Ape.” Yue Han got on his knees and kowtowed right in front of the monster while laughing. Kong Xian did not hesitate to follow and made fun of Bu Dong’s new pet name. Even Bu Dong cried at the naming convention of the Pet Battle Royale Instance.
“Bosssss Jinnnn! Give me a better and cooler name for my pet!!!” Bu Dong whined as he felt shameful for all the taunting he tried to do. In actual fact, the System and Jin did not bother to make too many changes mainly because it was not worth the System’s time to make that many changes and Jin did not implement too much of a modification on such a short notice.
Upon seeing how Bu Dong managed to get quite a fair bit of attention, Jin decided not to alter the naming convention. “Power has its price. And the price for such power is money spent and a stupid name.” Jin thought to himself as he giggled along with the other customers at how stupid the naming was.
But come to think of it, he wondered how his panda would sound like even though he already gave a nickname to it. Lazy Panda? Or Lazy Astral Panda? If that’s the case, it would be Lazier Astral Panda and perhaps the ultimate digital evolution would be Laziest Astral Panda. That did not sound too bad at all.
“Yun, if that’s the naming convention, how about Healing Maiden or Breathtaking Bellflower?” Jin asked about the female cultivators who did not practice any conventional cultivation.
“Good question, perhaps you can ask the System about it.” Yun was lying back on a stool beside the bar island looking at the battle too.
“Aren’t you part of the System? That was why I asked you about it.” Jin said and wondered why the sudden delineation between Yun and the System.
“Hmmph.” Yun continued to ignore Jin and watched the show.
“Must be the digital mood swing.” Jin did not care much and continued to tend to some customers and watched the fight whenever possible. After a month, he realised that there was some personality split in Yun. Sometimes, she was gentle and caring, always looking out for Jin, while other times she became arrogant like a young spoilt lass and not caring for the world.
“Well, since you two are joking, I will be serious. Angrier Ape attack with all your might!” Bu Dong shouted as he immediately flipped all four cards he had in his possession.
“Attack Up! Vitality Up! Critical Hit up! Technique: Powerful Fist!” Bu Dong screamed his lungs calling out each and every card. Instead of pulling one card at a time to swipe them, he swiped all of them in an instant and it activated a combo effect, something similar to what had happened with Kong Xian’s combination of cards.
The Powerful Fist had a card design of an ape with an inflated fist surrounded with visible chi while Vitality Up’s card design was a nurse holding on a small needle, squirting blood out of the needle. No matter how many times Bu Dong had seen it, the card design and effects were so detailed that it brought all other card games to shame.
Granted, there were only a few VR related card games to date and never before did he see a dungeon instance being made for card games. He was very sure there was no such thing and Jin could have created the first and yet perfect version of a card game using a dungeon instance.
Bu Dong continued to be in awe as he stared at the combination of Attack Up, Critical Hit Up and Powerful Fist combining into one brand new card. “Fist of Power”, a card design with a fist that was beaming with rainbow chi energy and it was more animated than the rest of the cards.
“Looks like a tier two card,” Yue Han commented and Kong Xian nodded his head. Would they want to continue the fight upon seeing a brand new tier two pet with a tier two technique? Sure, why not?
It was yet again a ‘do or die’ situation maybe that would always be the case for subsequent fights if they continue to meet aggressive players like Bu Dong. “Kong Xian, swipe all the cards including mine!!” Yue Han shouted at Kong Xian.
“Huh!?” Kong Xian was suddenly confused by the weird command from his friend. It was then Yue Han realised he made a mistake. Of course, Kong Xian did not realise that his friend’s cards could be used for his own since only Yue Han who had the first hand experience understood that particular mechanic.
However, it was too late as Bu Dong’s Angrier Ape smashed his shiny Fist of Power onto Kong Xian’s towering tortoise. “That tortoise is a pain in the butt to fight.” Bu Dong said as it obliterated Kong Xian’s pet in an instant.
It was left with Yue Han and he too found out that once Kong Xian’s pet was killed, the cards on him were not transferable to Yue Han. “Ahhh, that’s a pity…” Yue Han sighed to himself as he saw his combination of cards were probably not sufficient to fight against Bu Dong.
Nevertheless, he still gave it a try as there was nothing else to lose.
“Swipe All!” Yue Han shouted as he did the same as what Bu Dong had done previously and his cards immediately flipped. Unfortunately, for Yue Han, the combination did not yield any surprising effect and his blind bat was crashed by the Angrier Ape. “Guess, it was really down to luck for now until someone researched all the possible combinations out.” Yue Han thought to himself as he surrendered to Bu Dong.
Four new cards appeared in front of Bu Dong upon victory and his Angrier Ape returned back to being the Angry Ape once more. Meanwhile, three cards appeared collectively for Yue Han and Kong Xian and they each only got to choose one out of the three cards.
“So it’s risky fighting two vs one but the rewards are immense.” Mr Know-It-All penned his thoughts down on his trusty notebook while compiling what had happened for the past two fights.
“This is way more interesting than I thought. If done right, it can be the next big trend for dungeon instances instead of just a niche right here. Perhaps, I should nudge a few of my old contacts to visit Jin’s store.” He smirked at the decent development of this particularly small shop and drank his wife’s specially made Oolong tea.
“Now I am beginning to understand why Boss said to take care of him.” Mr Know-It-All thought to himself and hoped to see a dungeon battle in this new shop instance.
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