“Huh, why did the werecat, that red panda cultivator was fighting with, just withdraw herself away from the battlefield?” A customer who was watching did not understand what was going on.
“Ah, because the monsters in the random arena battle are not just about elimination, sometimes it will be simply a test of skills. Unless you encountered a monster, that was dead on fighting you to their last breath.” Bin Yong who just came out of his random arena battle dungeon instance joined the crowd.
“Why would that be the case?” The customer continued to ask, not noticing Bin Yong’s presence that much.
“It is most likely due to the difficulty scale. The monsters might be too strong to kill for the cultivators that challenged them. Hence, a test of skill would most likely suffice.” Bin Yong presented his take on the rules.
“Then why is it not the case for those story themed dungeons?” The customer asked even more questions which stumped Bin Yong.
“Let me explain that with whatever limited knowledge I have.” Mr Know-It-All happened to overhear the questions. “What I can deduce is that most of the monsters in Jin’s dungeons were intelligently modified by the core servers which handle the dimensional instances.”
“Not sure about you, but I am sure Bin Yong felt that fighting the monsters in the random arena battle dungeon instance was totally different from fighting them in the story themed dungeons?” Mr Know-It-All asked which Bin Yong instantly confirmed.
“Yes! It felt as if the monsters were more real in the random arena battles. It was as if they were just acting their part in the story themed dungeons. But out there in the random arena battles, they seem to use their true actual strength. This makes the fight harder, but at the same time, the rewards from the Random Arena battles are also more enticing.” Bing Yong explained.
“Mmhmm, I am only privy to certain things about dimensional core servers. I have friends, who are more informed, but all my contacts did tell me one sure thing. That almost every dungeon supplier in the world could not replicate what Jin is doing right now because of the high technical difficulty in maintaining the input of data.”
“That does not seem to answer my question…” The customer got even more confused.
“What I am trying to say is, Boss Jin might have employed a different method of maintaining the servers. Either by himself, which I would deem unlikely from my observations or by a group of highly specialised experts. That creation and maintenance of servers might be the reason why the Artificial Intelligence differs so much from other dungeon suppliers. So the projection of these creatures might feel really real to the point that one might feel that they are holding back, as if they were testing you.” Mr Know-It-All tried to explain without going into too many technical details. (cough cough, at least he tried!)
“Ehhhhh…” The customer did not know how to reply.
“I think what he meant is Jin’s dungeons have always been special. Do not question how things work, just take it as it is and enjoy the dungeons and random arena battles. Take them as real monsters with sentience if it pleases you, even though we all know that they are all just artificial intelligence.” Shi Zuo interjected his opinions into the conversation, putting Mr Know-It-All answers into simpler terms.
“Real monsters with sentience…Hmm…” For the first time in Jin’s store, Mr Know-It-All experienced that some random guy’s opinion could be considered as a valid explanation. However, after taking several factors into account, he felt that it was not possible and returned to watching the show.
Jin was struggling a bit. He had the ability to blow Nyanmi away with just his Grade 5 powers or by utilising the skills he recently obtained from the spiritual union. However, her words bothered him and he decided that he should play out the entire thing more carefully.
He did not care much about the hoodie since he did request Yun not to put his dungeon instance up on air to the auditorium and bringing down the hoodie was essential in having a proper view of the entire battlefield.
Jin was glad that Qiu Yue managed to pass her fight and this also allowed Jin to properly focus on the task at hand without having the need to worry about her.
It was rather annoying for the System to place an urgent mission which Jin had no details about. He did not know what kind of shadowy objectives the System had in mind but one thing was for sure. Even without the System’s meddling, Jin would have wanted to test himself while not revealing his cultivation or skill to Qiu Yue as much as possible.
After much thought, he felt that he should just keep his powers quiet from Qiu Yue and lose the battle if he needed to. Nevertheless, Jin still had his own pride to take hold of, especially towards Qiu Yue. He wanted her to know that he was worthy to at least be her friend again.
Nyanmi who thought that she had the upper hand in the battle started to become more aggressive and new patterns of attack emerged from her sniper wh.i.p.s.
Jin cautiously entered into her attacking range and tried to charge in based on the attack pattern he learnt before but the tricks under Nyanmi’s sleeves were too potent, that he had to step back.
“Ahh… I did not expect a whip user to be this efficient in attacking and defending.” A customer saw how difficult it was for Jin to enter into Nyanmi’s defensive bubble.
“If that is the case, guess I should utilise my old techniques that Ming had taught before!” Jin thought to himself as he took out Boo in Wakizashi form.
“What is the use of another blade?” Nyanmi taunted Jin, who couldn’t care less. At this point in the battle, Jin judged the attacks once more and entered into Nyanmi’s range the moment the sniper whip retracted back into a rifle.
“This is a gamble!” Jin thought to himself as he rushed towards Nyanmi.
“Foolish master.” Nyanmi shot with her Sniper Whip rifle mode towards Jin but the bullet was deflected with style.
“Yes, the Perfectly Normal Parry Slash worked!” Jin was delighted his gamble had paid off , but little did he know that there was actually another bullet coming its way.
“I double tapped. You are not the only one who gambled.” Nyanmi laughed in Jin’s head. Even Qiu Yue only managed to catch the glimpse of another bullet trailing right behind the first bullet.
That split second felt like a year to Jin as his senses tightened up and he felt that something clicked…something screeched within his heart. Jin realised it was something similar to the time when he used the Black Fire and White Ice attack.
But this time around, it was different, he felt that another ability had activated, which caused his pupils in his eyes to change into a three inversed triangle shape. Similar to a Sierpinski triangle, the triangles multiplied within his retina and he was able to sharply see the speed, direction and trajectory of the bullet.
“Clang!” The bullet was miraculously deflected with his wakizashi! Yet, Jin was still charging towards Nyanmi who was stunned by the sudden change of events. How did Jin manage to parry this surprise bullet, and he even did it this fast! Even the Perfectly Normal Parry Slash could not have activated twice in a row!
Nyanmi hurried to swing her sniper whip, but it was too late as Jin’s wakizashi reached towards Nyanmi’s throat and the katana was directed at her torso.
“Tell me the objectives of the System.” Jin went close to Nyanmi and the werecat purred.
“Master, the System wants you to invite your friend into the system as an advisor for the Dungeon City Fortress,” Nyami whispered into his ears and later nibbled it too.
