“Isn’t this the same situation as that dream that I had before?” Jin thought to himself and tried to stay calm. It would not help to get even more agitated, and he would only end up clamped down by more chains if he moved too much.
“Wait, wait, wait. This is not the same as that dream. There is no inscription charm or any lighting. It is just pure darkness.” Jin spoke to himself as he tried to regulate his breathing. He roughly knew the effects of total darkness when placed into complete isolation.
Humans were not meant to stay in total darkness, and it was considered a torture technique during wartime. The sensory deprivation and the lack of light would cause the body’s natural cycle and circadian rhythm to go haywire. Also, the lack of interaction could make a person lose their mind mainly because humans could never stay idle for long. Their desire to be busy was in their innate nature, which cannot be fought against. Jin remembered about how he read how people would prefer to have pain as a stimulus than not doing anything and lived in boredom.
Therefore, Jin roughly figured out Ming’s objective for chaining him up in the dark. If total darkness could make someone lose their mind, it was also the best way to temper one’s mind, that was under the condition that Jin would survive the one month of darkness.
At this point, Jin decided to reflect on what he had learnt so far about the System, about Yun and his interactions with Ming. Previously he never had the time to sit down properly and think about this kind of things, so he started to consolidate the information he had gathered from all three of them.
At the very least, he was finally certain, that all three were not going to harm him in any way… at least not any time soon. However, he did find it ironic that the System denied Ming, but Ming was still around within him to guide him. Nevertheless, he did wonder why the System did not say anything about Ming especially when Jin’s unfiltered thoughts could always be heard by Yun.
Maybe the System automatically removed Ming from their listening logs since it hated him so much for failing. Jin also wondered why Ming would want to do something so stupid but then again Jin started to realised he was dumb not to trust the System too. “Hahaha, the pot calling the kettle black rings so true in this situation!” Jin sighed as he spoke to himself.
Although the goal was still not entirely clear for him, especially the part about the revival of the Panda Bloodline. He wondered what exactly it has got to do with being the number one dungeon supplier. Perhaps, there might be some correlation since Yun said that the old Panda Clan strived on stores previously.
It did make him wonder what the previous Panda Clan descendants with the System had done. Did they create stores as well? Judging from his own situation and how Jin was not living the high life, did it mean they all failed? Yun also said there was a case where the Panda Clan Remnant took over the System to carry out its will. Did the Remnant fail in the end too? Or was it merely because the Royal Zodiacs impeded both the direct descendants and the remnants? Or was it because of their incompetence like how Jin used to be in the beginning? Could it be laziness was some sort of Panda Clan curse passed down in the family?
Jin could not figure it out and decided put aside the issue at hand for a moment as he pondered what to create for Yang Ling, the Tiger Princess to fulfil his part of the deal. He figured that if she was making such equipment as the previously shown prototype, she must have connections with key military personnel. That would mean, that he could gain money from getting contracts with the military as well. After all the military budget in countries was always high. However, that was in the past, and now it seemed riskier than ever especially after he had learned about the truth since the Zodiacs governed the army and the police.
The more he thought about it, the more he realised that the Zodiacs were the ones that took the entire country as their backyard playground. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer while the middle class continued to slog their lives away.
“When the time comes to clash with them, then I will settle.” Jin started to begin feeling sleepy after all that random thinking. “But for now, time to go to sleep.”
It was funny how Jin felt so tired considering he was in a part of his subconscious and yet, he decided not to think too much about that and went to sleep. He knew that he should not presume and rest sufficiently.
Meanwhile, in the Hot Springs service instance, Jin was producing a lot of sludge at a high speed which startled the penguins. Even Mr Muddles, their friendly neighbourhood sludge remover, who improved himself could not stop the current situation. The sludge was in such a large quantity, that it overflowed from the hot spring pool to the surrounding areas.
The Penguins decided to take refuge on the top of the cabin roof with the help of Mr Muddles as they helplessly watched Jin hanging on the top of the Maple Tree still in his cultivation stance and he continued to produce sludge from his entire body.
It was the first time they saw the production of sludge coming out of him since it was usually muddled by the hot spring pool water. Now the sludge was so thick and black that the amount Jin produced began to overflow out of the facility and over the mountain’s edge. If one could see from afar, they would assume that it was some volcano mountain slowly spewing black stuff out of its peak.
“What is happening to Boss?” Mr Patsu was slightly worried, but he could not do anything. He was considering if he should call the Big Boss System for help but seeing that Jin was still hanging along the Maple tree due to his climbing harness, Mr Patsu continued to oversee the situation. Mr Patsu was after all instructed not to disturb Jin’s cultivation unless his life was in mortal danger.
————–
“Argh!” Jin suddenly woke up when he heard footsteps in the area. He instinctively tried to look around but to no avail. He figured he was just imaging stuff. Jin did feel that he had slept for a long time, but he knew that the change in the natural cycle was bluffing him. Without anything providing him with some sense of time, it was impossible to tell whether he slept for a whole day or for a mere 10 minutes.
“There I heard it again!” Jin thought to himself now completely sure that he heard very light footsteps coming his way. Jin tried to shake that thought away. Perhaps he was overthinking in his head.
“You are not wrong. I am indeed walking towards you.” A charming voice was speaking all around him.
“You desire a companion to talk to, don’t you?” The voice continued.
“Am I that weak to start hearing voices in my mind so soon?” Jin thought to himself and decided not to say anything.
“Maintaining your silence huh? Don’t believe that I exist?” The voice stopped for a while, and suddenly he heard a click sound. Jin recognised that sound, and it was distinct enough to know what it was.
“A gun?” Jin judged in his thoughts and continued to stay mute. If he ever talked back to that voice, he assumed, that would be the point when went insane from talking to thin air, to nothing. The next moment, Jin sensed an object pressing on his forehead. It was cold, hard and definitely felt like steel.
“Still not talking? Pretending to be tough?” The voice spoke, and suddenly Jin felt a shove on his forehead, the metal barrel was pressing forward and leaving a mark on Jin’s forehead, yet Jin decided not to say a thing.
“I could be hallucinating” Jin wondered to himself as he maintained his silence.
“I am not done with you. I will be back the moment you let your guard down. Hmph.” The steps were loud, but they were moving away from Jin.
“Please do not come back…” Jin said to himself as his voice echoed throughout the entire room.
