As Jin was waiting for Grandma Yuan, he was looking through the details for Operation Pompeii. The preparation was hectic but it seemed to be progressing very smoothly. The other Jins via the High Intensity Mode in the past few days had managed to obtain the materials for makeshift buildings that were used as props for Hollywood movies and such. For the more important buildings which were the ones most likely to be rushed through by the Orcs, those were purchased as customised prefabrications.
The fifteen goblin days seems little but were precious providing Jin ample time despite the time dilation. Peppers had even found the time to cast magic to remodel those makeshift buildings to imitate the ones from the the goblin town. The more perfect the fake buildings were, they could be disguised it off as the real one, right?
While the System had provided the Other Jins and Peppers with the exact city design layout via the satellite images, Kraft had made his way to the desolate island to check its conditions and most importantly whether the volcano was truly inactive as described by Colonel Ayse. His favorite weapon, No Mercy, worked as a sort of power booster allowing his foxes to turn large enough to be mistaken for Kaiju Monsters. They proceeded to take take turns to ‘fly’ him there as fast as possible to scout and make his own observations about the island. (Technically, the foxes ran, leapt and jumped but to those goblins, it looked like they were flying monsters. Some goblin mothers used them as an excuse for their kids to behave otherwise the giant foxes would come get them in their sleep. )
“Not that bad I guess… as long as we cover the top of the inactive volcano with a piece of land or some floating island, we really could pull the disguise off with very high walls. They should never know…well actually they might find out if some of them could fly. Damn I guess some of them CAN fly…maybe I could borrow that dungeon core responsible for powering up the shield barrier from Moloch and Sluggy Wolte. Perhaps we could even turn it into a sort of giant mosquito trap. As soon as they fly away far enough… ZAP.” Kraft thought to himself before asking the System how much would it cause to make such a thing happen.
“Exorbitantly expensive. However recreating the energy for short, one time use is feasible and sufficiently cheap. As long as Original Bellator Kraft keeps up the appearance of a permanent barrier it should be possible to fool them.” The System noted and Kraft being a big softie for crazy plans had asked the System to make him four of those “toys”. “That will be equivalent to one year worth of soul fragments, but since Original Bellator Kraft had not been collecting his soul fragments for decades. System shall write it off as miscellaneous expenses.”
“Good System.” Kraft smiled as he clapped to open a portal and returned back to the Dungeon Maker.
At the same time, the exact city design layout coupled with the old city plans from the Goblin Home Ministry were also used elsewhere. Initially, the Other Jins had ambitious plans to include the complicated yet poorly designed sewers in the fake city. Later they decided to abandon them because of the lack of time. Instead they talked the System to purposely create a part of it to throw off the orcs who wanted to use the Sewers as a direct route to the Ministry Office. (That was also one of the possible targets that Colonel Ayse had suggested to hit to the King previously.)
The System also marked out where the ninja penguins had found the lost tech artefacts as well as the possible places where the orcs could have planned to place them, hence giving an idea of the Orc’s train of thought. Peppers used this to possibly deduce the locations they were targeting. Once they analysed the possible routes, Peppers suggested the kind of traps to be placed there. (Although Kraft also chimed in with his own crafty suggestions…well because he’s a counter intelligence agent!)
Separately, The Orc-Goblin War was still proceeding with the goblins putting up a fierce defence in the North. They even sent out assault parties accompanied by cultivators against the Thunder Orc Army who had not expected that much damage to be inflicted from the goblins.
Within the coming days, there was indeed a diversion coming from the West where the Ice Orc Fleet travelled via their sh.i.p.s just as Colonel Ayse’s intel had warned them about. The Ice Orcs thought they easily could pull up to the shore and quickly take control over the Western Region with their almighty sea fleet that was equipped with sturdy iron sh.i.p.s they replicated from the Lost Tech Island.
The Ice Orc Fleet would be more daring in the diversion attack. It was especially so as they were accompanied by the Wind Orc Army’s airship carriers. This time around, the Wind Orc Army were equipped with larger guns and sturdier materials. Both armies being confident of their army, they sailed and flew to the Western region of the goblin territory for the diversion attack.
If a normal human or goblin in the waters saw such a scene, they would feel like a terrifying nightmarish menace was coming to take over the lands of Gob Gob Kingdom.
Fortunately, the Goblins had some tricks under their sleeves now, courtesy of Jin. According to the Orc plans, the Orc raiders were supposed to pillage, raid and cause discord to the remote goblin villages while collecting resources. They would then proceed to store those supplies for either the Thunder Orc Army or the Orc Ice Fleet to utilise.
However, with Jin’s interference, most of the Orc Raiders were killed and the resources were retrieved back. The villagers were safely evacuated and their militia was reorganised with the supervision of Qiu Yue and the workings of Defence Ministry. She worked them like slaves and not just the Defence Ministry but the rest of the other Ministries too. However, for the survival of their kingdom, they would endure this hardship. (Not to mention the bet they lost to her.)
Even though the war was still ongoing, the pedals of economy was moving fast and steadfast despite the lack of manpower after the conscription. Trades with other towns and races were still ongoing and the markets were reorganised to support the war effort. There were even cases where the goblin kids helped out with the labour if necessary due to lack of manpower. (They were not enforced but strongly encouraged.)
Diplomatic wise, the goblins had managed to convince the humans that if the last remaining goblin kingdom were to fall, there was a very high likelihood that the Humans might be next. King Sol and his diplomatic agents (alongside with Qiu Yue!) had initially asked for a simple alliance. They did not ask for much as they understood asking the humans to cooperate with them in the War against the Orcs was impossible. They never shared a big connection and it would be impossible to overcome the historical differences in a small amount of time. All they ask was just simple aid supplies or at worse discuss to keep the trading alive if possible.
Qiu Yue knew humans were beings driven by selfish emotions no matter which era or world they were in. They would ally with the winning side if they knew what was best for them. Therefore, she purposely asked some goblins trained with the M1 Garand Rifles to follow the diplomatic convoy. She even purposely drove the battered M4 Sherman tank after it was repaired and refurbished by Jin into the territories of the Human Kingdom to show the goblin’s supposed might. Following the idea of Hou Fei, they even made three additional “tanks” from the System which looked the same but had no functions aside from being able to drive forward. The plan was for the main tank to fire off its canons and the others to be a display of strength. Later weapons could either be added or it could be sold back to the System.
A show of strength was exactly what they needed from the goblins. It would warn the Humans not to do anything stupid like trying to assassinate the King during the diplomatic convoy part…which some hired mercenaries really did rather openly in the streets of the Human Capital. The goblin riflemen shot them down mercilessly before they could come anywhere near the King nor inflict any serious damage. This superior show of force flipped the idea of the goblins being weak upside down and even made the humans start to fear their neighbours. Yet, Qiu Yue felt this was a sufficient portrayal of power to show that the goblins could come in peace but mess with them? They would not show mercy too.
The Human King eventually received the message of what happened from his advisors. (Needlessly to say, his various spies who monitored the war from afar.) He promised to send aid in order to curry favour with King Sol who was now beaming with vitality contrary to his past self. In short, Qiu Yue had managed to secure better trade ties and even aid supplies for the Goblin Kingdom, earning her brownie points from the System.
Additionally, with the early warning system in place because of the constant satellite footage, the goblins were able to sortie in time against the Orc Ice Fleet. Spear General Argent took charge of the western defences with a costal army of his own while Sword General Gladios held the fort in the Valley Town Gob Gob Bu. Dagger General Igni was still in a secret high risk mission to connect the leylines with his son, Ripcaller and a team of highly ranked goblin assassins. This way even if Operation Pompeii should fail, the assassination team would turn into their backup plan. It was a no brainer for Jin to sent his Assassin Savant to assist the group that was a huge boon to their offensive operations.
Unsurprisingly, the original Western coastal defence by the goblins was weak. However the goblins who were now trained to use artillery and flak guns by Hou Fei were stationed right where the Ice Orc Fleet and the Wind Orc Army would arrive. Shu, the Sakura Tree Treant finally made his appearance since he had been unable to fit in a C130 nor to follow cultivators along them through missions. (Imagine a large tree trying to squeeze itself out of the C130 plane and begin free falling with the cultivators…The customers would probably be scared of the tree crushing them into pieces before they could even land properly.)
For the Western Coastal defences, Shu along with Ke Mi, the Zither Mistress had created makeshift wooden walls as temporary defences. How did they do it? Simple, grabbing a few of Shu’s branches or alternatively some wooded logs provided by the goblins from the surrounding forest. Shu first planted them down near the beach and used its magic to grow them. Ke Mi, on the other hand, who had been cultivating the living armour plants day in and day out learnt the tunes on how to accelerate the growth of the plants.
Compared to the living armour plants which were very picky in terms of food consumption or even the type of music being played to stimulate their growth, the enlargement of these branches and tree logs were like child’s play to Ke Mi. With just a short musical tune, the plants and trees reacted to the chi in the music Ke Mi played and the magic provided by Shu, growing up to form a strong defensive layer of wall along the coast.
Taking lessons from the World War Two’s infamous Normandy landing, Jin had purposely asked Sandy to increase the land mass along the beach so that the sh.i.p.s would not come close to the beach at all, forcing them to land far from the beachhead at least an additional 500 metres away from the actually shoreline. More M4 Browning machine guns were made available and deploying prefabricated bunkers, they basically shored up their defences in the western coastal region. The goblins practiced day in and night on how to minimise the time to reload, how to shoot effectively and assisted in placing explosives in the beachhead. When the Ice Orc Fleet comes, the Western Coastal Defence would be more ready to receive them.
However, according to Colonel Ayse, the diversion would only begin on the day of the Red Full Moon. In a coordinated effort from the three armies, the Ice Orc Fleet would attack the West, the entire Thunder Orc Army would push forward through the North to their best capability while the Fire Orc Army would enter the cities via the Lost Artefact portals. In the meantime, The Wind Orc Air Force would serve as the backup since they were currently under the direct command of Orc King Hamu himself. The Fire Orc Army would burn a portion of the city down to let the Wind Orc Air Force to enter with their giant Mothership.
Jin let out a sigh of relief. If not for his employees, the work of his monsters, bellators as well as customers, this war could never be won by the goblin’s alone. “Heh, if I were you I would not celebrate just yet. You know I hate to be the voice of reason, but don’t you think you overestimate yourself a bit? You may have the System, but do you think your Grade 7 powers would allow you to defeat the Orc King Hamu single handedly?” Kraft asked with a bit of …concern.
“Well, I have you and Zeru. I do not have to be that scared about that.” Jin giggled and Kraft sighed, reminding him not to forget his training.
It was at that moment, there was a teleportation into the shop instance and Jin somehow felt the pressure in the shop instance increasing in an instance.
Grandma Yuan had arrived.
The staggering aura was very familiar since he felt it before. It was hard to forget this familiar pressure, though with a cultivation of Grade 7 under his belt, he was able to withstand it a lot better compared when he was just a Grade 3. “Hmph. I see that you must have been training rather rigorously since the first time we met. Last time I did not notice it, but your progress is really something” Grandma Yuan walked in. Only after a few of her steps did Jin notice, that she was not alone but that there was a lady attendant assisting right beside her.
“Grandma Yuan.” Jin acknowledged her presence and wanted to assist her but she declined as she walked towards the bar counter. The lady attendant helped her up the barstool and Grandma Yuan turned towards the lady attendant.
“Get the things in.” Grandma Yuan ordered her lady attendant and she immediately acknowledged. Yun politely asked if she wanted to drink anything but it seemed that Grandma Yuan was annoyed when Yun was the one questioning her. She gave out a large sigh before she answered that she wished for some tea.
“Grandma Yuan, if you do not mind, I will be the one to brew it for you. Any specifics?” Lynn was also around as Jin had informed her about their special guest’s arrival. After all, Lynn got out of jail because of her help too.
“Hmm. Hoji Tea.” Grandma Yuan replied which surprised Lynn that she asked for a Japanese specific type of tea instead of a chinese one. However as a professional, she did not spent too much time overthinking it and accommodated the request.
In the meantime, the lady attendant returned with other attendants behind her. They were all carrying large metal boxes sealed with charms and all. All were carefully brought forward and placed on the counter while Grandma Yuan did not say a single word until Lynn came back with what she had requested.
“Hmm. The roast of the tea leaves is so so. The tea’s temperature is sufficiently hot.” Grandma Yuan took a whiff before giving her opinion. Then she sipped a little and put it back on the table. “Not too bad. The chi in the tea composition could be better managed. You are fl.u.s.tered because of my presence aren’t you?” Grandma Yuan asked Lynn while she took a handkerchief out to wipe her mouth.
Lynn embarrassingly nodded her head and Grandma Yuan beckoned her to come nearer. She picked up Lynn’s hand and caressed it a little. “Hmm…I see, you relied too much on your dorsal area because of the way you fight. You need to learn to channel the chi from your palm to your fingers more delicately like this.” Grandma Yuan circulated her chi along her fingertips and Lynn could understand what she meant.
“This way, not only can you perform more delicate tasks in your cooking, preparing tea but also in your fighting.” Grandma Yuan smiled at Lynn which was a first and Lynn hastily thanked her for her guidance.
In the meantime, the assortment of stacked metal boxes had stopped and they occupied the entire central area of the shop instance. Grandma Yuan then dismissed the attendants and asked her lady attendant to only come back when she called for her. The lady attendant which came in first, seemingly the leader of them acknowledged it with a bow and left the area. With only Jin, Yun and Lynn left in the picture, Grandma Yuan finally faced Jin and started talking to him. However the first thing to come out of her mouth, shocked them all.
“So…Jin. How has the System been treating you?” Grandma Yuan asked bluntly while staring very seriously at Jin. The Grandma knew all along.
