After the successful Operation Pompeii, Jin and Qiu Yue had been rather busy tying loose ends up. Another Jins with the help of Original Jin had managed to create all three raid dungeon instances for the cultivators that would be ongoing throughout the entire month of November.
Each of the instances was meant to cater to various levels of cultivators. The Northern Diversion Scenario was declared as the place for new cultivators to try out the entire raid instance experience. The Western Diversion Scenario was more catered towards the veteran cultivators, though it was open to any cultivators that had participated in the Northern Diversion for at least five times.
Jin purposely set such arbitrary requirements to allow the new cultivators to get accustomed to following orders, so that they wouldn’t get overwhelmed by the ambushes of the more aggressive Orcs which the System now controlled. The Western Diversion scenario had been restructured and it was possible to be invaded from any directions.
After Jin had watched the replay of how the Ice Orc Admiral advanced their ships, he ordered those Ice Orcs to use that Ice Wave spell in every encounter in the dungeon instances. (It gave the Orcs a hell lot of fun doing so too!) Sometimes, the warships would ram and smash through the fort walls directly while at other times, they encircled the town first, bombarding the place and land from the sides. There were even occasional instances in which they landed at the back of the town, which caused much havoc to the cultivators.
The amount of money the raid instances earned Jin was way more than he ever could have anticipated. Even the System seemed a bit surprised, when it announced to Jin, that half his loan had already been paid back. (If not for the Shop instance able to expand indefinitely, it would had been extremely packed.)
One of the major factors for this appeared to be the relatively cheap entry fee for the event, enticing people to replay it a few more times. (The rewards they could earn, certainly also helped). But it was also the fact that Jin had decided to keep his shop open 24 hours.
The demographics for the night was primarily skewed towards office workers who came to vent their frustrations after their overtime. A lot of them appreciate that there was still a place opened for supper, which catered such fantastic food that satisfied both office men and ladies. (though some ask for alcohol and Jin said he would consider.) After patronising the Restaurant Train of Delicacy instance, many would then head for the raid event. Even if they did not, the amount of money they spent in the Restaurant Instance was awfully much.
Separately, there was surprisingly an increased number of policemen participating in his dungeons throughout the day. It was only recently that Jin found out the actual reason from Gupta who came back a few times with some of his other police mates.
Their ‘budget’ turned out to originate from the Ruby Rats who had come to collect some of their resurrected members which the police then used for training purposes. Upon learning this, Jin was more than happy to accept the cash from his competitor. He even told Gupta to tell their superiors if they wished to mass order any equipment from him, Jin was willing to make them an offer they wouldn’t be able to resist.
One more demographic that surprised Jin came in the early wee hours of the morning before he switched shifts with Yun.
Senior Citizens.
The grandmothers and grandfathers aged 60 to even 80 years old had also been interested in testing out the dungeon instances, but his usual rates were too expensive. Not to mention, it was too crowded for their liking.
When news reached them that Jin had changed the opening hours and the latest raid instance was cheap enough, they figured it was the best opportunity to enter. After experiencing an instance or two, some even declared that they would bring their friends along to the instance instead of their usual morning workout if Jin continued to open at these times.
Some of the older generations of cultivators even made Jin dumbfounded when they exhibited their skills in the dungeons. The System was extremely interested because those cultivations were not found in the books that Ming rewarded Jin. Not to mention, their attacks were inherently stronger than most of the modern cultivators in the same grade.
Through a few conversations, Jin also learned more about his newest clients and found out why the majority of the older generations did not wish to mingle with the younger folks. They were simply a little embarrassed to enter the instances, because of the mockery some had received in other dungeon supplier stores.
However, Jin reassured them that such a thing would not repeat itself in his shop, as everyone should have the opportunity to cultivate regardless of age. If an incident such as that would to occur, he would personally see to that matter. The old folks laughed it off and thanked the young boss for his assistance.
On a different note, Jin purposely made into the last instance as a special hidden instance that could only be bought with 500 raid points. When he was finished with it, he sent out a notification that a “mysterious instance” has appeared after the Orcs had been beaten back for the 14,605 times.
The notification vaguely talked about an ambush of the Orcs and the Goblin Deities were angry with all the bloodshed. More was revealed when the cultivators obtained the hidden instance through the redemption store as the city contained obscure snippets of lore for those who were interested (Peppers had a lot of fun, writing it down and Jin even introduced the concept of player’s achievement in the Pandamonium App due to this.)
The Hidden Instance was also a wild success. Jin created the instance by placing the cultivators randomly in the midst of an ambush by the Fire Orcs and forced them to react instantly. Some even died nearly as soon as they entered (though anyone who got that unlucky in the first 15 minutes, got revived, after a cooldown, and got a second chance).
After the first day, the Hidden Instance was renamed as “Siege of the Goblin City” and Jin purposely listed the characteristics of the instance in the redemption counter to make sure that the cultivators had an informed choice before redeeming it.
Similar to what had happened, the city was located at the top of the volcano and the cultivators had to race against time to take down as many Fire Orcs as possible. But unlike the real Operation Pompeii, Jin and the System purposely placed both combat and non combat goblin NPCs into the situation. He wanted to simulate the liveliness in the city as compared to what had actually happened during the Operation.
Hence, in addition to taking down the Fire Orcs, raid points would be rewarded for saving the non combat goblins by escorting them to their ships that were docked right beside the sea. This also gave the Fire Orcs more freedom in the way they attacked the cultivators since it was no longer restricted to just the city but the island as a whole.
Speaking of Orcs, the Orcs tribes of Wind, Ice, Thunder and Fire had not only learnt the truth but had also been given the time to let it sink into their skulls. Some were initially furious, others were relieved but most were just delighted to resurrect and get a second chance to fight again.
Many relished in the fight against the cultivators and with enough bouts, some of the orcs started to get used to the cultivators’ way of fighting and developed ways to cope with it. The more they fought, the more the orcs were starting to prove to be a challenge. And because it was a raid instance, the cultivators had to quickly formulate tactics on the spot to overcome the everlearning orcs’ ferocity and tenacity.
However, Jin noticed that most of the cultivators were not very successful mainly due to their prideful nature as a veteran cultivator. Without a commander, the cultivators treated the instance more like Jin’s usual instances, in which they could act alone.
To deal with such problems, Jin made use of his NPCs. After the infamous match, his NPCs, especially Captain Bai and Hei, had earned respect and fear of his customers. The presence of those two captains quickly defused any situation the ragtag teams of cultivators had and ensured that they spent more time killing orcs as a group rather than squabbling.
——-
While Jin was occupied handling the stuff back in his shop, Qiu Yue was busy settling the negotiations with the Goblin King. The main demand did not change and it was to provide Jin with an army. However, before the negotiations could start, Qiu Yue had a lengthy discussion with Jin about what the demand was. What he truly wanted from the goblins since the request ‘just an Army’ was pretty vague.
Initially, Jin even wanted to pull back from the request. After all, he had already acquired more than enough Orcs to make an army of his own, but Qiu Yue did not allow him to. She emphasised it would be dishonouring an agreement and they could not appear too generous, especially if they wanted future dealings with the Goblins. It could potentially set a bad precedent for further negotiations.
Succumbing to the pressure from Qiu Yue, Jin finally narrowed it down and asked for a tri joint force to join him. They did not necessarily need to be elites, but all should be at least skilled enough in the field of air, sea and land combat.
He figured that he had enough capable leaders and officers from the various Orc tribes so if the two races could join together and share ideas, they might have an even better chance against the demon rat army in the Farming World. Therefore, Qiu Yue had been pressing King Sol for a Joint Force army consisting of Air, Sea and Land troops to be requisitioned.
Unsurprisingly, King Sol agreed and even offered Sword General Gladios to accompany them but Qiu Yue refused. “All we want is a Tri Joint Army. We do not need one of your generals to accompany us.” Qiu Yue replied as they were discussing the terms and conditions for her to draft a legal contract out. (With some outside help from Xiong Da when Jin had the chance to meet him. Of course, Kraft did some slight mind altering magic on him after seeing the goblin contract.)
“Why not? Gladios was itching to go. In fact, he volunteered to be deployed under Jin.” King Sol asked with some concern but Qiu Yue gave him a straightforward reason.
“I- We want to further develop the skill set of the Generals’ sons. As you might have heard, the trio had managed to make large contributions to the war and eventually pushed themselves to evolve into a Wyvern Knight, a descendant of Ifrit, and a Death Knight respectively. They may possess a lot of fighting capabilities but in terms of leadership? There are lots to learn. We consider it to be possibly detrimental if they simply learn from their fathers. By providing them with no assistance, they would have the chance to grow individually and to become leaders with unique traits of their own.” Qiu Yue replied.
“… That’s fairly reasonable. I shall inform Gladios and the others about your decision. However your other request… I am unsure what to say…” King Sol was a bit hesitant since Qiu Yue’s second demand was to take the entirety of his goblin ministry advisors with her. That was way more than he could afford.
The majority of them had taken to their job not too long ago, and this was already considering that they were the helpers and secretaries of their predecessors. Since the Ministry advisors were the pillars of their structure, without them, their economy might drop into a standstill if not worse. Qiu Yue wanted them because all of them were already under the System’s influence. Jin and Qiu Yue could certainly just grab them and leave the goblin society in a lurch, but that would go against both of their principles.
Hence, Qiu Yue sweetened the deal by offering King Sol a time frame. She would give each of them some time to train a new batch of goblins to be their replacement. She would even help them with the teaching to avoid the ‘discrepancies’ she had encountered since the time she helped. This way, they would be loyal to King Sol and not as corrupt as their predecessors.
King Sol agreed under the presumption that only those advisors agreeing with the idea to be ‘taken away’ to be allowed to go. He thought the condition was absurd but what he found even more absurd was that not a single one had any qualms about following Qiu Yue.
Each and everyone agreed to it wholeheartedly despite the administrative torture Qiu Yue put them through. Some of the ministers had already begun writing their list of candidates for selection. Needless to say, Qiu Yue would have a screening of her own for picking their replacements, mainly because she wanted the Kingdom of Gob Gob to be not just a business contract but an ally to be counted on in the future. (as well as a trading partner.) Seeing his ministers having no objection to Qiu Yue’s decision, King Sol reluctantly agreed to it. While still a bit unhappy about it, ultimately the goblins did owe them a rather hefty favour.
“Now I have my own set of cabinet ministers which will be useful for building the Dungeon City Fortress up.” Qiu Yue smiled as she witnessed King Sol signing the agreement.
