“Oh, hey look. Bin Yong’s team is trying out the dungeon once more, and this time the audio is clearer than usual for some reason. Usually, there would be some background music accompanying it.” One of the viewers who recently failed the Deep Ones Dungeon Instance saw Bin Yong and friends on the screen. With the introduction of Pandaflix, the System had also been implementing ways to improve the stream, especially to a generation of cultivators who could not sit still and watch stuff for long.
Hence, it had placed background music and the music selection surprisingly came from Ke Mi. Somehow, the System found out that she had the flair to choose the kind of music for certain dungeon themes. All it had to do was to expose her to all the available music and she would pick ones that would suit the dungeon. Not to mention, Ke Mi could alter the music tune in her head, inadvertently creating a new set of music for the System to have copyright free music. Jin listened to it and suggested that a compilation of such music could sell in the future.
While the viewer and the following group that gathered around her upon hearing Bin Yong’s name had failed the Deep One dungeon instance multiple times, they were not too unhappy about it. The main reason for this was the surprisingly high amount of Panda Medals that was being rewarded, which Boss Jin had been quite stingy since the opening of his dungeon supplier store. One of the cultivators had posted a thread on the Pandamonium Forum to check how much medals one would be able to obtain in this recent dungeon.
Many had stated that even without going that far in, the amount of medals they earned had been twice, or even three times more compared to the amount given in the previous dungeon. Some also wondered if it was a bug that allowed them to earn that many Panda Medals.
However, Jin personally gave a brief statement in the forums (his account was Panda verified) that there was no issue with the amount of panda medals being awarded. In fact, he revealed that there would be a revision of Panda Medals for all dungeons by the end of the month, which would be officially announced in due time.
Mr Know-It-All who was in the loop of every news of Jin made a few simple speculations on the current behaviour for Jin’s increased rewards for the currency. According to him, the most likely and common scenario would be more weapons and/or inscriptions coming in, since the ones he currently sold were kind of general and basic despite the supreme quality.
Inscriptions like attack, defence or support Inscription were pretty standard such that the customers could buy them in other places, though getting from those from Jin’s store should not be a waste. If they followed the trend of his other additional inventory, they were guaranteed to be at least slightly stronger than the average inscriptions produced from outsiders.
There was a collective term for such inscriptions that were better than average inscriptions of the same grade and the public dubbed these kinds of inscriptions as a plus. For example, Attack Plus Grade One inscription. Though some swore that Jin’s inscriptions were a notch better than the Plus versions that they even want to nickname them as Panda+ for the fun of it. (Perhaps it might be true in the future.)
Furthermore, Mr Know-It-All speculated that Jin was going to bring in more very specific, distinct inscription stocks that would definitely improve the dungeon experience of the cultivators as well as aiding them with passing the dungeon even more efficiently. For example, Fire Element Attack Enchantment inscription which provides fire elemental damage for a short burst of time or Water Element Defence Inscriptions where the user would have better resistance against water spells or attacks.
He even deduced there was a possibility of ‘species killer’ kind of equipment. Some of the cultivators asked in the thread what those were and Mr Know-It-All briefly explained that those inscriptions could probably be more effective against certain monsters. For example, ‘Orc Killer’ Inscriptions.
Those inscriptions would prove to be very useful against the Orcs in the Goblin Raid Dungeons, making it easier for the cultivators to pit against the orcs if they had a hard time, or simply wished to feel more like a god of war on the battlefield.
However, that particular inscription would be useless and not effective at all against any other kind of monster. Mr Know-It-All mentioned that those inscriptions had existed in the past mainly to combat monsters attacking cities. But since the monsters in a monster horde wave tended to vary by species, it was decided to be more useful to use general inscriptions than highly specific ones. He added that nowadays it should be rare to even find a particular ‘Species Killer’ kind of inscription on the market. Most were probably gathering dust in the showroom of weapon collectors.
One of the cultivators posted his own theory stating that it could be the first signs of an upcoming general inflation in prices since more and more people began to participate in the dungeons. He believed Boss Jin wished to inflate the prices of his goods after his removal of Panda Credits in favour of only using Panda Medals.
Therefore, he had increased the number of Panda Medals to give the illusion that the store would not be ripping the customers off. Even though he admitted removing the Panda Credits was a decent move to avoid confusing newcomers, he felt the prices for the food items were rather hefty since they could either be bought with money or Panda Medals.
Whereas, Panda Credits was something like an extra bonus for people to utilise to buy their food. Despite his theory sounding rather logical and some found it appealing, others argued back that the new tickets all came with food vouchers for any main dish of their choice. Other than that, they had to top up, which they found that particular reward method to be better. Especially since some remembered that the main dishes could be more expensive with Panda Credits.
The older customers continued to argue that the credits had depended on the number of tickets they bought and reintroducing that system would have made those delicious dishes inaccessible. With the lure of food and dungeon at the same time, they felt it was already worth the price especially since they could not get to enjoy such heavenly taste anywhere else.
It was both a pity and wonder that such mind blowing food was found in this oddly unique dungeon supplier shop and not in proper restaurants. It’s indeed a wonder since people agreed such luxurious heaven defying dishes were available to them either before (to buff themselves) or after a dungeon instance (to recover after a good fight), making it an excellent combination of both.
Some even praised that they felt healthier and stronger after tasting Jin’s food, as if it was a health supplementary tonic that tasted incredibly delicious. Xiong Da once mentioned that if this place would allow delivery, he would stop cooking and simply buy from this place twenty four seven. Of course, Jin adamantly refused, stating that the quality of the food also depended on how fresh the food was being served from the kitchen. By providing a delivery service, it would reduce the quality of the food.
No doubt Xiong Da pouted, stating that he was willing to throw craploads of money at Boss Jin who seemingly did not want it at all. “What kind of business owner does not want more cash?! You sure, you are Chinese?!” Xiong Da exclaimed and everyone beside him shared the same sentiment.
Yet, he was also relieved that Boss Jin did not compromise on quality, which was why he and many others continued to come back to this dungeon supplier store. However, Jin mysteriously pointed out that in the future, they may drastically change the way they did things. When pressed any further, Xiong Da only received the two infamous words “Trade Secret” from Jin’s mouth.
Another of Mr Know-It-All’s deductions was that Jin was going to experiment in some future instance that could involve big stuff. Literally big stuff. “If he can have Pandawans drive tanks in dungeons, there may be no limit to what else he can build in the future. Going one step further should the demand be high enough he could potentially sell off the rights to own cars, tanks and other items. It might be only real inside the store of particular dungeon supplier, but god be damned if I can ever fly around in my private spaceship or build a luxurious mansion of my own. One day, it may be a better alternative to someone’s dreaded reality.”
Upon posting that, many cultivators liked his post so much that it quickly became the hottest topic of the day. Still, he warned others that those were all speculations, and one could only dream that Jin could create such things. Some admitted that they would not mind staying in a beautiful instance compared to the cramped housing they had to live in.
Others theorised that if Jin was building housing estates, the government could potentially see him as a potential cash cow and invest in him more. All these posts made Jin laughed as a few things they stated could potentially become true if the Dungeon Fortress City turns out the way he planned to.
Even the System was starting to calculate the possibility of cultivators staying permanently and aiding Jin by earning dungeon dollars in the Dungeon World which would provide more profit for the System. And the System desired money, for money was power. To a point, that it could even consider that revenge against the Zodiacs was a secondary objective.
If Jin managed to carve a city in the dungeon world, the profit would be immensely high. At the moment, it would be correct to say that the store did not earn as much cash from the cultivators as the System wanted to.
On the other hand, the money flow from the Gearbox armour sales, courtesy of the unknowing Yang Ling, was in the millions. Without it, it would have been quite challenging to help fund Jin’s mini war all the way. Sure, they could potentially sell more of those gearbox armour but eventually, someone would intervene by copying those ideas and producing even better ones.
That was the sad reality of the competitive market. The only way to curb that was to limit the number of stocks available and sell it sparingly to various worlds, but the System was unwilling to do so. Hence, the long term solution was to get the Dungeon Fortress City up and running so that it could generate profits that outmatch profits of the short term sales of the Gearboxes.
That was when Another Jin’s negotiating came in very handy. He was getting more and more proficient in it thanks to all the other trades he made. His rude and rowdy way of hard bargaining was something certain worlds had never encountered before, and it was to the point that they had to bend over just to receive the goods and hand over the money.
It went without saying that a certain fox, Kiyu, greatly aided him behind the scenes at the command of Kraft’s instructions by influencing Jin’s words with some magical power. (When asked by Jin why it was not detected by those high level mages, Kraft said it was something like a natural ability to Kiyu.)
This proved to Another Jin that words themselves indeed had power in them. Judging by the reaction of the royal purple fox, she enjoyed watching those lowly ‘worms’ succumb to Jin’s negotiation prowess. Witnessing the power of Kiyu firsthand after her debut, he also recommended Qiu Yue to use her if she ever needed to get a deal from Goblin King Sol and Orc King Frost Echo. Yet, it was plain obvious, she was already excellent at pulling those two’s strings without the help of one of Kraft’s foxes.
The spectators who were discussing amongst themselves how far the Pandawans would make it this round had begun to notice that Bin Yong’s group was still not moving out to fight against Deep Ones but rather searching for things. They were already shocked when the little panda masked girl they all had encountered changed her actions the moment they replied to her.
Come to think of it, almost all of the cultivators thought it was already an order, not a question nor a request. None had tried answering her, thinking she was merely part of the setting, so it was quite the discovery learning she would hand them a possibly important clue for the dungeon instance.
Not any less important seemed to be the existence of that tattered handbook for the viewers. Some even began to try and guess the contents of the book when briefly shown by the Magic Eye of the dungeon instance.
Mr Know-It-All, who was at the scene in his favourite spot, suddenly found himself justifying the group’s success when some people began to loudly accuse Boss Jin of having purposely given the Pandawans a head start or a possible clue.
“I doubt Boss Jin would play favourites. Bin Yong and Shi Zuo might have discovered the true intention of the dungeon instances themselves. They are not the only ones, as I myself had begun to suspect that this dungeon is not what it seemed to be after watching various attempts by many cultivators.” Mr Know-It-All further proved his point, by posting a few screenshots in the Pandamonium forum on the differences in the architecture of the famous landmarks and compared them in various dungeons.
“As I am sure we can all agree, Boss Jin takes pride in his work by being meticulous with even the smallest details. Like the comment of cold morning air blowing in our face during the goblin forest instances or the dusty remnants of an explosion in the Goblin Raid Dungeons. These ‘errors’ are totally out of the normal, and it leads me to believe those Pandawans might have figured out the dungeon instance they were in. That should be why they are searching for more clues as compared to the previous time when they went in blind.” Mr Know-it-All remarked.
With just a simple analysis of Mr Know-It-All, the entire mood of the crowd changed. Jin, who was at the sidelines, was amazed by the power of knowledge and influence that Mr Know-It-All wielded. It was not a joke.
Even without going into any instance, his observation and knowledge in the dungeon instances on the forums made him as famous as the Pandawans in his shop, if not more. Also, for some reason, Jin realised that he had yet to introduce himself formally to Jin (or anyone else). While he did fill in his personal data when making an account to enter the shop instance, it would have been rude for Jin to snoop around, if the other party did not wish for it.
However, Jin was equally surprised to learn that not even his long time friend from Sea Mesh called him by his true name. Upon this realisation, Jin began to doubt the validity of the contact information he had filled in even though it was just a random thought. While it was no crime to enter a fake name to register for an account in the Pandamonium app, it would not have been that much of a problem in the past as compared to now.
One should not forget that the System had upgraded their security some time ago and was checking everyone’s real identity with a proper, thorough ID check via the nation’s registry. The thing is, Mr Know-it-all’s personal ID information checked out. “Maybe that could be a possible valid reason why he never enters my dungeons since revealing their cultivation speaks volumes of his identity. That could also be the explanation of why he refused to help me when I casually asked about the tutoring matter.” Jin thought to himself.
In any case, Jin kept that at the back burner, since there was no problem with Mr Know-It-All so far and quietly focused on Bin Yong’s instance. He smirked a little as he saw how that little bit of information from Milk had motivated them to change their strategy and look for alternate ways. “A little bit of playing cheat, but they are famous enough in my store to have some influence on the crowd. If they would know any better, I might have to pay them for advertising my dungeons instead of them paying me.” Jin sniggered.
