“Babe watch out!” Luo Bo shouted as she stepped forward, only to be manhandled by Bin Yong in order to prevent her from doing anything rash. Shi Zuo turned only to see the monstrosity of the ever growing whale like looking shadow opening its mouth in an attempt to swallow him whole. Even the spectators instantly grasped at the cinematic with the dramatic jaw dropping music on cue.
Paralysed with terror, feeling just like a mouse in front of a snake, Shi Zuo accidentally dropped the unsealed lockbox to the ground. The contents spilt out of the box, revealing a number of accessories and among them was his own storage ring. Unknown to Shi Zuo, the storage ring reacted through the chi resonance coming off of from his claw hand, causing it to transform immediately.
This in turn, activated a special skill which not only illuminated their area with bright shining light but also managed to forcefully dispel the illusion of Shadow Dagen. The shadow slowly but surely bellowed in pleasurable sadistic laughter in response as it tried to maintain its form.
“Next Time!!!!!” The gloomy threat from the Shadow of the Fish God’s voice echoed throughout the empty car park before it fully dissipated into the corners of the carpark. After a couple of seconds of silence, they breathed out a sigh of relief, as it appeared they were safe for now even though they knew the security of nothingness was just an illusion. Still, they will grab every chance of it.
Luo Bo elbowed Bin Yong to the face, who was still holding on to her. As soon as he had released her, she ran over towards her still terrified boyfriend. “Ahhh…now I understand …*Gulp* What bro meant…*pants* about terror.” Shi Zuo still trembling from the sight of Shadow Dagen had tears coming from his eyes and even his pants were slightly wet.
“Shhh…shhh it’s okay. This is nothing compared to what we had to overcome in the Halloween Instance. Everything’s going to be okay. It’s gonna be alright. I am here now.” Luo Bo hugged him, whispering in his ear, as she tried her best to console him.
Meanwhile, Bin Yong stayed close to Jia Le, who seemed to be finishing her chi recovery in her cultivation stance. He did not want to leave her behind and allow Shadow Dagen another opportunity to catch them unaware individually again. Though he could have woke her up, she was not in any imminent danger, and it would be better for her to recover her chi to be combat ready.
Having calmed her boyfriend somewhat, Luo Bo turned her head to check the accessories that lay spilt on the ground. She realised those appeared to be their missing storage rings except for one. The still shining ring appeared to be burning hot. Yet for some reason, she was unafraid of it. Even more peculiar, it exuded a sense of familiarity. Even while consoling her mate, she began concentrating on it and sensed an extent of Shi Zuo’s chi signature coming from it.
Since this dungeon instance was always surprising them, Luo Bo ignored the glowing ring for now and picked up her ring to wear it. After everything, it would be great to have access to their prepared items as well as their weapons.
Using her chi access the ring, Luo Bo got a bottle of water for her boyfriend to calm down, but at that moment in time, the ring she was holding began to change with a similar glow to it. From a modest, pinkish silver design, it suddenly possessed a rabbit head insignia with pinkish ruby jewels as its eyes. Upon closer inspection, not only a rabbit head got added, but a bow and arrow sign right below it as well. It was frankly beautiful, a perfect depiction of her cultivation style and favourite weapon.
Looking back at the other ring, she identified a monkey with its mouth open. The monkey’s eyes were emerald green, while above it was two hatchets crossing each other. Lost in her thoughts, she only remembered about the bottle of water she was going to take, when she heard Shi Zuo taking a deep breath.
She hurriedly took the bottle out and assisted Shi Zuo with drinking it. That was when she realised she felt something inside her was a little different. She felt braver, yet nothing had changed about their situation. This kind of bravery was somewhat similar to the time she had used the blue stone of courage she got from playing the Loot Box machine (A must have item, to conquer the Halloween Instance, according to some people). The only reasonable explanation she could come up with was the transformed ring being the cause for this.
Trusting her intuition, she picked up Shi Zuo’s transformed ring and put it on him. He eventually managed to catch his breath, and his thoughts became more lucid. Turning to his girlfriend, he reciprocated her hug, which made her let out a sigh of relief.
“Did you all see what I saw?” One of the male spectators pointed at the scene at which Luo Bo’s ring also transformed and the rest nodded in response. “What kind of rings are those?! Hey, Boss Jin I also want such a cool customised ring. Are you selling those rings, too?”
“Nope, those rings are not for sale. If you want one, then you have to earn them.” Jin answered with a grin.
“Are you seriously gonna give each of us a ring?” A female cultivator had trouble believing such a thing. Just looking at the very cute rabbit insignia, made one understand that it was anything but cheap. Even if those Jewels were fake, just the operation of inscribing an insignia into a storage ring (without the latter losing its function) was usually only something very rich people could afford.
“Yes, anyone can get a personalised ring according to their cultivation and fighting style. Feel free to share this and also one of the rewards possibly include getting a discount for a custom weapon set just by completing a particular section of the Deep Ones dungeon instance, or should I say… Escape City Dungeon Instance.” Jin finally revealed the true name of the Deep Ones dungeon to the entire group who were watching. There was no need to make a special announcement for this information because it would definitely be passed around with Mr Know-It-All in the crowd.
“So…they were right. It really is a kind of Escape Room instance. I was of half expecting you to do that for the Gentlebear Instance and not this soon.” Mr Know-It-All replied to Jin’s big reveal.
“Nothing is stopping me from doing something like that with the Gentlebear Instance. I had to start from somewhere to see if it works well with the crowd. Hahaha. This time around, the cultivators can complete it the Escape room way or brute force. Just that Brute Force also requires some finesse and brains as well, perhaps not as much as the former. After all, it’s a story dungeon instance.” Jin answered back and his intentions wowed everyone.
“But won’t streaming this Escape City instance kind of ruin the whole point? Haven’t you just revealed everything to all of us who were watching this? Now everyone here would know what to do to complete this part of the instance.” Another male cultivator asked. While he himself did not particularly mind, he was sure that others would have preferred finding out on their own. Be that as it may, Jin shook his head and was about to say something.
“Hahhaa, bro! Do you really think Boss Jin is that stupid to show his whole hand that easily when he is charging us this much? I bet you, he has at least few dozen more of these puzzles should we ever try it out again. Who knows, maybe he is even going to remove this path until people start to forget.” The male cultivator got pat on his back by his friend as he answered his concerns. Almost everyone on the floor agreed with that line of that, making Jin not having to add anything else.
“Since you all appeared to be interested in the rings, let me share a little tidbit. Some of you might have already noticed by the behaviour of the Pandawans, but those rings do more than just look pretty. One of the prizes from the loot box vending machine, you know, the one used to sell tickets to the Halloween and Qixi instances. Oh, which I have to add! It is currently pending another new dungeon in-” Jin paused for a while, be it on purpose or accidental, he returned to his main subject though the cultivators who heard it and felt it was exclusive information but did not dare to interrupt.
“It had been blue stones of courage and white stones of calming. I have added the same functions as basic inscription properties into the transformed cosmetic skin for the storage rings and they should be a permanent effect.” Before Jin was done with his explanation there suddenly was a shout from the crowd.
“Wait! COSMETIC SKIN?! You were able to achieve that too! And did you say PERMANENT?!” That shout came from none other than Sea Mesh CEO, who had been trying to stay undercover, but his quirk made him spoil his disguise. Even Mr Know-It-All started to giggle at the sight of Ke Loong quickly adjusting his fake beard as well as his black sunglasses.
“Cosmetic Skin?” To the younger cultivators, it sounded like a vaguely common gaming term, and one asked the poorly disguised man what the deal was with that. His presence had been noted, but since he was harmlessly watching with the rest, they thought of him as just a cosplayer rather than hiding his identity. (After all, there are too many weird people in the world which the society had to tolerate.)
“While more commonly known as ‘Cosmetic Inscription’, the proper term is decorative enhancement inscription. The reason why it’s such a big deal is that it should be impossible to create them, much less mass produce these inscriptions. While simple in theory, in praxis they turn out to be not very practical nor functional. This is because of how inscriptions work. ” Ke Loong coughed a little, realising his voice was his original one before he tried to change the tone a little.
“Inscriptions utilised the chi for them to stay active. Hence, the decorative aspect is only as temporary as the amount of chi you placed in it. It is something similar to a disguise just more aesthetically pleasing.” Ke Loong explained as he smiled while pushing his glasses up. (Some of the cultivators began to think Boss Jin should make him a better disguise upon hearing it.)
“However, there are too many disadvantages to it. As aforementioned, they require a constant supply of chi. The second one would be occupying an inscription slot. But considering that storage rings do not usually have inscription slots attached to them, so unless he chang –”
“No, I did not change the structure of the rings. It is too much effort transferring the storage data and I would need their chi signature to be able do so. Way more troublesome than personalising the ring’s design. While contradictory yes, I made it such that the inscription was added into their storage rings even though there are no inscription slots attached to it.” Jin told the customers as he pointed back to the screen.
“But right now, the main focus should be the ongoing dungeon instance.” Jin said hoping to leave the topic as it is. He did not expect Ke Loong to be in here to be so knowledgable about the cosmetic inscriptions. (Seems like his disguise somewhat worked!) And he hoped that the cultivators who were currently way more interested in this Cosmetic Inscription to return their attention to what was happening since more was yet to be revealed.
“Holy shit. And there goes one more possible IP (intellectual property) to him. Why couldn’t we have figured out how he does it.” Ke Loong placed his two hands at his head. He was aware of the impacts of cosmetic inscriptions. If Jin could incorporate such a concept on rings, he would eventually be able to do it on clothes, other accessories and even weapons. While it might sound a tad ridiculous, it would be highly likely people would spend money to acquire these kinds of cosmetic items since they would definitely be cheaper than buying the real stuff, it would not clutter any space and not to mention size free.
One thing was for sure, Jin had struck gold with this invention.
Unaware of the commotion outside, Luo Bo handed Bin Yong and Jia Le their own rings. All of them checked their inventory after the transformation of the ring, but nothing seemed to be missing. “I wonder if these designs are permanent. It would be a shame to lose it. I’d pay to be able to keep it.” Jia Le wondered as she admired her ring.
“Oh…?! This…” Jia Le squint her eyes a little as the ring design triggered her memories.
“…This could be it. Guys, I think we found the passkey for the door I was mentioning earlier.” Jia Le blurted out. “It’s our newly formed rings. I remember seeing the imprint of my flower, but the rest were too detailed to make out the design. Not 100% sure, but I honestly think this should be it.” Jia Le commented and later cleared her doubts as she spoke.
“Then what are we waiting for, let’s go. Don’t forget about your phone Bin Bin!” Luo Bo reminded him as she helped Shi Zuo stand up and going up the stairs. She was not going to leave him alone by himself even if it’s just a few metres away, not in this particular dungeon.
Bin Yong unplugged the phone and guessed 36% was better than nothing. He was surprised it charged that fast for a broken down car. Perhaps, Boss Jin did not want them to wait around for the phone to be charged in a realistic time frame.
The entire group took their weapons out as well as a few potions to hang them by their waist in case their storage rings were ever gone again. (This dungeon made them rather paranoid!) After ensuring that they were well equipped, they climbed up to the 6th floor where the locked door was waiting. True enough, the lock was designed to be unsealed with their four new rings.
There was a unique flat click sound that triggered the unlocking mechanism which subsequently made their rings fall off from the lock. Bin Yong then took the initiative to open the door only to find four pendants kept in a glass box like some museum centrepiece. Everyone else stepped back as Luo Bo took an arrow and shot the glass in case of any laser or trap triggering. To their surprise, nothing happened. Still, they did not wish to take any more chance as Luo Bo took out a special arrow coated with ferret magnetic metal. (Don’t ask how but the weapons store sold it!)
The arrow picked up the four pendants rather easily and Luo Bo managed to get the arrow back since it was tied to a hiking rope. “I will give it a try.” Luo Bo told the group as she felt that she should be the one to show Shi Zuo that she was willing to take a risk for the group too even though she was equally afraid.
“No, it’s okay, dear. I am fine now. You can let me do –” Luo Bo ignored Shi Zuo’s rambling and put on the pendant. In an instant, her appearance changed into that of a black suit. White blouse, black short skirt and coat, brown stockings and a rather comfortable pair of dress shoes. Luo Bo wowed herself as she realised her hair was all tied and bun up rather nicely too. She did not know why she was dressed so formally until Bin Yong and Shi Zuo told her that it was a disguise by the Deep Ones.
The rest wore the pendants and all of them turned into the Black Suits too. “I see, so by getting these suits, we might reduce the probability of being stalked by the rest of the Deep Ones.” Shi Zuo said as he adjusted his black sunglasses. Little did they know that this was the cosmetic inscription that Ke Loong had been raving about.
The CEO became even more fervent at seeing Boss Jin’s new shop item in action. It was a genius move of him to introduce a new product via a dungeon instance.
“Just like in your spy movies. Let’s hide in plain sight” Bin Yong encouraged his buddy as they prepared to move to the Penn Station Exit A to meet Captain Hei with the aid of their new disguise.
