During the next few days, the Escape City Dungeon Instance proved to be the most frequented dungeon instance, mainly because of the amount of medals it was giving out. Some believed in Mr Know-It-All’s speculations, but the majority had begun to realise that the sudden generosity of Jin had another reason, which everyone concurred upon trying the dungeon instance at least once.
There was a need to upgrade.
Most of the cultivators’ gear was pitiful to begin with. Only a fraction of his customers possessed some sort of family heirlooms, which proved to be very valuable and not to mention strong against the Deep Ones. (Yet even with family heirlooms, those snobbish cultivators were not up to par in terms of skills. Regardless, the System analysed those weapons thoroughly for future references.)
Therefore many used this chance to upgrade their gear to better cope with the high intensity they felt in that particular dungeon instance. As a result, the once quiet sub forum for threads regarding weapons and armours became quite popular.
There were some die hard fans which were seemingly even more enthusiastic than Mr Know-It-All (or perhaps he just influenced them?) who had gathered a plethora of data from the weapons store and listed them on the forums.
The thread was so long that Jin as the administrator had decided to help them tidy the information up by changing it into something more like a glossary page with a well versed search option and interface. (Well, mostly it was the work of the System. Though it did not add any additional information, it beautified and also simplified the data entry process for future weapons.)
With that thread being stickied to the top by Jin, those die hard fans discussed, theorised and helped others by recommending a few weapons based on their statistics page, as if it was some MMORPG weapon list. Some even recommended the type of weapons and inscriptions that could be useful for each particular dungeon.
For example, they recommended fire based inscriptions for the Great Wall of China instance since the zombies were slightly weaker to fire or inscriptions that could enhance the area of attack for the Goblin Raid Events.
Unsurprisingly some doubted the validity of the list, claiming that the weapons were more or less the same and the stats that were introduced by Jin were just a facade. Yet, many still followed it diligently since a guide was better than none.
Eventually, some cultivators even went the extra mile and started to experiment with the weapons. One of them tried out the Western Diversion Instance with a pathetic Grade 1 Iron Sword which allegedly had a physical attack stat of 10 before switching it out with a Grade 4 Iron Sword to test if it indeed had an attack stat of 40.
To his surprise, he reported that it did seem to make some difference. However, there were still some critics stating that there was no proper way to test it after all, it could have just been a placebo effect. This heated discussion continued for a while until Jin decided to play along with their whines and placed a couple of Heavenly Pillars of Measuring into Panda Muscles Instance.
Those pillars were officially acknowledged as the international standard for measuring strength as they were made from a raw material rumoured to of the Grade 19 standard, if not Grade 20. (But many assumed the former since Grade 20 was akin to celestial like materials.)
Because of the material’s sturdiness, they could be used to measure the strength of a cultivator and/or the strength of a weapon. In the past, people used to involve a cultivator well versed in the Earthly Elements to calculate and measure the strength used against these Heavenly Pillar of Measuring.
However, thanks to modern technology, this became unnecessary. A built in monitor had been invented to measure the strength, speed and chi power of a cultivator in absolute numbers and its estimates were so much accurate than the old ways.
Separately, the System derived the stats of the cultivators before the introduction of the Heavenly Pillars of Measuring through a similar method. But instead of such pillars, the System measured the cultivator’s stats through the monitoring of their physical body vitals and activities after every dungeon.
Considering all those monsters that the cultivators were battling were not real per se but somewhat ‘clones’ created by the System, it wasn’t a problem to calculate their strength when fighting them and update any progress accordingly. In the end, it was able to make a verifiable judgement which could be as close or even as accurate as the results of the Heavenly Pillars of Measuring.
When the cultivators tried to pit their strength against the pillars, the numbers were similar enough, if not the same as what was shown on the Pandamonium App. After trying it for themselves, the sceptics finally believed that those numbers in their Pandamonium actually meant something useful. Never in their lives would they know that those numbers were in fact results derived from the rarely seen Heavenly Pillars and not just gibberish information meant to entertain the customers.
This was because the cost of a Heavenly Pillar of Measuring and as the name implied, was astronomical in nature. Therefore, it (the price) made the pillars somewhat of a prestige object usually only found in Dungeon Supplier stores exclusive for wealthy patrons or in the main dungeon store of a dungeon supplier franchise like King’s Monster. (Yeah, they have one.)
Even in those cases, it was the norm to be charged a hefty premium for each use. But in Jin’s case, he somehow managed to procure not one but five of them! (Albeit significantly smaller than the standard sizes. 1.5 metres tall instead of the conventional 5 metres.)
It made the cultivators wondered and speculated what kind of backing Jin had, in order to get these expensive pillars. But when asked, he merely replied with his usual “Trade Secret~!”. Not only that, Jin was still charging them the same price to enter the Panda Muscles instance and as a result, it made that particular service instance very popular again.
Cultivators were all queuing up to try them, to the point that they saw the need to implement a rule limiting each cultivator to at most five minutes with the pillar. Within that time limit, the cultivators could test out all the various skills or weapons they wished to know. (If anyone was seen deliberately overstepping the time limit, Zeru was there to intervene with some ‘heavenly punishment’.)
Just as Jin had hoped, Mr Know-It-All had gone to the forums and revealed that the first part of the Escape City Dungeon Instance had been a giant Escape Room scenario. While he could not predict which escape room scenarios were being used after Bin Yong’s dungeon screening, (which was also the only time the Shop ever showed the first phase of the Escape City Dungeon Instance in full), he provided simple tips like how Luo Bo had done for her group.
They were general but encompassed the concept of Escape Rooms, allowing many more cultivators to solve them. Anyone who managed to enter Phase 2 without resorting to the Brute Force way ended up earning a minor achievement in the Pandamonium App too. (Meanwhile, Jin started to consider if he should peg a few bonuses like panda medals, unlockable goodies for the Forums, like exclusive emotes or such to those achievements to make them more worthwhile.)
The Shop Instance nevertheless continued to broadcast the Escape City Dungeon Instance in the auditoriums once the cultivators reached the second phase so the other customers could preview it and motivate them to reach that far. (But also learn from the mistakes of others.)
To the collective cultivator’s knowledge, there were indeed multiple ways to try and pass Phase 2. Especially when there were various starting locations and the pyjamas girl would ask the groups of cultivators to meet her at different locations.
That itself gave the dungeon multiple combinations to clear and it seemed that many cultivators preferred this somewhat open ended kind of dungeons over the previous instances where it was limited to just one particular place.
However, others criticised that this way the story became too vague and broad unlike Qixi or the Bank Heist. But overall, there seemed to be a consensus, that the majority of the cultivators appreciated the significant increase in challenge and…medals. (Wait till Jin released Goblin Forest Instance v2.0 with the new evolved goblin classes!)
Jin took all the feedback and criticisms as openly as he could. He was after all, just a dungeon supplier trying to make everyone happy even though he was aware that there were bound to be disagreements. Surprisingly, Yun consoled him by pointing out that there were too many other things he could be doing rather than focus on the complainers.
“Do what you need to do, and leech as much money from them as you can. That is the main objective.” Yun said with a smile and Jin laughed at her practicality.
——-
“System, how’s the progress of the portal device after incorporating Ayse’s knowledge of their lost technology?” Jin asked as that was one of the primary tasks given to the Elfish Researchers and Ayse to handle. He promised Ke Loong that the prototype portal device would be completed within a few days and he would keep to that agreement.
“Based on their design, improvements have been made for the latest prototype. It no longer uses any lost tech components. In exchange, it had been fully replaced with raw and synthetic materials obtainable in this world. While still functional, this change has resulted in a few major flaws.” The System stated and Jin nodded waiting for it to explain further.
“One, the output portal does not strictly follow the input coordinates. There is a deviation of at least three to ten degrees. The substituted raw materials seem to lack some properties the original ones had. As a result, the traveller might be teleported up to 50 metres away from the supposed coordinates. ” The System began explaining as Jin briefly looked at the schematics, hoping he could still understand if given his background as an engineering student.
“Two, the current electrical input is too large for the concept to become portable. Barring those flaws, safety through portal travelling is not an issue. There were no instances of portal breakage as long as the specifications were met. Strict adherence to the design specifications are required to ensure the continued safety of the traveller.” The System stated as an Elfish researcher took the initiative to demonstrate it within the Northern Diversion instance as that was one of the larger few instances Jin had made. (Of course, there were no orcs invading them, hehe)
The researcher was trying to teleport from the town using the device made by the System to the said destination that was at the far end of the valley. Jin was glad when he noticed the portal device interface was straightforward too. It even used the Pandamonium Map App though Jin wondered if they could use any maps charted from his world like from the mini apps of MeChat.
The System then stated that for security reasons, it had only integrated the function via the Pandamonium for now. Jin acknowledged the reasoning and later suggested that it would be good if they maintained it this way. Perhaps he’d have to talk to Ke Loong about using that app. But long term wise, it might pose a problem since Ke Loong’s engineers and researchers would probably wish to upgrade it in the future.
“User does not need to worry. The cosmetic inscriptions do not just apply on clothes and rings, but also on any other medium. That is why System also feels the need to point out that the main reason for unlocking the cosmetic inscriptions was for User’s monsters to be able to disguise themselves as normal human beings. ” The System stated and Jin was stunned for a moment.
“Using it, Ayse and the Elfish researchers can learn more from this world’s engineers while the System will be able to complement their knowledge accordingly. That way, the humans would not need to touch the System’s apps since User’s researchers would do the job. Which is why, Ke Loong will have a version of the portal device to play around with, but the changes he wishes to implement will be done by Ayse’s team” The System commented at Jin’s dilemma on long term cooperation.
“However, that specific cosmetic inscription technology must not be sold. It would be too dangerous in the wrong hands.” The System remarked, which Jin completely agreed with, as he watched the elf researcher being teleported to the end and back again.
There was nothing wrong with him, aside from having missed the mark by 3 meters on the first try, but everything was still intact. Jin guessed they should be able to improve it further with time, but it was ready to show off to Ke Loong to hold up his part of the bargain.
With the collaboration between his researchers and Ke Loong’s engineers, he hoped that they could soon announce the very first portable portal device so that his cultivators can enter his shop wherever and whenever. (Of course, Ke Loong had more plans than just a portable portal device.)
