“Hey, did not expect you to be here too.” Bu Dong greeted Yue Wen, Yue Han’s elder sister, who was waiting for the other members of the Venus Four in Lele Café.
“Shouldn’t that be my line? Why are you here? Don’t you have exams right now? Yue Han told me that he had to study for one last paper.” Yue Wen asked in an interrogating voice when she suddenly felt a shift of chi presence in the vicinity and a deep sense of guilt in the surrounding. She quickly turned her head and saw Yue Han trying to creep away from the scene after he went to the toilet.
“Ma Yue Han! Where do you think you are going?!” Yue Wen asked, and Yue Han guessed he was busted. The stern look from his sister immediately revealed that if Yue Han did not tell the truth, he would be in even bigger trouble.
He might run, but he could not hide forever since they were living under the same roof. Either way, being reprimanded now by her would be better than letting their parents know about it.
“Didn’t you tell us just this morning that you had one more exam on Tuesday?” Yue Wen folded her arms and stared at Yue Han even though his eyes shifted to the ground.
“Yeah… I did.” Yue Han confessed without feeling too guilty. “But it’s just a series of multiple choice questions! And I know that subject by heart already. That’s why -”
“That’s why you decided to play with Bu Dong? So are you going to take responsibility if he fails his exam just because you can excel at it?” Yue Wen questioned, but Bu Dong decided to intervene on Yue Han’s behalf.
“Actually…my exam subjects are over. I took different subjects from Yue Han this year, and I’m willing to bet my life that he is really good with Physics. It shouldn’t be a problem for him to pass with flying colours even if-“
“You shush!” Yue Wen interrupted him in an angry tone before she breathed out a sigh and calmed herself down a bit. She noticed that the customers in Lele Café were looking at them with bated breath. Even Shen Si Fang had decided to remain at the sidelines for now.
Never mess with a lady when she’s angry.
“Fine. However, I expect you to ace that exam! Also, you two are joining me for Jin’s new instance.” Yue Wen took the opportunity to blackmail Yue Han, which made Bu Dong acknowledged what a crafty girl she was.
“Don’t you have Shi Hui and Jia Ying…Oh…” Yue Han saw from a distance the two aforementioned girls with Se Lang and Deng Long. “I see…okay. I get what you mean now.” Yue Han mumbled which Bu Dong agreed reluctantly to it.
“It’s okay. We’ll have Jing Ru with us too. She is coming to join us a bit later, hopefully not too late that we miss the opening of the new instance. In any case, the group dynamics are even out a little since you two excelled in close range.” Yue Wen said as she grabbed Yue Han and screwed his head with her knuckle.
“You are joining me no matter what, else I will tell mom that you lied about going to the library!” Yue Wen’s blackmail worked perfectly fine.
“Owwww. But Ow ow ow!” Yue Han could have tried to overpowered his sister when Yue Wen grappled him, but he decided to give it a rest since it was his fault in the first place. “But technically Jin does have a library! So I was sorta telling the truth!” Yue Han argued back making his sister stopped in her tracks and unknowingly laughed.
“Hahahah! Okay, that’s true.” Yue Wen replied and let her younger brother off the hook for now as her two female friends and the policemen came in to greet her.
“Ahh…guess it may be a good idea teaming up with her.” Bu Dong told his best friend as he showed him the chat message he had just received.
“Why? I cannot believe that Kong Xian abandoned us for real? I thought we had agreed on today!” Yue Han complained as he had informed his girlfriend, Xing Li, that he would be playing with the guys on the weekend.
Kong Xian, Bu Dong and Yue Han had agreed to come together and check out the Christmas Instance on the day it would be released. If he had known Kong Xian would abandon them for his girlfriend, Yue Han would have also gone ahead and had a study date with Xing Li instead of playing with Bu Dong. Not to mention, he wouldn’t have had to lie and be caught by his elder sister.
“Then you should have no qualms teaming up with me and Jing Ru, right?” Yue Wen had overheard her brother complained and Bu Dong nodded his head.
“Why not? It’s not like we aren’t friends or anything.” Bu Dong changed his tone a hundred and eighty degrees after he found out Kong Xian abandoned them. Besides, what he said was true.
Bu Dong had been best pals with Yue Han for so long, his family kind of treated him as one of theirs. Because of that the Venus Four also knew Bu Dong for most of his life and treated him like their own younger brother. (Even though they sometimes shamelessly took advantage of his kindness and money.)
“Have you guys seen the video that Jin’s new promoter made for the new Christmas Instance?” Se Lang who sat down at the table next to them asked as he swiped out his phone to show the rest and they all nodded their heads aggressively.
Kiyu was in a little Santa Helper suit when she promoted the instance showing vague snapshots of the Christmas Instance, but they were not sure if the costume made her sexy or it was of her own doing.
“Yeah I did! She is so beautiful. So hot.” Shi Hui couldn’t help saying what was on everyone’s mind with her face turning very bubbly though Jia Ying sent a death stare at Se Lang for showing the video.
“What did I do wrong? I just- Ow!” Se Lang felt a sudden pain coming from his feet and noticed that Jia Ying was stepping on it hard and her eyes were emanating a wave of murderous energy which even Deng Long could feel.
“Just apologise!” Deng Long sent a private chi transmission to Se Lang which he quickly did and his buddy did a follow up to save his ass… Or so he thought.
“Oh yeah, girls. Se Lang is treating us for the new Christmas Instance.” Deng Long said which Yue Wen thanked Se Lang immediately upon hearing it from the opposing table.
“WAAIT?! I didn’t-” Se Lang wanted to protest Deng Long’s sneak attack, but the girls were already giggling across the tables with Bu Dong and Yue Han seemingly having disapproving looks for his actions.
“Why are you just treating the girls? Come on, treat the students too!” Yue Han said back, and that was when Shen Si Fang came to take their orders since as they were all seated.
“You might as well treat the entire café since everyone heard you.” Si Fang teased while waiting for their orders and Se Lang became embarrassed to the point he wished to dig a hole to hide his face.
“He might be able to do that. Recently, he earned an award with cash incentive for catching a group of Ruby Rat gangsters trying to gang up on him.” Deng Long boasted about Se Lang’s endeavours that the latter was left speechless.
“Oh is it the one where he single handedly beat them up for resisting arrest and attempting to harm a police officer with lethal weapons?” Shi Hui asked and Deng Long nodded his head. The people in the cafe were murmuring about his exploits and saying how the Ruby Rats were becoming a nuisance.
“Hahaha, don’t tease that man anymore. But thank you for making this street a lot safer. More and more Ruby Rats have been loitering around the shopping district that it made people feel unsafe.” Si Fang sighed.
“Boss Shen, you should train yourself up at Jin’s store since you are situated so close to him. If the Ruby Rats ever dare to disturb the cafe, you can at least defend your store.” Yue Wen, who was also a frequent patron of Lele Café, encouraged him with some concern.
“Ahahah, I’m afraid I don’t have a great aptitude for much cultivation training.” Shen Si Fang replied with a tinge of regret in him, but suddenly all seven of the cultivators were fiercely encouraging him to give it a try.
“Trust me. I thought I was useless and was already content that my cultivation let me stay awake at night slightly longer. But look at me. I even managed to reach Grade 4 all thanks to Jin’s dungeons!” Yue Han said proudly.
“Yeah, that little kid now can last longer in the night, burning more midnight oil playing video games with Bu Dong instead of studying.” Yue Wen rolled her eyes as she remembered how she was awoken all of a sudden because Yue Han screaming out of the blue after winning an online game match.
“You should at least try the random arena instance. That particular instance will match you with a monster suited to current grade, and you can start training from there. ” Shi Hui suggested as that was how she trained her skills up every once in a while if she was not with Se Lang or the rest of the Venus Four. “Plus it’s on the cheaper side of the types of instances he offers.”
“Alternatively, you can attempt the Goblin Raid Event. I heard that Jin is planning to extend it up till Feb next year. There are all sorts of prizes to be earned, and the ticket price is quite reasonable. Even those grandmas and grandpas from the Morning Taichi Group have joined in.” Se Lang proposed other options to Si Fang.
“Oh ho. I heard it’s best not to mess with those old folks. They may not look like it, but they pack quite a punch against those orcs when bunched together. If I am not wrong, even the Ruby Rat gangsters have begun to be wary of them.” Deng Long remembered overhearing some Grannys boasting how they enjoyed the dungeon run during his morning patrol.
“Heh, who knows? Maybe this Christmas Instance might have something easy for beginners to test it out. Especially after the release of the Escape City Dungeon Instance that featured the Deep Ones.” Bu Dong chimed in which Ying concurred.
“Yeah, seems like Jin has a tendency to release a relatively easy content or service instance and a hard content alternatively to continue to attract people. Unless he decided to spice it up for this coming Christmas Instance.” Jia Ying added.
“Hahah, you guys. While I thank you all for your concern, are you all going to order something?” Si Fang asked, and they began to order some drinks to pass the time while waiting for Jing Ru. There was still an hour before the opening, and the two groups needed some space to sort out the equipment they recently bought.
However, for Shen Si Fang, he had been thinking long and hard whether to join the crowd too. He did not want to remain helpless if those rowdy Ruby Rat gangsters decided to show up one day and trash his place.
The police had sent an updated memo to the Shopping District committee to be wary against the Ruby Rats since there were increased reports of these gangsters illegally gathering around the shopping district.
Fortunately, the police too, had stepped up their patrols since it was nearing the festive period. With Jin giving them new police equipment and inscriptions, the police were better equipped to handle the Ruby Rats. In addition, the police increased the number of training they had via Jin’s dungeons and many had advanced their cultivation grades in less than a month.
There were policemen whose cultivation had stayed stagnant for years finally managed to reach a new cultivation grade all thanks to Jin’s tough dungeons. Each newcomer to the store was pleasantly surprised how reinvigorated they felt after trying his shop out, and the advancement of their colleagues prompted them all to improve continuously.
Even Lai Fu, the general store boss of Fresh Price began to say positive stuff about Jin’s store after Jin kept his promise of providing him with a darn good experience in the Reservoir of Deep Fishing Service Instance.
Being a rather impatient person for such an opportunity to fish for free, Lai Fu was not able to wait any longer when he found out that his old fishing pals were not able to commit. So, he decided to invite the shopping committee members in order not to waste the one time chance even though there was no time expiration on this particular favour.
Thus, the first experience of Jin’s store, which Si Fang received was more than fantastic. It was memorable.
“Perhaps…I should ask Lai Fu to accompany me to try out the dungeons.” Si Fang wondered as he admitted feeling a bit envious of the bunch of cultivators laughing and talking about what to expect for this particular new Christmas Instance. He had watched the promotional video with Kiyu in it and somehow that video made his heart itch to try it out.
“Hi guys! Sorry I am late!” Jing Ru greeted them as she waved goodbye to her father, who had given her a lift to Jin’s store.
“Ahh, Jing Ru! I heard that your Dad brought you to try out some real monster hunting at the city’s outskirts!!” Shi Hui asked and Jing Ru nodded her head as she took her phone out and showed a picture of what she had killed to everyone
“This…isn’t this a One Winged Wolf? That’s like a Grade 5 monster!” Yue Han exclaimed excitedly as the phone was being passed around and everyone was praising her.
“Wow, a clean headshot.” Se Lang praised her and Deng Long who was at his side agreed.
“Yeah, surprisingly, it’s not as hard as I thought it would be. Somehow, the monsters I killed paled in comparison to Jin’s. Still, it’s rather concerning that such a high level monster was sighted in the area.” Jing Ru replied.
“Hmm, I’ve heard of an increase in the number of reports of monster sightings, but they are still within the errors of margins according to my buddy from the Border Guards.” Deng Long tried to talk down the situation.
“I gotta say I envy you a bit. I wish I had a father to give me an opportunity to try monster hunting as a licensed Monster Slayer.”
“Aww please, as I said, they were really nothing compared to Jin’s monsters. Anyways, let’s get going!” Jing Ru replied, and the whole gang of Pandawans bid goodbye to Si Fang.
Meanwhile, some of the customers were chatting whether to try out the Christmas Instance as advertised loudly by the cultivators and Si Fang could see that Dungeons and Pandas was becoming a big deal to the local community.
“Yeah…perhaps I should give it a try soon.” Si Fang pondered before he sent out a message asking his other committee members if they were interested in joining in after opening shop hours.
