Lai Fu who would be operating on the second floor of the Tiangong Tree Mall was quite satisfied with his instance. It was designed to be something similar to a kelong, an offshore platform built mostly with wood and little metal was involved.
By using ropes or rattan, tree trunks and wooden planks were held together within a kelong, but in the dimensional shop instance, the System used something stronger to keep them together. In a way, the kelongs that Lai Fu requested was to create a scene similar to an offshore sea community within his shop instance.
The temperature as per Jin’s standard was just the right amount, and the sea waters were calm. Occasionally, there would be a wooden frigate which passed by and provided the kelong with supplies. Even the trucks of his personal suppliers came in via a wide wooden shipping platform. Lai Fu did not go for anything fanciful but something that reminded him of the sea.
All his goods were spread out in various open concept platforms, and these platforms were clearly labelled with large advertisement boards so the customers would know where their desired items were. For those refrigerated items, the bins and tables were filled with an automated cooling system aka a permanent cooling inscription which ensured their freshness.
Lai Fu also half jokingly requested a spot where he could fish a little inside the shop instance, and Jin fulfilled the request by placing albacore, red snapper and the occasional tuna within this Offshore Kelong Shop Instance.
It was an excuse for him to practice his fishing and act as an impromptu activity for the customers who had the time to waste. If they managed to catch any of the three fishes, Lai Fu would give the said customer a small discount on the most expensive item they wanted to purchase. All Jin asked in return was for Lai Fu to inform them about the Fishing instance within his Dungeons and Pandas.
That being said, it was not so easy catching those fish because Lai Fu would be able to adjust the difficulty level and the fishing rods they could use were basic ones, unless of course, someone brought in their own personal rod.
All in all, Lai Fu’s store had been amongst the few easy ones Jin had to make. Still, the dungeon supplier did not spare any expense in creating the wooden frigate when Lai Fu listed that he wanted to use a frigate as the ‘discount’ ship. The idea was that whenever the frigate reached his shore, it would offer the items he had planned to discount.
Normally, it would require additional manpower to charter a frigate, but since this was an instance, it was not much of an issue. Jin employed the Deep Ones dressed pirates who fit right into this store instance.
Whenever the frigate arrived, Deep Ones would pop out from the water and onto the platforms helping the frigate dock. Afterwards, they would be bringing down some of the treasure chests containing the discounted items.
A Deep One Mage posing as the pirate captain would loudly announce that they had arrived wishing to trade their loot for doubloons with these landlubbers as his crew was in dire need of more booze!
Thus, Jin had designed the frigate to be a little more menacing while at the same time somewhat comical. It looked deathly with the aura and ship design it was having( Basically, the ship was modelled as Derpy’s head), but Jin placed a banner at the portside stating “All Aboard the High Discount Ship!”.
“Imagine those aunties trying to literally fight the Deep Ones for more of a discount. That would be one hell of a funny scene!” Lai Fu chuckled as he called out to the Deep Ones to help unpack the items which the general suppliers had offloaded.
———
Right beside the still named ‘Fresh Price General Store’ was the bakery with Qian Qian in charge. Similar to Lai Fu, the middle aged female boss with two kids did not request much for the shop instance.
All she wanted was both modern and traditional bakery equipment which could not be found on the market. To her, it was a feat that was hard to achieve since the traditional equipment required a lot of space and they were near non existential as of this age.
However, the Bread Lady Boss shared that she was in possession of generations-old recipes that were based on the traditional baking method all left untouched because there was no one who would make such equipment anymore.
She firmly believed that the past held onto treasures which people might not be able to appreciate. That was why Qian Qian wanted to preserve those recipes and the knowledge to do so.
With the new dimensional instance, the System had simply scoured its past database on how to make those traditional oven kilns. (In the past the Panda Clan had amassed the knowledge from a variety of talents and the experience of an entire trade conglomerate at its disposal made it an easy feat.)
Because it was an instance, the oven kilns had been made extremely large and spacious enough to make a plenty amount of bread. Lynn’s experience in this field was somewhat limited, and after trying a few of Qian Qian’s past samples, she admitted that the Bakery Lady Boss was clearly superior to anything she could muster without a lot of studying.
On the other hand, the System managed to peek at a few of those recipes and found striking resemblances to the ones it had in its database. Surprisingly those recipes were seemingly at the rank of Royal Kitchen Grade, and they were basically national treasures.
However, the System kept quiet for now and decided to pass a proper judgement once Qian Qian revealed her whole series of traditional recipes.
Instance wise, Qian Qian’s bakery shop was located on a hill with a large hut at the top of it. Surrounding the hut were acres worth of reef knolls filled with grown wheat plants which were something she did not ask for. Could it be that Boss Jin was seriously growing wheat in her shop instance?
Qian Qian could only ask him the next time round she saw him, but one thing was for sure, it naturally complemented the scenery of her bakery.
However, that giant hut was merely the storefront where she would place her bread for sale. Right behind it was the oven kilns and even a wheat mill. Qian Qian also was unaware whether it was really producing any wheat grains or just for aesthetic purposes.
Continuing with the surprise, Jin had assigned her a few additional helpers aside from her own trusted employees. A couple of Orcs who knew some form of farming and traditional baking, as well as two penguins which Lynn had purposely selected for the baking learning experience.
While he wanted to use the werejackals who had experience in farming, they were somewhat occupied and decided to use the next best alternative. Besides, even though the Orcs’ experience differed from the humans according to the System, their foundational basics on baking were quite similar. Thus the System had enriched them with its own knowledge.
As usual, data collection was priority number one, and Jin told them those helpers were ‘on the house’ while hiding his true intentions. He was sure people might suspect it but at the same time, who could not say no to free, extra work hands?
——–
Despite the separate instances, everyone was still helping each other out. For example, Lai Fu’s general store supplies usually stocked more than adequately for his sales as well as for the food store owners. There were times the food store owners might experience a shortage, and that was where Lai Fu sold his stocks at a ‘friendly’ price.
Even with the new instances, this thing did not change, and Jin hoped to take advantage of such inter-business relationships too..
Another example was Qian Qian’s bakery, which was vital for Si Fang’s café because she sold cakes and desserts to Si Fang as a side business. Her cakes and pies were the bomb, and many knew that she let Si Fang sell them because she could not afford to make them on a daily basis to be countered as regular sales. However, Qian Qian believed that perhaps with the additional helpers and new experiments; things could change for the better.
Speaking about Si Fang, his dimensional shop instance was also located on the second floor as the first floor had been assigned for the Food Court instance and the Panda Burger instance. His dimensional instance would be considered one of the more unique ones.
His instance was essentially a castle tower.
It made Jin remember the Candy Castle which he had built for the Halloween although the interior was not exactly designed to house a lot of customers. Nevertheless, since it was a castle tower, Jin chose to use the candy castle to save some time and effort to create the exterior portion of Si Fang’s dream instance.
He did not expect Si Fang wanted a high class royal treatment kind of café as he thought Si Fang was more of the ‘café on top of a large tree branch kind’ of owner. The relaxed and homely feel, and until Si Fang told Jin more about his request, he then realised that was really what he wanted.
“Yes, I want a relaxed and homely feel kind of café. One that gives off the feeling of being away from everything else. That is why I want a castle tower being surrounded by a tranquil lake with only a tiny weeny bridge connected the isle.” Si Fang said.
“I want the café to be something like an escape from reality, away from everything else. No pompous kind of feel at all. Something like Rapunzel in the tower.”
“Si Fang, my friend. Are you okay? Do you have any fever?” His fellow cultivators Ke Ru and He Rong asked simultaneously during the brainstorming session, and Jin laughed when Si Fang declared that he was serious and Jin kind of understood what he was going for.
The Boss of Lele Café wished to offer a sanctuary for his customers, allowing them to get away from all the hectic work and bedazzling attractions. So Jin did fulfil that wish of his, and although he did save time in the exterior initially, he actually placed a lot of effort in changing the interior. In hindsight, the dungeon supplier believed that it had been one of the hardest few instances he ever made.
To make something homely and cosy was difficult because everyone had a different image and expectation of it. So the use of colour combinations was vital as well as the furniture that was placed in the castle tower could not make it appear too professional looking nor also unique. The use of warm lights, as well as the placing of the windows, was important.
Eventually, Jin also remodified the exterior to suit the interior by modelling it similar to those airport control towers because of its open windows concept while still retaining the design of a castle. He finished this off by placing greenery within the place and smoothing jazz background to ensure the right mood.
Unlike the food court instance or Panda Burger, Jin did not place anything that would increase the table limit or seating capacity because space played an essential part in the design. The couches and benches were placed in a certain way along with a few cushions including (panda and fox) plushie toys too.
He did inform Si Fang about the decision of limited seats, who thanked Jin to have not gone down the route of profit but instead towards tranquillity. However, that had been just a passing remark until Si Fang had truly witnessed it with his own eyes.
As soon as Si Fang entered his shop instance, his tears accumulated, slowly rolled down from his eyes as he saw how much love and effort was placed into his shop instance.
