There was another reason why Jin wanted Yun to be the one to enter the ‘experimental instance’ alongside the cultivators. It indeed would be an experiment, though not the kind his customers had expected.
Though the System might appear almighty, Jin had noticed in his fight against the Ruby Rats that its powers did have certain limitations. For example, it could create a sheer limitless number of clones for regular minions (it wasn’t entirely free, they cost souls), but the System could only exercise such powers inside of dimensional instances and the areas it owned.
For this reason, during the cultivators’ participation in the Goblin World, the monsters that had accompanied them had all been the originals. Given the sheer number of customers, even his bellators had to help out acting as guides once in a while, or the monsters cut short their interactions. After Jin had calibrated the actual Goblin Raid dimensional instances, this was no longer an issue.
While they temporarily occupied some areas in the Farming World, they were not really under their control. It meant that the System could not send its clones there unless they turned it into a dimensional instance or something similar to it.
That’s where Yun came into play.
Jin’s ‘mother’ was not just part of the System like the bellators but an embodiment of the System’s Powers. Yun was therefore used as a proxy to create an impromptu dimensional instance that should allow the Pandawans to test out their Squad features. After all, dimensional instances could be conjured by a legendary grade cultivator, but the art was ancient, which no modern cultivators would be able to perform without the aid of technology.
Yet, what was ancient and had the likes of highly advanced technology in its possession?
Mmmhmm! Yun with the System in her! Still, there were limits creating a dimensional instance since everyone was pegged to Jin’s grade. So, the store assistant explicitly told the Pandawans that the squads could only go so far ahead.
After a certain distance, the Pandamonium App would beep loudly, indicating that they had reached the boundary of the impromptu dimensional instance which could also be seen through the fuzziness of the surrounding.
“If you leave the set perimeter your squad may disappear or stay behind within the barrier that I cast! You will still be able to kill things outside of my barrier, but you will have to do so without your squad’s help!” Yun warned them, and they acknowledged it within the C130 plane which seemed like the standard mission briefing area for the Pandawans who attended previous raids.
Shi Zuo couldn’t help but ask Yun why the squad needed to stay within the barrier and could not follow them throughout the whole raid instance.
“Because that barrier is the server’s current limitation of creating something similar to a fused dimensional instance in order for the NPCs to work. That’s what I got from the tech guys. I do not know much beyond that.” Yun feigned ignorance and Shi Zuo, who wasn’t that well versed with dimensional instances nor the corresponding technology, accepted that answer and prepared to take off the plane at Yun’s discretion.
As experimental as this instance could get, Yun had also asked them to insert and keep the previously used USB drive on their phones. Unbeknownst to them, that particular USB drive’s actual purpose was to serve as an amplifier of the temporary dimensional instance which Yun was enabling.
The USB drive would extend the field of the dimensional instance. Wherever the cultivators went, the squads should technically still be functional as long the USB drives remained on their phones within a ten kilometres proximity of Yun.
All this information would be gathered for Ayse and her humanoid researchers to work on a more potent and robust solution. The USB Drive Amplifier had already been one of their accomplishments through the addition of Lost Tech. Fused along with the System’s modification to suit Earth’s generational phones, that USB Drive could be considered the first step in creating a portable Dimensional Instance Generator.
If successful, the System could manipulate its powers within the pocket dimensional instances and not be effectively useless when Jin was out of his store. Not to mention, it would also provide Jin with the perfect excuse for his monsters to appear in the cultivators real life. (Even though some of the monsters like Ayse were already meddling on Earth with the use of cosmetic inscription.)
In the meantime, the cultivators could see their assigned squad mates opposite them, equipped with the gears their team leaders had bought for them from the Weapons and Armour Store instance.
Yang Ling wondered if they had been all in a rush to buy the clothes or whether they all thought that it was indeed the best protective clothing for the squads (there had been other models with the same defence rating).
Almost every one of them, including her, had chosen to go with the military outfit. The only difference was the varying colour between the squads.
… ‘Almost’ because Ruo Ying had gone for something entirely different. Unlike the rest of them, she had picked out 3 sets of Grade 1 Knight’s plate armour which nobody in their right mind would wear outside a renaissance fair or perhaps on Halloween. (Maybe with the upcoming squad feature, it could be a hit!)
There were perks in wearing that old fashion plate armour and it was mainly their ridiculously high defensive stats and the number of inscription slots it featured, though the tradeoff was a reduction in mobility and stealth became a non option. (But who needs secrecy right now? Its all about mass annihilation!)
Comparatively, the standard military outfit’s stats were all above average, and it included a built in offensive stat boost due to a which many other clothes did not offer at Grade 1.
Still, it was Ruo Ying’s choice, and the cultivators checked their gear once more before Yun gave the signal to move out. From the bird’s eye view, the Pandawans noticed blobs of rats moving in unison towards the towns as mentioned by Jin.
Only Luo Bo, whose cultivation style included enhanced vision, was able to make out exactly what was going on beneath them. She managed to catch on some action of the Demon Rats fighting against a group of knights with a… tank aiding their advance. She did not hesitate to ask Yun about that anomaly.
“Oh, that? They are our allies. Do whatever you wish with the information. Now, go go go!” Yun ordered them to jump down with their parachutes pack on. Shi Zuo was initially concerned as there was no safety landing platform for them this time around, but before he could complain, Luo Bo already pulled him along and jumped out from the tail of the C130 plane.
The rest of their squad followed behind them systematically, and Yun grinned at Shi Zuo’s terrified face. “Oh, don’t worry. The helmet will give you cues on when to open your chute.” She said to Yang Ling as the other two had eagerly jumped off for their special challenge to kill the most number of demon rats.
