After the conversation with Que Er, Jin returned to the shop instance where he met up with Yun when she conveniently gave him a plate of curry rice to eat.
“Eat up, I know you haven’t had anything since you woke up,” Yun said as she placed the food on the table.
“Thank you, Yun. This feels surprisingly homely despite the crowd around.” Jin said as he partook on the curry rice. While Lynn had changed and improved the curry rice recipe, Jin somehow felt nostalgic when he ate the System’s original taste.
Jin could have eaten at home or in Lynn’s restaurant instance in a private setting, yet he felt a need to eat at the bar for needed extra inspiration on recreating the shop instance. He believed that by using this opportunity to sit at the bar, it could instil him with the perception of the customer and to experience what the customers might potentially have in mind.
Yet, he did not go full incognito. Customers who recognised him greeted him when possible while the others merely mumbled from a distance and announced to their friends that was the ‘legendary’ dungeon supplier who had defeated the Triad Rat Boss in one stroke.
Although Jin had a keen sense of hearing, he could also tune it down with the use of his Maqi. So, the rumours did not bother him at all. Moreover, the boss got to show up in the shop instance once in a while, right?
And upon finishing his meal, he decided to extend the Christmas Raid Event for an additional week upon seeing the pleads and requests from his customers via his phone.
The amount of profit he received from the stunt he pulled off was tremendous, and the System predicted that the net profit was even sufficient to cover the cost of the Grand Feast. However, it noted that it came with consequences which led to the System suggesting to its User to revamp the shop instance.
Jin had also felt the ‘crowd’ even though the Tree Mall was still relatively new and customers were pouring in to see the new building, which was trending in the news and social media.
“Ahh… too bad I was way too busy creating the Tree Mall and not create any Christmas events to take advantage of the holiday,” Jin said to Yun who was cleaning the plates.
“Not exactly, you have been cooped up in the Dungeon Maker for a long time to prepare the Grand Feast, so you never knew what was happening all around the Tree Mall. You barred the System from letting information out, and hence I decided to not let information in too. Especially when you are focusing on your work. ” Yun responded.
“Most of your tenants are experienced store keepers. They knew what to do and continue what they had been doing for years. Even without you, Shen Si Fang had already organised a mini Christmas event to attract even more people to our humble Tree Mall.” Yun added.
“Odd for you to say the Tree Mall to be ‘humbling’ in front of me. It’s supposed to be eye catching.” Jin rebutted, and Yun shook her head.
“You could have gone for some grand scale architecture to blow people’s mind, but instead, you went for a tree. It’s like you are defying the reputation of Shenzhen city of being a highly modern society. That itself is sort of humbling.”
“…Erm okay? Thanks?” Jin replied slowly, not knowing how to respond to a praise by Yun and while he prodded Yun for more information, she suggested him to go for a walk around the Tree Mall.
“Perhaps, a walk will help you trigger something and hopefully an idea. Just like how your perspective changed for the Mecha World Invasion when you met up with Que Er.” Yun stated as she shoo-ed Jin off.
When the dungeon supplier got kicked out of the shop instance by Yun. Jin reluctantly looked around the place. To his surprise, the current rooftop garden on his Tree Mall was decorated with Christmas decorations and even had reindeer plastic statues along with the Panda stone Statues. The Pandas also had those Santa hats on them!
Only through the System’s explanation, Jin then found out that Si Fang had gotten the committee to decorate not just the Rooftop Garden but the entirety of the Tree Mall’s interior. When the dungeon supplier went to the lower floors, there were modest Christmas decorations all over window railings.
But what surprised Jin was that a Santa Hat was placed on the Panda Tian Gong Statue at the centre of the mall. Jin laughed at the absurdity of it when he realised that it was the System’s doing roughly about a day before Christmas Eve.
“I totally did not expect you to do this,” Jin said, and he could visualise System giving a smirk smile while it reasoned that it had to do Jin’s portion of redecorating. It was repayment of favour for Jin to secretly preparing the Grand Feast Christmas celebrations for the monsters.
While Jin was walking around the mall, he happened to check on the past week reports. According to the statistics, an increasing number of people are coming to the Tree Mall for lunch and dinner. It also inadvertently increased the sales of Lynn’s Restaurant Instance, particularly when the lunch crowd wanted something more exquisite.
Lynn did not heavily advertise her instance, but it was through the word of mouth that people knew the existence of her shop instance. So those who could afford Lynn’s food would not hesitate to climb to the Garden rooftop for those extremely appetising meals.
At the same time, there were feedbacks from his store owners that the customers asked if the Tree Mall would be willing to have a dedicated private bus route service to charter them from the business centre district (which were a few stops away via the subway).
Jin did consider it, but he needed to get buses or vans plus also the need to hire people with licenses. Fortunately, the System indicated that manpower was not an issue since the System can use the Farming Humans from the Pandafull service to operate the buses. Jin then remembered that licenses should not be an issue too since he had his…printed without going through an examination.
“I will consider that option maybe in the new year,” Jin said as he continued his tour around the Tree Mall, towards Si Fang’s café. (Ironically, some of the customers who did not know his identity thought he was cutting the queue.)
“Si Fang, thank you for decorating the place. I was kind of busy preparing my ehhhhh… Dungeon instances.” The Tree Mall Landlord said as Si Fang had his smile placed from one cheek to the other.
“Boss Jin! Welcome to my store. Hold on for a while as I explain to my customers for a moment.” Si Fang purposely went out of the shop instances and explain to his customers before returning to chat with Jin. He tried to apologise for cutting queue, and Si Fang rejected the apology. It was after all his right as the landlord.
“And no! I should thank you instead! Thank you for restoring the place and bring even further business to us! Not to mention, having this kind of café is really a dream come true for me.” Si Fang said as he offered Jin a seat behind the coffee counter. (Since the café was fully booked that there were no places for SI Fang to have a proper chat with Jin.)
“What new instance have you created this time round?” Si Fang casually asked as he brewed a cup of tea for Jin to drink while he asked his other staff to look after the cafe business for the moment.
“I am undertaking a massive project. Something that could possibly change the dungeon instance industry. Hahaha!” Jin laughed and as Si Fang who was giggling along suddenly took his phone out.
“Speaking about changing of the industry, I am sure you heard about the National Dungeon Symposium? I recently read some news that it is going to be host in Shenzhen next year!” Si Fang said as he showed an email to his friend.
Jin naturally knew about the National Dungeon Symposium, but he never had the chance to enter as part of the crowd because the tickets were sold out really fast. (Besides, they were rather expensive for a student back then.) “Yeah. Perhaps, I might buy the tickets this time around.” Jin said to Si Fang, and the Café Boss almost choked.
“Buy tickets?! No! I did not mean that. What about participating in it?” Si Fang asked with his eyes glittering with curiosity.
