“What is this?” Claire exclaimed when she saw the Salvaging Golem, as well as a number of Orcs and Goblins in the space crew team, laid down their work to greet the three of them. “Is this another one of your Dungeon Instances? Why are the monsters working as if they were real?”
“They are real. Don’t hurt their feelings.” Rei defended his colleagues as they went further in towards the workshop hangar. There they presented the two Salvaging Golems which were currently being moved into the C-130 Space Explorer for the space salvage mission. Claire could not comprehend what was going on and to complicate things, Rei had asked one of the gobs, Deckerhand to pilot the Salvaging Golem and give their guest a bit of a …demonstration.
Deckerhand happily answered the call for a demonstration in a moment’s notice and took the opportunity to show off some magic by flying towards the Salvaging Golem unit. The other goblin pilots and engineers then assisted Deckerhand to unlock the golem from its mobile pod which was used to transport it to the C-130 Space Explorer.
With some whizzing and steam coming out of the golem, it subsequently came to life and walked out of the mobile pod as if it was perfectly natural. When it proceeded towards Claire, she could see the golem moving very fluidly, indicating no wasted movement, nor balance problems which still plagued their world’s current field of robotics. Next Deckerhand showed off the various modalities like the power cutter and skillfully cut a piece of scrap metals into two with ease.
She was even able to interact with the pilot within the golem, and it once again assured her that this was no dungeon instance. All this while, she had assumed that Jin had been using some highly scripted AI for his dungeons, probably somehow gotten from this mysterious system.
This, however, entirely destroyed her conception of the dungeon supplier.
“I told you he’s an engineer. Just not the same kind we have here on our Earth.” Jin thought Claire would be amazed by the invention of the technology for a Salvaging Golem which was undoubtedly ahead of their world’s mechatronics. He did not realise that she was in disbelief because of him.
After receiving a glass of water and calming down a bit, Rei and Jin subsequently gave her a brief summary of how they agreed upon to the obligation that the dungeon supplier had mentioned.
“I see, so in return for these golems, you have to make sure his movie studio is running smoothly or at least able to operate long enough to get the movie published,” Claire asked, and they both nodded their heads.
“The System can aid you in financial analysis and prediction until the end of the day as per contract,” Jin responded.
“You do know that there are other people who are more capable of making this kind of decision than me?” Claire inquired.
“That may be, but do you think they will share your concern for my business? They won’t understand how my business operates, leading them to underestimate our abilities. I need someone who won’t make this kind of mistake!” Jin answered, hoping to make Claire feel important.
“Hmph. I am concerned because you are dealing with Grandma Yuan’s responsibilities. Not because I am genuinely concerned about you.” Claire stated while looking him into his eyes. However, she had already signed the contract, and it would be too much of a shame to just leave without doing anything. Hence she asked Jin where she should do the calculations.
“Demon Exorcist Claire, pass User your laptop.” The System’s voice suddenly boomed, scaring Claire for a moment and causing her to enter into a defensive stance.
“Oh yeah, I totally forgot that you are a Demon Exorcist Instructor as well,” Jin mumbled to himself as he realised that in case he was able to recruit Claire over to his side even if it was periodical. He wouldn’t just get someone proficient with finances but also meant the store would have additional firepower to their arsenal even though he did not know what she was capable of.
“System will bestow Demon Exorcist Claire with the abilities of the Financing Sub System for a duration of two hours. After which, the System will cut your connection to the Sub System and terminate your contract by proceeding with the brainwashing.” The System announced, and Jin was surprised that the ultimate cheapskate was actually friendly enough to allow Claire to test out a new Sub System.
“Fine by me. Am I correct to assume that this is something similar to a trial run, which could decide whether I am able to enter the System’s good grace?” Claire asked out loud since she was unsure where to look for an answer.
“Affirmative. Should Demon Exorcist Claire be able to find an appropriate solution with the help of the Sub System given to you, considerations will be given for your candidacy as a User for the Financing Sub System.” The System responded and immediately, Claire passed the laptop to Jin.
All Jin had to do was to place his phone on the laptop. A slight bluish glow emanated through the circuits of the electronic device before he returned it to Claire. She decided to open it while standing, but suddenly a flow of information zoomed past her, seemingly giving her all the supposed insights upon the analytical predictions the System had made.
In an instant, Claire demanded a chair and a table to start working. Both of them lead her to the workshop where she unhesitatingly pushed an entire pile of working prototypes to the ground and started furiously typing on the laptop. (The Orcs nearly cried when their precious delicate prototypes toppled off the floor.)
While her financial knowledge had been a tad rusty, the laptop that she was using took care of that. It gave her the ability to work out all the different possibilities and patterns Studio Mashi was able to undertake.
“Looks like the System had all the tools, but lacked the person to correctly utilise it.” Rei deduced the current situation and Jin felt the same way as well. It did previously stated that the knowledge that the System held onto were bountiful, considering the Panda Clan used to a trading conglomerate. The only thing it lacked was probably the financial understanding of the current modern world.
With Claire as the bridge between the System and its unhinged access of the internet (including the dark web), she was able to create various models to understand and potentially rescue Studio Mashi from its would-be fate of bankruptcy. The two males were simply in awe at how fast Claire was.
All those movies portraying hacking by just pushing randomly on some keys on the keyboard would pale in shame to what she was able to do. Not even 15 minutes later, Claire had come up with a solution.
“It’s borderline illegal in my opinion and according to the Sub System… but it will work. Even the local and Japanese authorities should not be able to find out about it so soon. However, in order to make this plan work without too much hassle while maintaining the studio’s reliability… we have to certain decisions quickly.” Claire took a deep breath before declaring.
“I need Rei to become the President of Studio Mashi.”
