“Jin, firstly thanks for letting me experience the System. It was fu- an eye opener to me. I hope there will be more opportunities like this in the future.” Claire said as Jin had already teleported Rei back to his Japanese abode to prepare his meeting with the anxious executives in Studio Mashi.
“No problem. Until that time, I suggest that you play around with the app. I believe the Sub System has many more surprises in store for you.” Jin smiled as they changed their conversation topic to the Cultivation Zoo instance.
Since Claire was around, both of them went through the manifest and Jin noticed that most of the animals on it were particularly exotic and not the usual kind of animals that the cultivators would go for. For example, the near extinct Siberian Tigers whose numbers were hovering at less than 50 in the world because of the increased monster sightings.
“Shouldn’t you give me something more common? Like normal looking orange tigers? Or some easy to feed monkeys rather than this…Greater Bamboo Lemur? I doubt I am capable of handling such animals in my instance and having a variety of exotic animals will only bring in criticism to the cultivation zoo.” Jin commented as he looked further down into the list and also saw a pair of Sumatran Rhinos.
“What are you talking about? Your instances are so lifelike, it provides exactly what all these animals need to breed, nurture and live! Not to mention, time in the dungeon instances can be manipulated, right? So, from my understanding, you will be able to save these animals once again…though you are correct. If the animals do die, your reputation will suffer tremendously.” Claire gave a slight nod while rubbing her chin a little.
“What you really want to say is that if I fail, you will haunt me because it will damage Grandma Yuan’s reputation, right? How did you even obtain such animals in the first place!? I doubt the World Wildlife Federation allows such animals to just be kept in a zoo.” Jin exclaimed his anxiety out.
“Exactly, but when Grandma Yuan was the one to propose the use of dungeon instances to them for the purpose of breeding the endangered animals, many of the higher ups of the federation were very sceptical…until they saw your instances,” Claire tried to explain, thinking that the dungeon supplier was informed. Yet, Jin continued to give her a confused expression as if he had no idea how this came about.
“Huh… Alright. In short, they personally entered your instances and had partaken in all the various types like the battle and service instances before determining that if these much resources were spent to recreate their natural habitat, it was indeed possible to save the endangered animals.”
“At the same time, it will push the limits of cultivation for simliar cultivators with the similar species and perhaps create new cultivation styles in the process.”
“I believe they communicated that with one of your shop assistants. It must have been …ermm what’s her name… Ah, Yun. That haughty looking lady at the bar. She filled them up with the details and even gave them a short tour to the unbuilt cultivation zoo instance.” Claire tried to recall what was being told to her by the WWF agents.
“Really? I guess I was too busy for the past few weeks or so to entertain them. If they checked out the cultivation zoo instance I previously allocated and Yun had given them a tour, then everything makes sense.” Jin replied, now understanding the gist of the situation.
“In any case, they were also doing this in hopes of getting Grandma Yuan’s donation,” Claire revealed the truth about the wildlife organisation’s ulterior motives in allowing Jin’s cultivation zoo instance to be realised.
“Mainly since Grandma Yuan co-owns a big portion of Shenzhen’s Cultivation Zoo, so her donations guaranteed the continued operation of the WWF in China…or at least southern China.” Claire continued.
“Sound to me like getting donations from Grandma Yuan and being able to let the endangered animals strive in my dungeon instance was more of a win-win situation for them rather than for us.” Jin didn’t sound too happy about once again being used as the pawn until Claire corrected him.
“Wrong, being able to obtain those animals will bring your dungeon shop up a notch, not to mention if you actually succeed in breeding them, it will bring major news and reputation to your place. High risk, big rewards. This is a long term investment by Grandma Yuan, hoping that you can continue her legacy in supporting the cultivation zoo scene.”
“I still don’t get the reasoning behind her support though.” Jin felt perplexed that he was being shoved with an enormous responsibility even though he knew that this was extremely beneficial for him in the long run.
“While this is System’s pure speculation, it’s based on past evidence of past Sub System User Yuan’s behaviour. The most likely reason why she may want for User to take on the cultivation zoo is therefore to fulfil Yun’s former dream of becoming a Cultivation Zoo executive, taking over Grandma Yuan’s position. In conclusion, User might be used as a proxy for Yun, in hopes she might regain her broken memories.”
“I see… and here I thought Grandma Yuan was bitter that the System created Yun.” Jin deduced, and the System did not deny such an accusation.
“System is 99.99% sure that past Sub System User Yuan continues to have a deep seated hatred not just against the System. She also blamed the System for the actions taken, resulting in Previous User Ming having to undertake such drastic actions. She condemned the System for allowing Ming to unleash his anger willfully against the Royal Zodiac Clans and not turning time back further.” The System stated as if it had turned over a new leaf when it was evident to Jin that the System also harboured some resentment towards Grandma Yuan. (Despite its rather monotonous voiceover, Jin was getting more proficient in deducing how the System felt based on its phrasing.)
“Well, if it’s for Yun, I’ll see what I can do for her too. Sometimes she feels so lost that I do not know whether it was her being her or if she was troubled by the loss of her memory.” Jin decided, assigning personal value to the work he would do to ensure this particular cultivation zoo instance to become a success.
“Other than that, I have a list of candidates for you to choose. Judging from what had happened earlier, I figure you’ll be giving them contracts too?” The way Claire asked it was obvious she wanted to more accurately know if everyone contracted would be given the opportunity to possess a Sub System. (The answer was an obvious no.)
“I’ll give the contracts out to the people I accept, but not just anyone can possess a Sub System.” Jin alleviated her fears of a potential increased number of Sub System Users and perhaps the possession of the Financing Sub System which had given her a taste of how thrilling it was to gamble once again in the stock markets.
“I see. I apologise for having asked for my own selfishness. Anyways, take a look at these people. They all have experience in Shenzhen Cultivation Zoo, and all of them were given the seal of approval by Grandma Yuan.” Claire said as they returned to the conference room instance and spread out the number of files on the table for Jin to peruse.
