Jin did meet up with Ke Loong though the latter came rather late, nearly prompting Jin to cancel the meeting. Ironically Jin continued to be blissfully unaware about how many people were dying to meet up with Sea Mesh’s CEO while he was one of the only few who dared to consider cancelling a meeting with him.
“Sorry, Jin! I was caught in traffic!” Ke Loong was immediately caught lying by the System as it informed the Dungeon Supplier that the roads leading to them were less than crowded at this point in time. Regardless, Jin ignored what he assumed was only a white lie and welcomed him to the Restaurant Instance at the first class carriage.
“Ahh, any new additions on the menu? If not, I’d like the same old Tonkatsu Curry Rice.” Ke Loong asked the penguin waiter who subsequently introduced a few new items for Ke Loong to test out. Eventually, he ordered everything new as well as the Tonkatsu Curry Rice.
“You sure you can finish everything?” Jin queried with an amused look on his face.
“Oh come on, don’t underestimate me. I had a suspicion that I was going to eat here tonight, and have already prepared my stomach for the delicious food. You can never stop me from enjoying all your delicacies in this lifetime!” Ke Loong gloated on about his superiorly capable stomach, able to stuff lots of food without ending up round as people. (Jin obviously saw that the CEO was already in denial with regards to the ‘non existing’ roundness he had at the front.)
While waiting for the food, they naturally jumped into the topic of the portal instance. Ke Loong informed him that he had already acquired a number of empty shophouses, outlets or storefronts to facilitate the portal instances. “The places are a little small, but otherwise they should be good to go.” Ke Loong showed him some blueprints as well as some pictures taken from their interior before bringing up one interesting topic.
“Recently, I had the privilege to be invited to a high class private Christmas party and found myself talking with a few ministers from the central government, particularly the Minister of Transport.” When Ke Loong mentioned the minister, Jin had already braced himself for the inevitable. He had thought about his dungeon store or to maybe improve the travel for his potential customers. Never had it cross his mind that his portals could impede the current national transport system.
Unlike what his customers have considered, Jin had been too busy with other stuff, happy to let others handle this matter. Needless to say, it did not dawn on him about the implications of having a major portal travel network on a national level. Sure, if done right, China could possibly save lots of money or even redevelop its current transportation, cementing its capability to be the world’s best industrial partner for manufacturing.
However, at the same time, such redevelopment would definitely reduce manual labour or disrupting jobs like drivers and delivery couriers in the long term scenario starting with the transportation industry. While all these consequences were suddenly flying around in the dungeon supplier’s head, he let Ke Loong finish his statement.
“I hinted at our collaboration with the Minister of Transport, and he was rather fascinated by what he discovered. The minister was so intrigued that he immediately called over a few secretaries from the other ministry to take a look at our project.” Ke Loong seemed very excited to reveal such news to Jin. However, the dungeon supplier did not share his enthusiasm for the government wishing to interfere in this private company’s undertaking.
It was true that Jin had allowed Ke Loong to his own devices in order to further develop, manufacture and promote the portal devices but he had never thought that the government had eyes on the current situation. It should have been years into the future, until the concept would be proven to be effective, so how come it felt like yet another obstacle had appeared above his shoulders.
“The very next day, the secretaries from various ministries as well as a few in-house experts had come to visit us to take a look at the portal device. I personally demonstrated the portal teleporting, and their expressions were priceless. Of course, a few of the experts remained sceptical despite trying it themselves. They thought that this was just a developing prototype.” Ke Loong did show a bit of anger at their distrust since he wanted to show off the power and the extent of the portal device.
“That is why I had ordered two portal devices to be connected from Shenzhen and all the way to Germany where we manufacture the devices. Unfortunately, we cannot activate any of the devices unless permitted by your researchers who hold the activation keys to it. Obviously, they did not allow such a test without Head Researcher Ayse’s prior permission. So, I had no choice but to tell the government people that it was still under construction and undergoing some quality checks.” Ke Loong sighed.
“Yes, and I’ve already heard that ‘someone’ had tried to steal the keys from their rooms or even indirectly coerce them for it.” Jin’s response was filled with anger and yet at the same time, restraint. He had just been informed about this crucial detail the CEO has seemingly ‘forgotten’ to tell him.
Yet, Ke Loong laughed loudly at the accusations. He decided to play it cool: “Forgive me, but at the time I had been thinking that if we can get the activation keys for the devices, I could have shown the government people how the portal devices work making them provide us with a much bigger budget. Heck, maybe they would have even offered to assist us in promoting the devices!”
“And if the government has a grip of it, they will then be able to try and develop into something portable for their troops. Please don’t treat me as an idiot. I am not as naïve as you might think.” Jin stated with a firm voice. He was thankful that there was the failsafe step to ensure that the devices could not be activated without his permission.
“But that is why you are naïve.” Ke Loong’s happy-go-lucky expression suddenly turned dead serious. “Like I said in the phone call. I know your arrangement with Tiger Lord Yuan Ba. If you do not give me the activation codes, you can say goodbye to the portal devices that you want to possess.”
“Heh! You seem to forget which one of us owns the real bargaining chips. Without me, you are sitting on a huge pile of expensive metal. Unless you find a way to activate it, you will be lucky if those inactive portal devices will be worth salvaging.” Jin challenged Ke Loong.
“You sure you want to offend me?” Ke Loong threatened Jin as if he had a trump card waiting under his sleeve. “I am Sea Mesh’s CEO. I have a major influence over public figures. You have nothing but this odd tree mall. If need be, I can demand your assassination right now or even burn this mall down.” Ke Loong’s true colours seemed to be finally out, and Jin sighed, regretting having considered his business partner as a decent person.
Ke Loong was sure he was winning the conversation but decided to reveal his ‘so called’ trump card for greater effect. He threw down multiple photos of Lynn and Qiu Yue walking the same route. It seemed as if he had discovered the Sub System User’s old homes and families. Without a word, the Sea Mesh CEO leaned back and shrugged his shoulders.
Jin understood the meaning of his actions.
If Ke Loong ever wished the death of his employees and their relatives, such a thing was most likely only one phone call away. It was that simple.
The silence continued to permeate throughout the room for some time.
Seeing Jin still unresponsive after a dozen seconds after his open threat, Ke Loong decided to open his mouth once more. This was enough stick for the day, and now it was time for the bait to reel Jin into his control.
However, the moment he moved his mouth, he suddenly felt that something was seriously wrong. The air in the room had gotten heavy with the intent of murder… and it was not coming from Jin at all.
