“This is the weirdest accommodation I’ve ever heard of.” Meng Ruo grumbled as he stared at the Tree Mall right in front of him. “You sure the Sarge’s order is correct?”
“Please, even Sarge thinks that this has to be some mistake.” Zhang Min replied as he stared at his phone from the Mechat messages he had with his superior.
“Well, that’s why we’ve been sent here, isn’t it? Besides, according to Sarge, General Hou Fei also wants us to do a warm-up exercise before going up north. He kept emphasising that we’re too inexperienced at fighting monsters after the last training exercise.” Wei Yi added as he beckoned the guys to follow him into the Tree Mall. Their sergeant had forwarded a message from their higher-ups stating that they were to stay in a dungeon supplier store.
Not only did the three corporals wonder if this was the right decision, but a lot of their higher-ups were inevitably showing doubts of their usually capable General’s orders. Had he suddenly gone insane to tell them to stay in a dungeon supplier store?
It was to the point, many were starting to consider pre-booking some of the hotels around Shenzhen just in case that order was some sort of mistake. Especially when he gave the directive for them to mobilise into Shenzhen for the ‘mass training exercise’ in five days time.
As Meng Ruo, Zhang Min and Wei Yi happened to be assigned for a cross-state training workshop in Shenzhen by the 4th Royal Zodiac Snake Battalion, they had been secretly ordered by their sergeant (Actually it came from their Commanding Sergeant Major) to verify what the General had said before they decided to mobilise the entire battalion into Shenzhen in plain sight.
“Welcome to Dungeons and Panda! According to your registration, I believe you must be here under the command of General Hou Fei?” Mr Patsu, the Penguin Announcer, turned guide for this impromptu accommodation situation greeted the three who had entered the shop simultaneously.
“Eh…Yes, that’s us. They’ve been told to ask for Jin? … or Qiu Yue?” Wei Yi, who was the most senior among the three, had stepped forward to give Mr Patsu more information.
“Ah, no worries, Jin, the Boss of this place has left me specific instructions to bring you to your accommodations first.” Mr Patsu replied upon seeing the screenshot from the Mechat message. “Please follow me and do not hesitate to take pictures.”
That sentence alone had made the three soldiers suspicious. It was not due to the penguin NPC talking to them but mainly because of how shocked they were coming into a shop instance like Jin’s. Although the Christmas decoration themes had been removed, they still needed time to acclimatise to the ‘ordinary’ look of the shop instance.
“How did you know that we wished to take pictures of the place?” Zhang Min asked while also taking one photo of the penguin himself.
“Boss Jin reminded us that it would be understandable for you esteemed guests to doubt the orders of your general given the content.” Mr Patsu smiled as he always loved to see the surprised faces of new customers.
It brought him joy that there was this ‘magical’ touch that Jin’s store still possessed no matter the age of the customers. Soon, the trio readily followed Mr Patsu into an elevator at the edge of the shop instance which had a sign with ‘restricted access’ written on it.
Mr Patsu jumped to tap the ‘up’ button with his keycard, and the elevator opened, revealing a pretty, petite chandelier at the centre of the lift. Its slight yellowish glow gave the lift a bit of a comfy luxurious feel. The spacious elevator included a white marble interior that blended nicely with the chandelier while slow 80s music was played in the background.
“It will be a short ride to the lobby, but please hold on to the railings in case of jerking.” Mr Patsu instructed them and pressed the only button on the elevator. True enough, there was some vibration that came from the lift, but the soldiers felt that it was not because of any infrastructure failure and rather the speed that the elevator was moving at. They could feel there was a slight gravitational force in play and it was similar to the elevator rides going from the 1st floor to the 80th floor in less than 10 seconds.
In no time at all, the doors opened, and the sight was entirely different from what they had expected.
A row of animal looking people at the elevator’s entrance welcomed their first-ever group of guests they ever received. The animal people tribes who had signed the contract had been employed as auxiliary support staff for the current humans, and they had been drilled madly by the penguins. In terms of management, Lynn was handling the animal tribes rather than Qiu Yue since she had experience training the penguins for service support. (Though the System was using her more for the total obsession to clean stuff.)
Still, with Lynn only being apt in training others to become a cook she had left it to her peggies to train the staff for hospitality. The System had agreed to it as well since they were the epitome of her standard in cleanliness.
Some of the tribe people had initially been unable to handle the intense training. Still, the System (along with Lynn) had decided to use the same incentive programme the penguins were using to entice them to do better.
Unfortunately, the standard they had achieved so far, was not exactly what they had hoped for, especially since the penguins had had more time to learn and train. Yet, the Animal Tribe people preserved mainly because of the abundance of food, comfort and shelter they had been provided with in return.
They enjoyed their new lives without the need to sacrifice themselves hunting for the chance of getting food. Some of the older members did complain that this could potentially erode some of their tribal tradition, though the penguins did indirectly reinforce the fact that Jin would always satisfy the thirst for battles when the time was right.
Furthermore, the System had also bestowed them with cultivation styles based on their animals to further develop their strength, dexterity and vitality. After all, being able to stay awake longer meant working harder, and it would ultimately prove to serve better for the System and Jin.
In the meantime, the three soldiers could not believe their eyes and their mouth were still left hanging. The lobby was grandiose in nature with comfortable chairs right beside the counters for guests to wait. The porters were around to carry any heavy luggages. Despite the soldiers’ insistence, they eventually gave way for the animal tribe people to hold them.
Registration was just a form of courtesy as they were presented with not just the keys to their hotel room, but the information brochures about the hotel they were going to stay as well as food vouchers for the breakfast buffet. The guests were also brief that their physical keys were used to turn the circuits on in their room, but the locks could be open with the digital key affixed to the Pandamonium account. Thus, there was no need to worry about losing their physical key.
Yet, another shocking sight awaited them after registering for their hotel room as Mr Patsu led them to it.
