“The Military Sweep has started on Huizhou and Dongguan.” The System informed Jin just when he was replacing Yun for her lunchtime break. In comparison to the supposed tension, the customers in the shop were utterly oblivious to the soldiers that were risking their lives to protect them. Jin never felt that way until today, and he once again learnt that ignorance was indeed a disguised blessing.
“I see…” Jin said as he took his phone out and requested the System to check if there were any news about it. He was expecting news blackout on the situation, but with the System’s advance search, it might be able to search for some gossips.
“Negative. After checking all news outlets in this country, the information closest to the truth was a short article about an exercise being conducted around the borders of Dongguan and Huizhou. Private forums required more time, but a quick search resulted in zero hits on User’s query.” The System reported back.
“So, just another training exercise, huh.” Jin began to wonder how many times when he had seen the words “training exercise” in the papers it was merely an excuse to actually cover something up, just like what Hou Fei and the others were currently doing.
“User, your heart rate has elevated. There is not much you can do at the moment. System would like to advise you to focus on the business for the time being. Even if there is a war right outside your doorstep, User has to remain calm and carry on with his work.” The System stated that protecting his shop was the most important thing for a businessman.
“As if the past wars we got ourselves into were not enough to realise that.” Jin chuckled a little as he stared at the audience from the bar table that the shop had ever since its inception. Nevertheless, he felt a difference now that it was his own world that was at stake. Was this how the Goblin Trio, peggies, Minotaurs and even the Jacks had felt?
“Sigh, it’s only been a few months, but it already feels like forever.”
“If the System were to put the time compression and dilation into perspective of User’s current lifespan working on Dungeon Instances, it would approximately be close to two years.”
“In this case, I am definitely gonna die sooner than Gramps.” Jin bitterly laughed at the impromptu analysis of the System. “Anyways, I was thinking of changing-” Suddenly they heard Qiu Yue screaming on the System Channel.
“FINALLY DONE!!!” She happily reported to Jin that the prefabricated buildings had completed.
“Thank you Qiu Yue, go enjoy a nice bath (without any Jin massage) or eat some good food to relax. The sweep has just started, so we do not have much time to rest in case we proceed with the counter offence.” Jin thanked the Red Panda Cultivator for her job.
“Seriously, you are already assuming the worst?” Qiu Yue questioned as she took a picture of the buildings she had built. Yes, with the Empire Building Sub System, she had spearheaded the building process by utilising its powers without the aid of the monsters.
Although it was more efficient to set up herself, the constant use of the Empire Sub System is rather draining and the extra money needed to be spent to make those construction materials was way more than when she used the Orc Workforce to build it from scratch. Besides, even if Qiu Yue could have asked the Orcs to do it along with her, they were busy performing maintenance of Pandapolis after the offensive raid.
The defence plans she had in store for Pandapolis were meant to reduce the amount of maintenance needed while keeping the cost low. However, King Baal’s mass teleportation spell had single-handedly overturned any plans they had designed, and while Pandapolis did not end up in ruins (their worst case scenario), major repair works were still needed to ensure that it could be operating smoothly for the real opening of the city.
With her Empire Building Sub System, she was able to control simple blocks of prefabricated concrete levels as if she was in a video game. Her phone turned into a pair of Control Gloves as if she possessed high-level telekinetic powers to move the blocks into place.
Her Red Panda mask, which was connected to the Sub System, also reminded her of the pieces that needed to be placed to ensure that the building was ready for use.
Metal pipes and electrical wiring were done with a swipe of her control gloves while the levels of concrete snapped into position like lego building blocks with locking mechanisms. This was to ensure that those prefabricated buildings could be removed in a jiffy as well.
“Hahah, as a businessman, I have to assume the worst, right? Besides, we cannot disappoint the customer who rented our instance space for this much money.” Jin said, and Qiu Yue giggled.
“You sure are exploiting them for charging such a high price. No matter how I see it, the dungeon instance space and materials do not cost that much.” Qiu Yue, who knew exactly how much the material cost was for all this preparation, retorted.
“Got to factor in my workers’ wages, right?” Jin asked with a smirk, and Qiu Yue’s eyes brightened up.
“Does that mean what I think it does? A FAAAATTTTTT bonus for the incoming red packet?” Qiu Yue asked with excitement.
“Who knows?” Jin tried to be mysterious, but his voice betrayed his words, and Qiu Yue was once again screaming at the top of her lungs. Some of the monsters who were doing some minor works near her had been shocked by it but laughed it off.
“By the way, what happens to all these buildings if they don’t end up being used? Or after they were to be removed after this evacuation is over?” Qiu Yue finally calmed down as she teleported back to her room.
“I was gonna hand them over to Rex. He is reforming their city. Did you recently watch how he basically accumulated a massive amount of funds from bagging a number of corrupted officials and is forcing those corrupt officials to reveal other scum bags.” Jin answered.
He had followed the Litr Corporation Trial and was wow-ed by the performance. Now Jin roughly understood why Kraft looked up to Rex as an older brother.
“Yup, I saw that trial too, though I only watched the first part. He is really one amazing person. You should work towards becoming like him.” Qiu Yue teased him, but was also half-serious.
“Hahaha. Perhaps if I had a thousand years or more on my belt? Anyways, he did say that he wanted to bring down the slums and create proper housing for them. So, these prefabricated buildings could be the perfect answer for that situation. If we have the time, maybe you can construct more of it for him.” Jin suggested, and Qiu Yue realised that the Dungeon Supplier was shrewd too.
“Nice. These prefabricated buildings are sturdy enough to last for at least 50 years. With some maintenance and a bit of improvement work on them, they can definitely become decent housing for the poor. Also, if they get targeted by other Dungeon Core invasions, the buildings are cheap enough to replace. Definitely a good means to replace those slum settlements.” Qiu Yue wholeheartedly agreed to that proposal.
“If they can raise the poor out of their poverty or at least improve their quality of life, we should be able to benefit from it as well,” Jin said as he could see that his source of money would finally be enlarged by a huge jump.
“User will then finally be able to return the money you owe the System.” The System suddenly interrupted, and the two System Users burst into laughter.
