Just as Jin had promised, he announced his sponsorship of everyone’s meal for Chinese New Year’s Eve through the System Channel. He had even prepared a temporary service instance where the minions would be served hotpot.
There was no limit to each hotpot room within the service instance, so it could accommodate any number of them. But to avoid straining the System’s resources, the minions were required to define how many people were entering it in the first place.
Therefore, every minion had to register their names into a group so they would be given their own room in the Hotpot Service Instance.
Furthermore, this was the first time the penguins were able to sit back and relax as the System had already collected enough data on how the little aquatic birds worked.
Jin had used that data to simulate something similar to the Panda Nurses’ artificial intelligence and had created Panda Waiter equivalents.
At first, the penguins were apprehensive about Jin’s decision until they learned that the Panda Waiters’ only job was to prepare the food items to serve to the minions. Just a bit of cutting and washing of the food supplies before those premium raw items would be delivered to each and every room’s hungry customers.
While it was supposed to be hotpot, Jin had actually included metal grills beside the hotpot too, allowing them to barbeque their meat if they didn’t wish to have it steamed. And unsurprisingly, all minions were happy to go with the latter option since barbequed meat was an expensive System point purchase and not something for everyday consumption to the average minion.
Naturally, most minions did not hold back on their appetite after they learned it was free for all. Only the more recent additions were a little apprehensive of their master’s offer. It seemed too good to be true if it was indeed without a catch, but the older minions encouraged them to take it as it was a rare opportunity.
“It’s not every day that the Boss treats us, but when he does, he does not hold back. So eat up, my dear student! Trust me, after taking one bite, you will look forward to these events, as you won’t have to worry about any cost.” Moloch said to Prince Stolas, who had voluntarily joined the System’s command after he had witnessed what an amazing job Moloch and his human- Nay, his master had done to defeat his father.
Only a select few forces should have stood a chance against the Demon Metropolis. Still, even amongst them, the young prince doubted any could have achieved such an overwhelming victory against the Demon Metropolis. Perhaps the Church of the Afterlife, but they usually kept to themselves.
“Yea, little prince, eat! Eat until you burst, for tomorrow he might swarm you to death with work!” Wolte added in as he placed a large piece of medium-rare cow steak into his slug body. “MMMMMMM! The taste is heavenly.” Wolte shook his body with joy.
“True, Jin does expect a lot from us minions, but you do get rewarded in kind,” Moloch admitted as he placed a plate full of meat on Baal’s side of the table. “I would advise you to start grilling a ste- HEY WOLTE! Get your fingers off my meat, you stupid metal slug!” Moloch defended his food by throwing a magical card towards the slug which stunned him momentarily. Long enough for the plush minotaur to recover his plate.
“Bah, no need for your little tricks. You could have just taken some from me later. It’s free flow until the morning after all! The Master was even nice enough to set a time dilation instance for us to eat until we could not move! Waiter! More beer please!” Wolte shouted, and the rest on the table laughed, but Baal was a little more serious as he lowered his head to his old friend.
“Thank you, Moloch. I thought you would still be mad at me.” Baal said in an apologising tone to the surprise of his children. Princess Gaap and Prince Stolas had never seen such a side of their father before.
“Nah, it’s over already. We’ve beat you fair and square… well mostly fair. So why make a big fuss about it now? Besides, I won you over. To me, that means my job is done. Also, I get to enjoy watching Kiva being used as a guinea pig for lots of research work. I hope Ayse will at least give him some time off for this.” Moloch chuckled.
Not only did Jin enable smaller groups to have their own reunion with each other, but he had also granted his monsters some time off to check on their real families as part of the reunion dinner agreement. The Goblins, Orcs and even Demons from the Demon Metropolis were all able to return their individual worlds. And because time passed differently in each and every world, the System only dictates a four hour grace period to visit their loved ones.
But this kindness had a price, and Jin knew about it. There could be potential backlash upon doing this act, and thus the Dungeon supplier warned each and every one of them that this was only a temporary visit and the System would not just let them go that easily. He also relayed them the consequences of contacting their loved ones again for certain monsters, and if their work progress deteriorates because of this, the System might have to intervene.
However, he did promise them one thing. If his next large scale project succeeded, the implementation of the Virtual Reality network, and with enough resources on his side, he might be able to allow their families to stay with them (in a virtual way at least). Else, he could come up with a system that would allow them to return on a regular basis based on their work performance.
Knowing that their master had no obligation to do any of this because he owned them, they were already thankful that they received a chance to reunite with their family members. Of course, explaining why they were gone would be hard for many of them, especially the Orcs who would have to see their family, friends or loved ones from a distance. Some even learnt a few tricks from the Orc Traders in the Adventurer Town and or do so under a different appearance and name.
The Demons did not have any such limitation since their world revolved around the concept of resurrection and the deal brokered between King Rex and Moloch of Pandapolis City allowed the Demons to return almost anytime.
As for the Goblins, many of them were elated to return to their loved ones but they also noticed how long they had been away. With the time differences between worlds, a small number, unfortunately, had to visit graveyards because of the time they were away. But the majority were excited to be back. (And with lots of money to boot.)
The Farming Humans, on the other hand, had already formed a community between themselves as they knew most, if not all of their family members had already been killed by the Demon Rats. Some even took this chance to ask Jin if it was possible for them to take part in the fight against the Demon Rats.
Jin did not hesitate to grant their request, but on the condition that they had to be trained under someone more senior. Thus, most of the Farming Humans if not all went to the Mousefolks for apprenticeships. As for the rest, they went to the Jacks, but that is a story for later.
Because right now, it’s all about reunion and enjoying their ’employment benefits’.
