“Mind telling me what sort of reformation you have in mind?” Jin, who vaguely now knew how to deal with Ryuli, decided to ask Kong Rong his ultimate objective.
“Sure, but first, I would prefer hearing what you have in mind. Now that I have joined the Royal- Opps I mean, your Panda Clan, surely you will be able to tell me what you really plan to do. I can tell that you already have a set of goals and it should be better that I compromise with yours than you suiting mine.” Kong Rong said with a smile as he would also gauge the lofty goals of this particular Dungeon Supplier.
“Liesss. I can smell lies from that stinky mouth of yours. It’s more like, your goals will align to mine eventually.” Kraft sneered at Kong Rong as he downed another cup of whiskey. The bottle was getting empty, and yet they were nowhere near drunk at all because of their cultivation despite the high alcohol content.
“Do you have to be so forward? I wanted to appear genuinely interested in Jin’s objectives.” Kong Rong retorted, and the Dungeon Supplier already believed these two are going to be besties.
Jin then briefly told Kong Rong about his current objective of creating a Virtual Reality Network which could potentially upset and change the course of this world’s way of working.
“If I manage to accomplish it, it will improve globalisation on a world wide scale. This and the portal engines would make the world an even more accessible place, and not to mention environmentally friendly. Lynn also told me that in times of mass pandemic like the SARS virus that we once had, it would allow companies to continue to work remotely without much contact. Schools can teach without students having to physically go to their location and risk spreading it. The visualisation of teaching would be so much easier, well of course that also means I have to create a developer kit… but that is an issue for some other day.” Jin stated with a hint of pride.
“He thought up all of this because he felt the dungeons he created were too potent for cultivators. Especially our regulars have been growing way too fast, and this might eventually prove to be a threat to other people and perhaps to other countries as well. I’m sure as a State Agent who hangs around all the time in our shop, you also must have noticed that.” Kraft added without the sugar coating, and Kong Rong smiled before he became serious.
“I see, I’m glad you are sensible enough to notice that. One of the reasons why I would like to work with you was also because of the dungeon instances as well as making something similar to that Virtual Reality Network so it would benefit the society as a whole. But I see that you had already thought up of a goal one with your creativity could only imagine. However, I trust that the work to be done is enormous?” Kong Rong queried.
“Yes, the System still needs more processing capabilities to handle such a big scale project. I do not really know how to describe this as, but anyways we also need capital and resources. Because it is just virtual only in name, whereas in reality, it will be a mix of real and fake stuff put together so I will need a heck lot of stuff to do things. But well, I always wanted to be a game developer with my engineering background if the dungeon supplier didn’t work out, but guess I am going to be one after all and it’s becoming a large headache.” Jin snickered.
“That is why User has the System. Your headache will only be partial compared to the System’s who will have to be the one to realise the scope of User’s project.” Jin’s phone spoke out, and the System was greatly emphasising the amount of work it had to do.
“I see, so I assume you are unable to simply buy those processing capabilities in our world?” Kong Rong questioned.
“At the moment, no. We managed to locate a source or two in other worlds, but all of them are safely guarded, so we are not yet ready to get any of those.” Jin remembered that he had to talk to Rei about the remaking of the spaceship from all the junk he salvaged.
“I see, let me just remind you to proceed carefully. Remember the last trade war, it involved the Tarots Guilds in the US fighting over the rights to build 5G? Thankfully, our country’s establishments had made it easy to proceed without too much of a hassle.” Kong Rong warned.
“So, you are saying I should proceed with caution and not tell people about this?” Jin asked for clarification.
“Yeah, keep it as low of a profile if possible. And I’d advise you to get Ke Loong to be a part of your Senior Panda Associates as well. I’m sure he has contacts that could further the advancement of your goal.” Kong Rong said as he remembered he had a few contacts that could help Jin too, but he needed to check on them first.
“Other than that, I am quite satisfied that you are in line with my expectations. I will see if I can convince the right people to join your side and make your job a little easier.” Kong Rong added, but Jin told the State Agent to hold back for now.
“Don’t worry, I will think of a suitable cover story for your current plight. After all, I am a State Agent, I have some reliable sources you can depend upon. And trust me, you need the expertise given the scope. If anything, I can always just slap a top secret label on our topic. Hahahah!” Kong Rong wrote a few sentences in his notebook until Jin recalled a System request. (More like the System nudged him for it.)
“The recovery of the forest along the border walls? Oh? Okay. I believe I can help arrange that with Hou Fei, so that should not be a problem at all. Speaking about that situation, I need to inform you about the Banned Emperor, which I nearly forgot after all your shocking revelations.” Kong Rong took something out from his bag.
“What is this?” Jin asked as he saw the crystal floral piece shimmered on Kong Rong’s palm.
“This is merely a replica, but we had been tracking these sacrilegious mongrels who were going for it for quite some time. During their attack against the border walls, we had the feeling that it might possibly be a distraction. So, we had agents deployed to certain places to ensure that certain relics remained safeguarded and we believe this is one of those that they were aiming for.”
“What kind of powers are inside that floral piece?” Jin received the replica, and Kong Rong allowed him to keep it.
“I don’t exactly know the details, but I can look it up in the archives when I have the time. From what I recall, this flower relic that we have is one of the last few entry keys to enter the ancient flower city and is said to allow access to one of their inner vaults. However, we all know that the city does not exactly exist anymore, but seeing how these mongrels were trying to obtain the relic meant that they might have an inkling of an idea where to find the city or maybe a lost vault.” Kong Rong answered, but Kraft gave a quick glance towards Jin.
“No, the ancient flower city still exists, and it is well hidden from the likes of modern man. If the Banned Emperor Assassins do know of such a place, that means -” Kraft said via the System Channel which was cut short by Jin.
“Zeru must be notified immediately,” Jin announced and the System had already sent a message to Zeru since the Panda Boss had allowed him to visit his wife’s spirit in Japan to celebrate the new year.
“Yes, that lotus loving guy will protect that ancient city even more than defending his honour or even previous master. I am not sure how he really feels about you, but you are probably not an exception at all. However, System, hold your horses. Let that samurai guy have a good chat with his ghosty flower waifu. The State Agents did stop the sinister plot, remember?” Kraft gave a quiet chuckle as Kong Rong continued to ramble on. (No wonder, he was given the nickname Mr Know-It-All.)
But there was actually a silver lining to all of these long draggy explanations. Kong Rong once again fiddled with the pockets of his bag and took a red packet out for Jin.
“Happy New Year to you, and may we prosper and change the world to be a better place.” Kong Rong smiled as he felt this was the most successful visit he had ever made to Jin’s shop. (He could say some effort had been paid off.)
Jin knew that Kong Rong gave him a red packet as a formality since he was a married man. Giving to the young was part of the New Year tradition wishing them health and prosperity. But to be able to receive one had also shown that also showed that Kong Rong wanted to share his blessings with Jin.
Thus, he did the same and gave the newly appointed Senior Panda Associate a red packet as part of his responsibility as his new ‘Boss’.
