“We noticed a particular group is attempting to take a vastly different path to achieve victory. Let us all watch and see if their plans unfold as they expect!” Bear Cub One announced in the Cinema Hall as all the theatre screens changed to the Pandaren Weasel, Raccoon and Cockatrice to keep the anonymity of their group.
Jin felt that certain anonymity would be best for the group and the cultivation style each Pandaren used was already much of a giveaway on who was who for those who knew them.
This kind of system had been implemented not long after the introduction of the Half Masks. While the Pandawans had a more prominent stage presence and their names would be repeated occasionally, it was mainly because they all had some sort of minor celebrity status in Jin’s dungeon supplier shop. Such a system also allowed some of the Pandarens to shine in one way or the other, allowing people to take notice of them.
The standard Half Masks were nothing unique barring the animal designs, and this is a plus, allowing the Pandarens to customise them in any way they wish it to be. For Pandarens who played anonymously, their masks’ simple design also meant that those who had been seen as acting incompetent could just change their mask colour and join another team without having to endure ridicule. As for some, they took this chance to make themselves stand out of the crowd.
It’s a double-edged sword as people would tend to flock to more successful cultivators while not wanting to join the ‘losers’ whenever possible.
Fortunately, it was not much of a big issue in Jin’s dungeons at the moment, but who knew how widespread it would be in the future? And in order to curb any hazing, Jin had already reduced the number of failed showings in the cinema theatres to keep the hype up for the dungeon instance watchings, and the announcers focused on the successful teams which could teach the viewers how to beat an instance.
However, he would still put up a compilation of failures with the permission of the Pandarens to ensure that there was a variety in content. Of course, the System was the one to actually curate those as the dungeon supplier already had a limited amount of time on his hands. It rewarded them a few Panda Medals for agreeing to become featured as entertainment but also offered an option of blurring the faces further and tweaking their voices.
It was also only recently that the System had also started offering Panda Medals for successful or highly unusual dungeon plays that could be featured which were meant to encourage the Pandarens to play well. Perhaps the deviant Pandaren group had decided to try out such an aggressive tactic in the hopes of getting featured?
Still, Jin had made up his mind. If they could steal the firecrackers without harming the NPCs he would tolerate them ‘cheating’ his dungeon. In fact, the System would award them Stealth gameplay points for being successful. However, in the case that they ultimately did harm the NPCs, Jin would not hesitate to let them experience the wrath of Captain Hei.
Both Kong Rong and Kraft had no idea what to expect as everything was an impromptu thing that Jin had created. Even Kraft did not have the full picture because the System had not yet finalised the executable module for the NPC punishment system.
“Oh? That’s interesting. They are attempting to steal from the village?” Kong Rong deduced based on the current movement of the cultivators. The Cockatrice Cultivator was in the midst of climbing the highest tree within the vicinity of the Village warehouse, and the Raccoon was stalking as lookout around the back. As for the Weasel, he was proudly sauntering towards the Song Chew Village Guard NPCs at the front of the warehouse they were guarding.
The guards appeared to be strict in their demeanour, but when they saw the Pandaren who had already helped their village by doing their side quest, they lowered their guards and greeted him joyfully.
At this point, the Weasel Cultivator was trying to bribe the NPC guards, hoping that they would just let them pass through without the need for their complicated process to steal the firecrackers. Unfortunately, adamant to their AI code, the village guards declined the Weasel.
They were even willing to close an eye for such an intrusion and forget about the Weasel attempting to bribe them as long as the Pandaren moved along and continued with their quest.
That was when the Weasel pretended to be courteous and apologised for the attempt which the guards gullible took in. Yet the audience in the theatres could already sense his intentions, and they looked forward to what would happen next.
True to their desire to get the large hoard of firecrackers, the Weasel bowed to ‘apologise’ once more… Yet when he returned into a standing posture, the two guards had already fallen over as their heads were cut off. It was a basic feint move by the Weasel Cultivation Styles which had been executed beautifully and brutally.
That was when the entire audience was shouting at the audacity of the Weasel, and Kong Rong could already predict where this was going.
“This does not seem like a presentation of a new strategy… I assume Boss Jin plans to give us a demonstration of his newest penalty system in this dungeon.” Kong Rong deduced as he started to pen down notes.
“What makes you think that way?” A bespectacled Pandaren who was obviously a fan of Mr Know-It-All questioned him directly.
“Boss Jin has never tolerated people bullying his NPCs. He has always made a clear distinction between monsters and NPCs. The former ones can be safely killed if one manages to. But at the same time, they can be charmed and befriended to fight aside you….” Kong Rong explained half way and he realised Jin purposely prepared this particular highlight as if he already knew what those Pandarens were about to do.
