“He is currently not available. Sorry, dear.” Yun politely declined Yang Ling’s request to see Jin.
“How come? My spaw- … erm colleagues happened to see him walking around the Panda Street Instances talking with somebody else earlier. They were even nice enough to send me some pictures as evidence. Are you telling me that Jin is just a body double? Part of the dungeon instance? If so, where is the real one now?” Yang Ling asked as she opened her phone and showed it to Yun.
There were numerous pictures of Jin taken by the Tiger Triad with his face visible and in different locations. With so much assurance at hand, Yang Ling had made time in her usually busy day to invite the young dungeon supplier for a private lunch meeting herself even though her father could have easily sent out his administrative team to do so. While her father Tiger Lord Hu Yuan Ba wanted to deepen their cordial relationship, Yang Ling had her own reasons to meet Jin.
Both political and personal reasons.
Only a few in the upper echelons knew that a small-time dungeon supplier had significantly contributed to the defence of the border wall by sharing his portal technology. Still, even fewer knew that the very same Jin had personally gone out to defeat the Loopa Ooofpa with the State Agent’s ‘help’. Especially when the State Agents concerned were one of the top agents the State Agency ever had.
Having to rely on external help was quite the humiliation for the Royal Zodiac Tiger and Snake Platoons who on top of that had a difficult time holding the wall. Their only saving grace was that considering the fate of the Royal Horse Army Battalion, they could still be deemed lucky.
In the aftermath, Grandma Yuan had filed her report stating the Loopa Ooofpa she fought had been many times tougher than the one she had encountered during the World War. The Banned Emperor Faction had clearly placed quite a lot of emphasis mutating it and caused it to be nearly indestructible.
The Royal Zodiac Monkey Clan, as the only clan allowed to research the so-called forbidden techniques (with lots of restraints and red tapes of course), used the new samples and compared them with ones they had left from the first monster. With compelling evidences, they reluctantly concurred with Grandma Yuan that they indeed had it easy losing just a Royal Platoon. However, it would require additional research to find out how exactly the Banned Emperor Faction had managed to further strengthen their summon.
The Royal Monkey Researchers’ official report read that it was nothing short of a miracle that the army managed to defeat those two Loopa Ooofpas in record time with the minimum military manpower. Simulation upon simulations had been run based on the numbers of forces in close proximity that could have been deployed, and the result was devatstating. It was analysed that Loopa Ooofpas would have easily destroyed the entire Shenzhen province and Hong Kong before they could have been stopped. (And that’s just the best case scenario.)
The collective simulations dictated that they would have needed to respond to the threat with at least half of the nation’s military power while losing certain cities to ensure they would have enough time to set up the attacks as explained by Grandma Yuan.
And to make things worse, the last surge of evolution where the Loopa Ooofpa had fused with the human summoner was something that the Royal Monkey Researchers had been unable to ‘solve’ in the simulation. It kept giving an error stating that there was no way the nation would survive. One of the researchers tried to key in numbers for the sake of it, and he declared that the forces needed will require a massive joint operation that could endanger not only China but the surrounding nations too.
The researchers were baffled that the Banned Emperor’s terrorist faction had gone beyond the word forbidden and create such a harbinger. No matter how they calculated, it all led to the very same conclusion. To create a magical gate similar to Jin’s and banish the monster to abyssal oblivion. Still, that was easier said than done. Even when contacted with the esteemed mages of the Western equivalent of Grade 18 and 19s, they had no idea how someone could teleport the Loopa Ooofpa into somewhere foreign. Some even theorised it might have been sent to space and there might be a chance it will return to have its revenge.
Even by deploying nuclear bombs, the simulation gave an error that it lacked the necessary data to determine if it would have been enough or if the Loopa Ooofpa could have been immune to it, especially the enhanced version. This only further solidified the fact that without Jin and his team of extraordinary cultivators, they would not have brought it down.
Nevertheless, the State Agents had placed down a gag order to ensure that Jin was not harassed on a daily basis. Kong Rong had done his best to ensure that Jin’s whereabouts were kept out of the database for a period of time, but there was only so much he could do. There had been other people snooping in the database right before he could place the gag order in.
Not to mention with the portals being linked to Jin, it was impossible to remove him entirely from the data. However, it was all for nought when they realised that Jin was nowhere to be found. But this time, there wasn’t an excuse for him to run away since Jin had been seen in public in his very own dungeon instance.
“I can bring you to him, but you have to understand that he really is in no shape for any discussion.” Yun sighed as she shook her head in dismay after she saw all the ‘incriminating’ pictures of Jin on the Tiger Princess’ phone.
“Yes, please! I insist on speaking to him. I will do anything I can to make sure that he will talk to me!” Yang Ling was adamant about bringing Jin to see her father. Whatever Jin needed, be it money, power or privilege, she would find a way to fulfil his wishes.
Now that it was just a matter of time that it became common knowledge that Jin was a secret powerhouse to the point that even the State Agents gave him special treatment, it was best to get him on the Tiger Clan’s side before the other clans could wrap him around their little fingers.
Alas, if her sources were to be trusted, it might already be a bit late for that. Apart from the photos of Jin being out in public, she had been informed that the Royal Snake General, as well as Grandma Yuan, had come to his shop on Chinese New Year Eve… and that was hours before the emergence of Jin’s public appearance.
Yang Ling could only imply that these two VIPs had visited Jin on a personal tie basis and even ate reunion dinner with him. She was not even invited to eat with him! (Imagine how hurt she felt when she heard about it!)
Yang Ling believed they could have done better in keeping close ties with this extraordinary dungeon supplier, especially after she had found out how Jin had been pressured into using his portal technology for the common good. Still, one of the major mistakes they made in the Tiger Princess’ opinion was to not allow their police to collaborate with the Snakes for the latest Raid Instance.
They thought it would be a waste of time, but the Snakes had boasted about how extremely useful they found it. There were quite a number of tactical moves they had managed to try on a large scale basis which they successfully used in the defence against the Loopa Ooofpa’s Bone Spirit infused demons. Even San Ya Bai, the Tiger General, who saw it first hand could not deny that.
It was of the utmost importance that Yang Ling would regain Jin’s trust to work with them in spite of all the prideful mistakes they had made before realising his importance. She had personally vowed to get Jin to have dinner with them at the very least. This would no doubt boost the Tiger’s relationship with the dungeon supplier before any other clans.
For now, they were unaware that Jin had just recruited the Dragon Clan’s heir into his service so, the Dragons and Snakes already had a head start.
“Alright, but only because you can be called his acquaintance. Don’t blame me if you fail to make him respond to you though.” Yun sighed, but Yang Ling believed Jin would not be so cold-hearted to ignore her…
She was about to find out how wrong she was.
