"If things really go south, we need a contingency plan to keep our business up while keeping our promise to Hou Fei," Jin said out loud to the System as he returned to the Dungeon Maker.
"What happened to the 'we are going to ignore the pleas of the people who decided to abuse you for their own benefit' kind of deal?" Kraft had coincidentally returned to the Dungeon Maker to pick up some stuff.
"What are you doing here? I thought Pei said that you foxes needed to stay together?" Jin asked, and Kraft gave a short grin.
"Just changing the video cams' memory sticks for Kiyu. Since she wanted to shop and take more videos around." Kraft answered as he switched the memory sticks in front of Jin's interface while casually opening one of them.
Suddenly a bodycam like a video was streaming right in front of Jin. "What's this?" Jin asked as he had never seen such a white pristine-looking hallway before.
"We planted a mini camera on one of the Church of the Afterlife agents. Seeing that their Dungeon World is focused on magic rather than technology, we are able to do this without them detecting any magical signal."
"I am more surprised you can get a stream out of this. We have no satellite or communication towers to even transmit this data."
"Damn it, you got me. And here I thought I could bluff you on this." Kraft snickered, and Jin looked at the crafty fox who would never commit such a basic mistake. In other words, he 'accidentally' revealed it just so could boast about doing something stupid but effective…
"You followed them, didn't you?"
"More like, Kiyu transformed into a piece of dull decorative accessory that was camouflaged with the rest of their odd white suits and they carried her inside. Just something we used to do way back in the old days of infiltration. Perks of being an oldie. Heheh."
"… Unbelievable." Jin shook his head. He had already guessed that Kraft wouldn't just let the Church of Afterlife agents get back to where they came from without stalking them from a distance. The sound was slightly muffled, but the picture was crystal clear.
"So how are you switching memory cards for Kiyu?"
"You know, make 'em invisible and use chi to manipulate the object towards the accessory for Kiyu to switch it on the fly. Nothing too complicated."
"Shouldn't they have magic detectors all around the place?"
"Unlike your Maqi, which had a trace of magic in it, my chi is rather peaceful and has a tranquil kind of aura. People won't suspect much." Kraft was incredibly proud to say it.
"More like hiding behind the pillars, being a wallflower and striking them with overwhelmingly murderous intent when time presents the opportunity to do so."
"Meh, same thing." Kraft shook off Jin's analogy as he switched the files on the Dungeon Maker interface and Jin saw the conversation of the agents reporting to their superior.
—–
"Yes, this is indeed the crown. The readings matched with what our mages had discovered. Have you managed to salvage any of the broken Dungeon Cores inside it?" The superior asked, and the agent shook his head.
"Sir, we checked with our labs, and the mages confirmed that while there are remnants of the cores, the most important component we were looking for has been destroyed or is now missing. They concluded that Hell's Plane could have been too much and burnt the cores within the crown."
"Damn it. Fine, I will report to the council that we acted too late. In any case, continue to monitor the Pandapolis and Demon Metropolis. I do not know where that Bull Toy Moloch was able to find those humans, but they pose a possible threat." The superior said, and before he left with the remnants of the crown, he gave one last additional order.
"When their city is officially open, send in undercover agents to make sure that they blend in well and learn their state of technology. I will prepare the budget to provide a merchant cover in case they restrict travel. We hardly got any coverage with all the magical interference from the battle, and we need to gather more information on them."
"Sir, are we going there to steal information or get them to be our partner?"
"Agent 5843, that is not for me to understand. Just get your job done."
"Sir, yes sir." Agent 5843 nodded his head and got out of the office.
———–
"Kiyu will still be hanging around for a while to see if this guy has any more secrets we can hold on to. As for me, I shall do some scouting. Oh and their base..or should I say Dungeon Core is basically like the Vatican City."
"Beautifully holy?"
"Exclusive dominion with full ownership to the Church of the Afterlife and no one but them. No Demons, no monsters, no poor adventurers, not even middle class peeps." Kraft revealed, and Jin stared blankly at him.
"Anyways, Rex will have full ownership of Demon Metropolis in another 10 hours or so. Do remember to check back with Moloch on how to deal with those agents when we are done." Kraft said as he waved goodbye to Jin and disappeared without a trace nor System portal.
"Even if we place that issue at the backburner, I honestly do not feel like making anything after hearing about that conspiracy Hou Fei had," Jin complained out loud to the System.
"Then like the situation in Pandapolis, System suggests making contingency plans to aid Panda Remnant Hou Fei. Besides, he has already given an advance to the System in case we required some more cash to prepare for the place of refuge." The System stated.
"How many empty undersea domes do we still have left?" Jin questioned, and the System indicated that there were at least two of them that was entirely empty. The other two were partially built for a massive shopping centre and a racing grand prix stadium.
"More entertainment venues can be inserted within the racing grand prix, and it could potentially fit the Cyberpunk setting of a racetrack." The System replied, and Jin queried how much was built.
"Hmm, If it is only the foundation, can we change it to buildings temporarily?" Jin asked once more.
"The current occupation of hotels and condominiums will hold approximately 100,000 people."
"Then, we need more. Roughly enough space to hold an additional million." Jin stated without any crack on his facial expression as he typed the number on the interface.
"System is unable to compile. System is unable to comprehend."
"What's so hard to understand? We need space for over 1 million people. We still have a few floating islands, too right? Build as many fabricated buildings as we can. As fast as we can." Jin explained and then the System stopped responding for a moment.
"System. I am not joking. If the unnatural monster hordes were any indication about what ravaged the overseas cities, we would likely face the same. There is no way the citizens will be left unharmed."
Instead of arguing with Jin, the System used a slightly more efficient technique and called real people out to talk it out with the now 'cracked under pressure' master before using any System based techniques to reform him.
"If things really go south, we need a contingency plan to keep our business up while keeping our promise to Hou Fei," Jin said out loud to the System as he returned to the Dungeon Maker.
"What happened to the 'we are going to ignore the pleas of the people who decided to abuse you for their own benefit' kind of deal?" Kraft had coincidentally returned to the Dungeon Maker to pick up some stuff.
"What are you doing here? I thought Pei said that you foxes needed to stay together?" Jin asked, and Kraft gave a short grin.
"Just changing the video cams' memory sticks for Kiyu. Since she wanted to shop and take more videos around." Kraft answered as he switched the memory sticks in front of Jin's interface while casually opening one of them.
Suddenly a bodycam like a video was streaming right in front of Jin. "What's this?" Jin asked as he had never seen such a white pristine-looking hallway before.
"We planted a mini camera on one of the Church of the Afterlife agents. Seeing that their Dungeon World is focused on magic rather than technology, we are able to do this without them detecting any magical signal."
"I am more surprised you can get a stream out of this. We have no satellite or communication towers to even transmit this data."
"Damn it, you got me. And here I thought I could bluff you on this." Kraft snickered, and Jin looked at the crafty fox who would never commit such a basic mistake. In other words, he 'accidentally' revealed it just so could boast about doing something stupid but effective…
"You followed them, didn't you?"
"More like, Kiyu transformed into a piece of dull decorative accessory that was camouflaged with the rest of their odd white suits and they carried her inside. Just something we used to do way back in the old days of infiltration. Perks of being an oldie. Heheh."
"… Unbelievable." Jin shook his head. He had already guessed that Kraft wouldn't just let the Church of Afterlife agents get back to where they came from without stalking them from a distance. The sound was slightly muffled, but the picture was crystal clear.
"So how are you switching memory cards for Kiyu?"
"You know, make 'em invisible and use chi to manipulate the object towards the accessory for Kiyu to switch it on the fly. Nothing too complicated."
"Shouldn't they have magic detectors all around the place?"
"Unlike your Maqi, which had a trace of magic in it, my chi is rather peaceful and has a tranquil kind of aura. People won't suspect much." Kraft was incredibly proud to say it.
"More like hiding behind the pillars, being a wallflower and striking them with overwhelmingly murderous intent when time presents the opportunity to do so."
"Meh, same thing." Kraft shook off Jin's analogy as he switched the files on the Dungeon Maker interface and Jin saw the conversation of the agents reporting to their superior.
—–
"Yes, this is indeed the crown. The readings matched with what our mages had discovered. Have you managed to salvage any of the broken Dungeon Cores inside it?" The superior asked, and the agent shook his head.
"Sir, we checked with our labs, and the mages confirmed that while there are remnants of the cores, the most important component we were looking for has been destroyed or is now missing. They concluded that Hell's Plane could have been too much and burnt the cores within the crown."
"Damn it. Fine, I will report to the council that we acted too late. In any case, continue to monitor the Pandapolis and Demon Metropolis. I do not know where that Bull Toy Moloch was able to find those humans, but they pose a possible threat." The superior said, and before he left with the remnants of the crown, he gave one last additional order.
"When their city is officially open, send in undercover agents to make sure that they blend in well and learn their state of technology. I will prepare the budget to provide a merchant cover in case they restrict travel. We hardly got any coverage with all the magical interference from the battle, and we need to gather more information on them."
"Sir, are we going there to steal information or get them to be our partner?"
"Agent 5843, that is not for me to understand. Just get your job done."
"Sir, yes sir." Agent 5843 nodded his head and got out of the office.
———–
"Kiyu will still be hanging around for a while to see if this guy has any more secrets we can hold on to. As for me, I shall do some scouting. Oh and their base..or should I say Dungeon Core is basically like the Vatican City."
"Beautifully holy?"
"Exclusive dominion with full ownership to the Church of the Afterlife and no one but them. No Demons, no monsters, no poor adventurers, not even middle class peeps." Kraft revealed, and Jin stared blankly at him.
"Anyways, Rex will have full ownership of Demon Metropolis in another 10 hours or so. Do remember to check back with Moloch on how to deal with those agents when we are done." Kraft said as he waved goodbye to Jin and disappeared without a trace nor System portal.
"Even if we place that issue at the backburner, I honestly do not feel like making anything after hearing about that conspiracy Hou Fei had," Jin complained out loud to the System.
"Then like the situation in Pandapolis, System suggests making contingency plans to aid Panda Remnant Hou Fei. Besides, he has already given an advance to the System in case we required some more cash to prepare for the place of refuge." The System stated.
"How many empty undersea domes do we still have left?" Jin questioned, and the System indicated that there were at least two of them that was entirely empty. The other two were partially built for a massive shopping centre and a racing grand prix stadium.
"More entertainment venues can be inserted within the racing grand prix, and it could potentially fit the Cyberpunk setting of a racetrack." The System replied, and Jin queried how much was built.
"Hmm, If it is only the foundation, can we change it to buildings temporarily?" Jin asked once more.
"The current occupation of hotels and condominiums will hold approximately 100,000 people."
"Then, we need more. Roughly enough space to hold an additional million." Jin stated without any crack on his facial expression as he typed the number on the interface.
"System is unable to compile. System is unable to comprehend."
"What's so hard to understand? We need space for over 1 million people. We still have a few floating islands, too right? Build as many fabricated buildings as we can. As fast as we can." Jin explained and then the System stopped responding for a moment.
"System. I am not joking. If the unnatural monster hordes were any indication about what ravaged the overseas cities, we would likely face the same. There is no way the citizens will be left unharmed."
Instead of arguing with Jin, the System used a slightly more efficient technique and called real people out to talk it out with the now 'cracked under pressure' master before using any System based techniques to reform him.
