674 A Drop In Priority

"Had a good feast?" Jin asked the following day. The dungeon supplier was surprised at how well rested the space crew seemed to be. In reality, all of those fellows had still been drunk not too long ago from all the partying. Fortunately, the System had sent over Orc Mages to cast a spell which could remove the hangover in an instant. (No wonder the Orcs could be such heavy drinkers.)

"Fantastic," Rei mumbled as he was typing furiously on his work laptop, tidying up a few paragraphs on his spreadsheet before showing it to Jin.

"Sorry, I know this meeting is supposed to be about the timeline for finding the Titan, but I really need to show you this. I've already upheld my side of the bargain. I need to ask you to do the same." Rei presented Jin with his movie studio's finances and the balance sheet for the previous year.

To Jin, it was mostly a random assortment of numbers. As a former engineer major, he had no idea how to correctly extrapolate the data presented.

"Studio Mashi's human resources managed to email me this in confidence. Basically, if they do not receive any money by this week, they have no other choice but to close at least half the studio down." Rei said seriously.

"System, please take a look at this, I don't have an accountant to interpret all these. Is it really as bad as Rei makes it out to be?" Jin asked, and the System started crunching the numbers.

"While System is able to provide statistical reports and a simple predictive analysis of the studio's expenses, it is not capable of providing accurate advice as per this context given that is it not under the System's control. The System also currently does not have anyone expert enough to make such advice unless User creates one as discussed previously." The System stated that without full control over the movie studio, it would not be providing services related to them.

"I will just take the expenses report for now." Jin had no intention of acquiring yet another liability without assessing the risk. Reacting to that thought, the System showed various graphs and charts which left everyone in the conference room with dumb expressions.

"Wait a minute, I think I might have someone who can analyse all of these for me." Jin took his phone out and looked through his contacts.

"Ah, Jin. Superb timing. I had planned to contact you in a bit myself. Oh, by the way, happy new year to you." Claire picked up the call and wished Jin well.

"Happy new year to you too, Claire. How can I help you?"

"This morning I received confirmation for the animals coming your way from Shenzhen's Cultivation Zoo. I shall send you a manifest of all the animals so you can at least prepare the necessary space. I have also already conducted interviews of the staff who wish to work for your zoo. I will attach the list together with the manifest."

"Oh dear, I totally forgot about the cultivation zoo. Sorry, I was too busy settling the new upcoming dungeon instances." Jin lied.

"No worries. The actual shipments of animals have yet to arrive after Grandma Yuan's donation to the World Wildlife Federation. For now, it's just the list."

"I see, then I will make it a priority to look at the animal manifest as well as the selected interviewees. Is it very urgent or will it be enough if I get it done by next week?"

"I see no problem with that. Anyways, what's the problem you are having? It's rare for you to call… unless you need a favour."

"It pains me to admit, but unfortunately, this time's no different. I have a request to make. You are among the few who know a little about my special powers, so you may not be too surprised about what I am about to ask. But first are you by any chance skilled in accounting?"

"I do have a basic degree in accounting and sometimes help to break down such information for Grandma Yuan. Why? Do you need help filing this year's taxes?" Claire wondered what Jin was so cryptic about.

"No, it's something entirely different, but I require an accountant's input. My erm usual accountant refuses to cooperate. Do you have time to drop by and take a look? If I need to, I can pay…?" Jin requested for her help politely, but Claire laughed.

"I doubt you can afford my hourly salary, nevertheless I will come around in the evening and see what I can do. Besides, I do need to discuss some additional things with you about the JODE administration centre and we perhaps we can use the time to have an in depth discussion on the cultivation zoo instance."

"I understand that your main income comes from your instances, but please be aware that those cannot fail no matter the cost. It would smear Grandma Yuan's reputation." Claire's tone turned strict and demanding.

"Thank you, Ms Claire. Be seeing you." Jin swallowed hard, finished his call and told Rei to wait till evening for the review of his situation.

"Back to the topic at hand. I understand that all of you, especially Rei, have some grievances on how to proceed in regards to the Titan. And upon discussion with my bellators about the store's current predicament, I have come to the conclusion that I might need to put this mission at a lower priority." Jin's announcement came as a big shock to the entire space crew who had been eager to go out.

"What, then does that mean our work is futile?" Rei was the first to seek answers.

"No. I am going to let you guys do it at your own pace. You mentioned how our Salvaging Golems still have a lot of flaws left, and you are only accepting the goblin pilots to board them because they can resurrect and I insisted on proceeding."

"So, I want you to start the salvaging operation and collect all the debris while improving the Salvaging Golems. When I say all, I mean every single little bit you can find no matter how minor it seems. Everything is useful to the System, even junk." Jin emphasised.

"If you need some context of why the sudden change in priority, the Dungeon Core Barrier holding the Dungeon City Fortress from invasion will be down in a few days time. We might even be asking Moloch to drop the shield earlier for the Dungeon Core to gain some additional energy for an impromptu barrier." Jin explained.

Jin had received information that The Dungeon World actually rewarded the premature abandonment of the 'newbie' barrier. Upon releasing the current one, the Dungeon Core would be capable of deploying a city wide barrier that could last upwards of ten minutes after the city had been officially established.

However, Moloch stated that the strength of the barrier varied and was proportional to the remaining number of days they would have had. He estimated that the city wide barrier could at least fend off an ultimate area of effect attack by King Baal and that should be sufficient for the city to have a fighting chance against his former master's army.

"So, don't be disheartened. The space project will go on. The System and I still need that Titan." Jin reiterated.