885 First Step Into The New Direction

"Your deal with the Spirits of the Land?" Jin asked, and Hou Fei thought he should better leave. After all, he had already accomplished what he came here for and didn't want to intrude on any of the System's secrets.

"Panda Remnant Hou Fei, please stay. User will need your cooperation to fulfil the obligation from the deal that had been struck." The System pointed out.

"Geh! Should have run away faster... Fine, what is it?" Hou Fei reluctantly but quietly accepted and listened to the System telling its User about the iteration of the conditions which the Spirits of the Land had placed.

"We have to repopulate the forest? Well, that should be easy enough but getting back the wildlife might pose a problem…" Jin put his hand to his chin and thought about how to tackle this issue.

"The System is in possession of many specimens of wildlife after the Bone Spirit Demons had left their bodies. System believes they could be released in a timely manner to the wild to repopulate the area. After some more analysis that is."

"Ah, I think I see what the System is getting at. Since you have Sandy, the Sand Witch and Shu, that grumpy treant, we should be easily able to revive the forests along the borders of Dongguan and Huizhou. Still, if you do it overnight, it will cause yet another newsworthy phenomenon like your giant tree… unless my battalion is involved. Am I right?" Hou Fei concluded.

"Affirmative, Panda Remnant Hou Fei catches on the topic at hand fast." The System sent an applauding emoji through the Dungeon Maker interface.

"Doing it overnight is way too insane. One single tree is one thing, but an entire forest will lead to all the mages around the world coming to investigate what kind of magic we are hiding especially since our country has a cultivator centric society." Hou Fei considered.

"I suggest we do it in stages, that way we can have guards protecting your Sand Witch who I will hire as an external contractor alongside her 'pet' treant while they do their magic."

"Animals wise, I will see if Grandma Yuan can play a part and 'acquire' the wildlife we captured. I think we can use the same trick and as long as she claims to have acquired it via her sources, nobody should look into the matter too much. Especially since she is part of the Cultivation Zoo stakeholders, it should not prove to be much of a problem." Jin suggested.

"That is assuming you get her to agree after making her worry that much." Hou Fei chuckled.

"Well, you can help me play the pity card since the destruction of the forest is also partially her fault." Jin shrugged while giving his opinion and Hou Fei shook his finger.

"Dangerous card to play but hmmm… since you are my master, and you did aid me when I needed you the most, I shall be the sacrificial lamb for this matter." Hou Fei sighed before looking at the time. "Sorry I got to go. System, please keep me updated when you want me to get Sandy and Shu to come out." Hou Fei requested for a teleport back to his house.

"Now that he is gone, I would like to ask you something. When you said to release the animals to the forest, I am assuming that you plan to merely let them walk around or something, right? Or are you really releasing them out of our control?"

"Till now, the System has not released any captured monsters or minions. If the System deems that it is nearing capacity, it will selectively reject or accept monsters into System's control."

"In short, you are basically a massive hoarder until you really have no space?" Jin tried to rephrase its explanation to get a confirmation.

"… System reserves any comments on User's statement."

"Then what about the Demons we captured in Demon Metropolis? Have you also released them back to their 'living habitat' or are they still under captivity?" Jin queried while continuously used air quotes on words that he deemed too sensitive.

"System shall overlook User's way of speaking and answer his question. Panda Remnant Rex had forged a fake deal with Moloch. As part of the agreement, those who lost will have to work for Pandapolis. This was just a tiny clause in the huge cooperation deal between the two major cities. They have been allowed to go back to their families, but when duty calls, they will be activated to serve the needs for both Demon Metropolis and Pandapolis." The System stated.

"That is quite a nifty deal. Didn't expect Rex to think of such things. Wait, how come you call him Panda Remnant and not Bellator?"

"Panda Remnant Rex proves more useful in an administrative role. He used to be a successful diplomat back when he was in service of Panda Lord Zhou Lin. System had expected nothing less from him and felt the need to reward his contribution."

"Well, at least this morning has been productive enough." Jin leaned back on his chair and thought about a few matters moving forward before starting the day.

"The new shop instance is done. I can put it out soon enough for the upcoming New Year celebration as well as the new dungeon instance. The Spiralling Sewers Instance is a sleeper hit but we should keep an eye on the data to see if we need to tweak the difficulty a little more. Resources wise, we are still in the green... So that's manageable… And the Adventurer Town in Goblin World is self-sufficient enough to close an eye. Please tell Zhi Nu that she is managing it well and maybe give her a bonus in the near future. Hmm, Pandapolis maintenance repairs are still ongoing, but it should be done within a week or so. Ah, - nearly forgot I need to start increasing the Adventurers' Town Dungeon Cave's difficulty." Jin mumbled to himself continuously that the System had to interject its opinion at times in case he forgot something vital.

"Do remember that increasing difficulty will result in their deaths and subsequently the service to the System." The System reminded promptly.

"Hahah, I know that. And right now, I think we need some manpower too. If we are to create that Virtual Reality MMORPG, we need to get our Open World Instance well developed. We can perhaps use those adventurers as our Alpha Testers. How about we start selling special charms which will allow them to not die when going into the lower levels? Those who pay for it will get transported into the Virtual Reality network and get kicked out if they die. Those who don't… oh well, more diverse minions I guess." Jin suggested.

"While King Baal's Crown has increased the System's processing capability substantially, it will not be enough for the User's plans on its own. Therefore, it would be best for User to get the Mecha World Titan's Brain too. It will improve the System's operation in maintaining the Open World Instance." The System gave its very biased recommendations.

"Figures you would use that opportunity to strengthen yourself. Well, I am asking something major from you, so I can't deny that request. According to your data, we might handle a few thousand people, but if we go live with the VR network, we will need more than that by a hundred times at the very least." Jin sighed as he sat straight up from his chair and started to note down the things he should do in terms of urgency.

"If System recovers to at least 40% processing power, the output would be exponential enough to handle a China based server." The System said, and Jin got curious instantly.

"You can handle at least hundreds of thousands of people with 40% processing power? Then what's another few hundred thousand from overseas?" Jin asked.

"The System's 'roots' are in China. In order to spread to other countries it would require the System to create nodes similar to the Dungeon Cores. Only with Sub System Server Nodes can the System move to countries further than our current borders without excessively stretching its processing powers. What's more, the System can place its existing processing capabilities into those server nodes, and technically that will allow the System to have more than 100% processing power."

"Probably that means your cap limit can be raised further. Interesting..." Jin commented.

"Exactly. System shall look forward to the day that User helps it overcome the initial limit System had."

That was a long term goal to keep in mind but and of all the pending matters, the first agenda on his list was the Chinese New Year's Eve reunion dinner. He was not just preparing to enjoy it with his family of bellators and Sub System Users but also wished to include his minions.

After the stark epiphany he had during his party time in the Adventurer's town pub, he had decided to make this reunion dinner a little different from the Christmas Bash they previously held.

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