Chapter 1102 – Business Ac.u.men
After Xiong Da's announcement, the Pandarens started to rush to the walls, arranging themselves in groups and manning the wall's defences. They realised that for the past raids they had always depended on Jin's minions and monsters to lead them into the battles.
This was the first time that they were going to fight this on their own and this rude awakening accompanied with two Ooofpa Loopas would be the true test of their powers. One could say that all their hoards of previously won prizes, as well as their bought weapons, inscription charms and other battle accessories, would be put to full use in the fight.
Aside from the disappearance of the minions, everything else such as the 'on the go' battle shop features was still available to the Pandarens, which gave them some peace of mind. It should give them a slight advantage in the battle but this did not mean fighting against two Ooofpa Loopas would suddenly be a walk in the park.
The news of the Ooofpa Loopa being the Demopolis City Raid Final Boss didn't go unnoticed. Despite them being in a raid instance, the Pandarens were actively sending out requests for help to their friends and relatives to aid them in this particular fight via their Pandamonium App. Quite a few of the Pandarens were off duty soldiers, doing their due diligence to hone their skills even when they were on leave. (In actual fact, quite a lot actually believed that Jin's Dungeons and Pandas was a far more effective measure in training their skills than the one's the military currently offered them.)
Once they learned that the raid boss was that very same abomination that nearly endangered their cities, these off duty soldiers instantly sent out mass invitations to their work colleagues, encouraging them to fight alongside them. Many, if not all, were shocked by this and did not hesitate to drop whatever they were doing (if at all possible) and headed to the store.
Thus, as the current group of Pandarens were shoring up the defences of Demopolis, their reinforcements were on the way. All they had to do was to survive the raid and prevent a raid wipe before the next wave of Pandarens came in to assist them.
The name Ooofpa Loopa alone was sufficient to send those that were wandering in Panda Shop Instance to at least take a look at the cinemas to check out the commotion. That also included journalists, influencers and even official online news reporters that were currently squeezing into the Shop Instance's Cinema Hall to get a peek at the current situation.
Their indirect advertis.e.m.e.nt furthered the interest for Dungeons and Pandas from onlookers through the net that prompted them to query whether they could have footage for the current raid instance.
Kiyu had expected such a thing to happen and had collaborated with the System for the next move to entice more users for their service. For those who were not within the raid, the Pandamonium App instantly generated a new pop up and presented them with a limited time offer of a three month subscription of Pandaflix for the price of three Yuan.
The targets of this new ad were first and foremost the social media influencers in and out of the Shop Instance and they did not hesitate to immediately accept. Streamers at home quickly downloaded the Pandamonium App and subscribed to it so that they could provide their audiences with live reaction to this current Ooofpa Loopa scenario.
The one time subscription price was abysmally cheap, enticing even the most casual onlooker to give it a try and everyone was vastly interested to see how the Final Boss encounter would play out. They all had heard of the rumours of the Ooofa Loopa but because of the previous media blackout on it, Kraft and Kiyu could now take advantage of the hype surrounding it.
Within 15 minutes, the System tabulated an 18% increase in subscriptions for the Pandaflix from new users and a staggering 60% increase in subscriptions from Pandarens who had yet to subscribe.
"Does this prove that I am a genius in marketing?" Kraft laughed sharply like a rich lady overpowering the rest of her 'friends' when he saw the cold hard figures. He even created the illusion of him swimming in the pile of cash they were earning behind him. Kiyu rolled her eyes but demanded El Presidente to praise her too.
"What is there to praise? I always knew that you can do this if you want to. How do you like me taking over this Dungeon and Pandas endeavour? I could make it big fast." Kraft now raised both of his hands while sitting on his couch – apologies, his throne as he was laughing hysterically, busy with his latest daydream.
"No thank you, I'll take my chances with Jin since he has more business foresight than you. If he had not set up all these options as part of the shop's foundations, you wouldn't be able to do this at all. You actually should thank him for giving you an opportunity to shine, especially when he is not around." Kiyu shrugged the crafty fox away.
"You've basically just admitted that he is being too conservative in his actions for his shop. In this modern era, everything is about timing and I happened to take this opportunity to take advantage of that, which he would not. Also, you are not denying that I have a keen sense of business ac.u.men. Muhahaha~" Kraft smiled widely and Kiyu massaged her temples. Although the relationship between her and Kraft was not far from the level of Kraft and Rex's, sometimes she forgot that she was dealing with a person who had 'narcissism' written all over his chi aura.
"Yes, yes, El Presidente. Without you, we wouldn't have established such a great head start with the almost plateauing sales which Jin has if he is around." Kiyu decided to entertain him so that he would leave her alone for at least a moment to find some sense of respite.
Yet, the fact that this particular event generated a lot of media presence had further reinforced the notion to those in the shadows watching quietly that Jin had indeed participated in the fight against Ooofpa Loopa.
While it should be classified as a confidential secret, there was nothing in the law barring dungeon suppliers to recreate a factional scene.
Some of the western dungeon suppliers had recreated the infamous '11/9' scene in their dungeons and the government wasn't able to ban them in any way. While it was true that there were some changes like how they modified the terrorists to monsters infiltrating planes to keep it 'dungeon supplier friendly', it was a blatant retelling of the incident.
In fact, it had actually helped placate the citizens' anger with the creation of these scenes and thus the government reacted with indifference to the issue. (There were even rumours that the government was actually the one who had sponsored some high levelled dungeon suppliers as well to run simulations of it too.)
After all, cultivators and mages craved to experience the 'what ifs' on their own. The scenes where they could kill the 'terrorists' and pilot the plane away to safety or rescue the workers in the tower building before it could be destroyed.
That alone was enough to evade a war in the Middle East while avoiding potential heavy backlash from the public. There were no doubt some discord against some of the vocal minority but the government was able to placate them from making too much noise. Surprisingly, this also allowed the government to proceed discreetly in carrying out specialised covert operations to find the culprits that did it and annihilate them.
Hence, it was no different for El Presidente Kraft to utilise the hype train around the true Loopa Ooofpa. He believed it would incite the curiosity in the onlookers and crave Dungeons and Pandas name on the map. Besides, he also wanted to see who else was watching them intently. At times like these, friends as well as Jin's enemies were prone to become way too prying about the major event, leading them to step out of their usual habits and allowing his Night Foxes to catch them unaware.
After all, the incident regarding Jin's fight with the Tiger Brothers had already caused turbulent waters to stir under the tranquil sea of China. Hiding was no longer an option for the Royal Panda Clan if they wanted to grow bigger, so they might as well show the world what it wanted to see!