Chapter 419 WunderPanda's Christmas Even
It was initially a chaotic mess as the Toy Spartans assaulted not just the cultivators but the monsters as well. Even though this was supposed to be a place for the monsters to relax, Jin intentionally made this place for training alongside the cultivators to learn their tricks.
The System had a lot of information on the cultivators based on the manuals Ming passed on to Jin as one of his rewards for achieving his cultivation grade. This information was supplemented from the daily input from the cultivators fighting in dungeons too, but it was never enough. The System also wanted information on how the monsters could cooperate with the cultivators.
During the Goblin Raid Events, existing or veteran cultivators had exhibited unrecorded arts and techniques when fighting cooperatively with the monsters which surpassed the expectations of the System. Given the familiarity of the monsters by the cultivators, there was one incident where a cultivator performed a combination technique with Mr Hot and Father Hot, the two fire wyrm ants and annihilated a squadron of orcs by themselves.
Usually, those orc squadrons needed at least a group of four to five cultivators with Grades varying from three to four to defeat or at the very least suppress them entirely. However, for that particular incident, he was only a Grade 3 cultivator, and the fire wyrm ants were pegged to his power level too.
It was a similar situation to the Mentoring system which involved Milk and Peppers briefly before Jin scrapped that particular option from the store. Regrettably, it was unlikely to return since the bellators had more significant responsibilities at the present and possibly in the future too.
The combination attack incident, therefore, gave Jin and the System an idea. Instead of reviving the mentor system, the monsters could replace such a system and be more like trusted allies to the cultivators.
By assisting the cultivators through real fights, the potential growth was predicted to be higher than just fighting with random cultivators. This could also allow the monsters to expand their knowledge and increase their expertise too.
Thus, this theme park wide event instance of fighting Santa the Fallen was to gather even more information about such possible techniques and potential combination with cultivators. If the data were useful, then Jin would make them as unlockable monster partners for the cultivators to fight with rather than partnering mere randoms.
After a while, both the monsters and cultivators had a good time trashing the toy Spartans even though they were a tough bunch to handle. The System adjusted its difficulty level of each location depending on the number of cultivators and their average grade. The number of Toy Spartans being spawned were also based on the cultivators and the monsters in the vicinity.
Occasionally, both the cultivators and monsters would face against an extremely tough Toy Spartan which were levels beyond the difficulty level of the adjusted toy Spartans. This was, in fact, a fixed match since the Bellators would enter as surprise guests to weaken the Toy 'Captain' Spartan for the cultivators to kill.
However, not all of the cultivators could work happily with all the monsters. Some still had some prejudice against them, especially after fighting against the Deep Ones which was why Jin purposely made the Toy Spartans and Deep Ones' fights even fiercer, to show that the cultivators should not just judge a monster by its appearance.
Speaking of cultivators, Si Fang and gang joined with some nearby cultivators including the spying Ruby Rats and the watchful Three Eyed Tigers to fight against the toy Spartans. Jin had expected the Ruby Rats to do something underhanded, but surprisingly, they joined in with the fight and seemed to take it seriously.
"If that's the case…" Jin silently jumped to Shu to have a better view up there, as well as purposely vanishing from the fight. He took out his Tact Tweak and began to have some fun. This time round, Jin was not using them to control the monsters but the Toy Spartans. He purposely spawned some 'Elites' equipped with slightly tougher armour and better weapons to aim for the Ruby Rats.
"Let's see what kind of skills you're hiding." Jin thought while he made the Toy Spartans move towards them. As the Ruby Rats hardly entered Jin's store for dungeons but more for observation purposes, both the System and Jin were curious about the Rats' techniques. Jin might have fought against the Rats while trying to rescue Lynn, but the System did not have much observation ability outside the store. Therefore, the System did not bother Jin when he deliberately changed the System's default levels for the event.
"Do you think they will defer much from the current Rat Cultivation Manuals we have?" Jin asked the System as he sent a telepathic message via the Tact Tweak to move the monsters. Only four were on scene. One werejackal and three other Orcs who were on break from construction. He did not count Shu and the Mantis since they were currently part of the rides. Also, that rascal tree was too lazy to move his ass to do anything else than bullying people.
"Currently, most of the attacks they executed were relatively standard and corresponded to the ones found in the many Rat Cultivation Manuals we have." Just as the System finished speaking, the Ruby Rat gangsters did something out of the norm.
They gathered their chi and fired a ruby coloured energy attack. When the attack hit the Toy Spartan, crystal like particles formed around the Toy Spartan and it grew slowly as if it was some infection. That eventually caused one of the Toy Spartan fighting against the Ruby Rats to lose one of its arms mobility due to the crystallisation.
"What kind of attack is that?" Jin asked as he took the Tact Tweak and enabled the replay view mode.
"It appears to be an intermediate immobilising technique inspired by Western Magics, the Crystallisation spell to imprison something or someone and the Plague Spell for infection purposes." The System stated as it fervently collected data on the new attack. It seemed that they did not send a low level lackey for undercover work but a capable one. Jin commanded the Toy Spartan to cut that hand off before the ruby crystal particles continued to spread throughout its body.
"Is there any way to stop that chi technique from spreading to other parts of the body other than amputating?" Jin asked as he subtlety directed a bunch of Toy Spartans towards Si Fang's group and made them move away from the Ruby Rats. After which, he sent another modified Toy Spartan to the Ruby Rats.
"System cannot determine the type of infection used to spread the crystal particles. It does not permeate nor penetrate the body but rather expands and crawls over the body to immobilise it. System needs more time to analyse and understand the attack." The System said, and it made Jin worried. If capable Ruby Rat cultivators could do this on a whim, he cannot imagine what other kind of techniques they might have up their sleeves. He had yet to see what other high level cultivators were capable of.
"Perhaps, I was really too lucky fighting against Ong. Or maybe he just underestimated me to bother using such underhanded techniques." Jin thought to himself when he suddenly saw two cultivators shouting at each other.
"Oh shit, it's the Three Eyed Tigers. They recognised those Ruby Rats?" Jin asked the System, but he got no answer. Without any hesitation, what seemed to be the leader from each side of the group suddenly charged at one another. Jin knew such a thing might happen at WunderPanda Instance, but he had planned only to allow such brawls in the Cultivation Zoo.
Besides, Jin didn't expect a brawl to happen so quickly in the theme park. But as accordance with his countermeasures, a wide enough circular barrier was erected between the both of them in the midst of a Theme Park Event. The barrier subsequently pushed monsters, the toy Spartans and cultivators away from the area. Eventually, blue and white police looking lines appeared, wrapping around the circular barrier as if to discourage people from coming close.
This gave the Three Eyed Tiger and Ruby Rat triad members some 'breathing' space to settle their differences as the chaos outside the barrier continued on. The remaining members from both triads were suddenly flooded with the Toy Spartans and had no time to bicker properly.
"There it is again! That red ruby chi!" Jin exclaimed in his thoughts as he saw the Ruby Rat team leader now using a kick enchanted with that Red Ruby Chi against the Three Eyed Tiger. In response, the Three Eyed Tiger evaded the attack, only for Jin to realise that a spiritual Eye was at the top of the Tiger Triad member's forehead.
"Excellent data." The System spoke as if in happiness when the two continued their bout. In the meantime, some parts of the park instance had gotten rid of the Toy Spartans. The cultivators proceed to free the Wunder Pandit from the snowball attack that it suffered by digging them out of the snow pile and pulling them out.
The Wunder Pandits soon after stood up and did its job by shining a bright light at Santa the Fallen whenever he came near the cleared regions again. Somehow, the bright light caused him to panic and wallowed in pain whenever the light touched him as if it was burning him up. The dark night atmosphere became slightly brighter with each revived Wunder Pandit doing their best to shine their light at Santa the Fallen.
In due time, almost all of the Wunder Pandits were revived from the terrible clutches of the cold, snowy burial and consistently shone their light at Santa. Eventually, he knew that it was time to get away before he and his reindeers were killed by the Wunder Pandits.
The Santa gave its last 'Ho Ho Ho' before finally escaping back to the far end of the instance and later disappearing in thin air.
At the very end of the event, the cultivators who participated were rewarded with Panda Medals, ranging from 1 bronze medal to 1 gold medal depending on the amount of participation. The monsters were also given additional System points to aid in their recovery as well as to improve themselves. (Alternatively, use those system points for recreational activities like more rides and games!)
Those cultivators who had been defeated were sent to the Luxury Recovery Instance for observation. The only difference was that they were allowed to return to WunderPanda Theme Park for free once.
Any defeats following the first would require the cultivators to buy a new ticket to re-enter the WunderPanda should they desire. This applied to any defeats they suffered during their stay in WunderPanda, including duels.
Speaking of duels, the duel between the two triad team leaders had been ongoing even after the end of the event. It attracted many people as it became the first cultivator versus cultivator match that happened in Jin's store.
It was then the Wunder Pandit came to explain that a Cultivation Zoo was in the works for the WunderPanda instance thus they were permitted to duel. However, the duel required both parties to be willing since it would go on until one was defeated or surrendered. Should one refuse and the other cultivator proceed to beat him up, that cultivator would be subjected to disciplinary actions as per the standards of Cultivation Zoo rules.
Seeing that the Ruby Rat Triad Team Leader was being put into the spotlight, he voluntarily surrendered the duel before any further developments could occur or else news of him would put the undercover team leader in the cross eyes of his Ruby Rat Boss, Wo De Tian.
"That is one way to snuff the rats out from hiding, I guess." Jin giggled a little before appearing behind Si Fang and tapping on his shoulder, scaring him for a moment.
"Where have you been?!" He Rong asked and Jin replied that it was the first ever live event in the theme park, so he needed to leave the scene to ensure that it proceeded smoothly.
"Heh, it did not proceed that smoothly for Si Fang, hahahaha!" Lai Fu said as he explained what other unfortunate things that had happened to him when Jin was away even though they did not knew that the Dungeon Supplier was on the lookout the entire time.