"Random Arena Battle? Are you sure?" Yue Han was a little nervous when Bu Dong said that. "Ah, don't you worry Yue Han. I'll pay for you this time round too." Bu Dong pats his good friend on the back.
Bu Dong knew Yue Han did not like to experience the unknown as much as he did but Yue Han had always been a very good friend to him. No matter thick or thin, Yue Han would go through with Bu Dong's bravado. Seeing how Yue Han tried his best all the time for Bu Dong, Bu Dong concluded that the money he spent was nothing compared to the steadfast friendship and support he received.
Hearing that Bu Dong would pay for the random arena battle ticket, Yue Han agreed with a small sigh.
The moment they bought the tickets, a notification appeared on their pandamonium app. Jin had now added a notification feature for all the dungeons he created.
Jin did this is to help facilitate his work or else every single new customer would ask him for an explanation. While he was happy to help out and explain the workings of the dungeons to every single customer that came in, he was after all the only one person manning the store.
Explaining to someone would occupy his time, which could otherwise be used to serve other customers that were waiting for their turn.
The queue could get long at times and the turnover of dungeons was already being better managed due to the new team merging ability by the system. Hence, one of the few things that were impeding the whole waiting process was he himself.
In the short notification, there was a short thank you for purchasing the dungeon, a synopsis, the special rules (if any), as well as the potential rewards they could receive from each dungeon.
He remembered a customer saying that it would be ridiculous to try a dungeon and hope to get a reward by carving into every single monster, holding the wishful thoughts that you might potentially find something in a monster.
Hence, he decided to place a reward chest at the end of every dungeon, which now included a number of physical panda medals they would certainly earn as well as a possible item reward, which the system would determine randomly.
The real panda medal coins were a dilemma for Jin at first but he figured everyone had sufficient storage ring space to spare since it occupied the currency section of the storage ring, which was literally limitless. However, that was not the main point. At this age of information and technology, the cashless transactions made money feel like it was merely a bit. A series of ones and zeros.
That was why he felt that he wanted to make the cultivators feel as if they really earned something rewarding from the dungeons. The weight of the coins would give the customers a sense of satisfaction that outweighed the practicality of it.
Of course, the panda medal coins could be changed into digital ones if the customers wished for it. All the service instances, including the underground stores, would allow both physical medal coins and digital wallets.
Both Yue Han and Bu Dong read the information regarding the random arena battle and started to read on about the details.
The rules were simple. A cultivator would fight three stages of monsters. In each stage, the monster could differ from a badass boss monster to a measly minion. At the end of the stage, a bottle of low chi regeneration and low health recovery potion would be given to each cultivator. Whenever the cultivator passed a stage, they would win a set amount of panda medal coins. Even if they lost, they would still be able to keep the set of panda medal coins.
"This is not too bad." Yue Han commented as he read through the notification. "Dumb dumb, it's basically the same as every dungeon. It is just that they give a set of potions after each fight." Bu Dong shook his head at Yue Han.
"If only they gave such a potion for each 'stage' of the themed fights. That would be most wonderful." Yue Han sighed but Jin explained his reasoning.
"I made some slight adjustments to every dungeon so that you will now be able to find a set of basic potions for each individual at the start of every dungeon. I doubt that it will help you a lot if you do not have the skill, but if you use it wisely and in a timely manner, it would be a different story." Jin interjected his opinion into their conversation.
"Let's not waste any more time, get this arena battle done fast, and then go eat a good meal." Bu Dong laughed heartily and went to place his phone against the Station 3 interactive tablet to start the dungeon dimensional space.
Yue Han quickly followed Bu Dong, but not before he inserted his items into the storage panda miniature beside the TV at station 3.
When Yue Han arrived, he saw Bu Dong standing at the centre of a stadium…? That was what he thought at first. But then it suddenly clicked and he instinctively knew that it was the Roman Coliseum back when it was in its full glory.
However, the whole coliseum was silent and there was not a single soul in sight. Its emptiness combined with the scorching hot sun made the two kids feel a little uncomfortable. It felt like they were not fighting for any honour but instead were fighting for their own survival.
Bu Dong took out his weapon the moment he heard a clunking sound that he deduced was due to metal moving. Yue Han, with the Blind Bat style, concluded that there was only a single monster walking out from the metal gates ahead of them.
"Looks like I have some delicious boys to devour," Meomi licked her mouth as she cracked her whip against the floor. She finally had some proper close combat action to vent out the frustration she felt ever since her experience against the gunning giraffe girl.
There were rumours being spread around in the Pandamonium forum chat that two cats were acting as sniper supports for most bank heist scenarios but not many were able to find the cat snipers.
While it was 'programmed' or ordered by Jin for the cats to act as snipers, the cat snipers Meomi and Nyami were constantly switching their sniper nests and not many cultivators played enough to find all the possible sniper nests that the cat snipers could possibly be located.
However, Mr Know It All seemed to be collating the information he found about the dungeons and was posting on the forums quite regularly. In fact, most users upvoted a number of his guides to the point where the system pinned his dungeon guides for other cultivators to reference.
Mr Know It All slowly and surely became a minor celebrity in Jin's store though no one actually knew his real name. In addition, no one even saw him personally went into a dungeon either. He was simply lurking in Jin's store. Recently though, he was hanging around the Panda Caravan more since he was allowed to eat food with real cash and not Panda Credits.
"I have no clue what we are fighting against. Be on your guard." Bu Dong took the front guard while Yue Han was at his rear.
Meomi finally felt her blood rushing. This time it was not some silly hide and seek. It looked like it was going to be a straightforward battle. She caressed her whip as she inserted some spirit force, causing the whip to suddenly split in two.
The whip's material also hardened and slowly turned into a pair of swords. However, instead of her holding the pair of swords in her two hand-like paws, she used her tail to hold onto one sword while the other was in her right paw.
The stare off contest between Bu Dong and Meomi was concluded the moment Yue Han accidentally shuffled his leg a little.
*CLANG*
The Angry Ape Bu Dong clashed head on with Meomi and the sand surrounding their clash burst outwards, creating a temporary cloud of sand around them.
Bu Dong did not know when the sand around them would disperse so he quickly inhaled a large breath of fresh air.
Meomi though had already noticed his intent and delivered a sharp jab to Bu Dong's abdominal area. Bu dong did not expect Meomi to be that swift in her attacks and he lost the breath he was trying to hold.
Nevertheless, Bu Dong's quick thinking allowed him to call forth his cultivation, displaying three angry apes that roared so loudly that the sand cloud that was about to settle down on them to disperse away from them. Despite this, it was not the angry apes that did the dispersion as they were just a depiction of Bu Dong's power.
It was because Bu Dong had shouted extremely loudly at the same time as the appearance of angry apes that it felt like it was the apes shouting it. The shout also gave Bu Dong some breathing space as it temporarily stunned Meomi.
That was when Yue Han made his presence known. The dust cloud gave Yue Han some time to sneak up from the back to use his dive sword jump. That mere second of paralysis had given both Yue Han and Bu Dong the striking opportunity they needed to cut the cat down.
"Sword Technique! Dive Sword of the Blind Bat." Yue Han only shouted out when he was close to Meomi in order to give her as little time as possible to react. At the same time, Bu dong executed his sword technique. "Intermediate Sword Art! Lacerate in the Blazing Edge of the Angry Ape!" A flame was ignited on Bu Dong's sword and as the Ape silhouettes pound its hands to its chest, the fire grew in an instant.
Just as both the sword techniques were about to connect, a wild grin appeared on Meomi's face. While it brought some concern to Bu Dong when he saw it, he struck the werecat with no hesitation.
The stab from the back by the sword dive caused Meomi to flinch while the burning intense flame from the sword of the Angry Ape user burnt Meomi's insides as it pierced through the heart of the cat.
The werecat spat out some blood at Bu Dong before she fell to the ground breathless. This was when Bu Dong felt that it was too easy. "Maybe it's the first stage?" Yue Han also commented that the werecat was too easy to defeat.
Suddenly, Yue Han noticed that the two swords that Meomi had been holding had disappeared, but when he realised it, it was too late. The werecat's swords had activated their effect.
"What!" Yue Han felt something strangling him and when he placed his hand on his neck, he felt something blocking his neck. It even made his hands bleed when Yue Han tried to touch it. Similarly, Bu Dong was suffering from the same thing.
"Is this the whip?!" Bu Dong could barely voice out his words when the whip started to tighten itself.
Meomi had activated a quick weapon skill when she sensed she had no time to react after that second of paralysis. However, she still felt upset that she had lost to the cultivators yet again.
Bu Dong desperately began to think as his brain was dying for more oxygen. "I cannot free myself in this state; I can only save Yue Han now."
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