Chapter 110: Jin's Resolution
During that surge of memories Ke Mi transmitted to Jin, he felt the emotions that Ke Mi had experienced. He felt the rage and the hatred for the village people that discriminated against her. He felt the fear and disdain when she begged for forgiveness. But worst of all, and the most confronting of all, he felt the blank satisfaction of killing someone and the sorrowful regrets that accompanied it.
Every single day, she yearned for the need to escape from reality but as the years went by, she ultimately accepted the consequences of her rash actions, no matter how reluctantly. Jin also experienced the change of perspective that she had gone through, how she came to view everyone as a threat to her survival. She even had suicidal thoughts but because of her lifelong partner, the great white snake, she barely managed to stay sane and grew strong from her adversity.
However, that was not the most important thing that Ke Mi wanted to show Jin. What she wanted to show came next. They were her memories of after being captured by Jin. She had felt a sense of extreme hatred going through her. How she had failed to anticipate his actions and how underestimating Jin was the greatest mistake of her life.
It was then, though, that she lived out her happiest moments.
Ke Mi showed Jin that his actions of putting her in his dungeon instances gave her hope. He gave her the title Zither Mistress, which would seem like an ordinary honorary title, but to her, it felt like Jin had forgiven her of her sins and wished for her to start anew, ditching the heinous title of Lady Snake.
This small little action might not have meant much to Jin but it meant a hell of a lot to Ke Mi. In addition, this was an initiative he had taken all by himself, and he was not forced by the system to do so.
What Jin saw next was her memory of his hard work trying to revamp the Zither Mistress dungeon instance and change it into the all new music theatre dungeon instance it was now. He could have just inserted some monsters to make the fights more difficult for his customers but no he did not stop there.
Jin painstakingly recreated every single detail of a proper theatre. Although he was not very familiar on how to build an open-air theatre, he purposely took the time to search for blueprints and built a theatre from scratch.
Jin even asked Ke Mi for her opinions, which had not been necessary in her opinion, but at that moment, she felt appreciated.
Hence, this Jin that she was looking into the eyes of was not the Jin she knew, the Jin she adored. This Jin was not the Jin she was proud to call her master. She did not know how else to convey her message other than this memory transfer method.
However, this method was sufficient to break Jin's conflicted heart. He dropped his weapon and fell to his knees, crying behind the tactical mask.
Jin then remembered Yun's complaints regarding his passive behaviour and maybe she was right after all. Jin should have noticed that the things did not add up. Why did Yun complain to Jin that he needed to buck up in life all of a sudden? Wasn't it just to hint that he needed to something with his life?
It was at that moment, he realised that Zeru's last-minute advice was not about the battle against these adventurers. He remembered that his quote in the movies had originally been from his delicately portrayed internal struggle, revolving around his dilemma between protecting his master, the one and only person that really mattered to him in his life, and conforming and surrendering to the rebels.
Zeru could have dropped his weapon and broke his code of honour. Zeru could have killed his master, which his master did encourage him to do in order to save his very own life. But he did not. No matter the adversity, he had stood strong to what he believed in and fought his way through mountains upon mountains of enemies.
Jin was feeling shameful that he had not have figured out his Shifu's advice and nearly killed innocent adventurers just because the system told him it was necessary to do so. And because Jin blindly followed, he did not have a proper opinion of his own. "Living takes true courage…Thank you, Shifu for your timely reminder…." Jin had decided to make up his mind.
"You are right Ke Mi. I am not fit to be your master if I had gone through with this murder. No…I was not fit to be your master the moment I had the thoughts to kill people." Jin solemnly looked at Ke Mi as she asked her Great White Snake to lower her down. Ke Mi proceeded to give a warm, pleasant hug to Jin and he responded with a waterfall of tears.
Once Jin had calmed down, he then looked Ke Mi in the eyes with newfound resolve. "Do not worry Ke Mi, I promise you I will try and fix everything and be the master that you once saw and adored."
"Milk. Peppers. Zeru." Jin commanded and they appeared right in front of him.
"Zeru, knock out these two immobilised adventurers. Milk, go heal the other two if necessary. I should not have beaten them that badly. Peppers, prepare a magical teleportation spell to teleport these four adventurers back to their town." Jin then paused for a while and added another order for Zeru as they acknowledged their orders.
"Oh and Zeru, before you knock them out, castrate that thief for being so ball-less," Jin said with a firm tone. He did not wish to kill but seeing how spineless that thief was, he just had to teach a lesson to Charles. One that Charles would remember for life as Jin despises people who abandon their comrades. A teaching he can never forget from Ming.
The moment Charles heard that order, he panicked so much he started to spout nonsense. "You crazy Reaper! Commanding kids to fight for you. You are the one true ball-less freak!"
"Master, you are giving this dishonourable man whom was so willing to abandon his comrades too great a saving grace. You should also amputate his fingers and toes too and give them to the werehumans as snacks." Zeru suggested.
"Castration will be enough." Jin shook his head and Zeru nodded his head to show he understood.
Once Milk healed the other two, Peppers actually cast a memory manipulation spell on the three adventurers other than Charles to make them forget what had actually happened. Zeru proceeded to pull Charles' pants down and with two quick slashes of his sword. First his underwear and then his penis dropped noiselessly like a withered flower dropping onto the ground. "Dishonourable. Be thankful I am skilled." Zeru swung his sword to remove the stained blood on it before stepping aside.
Charles did not feel any pain for a moment but when he saw his flaccid penis on the floor, his whimpers turned into shouts of rage. "I WILL COME BACK TO KILL ALL OF YOU!" Charles screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Try us." Jin nodded towards Peppers and she teleported all four of them back to their town's front gate. When the deed was done, Yun instantly appeared in front of Jin with her arms folded.
"Tell me, what were you doing removing our resources from the dungeon? Have you forgotten how I can punish you, Do you want to kowtow to me now to apologise for what you have done?' Yun stared very intensely at Jin and the pressure from her was immense.
However, Jin finally stood his ground. "You and the system said yourselves that this was a personal dungeon of mine right? Then destroy this dungeon at once."
"If I destroy this dungeon, where will your monsters live?" Yun started to interrogate Jin.
"I will use the Dungeon Maker to create a service instance for them to live in. In fact, I will create something far more suitable for each and every monster I captured as well as my Bellators. They are serving me so it is natural for me to provide them with the best home I can give them." Jin replied.
"Then, how are you going to build their homes if you have no resources?" Yun questioned his method.
"You said that my Yuan can be converted into Dungeon Dollars right? The system also uses Dungeon Dollars to procure soul right? That also means the system can use Dungeon Dollars to buy Matter and Magic. So all I have to do is earn more money via the shop. I do not care if I do not receive that much of a profit if it means my monsters and bellators can have a good home." Jin tried to piece all the information he had obtained together and used them to his advantage.
"Maybe I will create more dungeon shops and open them in suitable parallel worlds. Or perhaps I will create a magical teleportation portal that periodically allows adventurers or cultivators from parallel worlds to come to my store and fight." Jin suggested more practical practices.
"But such parallel worlds might not have cultivators that have a solid dantian point like yours or resurrection like these adventurers in the dungeon world. They could die if they joined your dungeons and then you would be back to square one." Yun argued back.
"If that's the case, knock them unconscious or something. Maybe I can use a magical inscription to cause non lethal blows to those adventurers." Jin replied back.
"Why are you going for such a pacifist route? Did you not feel the adrenaline rush and enjoyment when you were in power of those adventurers' lives?" Yun mentioned how Jin was drunk with power a while back.
"You are right. I am a hypocrite like every other human you have met and will meet or maybe worse, a coward. But right now, I am a coward with the courage to not kill someone just because someone told me to. I will stop being a conformist for even a dead fish can go with the flow of things, and I am certainly not a dead fish." Jin clenched his fists when he said that.
At this moment, Yun facial expression relaxed and she clapped her hands slowly. "But in my eyes, you are no longer the coward I thought you would become. It took you a massive amount of courage to finally step out from conforming to the expectations of others."
"You have finally shown me that you have the guts to make a decision on your own despite the fact the fact that the System's method is the one of the most efficient for your path to becoming the number one dungeon supplier," Yun said as she walked towards Jin and rubbed his head.
"You and I both know though, that now that you chose to go this route, it will not be easy getting those resources," Yun said to Jin as she teleported him back to the Dungeon Maker and at interface console of the Dungeon Maker, she closed the cave opening of the dungeon. "Until you create that service instance you talked about, I will not destroy the home of your many monsters. The stress and internal pressure Jin had been experiencing for the past few hours were finally lifted off his shoulders, knowing that this small yet intense adventure had come to a close. But then he started to think and came up with an idea that he could not help but ask.
"Maybe we can raid the dungeons in this dungeon world? Get their treasures and convert them into resources. Perhaps capture more monsters too? You did say that the monsters are overflowing in this world. It should not bother anyone if we capture a few for ourselves." Jin asked Yun and she looked at him and laughed.
"Dungeon Takeovers?" Yun grinned.
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Author's Final (unfiltered and unedited) thoughts:
Hi readers, these few days might have been a weird rollercoaster ride for you but let me explain myself a little. While this explanation might not be the best of the best explanation and maybe you do not accept it, but this is the perspective that I have for this current arc. You have your rights of opinion.
Firstly, I felt that the sudden turn of tone and setting was necessary. It is to throw the readers off their comfort chair. The light tone of the novel they have been enjoying (I hope) thus far and this is how Jin felt too. Jin just followed the motion, conforming, floating around in life. He takes whatever life gave him. He adapted to it.
So this dark tone was to shake Jin too and hopefully shake the readers too. (but, of course, it seems I have underestimated the backlash.) Next, different opinions from Yun was seen. Yun had already given Jin a pep talk and that he needed to change himself. He says okay I will change but saying and doing is two different things. Will he really change? Yun wants to see whether is he going to 'change' for the better or worst.
Hence, thank you. thank you to reader Drakross and his comments in chap 109 for figuring out and interpreting what I wanted for Jin.
Jin wanted to start anew. that was why he started with the coupon booklet making but was that change enough to be anew? Yun wanted to see if he can handle the truth and if he does not, will he really change? I want Jin to experience confusion. The sudden high pressure and stress in a whole new situation. the flimsy reason for him to kill people and being influenced by external factors. If he really did what the system said, it means that all he did was to keep his mind shut and adapt to the situation. He was conforming to the system whims and that was his rationale to keep sane in this sudden stressful situation.
Therefore, like what reader Drakross said. He can use the system as a powerful motivator to change himself or use it as affirmation for him to continue staying as a conformist which I had already dropped hints all around the novel from time to time, how he conformed to life.
Then here comes to the part of killing. Some people think this is too extreme, like why would a rational person think its okay to kill? That is because he is faced in a situation where he thought he was trapped with two choices. Ignore the fact or kill something and contribute. He was thrown into that decision and he was pressed to make a decision fast.
Under a new environment he was introduced in, the internal interest of wanting to change, wanting to do something. Pressured by the fact that his bellators will support him regardlessly of what he does while secretly hoping he might do something right since they could not exactly disobey him.
Like I had said in the comments in chapt 109. Do not just judge the rationality of a person based on his personality alone. It is just one factor of an equation. No human is purely black and white like a comic book character. Everyone is grey. Different shades of grey.
TLDR: jin wants to change, he wants to take initiative in his actions. Yun challenge him to a grave situation to see if he can really change himself. he did not until things happened. Once he realised that he is more than just a conforming dead fish, he starts to take stand in this.
I am sorry if I could not convey this message well enough in the story. I will try harder but till then, thank you to those who did not drop the novel and seeing this through. Thank you to the readers who commented. I really appreciate each and every comment. They made me see your personal perspective and how I could improve my storytelling in the future too. and also, Thank you for those who read but decides to drop it because I am not competent enough in my storytelling. I respect your choice and all I can do is to improve.
till then. its back to the same old vibe of the novel with an all new Jin. (I really hope he keeps it that way.)