Chapter 71: Interim Leader Shi Zuo
"I did not encounter the zombie abomination before when I was in this dungeon earlier on." A Grade 1 customer said out loud as everyone in the store who was looking at the 49 Inch TV at the top of Station 6 saw the playback of how the Zombie abomination came onto the scene.
"Yeah, me too. Boss Jin, is that some secret encounter?" A customer who was waiting for his turn asked.
"No, each and every zombie dungeon instance was modified to suit the team of cultivators' average competency. This is especially applicable for returning cultivators that participated in our dungeons. Remember the stats profile in your Pandamonium app? " Jin asked them.
"Are you saying you took into account our strengths and weaknesses along with the stats of other cultivators to create a dungeon instance suited just for us?" Another customer with spectacles asked.
"Mmhmm. For Station 6, there are two Grade 3 cultivators as you can see the stats on the wall mounted TV. Both of the squads each have a Grade 2 Peak cultivator as well and the rest are Grade 2. The zombie abomination was created to challenge the Grade 3 and Grade 2 cultivators. " Jin explained.
"If your team consists of mainly Grade 1 cultivators, the zombie abomination will not appear and that particular team will be able to focus on learning how to fight and handle the pressure of many enemies."
"Oh my gosh, Boss Jin. Can I call you my master?" A customer wanted to bow down and prostrate in front of Boss Jin.
The other customers who had heard the reasoning of this new dungeon instance started to respect Boss Jin. They did not expect Boss Jin to go so far thinking and caring for the growth of the cultivators participating his dungeon instances.
"Boss, now I understand why your dungeon instances have such exorbitant prices attached to it. You are actually tailoring the fights for the whole team while personalising it based on our stats." An office lady gave a thumbs up to him after noting that the price of the zombie dungeon instance was at 350 Yuan. Some of the newer customers saw him in a different perspective.
"It is all about the experience. Subsequent dungeon instances will follow this model in the future unless explicitly stated like the Goblin and Zither Mistress dungeon instances." Jin smiled at them.
"I wholly agree about the part on dungeon experience and I respect Boss Jin for it too. Tailoring the dungeon instances required a lot of information and complex manipulation of the dimensional space. Seeing how high tech your dungeon instance is, you must either be a highly specialised computer expert with good knowledge in the creating dimensional spaces or you hired an excellent team of developers." Mr Know It All customer happened to speak out and some of the customers started to bootlick Boss Jin even more.
"Does that mean you recorded all our information and powers into your database system? Is it really secure? Although I know we indirectly allowed the collection of personal data as stated in the dungeon supplier's general terms and agreement. But what if other people are able to hack your database and access it?" Suddenly, a concerned customer started to ask.
"Nope, that will never ever happen. Rest assured, all your information will be protected with the highest guarantee. If it is gone or had I been hacked, I will behead myself and put it in a toilet bowl for you to use." Jin confidently affirmed the concerns of his customer.
"Seeing how he sells such cutting edge technology embedded in these dungeon instances along with all these awfully cute animal AIs, I have full confidence in Boss Jin's data security." Mr Know It All backed up Jin and other customers started to believe in him too.
"Thank you for the compliment but let's continue watching. I believed Shi Zuo is about to do something." Jin smiled and gestured his hand towards the TV.
"Shi Zuo, what's your plan?!" Bu Dong did not mind letting Shi Zuo lead the battle. He was, after all, more of a competent fighter rather than a strategic leader in the battle.
"You still have that black talisman that Captain Hei gave you right?" Shi Zuo seemed to be searching for something in his storage ring as Yue Han guarded him. Currently, Xiong Da the Hippo was the only one in the clash with the zombie abomination.
"Yes, but he had not given me any information regarding its uses. I just assumed it would be useful if we are in a pinch." Bu Dong blocked a punch from a zombie with his sword and immediately slashed it down.
"Guys, hurry up! I do not have all day to play with him". Xiong Da was getting tired and had a bit of difficulty trying to dodge the blows of the abomination. Thus, he was using his two handed war club to parry its blows else he would take the blow like a staunch hippo. However, he would not be able to hold long if Squad B could not think of something fast.
"Found it!" Shi Zuo used some strength to pull an item out from the storage ring and it was an ancient looking two handed iron axe with a stone grip. What was mind boggling about it was its size. It was as large as Shi Zuo himself and he had difficulty dragging it forward.
"Bat! I need you to divert its attention and have its back facing me. If you are able to bring it close to me, that would be great because this weapon is so freaking heavy!" Shi Zuo told his commands to Yue Han the Bat but he got nervous.
"What if– Damn it! Fine! I will do what I can!" Yue Han swallowed his nervousness down his throat and was determined to move forward. How could he be frightened at this point when everyone was trying their best?
"We will provide you support too!" Apparently, some of the Panda foot archers were able to eavesdrop on their conversation and the cultivators realised it could be due to the open voice transmission channel which Captain Hei talked about.
"Tortoise, how are you holding up?" Bu Dong headed over to Kong Xian the Tortoise and assisted him with the zombie killing.
"Not too bad but your presence lifted some pressure from me." Kong Xian wiped his sweat off his forehead.
"I remembered you had a skill…erm a shout that provoke enemies." Bu Dong continued to transmit his conversation to the open channel.
"Yes, the Tortoise War Cry but if I do that, I might be overwhelmed by other zombies. Why would you want me to use that?" Kong Xian stabbed his two handed sword through two zombies.
"Bat will be distracting the abomination right? That will leave Hippo free from the Zombie abomination's attention. Let Hippo join up with Tortoise since Hippo's area wide attacks will do the job against that many zombies." Shi Zuo spoke in the open channel as well.
"Panda Archers, I noticed you occasionally used fire arrows. Can you use them on the zombie abomination to slow it down as Bat distracts it!" Shi Zuo was decisive and firm in his orders. While he might be playing around with his girlfriend Luo Bo, he was actually very serious when it comes to his work. The attention to details could have made him a respectable worker in the company but his playfulness left a deeper impression on most coworkers.
Five of the Panda foot archers on the Great Wall acknowledged and readied their bows. "Big Bro Hippo, break off on my count!" Yue Han ran in the opposite direction of the zombie abomination and into the woods.
It was not obvious what Yue Han was doing to the rest of the squad but he was actually gaining as much momentum as he could to activate his sword art. His speed became fast enough to jump between trees in order to climb higher into the air.
"Sword Art! Descension Sword of the Blind Bat!" Yue Han shouted and his chi propelled him upwards to the sky to about 60 metres in the air. While in mid air, he immediately aimed his sword towards the zombie abomination and started to dive down in an angle considering the distance between him and the abomination.
"Sword Art! Shadow Sword of the Blind Bat!" This time round, Yue Han's cultivation style, the Blind Bat Style, portrayed two bat silhouettes right above him swooping down. His body started to emit chi which temporarily altered the properties of his body into a semi translucent shadow form along with his sword.
"Now!" Yue Han yelled.
The chi emitted by two sword arts was sufficient enough to catch the zombie abomination's attention and Xiong Da the Hippo took this precious opportunity to sidestep and smashed his war club on its feet. The abomination turned to face Xiong Da which was ironically the direction towards Shi Zuo.
The Zombie abomination was now crippled and hence an easier target for Shi Zuo later on. It also gave Shi Zuo enough time to gather his chi for his attack against the zombie abomination.
Although there was some movement by the zombie abomination, Yue Han was able to adjust his trajectory and struck with tremendous force. Although it was a deep flesh wound, it was not strong enough to nearly cut its arm away.
In the shadow form, Yue Han was able to pierce through the zombie abomination without colliding into it. He then landed safely without damaging his body from the dive because of his shadow form. However, the chi consumption was high so he had no choice but hope he was able to lure it as near as he could to Shi Zuo.
Xiong Da took out the same few chi generation bottles he used earlier and threw to Shi Zuo and Bu Dong. "Drink it! The chi regeneration from this bottle is superb!" For the team to succeed, Xiong Da believed it did not matter to share some of his consumables.
"This will be a great help!" Shi Zuo raised the bottle up to thank Xiong Da. After drinking, he smashed the bottle on a zombie's head that came too close to him and later used the half broken bottle to pierce its neck.
Meanwhile, the team of Panda foot archers who listened to Shi Zuo orders took aim with a fire burning at the tip of their arrows. They simultaneously loosen their arrows and all five fire arrows accurately lodged itself on the zombie abomination. There was one shot that went into the wound that Yue Han had previously created.
As if the abomination understood pain, it raged and flailed its hands even more wildly but at a much slower rate due to the burning fire arrows. Bu Dong saw it and suddenly thought that his intermediate sword art might actually have a chance against it and thus his confidence grew back.
Xiong Da immediately aided Kong Xian after drinking his bottle of chi regeneration and passed the last remaining bottle to Kong Xian. "I will cover you for a while, drink it and later attract the zombies away from the abomination."
"Thank you for this kindness." Kong Xian nodded at Xiong Da and started to drink while Xiong Da smashed a few more undead skulls into oblivion.
"Bu Dong! I might need more time!" It was obvious Shi Zuo's output of chi was increasing but controlled to prevent it from attracting the attention of the zombie abomination. Yue Han was also steadily luring it closer to Shi Zuo but he was reaching the time limit of his shadow form.
Considering the situation, Bu Dong took out the black talisman with the red symbols from his storage ring. It started to glow warmly as he held it on his hands.
"I hope this will really help."