Chapter 510: The Portrai

The Figure Fighter game was the only major thing Jin would have to redesign else the store owners were more than just happy with their own instances. Some did ask for some minor tweaks to smoothen their work process before the grand opening, but nothing that would take too much out of his time. They were all was busy unpacking their supplies and preparing their own special events and discounts to welcome their guests for the big day tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Jin went off on his final round checking if the miscellaneous facilities in the Tiangong Tree Mall were working as intended. The toilet instances were the same ones he used for his store, placed at each level as well as inside the store instances. The only inconvenience was that the Pandamonium App was required since it was instance based, yet their high if not, perfect level of cleanliness could put other toilets in the world to shame.

The mall’s lights were also functioning well, and the air conditioning in the area was lukewarm for the current weather. The railings and floor on every level were all custom made, especially with the railing guard. Tree-like branches were being fused with the glass on the railing while the tiles were polished quality wood with some greenery placed at the side.

There were bins at several strategic points the System had determined to be the places with the most amount of human traffic. Quite convenient for Jin as there was no need for cleaners, the trash would be sorted automatically (even in the various food store instances) as an effort to recycle.

The Lost Tech Recycler was always ready to accept any trash that was given to it, and the System was not going to let any go to waste. Alternatively, it could always be given to the Lost Tech Counterfeiter as energy resource for future productions.

Oh, and the possible litterbugs? They would receive a warning by the all seeing System via the Pandamonium App as well as an immediate deduction of five Panda medals if they had any. Further violations would be reported to the police or to the social public department to have their well-being scores amended.

Information plaques had been placed on the ceilings to indicate where the lifts and toilets were. Jin believed he had everything covered except for one last thing. The most important facility that was situated at the highest level of the Tree Mall has been reserved solely for it.

His new store.

Jin figured since he was the one creating this Tree Mall, which was fundamentally unique, he might as well join in and relocate his store.

The flooring of the top level incorporated the entire diameter of the tree and Jin had gone for an open air concept for it. It was a marvel how there was a glass dome ceiling at the top of the tree while the tree’s branches were converging to provide sufficient shade.

If someone were to pay closer attention, they would realise that the tree branches had been grown systematically in a way which covered sufficiently to allow pockets of sunlight to enter the top level as it encroached over the reinforced glass dome.

In addition, the top level was modelled to be similar to a bamboo forest park with patches of bamboo trees along the pathway and diverging from both sides of the paths into various ancient Chinese styled pavilions. People could either sit and chat or enjoy the tranquillity of the medium size pond with a rocky landscape right beside the pavilions.

During the night, there would be garden lamps in the shape of Chinese lanterns illuminating the path, providing the bamboo forest part with a mild glowing yellowish shine, giving off a mystical feeling with the night sky above.

With it being one of the tallest ‘buildings’ in the area, Jin believed that the visitors might find the occasional star twinkling or moon glowing its soft radiance down to the bamboo forest.

The pavilions were painted black and gold to have a stark contrast with the bamboo forest, blending it nicely regardless of day and night. Yet, the most striking feature was the interior design architecture.

The intricate design of pandas playing or lazing around was crafted within the roofs of the multiple pavilions scattered across the bamboo forest part. One could see the pavilion was meant as a place to have their guard down and enjoy the scenery. However, there was one particular pavilion clearly different.

It was crafted with an artwork of ten Foxes, a Red Panda, a Penguin and a Snake altogether. While Milk, Peppers and Zeru did not have an animal cultivation style, they were portrayed within the ceiling artwork in other ways. The Giant Book which Milk used was seen along with the Red Panda and Penguin while the snake wrapped itself around a wooden staff. Pictures of lotus flowers were painted at the corners of the roof while the foxes were playing hide and seek within the flower fields.

As for Jin’s store? It was at the centre of the Bamboo Forest Park where it was placed on an elevated sloped platform. Was it a physical shop? Nope. Was it a statue? Nope. What was standing at the centre of the elevated platform was actually a mega sized portrait of Jin wearing his Half Panda Mask, along with his retainers and monsters in it.

The Master of the System was at the centre sleeping on the belly of a Giant Panda. Qiu Yue was on the right paw of the Giant Panda surrounded by red pandas holding various items, including a crown and a bag of gold. Lynn was on the left paw demonstrating some of her skills to her penguins, some of which were in ninja attire. Separately, Peppers was sitting cross-legged at the top of the Panda’s head reading one of her books.

Shu, the Ancient Treant was right beside the sleeping Panda. The Great White Snake lying around Shu’s protruded roots was quietly staring at something outside the picture and acted as Ke Mi’s cushion, who was immersed in playing the Zither. Naturally, the Praying Mantis was also present blending with the giant tree itself.

Milk and Zeru were both above Peppers on one large branch, eyes looking towards their sleeping master while Yun was sitting alone at the other side of the branch, looking away into the far space seemingly enjoying the ‘wind’ of the scenery.

The portrait also featured the three evolved Goblins riding Mr Oink’s Death Rider Form while a Wyvern had spread his wings attempting to squeeze in. Their shadows on the ground was noticeably different as it depicted their former selves being a playful trio.

The Wyrm Ants family had popped their heads out of the bottom of Shu spewing a minuscule amount of fire and ice as if they were communicating with each other. Beyond Shu’s roots, Ayse and the other humanoid researchers were seen recording some experiments as they observed the Dark Templars and Baphomet worshipping Lord Wolte in an underground cavern.

At the left side of the portrait, Sandy had used her sand powers to create a sandcastle. Inside that sandcastle, Half Ghoul Lord Derek could be seen creating more zombies with his makeshift Frankenstein machine. In the opposite part of the sandcastle, the werejackals and werecats were taking the effort to open a vault seemingly continuing what they had attempted in the Bank Heist Instance.

Separately, at the centre of the sandcastle, there was a spiral staircase up to the second floor. The Jack-o-Lantern was running upwards followed by some Boar Knights that connects to a long corridor which eventually led to Lord Moloch sitting on a throne with his maids and subjects bowing towards him in another room, supposedly the sandcastle’s throne hall.

Above the sandcastle was the Black Disaster, General Nubwort standing proud with a few of his orc officers. Unfortunately, they were overshadowed by a working Mechataur who was blowing steam outwards, which somehow seemed to have ruffled the leaves of Shu.

Meanwhile, Zhi Nu and Niu Lang were behaving like a lovey-dovey couple sharing some ice cream at the shoulders of Mechataur. At various parts of the giant robots, robot crawlers could be seen repairing it.

The upper part of the portrait had clouds mixed with thunder revealing the silhouette of Mr Derpy and his minions were trying their hardest to cling on to him. A bit further back of the portrait was a mountainous cliff where Keyrin was standing proud and tall summoning the clouds and thunder out.

A leg of the Transforming Spider, Spiky was shown at the side of the mountainous cliff too, as if it was too big for it to present its entire self within the portrait. The Fire Lion Demon and Water Snake were also present, still battling each other in a small land of tundra. The picture of them was a lot further into the background and hard to see without a closer look.

On the other side of the picture, the Titan Knight looked outwards as if trying to protect the Tree Treant from something and the Robotic Arachnid had crawled up the Knight’s chest. The Savants that were featured in the Shaolin Instance had drawn their weapons towards a monster with a sinister Black Aura revolving around him, and it was hiding at the corner of the picture.

That was none other than Diabolos who was still asleep within its protective barrier. Further into the background was the Fallen Santa riding his chariot of evil ready to throw more snowballs as two of his Spartan Clockwork soldiers had taken the reins for the flying deer chariot.

As for Kraft and his foxes? They were once again hidden all over the portrait. Even the sealed up Rex could be found within the lining of the protective barriers against Diabolos.

The System had informed Jin that it would gift him something for all his hard work it had done for the Shopping District especially since it did not formally issue a mission for him.

Jin had not paid any heed to the System’s words as he doubted it would be something valuable, seeing as there had been no objectives to complete. That was until he saw this mega portrait right in front of him.

The corners of the portrait were safely protected by a golden metal frame with even more Pandas on it while most of the frame consisted of high quality bamboo. This large portrait was floating as if it was being levitated by a magnet.

Jin was speechless from the artwork as his eyes slowly scanned over all the tiny details of it, potentially rivalling the famous historical portraits in the London Royal Museums.

“System will update the artwork once User has captured more monsters.” The System explained that the portrait was an ever evolving piece of art and told Jin not to worry about security or potential stains to the artwork.

Going one step beyond if someone tried to take a video or picture of it, it would suffer from photo manipulation effects which would cause fuzziness on the picture or video taken, rendering the photo useless.

As Jin was about to ask how to enter the store instance of the revised Dungeons and Pandas, he realised that the elevated slope platform had the answers, demonstrating how to do so with the QR code engraved on the slope itself.

The dungeon supplier smiled as he took a few steps back and replied to the System with regards to the portrait.

“System, for something so omnipotent, you missed out the most crucial detail within this whole portrait.” Jin said as he heaved his breath out and when relaxed, he figured out where to insert that particular detail.

The System analysed the portrait once more and could not determine the missing link that Jin was talking about. “Please specify what System had missed out.”

The Dungeon Supplier walked towards the portrait, going through the forcefield which was set up to protect the precious portrait. Jin then placed his finger at his ‘chest’ on the picture.

“You.”

He then explicitly told the System to add his store signboard and place in such a way as if Jin was holding the signboard tightly even though he was asleep.

“Now the artwork is complete.” Jin smiled widely as he nodded his head in approval.