1917 Surveying the Lands
"Well, good hunch then. Keep it up," Kraft smirked and the Night Foxes messaged them through the System to return so that they could have the contract signed. Chancellor Ma Ge kept his word and the discounts were applied to the Tianjin Road while they had obtained the deed for Liu Qian Town too. While they were written to be under the property of Panda Inc, the Royal Horses indicated to Jin that if he were to ever change the company or dissolve the company, those lands would still belong to him because of his title. Selling it back to the government or the Ministry of Land would not pose too much of a trouble as well due to his current title.
Jin had no idea that being a Royal Zodiac Head despite it not being announced officially had its perks too. When the deed was done, every one of them returned to their abodes to have a rest except for the Dungeon Supplier who wanted to have a look at Liu Qian Town and Tianjin Road as soon as possible. Despite the fact that Jin would have it in his hands within a few weeks, he wished to take a look at the current state of the town and attempted to visualise the possibility that he could do with it. Kraft criticised Jin for being too hardworking but he did not know how the current boss of Panda Inc was feeling.
Even though he was tired, he finally obtained the chance to expand. Not just in one place but in two simultaneous areas. Of course, he could take it slow and build slowly but time was money. This was especially so when he had spent millions to obtain those two lands despite that they were bought at literally the best price possible. (Whoever asked for discounts for the lands?! Only Jin dared to do that and managed to succeed in it too.)
Hence, the Dungeon Supplier went to Tianjin Road since the System already had found a secret passage without any security cameras and low traffic for Jin to teleport in. When he reached the area, it was undoubtedly crowded with people and he noticed that 800 square feet of land was literally a small box that could only fit in at most three cars in that space. Other than that, there was nothing special about it. But if you were to think based on its price, the dynamic human crowd walking around the area was more than what he had expected. He checked his watch to make sure that he got the day correctly and despite it being just a Wednesday with no festivals, it was still chockful of tourists roaming the streets, most of which were overflowing from Nanjing road. "There is no I can make the very same Tree Mall right over here. Maybe a café might be a good storefront?" Jin thought to himself as he surveyed the area where a majority of the buildings had the old European feel to Nanjing road due to its history. It would be weird to break the immersion of the 'theme' of Nanjing but he also knows that if he does not stand out among these shops, his store might suffer some repercussions no matter how reputable he was in Shenzhen. After all, what works in one area does not necessitate that people could replicate the same success again. The café could be a decent idea but it was still missing the 'poof' factor that the Tree Mall had. Sometimes it was true that size does matter as that would allow people to notice. But just as he was about to give up thinking for the moment, he suddenly saw a group of girls wearing panda shirts, obviously bought from Shanghai Zoo.
That was when Jin laughed at himself. He had the best weapon of this while and he had forgotten that he could use it to the best of his abilities. In fact, it was his right to use that since he was the Head of the Royal Panda Zodiac Clan.
"Just use Pandas. Plain and simple. Pfft why do I need to think so hard." Jin chuckled at himself once more before he stood like an idiot at the empty 800 square feet of land that had been barred by the Ministry of Land's physical barriers from entering. "I will get back to you. You are my next money maker." Jin said to the land and walked away until the System had determined that there were no more cameras or humans around within its vicinity to teleport Jin to his next destination.
At first, when he reached Liu Qian Town, it was practically a rural underdeveloped town which was in high contrast with what he had seen on Tianjin Road. Now Jin understood why Ma Ge wanted Jin to take this land. The main objective was not because he wanted that manufacturing hub up as hinted by Kraft but to revitalise this particular town. To give these townsfolks one more chance in life just as how he had given his Tian Gong District's shop owners a second chance to start again after the attack from the Royal Tiger Zodiac Clan's Triad. But this was definitely much harder to achieve compared to the Tree Mall mainly due to the fact that this town was practically in rural lands because of the lack of development in the area. By using his Maqi to hide his presence as he walked around the area, hopefully not to get noticed by people, he had managed to take his time to survey the area exploring things and facts that the land deed was not able to describe or managed to hide. There was a major super highway right above the town and he was sure it connected to the rest of the developed areas both north and south of the town. He could see how this was definitely a great space to make the manufacturing hub a reality and that super highway that was literally right above the town was able to expand and come into Liu Qian Town. It was to the point Jin believed that he needed to bring all of the townsfolks together to talk before he made any significant developments. This was especially so when he saw how most of the houses were rundown and perhaps somewhat appalling that he found there were still these kinds of underdeveloped towns especially within Beijing District. (This definitely showed that he was still protected by the System, making him a frog in a well and not knowing about the state of the world he was in.) He would require to get their opinion and make them understand that if he were to develop the town, there was an essential need to break everything down and grow again. He believed he would be met with significant resistance from the elderlies but unless he met them, there was no way to know of their opinions. The younglings might want the change but as he walked around the area, he could see that the population was mostly the elders and the young were only there because they might be too young or they did not want to leave their elders alone because of the moral value of filial piety. But whether it was a forced or voluntary decision, that was not what Jin could deduce unless he learned of them and that would be a tad impossible due to the amount of work he had. "Maybe I can put a liaison here to settle them down…" Jin thought to himself and suddenly heard a loud howl echoing through the area. Unlike the rest of the townsfolks, Jin was the only one who was alert, and that somehow broke his 'low profile'. It was at that point, the townsfolks noticed him and laughed. "You must be a traveller to rest before going to other cities, right?" One of the elders said and Jin pretended and went with the flow.
"You guys are not scared of it?" "We are very near the protected borders but the barriers had been holding them well… Erm well enough unless those monsters were from Mongolia." The Elder seemed like he was trying to face certain memories that had surfaced when he talked about it.
"Which Royal Zodiac Clan is supposed to protect this place? There must be border guards from them." "This is a rural place, the regular military guards are the ones protecting the area. The Royal Zodiacs won't come here. But worry not. Perhaps they did not want their name to be sullied, the home army had been rather responsive to attacks and they would come to warn us if there were any breach." Suddenly another loud wave of howling was heard consecutively and the elder paused what he had been saying. "I suggest you take refuge in your hotel room for now." The old man said as he could see a man in uniform running hectically towards the elder.
"Chief! Chief! It's best to vacate the town or at least hide in the 'Liu Ah Liu'." The young military soldier said as he was holding his rifle and Jin could see that it was fully loaded compared to the usual three bullets that were used for guard duties. In the meantime, the System reported to him that Liu Ah Liu was the only hotel in the area to serve people who needed an overnight stay before moving to other cities. Also, the coincidence to see that the rumoured Chief who had held multiple debts was right in front of him but that was not the main concern as Jin was mildly interested in the commotion that happened.
This chapt𝙚r is updated by fr(e)ew𝒆bnov(e)l.com