Chapter 54: Provoking Peppers
Jin knew the main mission objective was to get 200 different looking zombies but he did not know how strong those zombies would be. What if they were cultivator grade zombies?
Even if they were not sane or conscious, defeating a zombie with a similar grade cultivator would prove to be a challenge. Therefore, he decided to bring out Peppers, the Fiery Demonic Queen Sage…or whatever she was called because she seems to change her title on a regular basis.
"Assuming they do not have cultivation abilities, I still could not think of a way of defeating 200 zombies with Panda Yawning. I will definitely be exhausted at the end of 10 chi beams. It will also be difficult even with the help of Peppers."
Jin decided to have a better understanding of the current situation and went to the top of the abandoned building they were in. Milk and Peppers followed behind Jin and they encountered no sign of zombies as they reached the top of the building.
"I chose the safest area for you to be teleported to. Aren't I kind?" Yun continued to sip her coffee while surfing the net on the Panda Port PC.
She was right.
Upon looking out from the roof of the abandoned building, there were zombies hidden in every corner of the streets even though the sun was out. Some were strolling mindlessly while others kept bumping into each other.
"Guess they are more towards the western cultured zombies…?" Jin tried to crack his brain.
"Are there even different races of zombies?" Peppers asked as she looked at the chaos around them.
"Zombies from our Chinese folklore do not even venture out during the day. I am not entirely sure about Western myths but I guess they are already quite different to begin with. Besides this is an entirely different world from what we know of. Wait, are you not the one responsible for the Monster Dictionary App? Why are you asking me this question?" Jin's brows furrowed as he responded to Peppers.
"Hmmph, I am just testing you." Peppers folded her arm and continued to ignore Jin. Or she tried to.
"That does not mean those zombies are not related to us. Every myth and tale has a speck of truth in it." Milk yawned a little.
"Yun, does Peppers and Milk killing zombies affect my secondary mission objective?" Jin suddenly thought about it.
"Yes, they do if you count them," Yun replied.
"Count them?" Jin needed more clarification.
"Well yeah, I could ask the system not to count their kills so your secondary mission objective will still be valid," Yun replied back again while she finally read on the baby panda news on the internet.
"I feel that it's too hard to complete the mission objective," Jin complained a little.
"Yes Mr Obvious, That is why it is called the secondary objective and not the main." Yun's eyes rolled up at Jin's ridiculous questions. "Of course the rewards will be good. Remember Bam and Boo? If you did not complete the secondary objectives, you will still obtain Bam and Boo."
"Just that, you will not have the other functions unlocked, for example, the Bamboo Cannon or Bamboo Bo." Yun clicked on more news with regards to the baby panda. "So cute." She thought to herself.
Jin disregarded Yun's sarcasm and he continued to survey the area for the next 30 minutes. The zombies' movements were too random but he noticed that they reacted a lot to sound when a zombie accidentally made it. "Yeap, definitely western zombies in a Chinese city. Such irony."
"Are you going to do something soon? I am bored." Peppers placed her hand on the railings and stared blankly at the local scenery.
"Say, do you have any spells that can be used to copy a certain technique. Hmmm…something like copying a fireball spell into a one time use fireball scroll?"
"Ehhh let me check my bag." Peppers opened her bag and she stared at it for a long time. Subsequently, she took out a thick tome with an empty green cover and blank pages.
"I have a spell copying tome which you can use and there are 250 pages in it. Just place the spell incantations into the first page of the tome and it will copy the same spell to the other 249 pages. Quite handy is it not?" Peppers started to grin evilly.
"Actually, I was thinking of imprinting the chi beam from Panda Yawning into the spell. I have no idea how to change it into an incantation." Jin gave an awkward laughter towards Pepper and Pepper's face changed dramatically to an irritated look.
"If not for the fact that exploding you will cause you to fail your mission and the absolute loyalty I had graciously given to you even though you did not deserve it, I would have done it straight away." Peppers groaned in a low voice.
"Eh? I thought Yun said she will give you a jar of gummies if you listened to Jin?" Milk retorted.
"You!! " Peppers face suddenly turned red and took out another scroll and shoved it to Jin before she turned her back at him.
"Shoot your chi beam into this scroll. It will turn it into an incantation." Peppers did not face Jin while she talked. Milk could see her pouting at the side and could not resist but giggled.
"Milk, are you able to create an anti-acoustic dome barrier around us?" Milk was able to fulfil Jin's request, making Jin feel that Milk was one of the best supporters he could ever have.
She casted it on the floor right beside Jin and a dome-like barrier was created and expanded to accommodate the trio. Suddenly Jin had an even more brilliant idea. "Hey, Peppers, how about you cast the biggest explosion you could ever muster into this scroll?"
"Why should I do that?" Peppers started to scoff at him
"Because I am your master." Jin became a little pretentious.
"My only master is one who is able to harness the power of explosions, not a panda user!" Peppers suddenly realised what Jin could possibly be doing.
"Are you afraid your explosion cannot beat my awesome chi beam?" Milk could not stand Jin's bad acting or lying. She could not tell the difference but she knew she needed to step back a little before things started to get heated literally.
"What? We saw your chi beam against the fight against Lai Fu! It was like as weak as a slime." Peppers remembered that Jin needed her help against the Grade 4 cultivator, Lai Fu.
"That was not even my full power." Jin grew proud while trying to make Peppers think he was hiding something. However, both the bellators knew that this was a poorly done ruse against Peppers.
"Ohhh, you think you can trick me by provoking me to attack you so you can capture the explosion spell. Well too bad, no. I will not waste mana doing such stupid things." Peppers tried to call it off before it gets even more unbearable.
"Hah, your mana pool is that little?" Jin accidentally triggered Pepper's anger for pointing out her weakness.
"No!" Peppers finally fell for Jin's trick and she chanted "Death heed my call! Teach this callous master of mine what is the meaning of a beautiful explosion!" A large magical circle appeared right in front of the staff Peppers was holding.
"Explosion That Exceeds That Stupid Chi Beam!" Peppers shouted so loudly that both Milk and Jin could barely hold their laughter in themselves from that nonsensical spell name. A small tiny fireball appeared from the tip of the staff and it went straight towards Jin. He quickly opened up the scroll that was able to translate an attack into a magical incantation.
Little did he know, the fireball exploded right before it was in the range of the scroll's translation ability. Jin quickly moves forward and the scroll started to absorb part of the explosion. Jin was unfortunately within the area of the explosion and he withstood it as much as he could. Although he can feel his skin was burning away, he did not let this opportunity to pass by that easily as he shoots out the strongest Panda Yawning out onto the back of the scroll that he was holding.
By some miracle, the scroll managed to absorb the explosive power of Peppers and the chi beam from Jin. If not for the Milk's anti-acoustic barrier, the zombies all around them would have noticed them.