Chương 90: Behold my Work Ye Mighty

Jin watched Francis go through the assorted documents on the table with his accountant's glasses.

"So many contribution points," the older man said in an impressed tone of voice.

"The orders have gone through the roof recently," Jin said with a nod. The fact that he got paid in sect contribution points for the Illusion Rooms that the sect sold for spirit stones was a bit absurd, especially considering that if he wanted spirit stones, he would then have to trade for them with the sect for a markup. An exploitative system for sure. When would the workers of the world unite? Well, considering that the leadership was composed of walking immortal nukes… probably not anytime soon.

"I've never even heard of any single scenario receiving so many orders," Francis mused curiously.

"Happy about your cut?" Jin joked. Francis nodded.

"More than happy. My small share is worth way more than I initially thought it would be." He tilted his head curiously.

"I'm just curious as to why."

"There can only be one reason, considering we don't have anyone spreading advertisements," Jin answered succinctly.

"It must be word of mouth." He paused.

"Also, the letters that occasionally come with the order reveal most of the situation. The buyers are soldiers who recently broke through in rank or cultivation and now have more disposable income. The Last of Us is not only a training scenario, but it is also, in a way, entertainment."

"That can't account for all of it," Francis said with furrowed brows.

"You've hardly received a dozen letters for the scenario, even if most of them were positive from what you said."

"There's another feature," Jin said, having only discovered it himself after thinking about it deeply.

"The fact is, if you're not someone who's going to be facing a wyvern, there's no need to own an Illusion Room containing a wyvern scenario. However, The Last of Us is not only entertaining and meaningful, but it is also multi-functional. It teaches not only how to combat zombies, but also many other qualities that are universally useful. Perseverance, humanity, emotional maturity… The dao of protection, as they're starting to call it."

"What did that enthusiastic officer write?" Francis tried to remember.

"Humanity preservation?" Jin laughed, remembering the letter in question." Teacher Jin, you have clearly shown me what I must dedicate my life towards from this moment onwards. I will protect humanity, in the dark, in the cold, my will represents hope and my sword justice!"

"Sounds like a character," Francis mused.

"You should have seen the letter he sent when returning the Outlast scenario," Jin joked." You, sir, are a scoundrel of the highest order. I will forgive this insult because of the beauty of The Last of Us, but if we are ever to meet, I will share with you my opinions on this demonic piece personally!

"What does that make?" Francis asked with a sigh.

"More than half of the Outlast purchases get refunded?"

"It's good for us, the sect doesn't do full refunds, and the Room can be sold again," Jin said with a laugh.

"The issue is the Skyrim demo sales," Francis said with a sigh.

"The ceiling seems much lower than we'd hoped."

"Everyone from the sect is trying it," Jin pointed out.

"The library payouts alone have recouped the cost of creation."

"Yes," Francis muttered, "but the direct sales channel is as dry as a desert. One sale to this Kong Ching character. He didn't even give proper feedback, only saying something about having witnessed the face of God and how he will show the world the light." Jin nodded.

"Nobody from outside who pays a daily fee for entering the library is willing to spend that time on a demo that takes thirty days to complete."

"But how are we going to sell it then?" Francis asked while scratching his grey head and furrowing his brown." The Last of Us requires a large time investment as well," Jin said.

"Why are people buying it? Because they got to experience it through the channel of the army, thus its name spread."

"But how to achieve the same effect, it's not like we have a horde of dragons attacking the border, and even if we did, the creatures we created are completely different in appearance and ability." The younger of the two gave the older a half-lidded look. Francis was great at managing details and putting the greater whole together. But he lacked many instincts, primarily amongst them a knowledge of potential markets and how to access them.

"That's why I suggested we release a Demo. We finished about half of the scenario, stopping after the College of Winterhold. Drum up interest in the sect, and hopefully, word will spread within and outside. Alternatively, if you're willing to take a small risk…"

"What sort of risk?" Francis asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I plan on reinvesting all the sect contribution points we got from the sale of Outlast and The Last of Us into shipping out free Skyrim demos to surrounding sects. None of us are hurting for points right now, already just with the dividends from Dragonslayer and Outlast. We should drum up interest, sell more demos and then sell the final product again." Stolen story; please report.

"Giving out free things, how will we earn back the points?" Francis asked with furrowed brows.

"People try free things. Especially if we reach a few sects that don't own a single Illusion Room. If the quality is good, this will leave them wanting more," Jin said.

"I don't know," Francis hesitated.

"We still don't know if your so-called rendering technique will work."

"The effectiveness will be revealed to all quite soon," Jin assured him, before shrugging.

"As for the free demos. I'm planning on doing that with my share of the profits. If you don't want to participate, fine, but then we'll have to rediscuss the profit sharing since me and Hashimi will be investing more. It would be easier if you did the same," he pushed. The old man clearly hesitated. If he kept the sect points now, he would maybe be able to live a life of comfort until the end. Asking an old person to invest was always harder.

"You know what," Francis eventually said.

"I'll do it, heavens be damned if you've been wrong before…" He shook his head.

"You consulted Hashimi?" Jin rolled his eyes.

"She told me, and I quote: Don't bother me with numbers and revenue streams ever again. If I wanted to hear that stuff, I would have joined the merchant's guild."

"She's lucky she met someone who won't take advantage of her with that attitude," Francis muttered with a scoff, a pained look in his eyes. It seemed someone had been burnt before.

"She's an art for arts sake sort of person, I guess," Jin mused.

"Weren't we all when we first started?" Francis said with a sigh.

"The code, you're meeting your master today?" he then asked. Jin's lips curled downwards. He would indeed be meeting Master Flower today. In fact, there had hardly been a day on which he hadn't met her in the past three years since she'd taken him as a direct disciple. Grinding out Skyrim during the day, getting his ass beat in the evening by the elder, cultivating at night. Sleep, what was that? Thank heavens he'd sought out the help of Da Bendan, Ting and had a good work environment with Francis and Hashimi.

Without them picking up some of his slack, he'd be just about dead by now. Dead, or behind in cultivation and thus potentially forced to participate in a tournament again.

"Leave that meeting to me. You keep working on the conflict between the Empire and the Stormcloaks," Jin reassured the man.

"To have a civil war in the middle of an apocalypse where dragons rise from the dead," Francis said with a sigh and a shake of the head.

"The narrative is too realistic, in fact."

"Nobody ever accused humanity of being an intelligent species," Jin joked as he got up from his seated position. He'd gotten Francis' consent for his, for this world, revolutionary tactic of free access to the beta version of the game. Now, he had a bunch of other stuff to do. -/-"So this is why you wanted to skip combat practice today," Elder Flower noted after Jin had introduced to her his, or rather, Bao's, newest creation. Jin nodded.

"We created the logic structure and inserted it into the Illusion Room alongside the encoded scenario. It works," he reassured her.

"Fascinating," the Elder commented as she looked at the lightly glowing Illusion Room in her hand. She took a few steps backwards as she idly spun it before sitting down on the large rock in the middle of the clearing.

"I assume you want my support in registering this technique?"

"Of course," Jin said with a nod.

"It would be easier with your help." After all, without backing, nothing worked in the cultivation world. Even if everyone in the sect knew that Elder Flower had taken him as a hostage-disciple by now, having her actively on board was a different matter entirely.

"You likely don't even know what this means," the Elder mused.

"After all, there is no information in the inner disciple ring about the specifics on the remunerations for new techniques."

"I'm aware that it's mostly up to the core disciples and Elders to innovate," Jin said graciously.

"This is merely our own small contribution."

"The sect usually buys a newly created technique off a disciple with a flat fee, although, with this… You could create a clan by relying on this," she muttered.

"Someone would copy it eventually. Better give freely and be revered than lord it over others and be hated," Jin said pragmatically.

"Riches in the hands of the weak are an insult to the heavens."

"The implications alone," Flower muttered.

"Encoding visual information into these binary numbers through the application of code." She paused.

"You were creating this, your new scenario, while also training with me. How did you manage to reach the ninth pillar of foundation establishment through all of that?" she asked dubiously. Jin's eyebrow twitched, and he bowed to hide his facial expression.

"Ambition has finally struck this unworthy disciple, and he seeks to ascend to a higher station. Hard work becomes indispensable in this pursuit."

"You don't say," Elder Flower said with a sigh.

"You will receive a high fee from the sect, considering the innovativeness of the technique you developed… You could likely pursue promotion today, before even reaching core formation. It is clear to us all that you will accomplish it." There were many things in that sentence that Jin wanted to address.

"The innovativity. Not the applicability?" he questioned.

"You are partially blinded by your own projects. No other scenario developed by our sect is really meant to take up so much space. Have you ever seen an Illusion Room containing more than a day's worth of illusions, spanning more than a city at most?"

"Others have started developing in my style," Jin argued. Flower snorted and rolled her green eyes.

"Yes, but results will be elusive for many decades," she countered, at which Jin had nothing to say. By creating a large scenario, he'd essentially skipped several stages of evolution in terms of game development. He's gone from a pixelated Space Invaders to award-winning games from the 2010s… Others would need time to catch up.

"Alright, maybe it's not as applicable as I thought," Jin muttered. Elder Flower remained silent for a few seconds.

"It's perhaps hard for me to explain this," she eventually muttered.

"The concept of code itself has the potential to eventually change the ways scenarios are created and Illusion Rooms crafted. A novel idea will inevitably generate new novelties. This is… the most genius concept I have come across in the last one thousand years."

"Well, at least it will serve its main purpose and allow us to create larger and larger scenarios," Jin eventually said.

"Your niche," Flower said with a nod and a smile before laughing.

"You likely don't understand how much this is worth from the simple words flat fee. You could retire and take your time for a hundred years." Jin nodded unaffectedly. The thing was, the fee would be going to Bao. He'd buy her whatever she needed for what she'd done. What she'd pulled. Using his cultivation-enhanced brain as a computer to slowly but surely recreate programming in this medieval world… Was he a genius, or was she? The thing that was more important to Jin was…

"The core discipleship. Will it be that easy?" he asked. He'd heard horror tales of that process. A dozen rejected applications for advancement. Lack of cultivation, personal honours, sect contribution points, backing…

"I think it's no secret that I initially thought you could contribute more to the sect by focusing on combat," Flower eventually admitted.

"Today you changed my mind. Not by how well your so-called demo has been doing in the library, but by how valuable your brain has now become in my eyes, and soon, the eyes of many," she sighed.

"I'll console myself with the fact that you now know how to protect yourself better." Jin looked at Flower, confusedly. It sounded like she was just letting go? A superior who changed their mind when presented with new information? In this day and age? In this economy? He clasped his hands together and bowed.

"Disciple thanks master!" he exclaimed, for once, honestly.

"If anything, it's been a bit calm lately, ever since Lung and his ilk have stopped producing work for some reason. Some sort of protest," Flower mused.

"Then this disciple will entrust the technique to the master," Jin said with a nod, not caring much for any of the Lungs anymore. He'd been left mostly alone recently. He hesitated.

"One last thing. This disciple plans on sending free versions of the Skyrim demo to as many sects as his purse allows. Could master aid in curating a list?" he asked. Elder Flower froze, looking at him, dumbstruck.

"For free?" she asked again. Jin nodded resolutely and didn't bother explaining the marketing effect this would hopefully have.

"Behold my works, ye mighty, and despair!" he exclaimed arrogantly. His master threw her head back and laughed.