Ch. 15 - The Great Pretender's cleaning adventure

Inside the Jade Palace, a certain protagonist can be seen mopping the ground with a mop.

"How the fuck did it come to this." Leo cursed to himself, of all things he was expecting such as going on a long journey to the place where Master Shifu trained Po in the movie or undergoing intense training, he wasn't expecting to clean the entire Jade Palace.

'Thankfully entering the Jade Palace has also prompted Genesis to release a new quest which made all of this not for naught.' Leo then stared at the transparent screen in front of him.

[• Quest Title: From Cleaner to Master

Main Quest: Finish the final test before becoming an official Kung Fu student under Master Shifu's guidance.

Secret Quest: ???

• Rewards:

Main Reward: 5% of Black Panther Template, 5 Gacha tickets, A Mop]

Secret Reward: Rank D Universal Travel Ticket [1 week].]

'Genesis, what's the Rank D Universal Travel Ticket?' When Leo first read the quest, especially the rewards, he was overjoyed until he read the Secret Reward.

[It's a ticket that allows you to travel in a Rank D universe and let you stay in that universe for a whole week. During your stay there, the time in this universe would automatically stop.]

Hearing the answer from Genesis, Leo's blood boiled in excitement.

Another universe? Only an idiot wouldn't get excited at the thought of discovering a whole new world!

'And why does Rank D mean exactly? Like, how can the universe be ranked?' Leo asked, expressing his confusion to the system.

[Rank D is the second lowest ranked world, which means that the world you're going into isn't dangerous and being Rank D means it only has a few that can harm you. Meanwhile, a Rank E universe doesn't have anything that can harm you. As for the higher ranks, I'll tell you once you get one.]

"Only a few huh? Although it might sound safe, knowing that it has a few that can harm me clearly states that it is not completely safe." Leo whispered to himself.

'Why am I even thinking about it now? I should ponder about it once I have it.' With that, Leo resumed his cleaning grind while putting the thought in the back of his mind.

Unknown to him, several eyes were watching him and his sudden stop of movement was clearly captured by their observations.

***

"Why did he stop and even whisper to himself? We're too far, so I can't quite hear what he said to himself." Monkey silently muttered.

He and the Furious Five were hiding on the ceiling and thanks to the dark shadow, they blended in just fine, enough to make them not visible to Leo's eyes.

"He might have that something called mental illness perhaps?" Viper answered with uncertainty in her voice.

"Or it's just a hobby of his to talk to himself. I mean I saw Monkey doing it several times." This time, it was Mantis who answered and there's no doubt his friend's name would come out of his mouth

"What the? I never do that?" Monkey quickly retorted, however from the darting of his eyes, one can clearly tell how bad he is at telling lies.

"No need to lie, Monkey. I know you more than your mother knows you, I'm your friend after all." Mantis responded with a monotone voice.

Just as Monkey was about to retort again, Tigress quickly interrupted them.

"Be quiet! He almost caught us!"

Realizing that Mantis was right, Monkey decided to just keep his mouth shut from now on.

'Weird, I swear I think I just heard someone whispering?' Leo said to himself with caution while looking around, in every nook and cranny of the room. A storage room to be exact as he can see several destroyed weapons and sharp items inside.

***

"That was close. How did he even manage to hear us. He's clearly untrained." Monkey whispered in slight shock, this time his whisper is several times weaker in volume compared to his whisper earlier, clearly afraid that Leo might discover then if he continued to whisper in the same volume.

"Just stay quiet. Master Shifu told us to watch over him, not debate about him." Crane, the most quiet and calm member of their group, chimed in.

"You're right."

***

After cleaning the storage room, it was time for the next room and this room irks Leo a bit.

Why? Because there are no windows and candles to put a light in or anything.

It's simply too dark inside and Leo, being slightly scared, was hesitating whether he should go inside.

'This must be part of the test, I must endure.' Leo whispered to himself before stepping his foot inside with determination in his chest.

"I can do this." Leo said his final words before completely entering the room.

"Well, it's not that dark as long as I don't close the door." Just as Leo finished his words, the door behind unknowingly started to close until.

*Thud!*

"Fuck!"

***

And just like that, Leo finished cleaning the dark room until he realized he's been cleaning the same spot for 5 hours.

However, Leo being Leo, doesn't want to fail the test, knowing that Master Shifu might catch him not cleaning properly and fail him.

'So much for being a Black Panther, I don't even have any night vision.' Leo grumbled to himself, thankfully as time went on, his eyes slowly adjusted to the dark room and he could also shape the figures inside the room.

'It's full of....weird artifacts, I think?' Leo said to himself while cleaning a certain corner from dust.

After he finished cleaning, Leo didn't hesitate to walk out quickly, failing to notice a certain item that slowly dims upon him leaving.

***

Soon after that, Leo's cleaning streak continued until he finally encountered someone.

He was just sweeping off the floor when he noticed that he was slowly inching towards a certain peach tree.

'This....must be where Master Oogway often stays, right?' Leo then looked around for any sign of Master Oogway's presence, only to be met with nothing but a gust of wind.

'When I was watching the movie, I've always wondered if the peach here tastes delicious. After all, it's called the Peace Tree of Heavenly Wisdom. It sounds powerful and makes me think that eating one would turn me into as wise as Master Oogway.'

Picking up a peach from the ground, Leo stared at it for a few seconds.

'It's quite soft. Like I'm holding a ball. Neither hard nor too soft. Just right.' Leo commented before coming up with a decision.

Slowly, the peach inches towards Leo's mouth before...

*Crunch!*

*Crunch!* x10

After biting the peach, Leo's eyes widened in surprise after feeling the sweet taste of the peach, as if it had brought him into the gates of heaven.

The peach was so tasty that even Leo's favorite food turned bland. If that wasn't enough, Leo felt like the rest of the food that he'll be eating would turn bland.

Without any delay, Leo quickly chewed it for several seconds before the peach was gone from his hand.

At the same time, Leo finally woke up from the state of euphoria, if someone were to see Leo right now, they might think he is a drug addict that is as high as the mount tai.

At the same time, Leo remembered his purpose of eating the peach.

"Where is it? Shouldn't I gain some kind of Heavenly wisdom turning me as wise as Master Oogway?" Leo muttered in confusion, thinking that he should probably eat as much peach as he can until his goal is achieved.

Before Leo could proceed with his plan, thankfully he was interrupted just in time.

"Wisdom is earned through experience not from a bite of a peach." Hearing a voice from behind, Leo quickly turned around and saw the familiar old turtle. The wisest character ever made, of course there's also Iroh from the Avatar series.

Seeing Leo's stunned face as if his parents just caught him doing something bad, Master Oogway chuckled.

"That peach won't be giving you wisdom such as mine."

"I'm....sorry." Upon recovering, Leo hesitated for a bit before bowing his head and apologized.

"No need for an apology, curiosity is part of our nature. It's normal and natural, curiosity is what leads us to our destined path, it is the trigger to our journey." As Leo expected, Master Oogway started throwing wise lines towards him.

"This...peach. If it doesn't give any wisdom, why is the tree called Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom? Is there anything special about this peach?" After a moment of hesitation, Leo's curiosity got the best of him and he quickly released a question to the wise turtle.

"Ahh~ the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom was named by me, after achieving enlightenment under its beautiful leaves. It gave me protection from the sunlight and rain while under my meditation. Hence, I gave it the name of the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom."

"As for its peach." Master Oogway then slammed the butt of his cane on the trunk, letting a peach smoothly fall under his open hand.

*Crunch!*

"It is my favourite snack. My day isn't complete if I don't eat one. You can take as many as you can if you want. Sharing peaches has always been my favourite." After taking a bite of the peach, Master Oogway explained.

However, Leo's thoughts were in slight disarray.

'His day isn't complete if he doesn't eat one? Isn't that the same as drugs? Holy shit, is Master Oogway a druggie?'

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[POWAHHH STONESAAAAA!]

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[Next Chapter: Ch. 16 - The Great Pretender is worthy!]

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