The gap was huge? It really was huge. Even Jiu Ming felt a twinge of envy himself. But Ninth Sister had warned him: don't set your sights on Panel-kun for no reason. She had been born from the Twisted Aberration, like that thing's brain. She could deal with many matters instinctively, without needing to do anything—much like how most of the human body's functions were controlled by the subconscious. Panel-kun played the same role within the Mysterious Shop.
If Jiu Ming truly turned his attention toward Panel-kun and somehow even succeeded, it would be like an ordinary person consciously trying to control every function of their body, including the circulatory system, endocrine system, and so on. That was practically courting death.
It had been said before: without Panel-kun, whether the Mysterious Shop could even continue functioning normally would be a huge question!
The plan was simple. Jiu Ming only needed to keep doing what he was supposed to do. Then Ninth Sister had specifically stated that whenever he had nothing to do, he should use his brain more and think of a way to resolve the cycle between the Mysterious Shop and the Twisted Aberration. She certainly looked forward to strengthening herself unilaterally, but if things went on for too long, imbalance was bound to come sooner or later.
Perhaps before that imbalance even arrived, the ending of another rollback would already be upon them.
"Make me think about it!? Fuck, what the hell am I supposed to think of? Something your dozen-plus generations couldn't solve, and now it's my turn!?" As his memories reached this point, Jiu Ming's mouth twitched. All because of that long-winded line: 'The shopkeepers of every generation bore immense pressure, so they surely had no spare time to think—they were all focused on staying alive!