Lex internally raised an eyebrow as he was surprised at the Hidden Quest notification. The last time he got it was when he completed a hidden requirement, but this time his conversation with Alexander triggered the quest. He couldn't tell what exactly was the difference between triggering a normal quest and a hidden one, but based on the rewards he got last time he was looking forward to it. He quickly read the quest.
Hidden Quest:
Despite your lackluster performance, a guest has become interested in becoming a permanent resident of the Midnight Inn. Develop a permanent guest district! To develop a permanent guest district you must:
Purchase a permanent guest district pass
Allocate area of permanent guest district
Raise Inn rating to 3 Stars
Grow a Winding Road Vine
Have at least 1 Karmic Lily.
Time limit: none
Quest reward: subject to change based on performance
Lex was quite surprised. This was the first time he encountered a quest that had multiple requirements, with each one being very difficult to achieve. Along with the details of each step in the quest, Lex also received additional information about the last two parts of the quest. They were extremely difficult, as at least the first three could be completed with the system's help. The last two were plants that Lex needed to grow, but first he would need to find their seeds or the actual plants themselves.
Winding Road Vine was an unusual vine that only grew in the cracks between space, whatever that meant. The Karmic Lily itself had no use, but was used as a supplementary ingredient for many things from alchemy to crafting items to setting up arrays and more. The reason why it was so useful was that it enabled one to influence karma.
He was also given brief requirements from guests to be able to get a permanent residence at the Midnight Inn, which made him breathe a sigh of relief as even the Morrison's would not be able to get a permanent residence, giving him plenty of time to set it up.
"Yes," Lex replied to Alexander, "we offer permanent residences instead of rooms to guests. But before one can get a permanent room they need to fulfill certain requirements. The first one is to spend 1 trillion MP at the Inn."
Lex's smile did not waver as he spoke but Alexander was visibly shook. But he recovered quickly. It made sense. The Inn catered to the whole universe, how can the wealth of a family that only owns one planet compare to the wealth to those that might even own entire solar systems, or more?
"In that case, I'd just like the courtyard for 2 weeks."
"Of course," replied Lex and charged Helen.
The duo was just about to head out when they saw a strange shadow pass them by, and looked up into the air to see Ayesha flying with Little Blue. Alexander only took a moment before he started walking to Main street. He had quickly adjusted his mindset to not be bothered by what he saw at the Inn. Furthermore, he had another objective in coming here. Last time he returned to Earth he received a message from RussianPrincess77. She asked him to send her money in a certain account, and in exchange she will give him some very useful information. Since he had not been disappointed by her before, Alexander transferred the money. She responded by telling him he should see John at the Midnight Inn to get something useful. Most likely, Alexander would have encountered John anyway, so the mischievous girl extorted him for some money before he got the chance.
As Lex watched them go he smiled as he was ready to do something he had been wanting to do for a while now. He simply had to wait for a few guests to appear before he could do what he wanted, yet right before he was about to leave he felt more guests coming. This time the guests were coming through the Golden door, and since its origin planet was Vegus Minima he readied his Butter knife.
Fortunately, the guest that appeared this time was not a zombie. A man came limping out of the door, moving as quickly as he could manage. He was bleeding from his forehead and his right arm and leg seemed to be severely hurt. He must have been running from something because it took him a moment to realize his surroundings had changed. Alarmed, he stopped to survey his new environment and when he saw Lex he quickly took a step back and assumed a defensive position.
Name: Slag
Age: 99
Sex: Male
Cultivation Details: Golden Core mid
Species: Human
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
Condition:
Debilitating wounds across his body, but his cultivation is secure and will heal quickly given the chance
Remarks: He has the smell of a soldier all over him. He's probably broke. Meh
"No need to be alarmed, dear guest. No one will harm you. Welcome to the Midnight Inn, you may call me the Innkeeper."
As soon as Slag heard the term 'Midnight' he was greatly surprised. All Captain level soldiers and above were briefed a few days ago that they might be embarking on mission 'Midnight' and all nonessential operations were halted for the time. He did not know the details nor the relevance of the term, but he did not believe for even a second that the term being repeated here was a coincidence.
"It appears as though you are injured. Would you like to go to the Recovery room?"
Slag quickly realized that he hadn't responded to the Innkeeper and quickly gathered his thoughts. His priority in this situation was to quickly learn his new circumstances, gather as much information as possible and return to Vegus Minima as soon as possible.
"Where are my manners, excuse me. I am Lieutenant Slag of the 7th Forward Battalion, under the command of General Ragnar of the Jotun Empire. If you have any medical facility then I would be grateful for your timely assistance and be sure to pass on news of your aid to the Empire."
Informing the other of his true background may seem like a stupid idea to some, but Slag had enough training to judge the situation accurately. The Innkeeper was clearly someone with a higher cultivation than himself, and usually it was very difficult to lie or keep secrets when the difference in cultivation between two people was massive. Furthermore, the identity of belonging to a Battalion from the Jotun Empire was nothing to scoff at, and carried sufficient deterrence to assure his safety in most situations. In fact, very few other than Demons would even consider any kind of hostility against him. Yet he was slightly disappointed when he saw the other had no significant reaction at the mention of the Empire.
"Follow me," said the Innkeeper warmly and started leading Slag towards the Recovery room.
"The Midnight Inn offers many services, not just medical attention. Once you have recovered, I encourage you to tour the place. In a couple of days we're going to be having a grand event hosting dignitaries from many planets, if you're free then you might want to stay for the event."
Slag mentally linked the date of the event with the date for operation Midnight and confirmed that this place definitely had something to do with the operation.
When they reached the Recovery room, Slag was dumbfounded to learn that he was expected to pay. He had no money on his person, and no payment tool.
"You just need to agree to pay and decide which of your assets you want to pay with, and the Inn will take care of it. Or, you can forward the bill to your battalion as this is technically an operational expense, don't you think?"
Slag was dumbfounded and confused by what the Innkeeper said, but then found a digital panel that appeared in the air in front of him that required his signature. Should he sign, his expenses from the Inn would be forwarded to the Battalion. Unsure if this was a scam, Slag eventually signed as he was sure no one could scam the Battalion and got in the Recovery Pod.
Leaving his newest guest to recover, Lex was finally free to do what he had wanted earlier. He returned to his residence, removed his suit and wore the Clark Kent glasses. Donning the appearance of Leo, Lex quickly teleported to the Gamer's Den, ready to finally interact with his guests without worry. He found Z sobbing in the corner as he watched an episode of My truth in December (can you guess this one) and shook his head. This kid had too much time, Lex should think of ways to go and play outside. He froze as soon as that thought came to him.
'Great, now I'm sounding like my parents,' he complained, but quickly put it behind him. He would start laying the road for his secret dream of hosting an interplanetary gaming tournament today!
With a wide grin Leo walked out of the Gamer's Den and looked around. Other than the patrolling guards he didn't see anyone. He had already planted the seeds of becoming a gamer in Helen so she would be an easy pull, therefore he should look for other unsuspecting targets. Lily and Chen were decent options. As natives of Earth he doubted he could entice Hera and William, and Jimmy was still too young. He also doubted that he could get Slag to put up his feet and game casually. With his decision made, he strode into the Guild room to find the pair having a discussion with the staff. Clearly they were interested in what the Guild offered.
"Hello, hope I'm not disturbing anything important. I just wanted to introduce myself," Leo said enthusiastically. "My name's Leo, the owner of the humble Gamer's Den next door."
Lily and Chen looked at the young man, responding politely with a "hello,". They were not sure what services the Gamer's Den offered, but nothing here was simple so they dared not dismiss it.
"I'm sure you're wondering what the Gamer's Den does, and what we have to offer. Let me cut right to the chase, what we offer is nothing short of enriching your life and elevating your state of mind."
Leo's words clearly attracted their attention. But Leo smirked, he would not tell them all the details directly. Building suspense and curiosity were an integral part of tricking- no, of enlightening non-gamers into entering a new world.
"I don't want to take up too much of your time, clearly you are busy. But when you get the chance, do drop by. We have something for everyone."
"We will definitely drop by," said Lily politely. It was evident that they would not leave until they finished their business with the Morrison family, so he didn't even try to pull them away right now..
He wondered where the others were. WIthout the Host Attire connecting him to the Inn he could not do his usual scan to locate all his guests. It was an unfortunate drawback, maybe once his authority increased he would be able to do it even without the suit.
He exited the Guild room just in time to see Alexander and Helen enter the Battle Ax. Finally, John would get his first customer. Since no one else was in view, he retreated to the Gamer's Den and teleported back to his residence and donned the Host Attire. He would use it to spy on how things were going with Alexander and monitor everyone else. As soon as they entered Main street he would return as Leo and proceed with his plan.
In the Battle Ax, Alexander and Helen politely told Doe that they wanted to meet with John. After only a few moments John let them into his office. Alexander did not show any reaction at the appearance of the man covered in chains, but Helen looked at him oddly.
"Well, then, which one of you wants it done? Or is it both of you?" John asked excitedly. He finally had some customers and could earn some MP.
"Before anything, could you tell me what exactly you are going to do?"
"Huh? Don't you know?" John asked them, surprised. Then it occurred to him that he had put up no details outside his shop, nor advertised his service. How was anyone supposed to know what he did? A significant oversight, but it was not too late to fix it now.
"Well let me explain. I design spirit techniques most suited to a person. You can tell me what kind of technique you want and based on your cultivation, affinity, strength and many more things I will design the technique for you. That's not to say that if you teach it to others they won't be able to perform the technique as well, but if, say for example you can use 100% of the techniques capabilities, others might be able to use 50%."
For once, the duo was not surprised. They had surprise fatigue. Nothing could surprise them anymore.
Nodding as if he had heard the most natural thing, Alexander took out the six floating blades behind him.
"These are my weapons. I can move them freely within 100 meters of myself and can imbue them with my spirit energy regardless of how far they are. I have various techniques that allow me to attack with them, but I want a stronger attack. A secret technique or trump card, whatever you want to call it, I want a technique that will maximize their damage."
John smiled at the young man who did not even ask him the price. If it were up to him, he would charge him a ridiculous amount, unfortunately Doe handled the transactions and the price for each cultivation level was fixed. Furthermore, the Innkeeper would directly deduct 50% of all his income as payment for keeping him here. The fee for making a technique for a Foundation realm cultivator was 1000MP, so John would make 500MP – just enough to go to the Mystery trial.
"I want a technique to detect if someone is spying on me," Helen interrupted his thoughts with her own request. John, however, was not irritated at the interruption but happy instead. 2 customers. Even though the fee for a Qi training cultivator was only 300MP, income was still income.
"Let's start with the young lady first," John said as he began questioning Helen in detail.
The duo stayed at the Battle Ax for well over an hour, adding an expense of another 1300MP under Helen's prestige counter. During that time Will and Hera visited the Guild room as well. Recognizing each other from their previous visit, the two groups started chatting. Learning that Lily and Chen were here for trade, Hera quickly offered them a few deals as well. Since they already had an agreement with the Morrisons they did not give up any of their current haul, but agreed to conduct future trades with them as well.
Eventually Will and Hera left as well, and Chen and Lily decided it was unwise to simply wait for the Morrisons. They asked the staff member to inform them when the Morrions came, and left to investigate the Gamer's Den.
Lex immediately returned to the Den in the appearance of Leo and awaited his clients. Behind the counter Z was dozing off on the keyboard. Even though the child had his own residence, he barely left the Den. He had fallen asleep watching anime, again. Leo really would have to think of a solution for this.
But his thoughts were interrupted by Chen entering the shop, looking around curiously.
"Welcome guests, I'm glad you decided to drop by," Leo said, rubbing his hands like a merchant ready to rip some people off.
Chen and Lily looked around the shop, but did not recognize the computers. Even though their own civilization was more advanced, the way their technology advanced was different so they did not have computers that looked like this.
"I must admit, I was curious about how this place could enrich my life," said Lily.
Leo laughed. Of course this place could enrich their lives, but he could not do so by saying they should play games. People who had spent their entire lives fighting for survival, combating vicious enemies and barely scraping by would not have the temperament to relax and play games. They would not be able to immerse themselves in the game with that mentality. Leo would have to prime them first.
"How the Gamer's Den does that is very simple, yet at the same time very sophisticated. Please, have a seat. Let me ask you a few questions first."
Lily sat down on one of the gamer chairs and looked at Leo, awaiting his instructions.
"Now close your eyes and relax. Let your body loosen up, relax your shoulders, and your back. For a moment, remove all the thoughts of your various responsibilities from your mind."
For a few moments Leo stopped talking, letting Lily reach the mental state he had described. "Now, tell me, if you could do anything you wanted, what would you do? If you could learn anything, what would it be? Don't think about what the world demands from you, about others' expectations. For now, simply tell me, in your heart, with all the distractions gone, what do you want?"
Leo's voice echoed in Lilys mind, as if hypnotizing her. But contrary to what Leo said, she was unable to let go of her worries. One by one, all the important moments in her life flashed in her mind. And as they flashed through her mind, it wasn't all the pain, the struggle, the fighting that affected her. It was the loss of her settlement that sat heaviest in her mind. Watching the people she had protected die one by one, unable to do anything else. Making the difficult decision to move, and look for safety elsewhere. Letting all her trusted soldiers go, one by one, on suicide missions to protect her caravan, and when the number of soldiers finally dwindled, ordering her own brother to sacrifice himself to protect the caravan. And after all that, when they finally found salvation under the protection of the empire, losing all of her followers in a few days. She could not blame them for wanting a better life. But when they ultimately all left her, despite all her sacrifices to protect them, they left her feeling hollow. It was the most painful day of her life.
But she was not dragged down by the pain, or the memory of it. Weak-minded people, people who could not endure pain to grow stronger, were the first ones to die in the zombie apocalypse. The pain only made her feel one thing – the desire to grow stronger. To be better. No, not better. To be the best.
"I want to be the best leader. To be able to lead my followers through rain and drought, through war and terror, and come out only stronger, not weaker."
The conviction in her voice was strong and moved Leo. He understood immediately what the woman was saying. She wanted to play a colony management game.
"Great, now let me get you started," Leo said, as he searched for a very specific game and turned it on.
Leo did not even need to browse through the list, he directly searched Brimworld and started the game. While he turned the game on in one screen, he opened some tutorial videos on another screen next to her.
"I suggest you go through the tutorial once before starting a colony, but if you're not able to understand the mechanics thoroughly or get confused, you can watch the videos on the other screen."
Lily nodded and after quickly understanding the role of the mouse and keyboard began her journey. The price for playing games at the Gamer's Den was only 1 MP per day so Lex directly paid the amount for their first experience himself. Then he turned his attention towards Chen who was silently looking at Lily. Only he had some idea of the pain his sister endured, but it was not the way of the survivors of Vegus Minima to point it out. She was not weak, and did not need his pity. The best thing he could do for her was grow stronger himself.
Chen looked directly at Leo and said, "I don't need anything like my sister. I just need to get acquainted with my own strength. I recently raised my cultivation and I still feel like I'm not using my strength to the best of my capabilities."
Hearing Chen's request Leo frowned a bit. Clearly Chen wanted to play a game that included physical movement, so VR could work for that. But it would not allow him to use his strength and experiment freely. The best thing for that would be going to the Training room. But while fighting dummies was challenging, Leo felt that it still didn't provide the immersion and nuances that a game provided with. Training would always only feel like training, and would not provide the weight and tension of a real combat situation that games could build using rich environments and timely music cues.
If only he could integrate the Training room dummies with his Gamer's Den…Wait. Leo's eyes lit up. Why couldn't he do that? Mary had told him that he should find loopholes in the system to get the result he wanted. The Training room was strictly a system provided service and could not be changed by him, but the Gamer's Den was created by him directly using the Host Interface. So why was he limited to having a regular gaming setup? He could make it as advanced or different as he wanted so long as he had enough MP..
Opening the Midnight Market in his mind he searched for training dummies or robots with high strength and durability – he didn't want to use an A.I. staff since he was treating them like real people. He found one a permanent training robot that could be programmed at Initial Foundation realm for 35,000 MP! This price seemed like a lot when considering he got 260 guards for 450,000 MP, all of them at higher cultivation levels. That came out to be around 1730 MP per guard. But those guards were temporary, and would disappear once the event period ended, the training robot was permanent. Or at least until it was damaged.
"Please, follow me," Leo said casually, leading Chen upstairs to the VR rooms. The entire top floor was divided into only 3 VR rooms so there was plenty of space for Chen to move around and fight in there. But to do what Leo had in mind, he would still need some new additions so he spent 3000 MP renovating the rooms and reinforcing them.
This would no longer be only a VR room, but also an Augmented Reality (AR) room. The training robot was waiting at the opposite end of the room but Leo didn't address it yet. He set the room to the theme of a game called Immortal Combat, and suddenly the appearance of the room changed. It looked like they were standing in the remains of a difficult battle, with debris and corpses everywhere. Music started playing in the background and though at first Chen thought it was strange, he quickly realized that the music fit the atmosphere well. The appearance of the Training dummy changed as well, and he looked like a demon garbed in yellow clothing. His movement and combat style was adapted to a specific character from the game.
"You can change the difficulty by saying Easy, Regular or Hard before you start the fight. If you get too used to the combat you can also change the enemy combat style by selecting the enemy you want to face. All you need to do is say menu to open up the character selection panel.
"Furthermore, you won't be fighting to defeat the enemy. Both you and the enemy will have a health bar above your heads. If your health bar runs out, it will automatically be considered your loss, similarly if the enemies health bar runs out it will be considered your win. Please, enjoy."
Leo left Chen to explore his newest installed feature. For the AR segment he was planning on charging more, maybe around 200 MP a day but for now he wouldn't charge Chen. He had to get them hooked first.
Leo chuckled as he went downstairs. Lily was already engrossed in the game in the few minutes she'd been playing, and wore an extremely serious face as she navigated the obstacles.
"Z, keep an eye on the guests. If they need anything make sure to help them out, alright?"
The boy nodded firmly before returning to watch some more anime. Leo didn't know which one he was watching but it occurred to him the boy was watching multiple anime concurrently. Somehow, that just seemed wrong. But traumatized by the thought that he may be acting like his parents, Leo said nothing and returned to his residence. He scanned the Inn once again to check everyone's location, but no one was walking around. Alexander and Helen were still at Battle Ax and Will and Hera were in their courtyard having a meeting. He waited for a while for someone to become accessible for him to trap, but after a while he got tired. Instead of waiting he decided to meditate and check up on everyone once he was done.
A few hours went by and as the sun set, the Inn looked beautiful under the warm, yellow light of all the sky lanterns. Lex just finished a round of meditation and immediately scanned the Inn just in time to catch Lily and Chen walking towards the manor, both seriously discussing their experience at the Gamer's Den. What surprised him was that Alexander and Helen were sitting in the restaurant in the manor, and so were Will, Hera and Jimmy. Ayesha was also sitting in the corner, looking tired, and maybe sad.
He realized that almost all of his guests would soon be gathered in the restaurant in the manor. If he appeared as the bartender, casually wiping the bar with a cloth he could recreate the perfect mental image of what he imagined an Inn was like the first time he thought of the Inn. Of course, he was not about to wipe the bar, but he changed into his Host Attire and teleported to the restaurant.
Alexander and Helen were having burgers, Ayesha was wallowing over a large plate of fries, Jimmy was having dinosaur shaped nuggets, his mother was only having a cup of coffee and Will having a cup of mint green tea. The food items weren't exactly what Lex envisioned when he thought of food served at an Inn, but who cared?
Lily and Chen sat down in a corner and ordered two steaks, two salads and a lot of fruit. They weren't picky eaters but understood better than everyone else here the importance of nutrition. Even Foundation realm cultivators hadn't gotten rid of their dependance on food and improper nutrition not only affected their health and combat performance, it affected cultivation as well. Not eating properly was a mistake they would never make.
Lex enjoyed the pleasant atmosphere. Everyone was gathered together in the same room, and though they kept to themselves, their general presence created a merry environment. A short while later, Slag also joined in. He was not completely healed, but he was healed enough that he gave priority to his mission of reconnaissance. The room went silent for a second when he entered, as everyone turned to look at the new guest, but they all quickly resumed their own conversations. Lily and Chen recognized his uniform and started whispering to one another, trying to not attract his attention.
Slag came and sat at the bar, directly opposite to Lex.
"Would you happen to have a nutritional supplement drink?"
"Yes, but wouldn't you rather prefer a fruit juice or something? It doesn't sound very appealing."
Slag shook his head, indicating he was fine with choice in drink, then turned around to look at all the guests in the room.
"So these guests are all from Minima Vegus?"
"I cannot share the private details of our guests. But in general, we accept guests from all over the universe so naturally Minima Vegus is included."
"Entire universe?" Slag repeated, confused. "How do they get here?"
"Using our keys, naturally. Or they encounter the golden door, the same way you did. Either way, everyone is teleported here directly."
Slag frowned, but said nothing. Teleportation, even across a solar system, was very costly. He could not fathom what it would require to have teleportation on such a large scale.
While they were talking Lex felt another guest entering the Inn, but since he was in the middle of a conversation with Slag he mentally told Gerard to greet the guest once he made sure it wasn't a zombie. But only a few seconds later a loud roar reverberated through the manor, "KNEEL YOU FILTHY HUMAN!"