Once Lex returned to his apartment at the Inn, he automatically exited his state of 'flow' and breathed a sigh of relief. Although he had planned to retreat at the first sign of trouble, and had various defensive treasures, facing an uncertain situation still weighed heavily on him. Fortunately, everything went well. He could only hope that Teena and Teema managed to get far enough away.
"I'd like to see you 'track me down'," Lex murmured once he finally relaxed, and chuckled. At worst, he would just not return to that planet, or even that star system. How would they ever find him?
Fenrir, who had also returned to the Inn as Lex dismissed his summoning, came and rubbed his massive face against Lex's body. Part of it was over his worry for Lex, and part of him was still reeling from his first experience with danger. Regardless of his size and heritage, he was still a pup of only a few weeks in age.
After consoling him, Lex turned his attention to all things he had brought with him to the Inn. After a week of rest, he had a lot of work to do, and that was not considering catching up with anything that had happened at the Inn while he was gone.
He directly sent the fertilizer meant for the Delinquent Vine, as well as the hundreds of seeds and saplings he bought directly to the turtle. He told the turtle to plan the more important ones in the greenhouse, and the rest all over the Inn. He wasn't going to turn the entire Inn into a farm, but if a wandering guest encountered a fruit tree and wanted to pick and eat some fruit, they would soon be able to.
He had no use for the various ores and technology he bought for the Emporium, so he added a storeroom to his apartment and placed all the stuff he didn't currently need there. He also stashed all the spirit stones he bought there, as not only did he not know what to spend them on, he himself could not use them for cultivation yet.
Spirit stones, as with everything else in the universe, it seemed, had different levels as well. The ones available at the Emporium were low, medium level, and very few high leveled ones. Since Lex actually had a lot of credit at the store, and didn't want to leave it there, Lex had a massive amount of spirit stones of low and medium level. It was to the extent that if the Emporium had not employed some kind of shrinking technique and stuffed them all in a special kind of chest that would prevent their aura from leaking, Lex would have been crushed to death just by the spirit stones when he used the key to teleport all his belongings to him from the locker.
Lex took the various files of information he bought and neatly placed them on a shelf in his study room. These were important, and he would go over them when he had the time. Then, Lex turned his attention to the mysterious locket he had bought that even the Emporium could not identify. On a surface level, the only special thing about this locket was that it was indestructible. Yet Lex did not believe it was so simple. Or at least, he hoped not.
Lex had an amazing way of figuring out the locket's speciality. He put it in the gift shop, then read its description.
Dragonburn Locket
A locket that was forged in the fires of a master dragon's firebreath. A dragon can study the locket to gain a deeper understanding of the intricacies of breathing fire.
Lex raised an eyebrow. The locket was not useful to him personally, but it was not a bad item to leave in the gift shop. The only question was…
"Hey Mary, any idea on how I should price this item? Its description does not mention any realms at all, so I don't know what realm of dragons it's useful for."
"I'm checking your authority, and it seems, yes, you can learn something about dragons from the system, maybe that'll help you. Dragons are a very strong, very proud, and very individualistic race. They do not focus on growing as a civilization, and instead focus more on personal growth, or at most, the growth of their individual clans. On a universal scale, their threat is greatly diminished due to their lack of unity, but on a one-to-one scale, few species exist that can match, let alone supersede, the might of a pureblooded dragon. Dragons are greatly loved by the laws of the universe, and often, natural treasures will bloom near them. The natural accumulation of treasures around dragons, over time, gave birth to the misconception that dragons love treasures."
"Well, it tells me that dragons are usually rich, but I still don't know how to price the item."
"Well, if you don't know, just pick a random price. It's not like you're suffering any losses either way."
Lex pondered for a moment. Since even the system thought they were rich, or at least had many treasures, it would be alright if overcharged a bit, right? Unsure of what exactly constitutes rich on a universal scale, Lex decided to price the item 10 million MP! If, after a long time, no one bought it, maybe he'd reduce the price.
With that done, Lex turned his attention towards the Inn, finally.
"Alright Mary, give me the updates on what's been happening while I was gone."
"Well, since you connected all the planets from the three star systems, we've had a lot more guests coming in from the golden doors. Some of them decided to stay, most of them left immediately. It seems you might need to improve the welcome message delivered by the holographic assistant. Finally, some of the beasts from the planets around Nibiru have caused trouble. Although the higher cultivation ones seem to already know about the Inn, and haven't caused any trouble, those at lower levels have caused problems a few times."
"Were you able to resolve the problems?"
"For now, yes. But not only do you need to invest in growing the Vine more, you need to look into other forms of security as well. As more and more races come to the Inn, the harder it will be to control them all by simply using the Vine. After all, each race has its own strengths and weaknesses. All it will take is someone good at controlling fire, and the Vine will suffer great damage."
"Yes, I know. I've been thinking of other ways to improve security, you don't need to remind me. That's why I'm only focused on connecting to low-level planets for now, to avoid the chance of stronger guests till we're ready. What else has happened at the Inn?"
"Some people with the skills you were looking for at the Inn showed up. Though they've already left the Inn, you can still look at their information."
"That reminds me, I have a few candidates in mind for certain jobs. Is there any way I can hire them without having to go to them personally?"
"If you'd managed to hire Marlo as a valet, finding people on the various planets was a job that could have been left to him. Currently, you still don't have the ability to reach out to specific people on various planets using the system unless it's through the event panel. As your authority increases, you'll be able to eventually do it. For now, I guess the first person you should consider hiring is someone you can trust with tasks that require visiting the various planets."
Lex had guessed as much, and then took a deep sigh of regret. He had already thought of someone he wanted to hire for the job of collecting news, but to hire him, Lex would have to travel to Vegus Maxima, one of the three inhabited planets in the Vegus system. The situation there should be a lot better with the presence of the Jotun Forces, yet Lex still didn't want to risk it. He'd already seen immortal zombies and extremely strong devils, so he wanted to stay as far away from those planets as possible.
"Anything else I should know about?"
"Oh yeah, Marlo's son finally woke up while you were gone."
That attracted Lex's attention. It need not be said that Marlo was one of the most prominent guests Lex had, and he suspected that this would not change any time soon.
Lex scanned the Inn to find that Marlo, Sophia and Rafael were outside the Recovery room while Rafael was in the ORR, receiving treatment. When Rafael had been brought to the Inn, he was seriously injured, and was not only amputated, he was missing several organs as well. Now, at least his face had fully recovered while the rest of his body was still undergoing treatment. Although Rafael's eyes were open, they were vacant, with no signs of intelligence behind them. Lex expected as much, since his soul was gravely injured. Marlo should still be working on getting something to heal the soul…
Lex paused, because when he checked Rafael's status, he saw something extremely unusual. Once again, feeling like he owed it to Marlo to let him know what was happening due to their relationship, he wore his Host Attire and teleported directly to them.
"I was checking up on the patient, and thought I'd update you," he said with a smile to the couple. "This time, though, I only have good news."
Already familiar with the Innkeeper somewhat now, Sophia put a great deal of stock in whatever he had to say, which is why all her attention was now focused on the Innkeeper. She did not find it strange at all that the Innkeeper teleported so abruptly, or that he immediately started speaking without any preamble. Everyone who spent some time at the Inn knew that the Innkeeper had a tendency to appear and disappear as he wished.
Lex observed Rafael's status one more time before he spoke.
Name: Rafael Carter Bravi
Age: 37
Sex: Male
Cultivation Details: crippled
Species: Human
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
Condition:
Because a majority of the patient's body is newly constructed, or is still undergoing reconstruction, it is taking time for the soul to adjust to the new vessel. However, the soul is being quickly replenished and strengthened by an artifact within the patient's heart. Letting the patient stay in the ORR until the rest of the body undergoes reconstruction is recommended.
Remarks: If it is one's destiny to die, the universe itself cannot stop it. If one is destined to live, then the universe itself will bend itself around you to provide the conditions for you to live.
He felt like he should leave the matter about the artifact out, as he should afford the man some privacy at least. After all, although he himself was not aware, he was also a guest at the Inn. Not to mention, an artifact that not only keeps him from dying for 15 years but also heals the soul was ridiculously rare as far as Lex knew, so the fewer people that knew about it, the better.
"As your son's body is being reconstructed, his soul is also automatically healing itself. Although it's unexpected, it's not unprecedented. So, congratulations. Your son should recover completely soon."
Sophia trembled as heard the news, and couldn't stop tears from falling from her eyes. Despite all the resentment that had built up over the years, she instinctively hugged Marlo and squeezed with all her might as she tried to control her emotions.
"Thank you for the news," was all Marlo said, as he held his wife in his embrace. His voice was just as even as when he was telling Lex his son's story. He was a strong man, in more ways than one.
After checking up on the situation one more time, Lex left to give the couple their privacy. He had many things to take care of.
*****
Xeon was tired. Not physically, although that drain was also there, but his exhaustion was mental. As a preeminent celebrity, exceptional artist, and all-in-all genius in the way of crafting and refining, he never got a moment's rest. Everywhere he went, he would be swarmed by a crowd of admirers, asking for autographs or requesting him to make jewelry or equipment.
For goodness sakes, all he did was craft a crown that made its wear 10,000% more likely to encounter an epiphany under the Nascent realm, and a necklace that absorbed harmful radiation and released it as gentle spirit energy for the wearer to absorb. Was that any reason to overwhelm him? As far as he was concerned, it was not even his best work – visually speaking, of course.
The exhausted drake opened the window of his 30 story castle, but was immediately inundated by the cheers of endless crowds. Immediately, he closed the window again. This is what he got for accidentally being discovered for hiding his identity and helping ordinary people by crafting them Gold grade equipment.
What he wouldn't give to get away from it all. As if an answer to his prayer, a magnificently carved, golden door appeared in front of his eyes, hovering midair. He felt a welcoming call from the door, as if freedom lay just a step away.
He didn't even care how suspicious this was. He needed to get away from all females, and some males, who kept hurling themselves at him in the heat of lust. So, without any planning or precaution, the drake stepped through the door.
Half an hour later, a suspiciously dressed man sneaked into the room where Xeon had left from, and searched. After ensuring the drake was not hiding, the man called someone.
"Team leader, the target has disappeared. He is not at home."
"Continue hiding. If he doesn't reappear in a week, we can only applaud the Dimitri family for being exceptionally cautious."
"Understood," the man replied before retreating into the shadows. He was not here for an assassination, but to kidnap his target. He did not often fail his missions, but in the scenario where the target disappeared, there was nothing he could do except wait and hope for his return.
*****
When Xeon stepped through the door, he received a prompt asking him if he wanted to hide his identity. Although he did not know where he was going, his deepest fear was being recognized once again, so he selected 'Yes' and wore the glasses that appeared in front of him.
The drake found himself standing in front of a manor, surrounded by vast open fields and a clear blue sky. The air was so clean, breathing felt like he was partaking in a delicacy. As a drake, with much sharper senses than many other species like humans, he was extremely sensitive to noise and air pollution. It was also for this reason that he enjoyed the atmosphere at the Inn more than others as well.
This wasn't even considering the concentration and purity of spirit energy in the air, that made him feel like each of his scales absorbing the energy in the air and growing stronger naturally.
Two humans stood in front of the manor, and it seemed like they had been talking before Xeon's arrival, but now he had attracted their attention. He silently lamented in his heart. Such was the burden of a genius. Even with his identity hidden, he became the center of attention. It seemed gold would always shine.
"Welcome guest, to the Midnight Inn. I am the Innkeeper, owner of this humble establishment. You look… tired. Would you like to rest by our lovely and peaceful lake? It is most… relaxing."
Xeon was surprised. Firstly, he was not expecting to arrive at an Inn. Secondly, he did not expect this Innkeeper was so insightful as to be able to immediately guess what he needed.
"Why yes, that sounds lovely," Xeon said happily. "You said this is an Inn? Can you tell me more about it? I desperately need a vacation."
Lex walked side by side with the massive, five feet tall and eight feet long drake, completely undeterred by the sharp contrast in the appearance and personality of his guest. He looked like a living, breathing war machine, with talons so sharp they could pierce through bones like butter and glossy but heavy looking scales. Along his spine and all the way to the edge of his tail ran some kind of exoskeleton, black, with sharp grooves and ridges. His eyes were that of an apex predator and his fangs looked like they had come out of a horror movie.
His personality, however, was like that of a child. Of course, Lex had barely talked with him and so it was too soon to judge, but he had a strong gut feeling about him.
He recalled the drakes status.
Name: Xeon
Age: 112
Sex: Male
Cultivation Details: Golden Core
Species: Drake
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
Bloodline: Volcanic Drake
Condition:
Suffering from severe mental exhaustion from being worshiped for too long. Rest and relaxation are recommended.
Remarks: It is not without reason that dragons look down on drakes, but some try harder than others to shame their lineage.
As they walked, Lex introduced the Inn to the drake, giving him the usual spiel about catering to the whole universe etc.
The more the drake heard, the happier it became. In the grand scheme of things, his popularity was probably infinitesimal. There was probably no other guest in the entire Inn who knew about him, which meant that he would no longer be endlessly hounded so long as he was here.
He had not even reached the lake yet, and already the drake was feeling good. Lex, however, was thinking about something else. He either had to get Gerard a new vehicle, or he seriously needed to find someone to upgrade it according to his requirements. If more drakes showed up, they could not chauffeured around in a tiny cart as they simply would not fit, and if they had to be walked everywhere, it would take forever.
Speaking of Gerard… Lex had just been talking to him in front of the manor. The old looking man had started showing signs of his age regressing BECAUSE HE WAS ALREADY AT THE PEAK OF QI TRAINING!
Lex wanted to rip his own hair out. Not that he wasn't happy for Gerard, but he was the one with the system, so wasn't he supposed to be the fastest in cultivating? If compared to the standards on Earth, his cultivation was increasing like a rocket. But when compared to Gerard, Lex felt like he was barely moving.
To give reference to Gerards incredible speed of cultivation, it must be remembered that it took Alexander two years to break into the Foundation realm, and he set a world record. Gerard, technically speaking, had barely been cultivating for two months! Not only that, Gerard informed Lex that he felt like his bloodline was about to have a breakthrough, and requested a small break so he could focus on that.
Lex really needed to step up his own game.
Once they arrived at the lake, Xeon comfortably nestled himself on a massive recliner Lex had designed specifically for beasts, and simply decided to enjoy being around people without being the center of attention. He was intrigued about how people behaved in their free time, and what they normally did. More than the relaxing environment, it was the anonymity that he enjoyed.
Making sure that he did not need anything else, Lex left. During his research on the X-142 planet, the one thing he discovered wasn't that he lacked many of the common features of a luxury resort, such as a spa or massage clinic. No, what Lex realized was that he had not given enough emphasis to his special features.
He did not need to replicate the facilities of other places; he needed to focus on what made him special and expand it. He looked at his MP, and noticed that he had only made a profit of 12,000 MP in the week he was gone, a result of his various services and items sold in the gift shop. This made his total MP at 4,942,000.
He looked at the various rooms he had, at least the ones provided by the system. He had the Guild room, Meditation room, Mystery trial, which wasn't really a 'room' but it was provided by the system and Lex earned a hefty profit from it, the various recovery rooms and the training room.
The first thing Lex did was upgrade each of the rooms to the maximum he could with his authority, which was the same as his authority: level 4. The mystery trial, of course, was not included in these since Lex could not directly upgrade that.
The next thing he did was to increase the number of rooms. He expanded his recovery room to the size of a proper hospital building, so that it could easily accommodate more patients. He turned the training room on Main street into a high-rise tower, with each floor being a training room. This was the second high rise in the Midnight Inn skyline, but Lex had already come to accept that he would end up having at least one metropolitan area as he expanded.
The guild room was unique in that Lex did not need multiple versions of it, as just a single one could cater to the needs of all his guests. Furthermore, while the other rooms only enhanced the service they provided as they were upgraded or added slight enhancements, such as the training room providing a playback feature of the trainee when they use their techniques, the guild room gained a couple entirely new features.
While Lex found most of the new features barely a moderate improvement, such as allowing guests to post requests to the guild from anywhere in the Inn and a small notification to someone whenever their request was completed, regardless of whether they were in the Inn or not, there was one he found particularly impressive.
A feature offered by the gift shop was that when someone bought an item, they delivered the item in a compressed form of a card, which could then be converted back into the original item whenever the user required. The new feature of the guild was that they commissioned empty such cards called Requisition cards, which the person would have to purchase separately, of course. But these cards could not be used randomly, as they served a very specific purpose. A person accepting a request that would require the submission of certain materials could take the card, and then absorb the item directly into the card when they were back on the planet they came from. At that point, the card would automatically teleport to the Inn, and submit the material to the guild room.
Since the card had a limit to the amount of material it could absorb, this wasn't a perfect solution for everyone. But it did add an element of convenience. Most importantly, it gave Lex hope that one day the Inn would provide him some way to instantly store any item he wanted in a separate space. The System inventory was too picky in this matter.
The improvement in the meditation room was not anything new, it still helped with cultivation and understanding, just with a stronger effect now. It did not sound phenomenal, but sometimes, that was enough. The Meditation room did not require any bells and whistles, just improving its existing functions was more than enough.
With these things taken care of, Lex was planning on meeting with Harry to see how he could help Harry grow his abilities, but was informed by Mary that Alexander wanted to meet him.
As his first big client, Lex had a special fondness for Alexander, and so did not waste any time in scanning the Inn and appearing near his location. He was with his grandmother, Audrey, and the two of them were sitting alone in one of the secluded viewpoints of the Midnight mountain. Lex immediately sensed that the mood was somewhat unusual, but guessed it had to do with the fact that Helen still had not returned to the Inn after so long.
"Innkeeper," the grandchild and grandmother duo greeted him together. Their tone was formal, as usual, but they carried an air of solemnity about them. Considering the fact that even Audrey was being so serious, this might be about more than just the girl.
"Please, be at ease. What can I do for you?"
Alexander exchanged looks with his grandmother once, before he turned to the Innkeeper and said, "I remember you once mentioned Prestige levels and their perks. With my current spending, I should be around Prestige level 3, right?"
Lex was surprised. To be honest, he completely forgot that prestige was even a thing, other than just a category on the status screen. He scanned Alexander to check his status.
Name: Alexander Morrison
Age: 17
Sex: Male
Cultivation Details: Initial Foundation realm
Species: Human
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 3
Remarks: A walking, talking main character without the tragic backstory. Rob him blind, give him something to be sad about.
"Indeed, your current Prestige level is 3," Lex told him, as he quickly checked on the perks each level gave mentally.
Prestige Level 1:
Can receive glasses equipped with Clark Kent effect (only work while at the Inn)
Prestige Level 2:
Can instantly teleport to the Inn from anywhere in the universe once (great for escaping enemies)
Prestige Level 3:
Can travel to one-way a world connected to the Inn (can only be used once every 10 years)
Prestige Level 4:
5% discount on all Inn services, access to special services, allow you to use any Inn service once (every ten years) while not at the Inn (effect of meditation room while cultivation, recovery pod, etc.).
The fourth prestige level was new, and probably unlocked with his increased authority. But since literally not a single person had used their prestige perk, other than the glasses to hide your identity, Lex had not even remembered to check it out.
"Alright, well, I'd like to use the perk awarded to me by my level three Prestige and travel to Vegus Minima."
"Are you sure? It's a one-way trip, meaning you will not be able to return to Earth or Mars. At least, you won't be able to return for the next 10 years, until the perk resets."
"Yes, I'm sure. Whether it's Earth, Mars or even the new Minor realm, my family can handle them fine without my aid. The best way for me to contribute to the family, and speed up my own progress, is to leave and head out on my own."
For a moment, Lex didn't know if he admired Alexander or thought he was idiotic. Leaving the comfort of home and going to face the unknown required a lot of courage. Then again, there were probably millions of people who would literally kill to be in his position, but he was giving it to take risks that may harm him greatly.
"Well, alright then. Are you ready? I can send you off whenever you need."
"Yes, I'm ready," he said, as he picked up a backpack.
"Is there somewhere in particular on the planet you want to go?" Lex asked as he prepared to activate the system. He learnt that being able to pick a location not blocked by protective formations to be teleported to. Even then, the restriction of the protective formations wasn't because the system couldn't teleport there, but to honor the privacy of the planet's inhabitants. Otherwise, people could directly teleport into bank vaults or secure locations and cause havoc.
"Yes, I've already discussed my arrival with Lieutenant Slag, who will then help me enroll in the army. So, I would like to be teleported to him."
Upon discovering that the system considered that an acceptable target, Lex looked at Alexander one last time, before teleporting the boy away. His life would be drastically different now, but Lex was rooting for him.
Then he turned to look at Audrey and asked, "this was a brave decision."
"Not really," the breathtakingly beautiful woman replied. "His stupid father is too controlling, the boy needs a bit of freedom. Do you know, he still hasn't had a single girlfriend?"
The woman genuinely seemed angry as she said that, before walking away. Try as he might, Lex could find no deep or hidden concern for the boy, disguised in her behavior. She must really want him to start dating.
Once he was done with Alexander, Lex went to check up on Harry. The barber kid was doing exceptionally well. His cheeks had filled out a little and his eyes had vigor that he had lacked when Lex first met him. Lex could not tell heads or tails of his cultivation, but he was confident enough to cut the hair of several Qi training cultivators each day, and that's all that Lex needed to know.
When asked if there was something he needed, he blushed, and after thinking for a few moments, said he didn't need anything. He was thoroughly confused about what he was thinking, but if it was important, he would eventually reach out.
John happened to be in the Mystery trial, so Lex decided to skip meeting him for now. Done with these tasks, Lex returned to his room, rubbed himself down with the ointment he received, and started cultivating.
Using his Leo persona, Lex had previously placed several orders of equipment and ammunition to be delivered at fixed intervals, both to Will and Chen. This way, he wouldn't need to ask them again each time he was done visiting a world, and avoid overlapping the appearance of Leo with the Innkeeper. As far as anyone was concerned, and according to what Leo told Z, Leo had to go to handle some personal affairs and would not appear for a long time.
Once he received his next batch of equipment, he would head out to another planet. X-142 was a very suitable planet for the purpose of attracting clients for the expo in six months, but he would need more. Until then, however, Lex simply focused on his cultivation.
Two days later, Lex had managed to gather a total of 34 strands of Qi and had entered the 4th level of Qi training. He had no intentions of stopping training, however, as the feeling of getting stronger was actually quite addictive.
Until…
"Hey Lex, there's an unusual situation. You might want to pay attention to this."
It was quite rare for Mary to interrupt his cultivation, as she would normally wait for one of his breaks, so the seriousness of the matter was apparent.
Lex concluded his cultivation, stabilizing his absorbed Qi, and got up.
"What's the issue?"
"One of the guests has gotten into an argument with one of the waitresses."
Lex raised an eyebrow and quickly scanned the Inn, found the problem and sighed.
Lex was not surprised that the culprit was one of the teenagers from Troy academy.
"Shut your mouth you stupid skank, I know what you were doing!" hollered a girl ballistically at one of his waitresses. Lex did not have much personal interaction with this waitress, and did not know her name, but that did not mean he would let one of his workers get bullied. But he needed to understand the situation first, so he quietly listened.
"Please, guest, it's nothing like that. You must be misunderstanding…"
"Misunderstand my ass," the overly privileged teenager yelled again. "You were flirting with my boyfriend. I saw how you were ogling him. Keep your skanky claws away from him or I'll make you regret it. You're lucky the principal has strictly banned us from fighting, or I'd be squeezing your head into the ground and shaving it bald."
"I assure you," the waitress replied, panic and desperation in her voice, "I was not making any advances on the guest. He requested some help, and I was only inquiring–"
"Oh, you're calling me a liar? We can just ask Sean. Hey Sean, did you call this skank?"
The screaming girl turned towards her boyfriend. He was standing together with a group of friends, snickering as they whispered amongst themselves. When asked, he quickly denied asking the waitress for anything.
Lex frowned. Since he could review any events happening at the Inn at any time, he quickly rewinded and saw that the boy had indeed asked for the waitress specifically. In fact, when Lex heard some of the remarks the boys were passing when they called her…
Lex's demeanor darkened. He scanned the Inn and found the principal of the academy, who was sitting with a few friends and chatting in a restaurant in Avalon. Lex directly sent his voice and told him to show up at the location of the argument, ensuring the displeasure in his voice was evident.
The principal nearly fell out of his seat when he recognized the voice, but Lex was already not paying attention anymore. As pissed off as he was, he slightly regretted that the screaming brat hadn't actually physically attacked at any time. That would have made the situation simpler to resolve; he could have directly retaliated.
Before the fight could continue any further, and before Lex had to hear anymore screaming, he took a deep breath to stabilize his mood, and teleported over.
"What seems to be the issue here?" he asked as soon as he appeared. His voice was neutral, and did not betray his true feelings, but it was loud and carried clearly to the ears of all who were watching. Many of his workers who were also watching breathed a sigh of relief, and hope twinkled in their eyes. The guests had a different sparkle in their eyes, as they avidly waited to watch the drama unfold.
The screaming girl was not intimidated by the Innkeepers arrival, but instead became excited. She had grown in the lap of luxury, and was used to getting her way, but that did not mean that she was an idiot. She had a clear understanding of businesses, and she understood the extent they would go to to preserve their image.
Her reason for causing a commotion was valid, as the waitress had indeed been overly friendly with her boyfriend, in her opinion, and in such a scenario where she was in the right, along with her background, usually played out pretty much in the manner she wanted. It was unfortunate for her that her experience was limited to Earth where her background actually mattered, and that Lex did not have a boss he needed to appease by maintaining a positive relation with his customers – even the annoying ones.
"This desperate skank here was throwing herself at my boyfriend!" she explained to the Innkeeper in a haughty voice. "Is that the kind of establishment you run here? Interfering in your guests' lives and taking what you want?"
The girl was quite proud of her accusation, and just waiting for the Innkeeper to start appeasing her.
Lex looked at his waitress, who was staring back at him with hesitation and fear in her eyes.
"What happened?" he asked her, his voice noticeably softer.
"The… the guest… kept asking… me to bring things… for his friends. I was only… doing what the guest wanted," she replied, trying hard to keep herself from stuttering.
"Lies! She's lying! She kept flirting with–"
"Stop," Lex said, his voice rippling through the air and freezing the screaming girl.
He waved his hand, and a screen appeared in the air in front of everyone, displaying the events as they played out. Everyone watched, including the aggrieved waitress, as the boys kept taunting and flirting with the waitress. Something Lex didn't catch the first time, but noticed this time, was that one of the boys even tried to pinch her, and winked at her when she managed to avoid it.
The situation was clear to everyone who watched it, and the screaming girl blushed with her fists clenched as she watched. It was evident that her boyfriend was the one harassing the waitress, but she couldn't accept it.
But the situation was escalating, as their principal had also run over by now, and immediately panicked when he saw what the screen displayed. Unaware of what actually occurred, he thought it was the horrendous behavior of the boys that agitated the Innkeeper.
"I think it's obvious what really happened," Lex said, as he looked at the girl. To be honest, he really wanted to punish her in some way, but at the same time didn't want to go as far as to use violence.
He controlled the agitation in his heart and suppressed his rising anger as he turned to the principal.
"This is an establishment that takes care of its guests, but never at the expense of my staff. As this is the first time something like this has happened, I will let it go by simply banning the girl and those boys. Should it happen again, the repercussions won't be as simple as a ban."
"My gravest apologies Innkeeper," the principal began, wiping the actual sweat off his forehead. "I promise you, something like…"
"I disagree!" the girl screamed loudly, cutting the principal off, as she glared at the Innkeeper. Not only had the Innkeeper ignored her, and dictated a 'punishment' for her to her principal, just the fact that he had exposed her and humiliated her in public drove her insane. Normally, she really knew what lines not to cross, but as a spoiled child experiencing anything but adoration and support, the logical part of her brain was overridden by her erupting anger! Of course, she was angry at her boyfriend, soon to be ex-boyfriend as well for shamelessly flirting with other girls. Currently, however, she was still focused on the waitress and the Innkeeper.
"Just because she didn't say anything doesn't mean she's not guilty! It's her fault for flaunting herself in front of all those boys! And you! Do you feel proud, bullying a little girl? Since this is a problem between me and her, you should let us handle it ourselves! If you're shameless enough to interfere in a fight between the younger generation, don't be surprised when the same happens to one of your workers in the future!"
The principal nearly fainted as he heard the girl screaming, and almost already accepted today as the date for his funeral. Lex, however, turned to look at her, his neutral appearance turning grim, his anger beginning to seethe.
The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!
"Before you do anything, someone sent you a message I think you should listen to," Mary suddenly interrupted Lex's thoughts, before directly playing the message. Considering the current situation, Lex knew Mary would only interrupt him if it was important, and indeed it was.
Firstly, her timely interruption woke Lex from his stupor. He realized that he had once again become furious, the same way he had on X-142, though obviously not at the same level. It was strange, Lex never had any anger issues in his life prior to this. But then again, he lived a life where he never really encountered any bullying or blatant antagonization. Fortunately, once he realized that, he quickly calmed down. Secondly, the message provided him with a way to resolve this situation without having to resort to violence. Well, without directly having to resort to violence.
Before he said anything, though, he scanned the audacious girl.
Name: Heidi
Age:18
Sex: Female
Cultivation Details: Qi training level 3
Species: Human
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
Remarks: She reeks of a girl with Daddy issues. Her boyfriend could either be extremely fortunate, or extremely unfortunate – there is no third option.
With nothing special in her status worthy of note, in Lex's mind this matter was no longer worthy of his attention. So far, he had avoided trouble at his Inn due to the clear intimidating reputation he had established, but there would always be people who were not guided by logic. In fact, there were likely more of those out there than the logical type, it was just that Lex had the good fortune of avoiding most of them so far.
Normally, Lex would address others as 'dear guest' to make them feel comfortable and respected, but this time, he could not be bothered.
"Heidi, this is the Midnight Inn. We take pride in our service to any and all guests who honor decorum, but for those who display impropriety, we have no patience. This is not a feud between the 'younger generation'. It is simply you mistreating one of my staff, and me not standing for it. It is already a testament to my good temper that I even bothered to provide an explanation for my decision, let alone the light punishment I declared."
The Innkeeper's expression was only mildly perturbed, but all who were watching felt the pressure of his words. It was like a suffocating feeling, pressing down on one's chest, keeping them from breathing. For a moment, some were truly afraid of what would happen next, and were ready to escape at a moment's notice.
It just so happened that Ragnar, the General in charge of the Jotun forces in the Vegus system, happened to come to the Inn just in time to witness these things. He had originally come to the Inn because he needed to consult the Innkeeper on certain matters, but decided it was best to wait till the situation was resolved.
"Since you are from an underdeveloped planet, it makes sense that you cannot understand that being served by my employees is a privilege and an honor, but it is not my place to explain these things to you. Originally, since you were sensible enough not to actually try to harm my employee, I was simply going to send you back to your planet and end this farce. Yet it seems your words have struck a nerve with someone, and so, I will indeed let the 'younger generation' handle it."
Heidi, who was originally furious, was now flushed with embarrassment and wild jealousy. She accused him of bullying and tried to discredit him in public since she was so used to being around people who cared more for face than anything else, but the glaring indifference in his eyes let her know that if she had not harassed one of his employees, she would never enter his eyes for the rest of his life. His apathy for her was only matched by his concern for his employee. When was the last time someone had cared like that for her?
Before she could think much further, however, someone came and stepped in front of her. He was one of the more renowned workers at the Inn, Z. Not only did he have a crowd of mothers wanting to spoil him, and the odd girl finding his shyness cute, but he was extremely popular amongst Lex's employees as well.
While they all had unique personalities, most of Lex's workers had an air of naivety to them, and it was only with Z's incessant guidance that they took care of themselves somewhat. Of course, he still would not show his concern openly. With everyone's first paycheck of 100 MP, he had them buy phones, and he shared all his concerns over a discord server for the Inn employees only.
Right now, though, he did not look like a shy geek who spent all his time in front of a screen. Currently, he was looking up at Heidi (he was shorter than her) with his arms folded and a look of disgust on his face. No one could tell at all that he practiced this look in the mirror every time he saw an awesome anime protagonist.
"For insulting big sister Pamela, I could diss you so long and hard, it would put shame to every diss track in history. But I don't have time to waste on the likes of you, I'm right in the middle of watching Overlady, so how about we get right to it. I challenge you to a fight in the arena. If I win, apologize to sister Pamela. If you win, I'll apologize on sisters behalf and give you all the MP I have."
Internally, Z snickered. He only had 1 MP left.
Heidi suddenly realized that a massive crowd had gathered, and now they were all watching her. Not only were there numerous guests, slowly more and more of the Inns workers had started to gather. This was the first time any of them faced such a situation, and as a tightknit community, they were all extremely concerned for Pamela.
Even with her inflated ego, anger and embarrassment clouding her mind, she started feeling pressure under the gaze of the enormous crowd, and was thinking of what she could do. But before she could think of anything, Z spoke once again.
"Of course, since the whole matter started with you guys taking advantage of sister Pamela, you must join in the challenge as well." He was, of course, looking at Sean and his friends. "Naturally, I'll take you all on together. Don't worry, I know this is too unfair a fight for you guys, so I'll only use one hand."
As soon as Z said those words, the crowd erupted in murmurs. Lex felt his heart drop, but he did not let it show on his face. He wasn't even sure if this was the same Z who never moved from in front of the TV screen. He had never seen him jog, let alone fight, and now he was handicapping himself. If he failed, Lex wouldn't know where to bury his face from embarrassment.
Heidi, on the other hand, suddenly saw hope. Like she knew how to escalate situations, she recognized the current one very well. This kid was trying to show off in front of some girl, she herself had experienced such things a hundred times. She had to take advantage of the situation before the kids' heads cooled down. She would vent all her frustrations on him!
"I've really seen it all," she yelled, making sure all the crowd heard her voice clearly. "The Innkeeper of the famous Midnight Inn likes to bully little girls, and the rest of you like to force us into fights! I'm not as barbarish as you, but that doesn't mean I'm afraid of you! Come on Sean, let's go! Or is the only thing you can do is ogle at dirty skanks? And you, little kid, don't cry when you lose! I'll have you beg for an apology for every dirty look that ugly wench threw at my boyfriend."
By calling out her boyfriend, she put the pressure on him to join her in the fight alongside her. She really needed him and his friends as she herself… could not fight at all! They were living in the 21st century, with her prestigious background when would she ever need to fight? Her cultivation realm was only to prolong her youth and keep up with her siblings.
Word of the fight spread across the Inn almost immediately, and almost all the guests showed up to the arena to watch the fight! There had been a few matches here regularly since Marlo and Brandon had their duel, and it had become one of the most popular spots and always hosted a crowd, either supporting a fighter or just enjoying the match.
None of that could compare, however, with the massive crowd that was gathering now. Not only because of all the guests, but because after asking special permission, all the workers across the Inn came here to show their support for Z.
Every one of them seemed to take the feeble looking kids win for granted. Only Lex was worried inside, though one would not be able to tell by looking at him.
The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!
The battle arena was much smaller than the coliseum that used to host massive crowds, even the few hundred guests and workers now had their vision blocked. The few existing seats were filled to beyond their capacity, with many people sitting on each other's laps.
Lex, who was watching the scene with his arms folded, standing midair, let loose a sigh as he had no choice but to make the arena and its stands bigger.
He really wanted to avoid spending his MP on nonessential things, but in the end quality of life improvements did count as essential for an Inn. With a wave of his hand, and 30,000 MP from his balance, the arena spontaneously turned into an open-air stadium.
The crowd that was standing suddenly found themselves sitting. The nearby food stall was naturally incorporated into the stadium, and some of the workers found themselves holding a tray with a strap round their neck, full of hot dogs, fries, and a few foreign dishes from the other planets the Inn was attached to.
Ragnar, who had been floating in the air right beside the Innkeeper, was impressed as usual. The Innkeeper had a certain flair in doing seemingly impossible tasks with casual effort.
Xeon, who also suddenly found himself sitting down, was fairly impressed, but more inspired! This Inn was just lovely! He was too used to being able to predict things, which affected his creativity, but now he was bursting with ideas. He really wanted to go ask the Innkeeper if he created this out of thin air, or summoned a pre-existing building from somewhere else. The answer would guide him in his next invention.
On stage, Z stood casually with his arms still folded, looking indifferently towards Heidi. From time to time, his armor would crack and his cool expression would momentarily shift to an awkward smile, but he always regained his cool quick enough for anyone to notice. He hoped.
On the other end stood Heidi and Sean, along with four of his friends. To be honest, his friends did not want to get involved in this, they were just having some fun earlier by teasing the waitress. But they didn't even have time to process what happened when Z challenged them, and Heidi accepted on their behalf.
Even after she accepted, they tried to get out of it, but the crowds were too big, and they were under too much pressure. Anyway they saw it, it looked like they were bullying a little kid. They were hoping to get Z to take back his challenge by pressuring him until someone told them that it wasn't an unfair fight. After all, Z was an employee for the Innkeeper. How could he be judged by normal standards?
Maybe if they were able to fight him, or even beat him, they might be able to earn the opportunity to impress the Innkeeper and get hired by him. The logic of being rewarded by the Innkeeper for beating his own employee was extremely flawed, but from the point of view of these kids whose lives only revolved around their own needs, it made perfect sense.
Everyone was split on who they thought would win, some anticipating the Inns employee to wipe the floor with these kids, while others thinking he would be overpowered due to their numbers. Lex was among the people who were undecided. Z, albeit his introverted personality, was not stupid so he should know what he can handle. At the same time, Lex had never seen any of his workers fight so he really didn't know what to expect. He hadn't even given them any techniques, only providing them with cultivation methods, so what could he really achieve?
Just as the tension was slowly building up, and Heidi was furiously whispering to Sean, telling him how to attack, the Innkeeper finally spoke.
"I would like to give a reminder to stop the fight in a timely manner in case the opponent is unable to continue. I also do not want anyone attacking to kill."
His voice was placid, as if he already knew the result, but was only speaking for the formality of it.
As Lex did not like giving long speeches or dramatic build ups, he directly said, "begin."
The group of teenagers from Troy academy as well as Z were taken by surprise by the sudden start, but Z recovered first.
True to his words, Z folded his left arm behind himself and extended his right arm forward and flicked his fingers, as if indicating them to come attack him.
As if that wasn't provocation enough for the extremely prideful teenagers, music started playing catching the audience by surprise. Then someone noticed that there was a bluetooth speaker hanging from one of Z's belt loops which was the source of the music.
"What do you think you're doing?" Heidi asked, her body trembling from fury. Let alone being insulted as such, she felt like the level of disregard being shown to her was monumental. This kid was totally taking this fight as a joke!
"It's my theme music," Z answered very seriously. "I'm still working on it, but all the heroes have background music when they fight right? This is just an electronic copy of the music from Attack on Tetanus, but it's all I had right now."
Unable to process what Z was saying she let out a frustrated scream, before yelling at her partners.
"What are you waiting for? Can't you see he's humiliating you? Hurry up and end this!"
Sean was a typical bully and liked to take advantage of people when no one was watching. Being under the scrutiny of hundreds of people made him hesitant, but his ego and pride prevented him from backing down.
"Let's go," he said to his friends, as he slowly started walking towards Z, trying to look cool. 5 second later, when he was still walking and had not even covered a third of the distance, he suddenly became hyper-aware of the hundreds of eyes on him, and how long it would take to reach Z at this rate. Suddenly getting flustered, he let out an angry yell, and bolted towards him.
Despite what Heidi thought, Z was taking this fight very seriously from the beginning. Seeing his opponents rush at him, Z's eyes suddenly shone with a silver light as he activated Regalia Bloom, the bloodline all the Inn's workers seemed to share.
From his pocket emerged a trading card of an anime Z liked to watch, covered in a silver light as well. A lot of the guests watching assumed it was some kind of weapon, the higher realm cultivators recognized it as some kind of card, and only some very few cultural connoisseurs from Earth recognized what it really was – after all, the figure of a small flaming lizard on it was unmistakable.
Z waited till his foes were closer and, timing it perfectly with the beat drop, launched his attack! The silver card flew too fast for the kids to follow and so Sean was caught completely unprepared when he felt the flat of the card smack him on the face so hard that he lost balance and tripped!
While the attack itself had not been too hard, Z did not accidentally want to kill him so he controlled his strength, the sound of the smack was like a clap of thunder that rang across the stadium.
The crowd erupted in cheer and Lex secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but the four boys behind Sean panicked! The sound was loud enough to scare them, and the way Sean had fallen over made them assume it was a devastating blow.
Feeling a mix of anxiousness, fear, anger, hesitation and confusion, they did the only thing they could think of, and attacked Z blindly!
The man of the hour, Z, did not bother to move from his stance as his eyes followed the four boys who were trying to attack him from all sides.
With a blinding silver glow, the card streaked through the air, smacking faces before anyone could get close.
Since the attacks weren't strong enough to actually knock them unconscious, Sean and the boys picked themselves back up, thinking themselves hardened warriors who could resist a lethal blow.
Battle cries drowned Z's music, and various techniques flashed through the air, but the symphony of slapping faces never paused, and Z had played his music on repeat so it didn't matter if he missed any of the good parts.
It was bitter fight and a testament to Z's endless will that he never flattered under the relentless onslaught. After all, standing still in the sunlight for so long had caused him to start sweating, and he had forgotten to wear deodorant! It was only a slight absolution from his plight that every time he hurled an opponent with a face slap worth of a shounen MC, their bodies would blow a gentle wind that somewhat cooled him.
In the stands, the Troy academy principal didn't know whether to be relieved whether his students did not harm the Innkeepers worker, or embarrassed at their predicament. Any positive image Alexander had created for the academy during the Midnight Games had been wasted by these fools.
In the end, all he could do was console himself by saying that it was an honor to lose to someone from the Midnight Inn. Yes, that was it. For all he knew, Z might even be the Innkeepers personal disciple. Yes, it was completely honorable to lose to such a fighter.
On stage, Z finally used up 4% of his bloodline power. These were formidable enemies indeed.