Lex smiled because he had finally been encountering some easy quests. Before, from quests ranging to recruiting an immortal behemoth to visiting a 5 star planet, and developing a permanent guest district, Lex kept getting quests way beyond his capabilities.
Lately though, finally, he had some good ones.
He shook his head, denying himself the hope that his luck was getting better, and looked at his rewards.
Fire Temple
A building to host divinities with a fiery temperament, though others can visit it as well. It contains all the basic necessary facilities required by a divine being. Must be built in an extremely hot environment.
New worker class unlocked: Draconian Apostle.
Draconian Apostle
An Insecta found in only the most hazardous environments, these extremely versatile can freely adapt the structure of their bodies to suit their survival needs. A powerful but simple minded race, their lives are hollow until they find a master to serve, or an ideology to propagate.
Thisโฆ was a surprise. Lex always knew he would eventually hire workers that were nonhumans, but he always thought he would need to take the initiative in finding them. To be honest, he was so comfortable with humans that he hadn't really felt the need to hire races. In fact, he somewhat believed that his perception as the Innkeeper had strongly been tied to humans or at least humanoid creatures, for even the Henali sent all humanoid representatives to greet him.
But before he even got around to it, the system had provided him with a new race, or as it called it, class of workers.
He spent 5000 MP to purchase a Draconian Apostle to see what they looked like, and get a better understanding of them. All he understood, so far, was that they were some kind of insect.
Though what he was mentally prepared for, and what appeared in front of him were completely different. A three feet long honey bee appeared in front of him, wearing the signature suit all Midnight Inn employees wore.
Its yellow fur made the suit fitting look fluffy and snug, while its two massive eyes on the sides of its head made it look like it was in a perpetual state of puppy dog eyes. It made a gentle buzzing sound as it hovered in the air in front of it, but it was actually quite pleasing.
"Greetings, Innkeeper," whispered a cute, baby voice in his head.
"Greetings," replied Lex verbally, testing if the Apostle could hear. "Introduce yourself and what you're capable of doing."
"My name is Fredrich. I can do most basic physical and spiritual tasks, and have a racial advantage in building stable structures in extremely volatile areas. For my survival, I cannot long stay in such aโฆ temperate environment, and am best suited for places with extreme heat, cold, radioactive decay, strong electrical clouds etc. I can change my shape as needed to suit my environment and task.
"The cultivation of my species is dependent heavily on the environment in which we live. The more chaotic environment we are able to adapt to, the stronger we will become. Naturally, the environment must also have spiritual energy for us to grow from, but it need not be stable at all. In fact, it is best if it is even a little violent."
'So a race of masochist bees,' Lex mused.
"Take a look at this ravine, do you think you could survive there?" Lex asked as he pointed towards the ever growing pool of lava.
Fredrich took the request very seriously, and even flew down into the ravine to properly inspect everything. Due to the Draconian Apostle's being an entirely different race Lex could not determine its facial expressions, or even detect the to be honest, but his instincts let him know that the was filled with excitement as it flew back.
"This area is perfect for me, and will greatly boost my cultivation!" he said, barely able to suppress its joy.
"Alright in that case, whenever we have a guest come to this area, you will be incharge of taking care of their needs," decided Lex as he summoned a few more of them to give Fredrich some company.
With that done, Lex decided to place the Fire Temple within the ravine as well. As it turned out, the ravine was just large enough to accommodate the structure of an ancient mosque, with tall spires on four of its sides and a pointed domed structure in the middle as the temple itself.
Not interested in exposing himself to the heat of the lava, though he'd be protected from it anyway, Lex simply scanned the temple to see what it was like on the inside. Considering it had what all divinities needed, he was expecting to see a few rooms and amenities, but all he saw were several altars in closed off sections of the temple. Other than that it was very plain and mostly filled with decorations.
Lacking an adequate understanding of divinities, Lex simply shrugged and moved on.
He was feeling a little tired from meeting all his workers for the past several hours, so instead Lex decided to catch up on a few other tasks that were waiting for him, the primary of which was the gifts left behind for him by the Henali representatives.
There was an epistle with the words Henali embossed right onto it, a small sealed booklet which contained the conventions alongside a small, wooden chest that contained some kind of a gift for him.
Such official business was best conducted in his new office, so he retreated back to it and comfortably sat down on his chair. He had asked Mary to try and open them, but she had been unable to open it. There was a very decent chance that Lex himself wouldn't be able to open it either, but he would only find out by trying it out for himself.
After a moment's consideration, he reached towards the epistle first, since it was addressed to him directly. Supposedly it was an invitation to the Henali assembly, whatever that was.
He did not wait for dramatic effect and tried to open the epistle as soon as he got his hands on it but, predictably, nothing happened. The epistle did not open.
Lex sat back in his chair and frowned as he considered why he was unable to open it. Perhaps since they assumed him to be a Daolord, he needed the strength of a Daolord to open it in the first place. Such reasoning would make sense, and if that were the case, these items would remain untouched for a long time, if they were ever touched again at all.
While he was thinking, his sight wandered over the other items on the table, and he noticed the letter opener. Could it be..?
Lex scanned the items on the table, for he hadn't had a chance to earlier.
He started with the leatherbound journal, but discovered it was not a journal at all.
Midnight Inn Letterhead
An Inn, one as prestigious as this, cannot be without proper stationary. The Midnight letterhead can be used by the Innkeeper to write official letters or messages bound for outside the Inn. They will be tinged with the aura of the Innkeeper.
Innkeeper's Pen
Each of the Innkeepers words is worth a hundred worlds. Writing anything with this pen will imbue the words with the aura of the Innkeeper.
Ink Well
The medium to carry power must be powerful as well. No word written with this ink may ever be misconstrued, misunderstood or manipulated to mean anything other than what the author's intentions entail.
Innkeepers Letter opener
A prestigious man must have prestigious friends. An exchange between people of status needs proper etiquette. The letter opened uses the aura of the Innkeeper to open letters and packages addressed to the Innkeeper to confirm the identity of the recipient.
Innkeeper's business cards
Everyone cannot be everywhere all the time. These business cards carry the aura of the Innkeeper with them, and when spiritual energy is passed through them, a temporary clone linked to the Innkeepers consciousness can appear. The Innkeeper can send it to those with whom he wishes to converse.
Lex was genuinely impressed by these items that had remained completely unmentioned so far. They were genuinely so useful for his identity as the Innkeeper, but the system had not deigned to mention them at all. Or maybe they were just a part of his new office, which is why the system did not give him individual notifications.
The business cards especially were blowing his mind and opened up so many potential options for him to continue to use his Innkeeper persona. He had been invited by the Henali to attend some kind of assembly, but Lex honestly had no intention of going. It would only expose him, and maybe even put his system at risk of being detected. But with such clones, he could now consider the option.
He would find an opportunity to test the Innkeeper's business card on someone inconspicuous and test out its abilities and limitations. For now, however, he had another item he wanted to try.
He picked up the letter opener and, without waiting for the dramatic build up, used it to open the epistle. The wax seal easily came off, and the envelope unfurled on its own, revealing a single page that automatically began to hover in the air.
Due to the Universal Language converter that Lex had received he was able to pretty much read and write every language he ever encountered quite easily. In fact, it had been the reason he was able to communicate with the Kraven.
But when he saw the language written on the epistle, the beautiful purple calligraphy on the page, he knew two things immediately. First, regardless of whether he had the language converter or not, he would be able to understand everything this said. Second, he would have to learn some calligraphy of his own if he ever wanted to write a letter as the Innkeeper.
Putting away his random thoughts, Lex began to read.
'Honorable Innkeeper, your presence and activity in the Origin realm has been noted and acknowledged. The Henali would like to thank you for choosing the Origin realm to establish your business in, and would like to invite you to the centurial Henali assembly to meet and interact with other influential and like minded individuals.
'In case you are unfamiliar with the Henali assembly, it is a gathering that invites all those in the Origin realm who have touched upon the Dao, under the protection of the Henali, to come together and discuss current events. No affiliation is required to join the assembly, and attendees may keep their identity anonymous.
'The Henali assembly is also the only portal through which a Daolord can request to join the Henali court, and other essential, affiliate restricted events.
'This epistle also acts as a key to enter the assembly, and can only be activated in the first hour of the assembly.
'Henali looks forward to your attendance.
'Time to assembly: 104 hours, 33 minutes, 59 seconds.'
Lex read and reread the epistle time and time again, analyzing it for as much information as he could get. His heart beat extremely fast as he considered the possibility of going, and all the risks associated.
If he had to go in person, he would never ever risk meeting a Daolord for one simple reason. It did not take a genius to guess that the Daolord realm was even higher than the realm Bastet was in, since her cultivation was only titled as Demi-Daolord.
Moreover, since he now knew that high leveled cultivators could potentially detect his system, he was more than inclined to avoid them as much as possible. But the business card presented him with a potential solution.
Since the 'Innkeeper's aura' was being generated through the system, he would not doubt that it could emulate whatever strength people had associated with the Innkeeper, and since the event would be under the protection of the Henali, who or whatever they were, he would not have to take the risk of having his consciousness clone attacked or even analyzed in great detail.
He was extremely tempted, and his usual greed that was normally hidden once again showed its ugly head. This would be a great opportunity, and he could gain a lot... but at the same time, he was also risking a lot. Moreover, the assembly that happened only once a century was taking place a little over 4 days from now.
The timing was extremely unfortunate, for if it had been even a few years away Lex was confident he would be much better prepared to attend the event.
Still, time waits for no man, and he had a decision to make, and only a few days to make it.
Lex turned his head towards the other two things left behind by the Henali representatives. The wooden chest was apparently a gift, but the other was a copy of the Henali conventions.
Whether he would go or not, reading the conventions would greatly benefit him as they would supplement his understanding of the universe, or at least the Origin realm.
He picked up the purple tetragonal pyramid shaped crystal and tried to channel his spirit energy inside of it, but as expected, nothing happened. He then channeled his spirit energy into the crystal through his letter opener, and lo and behold, the crystal cracked, and a stream of energy flowed into Lex's mind.
Instead of merging into his memory, a sort of book appeared in his mind which he could open and peruse at any time. Just because the book was in his mind did not mean Lex had all the information memorized, but it did mean that Lex's reading speed would be astronomical.
Filled with anticipation, Lex began reading the conventions, and many things finally started making sense. At the same time, Lex finally understood why everyone was so afraid of Henali.
In the way that humans, devils and dragons were races, Henali was actually the name of a race. There was not much of a description of them in this book, as that was not entirely relevant to the conventions. What was mentioned, however, was that this entire massive Origin realm, that the humans on Earth used to previously consider the entire universe instead of just one realm of many, was but a single one of the realms that the Henali controlled, and their conventions applied in each and every realm that they owned.
๐ต๐ฒ๐ซ๐ง๐ฎ๐๐.๐๐ธ๐ข
Moreover, the reason Daolords were forbidden from participating in any civilization-related incident in the Origin realm was very simple. Much in the same way that the Earth Immortal realm was the peak of the Crystal realm, the Daolord realm was a level beyond the natural peak of the Origin realm. Should they use their strength, they would destabilize the entire realm.
After all, as the Origin realm was apparently only 19 billion years old, it was not mature enough to naturally support the existence of beings on such a high realm.
The more Lex read about the rules, the more goosebumps he kept on getting.
*****
In the heart of the Origin realm existed a landmass that was impossibly large. It could not be called a planet, for what planet could be so large that it made galaxies look small? Yet despite its size that defied science, at least as Earthlings understood it, the landmass existed in a stable state. It supported life, had rich and diverse climates, was absurdly rich in spiritual energy so much so that instead of water, it often rained liquid energy, and most of all, did not seem to affect the entire Origin realm with its gravity that should have been strong beyond comprehension.
Yet it was not just the size of the mass that defied fact and fiction. Six chains, each consisting of links, each one lather than the entire solar system, protruded from the mass out into space.
As if that was not enough, each link on the chains also developed a climate of their own, and gave birth to unique lifeforms and never before seen races. Yet that was mere happenstance. The true purpose of the chains was to act as leashes, and the thing they leashed would startle anyone who even slightly understood the universe.
Six blackholes hovered around the mass, sucking everything the universe had to offer, yet at the same time, they seemed to be doing their best to run away from the landmass, as if they had some kind of sentience. Unfortunately for them, the chains that held them in place were not at all threatened by their awesome power.
On this landmass, somewhere, was a temple in which a bird, seemingly made out of pure energy, was reading some kind of book. It was engrossed, as if the world itself could not distract it from the secrets of the universe it was indulging in.
Yet a powerful bolt of energy struck it, knocking it off its perch and attracting its attention.
"Stop reading that perverted crap and get back to work," an ethereal voice thundered. "Another epistle has been opened, and so another Daolords presence has been confirmed. Add another chair to the assembly hall, and look into who the new Daolord could be. Also find out if they're participating in the Henali Champions tourney. The betting pool will open soon, so if there are any new participants we need to do our research."
The bird made of energy only rolled its eyes and, with an exhausted sigh, began obeying the voice's instructions.
If a knowledgeable person saw the bird they would be scared out of their wits, for this bird was exactly one of the few remaining Phoenix's in the Origin realm, and yet here it was, being treated like a servant. The phoenix, though, did not show any reluctance or hesitation as it began doing its work.
Lex spent a good while reading the Henali conventions, and then even longer pondering over what each convention meant, and the reasoning behind it.
Beside a brief introduction of the Henali race, as well as the Origin realm, right at the beginning, the rest was just a list of rules. Lex had to extrapolate a lot of information from the rules and make a lot of guesses, not to mention that these were the conventions that only applied to entities that touched upon the Dao.
There were actually only very few rules for such entities, but Lex estimated that for empires and lower-level people, there would be more rules.
The first and foremost rule was that beings that had touched upon the Dao realm were expressly forbidden from directly interfering, meaning using their own abilities in any way, with any civilization in the entire realm, regardless of how strong or weak they were.
The second rule was that, should they need to conduct a private battle, they had to stabilize the Origin realm around themselves first, by themselves. If any tear is detected in the realm because of them, they will be heavily fined.
Everything seemed fine and dandy so far, as the focus seemed to be on protecting the realm, but the conventions after this were what let Lex know that nothing was ever as simple as it seemed.
Any entity that touched upon the Dao, affiliated or unaffiliated, was to immediately report the presence of any so-called 'Fuegan invaders' and, in some cases, take direct action to eliminate them!
Though there was no explanation for what the Fuegan invaders were, upon reading a few more rules, Lex concluded that... there was a realm wide war going on in the Origin realm as well!
Unlike in the Crystal realm, where the origin of the Kraven was questionable, and the local leaders even took some actions to ensure they were not defeated too quickly, in the Origin realm the Fuegan invaders had to dealt with on sight, and had been established as invaders from another realm!
Anyone who associates with the Fuegan invaders would immediately be identified and treated as an enemy by the Henali, and in the case of Daolords they would be expelled from the realm.
This rang alarm bells for Lex, for what would he do if a Fuegan arrived at the Inn as a guest? He did not know what a Fuegan was, so there was no reason to believe they would even be interested in being a guest, but that did not change the fact that one could end up being a guest.
He needed to understand more about the Fuegan and, more importantly, he needed to get his hand on the reward for discovering the anomaly in the Crystal realm. The reward was a realm seed, and would allow the Inn's space to form into its own realm. That way, they would technically no longer be within the Origin realm, so even if he had a Fuegan as a guest, he did not need to worry about being 'expelled' from the Origin realm.
This was because when it came to beings powerful enough to own and control multiple realms, he did not think for even a second that they would have a tough time locating the Inn, regardless of how easily the system hid it.
After all, the system had already shown that it was not perfect at hiding.
Lex kept reading, but the many conventions after seemed to slowly start getting extremely abstract, and beyond Lex's understanding. The few more that Lex was able to understand were fairly simple. Mass genocide was disallowed when taking control of a new planet, soul farming was forbidden, bloodline farming was forbidden, and no one was allowed to attempt a breakthrough into the Daolord realm within the Origin realm.
In summary, the Origin realm was the private property of some race known as Henali. Though they were owners, their interference within the realm was mostly limited, and the races of the realm were allowed to propagate and spread according to the natural order of things.
There were very few crimes they actually policed, such as mass extinction for colonial purposes, and for the most part did not care about who did what. They were in contact with most races or organizations that reached a certain level, and provided protection against these Fuegan invaders should their threat cross a certain threshold.
Lex finally leaned back and considered his next actions carefully. He only had 4 days to decide.
Before that, though, he turned his attention to the wooden chest and swiped it with his letter opener. Much like the other items left behind by the Henali representatives, the treasure chest unfurled itself, revealing some kind of mechanical orb.
Lex had only just wondered what the orb was, and was thinking of scanning it, when the system spoke.
New Notification: Upgradable material found! Should the system upgrade for free? Upgrade details: provide the Inn access to the Henali portal for free permanently! Using the portal from the Inn will keep the location and all other user data hidden unless specifically otherwise stated. The portal cannot be used to track or locate the Inn.
Lex raised an eyebrow, and then laughed when he understood what happened. He had been given the interstellar equivalent of an internet router. He had heard of the Henali portal before, and had planned on checking it out on his travels, but never got the opportunity, and now, the opportunity had presented itself to him.
He did not hesitate and selected the upgrade, causing the mechanical orb in front of him to vanish. Unlike most upgrades to the Inn, this one was not instantaneous, which was convenient for Lex could catch up on his other tasks.
As it happened, an entire day had passed, and Velma had appeared again, this time with another binder. Lex rubbed his forehead as he wrapped his head around the fact that an entire day had passed. He had been so busy that he had not noticed the time at all.
Still, Lex made time for her since her last briefing had turned out to contain so much valuable information.
This binder was on Nibiru, and all the changes that had been happening to the planet. In a unique phenomenon that no one fully understood, the planet had actually increased in size. The sloth known as Golden Hair that was supposedly supposed to look after the planet had once again disappeared, leaving the world to descend into chaos.
Since so many beats were undergoing mutations and gaining sudden strength, not everyone was as convinced of their roles, and everyone kept challenging the order of things. The entire planet had descended into chaos more or less after that.
There were a few beasts in particular that had gained great fame during this period, one of which was Havval El'Yun, a serpent who had proclaimed all the sea's of Nibiru as his own territory. There was vehement opposition, but none were able to stop his rapid ascent.
Moreover, a large number of humans had revolted after gaining unique bloodlines of their own. Not to mention Tiffany, the girl Lex had met back on that planet, had been spreading cultivation techniques for humans across the globe with her own efforts.
In fact, Tiffany was being heralded as the new leader of humans on the planet, and a number of beasts wanted to pursue her, but none were able to capture or kill her.
๐ต๐๐ซ๐ง๐๐๐.๐๐ธ๐
As if that was not enough, there had been official meetings between high-ranking members of the Jotun Empire and several beasts on Nibiru. The Empire had shown extreme interest in reports of mermaids on the planet.
Unfortunately, while there seemed to be some proof of their prior existence, no one was able to find a living mermaid.
Regardless, the Empire put up several rewards for the location of a mermaid, though they were very careful to also specify that they did not want the mermaid harmed even in the slightest!
Just as Lex was pondering over why the EMpire valued mermaids so much, Velma elaborated.
Apparently, mermaids could transform into humans. Though that wasn't relevant. What was more important was that a child of a human and a mermaid would always be human, but sometimes with the bloodline of the mermaid. The details were unclear even to her, but she was able to gather that the Empire was unbelievably attracted to a certain bloodline ability owned by mermaids, but in all the galaxies that the Empire controlled, they had never been able to locate it.
Still, they were determined to get their hands on it one way or another.
Lex listened with great interest as he expanded his understanding of the universe, even if it was only one planet at a time for now.
Once he was done, Lex took the binder with information on Earth from her and, after a long time, appeared at the Inn as Lex Williams. It was time to meet some old friends.
From the moment Lex decided to use his original identity to when he teleported and walked all the way to where Marlo's wife, Sophia was, he had already gotten several notifications from Mary about tasks that needed to be handled by him.
It may have seemed like the Inn had been functioning fine in his absence, but the truth was they were barely holding things together. It was a ship at voyage having its leaks repaired using duck tape.
An undeniable truth, unfortunately, was that the quality and standard of the Inn had fallen. It was not Lex's fault, for he had been doing his best to keep up the expansion of the Inn as its presence grew in the universe, but he expanded from having a few thousand guests at any given time to a few million in the span of a few months.
It was virtually impossible to keep up with the standard, especially because of Lex's cultivation level, which limited the amount of things Lex could do at any given time. An example of the high standard he had early on was the presence of unique places such as the Barbershop, Gamers den and Battle Ax.
They were more than sufficient to cater to a few hundred, possibly even a few thousand people. But with millions of guests, even if they operated at maximum capacity at all times, they still wouldn't be able to keep up with even 1% of the demand.
Due to the fact that such shops couldn't be replicated, the uniqueness of the Inn fell. Indeed, the Meditation, training, hot tub rooms etc. were good, but they were generic. Lex needed more unique attractions and features to keep up with the demand. Moreover, despite the strict control of the security team and his other employees, more and more people were beginning to misbehave at the Inn.
This was because while Lex and the rest had given demonstrations, that was a long time ago. Moreover, the people who were visiting for the first time may have not even heard of them.
These were exactly the reasons Lex had decided to temporarily not go to other planets and just focus on improving the Inn during this next upcoming period. The Henali assembly, in comparison, while still risky, would not take as long so Lex could still afford to go.
Still, while all of these were concerns, Lex was aware of them and already planned on fixing them. Sure it may take some time, but it would not be a huge loss. This was exactly why Lex could take some time to handle a few personal matters, such as the one regarding Earth.
What he did not know, however, was that an army had been silently gathering at the Inn for the past few months, completely under the radar.
When Lex visited the planet X-142, a mysterious group had begun to infiltrate it. Their purpose was unknown, though their actions suggested that they were either there to destabilize the Dmitri family, or steal from them.
The Dmitri family, a business oriented family that had bought the rights for the X-14 star system for a thousand years, had picked up on their infiltration quicker than anticipated, and had reacted more strongly than anticipated.
Many of the infiltrator teams were captured or killed. But fate is an unusual thing, for it was only a short while earlier that those planets had been connected to the Midnight Inn. The chances of one of those remaining teams encountering either a golden key or the golden gate that appears randomly were miniscule, yet that is exactly what happened.
As soon as a single member of the infiltrators figured out the nature of the Inn, he spread the word. It was so that this mysterious group, after entering the planet, began using a golden key to teleport to the Inn, and remain there until they were themselves required there.
Over time, due to the secretive nature in which they were operating, over 5000 such infiltrators had entered the Inn through various strategic points on the planet.
When the time was ready, they would return, and wreak havoc. Moreover, because they had been at the Inn for so long, they had a deep and thorough understanding of the Inn itself, and so made no attempts to create trouble.
In fact, even while at the Inn they were extremely careful in their behavior. They did not stick together,and instead split up as much as possible. They involved themselves with different events such as the Lady Cosmos and Earth Expo to fit in, and started to acquaint themselves with some of the workers and guests at the Inn to seem more authentic.
But now, for the first time since they began arriving, some of the group members were holding a secret meeting.
"Over the next few days, slowly spread the word," said a man wearing the Clark Kent glasses. "The operation will begin within one week. Everyone needs to be ready at a moment's notice."
"Yes sir," was all the reply he got, and it was all he needed. The plan was in motion now.
Oblivious to the nefarious plot being hatched with the Inn at the center of things, Lex was patiently waiting for Marlo.
The man had rented a Large house at the Inn, and practically lived here permanently. Considering it was just him, his wife and his son, spending money on a 2000 MP a night house was a little extravagant in Lex's opinion, but then again, who was he to complain?
Lex was genuinely impressed by the fact that Sophia did not seem to be bothered by his request to meet Marlo and directly called for him. After all, as a popular man, there must be many wishing to meet him, yet he was still so receptive.
The truth was that due to Marlo's newfound strength and complete disregard for social norms, most people feared even coming in front of him let alone meet him, so this was genuinely an uncommon occurrence.
When Lex finally saw him, he noticed that the former giant had finally started to regain some of the muscle on his body that made him seem more of a monster than a man. Yet currently the amount of muscle he had stacked up was still within the realm that mere mortals could understand.
"Well well well, look who has the guts to show up at my house after dropping my class," said Marlo wearing his signature mad grin. Unfortunately for him, now that his body proportions were actually normal, he looked handsome instead of crazy with that smile.
Lex simply shrugged and said, "your wife had my apartment ransacked. I didn't want to get pulled into your family drama."
Marlo, who had been fully intending on messing with Lex, froze. He had no idea about the details and turned to look towards his wife who was just filing her nails nonchalantly. She couldn't even be bothered to deny it.
"Well then lad, I'd say you did the best possible move to defend yourself by running far away," Marlo said with an approving nod. He sat down opposite Lex and made himself comfortable. His old butler from back in his apartment in New York appeared from a different room and began laying down snacks and refreshments.
"As much as I'd like to sit here and reminisce about the good old days, I'm here on some serious business."
Lex put the binder on the table in front of Marlo and said, "You can treat this as a request, or a favor. Or maybe if there's something you need, I can help you get it done, but I need your help to get this binder in the hands of the woman named Fernanda."
Marlo raised an eyebrow in curiosity. He recalled Lex clearly because he had been ordered by his step family to keep close tabs on him nearly a year ago. In fact, it was through Lex that Marlo first learned of the Midnight Inn, and gained his opportunity to improve his life. He not only had a good impression of him, but he was also quite intrigued by him. There was clearly more than met the eye about him, so now that he directly referenced Fernanda so straightforwardly, without making any roundabout excuse of why he even knew that name, he was even more intrigued by what was in the binder.
Without saying anything, Marlo picked up the binder and began perusing. At first he was nonchalant about it, but only a few minutes later his wide grin dropped and he became utterly serious.
The story about a hidden hand manipulating all the conflicts on Earth would have been too far fetched for Marlo to believe just a year ago, but now he doubted nothing. A few moments later, a tinge of red entered his eyes as he read about a certain conflict - to be precise, the one in which he had to sacrifice his golden core, and lost a majority of his comrades.
That too had been a part of a worldwide chess game between the 'prisoners' being held on Earth. If before he had only been intrigued in hearing what Lex was saying, now he was suddenly greatly invested. After all, it had just become personal.