Origin realm, Blue Planet
On a planet remarkably similar to Earth, but not at all Earth, where all people, regardless of how they were named, were not actual people from Earth, a young boy was running for his life, a dark and mysterious figure chasing behind him. Even if it were not early morning, there would be few people around to save the lad, for the hills he was running in were far from any city or town. Even if he were near a town, rural Massachusetts was such that he could run all day and night and not run into another person.
As if that would have changed anything though. From the day that wretched prophecy came out, the boy's life had been a living hell. Yes, prophecy! For unlike Earth, where cultivators had just become common knowledge, on Blue Planet cultivation had been the norm for a long time.
Deep within the sacred halls of congress, where hidden powers lie dormant, the speaker of the house spoke a prophecy that was not in any way ambiguous or contrived, and directly named him, John Fake Kennedy, a.k.a John F. Kennedy, the chosen one who would bring about world peace and, more importantly, named him as the inheritor for the sacred treasure with the power to control millions of souls, the Super Bowl!
While that sounded well and good, not everyone wanted world peace, as that was not profitable, and even more wanted to steal the Super Bowl. While some were planning to assassinate the boy secretly, there was one warlord who acted openly: Vladimir Kardashian!
Vladimir Kardashian, a public figure, singer and fashion icon, did not care about right or wrong, for he had an army of brainwashed fans who would literally sell their own organs and fight to the death at his behest. With influence like his, even if he were convicted of any crimes, he would at most get a light slap on the wrist. In that case, what did he have to fear? He outright sent his own assistant, Dwayne the boulder, a champion of illegal and underground fighting, to go and crush the young J. Fake K.
Just as the boy was running out of energy, and it seemed like the prophecy would not come to fruition, a golden door appeared directly in the boy's path. It was too close, he did not even have time to stop!
Instinctively, he closed his eyes as he expected to crash, but instead of hitting the mysterious door, he fell forward into a field or grass. Confused, he looked around and found himself in a completely unfamiliar environment.
The air smelled clean and fresh, and the grass was green and vibrant. There were no hills nearby, instead only open plains as well as a road that seemed to lead towards a small town in the distance. Nearby, there was a welcoming hearth lit with a small warm fire and a countdown. In the back of his mind, Fake gave an approving nod to the countdown. It was always smart to set a reminder for when tinder needed to be added to a flame.
Not letting himself be too distracted, Fake quickly turned to look back, but discovered that Dwayne the boulder was nowhere in sight. It seemed like he really had been teleported somewhere.
Fake was not alarmed at this realization. After all, as the child of prophecy, and destined savior of the world, didn't it make sense if he stumbled across countless lucky encounters that not only kept him alive, but made him stronger?
What Fake did not realize was how lucky he really was. The golden door that he stumbled through was a random golden door that spawned through the Inns new Inter-realm feature that would allow golden doors to spawn randomly anywhere in the entire realm. The fact that this door opened on a planet, and then specifically right in front of Fake, was so statistically improbable it could only be described as lucky.
Fake was thoroughly exhausted so he let himself rest a few moments and catch his breath before he got up to explore his new terrain, but he suddenly felt something tickling on his red shell.
He looked down and saw that multiple strains of grass had bound themselves together to make a thick whip, which they were using to attract his attention. He looked down, the grass started angrily moving about as if to tell him to move his massive, fat body for he was crushing the grass.
"Oh sorry," said Fake as he awkwardly moved away. After a few steps, the grass seemed to calm down. Apparently, the patch he stood on had gained sentience, but not all the grass was sentient.
Fake breathed a sigh of relief and wiped his forehead with his red claw. There was nothing unusual about this action, for Fake was not a human, he was a Krab-man. This was due to the fact that Blue Planet had nothing in common with earth, besides a few odd coincidences like names, historical events, geography, art and such.
Yes, Blue Planet was a planet inhabited by Krab-people who were mostly divided. If there was only a single thing in history that had managed to unify the Krab-people of Blue planet throughout their history, it was their lord and savior, MC-Donaalde!
But even that unity lasted only briefly, as soon wars started over the correct pronunciation of 'Donaalde', with most conventional historians going with the original British pronunciation, but modern generations preferring to add their spin to it.
Regardless, this would be a thing of the past once Fake brought about world peace. For now though, he had to get a better understanding of this new place he was in.
As if triggered by his thought, a small projection of another Krab-man appeared before him, and started introducing this place as the Midnight Inn! Apparently it was a hotel, and the best part was he didn't need to pay directly, for the hotel would somehow go and collect the payments themselves so long as he had the necessary wealth located anywhere in the universe.
"Can I get a tour of the place?" Fake asked the projection. "Oh but I'm really tired from running, do you have any vehicles that can pick me up?"
"Not a problem," the projection answered. "A golf cart has been sent your way."
Fake thanked the projection and waited. To be honest, he did not have the energy to run around as he had a very low cultivation level. In fact, despite his cultivation, his strength at the moment was actually below what humans considered as 'mortals' who never cultivated. This was because Krab-people had a lower starting point than even humans.
Soon, Fake saw a small, yet magnificent vehicle, hurtling his way, driven by an unusual looking lady. In fact, the driver was very ordinary but Fake had never seen humans before so she looked strange to him.
But Fake was not racist and did not object to a human guide taking him around the Inn. In fact, they got along pretty well, and became fast friends. Pamela, the golf cart driver, told Fake all kinds of interesting tidbits about the Inn as the drove past all the major attractions. From the village to the massive mountain, to Main street and even the manor, Fake saw it all though it took a few hours to cover everything.
While Fake liked the Inn well enough, his heart truly leaped out of his chest when he saw the lazy river! A relatively small river with gently flowing water, with plastic doughnuts and small rowing boats carrying guests down with the water was extremely attractive to Fake.
So much so, in fact, that he immediately paid to rent a normal room for a couple of nights, for apparently he could not stay at the Inn longer than a certain period if he did not have a room booked or somewhere to stay, and had Pamela drop him off near the river.
Wasting no time, Fake made himself cozy by grabbing an empty plastic doughnut that was floating by, and setting himself in it. He let all his claws dip into the water, and let the doughnut flow on its own along the current.
The sensation of cold water against his hard shell calmed him down, while the gentle ebbing of the water rocked Fake's doughnut, soothing his tense nerves. His life had been way too difficult for a long time, so it was good to finally relax.
Slowly, his eyelids drooped, and Fake fell asleep in the river. For a short while all was well, but unexpectedly, for the first time, one of the Inn's latest features kicked in.
Blend Reality was a feature of the Inn that let portions of the Inn sometimes merge with the worlds the Inn was connected to. The system assured that all guests would stay safe and not accidentally enter a dangerous area, but sometimes blending the Inn and other worlds led to unique experiences that people could enjoy. Moreover, sometimes people from the worlds that were merged could enter the Inn like this.
As it happened, since Fake was asleep, he did not notice that his doughnut had gone from flowing down a river, to floating randomly in a small, secluded oasis. For a while all was well, until the only other person near the oasis suddenly noticed a weird creature right in the center of her water source!
Alysha was startled! This was the first time she saw another living creature since her Desert Farming system teleported her to the middle of nowhere. But, suddenly, the creature disappeared from her view. For a while, the young girl could not decide if what she saw was real, or just another mirage.
The Sovereign Galactic turtle carefully carried a man sized parcel wrapped in leaves to the Recovery room and casually strolled in. Without needing any guidance, it entered the Innkeeper's room and, without any hesitation, opened the Innkeepers pod.
Very simply, as if there was nothing unusual about what it was doing, it opened the parcel and let some special, red colored dirt fall into the pod and bury Lex. It paused for a minute, as if unsatisfied with the size of the pod, as it could not fit all the required dirt. Shaking its head, the turtle created a pod of its own made of giant leaves surrounding Lex, and dropped the remaining dirt in it. Then it left.
In truth, the turtle was not pulling off some kind of prank. Through methods unknown, the Lotus had informed the turtle that it required some dirt with extremely specific properties. The turtle was the one who gave Lex the Lotus, so it was already familiar with the plant. Moreover, it never paid too much attention to what the Innkeeper was doing, so it didn't care all that much what the dirt was for.
It was only slightly annoyed, for the dirt had not been easy to make. The turtle had to shred some of the most valuable plants and trees to make fertilizer - along with some of its highest grade normal fertilizer (enemies of the Inn) - and spent a good deal of its own energy to aid the soil in absorbing it.
There were a few more steps involved, but ultimately the turtle only succeeded in making the lowest grade soil that the Lotus asked for, but with its current resources this was all it could manage.
Still, even though this was the bare minimum of the Lotus' requirements, the fact that it met the mark meant it was enough for the Lotus to use.
Inside Lex's leafy pod, the dirt was slowly being absorbed into Lex's body, as the Lotus was using it to nourish, revitalize and strengthen Lex's body. As amazing as the Lotus was, it could only do so much in its infant state. Fortunately for Lex, strengthening Lex's foundation was still within its capabilities.
A few hours later, all the soil had been completely absorbed into Lex's body, leaving no trace that it had ever buried the Innkeeper entirely. A few moments later, Lex opened his eyes.
At first he was disoriented, with no recollection of where he was and what happened. Slowly, as his brain got used to his new body, he started to feel better and his memories returned to him.
But, unfortunately, the return of his memories also brought back memories of the visions he saw, restarting his hallucinations. Somehow, though, the effect they were having was greatly subdued. In fact, so long as he focused, he could somewhat even ignore the effect of the hallucinations without going into his Overdrive state.
With a groan, Lex got off the table, and slowly started recollecting what had happened. He was… attending the Henali assembly? Then what happened? He couldn't remember. Wait… something happened to the Inn.
It was difficult, but eventually Lex recalled the state the Inn was in, and paled considerably. The reason Lex had nearly lost his mind from anger was that, unfortunately, more than one of his workers had died in the attack. It was a harrowing thing to think about, especially since he had put so much effort into securing the Inn. But now, in hindsight, it became evident that he had not done nearly enough.
He would always just rely on hiring security using his event panel and using that as a solution, instead of fixing the inherent problem, which was that his own security was thoroughly lacking.
𝘭𝒾𝒷𝓇𝘦𝑎𝑑.𝒸ℴ𝓂
Lex wasn't one to beat himself up, but now that his attention was brought onto the matter, quite forcefully at that, it seemed that Lex had barely run the Inn at all lately. He would just make a few major decisions, and leave the rest for Mary to handle.
The Inn had expanded much too quickly for him to keep up with, and as a result, he was always running off somewhere to deal with other matters while actually taking care of the Inn was left to someone else.
How many things did the Inn develop lately that he had not thoroughly utilized? The divine temple, the inheritance lounge, the fishing well and so much more. He was reminded that he was the Innkeeper, and the very name simply meant that he had to manage the Inn, not go running around the universe, connecting planets.
So what if people caught onto the fact that the Inn was actually only connected to a handful of planets? He could always continue to expand slowly later.
Lex's mood was already low due to the severe headache, and the tragedy of all that had happened didn't exactly help improve his mood. Lex took a defeated sigh and first checked on his MP.
He had spent all of it on that formation to trap his enemies souls, so in reality he should not have even been able to pay the rent for his own Recovery pod. It was fortunate, however, that with several hundred thousand guests, his MP was always rolling in. Moreover, the income from the Guild room was starting to become significant.
He currently had a mere 35,000 MP. It left a bitter taste in his mouth after having been a billionaire such a short while ago, but he knew he would quickly gain more anyway. Even this 35,000 was reduced, for the moment he woke up Mary asked him for some MP to make a few payments for peoples recovery and Lex approved it.
Even now, it wasn't as if there weren't a million things for him to do, but Mary didn't bother him for anything that wasn't too urgent. Lex too was not in a rush to start, despite knowing that he won't be able to remain awake too long before succumbing to a coma similar to the ones he had been suffering.
pǎпdǎ Й?νê1,сòМ The reason was very simple, and since Lex had sat on his seat back at his office he knew already, but…
Lex teleported away, and reappeared before a specific Recovery pod. The room had only one other person besides the patient, a beautiful young human woman with wings on her back. It was Hailey, Harry's wife.
In front of her, in the pod, slept Harry. Though his body had been completely rebuilt, he showed no signs of waking up. Lex already knew the painful reason, but he wouldn't help but look one more time, in the hope that something had changed.
Name: Harry Styles
Age: 18
Sex: Male
Cultivation Details: Glamor Sorcerer (dormant)
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
Condition: A majority of the patient's soul has been crushed! Only a few remnants of the patient's soul which were buried in his Glamor sorcery tools survived. Without a treasure to regrow the soul, the patient will never recover, and the remaining bits of his soul will slowly diminish.
Remarks: Laughter is the best medicine for the soul, but it probably won't work on him.
Lex said nothing and only looked at the sleeping teenager silently. On the day of his own wedding he had taken a risk, not for his own sake, but for the sake of the Inn, and this was the return that he got.
Standing there, in front of Harry, it would have been very easy for Lex to start feeling pathetic and wallow in his failures. But, for better or for worse, self pity was not in Lex's nature. Looking at Harry, Lex's mood did not get lower, but instead his thoughts cleared up. Come hell or high water, he would repay Harry.
He also looked at Hailey. When Lex heard news that Harry was getting married he could only think of his own single status, but in truth he had been extremely happy for him. He imagined how wonderful a life this new couple would have, living in the safest, most magical place in the universe.
He owed them both for not being able to deliver on that fantasy. His fists tightened. He owed them.
Lex disappeared once again, having not said a single word. Hailey, who had been sleeping next to the pod, never even knew that the Innkeeper had visited. In a way, it was for the best. Lex did not visit Harry to be seen. He visited to reignite his motivation, with greater focus than ever before. He needed it if he was going to overcome his own shortcomings.
In fact, there was actually a reason why Lex had been behaving so erratically, though he had tried hard not to admit it. He tried to keep himself so helplessly busy, and keep his mind endlessly occupied, so that he would never think about it. But the truth was, deep down inside, he had already realized that something was amiss.
To be specific, on the day his tumor was removed, Lex already noticed an anomaly in his family's behavior. Later on, he got many more hints that everything was not as it seemed, yet he went out of his way to ignore it. Not only did he do his best not to think about them, he kept suppressing all his memories of his life back on Earth so that he would stop recalling the obvious flaws in their behaviors.
But as his cultivation grew, and his mind became more agile, Lex had to work even harder to keep himself occupied, for his mind just kept on picking up clues that he had tried so hard to ignore. As a result, he ended up spending less time on the Inn, for it would not give him the same sense of urgency that being on various planets, exposed to danger did.
But he could not afford to continue on like this any longer, so he had to admit it. His family was keeping secrets from him, and in fact had been behaving in such a way that they made him keep a distance from them while thinking it was his own idea. He felt so clever when he moved to New York to get away from them, and always worked so hard to ensure they would never vacation there. But he knew now that he was just playing the part they wanted.
He felt bitter, he felt disappointed, he felt angry, and much more. But at the end, when all the feelings mixed, the conclusion it reached was that Lex no longer cared. He did not want to go back to Earth and confront them for a truth that would probably be disappointing.
Since they were keeping a distance from him, and keeping secrets, then he felt no need to return to them either. It was a shame about his younger sisters, truly it was for there was a good chance that they had no choice in whatever matter was going on. But no one alive could ever force Belle to do what she didn't want to do, so he knew that she was definitely complicit.
No matter what the secret was, or what the reasoning behind it, since they chose to keep him at an arm's length, he would do the same. It was not an easy decision, and one he had been avoiding for he knew that if he ever confronted the truth this is probably what he would end up doing. But he could no longer afford to be distracted, so this was a truth he had to face, and a decision he had to make.
In a way, since he decided to cut off ties with his family, for now at least, Lex felt a burden ease. As a normal human being who loved his family this was not an easy decision, but whether it already existed, or it had been nurtured during his time as the Innkeeper, Lex had a bit of pride that he wasn't willing to give up. Thus, ultimately, this was the only choice. After all, why should he spend his time caring about the people who tried their best to keep him at a distance when he had people right in front of him who put their lives on the line just for his reputation.
With that burden gone, and his mind unfettered, Lex could finally focus completely on the Inn. The truth was Lex's strongest trait was his mind. Considering the stupidity he had displayed recently, one would not think so, but that was only because Lex usually felt it was a hassle and that it wasn't worth it.
Now, with all distractions gone and an unprecedented focus and will governing his actions, it was finally time to put his intellect to use.
Lex reappeared in his office only to find that Luthor was already standing there, a cup of fresh coffee waiting for him on a tray.
"Welcome back," Luthor said, as he offered the Innkeeper the coffee he had missed last time.
"We have a lot of work to do," was all Lex replied as he picked up the mug and took a sip.
His solemn mask was almost broken as he barely managed to keep himself from grimacing. The coffee was too bitter.
Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.
Despite its horrendous taste, Lex downed the coffee, for he needed the mental clarity it would bring. After all, this was not normal coffee but the Midnight Special Coffee brew, and had the effect of providing the drinker with 1 hour of mental clarity. Of course, that was just a blanket statement, and effects would vary depending on circumstances. In the case of Lex, it barely provided him with an extra 10 minutes at most.
Keeping that in mind, Lex directly delved into matters. He had a list of system notifications waiting for him, but they could wait. First on Lex's priority list was healing Harry, so he teleported to X-142 once again and entered the Infinity Emporium. Powell Grant greeted him once again with a big smile, but Lex had no time.
"Show me the strongest soul healing medicine you have," said Lex. "It should also be extremely gentle, so that it can be used on even weak people."
Powell, as a great salesman, immediately noticed that Lex was not in the mood for the usual banter that they enjoyed, and so immediately showed him the list. Lex was a rank 9 member of the Emporium, and though the items on sale were of all ranks, Lex didn't even bother looking below rank 7.
At such a high rank, there were only a handful of medicines, or items with healing effects, though Lex didn't care. With an impassive face, Lex said, "I'll buy them all."
Powell, who by now practically worshiped Lex as his best and favorite guest, once again broke out in a massive smile.
"Excellent choice. It will take a few days to procure all the items, but no more than a week at most. How do you intend to pay?"
"With valuable information," Lex replied hurriedly.
At this moment, there was another consideration that Lex had to take into account. He did not believe that there was ever a possibility of anyone tying him to the Inn, and especially to the identity of the Innkeeper. After all, who could track his movement across the universe? But Lex had had enough of believing in probability and luck, and decided to prepare contingencies. He had already sold a few pieces of information to Powell that should have been way beyond his level, not to mention the business card which was a matter related to Daolords.
Keeping this in mind, he knew that were anyone paying attention to him, for example the Emporium itself, he had to provide a reasonable explanation to source everything he knew and had, and let people arrive at the conclusion he wanted.
Thus, he decided that in case it became inevitable that someone should track him to the Inn, he would make use of his other identity at the Inn, Leo the owner of Gamer's Den. For that, moving forward, he could only use information which was possible for someone of his level to have. Moreover, Leo himself also needed to become more active at the Inn, so that people actually knew about him.
But keeping up that persona would cause him to lose the availability of a lot of information and items. So, while selling sensitive information, such as the identity of the owner of the person who launched the attack that shook the realm, would give him a lot of profit, he had to maintain the mentality of an employee. An Inn employee would never purposefully reveal details about the Innkeeper, so Lex must also never do the same.
But then, at the same time, he could use common information from the Inn and sell that. After all, so long as the Emporium didn't gain direct access to the Inn, they would have to rely on him for information.
When Powell led Lex into the appraisal room, Lex wasted no time and first informed him that there was a hotel in the universe offering special environments to cater to divine guests. That's about all he said, for he was still trying to gauge the level of this information, and would depend on Powell's reaction to understand how much it was worth.
His strategy paid off really well, for the man really had no concept of a poker face, and stumbled so hard he nearly fell from his chair.
"What's the name of the hotel?" he asked with a feverish energy. This information to ordinary people meant nothing, but to the right people, was worth a lot.
Yet Lex did not answer and maintained his emotionless expression.
"How much is this information worth?" he asked, without expressing if he would divulge more or not.
Powell quickly regained his composure and began negotiating with Lex, but no matter what he did, Lex never directly gave the name of the hotel. Instead, he traded other bits and pieces of information until he had sufficient information to pay for what he wanted to buy, such as the news that a group of pillagers lead by a Quash leader called Nzaar had been destroyed, the devils had lost a star system to the advance of the Jotun empire, the Iron Heart pirates had changed their profession and had become marketing managers etc.
All the information Lex sold was worth nothing to him, but he knew how much it could be worth to those with vested interests. Finding those people would be the Emporiums job, Lex only cared that one week later he would have what he needed to heal Harry.
As soon as he was done, Lex left. It was only after his departure that Powell realized they had spent only 4 minutes during the entire exchange. His casual smile and cavalier attitude quickly changed as he elevated Lex's status even more in his mind. Something was different about Lex, and whatever it was, it made him seem… more intimidating. Powell did not want to be the person who would stand in his way.
With his conscience cleared, Lex focused on the next matters. He only had a few dozen more minutes maximum before he fainted again, so he would make the most of them.
He skimmed through his system notifications, there were way too many to read in depth at the moment, and got the gist of the matter.
He had actually lost 2 points of authority because of the chaos that had been caused at the Inn, and the number of his guests who were affected. He also received a bunch of emergency quests to save the Inn, save his workers, save his guests, save his reputation…
Most of them he succeeded, but some of them he failed. Due to the valiant effort of his workers, none of the guests were actually killed, so the system's punishments were not too severe.
Yet no matter how bad his punishment had been, he had completed quite a few quests when he killed all the enemies. Moreover, as a result of his attack on the entire realm, as well as his act of making a demonstration of his enemies and burning their souls, the reputation of the Inn had been elevated so much that he regained the 2 points of authority he lost, and in fact even gained 2 more, alongside a few other rewards.
Lex did not have the time to go through them in excruciating detail, so once he confirmed that he had no impending urgent quest, he turned his attention to the rules of the Inn. There were aspects of the system he still could not control yet, such as the appearance of the golden doors randomly, yet in other areas he had great control.
Though the Inn itself was generally open for all, Lex began designing special zones that would be limited to only those with a high enough cultivation. He could not force people of different cultivations to stay away from one another, but by creating exclusive zones for each cultivation range, he would automatically entice his guests to divide themselves.
While this was not a perfect solution, his goal was to reduce the number of weak and strong cultivators mingling, so that if anything ever went wrong, the amount of collateral damage would be reduced to a minimum.
Also, while it was not a perfect solution, until he got something figured out, he would have to continue relying on external security. As such he began planning a long term event that would allow him to keep sufficient guards around for a long time. He also had to allocate a sufficient budget.
As for what the event was? He had the perfect idea. After all, the event itself didn't matter to Lex as much as the duration and security of it. He was just using another loophole in the system.
How was he supposed to know that the lame event that he was planning would set off a storm, and kick off a new hobby for all the secluded cultivators of the Origin realm?
He anticipated that it would take him only a few successful deals through the Guild room before he had enough MP to pay for security. Then he would begin his next plans.
In the last minute before he fell back asleep, he scanned the Inn one more time to check if he missed something, and found something interesting.
Aegis had finally come to the Inn to investigate, and alongside him was Roland, the young entrepreneur. More importantly, in the new Live Map function he had unlocked recently, Roland was coloured yellow, meaning he was an excellent candidate for an employee!