Once the emperor left, Lex began planning his next actions. He had to keep an eye out for a Minor realm suitable for the Inn workers only. He also had to go explore the dangers of the pagoda himself.
Once he got a good sense of how dangerous it was, he could plan how to start sending his workers to the pagoda.
He also had to remember to look over the next phase of the festival going on. Now that the Grand Prix had come to a conclusion, the next big event was supposed to begin. Although the races would now become a staple of the Inn, he wouldn't be focusing all his resources on promoting just that.
Although, in Lex's mind, the next event wasn't too exciting, it had potential. He also…
There was a knock on his office door, interrupting his flow of thoughts. That was strange.
"Come in," said Lex.
Luthor opened the door and said, "Innkeeper, there's a guest here who wishes to meet with you. If you'd like, I can schedule a meeting for later, or turn him away."
It felt strange that Luthor was informing him of this as usually Mary was one who would pop up and let him know of these things, but then again, Luthor was his secretary. It only made sense that if anyone approached the office, Luthor would be the one they'd interact with.
"Sure, send them in," Lex said as he cleared his thoughts. While his planning was important, anyone who could bear the pressure of his office and ask to meet him would be worth giving his attention to.
Perhaps deterring the undetermined was also one of the reasons the hall right outside his office radiated such an intimidating aura.
A person dressed in a long, brown trench coat walked in, a small black notepad in his hand. The coat hid his entire body, and the fedora he was wearing hid his face well. Lex felt like he was in front of a detective from a black and white movie.
Until, that is, he scanned the person. The guest was a devil and, coincidentally, his name was one that was all too famous on Earth.
Name: Rocketfellow Rothsfather.
Zagan stumbled through the door once again, his humanoid body battered and bruised much worse than ever before. It never occurred to him how strange it was for a monster born of darkness to take on a human form. It was as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Though he was in bad condition, his concern extended to none of that. His eyes wandered the familiar room in search of something, and when he saw the resplendent Alysha disappointment welled up in his chest, though maybe deep down, he was also happy.
"Why are you still here?" he asked as he tried to wipe the blood off his face. "You should have left long ago."
The moment he finished his words, a door appeared behind Alysha as if signaling a way out. Yet she did not hesitate to once again pick up her med kit and approach the bleeding humanoid-monster.
"Why do you keep going back?" she asked, instead of answering his question. "Everytime you go through that door you only come back worse for wear. What are you looking for?"
She moved his hair from his forehead to see a massive cut, bleeding into his eyes. With a sigh she got to work, washing all his wounds. By now she knew he was not so delicate that he would die from these wounds, so she always prioritized cleaning them first so she would have a good understanding of his actual condition.
"I don't know," Zagan whispered as he closed his eyes. A moment later, he felt the cold water she poured over his face. "I guess I… I'm searching for something that will… provide me with meaning."
As a monster born from darkness, he was not actually afraid of light, but the more time he spent in darkness, the stronger he would go. Monsters from the crystal realm were born with limited intelligence, so they compensated for it by having extremely strong instincts that would guide their actions.
Zagan had lived for millions of years, and so had grown to the level where he achieved self awareness and a decent amount of intelligence, yet he continued to act in accordance with his instincts. Yet over time, he began to wonder why it was he listened to his instincts. What was it they were leading him towards? Was there something more? Was there a point to being alive?
These questions did not elicit any strong emotions from the monster, as it did not quite have the emotional range of naturally born animals. Still, with time, a subtle curiosity had taken hold of his mind. Lately, his curiosity was being tingled by Alysha. Why would she always treat him? He knew she was alone during the time he left, and unlike him, she did not like being alone. Still, she never left. Why?
Unlike Zagan, Alysha's thought process was a lot simpler. Though she happened to have forgotten her life, the feeling of loneliness and abandonment stayed with her. There was no one around to help her when she needed it, for a very long time. So if someone else needed her help, she would not abandon them. It was that simple.
Unknown to both of them, their each and every action was being judged and measured. Zagan had actually been failing his test miserably, mostly because he did not understand what was required of him. That all changed when he interacted with Alysha. The parameters of his test changed, and while he was failing the test for his original role, he seemed to be acing the test for his new one. Soon, both their tests would come to an end.
*****
Lex scanned the devil and read the results.
Name: Rocketfellow Rothsfather
Age: 44 (fake)
Sex: Male
Cultivation Details: Golden Core early (fake)
Species: Devil
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
Remarks: Don't let appearances fool you, this devil is rich! His trenchcoat alone is worth several MTs!
There were a few interesting things to note in the status, the name of the devil being only one. The name was so popular and influential, he doubted there were barely a few working adults on the planet who had never heard the name. Though not everyone understood the full gravity behind the name, it was enough to understand that they were incredibly rich.
In fact, in one of the files filled with rumors that Velma had given him revealed that the patriarch of both those families were also actually political prisoners being held on the planet.
But compared to those who were instigating wars and conflicts for entertainment purposes, those two seemed pretty tame.
The second thing that interested Lex was the man's name and cultivation. They had a 'fake' written in front of them, which is something Lex had never seen before. When he focused on the word, more information was revealed stating that the man's actual details were being hidden by the trenchcoat he was wearing. The system could detect the interference, but could not overcome it. Just that on its own was a great testament to the man's background and depth. Lex did not treat him lightly at all.
"I hope you were not waiting for too long," said Lex with his usual warm tone. Regardless of the man's background or depth, the 'Innkeeper' would not be phased by it.
"The fault is my own for showing up unannounced," Rocketfellow said with a fairly warm tone of his own. Much of his face remained hidden behind his trenchcoat so Lex could not see his expression, but his tone at least was earnest and calm. Moreover, using his 6th sense, Lex could tell the devil had reacted normally to his statement.
"Please, Mr. Innkeeper, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Rocketfellow Rothsfather, and I am a businessman. I absolutely fell in love with your Midnight Inn when I first saw it, and wanted to form a joint venture with you immediately! But, for the first time in my life, my scope was too small to match up to your establishment. Although I am still working on that, and have a few plans, for now, there is one other business idea I would like to talk to you about."
"The Midnight Inn is open to all guests, and so naturally, is also open to your business as well. Please, tell me, how can I help you."
The extremely formal devil opened the small black notebook in his hand and showed Lex a list of names. Immediately he picked up on a few familiar ones: Leo, Gerard, Z, Luthor. At first he thought the list was based around the Inn workers, but then he began to see other names, belonging to the various guests.
He was confused and he was unable to pick out any significant detail connecting all the people, except for the fact that they were all male.
Instead of making an unfounded guess, Lex remained silent and waited for the devil to elaborate, which he soon did.
"I'm sure you're able to see what connects all these names," the devil said with a hint of excitement. "At first, when I realized the potential, I thought it was too good to be true. I waited patiently to be proved wrong, but when nothing happened, I had to pinch myself. I've hardly ever seen anyone miss out on such an obvious business opportunity like this. Mr. Innkeeper, after I watched the Lady Cosmos fashion show, I was awaiting the arrival of the Mr. Cosmos show, but it never came!
"Obviously whoever had the idea first never thought to extend the show to the other gender, but I think it's a huge waste! Obviously I can't reuse the same name as I want to build my own brand, and I want to do things a little differently as well! Instead of ust beauty, I want to focus on strength and cultivation as well. After all, men are looked at differently than women. But there's so much more than that.
"Mr. Innkeeper, I know that if I simply want to host my own competition it should not be a problem, but what if I want to partner with the Inn itself? Or, if that's not on the table, how can I get some of the Inn's workers to participate in my event! I've never seen anyone with a fan club as dedicated as Gerard, and I don't know if you know this, but the recent performance of Leo has managed to grow his popularity quite a bit as well. Now just imagine, after we work out the kinks, your workers' faces are known across the universe, not only because of the Inn, but because they finally get the recognition their good looks deserve!"
This… was not what Lex had been expecting from this meeting. Let alone his own Leo persona, he didn't want to let any of his workers near this weird trench coat creep! Has he been stalking them?
"I'm thinking, since the first show will be a test run to figure out how to run the competition, of keeping a small budget of 5 MTs. What do you think?"
"Mr. Rothsfather, the Midnight Inn is exactly the best place to launch your endeavor. I want to congratulate you in advance for a successful venture."
Alexander Morrison was waiting for his next deployment, still at the Midnight Inn. After immense effort on his part, he had proved himself worthy of undergoing special training by the empire. Due to his unique situation, regardless of what he did it was more or less assumed that Alexander would never have full loyalty to the empire.
As such, he could not get in touch with their unique or specialized training, reserved for their most trusted elites, but he had managed to improve his situation nonetheless. To test out his new capabilities, he sparred a few times with his family's strongest. In an upfront fight, he still could not defeat his grandfather, but the old man admitted that Alexander put a lot of pressure on him.
Of course, that could not be a true test, for both Alexander and his grandfather were holding back immensely as well. Alexander knew that if he were going for the kill, he would have behaved differently. Still, being unable to overwhelm his grandfather disappointed him somewhat.
He had learned much of the empire, and learned about noble families. While it could not be claimed that such feats were common, it was at least not unheard of for the scions of noble families to be able to completely overwhelm even those at higher realms.
A part of him wondered how far he was from their level. He even pondered what the difference was between himself and his old teacher Marlo when he was at the Golden Core realm. A part of him told him that he would lose a spar, but in a fight to the death anything was possible.
Instead of being proud of his achievements, he felt frustrated that even after everything he went through, he was still only on par with the peak of those from his home planet. Then again, he had not been cultivating for very long.
Speaking of which, had his birthday passed? He couldn't remember. The empire obviously followed their own calendar system, and he never really put any real effort into remembering it. He'd never really paid attention to any of his birthdays, except his 15th for obvious reasons. It was always Helen who…
"Captain Alexander!" a soldier called out, breaking him free from his reverie. On instinct he stood to attention as he saw a small group of soldiers walking towards him, holding what looked like a backpack. His eyes shone. That was…
"You have new orders, captain," the soldier said, as he presented Alexander with a tablet. Familiar with what was happening, Alexander put his hand on the tablet as it verified his identity. The empire's technology was heads and tails ahead of earth, so even though the device looked similar to stuff available on earth, its actual functionality was far beyond anything he had ever seen.
It was a spirit tech device that verified Alexander's identity using things such as his finger print, DNA, spirit energy signature, the specific meridian patterns in his hand and many other things he had no idea about.
Once his identity was confirmed, though, the soldier passed him the backpack and began briefing him on his new orders.
"The specific details are on a need to know basis, but essentially high-level empire officials have entered into a partnership with the Midnight Inn to take control of a specific Minor realm. Your new orders…"
Across the Inn, countless other empire officials were receiving similar orders. As of now, very select few were being informed about the minor realm and exactly how much importance the emperor put on it. The seemingly laid back emperor had decided that he had spent enough time away from his empire. Once his latest mission for the Henali was over, he would return to do some house cleaning. Unlike Ragnar, who was more lenient of humans, the emperor was not so clement in his treatment. The reason why the empire was so strong, and had never suffered from any rebellions, was because basically anyone with any rebellious tendencies was dead. He did not expect others to be grateful for all that he worked for, but if they thought to take advantage of him, they had another thing coming.
*****
"Mr. Rothsfather, for the last time, although I can give your business my full support, I cannot force anyone to participate. Besides, my workers have their own duties to take care of."
"Innkeeper, you have to understand, the influence of celebrities is massive for events like these. While we can obviously hire or attract external celebrities for the event, if we leverage the growing fanbase of local stars such as Gerard, Leo or Z, not only will we have an easier time gaining a loyal fanbase, it will even benefit your own Inn."
Lex smiled. For the past 15 minutes, they had been going over the same argument. No matter how much sense he made, he was destined to win because as 'Leo' he was never going to participate in a fashion show. As entertaining as it sounded, he had better things to do.
Ultimately, the devil relented and promised that he would soon return with a full plan for everything he had planned for the event. Then he would work with the Inn to see how much of his vision could be accomplished.
After the meeting, the devil exited the office, and then disappeared from the Inn. He appeared in a room where a few devils were waiting for his return.
"So? How was it?"
"Plan A for bringing the Inn's workforce away from the Inn has failed. I'll continue with the show regardless as it can benefit many of our other plans. In the meantime, begin plan B. The Midnight Inn employees are the perfect canvas to turn into demons, we have to get our hands on them."
"I told you it was too easy," replied one of the people in the room.
"Regardless, it was worth a try. Here's a list of our primary targets. Other than the Inn's employees, begin tracking their location."
*****
Once the meeting with the devil was over, Lex spent some time planning out his next few actions. Since the Grand Prix was over, it was time to get ready for the next event which would start tomorrow.
He still did not know what to think of this event, for compared to the exciting amusement parks and races, it was a far cry. But it was good to shake things up.
One of the features the Inn unlocked, but almost no one paid attention to, was the Fishing well. The well was connected to worlds that the Inn was linked to, though the Inter-realm broadcast spread that to the entire realms that the Inn was connected to. Through the well, guests could fish for unowned items.
Basically, any item within the domain that was connected to the Inn, and which had no owner, could be fished for through the fishing well. Of course, what item a person fished up was completely random and based on luck. So you could get something simple and mundane, such as a random rock or a seashell. Or, you could get a phenomenal treasure that could change your life around.
It sounded amusing, but at the same time, it sounded like a scam. That, alongside the fact that Lex had priced each fishing attempt at 5000 MP per attempt, led to the fact that no one had ever tried to fish at all.
He figured this unusual feature required some marketing, so the next event would be a fishing attempt. Participants could fish for free, and whoever pulled up the best reward could move forward in the rounds. Each round would eliminate half the participants, or as near to half as possible, until there would be one winner. How successful or exciting the event would be was… well it left a lot of room for speculation. Still, it wasn't as it hurt to try. On the off chance that one of the participants pulled out something spectacular, the attention due to the event would raise the well's popularity. If not, then it could be a prop that Lex could use to look like he was wise and enlightened by fishing in it, like the teachers in kung fu movies.
While he was making preparations for the event, the Inn was still celebrating the end of the race. Although Gerard had ultimately lost, he took his defeat gracefully. Strangely though, his defeat did not negatively affect his popularity at all. If anything, his popularity shot through the roof.
The fan club which had originally started out as a group of grandma's who liked to be driven around by Gerard now had tens of thousands of legitimate fan, and with each moment, that number seemed to be growing. In fact, Leo, the actual winner of the race, seemed to have been forgotten to the side while the crowd tossed the old man in the air and cheered for him.
As for Gerard himself… he was lamenting the negative side effects of his bloodline. Although he became more powerful every time his bloodline evolved, a negative side effect of his bloodline was that it would make him increasingly beautiful as it grew stronger, without taking away from his masculinity.
The worker sighed in his heart as he could not let the guests see him lament. Beauty was such a burden.
Lex felt pretty good about how things were going in general, especially after the race. He reminded himself to let off a little steam now and again. There was nothing about the Innkeeper that said he had to stay serious all the time. As much as he had to overview everything and make sure everything was running smoothly, he should also enjoy the Inns amenities himself.
Though, he couldn't say that he was disappointed that Gerard was, as it was called, 'suffering from success' rather than him. Even from a distance he could see him being thrown up and down in the air by the crowd. Lex had heard things about crowd surfing that he'd rather not experience himself. Better Gerard than him.
He turned his attention towards the next event. He did not think a stadium was a fitting venue for the fishing tournament, so he had to pick another spot. He teleported to a small lake near the village and found the place to be suitable. The area was filled with small hills with gentle slopes and a few scattered yet large trees.
He moved the well to a clearing at the base of a hill and placed wooden benches all around. He formed stalls that would sell food and placed a few grills nearby. The workers would man some of the grills, but some would be left in case the guests felt like cooking on their own.
Single, wooden swings were attached to the branches of the trees. Bonfire pits were created and a few, fixed huts were placed here and there.
He couldn't consult the turtle as it was still occupied, so after talking to the gardener Lex placed various bushes in the area that grew edible berries and fruits.
𝓵𝙞𝒃𝓻𝓮𝙖𝓭.𝙘𝓸𝓶
Compared to the festive and exciting events such as the grand prix or the amusement park, this event felt much more calm and homely. Lex wanted to turn this place into a permanent camping spot. He even placed a few fishing boats in the lake in case anyone felt the itch after watching the tournament.
He told the planning division to take care of any last minute touches the place needed, but should stay in keeping with the theme of camping.
He spent the next few hours taking care of a few miscellaneous issues relating to the Inn, such as a few other guests who wanted to meet him, approve the latest worker rotations for the Immortal Bastion and set prices for the new food being grown from the new desert farm.
For one of the tasks, he called Luthor to his office.
"You called, Innkeeper?" he asked as he stepped in. To his great disappointment, the Innkeeper did not give him as many tasks as he hoped. It was only once in a while that the Innkeeper assigned him a task. He thought it might be because of his previous failure where he proposed plans that the Innkeeper didn't like. He was determined to change.
"I'm sure you're aware of the event going on related to Minor realms at the Inn," the Innkeeper said, looking up from his work. "I've tasked a few workers to compile a detailed list of all the realms discovered and their conditions. I want you to go over that list and find a realm suitable for the workers. I plan on having all the Inns employees colonize that realm."
"You- you're sending us away?" he asked, alarmed!
"No, no that's not what I mean," the Innkeeper said, chuckling when he realized how Luthor had perceived it. "Right now, the only thing most of the workers know is the Midnight Inn. While that is not a bad thing, if they never experience normal life, or what the rest of the universe is like, their growth will be completely stunted. They will lack an understanding of common experiences, which will not only taint their world view, it will keep them from understanding the guests' perspectives. If they lack such perspective, how can they better serve the guests?"
Realization dawned on Luthor. This was not a punishment, but a reward as well as a test! The Innkeeper was trusting them with more responsibility to see how they performed. On one hand it provided them a peek into life outside the Inn, while on the other hand it tested their survival skills without the handholding of the Innkeeper.
In truth, Lex just felt bad. He treated the Midnight Inn like his home, so the workers naturally took the place of his family. As great as the Inn was, if they were never allowed to leave then what would be the difference between this and a prison? But at the same time, he did not want to send them to other worlds yet. They were too weak.
Speaking of weakness, Lex had been stuck in a unique conundrum of late. Although he had given Jotun his response to the Henali's requests, he did not know how they would react. While he could not give up his strong front, he also could not afford to cross them. He had not forgotten how simply entering their conference room, of sorts, was enough to put Lex into a coma.
Lately he had begun thinking of returning to the Crystal realm to complete his quest. If he could have the Midnight Inn exit the Origin realm, he would not be beholden to the Henali any longer. But he decided to wait till they gave their response before making any judgments. He had spent a long time in the Crystal realm, and he did not feel eager to return. Besides, the Inn was flourishing now that he could give it all his attention.
"I'll get it done," said Luthor with conviction. "Do you have any special requirements in mind?"
"Pick a suitable place, that's all. While I'll give you a starting budget for your colonization, after that everyone will have to rely on harvesting local resources to cater to your needs. You can take a poll to see what kind of environment everyone would like."
"It will be done!" he said with vigor, before excusing himself.
With that out of the way, Lex was momentarily done with all tasks that urgently required his attention. There was always more work to be done, but nothing that he needed to take care of at that exact moment. So he turned his attention to personal matters.
Using his personal hologram, he sent Larry a message.
"Larry, there's been a change of plans. I won't be joining you and Marlo, but I've found a way we can avoid any negative repercussions of attacking those prisoners. Thoroughly document everything they've done, or as much as you can, and try to get a confession from them if possible. Make a good case for why earth, even as a part of the empire, has been severely neglected and its people have been left to suffer. Once you're done, give me everything you've gathered. If things go according to plan, not only will we avoid any fallout, the situation on earth will drastically improve."
After sending the message Lex couldn't help but sigh. His connection to the empire will greatly benefit his home planet, even if he had decided to leave it behind. It seemed like he had a magic touch. Everything just got better under his influence.
Lex chuckled. Such thoughts were too self absorbed, even for him. In truth, he was a man in an extremely precarious situation putting on an excellent balancing act.
With that done, and everything else being handled well enough by the system, Lex couldn't help but turn his attention towards the new Minor realm that had been given to the empire. He was a little curious about this pagoda. If he wanted it to serve as a training ground for his workers, he first needed to get a deeper understanding of its difficulty.
After a quick scan that showed that William was still at the manor, Lex decided to pay the pagoda a visit. He was curious to see how difficult these trials really were. He did not at all harbor any thoughts that he might complete all the trials in a single go, thereby gaining an incredible heritage that put him on the same level as the emperor. It was not like he had begun to suffer from an MC complex.
Yes, he was totally just going to scope it out. He teleported to his room to change, but then realized he hadn't really gotten any new gear to suit his new realm. With a shrug, he changed into jeans and a T-shirt, and teleported to the Immortal Bastion.
"Mary, I'm going to be a little busy for a while, so if anyone has a tribulation similar to the one Ragnar had, warn me well in advance so I can set enough formations."
He really could not think of anything else going wrong while he was away. He had taken precautions against everything he could think of, and had enough guards to protect the Inn in case other trouble makers arrived. Besides, he would only be gone for a short time. What's the worst that could happen?
Shortly after Lex entered the Minor realm, Adrus who had spent an extended amount of time at the Inn finally returned to Earth. Not everyone was a multi billionaire. As much as he wanted to continue to party at the Inn, he couldn't afford it!