The Innkeeper

It was nearly five hours later that Lex finally got some room to breathe. By now, most of the guests were gone. He had gone from several thousand guests to only a few hundred in the span of a few short hours. Even then, of the few hundred, nearly 50 people were those close supporters of the family heads who were too afraid to return home. The Morrison family was still also here, but a few moments of spying let Lex know that they were already forming a plan on how to go back to Mars.

Despite ending the event, the coliseum had not vanished nor had the guards because, contrary to what one might expect, the official end to an event did not actually signify the end of that event. Normally, the end of an event would be followed by the cleanup and packing up of everything. While those were not of any concern to Lex, he had received 24 hours after the end to see off guests and make any arrangements if he needed. This was naturally important, considering that many of his guests had been staying at the coliseum instead of his actual residences.

Once he was done, he considered going back to his room, but then, on second thought, went towards Midnight Manor instead. Rather than teleporting, Lex walked into the restaurant inside and took a seat. Only a few other people were here, as Main Street had started pulling most of the crowds as of late, but that suited Lex just fine.

“Would you like something to eat?” asked Velma, who approached the Innkeeper.

“Bring me whatever was the most popular dish during the Midnight games,” he told her as he leaned back in his chair. Noting the relative silence in the Manor, he recalled that he had been considering hiring a musician, but never got around to it.

Not giving it too much thought, he purchased another AI named Frank and had him start playing the piano in the lobby. The few people who were sitting in the restaurant instantly noticed when a soft melody started playing, as if to accompany them for the evening. A lot of them guessed that the Innkeeper was in a good mood, but none of them tried to take advantage of it.

A few moments later, Lex was served a dish that made him chuckle. How could he have known that the dish that was most popular during the games, enjoyed by humans and beasts alike, was a burrito? Not that it left him with any complaints.

For once, Lex enjoyed his meal out in the open, for his guests to see, rather than in the privacy of his room. Currently, he did not look like some overbearing entity that was beyond their comprehension, but like a simple man enjoying a burrito after pulling off a successful event.

Once he was done, Lex looked around the room one more time, then disappeared. Of course, before leaving, he also decided to pay for the meals of all the guests who shared the room with him. What was the point of being rich if you couldn’t do things like that?

. Back in his room, Lex ordered 100 more burritos – his new appetite would not be sated with just one, but he didn’t want to embarrass himself by eating so much in public – and began looking at his notifications.

Much to his surprise, Igishima was the guest that died! The MP he had in credit had been transferred to his inheritor, whoever that was. That was quite unfortunate. This was probably the first guest that Lex knew of that passed away. He decided that he’d take special care of whoever Igishima’s inheritor was, if he ever met them.

Then he looked over the rest of his notifications. Despite his heavy expenditure on the last minute trinkets and awards, he still ended up making a profit of 780,000 MP during the last day, bringing his total MP to 8,780,000. Now that he had only a few hundred guests left at the moment, he had to be a lot more careful with how he spent it.

Next, he went over a deluge of miscellaneous issues and matters, anywhere from how many Midnight Suits were left, what areas required more AI staff to manage high guest densities, a request from Gerard regarding upgrades to his golf cart and more.

To be honest, Lex was filling his time with small, less important matters because he didn’t want to do anything big until he received his quest reward. The final wait usually felt the longest, so he kept himself busy so that time would pass faster.

Unexpectedly, the day passed by very quickly, and at last the massive coliseum disappeared from the Inn skyline. The hundreds of guards disappeared, and from his hiding spot from which he viewed the entire Inn, Lex’s personal bodyguard vanished as well.

There were literally dozens of things he wanted to do now that the event was over, but first things first, it was time to view his quest rewards!

Quest Complete! The Host’s rewarded is being calculated:

– Reward upgraded for having over 1000 participants!

– Reward upgraded for having participants many cultivation levels above host

– Reward upgraded for attracting attention of several Dao level cultivators

– Reward upgraded for changing destiny of 3 planets (Earth, Nibiru, Vegus Minima)

– Reward upgraded for hosting Dao Lord level guest

– Reward upgraded for spreading prestige of Inn

– Reward demoted for letting guests die

– Reward demoted for discriminating against guests (devils + zombies)

– Reward Rank: SSS+ -> Destiny rank achieved

Reward:

– Authority +1

– 1 Free Inn Expansion (Size double)

– Inn Star Rating + 0.5

– 1,000,000 MP

– 1 SSS Rank Protector recruitment token

– 1 Destiny Protection upgrade for Inn

– Unlocked Special System feature: Special Quests

– 1 System upgrade (blocked)

Remarks: With your tumor gone, who will you blame for your bad decisions? Quickly deploy preparations for the amnesia trope!

Notification: System upgrade reward blocked due to unknown errors! Reward being replaced! Reward received: Bathroom robe!

Notification: Set items detected! When items ‘Bathroom Slippers’, ‘Bathroom robe’ and ‘Bathroom towel’ are equipped at the same time, they will unlock a special ability!

Just like the last time Lex received a reward that upgraded his Inn, a subtle change swept through his Inn. A wave of spirit energy swept across the Inn, washing all of his guests in such concentrated and pure spirit energy as they could never have imagined.

It was unfortunate that the stronger guests Lex had recently hosted had already left when this happened, or they would get to enjoy untold benefits. Well, all the strong guests except for Remy, the man who wanted the Inn to be the official meeting of his secret society.

All of Lex’s guests, whether they were the arguing family heads, to Marlo who was butting heads with his wife, to Chen and Blane who had once experienced this sensation before, immediately stopped what they were doing and sat down to cultivate wherever they were.

Since Lex himself could finally sense Spirit energy, he too was suddenly overwhelmed by the sensation of having a breakthrough, and had to stop pursuing his notifications to sit and cultivate instead. Those of Lex’s workers who could sense spiritual energy also stopped all their tasks to cultivate.

The Galactic Sovereign Turtle that had literally just returned from Nibiru was so surprised that even as it sat down and retreated into its shell, it did not know why it was instinctively behaving this way. Little Blue suddenly felt sleepy and decided to nap on top of its father’s shell. The gardener, who was cultivating an unusual technique given to him by the turtle instead of the one given by the Innkeeper, went into a daze as spirit plants that surrounded him started growing rapidly. Even the few extremely rare seeds Lex had received that had yet to actually sprout, despite the turtle’s personal care and attention, vibrated just a little. Then one of them immediately burst open and formed a Lotus.

Only Mary, a few mortal guests and a few of the AIs who had not yet entered Qi gathering remained undisturbed during this time, and only they got to see how the Inn quickly began to increase in size as well. To be more specific, the Inn had doubled in size. It was no longer possible to easily see from one end of the Inn to another, unless one climbed the Midnight Mountain.

A few hours later, as the first of the guests who had begun cultivating finally stabilized their realms, opened their eyes to a world that seemed more magical than ever. But how could they know that for the Midnight Inn, this was just the beginning.