The Innkeeper

Mary's projection floated over Lex's sleeping body, utterly confused. His soul had stabilized way too quickly, right? But, whatever. There was a saying on Earth that went like, 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth'. She had no idea who would gift someone a horse, but the idea was all that mattered.

Before she could ponder more about the metaphors and phrases from Earth, she was notified about an issue. A bunch of new guests had shown up, and had started a fight. The problem was, they were fighting amongst one another, so the guards weren't sure if they needed to stop them and so they contacted her.

Mary disappeared to take care of the issue, only to find most of them were already asleep or unconscious on her arrival. A few were fighting amongst themselves, but shortly after pulling them apart, they too fell asleep. Now Mary really was lost, they had never taken care of drunk guests before. But perhaps it would be too much to punish them just for this, so she had the guards carry them somewhere secluded where they could nap out in the field. She would deal with them when they woke up.

Just like that, Mary was putting out fires all over the Inn while the Innkeeper slept like a baby. The hours passed and the final game for the Foundation experts finally ended. Of the 1000 soldiers that had followed Alexander, only 600 were in fighting condition by the end. Almost 200 of them died while the rest were gravely wounded. The casualties for the rest were drastic as well, though the Jotuns only had casualties because of Pramod's surprise attack.

Surprising everyone, the Beasts had taken the lead in points during the last two matches, and Earth had fallen far behind both. This was because, split up as they were, many soldiers ended up using their points for extra strength whenever they were in precarious situations.

The next day, the sixth match, and the first of the Golden Core experts, would begin. The zombies, the Jotuns and the beasts had armies ready and waiting, but the Earthlings only managed only 800 Golden core experts of their 5000 quota. This was because, to begin with, Golden Core cultivators were rare on Earth, and the ones that managed to reach that realm often were not fighters.

Of those 800, only 10 were Brandon Morrisons followers. The Morrison family had decided not to participate heavily in this section of the games, as they no longer had much to gain. The only reason these 10 were even going was because they wanted to follow Brandon. As for the reason Brandon wanted to go, he claimed he needed the exertion to help him breakthrough the Nascent realm.

"You performed well," Brandon said to his son, who was busy recovering from his latest wounds, "but you took on too many wounds. Your combat style is immature. Compare yourself to the Jotun soldiers, who suffered almost no casualties and few wounds under normal circumstances. Think on how you can improve, and if you need inspiration, watch my match tomorrow."

Brandon was always extremely serious, a large contrast to his own father, but he was also extremely remarkable. Despite the fact that Ragnar was the Nascent realm cultivator of their family, Brandon was the one that had built up their strength and raised their armies. Alexander had never seen his father fight properly, so he was looking forward to it.

In a different part of the Inn, Blane had taken Iris to the Recovery room to heal. Behind him stood Chen and Lily. Blane was completely broke, since he had spent his time looking for Iris and had not worked at all in that time, so he had to ask Chen for a loan to heal Iris.

Yet again, in another part of the Inn, Little Blue was searching for its father, the Galactic Sovereign turtle. But the turtle had gone back to its planet temporarily, and so the whale was unable to find him, which caused it a lot of distress. Unaware of what else to do, the whale went towards Main street to find Z. Unknowingly, somehow this reclusive and anime obsessed AI had become the support system for many of the Inns permanent residents.

As night fell and the pirates finally woke up, Mary quickly appeared and had the guards reproach them heavily. Confused, scared, but mostly hungover, the pirates got a vague understanding of things before promptly returning to wherever they came from.

In a different place, Larry was waiting for Lex, who had said he would return at night. But as the hours passed and Lex never showed up, Larry began to worry. His thoughts, however, were hidden well behind his smile and constant flirting.

The night passed, and the next day the first match for the Golden Core experts began. Some people found it strange that the Innkeeper didn't make an appearance, but things continued as usual.

Harriot Shelby Ruby Selma Jane, the zombie leader whose name only Lex knew, did not behave as pragmatically as Pramod when the first match started. Since the zombies and the Jotun empire spawned in the same place, she instantly ordered a fight to the death.

Unlike the fight with Foundation realm experts, which somewhat resembled a fight between mortal armies in terms of formation and weapons, a fight between Golden Core experts was vastly different. The spiritual techniques were of another realm, and the repercussions of the fight could be felt across the current map. Speaking of which, the environment was actually underwater! They were literally fighting against not only each other, but the ocean currents as well!

Brandon made a beeline for the ongoing fight while the Beasts headed towards the node. Compared to their somewhat mediocre performance in the previous rounds, this time, the Beasts were a lot more aggressive.

A lot of viewers had their eyes on Brandon, despite so many other options, as a lot of bets had been placed on him. As the father of such a well-performing candidate, Alexander, the crowd expected nothing less from him. And, true to the Morrison name, Brandon was extremely lethal on the field.

If Alexander's performance could be described as explosive, then Brandon was steady. In less than an hour, he killed over a dozen Golden Core zombies, and was involved in a direct clash against Harriot. To be more exact, he was fighting the third body Harriot inhabited! Every time he killed the zombie, even crushing the zombie core to dust once, Harriot would somehow take over another zombie. Were Lex watching this match, he would recall that Harriot suffered from a condition the system described as a failed artificial animation, and would wonder if this had anything to do with how she kept coming back.

If she had been smart, Brandon would have had no way of knowing that she had taken over another zombie, but each time she would start cursing and screaming at him, even going so far as saying she was immortal and that she would not rest until she took over Brandon's body in revenge!

If the situation bothered him, no one could tell, as Brandon's expression did not change even a little throughout the game. Even when the game ended in only four hours because the beasts had somehow decimated the zombie army defending the node, Brandon was unperturbed.

Like that, Brandon became a fan favorite, even more than Alexander, and quite a few ladies tried to court him. It was unfortunate for them that he treated them with the same indifference as the zombies that he killed. The very same indifference he kept when Harriot herself courted him between matches.

Like that, two more days passed by, and nothing too out of the ordinary happened. The Beasts had an irrecoverable lead now, as they continued to destroy the nodes on their own in the following two matches. At this point, even the Jotun army had changed their strategy from trying to destroy the node to keeping the pressure off the beasts. All they cared about was reclaiming the planet, so if they did not win the final prize, it was alright.

It had to be noted that only 200 of the Golden Core cultivators from Earth were still participating. The casualties they had suffered in the first match had been extremely heavy, and most of the survivors refused to participate anymore. The only ones still fighting were like Brandon, wanting to ready themselves for a potential breakthrough in the future. With access to the Midnight Inn, the Golden Core realm was not the end of the path for them and their buried ambitions had been rekindled.

It was on the morning of the ninth Midnight game, and the second last match, that something unusual happened - at least for those who came from Earth.

New York had been declared an independent country as well as a monarchy, under the rule of its first King, Hanson Marlo Bravi IV, as recognized by the Council of New Order. No one saw this coming, and everyone was extremely confused by what had happened. Though Marlo had a reputation, it was not as if everyone on Earth knew him, so many were wondering who this random upstart was that had somehow obtained recognition from the council.

Only a very few people knew that it wasn't Marlo receiving their recognition, but him sparing their lives for provoking him in the first place. Based on his personality, he could not be threatened the same way the other family heads were, and they had not planned for a sudden new powerhouse either. In fact, he was not even too interested in taking over New York, but the council had already offered it to him to placate him, and he did quite like the sound of King.

What they didn't know was that it was not Marlo's lack of ambition that saved them. He was too worried about his son's condition to care about measly titles. In fact, if someone from the council hadn't specifically provoked him, he would never have even bothered with them at all. As for what happened after his son recovered... that remained to be seen.