The Innkeeper

For Lex, security was very important, but it was also very expensive. After staring at his options for a long while, he decided to deal with it at the end. How much MP he had left once he'd planned for the event would determine how much he would spend.

"Mary, is there something the system can do to help me speed up my cultivation? Or, at least, my employees' cultivation?"

"There are many things that can speed up your cultivation. Unfortunately, the System cannot provide them to you. Maybe if you get lucky one day you'll receive something in a quest reward that'll help you. But it's unlikely as the focus of the system is to develop the Inn, not your cultivation. You have to rely on yourself for that."

Lex sighed in defeat. Since he had a cheat anyway, why didn't it let him cheat all the way? He turned his attention back to the event panel and looked at temporary accommodation. He didn't want to build too many permanent rooms right now as his Inn would get cramped, and as someone who spent several years in New York he'd had enough of that. Another solid 100,000MP was tucked towards 1000 temporary rooms that guests could rent during the event.

The cultural event would take place in the coliseum, and would precede the combat portion. There were multiple phases for both, and the way Lex had planned it out was that the first phase was similar to a festival with several booths or 'stalls' held concurrently. Guests could view them from their rooms or go and view them in person. Lex was initially planning on having some kind of voting system that would promote the best stalls, or perhaps choose them himself, but he found the event planner had options for that as well. Whichever exhibit garnered the best responses could automatically be detected and promoted.

Of course, doing it this way turned things into some sort of performance rather than just showing cultural exhibits or historical pieces. For example, if someone wanted to show historically relevant paintings that affected their culture they could garner interest once by people but in the later phases showing the same stuff would not elicit the same reaction.

Lex had thought of a solution for that as well. Should an exhibit want to do that, during the first phase they could show the historical painting or artifact, and during the later phases they could make new paintings or whatever else to show how the previous ones influenced modern creation. And if some people didn't like that idea? Well tough luck. From the moment the concept of a prize for the winning planet was introduced the event changed from a pure cultural sharing experience to some sort of competition. Such was the nature of the world. Or the universe. Whatever.

Lex spent the next few hours fine tuning the details for the cultural portion of the event and the proceedings. Eventually when he was done he prepared to go back and continue meditating, but scanned the Inn once first. Marlo was still in the meditation room and Helen was sitting in a lawn chair surrounded by peacocks once again.

Yet this time Lex noticed a difference in Helen. While all previous times he had seen her she seemed preoccupied or lost in thought, this time, she just seemed bored. She was stuck at the Inn, and with her thoughts much clearer now she felt she had nothing to do. She spent some time cultivating, but similar to extraneous exercise, it had to be done in moderation or she would hurt herself. This left her with nothing to do.

Just as Lex was considering if he should do something about that, he received a new notification.

Emergency Quest:

Your guest has stayed at the Inn for several days and has become disillusioned by your paltry attempts to seem grand. Provide a distraction or entertainment for your guest!

Quest time limit: 3 hours

Quest failure punishment: -1000MP

Quest reward: Elegant top hat

The punishment was almost negligible to Lex now, but he still didn't want to fail. But how should he distract her? How should he entertain her?

He quickly looked through the Midnight Market but found no new buildings or options for entertainment.

"Any ideas?" he asked Mary.

She shook her head and said, "I can't help you with Quests, Lex. You're the host, not me. These are things you need to figure out on your own."

Lex frowned as he thought of what he could do. Previously he wanted to bring in movies and shows from Earth, but then it would be suspicious if he only had content from Earth and not other planets. Not to mention, it would seem strange if he as the Innkeeper fretted over each and every minor detail, such as providing entertainment for a single guest so he should not be directly involved as well. He needed to maintain his image as a mysterious and powerful being. It would be so much more convenient he could create a clone to do stuff or…

Lex froze as he felt an idea coming to him. He could feel it, it was right there, on the tip of his thoughts, just out of reach. It was like a word he knew but forgot when someone asked him for it. Just out of reach. Quickly he went through his thoughts again to see what triggered it.

It would be convenient if he could have a clone or someone who could pretend to be an employee to do the things he could not as the Innkeeper!

Eureka! He had an epiphany! He quickly checked the Midnight market to see if he could do what he wanted. It didn't have what he wanted exactly, but he checked a few different things and tested a certain item he had to see if they worked together, and, unexpectedly, things worked out.

Lex grinned and bought a building and put it right next to John's shop that had a banner reading 'Battle Ax'. It was a strange name choice, but Lex didn't question it. Lex smiled as he quickly designed the new building, and designed its interior. He had to admit, as he thought of the possibilities of what he could do he was having a little fun.

*****

Helen sat lazily in her lawn chair as she thought of random things. She was bored, but she didn't mind too much. It was rare for her to have so much free time in her life. Even idle boredom was a novel experience.

Yet when she heard some noise in the distance and immediately recognized it to be the sound of a new building being raised at the Inn. She'd seen enough of them to appear to become familiar with it by now. A new building also meant a new service, which intrigued her. She got off her chair and asked Gerard to bring a golf cart to take her to the commotion. She didn't mind the walk, but she liked indulging the old man.

She'd spent some time talking with Gerard, as she had with all the other staff at the Inn. Most of them were very simple and pure, and had straightforward personalities. The only thing they wanted was to serve the guests and make sure they were happy, and had very few interests beyond that. Velma, she had noticed, absolutely loved gossip. But because of her professionalism, she never spied on guests. Yet whenever Helen chatted with her, the young girl listened with the eager interest of a child with wanderlust.

Gerard was easier to please, as all she had to do was let him drive her places. She didn't envy them as she was quite content with her own life, but she found it remarkable that they all enjoyed such simple pleasures.

When she approached the part of the Inn she now called Main street, she saw the new building and when she read the name her jaw dropped.

'No way! It can't be,' she thought. This was the Midnight Inn, how could such a place find its way here? Yet she was even more curious to find out.

Without any hesitation Helen entered the building that wore a banner reading "Gamer's Den'. The first thing she saw was a relatively young man standing in the shop wearing jeans and a Tshirt. She noticed that he was also wearing the Clark Kent glasses, but so was she so she was not one to judge.

When the young man saw her he revealed an excited grin and said, "Welcome! Wow, my first guest already. That was faster than I was expecting. You can call me Leo and this is my Gaming Center! If you give me just a moment, I'm still downloading all the games onto the computers. As soon as they're done I'll show you this game I think you'll absolutely love. It's called League of Lex's, or LOL for short. LOL is super popular, I think you'll learn it pretty quickly."

'Leo' paused for a second when he got a notification for quest completion, but then turned his attention back to Helen and started asking her if she'd played any games before. Oh yes, this was going to be fun.