The Innkeeper

Chapter 2003: Handsome young men

There was a reason why Lex set his appointment with the Governor of the Origin realm a week away. Before that, he would be focusing on completing the taverns, which he had almost done. He’d also given himself leeway for a few days in case the upgrade reward took longer than expected.

Although, since he was not intending on relying on the upgrade for anything, he was not too focused on it. Of course, it would be great if the upgrade provided him with something incredible that could help him pull of his... entrepreneurial experiment.

Besides, the only time the system interface actually disappeared was when the system absorbed another system. With all the preliminary preparations in place, Lex could focus entirely on building his taverns.

The Valkyries, who had so far been the greatest contributors in constructing the taverns besides Orin himself, were stunned by how drastically Lex’s aid increased their productivity. At the same time, they finally got a hint of why they were in such a rush to complete the taverns. Rumor had it that the Innkeeper had called Luthor for some important task. It seemed like something big was about to happen.

As hints of excitement and anticipation filled the air, causing all the workers to look forward to whatever the Innkeeper had planned, Lorelei was stunned. She was not taken aback by how calm and peaceful the Midnight Inn was, no she was literally stunned.

Due to the massive influx of new guests, numbering in the hundreds of billions, the Inn was once again seeing a lot of troublemakers. Considering that the Inn workers were pretty powerful themselves now, for the most part it was not too troublesome to handle.

Earth Immortals were decently strong enough, not to mention fast enough to respond to any situation that arose. The problem was mostly Heaven and Celestial Immortals.

Although the Reaving Dread provided security for the Midnight Inn, even they were reaching the limits of what they could provide. That, sometimes, resulted in security being slightly late in reaching certain delinquents.

Lex, naturally, was aware that this was an issue, and had a solution in mind as well. Unfortunately, that solution would take some time to implement. The Inn was no longer operating on a scale where he alone could take care of so many troublemakers. Unless he was able to attack on a large scale through Karma like the Innkeeper had, he would need to solve a numbers problem with numbers.

Fortunately, the problem had not yet gotten out of hand. Unfortunately, Lorelei had to deal with the repercussions.

She was happily exploring the Inn, taking in its many beautiful sights, and was basking in the wonder that no one was hunting her, when someone started to hunt her. That was the thing about universal bounties - it was the ultimate popularity contest that no one wanted to win.

Now, Lorelei was no weakling, but even she was unable to respond when a dozen Heaven Immortals suddenly surrounded her and pinned her down before hitting her with a tranquilliser. Fortunately, while the Inn was sometimes slow to react to such troublemakers, the Security team was quick enough to restrict their authority to leave the Inn. This meant that basically they were stuck here until they were dealt with.

The Immortals hadn’t even had time to enjoy their success when a young, dashing human appeared astride a magnificent peacock, leading a team of powerful beasts. They immediately ordered the Immortals to surrender, but instead of cooperating, they resisted, and so a fight ensued.

So, for a time, Lorelei was left laying on the ground, stunned, watching the handsome human fight to save her. It was quite... quite romantic. As a natural positive thinker, as she lay there on the ground, covered in dust, watching them fight over her, she could not help but think that this was meant to be. That she was meant to be targeted, all so that she could be saved by that one human.

He was so outstanding, so heroic. He had the kind of face that would stick out in a crowd, the kind of charisma that would be hard to forget. She felt herself falling in love, and thinking that a life full of endless struggle and pursuit was totally worth it if she could meet...

Regis, the Inn worker sitting on the peacock, used his natural ability in the fight, which was to completely disappear. Not only would he turn invisible, but everyone would forget about him too, as well as their memories associated with him.

Up against Heaven Immortals, this was a pretty useful ability in a fight. What he didn’t realize was that the timing of him using his ability... may have deprived him of an opportunity to land a girlfriend.

Lorelei kept feeling like she was forgetting something, but couldn’t figure it out.

Eventually, the fight came to an end, and she was rushed to the nearest Recovery room while countless Inn workers apologised profusely for her poor experience, promising to make up for it.

Quite frankly, Lorelei didn’t mind so much. Compared to everywhere else she had been, the Inn was kind of nice, and even if she was occasionally attacked and stunned, at least some people showed up to rescue her. Yes, things could most certainly be worse.

It seems all that positive thinking had paid off.

It was while Lorelie was lost in these thoughts that the most handsome man she had ever seen walked into the room, his magnificent visage so mesmerising that Lorelei forgot to breathe. It was a good thing that as an Immortal, she could live without breathing.

"Hello miss, I hope I’m not intruding," the fine young man said, smiling politely at her. "I could help but come and introduce myself once I saw you."

Lorelei blushed, and forgot that she was supposed to respond. Meanwhile, Wu Kong looked at the little mermaid with genuine amazement hidden in his eyes. How had the Innkeeper found a mermaid with that forbidden bloodline? What was he even planning?

He couldn’t help but wonder if the Innkeeper was secretly planning... to go over there!