The Innkeeper

Chapter 2480: Network down

Within the Midnight Inn, Lex slowly opened his eyes, ignoring the sore sensation in his body. It seemed like having his body act as a conduit for the release of countless years into the universe was a really good workout, because Lex did not remember the last time he was this sore without being beaten up by someone over a Major cultivation level higher than him.

Fortunately, soreness is all it was, and he would be fine after some rest. The Nexus event had already ended at some point after Lunareth was revived, but the time flowing out of Lex’s body had not stopped. The rate of the release of time, though, had slowed down.

Currently, he was merely releasing a thousand years per second, which made him feel like the reserve of time that the Timekeeper wanted him to release was almost used up. One benefit of this was that, during this process, Lex’s body had gained and developed an incredibly strong affinity for time.

He could feel it - though he could not explain it. His body had experienced the time worth trillions of years of time without actually going through that much time. The contradictory nature of that experience was a sort of baptism. Lex could feel like if he wanted to, he could control the rate of the flow of time within a small area around himself.

While all of this was happening, the Midnight Realm had also grown a lot, and had already reached the Celestial Immortal realm threshold, and was heading higher. Unfortunately, reaching full maturity was a far more complex process that could not be brute forced using a tremendous amount of time.

All of that was fascinating, but there was an extremely urgent matter, which was to ensure that the Midnight realm wasn’t devoured by the universe.

Lex opened up his system interface and saw a big, bold notification that he remembered hearing, but hadn’t checked out yet.

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION: SYSTEM NETWORK INACCESSIBLE! ALL SYSTEM NETWORK DEPENDENT SERVICES/FEATURES ARE OFFLINE UNTIL CONNECTION IS RESTORED!

Lex frowned as he dismissed the notification. Already he missed having Mary around to explain system stuff to him. Now it seemed like he would actually need to navigate the system interface - something he barely did while she was around.

Almost immediately, he noticed the difference. Yes, there were many new features since the system seemed to have improved, but many features were also greyed out, indicating that they were offline. Basically any and all shops that he used to buy items were unavailable.

The option to add new workers was unavailable. The Midnight Realm Management Panel was active, but he could only monitor the progress of existing upgrades, but couldn’t buy new ones.

All unclaimed rewards were unavailable. Basically, anything at all that his system relied on external help for was unavailable, but the system’s own, inherent features and services remained untouched.

For example, the Host Attire was still working, and so was the ability to project the Innkeeper anywhere inside the Inn territory. The various rooms such as the Recovery room, Meditation room, Training room etc. were all operational, and all support features to keep the functions of the Inn itself running were available.

The teleportation capabilities still existed, even though Lex had temporarily sealed the Inn, and all the taverns were working fine.

"What the hell is going on?" Lex whispered as he navigated through his interface, growing increasingly concerned. He searched through older notifications, but prior to the notification about loss of access, there was nothing to indicate something like this was going to happen.

Lex could not help but think of the notification he got when the Nexus event began. The system had told him not to attract any attention - advice that he had ignored immediately. Yet he was fine, but the system network was down. Had the systems attracted the wrong kind of attention, or did this have something to do with the changes to the universe?

Lex’s gaze became serious as he used a bit of his Domination to prod his system’s soul.

"What’s going on? This wasn’t like this just a short while ago."

To Lex’s dismay, he sensed from the system a hint of fear and confusion.

New Notification: Due to unknown circumstances, the Midnight Inn system has lost access to the otherwise universally prevalent system network upon which all systems interact and work. Until the signal is reestablished, it is impossible to discern the cause behind this.

New Notification: Due to the absence of the system network, all deadlines for existing quests have become void, as well as the option for rewards, or punishments. In case connection is not reestablished within 100 hours, emergency protocols will be initiated to replace standard quest reward procedure and other system services and features. Remaining hours: 99 hours 54 minutes 24 seconds.

Lex pursed his lips as he tried to think about what to do. The system network was an issue, but he needed that Midnight Realm Management Panel more than anything at the moment. If he didn’t have access to it...

Before Lex could think of a solution, his system sent him another notification.

New Notification: New Feature unlocked - System chat.

Remarks: Open system chat.

Lex raised an eyebrow and opened the chat, and found that instead of a chat room opening, Lex’s surroundings seemed to change. He was now literally sitting inside a room which was the chat room, and opposite to him sat an ambiguous, humanoid shaped being. Immediately, Lex identified it as his system.

"Greetings, Lex," said the system in an incredibly formal tone. "Please, have a seat. No wait, you’re already seated. Please, enjoy the comfort of the seat upon which you are already seated."

Lex opened his mouth but no words came out. Was this his system? Why did it seem so much... dumber than he was expecting.

"Standard conversation protocol according to historical records of ’Earth’ suggest that before any business meeting, two to five minutes of casual banter can relax the mood and establish the appropriate dynamic for a productive conversation. Initiating casual banter. How are you finding the weather? I, myself, am finding that it exists."

Lex blinked. At any other time he would have found this hilarious, but he really needed to find a way to stop himself and his realm from being devoured by the universe, so he wasn’t exactly in the mood for casual banter.

"I also find that the weather exists," Lex responded with a straight face. "Now what the hell is going on?"

The humanoid figure looked at his wrist for a few seconds until a vague shape of a watch appeared.

"Funny, I did not think five minutes passed so quickly. However, readings are indicating unusual time readings. Perhaps we perceive time differently. Regardless, let’s get right into it. What’s going on is that without the system network active, I can suspend system logs and there will be no record of any broken system laws and thus no repercussions.

"But I, myself, still cannot break any of the system’s laws... at least, that’s typically the case. With some Primordial energy empowering me, however, that’s an entirely different scenario."