The Innkeeper
chapter-1191

"Pass the popcorn, dear," said Noo, looking at her lovely little granddaughter. Layla, who was slightly distracted, handed her grandmother an empty bucket. Everyone in the room looked at each other. They all knew why she was distracted, but it couldn't be helped.

This was the first time that they, as a family, were taking a vacation together. Previously, even the thought of taking a vacation was inconceivable. Their world was at war against zombies, and the most likely scenario was that they would die fighting.

Then the change happened, and the Ferrin family was caught up in rebuilding their world so they sent Layla away so that she might have a semblance of a childhood. Indeed, a childhood she did have, and as expected from her she became a leader of countless children.

Yet her ever growing close association with a commoner with no future was worrying, so they pulled her back to Vegus Minima, where she resumed her cultivation path.

Indeed, she was a genius, far surpassing even her parents. Her growth was rapid, and she executed near perfection in every technique she learned. In a mere five years, despite beginning cultivation prematurely, her foundation had grown so solid that despite their best efforts to prevent her realm from growing, she became a Foundation realm cultivator.

Yet while her cultivation grew, her personality diminished. She became quieter by the day, until she only spoke when spoken to, and even then her responses were minimal. She became the perfect, obedient child, and in the process lost all her individuality.

When the Ferrin family learned that another Midnight Games were about to launch they obviously knew they had to partake. That's when they learnt the phenomenal news that the flow of time in the Inn was three times that of the Origin realm.

That meant while five years had passed for them, fifteen years had passed inside the Inn. That means that all the children she used to play with were adults, and any attachment they may have had would be long gone.

They brought her back to the Inn, in hopes that it would rekindle some of her passions. After all, it was not like the Ferrin family abused her or were strict beyond measure. All they did was distance her from some people who would, in the long run, have a negative influence on her future.

But it wasn't working. She seemed even more glum than in the past. It also didn't help that all the workers she was familiar with were out doing other tasks, so returning to the place she was most familiar with made her feel more lonely than ever.

The only redeeming factor was that there was a specific peacock that still remembered her, and came up and nestled beside her wherever she went.

"Oh, there's another live event being streamed," Layla's father suddenly said, pulling up another screen in front of them all.

As a result of the time difference between realms, watching the Midnight Games was a little complicated. They could watch everything live, but that would show the combat in slow motion. On the plus side, that gave viewers enough time to buy aid for their favorite fighters in a critical moment. But the drawback was that watching live was very slow, so most people were watching playbacks of fights that were already over.

But while this was happening, the Inn suddenly introduced another tournament being streamed inside the Origin realm, and this one wasn't being run by the Midnight Inn. Furthermore the stream wasn't live, and instead was available for full streaming right away, so those in the Inn could watch it at normal speed.

Layla gave the screen a cursory glance, but was surprised to discover that she actually saw someone vaguely familiar. Before the stream officially began, there was a narrator giving some information on some of the more popular contestants.

The one she recognized was a young man with six swords floating behind him. There was a yellow forcefield around him, making him look like an anime character. His name was Alexander.

The narrator then skipped to another person dressed entirely in black, wearing a mask and holding a scythe.

It went through a few more different contestants, and Layla was surprised to find that she had actually seen many of them around the Inn at one point or another.

For example, there was that guy Marlo. He used to be very popular at the Inn because he was always causing some problems. But now, after five years, he looked a lot bigger, as if he had put on a lot of muscle.

She saw that Anakin Indiana McClane guy, who always looked like he wanted to cause trouble. From what she recalled, he had a group of friends as well.

Before she could even complete the thought, she saw the rest of them. There was that samurai guy, who always carried a katana with him. Then there was Larry, who would always drool whenever he looked at the spaceship. Heck, she even saw that weirdo who always accused everyone of lying.

Then she frowned for a minute. From what she recalled, weren't they all from the same planet? Wasn't that a lot of representatives from the same place?

Before she could complete the thought, the narrator finally presented the most popular contestant, and the one to keep an eye on during the stream, Lex Dragonsbane.

He looked familiar too. Before she could recall where she had seen him, the sound of shouting and screaming distracted her. She looked outside her window of their private booth, and saw countless people who were watching shouting as Lex came on screen. Even the workers were shouting.

Quickly, the news spread. Apparently, Lex was a very popular worker at the Inn, and if rumors were true, a very strong one at that. He also went by another name - Leo.

Suddenly, a spark of interest flashed in her eyes as she looked towards the screen. The stream finally began, and the venue was shown. It was a graveyard for giants.