The Innkeeper
chapter-1211

Even though no Henali was present to hand him the award, and the ceremony he attended was one organized just moments prior, due to Lex's urgent need to leave, nothing about the event felt like it was perfunctory.

He was brought to a massive stadium where rows upon rows of people filled the stands, even the ones floating up in the air and all around him, all of whom had been watching the show.

There was a brief introductory speech, letting everyone know that while everyone else was still in the second or even the first trial of the streams they chose, there was a contestant who had already won. If this were the kind of tournament that would allocate positions, then he would be coming second!

Lex was not too surprised to find out he'd be second, since Giselle had already finished before him.

Regardless, everyone was super excited to see that someone had already finished, and even those who did not know about Lex began to search up his videos. There were no recordings from the time bubble, but the graveyard and maze had recordings of which, watching which drove everyone insane.

Of course, the maze was only limited up until the tower itself, as they could not record what happened inside. What made everyone disappointed was that while the graveyard was action packed, and the maze had some intense moments as well, there just wasn't enough to sate hunger for more action!

Amidst cheering crowds from countless races across the realm, Lex walked out onto the stage and accepted the award, smiling and waving at everyone who saw him. At the same time, he was extremely grateful that he had been through the rejuvenation process before this.

With his mind cleared of all urgency, and his emotions in check, he could play out this scene exactly how he imagined it. Whether the people he was putting on a show for were watching or not was irrelevant. He just needed to complete the act.

*****

"I'm telling you we're being targeted. Nothing else makes sense," said an exasperated ape as he threw a clipboard onto the table in front of him. All those around him looked at the documents clipped onto it and resisted the urge to sigh.

It was not just the fact that they were being told something for the billionth time, but the fact that the basis of that argument seemed to be true. Over the past few weeks, Sanguis Pluvia had been suffering more losses than they had in years. Yet there were no indications that these losses were anything more than incidental events as a result of other clashes within the vicinity.

"I told you, it's impossible," said Damien, in an irritated tone. "Each and everyone of our facilities has been enchanted so that not even other Dao Lords can find it. Moreover, we are tracking the location of every single Dao Lord in the realm. If any of them try to make a move on us, we'll know. So far, the Henali have only discovered what we want them to discover."

"I'm not saying that Dao Lords are acting against us," said the ape as it stood up, and tied its hands behind its back as it began to pace around. "Look, I don't understand enchantment and divinity and anti-divinity, or anything like that. I just understand mathematics, and numbers don't lie. For decades, the number of our incidental losses in any given year have not gone over 0.5%. These are the numbers for an entire year long period. But just in the past few weeks alone, we have exceeded 0.5% and gone to 1.1%! We have exceeded the annual trend by a large margin in the span of a few weeks! Numbers don't lie, and this is an anomalous result based on operational data we've accumulated over a century."

This time one of the guys on the table was unable to hold back a groan.

"Listen here Einstein," one of them said to the ape. "Every location is secured so no one can divine it, and all of our workers, low level employees and soldiers have seals placed in their minds so that they can't share information even if they want to. None of our partners know the location of our bases, and even if they did, they are literally traitors to the Henali. Revealing anything is as good as death. "Let alone 1%, even if the losses reach 5%, these are acceptable operational losses. With bases across millions of galaxies, it's expected that some of them will suffer attacks from time to time. Heck, just recently one of the facilities I was overlooking was on a planet that was attacked by space pirates. When have you heard of space pirates attacking planets? Never, yet it happened. Another one of my planets was the sight of a battle between the Deathsworn and their target. These things happen. It's not a big deal. We have to keep our eyes on the bigger picture."

Einstein, the ape, scoffed.

"The bigger picture? You mean like Her majesty's vessel? Haven't we failed to recreate a vessel for her because every cloning facility with a sample of the vessel has been attacked? And you're saying that this is not targeted."

The room suddenly turned solemn. Even if they could dismiss the ape's earlier claims, they could not just ignore such a sensitive topic.

"Again, we cannot conclude that we are the ones being targeted," one of the people in the room said. "Those facilities contained samples by various other forces, and we have identified at least two other entities which had their own cloning projects within all those facilities. At best, we're one of three who could potentially be targeted. It's not enough to conclude anything. We've literally fooled Dao Lords for so many years. If our defenses were truly lacking in any way, the Henali would not have spared us."

"What if it's not the Henali attacking us? Damien, I recall you submitted a report that you suspected your grandson might be responsible. He has already interfered thrice before, once on Earth, once on Polebitvy and once with the vessel. Isn't he a part of some powerful organization backed by a Dao Lord?"

"I suspected it was him," Damien said, showing no change in expression, "but upon investigation it was concluded that it was unlikely. According to our profile on the Dao Lord backing the Midnight Inn, he has a history of noninterference. At times it might seem like he is targeting someone, but that is circumstantial at best. "For example, during the previous Midnight Games it seemed like he was targeting Devils by forming the games around hunting zombies, but since then the Inn has shown close partnership with Devils. In fact, they are the largest demographic inside the Inn, surpassing even humans, who are the second largest.

"The current Midnight Games seem to have targeted planets where we have taken action, yes, but it also includes countless other planets that are being invaded by non-sentient races. It seems the theme of the games this time is Rising Heroes, which necessitates making use of such planets.

"More importantly, we've been following my grandson since his name was put on the hit list. He has been documented taking part in the Henali preliminary tournament. There's no way he could have orchestrated the attacks that we've been suffering from."

As if to prove his point, he pulled up a video of Lex, standing in front of a large crowd, accepting his awards. He was smiling and laughing at the crowd as he accepted what was no doubt an extremely valuable award - though the actual awards remained hidden within spatial rings so no one knew what he got.

"Based on our analysis he's not been in contact with the Henali or any such forces, so even if he wanted to, it's highly unlikely he could orchestrate something like this. If anyone from my family had to be blamed, I'd think it would be my son and his wife. I've always sensed a hint of danger from them, even when my son gave up all his cultivation."

The mood in the room became dim. Damien's son was another person they had their eyes on as a recruit, but his personality was too free willed. They could not determine if he would join them or not. It was a shame, he would have been a good recruit.

"Hey, haven't I seen that guy on Lover's Island?" someone in the room suddenly said, pointing at Lex. "Yeah, that's the guy with the harem. I even voted to have him killed. Damien, your grandkid is certainly very talented at pissing people off. Not only did he build a harem, he even publically gave out his address and invited all angels to come to him. My god, if we can get someone like that in our marketing and propaganda department, our numbers will shoot through the roof!"

This time, it was the ape that groaned. They were being invaded. The number clearly stated it, so why couldn't anyone else see that? It was like their house was on fire, and these guys were content to use the flames to make themselves tea.