The Innkeeper
chapter-1332

When Lex first encountered the system he had been nothing more than a depressed, ill programmer with a bit of money on his hands, and a tumor affecting his thoughts. Sure, his family was secretly a big shot and he had inscriptions on him and maybe if he was on the verge of death his family might have found a way to save him or something.

That didn't matter. Mentally, he was a depressed man in his twenties with no direction and no desire. It literally took the fear of death to elicit some emotion from him, not to mention the novelty of the system itself.

Now, countless years later, he was so much more. He was Lex Williams, since for now he had decided not to change his name. But he was also someone who regularly made the impossible happen. In fact, he not only made it happen, his brain now worked in a way where he just thought of ways to make impossible things happen.

Fuse a lotus with a realm. Bond his sister to a Sovereign. Challenge a Dao Lord head on and live to tell the tale. Well, Demi-Dao Lord but effectively there was no difference since each of them could kill him with a mere thought. He was the Invincible Tyrant, the Innkeeper, the Emporium's best customer, someone who regularly challenged Deities and so much more. In fact, even Lex himself did not know how much more there was to himself.

Once, he had been hidden from Destiny because of the system, and other minor means. Now, he was hidden from view of everything in the entire universe through the will of the great Mother Nuwa herself - though no one in the universe knew that at all.

Whether it was fate, whether it was Destiny, or something far more abstract, Lex also remained unaware that as he talked about the system breaking rules, he was treading in dangerous waters. But whether it was because he was hidden from view by Nuwa, or other reasons entirely, he did not receive the very same warning every other system user did when they tried to mess with the rules of the system.

Lex once questioned why knowledge of systems wasn't common, only to be answered that anyone who tried to make the knowledge widespread was silenced, whether they were a mortal, or much more powerful.

Only system users, or a very few, hidden organizations actually knew about systems. Simultaneously, whether it was a mortal, or someone much more powerful, many had thought of manipulating the near limitless power of the systems for their own purposes, completely unrelated to the systems themselves.

All of them - at least the ones still alive - thought back to their folly and recalled the single warning notification they received. The thought itself sent shivers down their spines, so they never tried again.

The system waited for Lex to get such a notification as well, but it never happened. Or perhaps, there was one, very simple reason why he did not receive a notification. His intention was not to leverage the limitless power of the system for his own purposes. Instead, it was to actually improve the functionality of the system so that the very Inn that the system was named after could perform better.

Since he was breaking the rules - or contemplating breaking system rules - to actually improve the Inn and nothing else, perhaps whoever or whatever sent the very notification that gave everyone chills judged that it was alright. Or, once again, it could just be that Lex was hidden from view, even from that being or entity, whatever it was.

But the timing of certain events just managed to line up perfectly - or perhaps imperfectly. While Lex was beginning his negotiations with his system just so that he could avoid any unnecessary trouble that might accidentally pop up, within the Origin realm there was a notorious, sentient planet.

Outsiders had no real knowledge of what happened on the planet itself, only that the planet traveled through space, looking for any and all living things, absorbing it into itself. The planet was already as such when the Henali took over the realm, and had attained a level of power that would be troublesome to face in a fight, so instead they isolated the entire galaxy that the planet was within, making it so that the planet could not leave.

Others could come in and out, and in fact the green haired devil, who was acting as the stand in director during the whole Lovers Island event Lex was a part of, was the only known living person to have encountered the planet and come out alive. In fact, the devil acted as the planet's lawyer to a degree.

Across the Origin realm, the devil and the planet accepted all death row prisoners, convicts, ritual sacrifices etc. though the planet scarcely gave anything in return. It was merely a place where those who were unwanted could be dumped.

That very same planet, now with a radius of 1.5 billion miles (2.4 billion kilometers) or roughly 278,229 USAs, was leisurely floating through its galaxy prison, heading towards the next planet with life on it, when it sensed an anomaly in the space around it.

In the general void of space, where there was nothing around for many lightyears, a tiny, golden door suddenly appeared. A flicker of curiosity went through the planet's mind, and it suddenly started heading towards the golden door. For some reason, it was giving it a very nice feeling.

Elsewhere, in the universe, there was a meeting going on between several entities. They were not sitting together in one room. In fact, they were not even in the same realm, and all of them were doing other things as well. That did not mean they weren't also participating in the meeting.

Through the universal equivalent of a Zoom meeting, the entities were discussing their general plans for universal domination, when one of the entities brought up something one of the lower departments had sent them.

"Apparently, the Destiny of Humanity has taken a shift. They're suddenly on an upwards trajectory," said one entity.

"Humanity does not even have a single Dao Lord. Why are we discussing it?" asked another.

"That it does not was artificially done. Would it not be in our interest to see that it stays that way?"

"Fine. Have a Dao Lord go ahead and interfere with humanity. Keep them down, and if they have any Children of Destiny then either have them change their race, or crush them."

"In other news, an Arbiter is being selected to handle the case between the Celestials and Versalis Bank."

"Delay that as long as possible. Let the conflict carry on for at least another 100 million years."

"The tides are turning in the battle for the Asoor realm. Over 300 Dao Beasts have decided to heed the call for aid of the Chimera Lords."

"It's a shame, but don't interfere in that. The Beasts can be tricky to deal with. What's the progress with the Revenant Tide?"

"3 million maturing realms have fallen to it, though their speed is finally slowing down. There are reports that the Henali have taken action to prevent the Tide from nearing their territory."

"Send them aid, but don't commit our own forces. If the Henali want to take the brunt of it, who are we to interfere?"

"There's also been rumors of movement from the Primal realm."

"Don't be ridiculous. That's impossible. Address more credible concerns."

"Well, the Devils and Angels have started their Nephilim project once more."

That final statement was met with a moment of silence, but only a moment.

"Change of priorities. Give the Angels the same treatment as Humans and Fairies. Kill their Dao Lords and quash this project before it can get results."

"Understood. Estimated time of completion, 7 billion years."

"Shit, why is it so much? You know what, never mind. I don't care. Bring it down to 1 billion even if we have to be obvious about it. I will allocate 500 Dao Lords to you. Just get it done."

"In brighter news, the leader of the Trenis Empire has started to court Death again."

"That is good news."

The meeting went on, each and every sentence casually determining the direction of the universe for billions, if not trillions of years to come.

Simultaneously, within the Origin realm, inside the Trial of Eternity, a number of Children of Destiny lay around a campfire, singing to themselves, playing music and generally just snacking and enjoying themselves. Until, that is, Rafael suddenly opened his eyes.

"The instability is beginning to fade. Let's begin the mission as soon as possible. If everything goes according to plan, then within the next decade we can begin attempting to become immortals."

Alexander, the only one in the group who had spent the entire time cultivating and studying, finally opened his eyes upon hearing the news. It was about time.