The Innkeeper
chapter-1340

"So what you're saying is… you're dissatisfied with the Midnight Inn because you weren't able to find a good partner for your grandson here?" Ripley asked, making sure he understood the answer correctly.

"What is so difficult to understand about that?" Audrey questioned. "This is the Midnight Inn. They have guests from all over. Many of them are supposed to be very powerful. No doubt, many of them come from prestigious backgrounds. So how come none of them could catch my grandsons eye? He is still running around with those buffoons, trying to grow stronger or something. I blame the way my son raised him. Too much of a work ethic, and not enough appreciation for life."

Considering Alexander's entire life had been one, long training montage, was it any wonder that he continued to train to this day?

Lex looked behind Audrey at the sight of Brandon trying to convince Wu Kong to accept a blind date, whereas Wu Kong was adamant that he would no longer see one of Brandon's descendants as a date.

Lex did not question the sight. He did not think. He had shut down his thoughts because the situation was just too damn dangerous.

"Yes… I think I understand. That, I think, will conclude our survey for now," Ripley said as he wiped his forehead with a handkerchief Lex had given him.

"Here are your tokens for taking the survey," Lex said as he handed them all physical tokens that looked like poker chips, each one containing 1,000,000 MP.

"Speaking of MP," Brandon suddenly said, looking away from Wu Kong. "I think there is something wrong with your service. Old Wu here has been complaining about being unable to get any MP, which is really odd because I only need to think about the payment for it to process."

Lex and Ripley both looked towards 'Old Wu' with a hint of confusion, only to see him nod. "For certain reasons, I cannot get MP through the usual means," he confirmed.

"My apologies. Please, accept this as a token of our regret," said Lex, and handed Wu Kong another token, this one containing 1 trillion MP. This one wasn't limited to gambling, and could be used anywhere.

Wu Kong simply nodded dismissively, and Brandon and Audrey didn't pay special attention to them either as the trio walked away. Even from a distance, Lex could hear Brandon convincing Wu Kong to see his grandniece twice removed, until he eventually relented with a sigh.

For a few minutes, both of them just stood there, not moving, till Ripley finally turned towards Lex.

"I… I hope this is not prying, and if it is you do not need to answer but… but did you know you had such a guest at the Inn?"

Lex shook his head, as he slowly allowed his thoughts to return, not that it would be any protection from a Dao Lord.

"If you don't mind, I'll be taking a small break before we continue the survey," Ripley said, and then quickly vanished from the Inn, leaving Lex all alone.

"Lex, do you trust me?" Mary asked, appearing in front of him, looking in the direction of the departing Dao Lord.

"Why do you ask?" Lex asked.

"If you trust me then… then go wipe your memory of the name you just heard in the Chamber of Secrets. That is not a name that is safe to even know."

Lex looked at Mary for a while, but did not question her. Even without thinking it, he had picked up on the subtle hint Mary had dropped. He dared not ask her why he should just remove the name, and not his memory of the entire exchange. Things related to Dao Lords were just too tricky.

"Follow me for a moment," Lex said, and then invited Mary into the chamber itself.

Since the system could not detect the presence or movements of Wu Kong whatsoever, Lex did not know that after he disappeared, Wu Kong looked back towards Lex. But he wasn't looking at where Lex had stood. Instead, he was looking in the air in front of where he had stood… in the place where Mary had appeared.

"Where have I seen you before?" he mused for a moment, then recalled an old movie about superheroes.

On the other side of the universe, in the headquarters of the Versalis Bank, Ripley reappeared for the second time in a short while, though this time he used an even more urgent alarm than previously.

Before he knew it, he once again found himself in front of the bank's director.

"What happened?" the director asked.

"I dare not utter the words," Ripley said. "Please view my memories."

The director nodded, and placed a hand over Ripley's head, looking into his memories. Except, the memory didn't play out as it actually happened. Instead of Wu Kong flipping up and introducing himself, he looked up at the director through the memory with a look of irritation.

The director immediately ceased the recording, and leaned back into his chair, letting out a deep, exhausted sigh.

"It seems the reason the Innkeeper asked you to do an audit… was exactly so that you could run into… him," the director said with a weary voice.

Ripley stood still, awaiting new orders.

After a few minutes of silence, which for beings at their level may as well be a few years, the director finally spoke.

"You need to change the evaluation criteria of the Inn. Don't audit it as a place for mortals to rest. Instead, evaluate it as a secret retreat for Dao level entities who want to immerse themselves with those at a lower level. It should have been an easy thing to guess right from the start considering that all auras are completely suppressed there."

Ripley nodded, and quickly returned to the Origin realm, while the director was left alone in his office once again. After a few more moments, which seemed to exhaust him further, the director made a call he really didn't want to.

"Talk to the board members and put a new topic on the agenda for the next meeting. After the next giga-annum fiscal report, we're going to prepare for currency exchange with the Midnight Inn internal currency. No, I don't know what the exchange rate is going to be. Have someone look it up. And find out how we can open a branch at the Inn."

The director wanted to hang up the call right after that, but he knew he couldn't. The problem was, he couldn't provide the answers to the questions he was asked either.

Back at the Midnight Inn, Lex sat opposite Mary in the Chamber of Secrets. For a long time, they sat in silence, until finally Lex spoke.

"What the hell are we going to do about a… a… well, you know what inside the Inn?" he exclaimed, genuinely troubled. He could bluff a lot of things, but he was certain that if a Dao Lord spent any excess amount of time within the Midnight Inn, they'd see through him sooner or later. More importantly, how many people were going to use the 'Innkeeper would have stopped me if he wanted to' excuse? Had no one considered that the Innkeeper didn't even know? Of course not.

"Lex, I genuinely think the best course of action for you is to pretend like there is nothing wrong, and that he is just another guest at the Inn."

"Huh?" Lex said, not expecting that response.

"Look, the less you know the better. All you need to know is that he has a certain reputation. As long as you don't bother him, he won't bother you. Probably."

That philosophy was literally akin to an ostrich hiding its head in the sand, hoping no predator would attack it. Unfortunately, in this scenario, Lex was not even an ostrich. More like a newly hatched, barely able to walk bird.

If there was ever a time he would be putting his trust into Mary, it would be now if he really followed her advice. The thing was… he had no alternative.

"Fine. What's the worst that could happen? Don't I face death in every single serious fight anyway? How is this any different?" Lex asked, psyching himself up as he deleted that guest's name, and returned to the Inn to find Ripley sitting in a lawn chair, drinking from a coconut.

"You ready to get back to business? I must say, this is the most exciting survey I've ever done."

"That's one way of putting it," Lex murmured, as he also grabbed a drink. "Yeah I guess I'm ready to continue."

He was slightly afraid of what the next guest they surveyed might turn out to be. Fortunately, the next few guests were relatively normal. Things were finally heading in the right direction. Until they weren't.

A fully armored battalion of Marzu suddenly appeared in the city square, right in front of Lex, and from the angry glare they were giving everyone, Lex did not think they were here to go fishing in the wishing well.