THE INNKEEPER

“You shouldn’t speak like that about Lex,” said Ash, the former wedding planner who had planned Pvarti’s wedding, and had since become a high level planner within the Inn.

“What if he really does have clones spread around the universe? Won’t you be giving away his secret?”

Under the firm belief Z had that Lex was secretly a Dao Lord, or at the very least a Demi-Dao Lord, but was just hiding it for whatever reason, slowly, the other workers had begun to believe it too.

Or, to be more accurate, they began to doubt that Lex was truly at the level he said he was – not that it mattered. The others didn’t care so much because they had things of their own to do, but as Lex never let Z resign from his post as supervisor over all the Gamer’s Dens which had been opened across the Inn, he was still Z’s boss.

As such, Z spent more time interacting with him than anyone else, which is why he was most convinced that his theory was correct.

“Ah, Ash, my dear, beloved older sister. You never have time to read anything other than proposals and reports. You should take some time to read some of the comics I send you,” Z said, summoning some examples.

One of them depicted a handsome, mysterious man, whose face was hidden, standing in front of the Midnight manor. The title of the comic was: The Midnight Inn and the Thousand Innkeepers.

A quick glance through the novel revealed that the premise of this novel was that every worker within the Inn was secretly a clone of the Innkeeper, who ran the Inn in literally every conceivable way.

Then he pulled out another one. This time there was an easily identifiable Gerard, with one hand on the wheel of a golf cart, and the other holding a plasma shotgun right in the centre, with countless zombie corpses in the background. The title: The Butler’s Shotgun wedding, the Ceremony from Hell!

Ash glanced through the novel, and learned that the premise was that the entire Midnight Inn was a front to fool the whole universe so that the young master of a secretly powerful clan can date his girlfriend, while posing as a butler.

Z then proceeded to take out more comics, all of them based on the Midnight Inn, each with increasingly unbelievable and obscure storylines.

There was even a comic about Ash being the reincarnation of a famous bollywood actress, who happened to have the same in her previous life. How absurd. After all, Ash was just her nickname, for her true name was Aishwarya-Rai.

“Okay fine, I see your point. There are already countless rumors out there already, each one of them bizarre.”

Z nodded, though he left something unsaid. As bizarre as the rumors were, the truth was even crazier.

For example, Gerard really was dating a princess from a Hell, just as his comic suggested, but instead of Hell being against their union, it was thoroughly supporting it. Z was receiving the inheritance of one of the first human Kings, Charles Best, the doctor, had some secret connection to the Golden Dragon King from the Origin realm, John, the forgotten owner of the Battle Ax, had regained his cultivation and was on his way to becoming a secret badass.

Harry was becoming stronger while reviving a forgotten form of cultivation called Glamor Sorcery, Roland was running a secret intelligence network across the entire Origin realm, and two of Lex’s sisters were on their way to becoming Dao Lords, or close enough, from what he understood.

That only included the things Z knew of. How many other workers at the Inn had secret powers and backgrounds that he wasn’t aware of?

There was that guy whose name Z didn’t remember, whose very power was to be forgotten. Lord only knew what he was up to. There was Alfonso, who could summon food from his pocket, and would gain new powers randomly, completely unassociated with his cultivation level. Last Z remembered, he had the power to sniff out enlightenment, which did not make sense at all.

Luthor was doing something with hellfire, Sandra – the Innworker who had rejected Z’s one attempt to ask her out – was doing something with tribulation lightning, and there were just too many others doing their own things.

No matter how absurd the rumors people came up with, the reality of it all was somehow always more bizarre. Which is why he had no guilty conscience about spreading rumors about Lex. Whatever the truth about him was, Z was sure it was somehow more absurd than whatever he could come up with.

Z and Ash entered a restaurant, and from the corner of his eye Z saw a guest that he knew. Z waved to Wu Kong, who seemed to be sitting alone at a dinner table, looking lost.

When Wu Kong didn’t respond, feeling concerned, Z stepped towards him.

“Hello Mr. Wu. Are you well?” Z asked politely. “Is there something I can do for you?”

Wu Kong turned to look at Z with hollow eyes, seeming like his soul had left his body.

“I got dumped, Z. I… I got dumped! How am I going to show my face to the guys at the Fishing Well? They’re all waiting for me to come back and tell them how it went. And don’t even get me started on how excited everyone at the book club was…”

Z cleared his throat and waved to Ash, letting her know that he needed to attend to the guest.

“May I take a seat?” Z asked, and pulled up a chair.

Over the past few weeks, Z and the others had spent a lot of time with Mr. Wu, who had a boisterous personality. Paired with the fact that he was always with Brandon and Audrey, it was hard to not notice and get to know him.

Moreover, Mr. Wu had a friendly personality, and quickly befriended all the Inn workers he came across. Among the regular guests of the Inn, he was one of the more well known ones.

“Do you… do you wish to talk about it?” Z asked.

Listlessly, Wu Kong looked at Z.

“She said I was too good looking, and that I would become her obsession and block her cultivation path if she spent more time with me. And so she left… she left me with the bill and departed.”

Z looked awkwardly at the monkey, unsure of how to console him. At a loss for what to do, Z did what he had been doing all his life. He resorted to the wisdom of anime. It seemed to overcome depression, what was needed was music that started out sad then slowly transitioned into something cheerful. He needed to share stories, and he needed to get absolutely hammered.

“I too liked a girl once,” Z said awkwardly. “She turned me down because she didn’t think we were compatible. Then, another girl showed interest in me, and just as I was warming up to the idea of asking her out, she fell into a deep slumber. As it turns out, it’s a kind of evolution or something. She’ll wake up in a few billion years.”

“That’s tough,” Wu Kong said, as he looked in a certain direction. Z didn’t realize it, but that seemed to be the very direction Moon was sleeping.

“But life goes on,” Z said with a shrug. “When you don’t know what to do, it’s best to just gulp down highly nutritious, energy dense cultivation elixirs that’ll put you into a meditative state for a few hours.”

“Is that what you think getting hammered means?” Wu Kong asked, incredulously. Z didn’t seem to notice that his comment about getting hammered had been in his thoughts, and that he hadn’t said it out loud.

“Of course. Losing your mind and shutting down your senses while getting lost in cultivation. I know it doesn’t perfectly align with what getting hammered sounds like, but that’s just how language evolves. Everything doesn’t have to make sense.”

Wu Kong shook his head, suddenly feeling a little better.

“Well, if that’s the case, little one, let’s get hammered. Here, I stole this cultivation elixir from a Celestial realm dragon who was brewing it for herself. It might be a little strong for you, so we’ll have to dilute it. Tonight, the drinks are on me!”

Wu Kong suddenly pulled out a vial that looked suspiciously like a potion container, and poured a drop in Z’s glass. At the same time, he asked the waiter to pass a drop of his drink to everyone in the restaurant.

Z activated one of his techniques, starting to play background music as everyone in the restaurant tasted the drink the mischievous monkey had shared. Almost instantly, they all went into a daze.

The drink contained too much vitality, flooding their body and mind, causing their cultivation to suddenly improve within their realms.

Ash, who had been watching everything from a corner, merely shook her head and went about her business. The Midnight Games were coming to a close, and the finale was going to be a big one.

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