The Innkeeper

Lex wanted to sell merchandise, but flashing banners and passing out flyers were too tacky. He also didn't want to be like a low budget tech company and sell T-shirts. No, whatever he sold had to have class, first and foremost. It also had to be exclusive.

He opened his panel and quickly designed the item he had in mind. Unlike the Midnight Games commemorative coin, which was made from a special material, the next item he designed was not special in its material. Instead, its look and feel were what Lex focused on as well as, oddly enough, its smell.

What Lex was designing was a suit. It was the same suit that all his guards wore and, more importantly, the one Little Blue wore. As much as Lex wanted to give the suit special protective abilities, that would become too expensive for him at the moment. He settled for the suit's ability to look flattering regardless of who wore it, feel great to wear and always smell amazing. It also came with a gold lapel pin with the initials MI that one could wear or take off. The price for the suit was 9000 MP! It was the single most expensive item he was selling at the moment, priced far more than even the Tier 4 zombie core that he once sold.

The suit did not have a functional purpose like the core, but Lex had no doubt that it would definitely sell. When people achieved a certain level of success, they spent more on luxury than other things. Lex made a quick mental note to hire a really good tailor. The one drawback to this was it was becoming relatively apparent that the Inn put a lot of emphasis on attire that originated on Earth. But Lex did not care. He was the Innkeeper. Who did he need to explain himself to?

With that done, and an embarrassing 40,000 MP spent on preparing 100 of those suits, Lex was ready to proceed. Quickly making an appearance as Leo, he went towards the Guild room and added a commission for items that could nurture low level souls. This was necessary, as Mary let him know that, unlike his previous two procedures, there was nothing he could do to accelerate the stabilization process himself. The only option he had was to use medicine or natural treasures that nurtured the soul, both of which were rare and expensive. He could only hope someone would quickly respond to his commission.

Following that, he changed back to the Innkeeper and appeared in the coliseum, where hundreds of smaller, individual stages were set up on the main stage. When the event began, guests would be able to walk between the smaller stages and view them from up close or stay seated and watch projections of them. For those who were in their rooms or sitting elsewhere, they would be able to summon individual projections to view the several stages. They would be able to flick through the different stages like channels on a TV in the pre-streaming era.

The event management panel would record live the genuine response from each audience member to each stage that they saw. For those whose presentation comprised a play or performance, the Inn would automatically record it and play it back for anyone who wanted to view it. This would avoid having them constantly perform.

Something interesting Lex noticed was that many people from Earth who were setting up their stages actually did not know where they were, or the significance of what they were doing. They had just been given massive financial incentives by their superiors and thought they were performing at a special event. Lex wondered what they thought about arriving here by the use of the key, but it seemed some sort of explanation must have been given to them prior, as they just casually accepted it.

Just as the center stage was filling up, so were the seats. Most of the viewers were human, even those were mostly from Earth. A few of the guests were from Vegus Minima, and even those were mostly soldiers. The only civilians from Vegus Minima seemed to be a small group brought by Chen and Lily. The number of Beasts was in double digits. It seemed that such an event did not really appeal to Beasts. For future reference, he would have to remember that.

What did make him happy was that many of his guests were enjoying a Saturn cake, and the smell of it was enticing the other guests nearby. The environment was jolly and festive, and all the guests were behaving. That's what he liked to see.

At 12 pm Lex made an Inn wide announcement that the opening ceremony will begin in one hour, prompting all the bigwigs to show up. The representatives of the five families sat together, while Ragnar and his entourage sat in another corner. Worth noticing was that only two Devils remained, probably the ones who would be managing the stalls, and the rest had disappeared somewhere. Of the Beasts, Golden Hair and Greens Haven sat side by side.

As the time neared for the opening ceremony, Lex once again felt himself getting nervous. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths. Entering the state of 'flow' was not easy, and not something he could control. To be exact, he did not even know what that state was or why it drained him so much. Even Mary was unclear about it, though to be fair her knowledge was limited by the Inns authority level.

As much as he wanted to re-enter that state, he was unable to. So, when it was finally 1 pm, he appeared in the air in front of the massive crowd with some nervousness in his heart. He was unable to calm himself down, but he continuously brainwashed himself by saying that he was completely calm.

"Welcome," he said with a loud and forceful voice, hushing the various crowds around the Inn. "Welcome to the Midnight Games! Some of you may already know about them, and some of you may not, so I will simply say this. The Midnight Games are to promote friendship and camaraderie between different worlds, and to introduce you to new possibilities. By understanding and experiencing each other's cultures, you may develop bonds that you carry with you throughout your lives. I won't say much, long speeches are not really my style. I hereby announce that the Midnight Games now begin!"

He clapped his hands loudly as he concluded, and as if on cue, two streams of fireworks spread into the sky and exploded in a spectacular display of colors. His 'speech' was exactly one minute long and as soon as it ended, various things started happening at once.

Invisible walls were constructed around the individual stages, so that the performers would not be interrupted by any heckling - only positive sounds would be let through, such as clapping and applauds, and even those in moderate amounts so as to not disturb them. On the stages, the air itself seemed to become fresher. All the performers felt invigorated and felt as if they could go all day if they needed to.

From silence the Inn slowly went to the steady buzz that accompanied any festival.

In total, there were 3427 stages, of which 3000 came from Earth. Although Lex did not want to jump the gun, it was safe to say that Earth had a great advantage in this portion. Around 70 of the stages were from various Beasts, and the rest were all soldiers.

Lex himself was a little curious about the various displays, but first he had to ensure that everything was progressing smoothly.

At opposite ends of the main stage were two recruitment stalls, one for the empire and one for the Devils. What they hoped to achieve was beyond Lex but a part of him had really been concerned about facilitating leading Devils back to Earth. Fortunately, he overheard Brandon saying that Earth was under some kind of protection and it would be impossible for anyone to find the location of Earth, even if someone was tricked into taking back a transmitter or locator of some sort. Nibiru most likely did not have such protection but the sloth did not seem to be worried.

After spending a dozen minutes to see if any problems arose, Lex finally breathed a sigh of relief when nothing happened. Finally he turned his attention to the various stages and started admiring them. Internally he was extremely nervous, hoping that the performances were a success. It was not only the incentive of the quest that motivated Lex - he did not want the Inns first major event to end up in failure.

He walked to the first stage and noticed acrobats swinging around using tight ropes. At first he thought this was circus, until he noticed the performers were all at Qi training realm. In that case, there had to be more to it, right?