The Innkeeper

"Do you remember Matilda? She was with us in our self-defense class at the start?" Larry asked, as he cut into his waffles.

"Yeah, I remember."

"It all started with her, sometime ago. You remember around the time some thugs came to your apartment and roughed things up? Around the same time, some people came to harass Matilda and me as well. But with Matilda… things went much, much farther. A lot of people ended up dead, and Bluebird got involved."

Larry paused for a moment as he chewed his food. It seemed to Lex that he was considering his next words carefully.

"I don't know if you caught on since you visited my apartment, but I'm really good with computers. Like, really, REALLY good. I uh… let's say I fudged with the authority level on my Bluebird token, logged onto their network and found out everything that happened with her. I don't know if I got lucky, or if the agents at Bluebird just overlooked things, but I quickly found Matilda's trail. She was hiding out in a 24 hour gym, and seemed badly hurt. I don't know why, but… I couldn't just leave her like that. I deleted her trail and then went and found her."

At this point, Larry let out a sigh.

"I must say, she is an extremely formidable woman. Did you know she's already in the Qi training realm? In just a little more than a month! The Body tempering realm is not necessarily one that takes too long, but, damn!

"Anyway, after I convinced her that I wasn't an enemy, I secretly brought her back to my apartment and helped her heal. We spent some time together after that… that's when I learnt a secret that's pretty mind-blowing.

"You know the war that suddenly broke out? The one that overtook the world? I've spent a few days here at the Inn, and learnt a lot of things I didn't know before. You remember you once asked me, if the ICPA's keep normal cultivators in line, who keeps them in line? Well, apparently, Earth was being ruled by five families - the Morrisons being one of them. The ICPAs used to answer to them. To be more specific, they answered to the five family heads.

"But for a while now, they've secretly been planning to revolt against the family heads. They've been gathering allies, and getting rid of those who were too loyal to the family heads. Apparently, Matilda's older brother, the one who died and passed on his cultivation technique to her, was one of the people that had been 'silenced' for his loyalty. Matilda felt like she was being hunted because her hunters were afraid that her brother had given her too much information, which indeed, he had."

Larry paused for a moment, and he stared at his hands with desperate eyes.

"But even if she knew the truth, who could she tell? There was no way for her to get in contact with anyone that mattered, so all she focused on was getting stronger and getting revenge. I was incredibly moved by her story, and promised to help her hide her tracks.

"But as much as I wanted to help her, her story also got me thinking about what happened to my own family… About how, we went from being one of the richest, most powerful families, to being nearly wiped out, framed, and then exiled. Could my family have also been… one of the families that was 'silenced' for being too loyal? I mean, if they had been planning this revolution for years, they had to have their agents in all the right places. How could they leave a family that ran one of the banks of the cultivation world out of their plans? And if, for whatever reason, my family chose not to cooperate, they could have wiped out anyone who knew the truth and banished the nonconsequential ones. Once I got the idea in my head… I couldn't let go of it.

"I asked Matilda if she knew anything about this, but her brother never mentioned my family. That's when I started digging. That's when I started hacking into different companies' databases and looking for some answers. I thought I was hiding my trail well, but the day those guys came for me, I knew I must have messed up.

"They wanted me to follow them. They weren't really there to kill me, at least not yet. But I resisted, and a fight broke out. I got shot too many times… if I didn't have the key you gave me, I probably would have died."

For a moment, Lex took in everything that Larry had told him. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, a part of him really wondered if the world war really happened because of him - because he'd held the Midnight games and managed to get all the family heads to leave Earth. But if things really were the way Larry told him, they had been planning for this for a long time, and if they hadn't discovered a relatively easy way to handle the family heads, when the war ultimately broke out, it may have been much, much worse!

Finally, Lex said, "I remember you once telling me that you've met Alexander Morrison before when you were kids. Is that true?"

"Of course, back then, my family was connected to all the big shots."

"Well, if you've been here a while, you probably know about the Midnight Games. Then you should also know about the fact that Alexander is also here, with his family. Maybe you could go to him and let him know about your suspicions. If your family really was killed for being loyal, then chances are, a lot of their other supporters were secretly silenced. Even if they don't want to help you, and even if they've lost a lot of influence on Earth, to protect themselves in the future, there's no way they won't investigate this. Or, even if they won't investigate, maybe they'll help you and Matilda out."

"Heh, what am I supposed to say? Hey Alexander, remember me? I'm a nobody right now, but when I was a kid our families used to work together? They have enough problems of their own to handle. They don't have time to help anyone else, not to mention I don't have anything worth them spending time on, anyway."

"Hmm, maybe that's true. But you're already being hunted, so asking for help can't make things worse. I can't stay here for too long. I have a few things I need to take care of, but I'll be back sometime tonight. I'll talk to you then, maybe we can figure something else out."

"Yeah, sure," replied Larry, and watched as Lex disappeared. After a few moments of frowning, his wide smile returned to his face, and he started gulping down his breakfast while enjoying the beautiful scenery known as women in uniform.

Lex left the meeting abruptly, not only because he got the information he wanted, but because he got two very significant notifications from the system that required his attention.

Quest Complete: The World War has ended. Calculating hosts performance:

Reward upgraded for over 1000 refugees

Reward rank: C-

Reward: Detective's Magnifying glass

Lex was pleasantly surprised that the world war had already ended, but at the same time relieved. He had no love for the council or their shady business, but if the war was over, that hopefully meant the situation had stabilized and that all fighting had ended. He looked at his next notification.

New notification: Guest with level 1 prestige is unable to pay for services. Please cater to the guest urgently. Focus on the notification for further details on payment blockage.

When Lex focused on the notification he was greatly amused, and despite the awkward situation of a guest being unable to pay, looked forward to their reaction when he told them.

Quickly dining his Host Attire, Lex teleported directly in front of the Meditation room where a now, only slightly abnormally large man was standing.

"Marlo," the Innkeeper said in a warm, pleasant voice, "we meet again. I hope you have been well."

"Much better now," he said, wearing his signature mad grin. "It took me years to build up all that muscle previously, but with the help of spirit food, I expect I'll be able to return to my former glory quickly."

"I wish you the very best on your journey. But I foresee a small obstacle on your journey, which is why I'm here to inform you of it."

"Oh? I'm all ears."

"It appears that… your bank accounts have been frozen and your assets have been seized, which is why the Midnight Inn is unable to process your payment to use the Meditation room. You've already paid in advance for your stay, as well as your son's treatment, so that should not be an issue, but if you wish to buy spirit food or use the Meditation room, this may be an issue you want to address."

Marlo stood there frozen, his grin still stuck on his face, mostly because he was too shocked to even react! He couldn't… pay? When was the last time he, Hanson Marlo Bravi IV, was unable to pay for something? He honestly couldn't remember.

Then, his eyes went red with fury he was completely unable to hold in any longer, and he disappeared from the Innkeepers sight, promptly returning to Earth.

Lex chuckled, secretly hoping it was people from the council who froze his accounts. Whoever it was, they were about to receive Marlo's special care.