The Innkeeper-Novel

Six days after Lex returned to his Recovery pod, he finally woke up again. This time his condition was much better, and he even felt like he could manage to ignore the hallucinations without any assistance. Moreover, his body was overflowing with strength, yet at the same time, he felt completely normal. It was an unusual feeling, but he did not have the time to delve into these matters. He had to make the most of his time before he fell asleep again.

It was also because of his rush that he missed the formation of the 'Innkeeper fan club' that was holding its first ever meeting, having been formed after the small news article and comic strip that Velma launched on the Midnight Newsletter as well as the Henali portal.

He teleported to his office, once again finding Luthor standing there, coffee in hand. Yet this time, he was also holding three folders. Lex raised an eyebrow out of curiosity, but chugged his coffee before asking what they were about.

"Do you have something that requires my attention?" Lex asked, turning towards Luthor. It was only natural that with time, Luthor would bring various matters to Lex's attention. After all, as Lex's assistant, his job did not end with sending in people to Lex's office for meetings.

Though Lex was feeling much better, and could almost ignore the hallucinations, the fact of the matter was that the effects they were having on him were much deeper than just putting him in a coma. They messed with his emotions, so that even now, Lex was more or less in his neutral and cold state.

Luthor, having only glimpsed at the usual warm and friendly Innkeeper, felt the Innkeepers current attitude was a reflection of everyone's poor performance.

"There are a couple of proposals I had which I wanted to bring to show you. After spending some time at the Inn, and talking to a lot of the workers, I believe that we, the workers, are not sufficiently motivated or driven to give our best performance. After a detailed investigation into how all the workers actually perform, I came up with a list of possible solutions to increase motivation and drive up work efficiency. I also mentioned a special training program which can focus on a few workers who have proven their worth to aid in increasing their cultivation, so that they can be of greater use to the Inn."

With his interest piqued, Lex reached out and grabbed the first folder and read through the list. Despite how minimal Luthor actually made it sound, he had been incredibly thorough in his report. Each proposed change was supported with an in depth explanation for where he saw the shortcoming, and how he suspected the change could increase efficiency. Even with Lex's increased cultivation, as well as heightened efficiency due to the Overdrive state, it took him nearly an entire minute to read through it.

What impressed him most was that Luthor hadn't taken it upon himself to make judgements, but had actually talked to a lot of the workers to determine whether these mentioned improvements would actually bring about positive change in their relevant departments.

A brief example of the kinds of proposed changes would be performance based raises and promotions, result based perks, such as access to some of the Inn's services or extra holidays, an annual review of the best workers in each department, specific events or holidays focused towards the workers etc.

Furthermore, it suggested sending the workers who performed the best to a neutral cultivation institution called Ventura to aid them in raising their cultivation.

Lex had to say, if Luthor ever got a corporate job back on Earth, he'd be possibly one of the most beloved employees ever. In his cold and calculating state, Lex almost immediately approved the changes. But no matter how cold or emotionless he became, it did not erase his memories. One of the strongest feelings Lex had back when he learned that his workers were actual living people instead of autonomous robots, was that he did not want to treat them like slaves or mindless workers. Moreover, no matter how much he could possibly improve efficiency by doing these things, he could never overlook the loyalty his workers had shown him.

So, while Luthor presented a lot of good ideas, Lex could not implement them as if. Before he made a comment, though, he summoned two other workers to his room - Gerard and Velma. He had noticed that those two had contributed the most in this proposal and so wanted to include them in this talk.

Naturally, due to the limited time that Lex had, he did not wait for them to come to him themselves, but informed them to finish whatever they were doing, and then teleported them over directly.

The moment that the others entered his office, a change took place and a conference table appeared with 4 chairs. It seemed like they were about to hold the first ever meeting to discuss improvements at the Inn.

"This is a good proposal," Lex began, "and I like the initiative of locating areas that need improvements and suggesting them on your own. But while these are good ideas, they need some alterations before we can implement them.

"While getting the workers to improve efficiency is good and all, I do not want the whole purpose of their existence to become working and serving. As such, while we will create avenues for those who wish it to improve, as well as take on more responsibility, there's not going to be discrimination for those who are satisfied with their place. All added perks and services will not be limited to certain people only. After all, all the workers at the Midnight Inn are a family, and as a family, we do not discriminate, but look out for one another."

There was an imperceptible pause when Lex reached this point as thoughts of his family keeping secrets from him flashed in his mind, but Lex moved past it. Luthor had presented some good ideas here, and Lex wanted to start on them immediately - after they went through some changes, of course.

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