The Innkeeper

In the vast universe, an inestimable number of events were taking place at any given moment. Separated by vast amounts of space, and sometimes even realms, any number of seemingly ordinary and completely unrelated events sometimes brought about strange and seemingly impossible results.

A number of people, some oracles, some mystics, some sorcerers, some cultivators, some who could pry the secrets of the foundations of the universe, and some who just happened to have unusual dreams, occasionally could see glimpses of the results before they happened, without understanding the process or cause. These people often claimed these visions as prophecies, or, often, an undeniable destiny.

The truth of destiny was a secret hidden within the machinations of the universe, if there even was a truth to be found. The only thing that could be determined, however, is that in the entire universe, there were very few places cut off from the influence of destiny.

This did not mean that the existence of these places would change the destiny of the universe, for even if key people were hiding in these places, the destiny of the universe would remain unchanged. To the universe, there were no real 'key' people to influence events. If one person or being was unavailable, another could take its place to perform a separate action to bring about the same result.

A very simple example of this was a hungry man at home. If he went into the kitchen but found he had no groceries, instead of cooking himself, he could order food to be delivered to his home. Whether he cooked the food himself or someone else brought it to him, the end result of the man eating food remained unchanged.

But there was an important question that needed to be pondered. In these few places that were cut off from the destiny of the universe, would a new and unrelated destiny arise? If so, it needed to be wondered if destiny was something that was influenced by a person or entity, or was it just a natural state of the universe?

Perhaps destiny did not even exist in the first place, and was simply an abstract concept created by the minds of sentient beings to explain a series of unusual events or unusual results. This was a debate discussed by many philosophers, existentialists, scientists, cultivators, beings of unimaginable power, and simple mortals under the influence of hallucinogens.

The origin of the debate, throughout time, often stemmed from a single thought. A single coincidence could be attributed to entropy, for in the endless chaos of events taking place, two events happening at the same time and influencing each other to bring about unexpected results could still be acceptable.

An example of this was the fact that despite being at the Midnight Inn for a long time, Noman Butt, the man with the unusual power to determine truth, happened to recover from his wounded state just in time to encounter a plot targeting Larry Dershaw. The timing was phenomenal, but it could be attributed to coincidence.

But then, if a series of unrelated coincidences, brought about in unpredictable ways, happened at the same time, subtly influencing one another, most minds would be able to accept that there was no underlying entity secretly influencing things.

Back in the Crystal realm, Lex had entered the meditation room and had muted all system notifications so that he could focus on his study of arrays. He had made excellent progress lately, and now with the combined effect of his thinking cap and the meditation room, Lex felt he could finally solve his long-standing problem of not being able to use arrays quickly in battle.

As a result of this, he happened to miss Mary's attempt to attract his attention so that he could give his input on the deal Ragnar was requesting, leveraging a series of tasks with the minimum payment being 100 trillion MP.

The timing of Lex's retreat was completely unrelated to anything happening at the Inn, for there was nothing foreseeable that required his attention at the Inn. Moreover, it was still early in the day at the Crystal realm, so he had plenty of time to focus on his research before he expected any guests.

At the same time, Cwenhild, his supposed half-sister, who just obtained the qualifications to enter the core of the academy, disappeared. The five people she sponsored entered the core academy, discovering that no one knew where she was.

Near the border of the Hum nation, the crown prince stood in the center of a battlefield that had turned silent. Around him lay the corpses of Kraven, but he treated them like nothing. He was sober for the first time in years, and the look in his eyes was extremely complex.

In his hand, he was holding a plastic fork. It was from a cutlery set Amelia had gifted Lex, after she ate at his apartment once and realized he had no utensils at home.

Back in Babylon, rumors of Pvarti spending the night in the small town spread like wildfire. It caused all the townspeople to scurry and make preparations, for any rumor caused by the lord's family usually caused an influx of lesser nobles and various other wealthy people searching for some way to gain their favor.

The surge in work, the recent death of the captain and a number of prior debts and agreements with private investors caused the ship on which Big Ben worked to be seized. All those who happened to be on the ship at the time were hired or given other jobs, while the rest were left to sort out their own matters.

At the same time, the serial killer inhabiting Babylon struck again. But this time, having learnt from his previous mistake, he killed in a place with no witnesses. He killed his victim in his own home. Moreover, due to his research, he knew the victim lived alone, so it would be a long time before anyone actually discovered the murder.

This was not a bad idea. Killing people in their own homes provided him with a new kind of satisfaction. It just so happened that this victim was neighbors with the triplets who were applying for new jobs at the tavern. The triplets had a large family, so they were protected from being targeted by the killer based on the premise that he was avoiding any witnesses to his murders - for now.

While all this was happening at the Midnight Inn, a number of odd coincidences were taking place as well.

Larry caught up with Noman and tried to investigate his motives. Before the conversation could even begin properly, or rather, before Noman could no doubt flawlessly act his way out of the situation without arousing any suspicion whatsoever, someone recognized Larry and called out to him.

It was Marlo, followed by his wife Sophia, and their son Rafael. In this way, three people with unusual secrets, Larry, Noman and Rafael, came face to face for the first time.

In another corner of the Inn, Ragnar was looking at the Dragon sleeping atop the mountain. Unlike humans, who were born weak and had to grow in strength, dragons from the first moment of their existence were near the epitome of the entire universe. Were it not for their very individualistic nature, Dragons could establish a civilization at the Overlord level, or even beyond, if such a level existed.

Most civilizations, human or otherwise, were at the Ground level, stuck on the planet where they originated. Many had reached the Sky level, meaning they could escape their planets and spread their influence within their star system. Some eventually grew to the Star level, meaning they could spread their influence between star systems. Very few could grow to the Galactic level, such as the Jotun empire, and span several galaxies.

Above the Galactic level was the Overlord level, such as the mysterious Henali. Ragnar knew next to nothing about what kind of a level the Overlord level really was, or who or even what species the Henali were from. All he knew was that the Jotun empire relied heavily on them for protection, and abided by their rules.

In the case that the existence of the Jorlam was proved, it was Henali that the Jotun empire would rely on to resolve the issue, for only someone at their level were qualified to deal with such an existence.

So then the presence of a dragon, a being that could potentially rival Henali, reassured Ragnar that he had made the correct decision by coming to the Inn. Of course, he would not approach the dragon himself. These things were still better left to the Innkeeper. He exchanged a look with the other generals before continuing to follow Mary.

Elsewhere in the Inn, Remy Lavern, the Atila-Morpher who caused Lex to get the quest to establish a space for a secret organization, appeared once again. Casually, he walked to the cabin he had rented out for a year and entered. This cabin had been especially redesigned by Lex to meet Remy's requirements, and was the space in which he was planning on convening his secret organization.

A short while later, a second person arrived at the cabin.