The Innkeeper

For a moment, Lex didn't register what he read and his mind blanked. Then he rubbed his eyes and read the notification again.

System Notification:

New system detected! Analyzing the secondary system. Murder system grade D+ detected. Host can choose to assimilate with the secondary system and have two concurrent systems, or absorb it to strengthen the existing system. Please note: this decision will be fixed and final, and will result in the same action for all subsequent systems discovered.

System Notification:

Murder system grade D+ detected. Murder in cold blood, one and all, to gain system points and receive a boost to your strength, as well as tools to help plan out intricate murders. The greater the murder, the better the reward. Murdering special, high value targets yields better results and rewards. From weapons to technique to formations and golems, the system will provide you a smooth path to the most efficient murders.

Lex read the notification again and again, his mind racing. This answered one of the greatest questions he'd had about his system for a very long time, and yet also resulted in more questions.

First of all, he was not the only one with a system. While his system may be unique, though he wasn't even sure of that at the moment, it was a fact that others also had systems.

It also did not mention any grade in his system or anywhere else, so he had no idea what grade his own system was, if it even had one.

Moreover, the purpose of the systems did not seem to overlap much. After all, his system was targeted towards hosting guests and even promoted charity work of sorts, while this fellow literally had a system that encouraged murder!

That raised the question, where did these systems come from, and what was their purpose? His system, especially, confused him greatly. As his understanding of the universe was expanding, he began to understand how truly miniscule he was in front of the capabilities of his own system. In that case, what could it ever hope to get from him?

This was a question for which he had no answer. After all, it could directly use its abilities to trap Lex and take whatever it wanted from him, but it didn't.

Maybe there was something the system needed him to do. After all, he did not know if this fellow was already a murderer before he got the system, or had been influenced by the rewards the system promised to enter onto this path.

Whatever the truth of the matter may be, it was a fact that Lex's life had been inherently linked to the systems for good. Even if he wanted to escape the influence of the systems, he would have to do it by getting stronger first. For that, ironically, the system itself played the greatest role. If, somehow, his system could become stronger, then it would aid him greatly. Especially because he was not at all interested in going on random murdering sprees.

Just as he was having these thoughts, a change appeared on the murderer's body, and a couple of items appeared. There was one crystal as well as a wide bracelet of pure gold.

Before Lex could pick them up to observe, he appeared once again in his room back at the tavern, the murderer's body laying at his feet.

He quickly scanned the tavern to ensure all was well and breathed a sigh of relief. Rick was controlling the space array around the tavern, so no monster was able to enter during his absence.

"Mary, do you care to explain?" Lex said, calming himself down. He knew this was not an opportunity he wanted to miss, but before he did anything, he wanted to get as much information about it as possible.

"I do not have the authority to comment on anything related to the system beyond what I've already told you. If you want my recommendation on what option to choose, I am not allowed to comment on that either. All I can say is, think back to your own experience when the system was new. How did it encourage you to complete its quests? How did it threaten you? I am not saying that other systems will do the same, just that it is something you should remember."

As soon as she spoke, Lex's mind flashed back to the early days when the system would threaten him to complete quests by stating the punishment for failure was death. If the murder system gave him a quest and set a similar punishment, Lex would be stuck. He would have no option but to complete the quest.

The thought gave him shivers. He absolutely could not get more systems. As for the Midnight system? It was already strong enough to send him to other realms, and so firmly had his life under his control. Making it stronger would not change that fact, but it could at least increase whatever benefits he could get from it.

With his mind made up, Lex selected to have his system absorb the murder system to become stronger. The murderer's body exploded and a small golden ball rushed into Lex's body the next moment!

A strong sense of déjà vu hit Lex as he recalled a shooting star, but this time, fortunately, Lex was not knocked out. Instead, his system interface disappeared, and only the words 'updating' appeared in its place.

This made Lex nervous, for he used the system for a lot of things, even at the tavern, but all he could do now was wait.

Also, he could clean. For once, the system's automatic cleaning function wasn't available, so he had to clean up the mess created by the murderer's body by himself.

Well over an hour Lex sat back down beside the window he opened to air out his room, and investigated the two items that appeared from the murderer's body.

The gold bracelet looked like pretty standard jewelry, right up until Lex channeled his spirit energy into it. Much like the book that appeared in the ring given to him by John, his worker at the Inn, a scripture appeared in his mind from the bangle.

For some reason, though, reading a single word seemed to drain him mentally. He was only able to make out 'Lucky Sutra' before he became too exhausted to continue. In fact, he became so tired, Lex fell asleep the very moment he stopped reading.

He woke up groggy and with a throbbing headache. It was only after he asked Roan to bring him a rejuvenating tea that felt better, slightly. He put the bangle away, unwilling to look too deeply into it for now, though he seemed to have understood much about his fight with the killer. This so-called Lucky Sutra must have played a role in constantly keeping him alive, and why he mentioned that he was very lucky.

It was definitely something to look forward to - later. Rubbing his throbbing head, Lex reached out towards the crystal and reluctantly poured his energy inside.

This time, instead of a book, the crystal revealed itself as the controlling mechanism for the formation around the town!

"How lucky," Lex couldn't help but comment, his facial expression eerily similar to the killers as he said so. Lex himself, though, did not feel anything odd. It was natural that, if the killer had something to control the formation, it would fall into Lex's hands after the killer had been dispatched.

Not wasting a single moment, Lex started to focus on the crystal, trying to understand how it worked and how he could control it to restore the town to its previous state.

During this time he did not notice at all as he subconsciously wore the gold bracelet onto his left hand. His body, which had gone through an arduous battle, also did not warn him via the usual instincts that anything was wrong, as he subconsciously used a portion of his spirit energy and started channeling it through the bangle.

As the gold bangle tightened around his wrist, Lex felt nothing, and when it began to fuse into his hand Lex was too engrossed in the crystal. But that's when things became odd. The bangle, which at first seemed to be quickly melding into Lex's hand, slowed down. It was supposed to have fused into his hand seamlessly, like a person jumping into the sea holding rocks.

Instead, it became like a person slowly falling in tar. It was thick and sticky, and while the bangle was still fusing with his hand, it was way too slow.

Still, Lex was oblivious to all of this. When he finally managed to figure out the controls of the formation, he murmured 'how lucky' and began setting things straight. Turning on the lights would not make the existing monsters go away, but at least it would stop new ones from forming.

The mayor, if he was still alive, would have a much easier time reclaiming the town.