The Innkeeper



Lex could not help but frown. Although he did not get a clear idea of who these invaders were, the reason for their attack did not sit well with him. If they could condemn a whole planet to death or slavery so easily, then they should be considerably powerful themselves.

Lex remembered that the Henali had a few conventions, such as disallowing mass genocide and soul farming, but those restrictions only specifically applied to beings in the Dao realm. Whatever the conventions were for weaker beings, he had not seen them.

The fact that the devils so blatantly used various planets to mature their demons indicated that so long as they remained within certain limits, the Henali would allow genocide. In fact, it suddenly occurred to him that his definition of genocide and that of the Henali might differ. After all, they were speaking on a realm wide scale, whereas to him even a single planet was a big deal.

If that were the case, then no matter how much he wanted to help out his home planet, they may already be fighting a losing battle. After all, even if he hosted an event, and got others to help out, it wasn't as if they'd fight the war for them. They'd only fight so long as they have something to gain. If they were faced with inevitable death, then there was no way earth could garner any foreign help.

Although a lot of this was speculation on Lex's part, he had the exposure to justify it. His mind already started working. If the earth fell, regardless of how much he wanted to help the refugees, he wouldn't be able to take care of them indefinitely, especially if the numbers were high. In that case, instead of charging them rent for long durations of time, he could directly sell them exclusive rights to some of the Minor realms connected to the Inn.

That way they'd become self-sufficient again with the resources available. Moreover, the idea of selling exclusive access to Minor realms during special situations sounded a lot better than making it look like the Innkeeper was giving special preference to humans. After all, there were still new Minor realm connections being revealed within the Inn to this day. He still had no idea exactly how many Minor realms he had access to, but it was a lot of them.

With a plan formulating in his mind, Lex regained his confidence. On earth these robots could potentially be a threat, but he did not fear them inside the Inn at all. Worst comes to worst, he'll just kick them out of the Inn.

Just because he was afraid of the Henali did not mean everyone had the right to intimidate him, regardless of how powerful they may be.

"You can take my lack of answer however you wish, I couldn't care less. Who do you think you are anyway, to walk up to me and threaten me? Are you so confident that you can just face me and get away with it?"

"The human race is a weak, divided race that only has relevance due to a single human being the Henali's pet. Since you have chosen to not surrender, then prepare yourself. The machines you have fought so far are akin to the civilians of your race. Once the soldiers are deployed, you will have no chance of resistance."

Without waiting for Lex to reply, the robot turned away and began to retreat. So did the rest of the others. It seems they had decided that since they could not defeat Lex, they should leave it to the pros.

Lex stood there for a couple of minutes, scanning the area to make sure the robots were leaving. It seemed like they were gone, and wouldn't be returning any time soon. Or at least, the ones to arrive wouldn't be these robots, but the so-called 'actual soldiers'.

Lex turned around to face the humans, but instead of cheering for him, they took a step back, as if afraid.

Lex felt like sighing. This is probably why no one wanted to be a hero. Only in movies and tv shows do they get the proper accolades. He completely forgot that only a few minutes ago, he was knee deep in robot guts.

From between the soldiers, the major stepped forward, looking pale and out of breath. Although they had managed to hold back the robots, it did not mean that it was easy.

"Mr. l- uhhh… sir, I've received new orders. Would you happen to have any uh… would you happen to have any 'Midnight Inn golden keys'?"

"Yes, a few."

"If possible, I would like to purchase them off of you. According to the latest orders, we've been told to retreat to the Inn. Though no further explanation has been given, the order sounded urgent. As for the matter of payment, if you follow me, I can provide you with the payment. I've been told that after deducting the cost for the keys, the remainder is to be converted into a currency called MP.

Lex was pleasantly surprised. He didn't even need to reclaim the resources from the aliens, it was being sold to him directly. This was perfect. If he liked the resources, he could take them himself and pay the MP equivalent out of pocket. If not, the system would take care of converting it to MP itself, he didn't need to worry.

There was one caveat though. If he bought the keys himself, the price would increase for every subsequent key he bought. But if a guest bought the keys from the gift shop, the price never changed.

"Major, why don't you take me to the money first. I only have one key to spare, but after handing you the payment, you can go to the Inn and buy the remaining keys yourself."

"Uhh, alright. Follow me."

The major began to lead Lex to the basement, once again, while he passed an order to all the soldiers to pack up for a permanent retreat. Immediately they began running around the facility, gathering whatever equipment they needed.