The Innkeeper

Leo did not even need to browse through the list, he directly searched Brimworld and started the game. While he turned the game on in one screen, he opened some tutorial videos on another screen next to her.

“I suggest you go through the tutorial once before starting a colony, but if you’re not able to understand the mechanics thoroughly or get confused, you can watch the videos on the other screen.”

Lily nodded and after quickly understanding the role of the mouse and keyboard began her journey. The price for playing games at the Gamer’s Den was only 1 MP per day so Lex directly paid the amount for their first experience himself. Then he turned his attention towards Chen who was silently looking at Lily. Only he had some idea of the pain his sister endured, but it was not the way of the survivors of Vegus Minima to point it out. She was not weak, and did not need his pity. The best thing he could do for her was grow stronger himself.

Chen looked directly at Leo and said, “I don’t need anything like my sister. I just need to get acquainted with my own strength. I recently raised my cultivation and I still feel like I’m not using my strength to the best of my capabilities.”

Hearing Chen’s request Leo frowned a bit. Clearly Chen wanted to play a game that included physical movement, so VR could work for that. But it would not allow him to use his strength and experiment freely. The best thing for that would be going to the Training room. But while fighting dummies was challenging, Leo felt that it still didn’t provide the immersion and nuances that a game provided with. Training would always only feel like training, and would not provide the weight and tension of a real combat situation that games could build using rich environments and timely music cues.

If only he could integrate the Training room dummies with his Gamer’s Den…Wait. Leo’s eyes lit up. Why couldn’t he do that? Mary had told him that he should find loopholes in the system to get the result he wanted. The Training room was strictly a system provided service and could not be changed by him, but the Gamer’s Den was created by him directly using the Host Interface. So why was he limited to having a regular gaming setup? He could make it as advanced or different as he wanted so long as he had enough MP._.

Opening the Midnight Market in his mind he searched for training dummies or robots with high strength and durability – he didn’t want to use an A.I. staff since he was treating them like real people. He found one a permanent training robot that could be programmed at Initial Foundation realm for 35,000 MP! This price seemed like a lot when considering he got 260 guards for 450,000 MP, all of them at higher cultivation levels. That came out to be around 1730 MP per guard. But those guards were temporary, and would disappear once the event period ended, the training robot was permanent. Or at least until it was damaged.

“Please, follow me,” Leo said casually, leading Chen upstairs to the VR rooms. The entire top floor was divided into only 3 VR rooms so there was plenty of space for Chen to move around and fight in there. But to do what Leo had in mind, he would still need some new additions so he spent 3000 MP renovating the rooms and reinforcing them.

This would no longer be only a VR room, but also an Augmented Reality (AR) room. The training robot was waiting at the opposite end of the room but Leo didn’t address it yet. He set the room to the theme of a game called Immortal Combat, and suddenly the appearance of the room changed. It looked like they were standing in the remains of a difficult battle, with debris and corpses everywhere. Music started playing in the background and though at first Chen thought it was strange, he quickly realized that the music fit the atmosphere well. The appearance of the Training dummy changed as well, and he looked like a demon garbed in yellow clothing. His movement and combat style was adapted to a specific character from the game.

“You can change the difficulty by saying Easy, Regular or Hard before you start the fight. If you get too used to the combat you can also change the enemy combat style by selecting the enemy you want to face. All you need to do is say menu to open up the character selection panel.

“Furthermore, you won’t be fighting to defeat the enemy. Both you and the enemy will have a health bar above your heads. If your health bar runs out, it will automatically be considered your loss, similarly if the enemies health bar runs out it will be considered your win. Please, enjoy.”

Leo left Chen to explore his newest installed feature. For the AR segment he was planning on charging more, maybe around 200 MP a day but for now he wouldn’t charge Chen. He had to get them hooked first.

Leo chuckled as he went downstairs. Lily was already engrossed in the game in the few minutes she’d been playing, and wore an extremely serious face as she navigated the obstacles.

“Z, keep an eye on the guests. If they need anything make sure to help them out, alright?”

The boy nodded firmly before returning to watch some more anime. Leo didn’t know which one he was watching but it occurred to him the boy was watching multiple anime concurrently. Somehow, that just seemed wrong. But traumatized by the thought that he may be acting like his parents, Leo said nothing and returned to his residence. He scanned the Inn once again to check everyone’s location, but no one was walking around. Alexander and Helen were still at Battle Ax and Will and Hera were in their courtyard having a meeting. He waited for a while for someone to become accessible for him to trap, but after a while he got tired. Instead of waiting he decided to meditate and check up on everyone once he was done.

A few hours went by and as the sun set, the Inn looked beautiful under the warm, yellow light of all the sky lanterns. Lex just finished a round of meditation and immediately scanned the Inn just in time to catch Lily and Chen walking towards the manor, both seriously discussing their experience at the Gamer’s Den. What surprised him was that Alexander and Helen were sitting in the restaurant in the manor, and so were Will, Hera and Jimmy. Ayesha was also sitting in the corner, looking tired, and maybe sad.

He realized that almost all of his guests would soon be gathered in the restaurant in the manor. If he appeared as the bartender, casually wiping the bar with a cloth he could recreate the perfect mental image of what he imagined an Inn was like the first time he thought of the Inn. Of course, he was not about to wipe the bar, but he changed into his Host Attire and teleported to the restaurant.

Alexander and Helen were having burgers, Ayesha was wallowing over a large plate of fries, Jimmy was having dinosaur shaped nuggets, his mother was only having a cup of coffee and Will having a cup of mint green tea. The food items weren’t exactly what Lex envisioned when he thought of food served at an Inn, but who cared?

Lily and Chen sat down in a corner and ordered two steaks, two salads and a lot of fruit. They weren’t picky eaters but understood better than everyone else here the importance of nutrition. Even Foundation realm cultivators hadn’t gotten rid of their dependance on food and improper nutrition not only affected their health and combat performance, it affected cultivation as well. Not eating properly was a mistake they would never make.

Lex enjoyed the pleasant atmosphere. Everyone was gathered together in the same room, and though they kept to themselves, their general presence created a merry environment. A short while later, Slag also joined in. He was not completely healed, but he was healed enough that he gave priority to his mission of reconnaissance. The room went silent for a second when he entered, as everyone turned to look at the new guest, but they all quickly resumed their own conversations. Lily and Chen recognized his uniform and started whispering to one another, trying to not attract his attention.

Slag came and sat at the bar, directly opposite to Lex.

“Would you happen to have a nutritional supplement drink?”

“Yes, but wouldn’t you rather prefer a fruit juice or something? It doesn’t sound very appealing.”

Slag shook his head, indicating he was fine with choice in drink, then turned around to look at all the guests in the room.

“So these guests are all from Minima Vegus?”

“I cannot share the private details of our guests. But in general, we accept guests from all over the universe so naturally Minima Vegus is included.”

“Entire universe?” Slag repeated, confused. “How do they get here?”

“Using our keys, naturally. Or they encounter the golden door, the same way you did. Either way, everyone is teleported here directly.”

Slag frowned, but said nothing. Teleportation, even across a solar system, was very costly. He could not fathom what it would require to have teleportation on such a large scale.

While they were talking Lex felt another guest entering the Inn, but since he was in the middle of a conversation with Slag he mentally told Gerard to greet the guest once he made sure it wasn’t a zombie. But only a few seconds later a loud roar reverberated through the manor, “KNEEL YOU FILTHY HUMAN!”