The Innkeeper

When General Ragnar heard the complete message and received the silver key, he did not act alarmed nor was he surprised by the sudden event. He knew enough about high leveled cultivators to know what they were capable of. He simply accepted the key after scanning it for potential traps or poisons, and then sent an emergency communication to the command carrier explaining what he had encountered.

The command carrier was like a forward operating base, but for space instead. It was a massive spaceship that harbored the main combat and logistics ships for any space based deployment. The command carrier assigned to this reclamation deployment of the Vegus System was actually hidden somewhere outside the solar system. Not only was it equipped with weapons that could completely decimate planets and shields so powerful that it could protect the ship from a direct collision with a sun, it could communicate directly back to the Jotun Empire’s central command planet from anywhere in the known universe.

Shortly after his communication he received some information as well as new orders. Apparently, he was not the only one who received the message. Although he was assigned the entire planet, there were several colonels under him who controlled several bases around it. All colonels with enough power (not cultivation power, power to command) also received the message. It was also suspected that all the commanding officers of the Demon’s legions also received the communication. He was ordered to command the delegation that would head to the Midnight Inn. His purpose was to gather intel on the nature of the organization known as ‘Midnight Inn’ and establish a preliminary relationship with it representing the Jotun Empire. He also had the discretion to make decisions based on the evolving situation once he went to the Midnight Inn keeping the interests of the Empire in mind.

Ragnar did not hesitate, and immediately started preparation. His first order of business, establish a new chain of command on the planet while he was gone in case this was a trap. In the meantime, he did not stop the search for the spawn portal either._.

Somewhere on the other side of the planet, an especially malevolent looking zombie stared at the floating silver key in front of it. It took a moment before it made some sort of decision, and changed its appearance, retracting its several extra limbs, claws, fangs, wings and tail. In the end, the zombie looked like a frail, malnourished college student with no features to distinguish it from a zombie. It grabbed the key before retreating through a portal.

*****

On Earth things had finally calmed down slightly after the tense few days following the Alexander assassination attempt, yet suddenly yesterday everything changed. Every ICPA on the planet started enforcing a very strict curfew and mortal armies of several nations were deployed to their borders. Most people did not understand what was happening and conspiracy theories were abundant. Only a select few knew that the current situation was a result of some actions taken by the Morrison family. Even fewer knew what those actions were.

Four separate families received an emergency summon from Brandon Morrison, who also claimed that he was returning to Earth to hold the meeting in person. This had various consequences, as the four heads of those families were immediately informed. All four of them grimaced at the news, as such a meeting would only be called if it concerned gravely important matters. While they were preparing themselves for the worst, the situation escalated further.

An open broadcast sent out on a secret channel known only to the top echelon of Earth sent out the message that if Brandon Morrison dared to land on Earth without his wife present, his landing shuttle would be nuked!

This was the exact message that caused every ICPA, every nation and every top cultivator on Earth to panic and prepare for the worst. This was because the origin of the message was not hidden. In fact, not only was it not hidden, the person who sent out the message even identified themself during the broadcast.

It was sent by the oldest and most mysterious figure in the cultivation world. This mysterious personage was known the world over only by the title of ‘The Queen’, and no one knew her actual name. How strong was she? How old was she? What was her origin? What were her intentions? No one knew the answer to any of these questions. The only thing people knew was that The Queen lived in a certain palace in London and that her image was often printed on various currencies across the globe!

Although Brandon assured everyone that he was coming with his wife, everyone was still tense. Very few actually knew the significance of him coming with his wife as opposed to without, and this caused everyone to speculate madly.

While all this was happening, one of the primary people responsible for the confusion on Earth, The Queen, was sitting casually in her garden sipping a Piña Colada while her pet Corgis ran around beside her. One would expect that a cultivator of such prestige would have high leveled beasts as pets, but no, these were just regular dogs. It was raining in London, but naturally none of the rain fell in The Queens garden. How would the rain dare to fall there without acquiescence from the ancient one? She did not at all look concerned regarding the upcoming meeting or its contents, let alone the status of the world. No, her attention was towards a TV screen on which a cricket match was being played. The World Cup was going to be held the next year, how could she not follow the progress of her favorite team?

It was while she was focused on the TV that she felt a surge in spirit energy, and a booming voice said, “Your majesty The Queen, your kingdom is prosperous and your wisdom is legend. You are invited in nine days time to the Midnight Inn…”

She heard the whole message, received the key and then turned her attention back to the match. The timing of the message was too coincidental. It seemed she had deduced the purpose of her upcoming meeting of the five families.

*****

Lex chuckled to himself as he imagined the reactions of the various leaders on the three planets. It was extremely annoying receiving spam emails and messages all the time on Earth, but he had to say sending his own messages felt rather interesting.

Yet he could not linger in his musings. Once the promotion was taken care of, he had a few other key things to take care of. He had titled this event the Midnight Games, since he could not think of a better title, but he still had not exactly figured out the content of the ‘games’ or how the event would proceed. He needed to do a lot of research for that before he made a decision, this was also the reason why he had a 10 day buffer before announcing the details of the event. It would give him time to decide the exact details.

But that was not all. How could he not take advantage of such an opportunity to make some more MP? He had to figure out the best way to monetize this event – fortunately the event panel gave him a few options there as well. What were these options? Why, limited edition merchandise based on the event of course! How could you doubt the business sense of the young man who spent so much time in capitalist America? It was the most amazing feature of America, after all. The only people who complained about it were the ones who could not learn to take advantage of it.

Tshirts, caps, drinks, flyers, posters, food, drinks, toys and more were all options available to him. Even better was the fact that all of these items could be designed and altered at a moments notice, so if any one person performed well and gained a lot of fans during the events Lex could immediately create merchandise around that person. Would this affect the prestige of the Inn? Lex didn’t think so, and even if it did, he could just hire a PR consultant. Why sweat the small stuff when he could pay someone to do that for him?

Another, and much more important aspect for Lex to look at was security. He was expecting thousands of participants, and tens of thousands of viewers. Most of those would be cultivators? There was bound to be troublemakers and even if he upgraded his Butter Knife there was no way he could handle all of it. Fortunately, the event manager panel provided a solution to this. Unfortunately, the solution was expensive. Yet how much exactly was Lex willing to spend, that was the conundrum he was facing at the moment. It was better to be safe than sorry, but he hadn’t even paid for the event yet, he could not blow his entire budget just on security. Or, at the very least, he would have to increase his budget and somehow get even more MP. If only the system accepted mortgages.