The Innkeeper

When Lex arrived at his seat, there were already some preliminary matches going on. But Lex had no idea what was happening on stage, so he could not help but ask the people sitting next to him.

Sitting beside him was a Roslo, the same species as the purple skinned, doubled horned vendor Lex met the first time. According to the description Lex had of their species, they were extremely easy to aggravate, but also very easy to befriend. They were known for their extreme physical prowess, along with the ability to display that prowess with skill and precision.

Still, Lex had no trouble having a friendly chat with the Roslo, and asked about how the tournament worked and what he was supposed to be looking for. This particular Roslo was apparently a very skilled harvester and loved talking about it, so it ended up helping Lex.

The explanation started with the origin of the tournament. Harvesting Gugu fruit, as some may have noticed, was a major trend on the planet. But the harvesting process was not as simple as picking an apple from a tree. The first and most basic requirement was to be in the Foundation realm. This was because, when the fruit was removed from its tree, regardless of whether it was a successful harvest or a failed one, a great deal of spirit energy would be released.

Some people may think that being exposed to a great deal of spirit energy was a good thing, but such was not actually the case. Qi training cultivators could not handle a great deal of spirit energy in their body, which is why they cultivated only a few strands of Qi. In fact, at each level in the Qi training realm, a cultivator would only absorb 11 strands of Qi, so that by the 9th level the cultivator would have 99 strands of Qi. Absorbing that 100th strand was a part of breaking into the Foundation realm.

Therefore, if a large surge of nonneutral spirit energy entered their body, they would immediately suffer from spirit energy poisoning, the effects of which ranged from being bedridden to straight up death.

The next requirement of harvesting Gugu fruit was technique, precision, and skill. The fruit that looked like a Red Mango, but with a harsh exterior like that of Pineapple, had to be removed in a certain way to preserve its potency from dropping, and allowing it to be transported for use at a later date. This was a very brief description of the process, like saying a person used fire to heat ingredients as a description for cooking - it wasn't inaccurate but there was a lot more to it.

Such techniques were obviously not practiced on the actual fruit itself, as they had a long maturing period and were extremely valuable, so certain fruits were artificially designed to have the same extraction requirements as the Gugu fruit, but had no other value. Naturally, when an environment that had high stakes as well as many highly skilled people was created, it nurtured competition. That is how these tournaments originated.

Having a greater understanding of events, Lex paid great attention to the stage. He wanted to get a good understanding of what to expect when Tetsuya finally came on stage. Lex wasn't anticipating his arrival because he was comparing it to the MC from that ridiculous novel that he could not stop binge reading.

As free spirited as he was, he would not waste 80% of his money on a hunch. He had actually received a quest from the system when he first heard people discussing him.

New Quest: The Inn caters to all the universe, but not all guests are the same. The Inn is not only a place where guests stay; it is a place to where they may seek refuge on their tumultuous journey in the cultivation world. Help Tetsuya Seigan avoid calamity by having him retreat to the Inn.

Quest time limit: 10 hours

Quest Reward: Support token!

Remarks: The system is literally finding good guests for you. Go do something on your own once in a while.

Since the Inn gave such a high review of Tetsuya, Lex didn't mind betting his money on him. Besides, it wasn't like he was taking any personal risk by doing so. At worst, he would just lose some money, not a big deal. Thinking that, Lex stretched his body as he got comfortable in his seat.

He could feel the crowd's anticipation slowly building, and soon the preliminary matches ended and the main event finally started! Lex noticed quite the hype as the contestants came up on stage one by one. One person, in particular, attracted a lot of attention.

"That's Brent," the Roslo sitting beside told Lex. "He's the son of the head of the academy hosting this tournament. Last year, he was in the top 10 for most Gugu fruits harvested during the harvest period. There are rumors that this year he's been recruited by the Dimitri family to harvest in their premium fields."

"Wow, that must pay well," Lex said casually as he stared at Brent. So this was the guy Tetsuya had a rivalry with?

Just as Lex was playing out an elaborate backstory in his mind for how their rivalry would play out, another contestant stepped out on stage. It wasn't as far as the crowd starting to boo him, but the negative opinion of the crowd was evident. On the stage a tall, thin man had stepped out with bright red hair and a proud smirk.

Lex did not need to be told that this was Tetsuya, but his next actions immediately confused Lex. He went up and greeted Brent, and the two seemed to be having a pleasant conversation.

"Isn't that Tetsuya? I thought he had a rivalry with Brent."

"No, not with Brent," the Roslo said with excitement. It seemed like he thoroughly enjoyed gossiping. "Brent is the bast*rd son of the owner, and grew up on the streets with Tetsuya. The two of them are like brothers, and it's even said that the whole reason why Brent raised his cultivation so high was because Tetsuya gave him some kind of treasure he found.

"But the academy owner's rightful son and heir, Darius, who was raised in the lap of luxury, apparently hates Brent, and hates Tetsuya, too. There are even rumors that there have been assassination attempts on Tetsuya," at this point the Roslo was whispering.

"If people know that he's the victim… why does everyone seem to hate him so much?" Lex asked in confusion. In the novel, everyone hated the MC because the villain hated him, but that did not seem to be the case here.

"The kid is very skilled in combat, and his harvesting technique is not bad," the Roslo said with the air of an expert, "but he's too arrogant. He's had a tough life, sure, but who hasn't? He uses overcoming difficulty as an excuse to look down on everyone else. He's always picking fights and insulting everyone, so why would anyone like him? Even when he's in the right, he's too proud to explain, as if everyone should be omniscient and just know not to blame him. Instead of considering that there could be a misunderstanding, he directly picks a fight. And of course, since he's so talented, he wins the fights more often than he loses, which makes people hate him even more. People don't hate him because of anything someone else did, he can manage to attract all that hate on his own."

Lex frowned, as he continued to watch the stage. The matches had already begun, and massive trees were raised from holes on the stage, each with various sized fruits hanging from them. The contestants were already harvesting them, with many large screens focused on each of the contestants.

Tetsuya's description was quite different from what he expected, but there were all kinds of people, so he couldn't really comment on how Tetsuya should be. Not to mention, this seemed to just be an outsider's opinion on the matter. Maybe things were actually quite different. Regardless, Lex wasn't really interested in making friends, anyway. He just had to slip Tetsuya a key, and let him use it to avoid whatever catastrophe he was about to face.

Once that was done, his quest would be complete and Lex could continue exploring this planet and learning about their culture, so he could plan on how to host them better.

As much as the crowd was riled up, Lex quickly got bored. That was not to say the tournament was easy, as Lex learnt. Harvesting each fruit was a long and arduous process. But in the end, Lex was just not interested in… watching fruit be harvested. Nearly five hours later, the tournament finally ended, with Brent coming in first and Tetsuya coming in second. There were moments in the tournament where it seemed Tetsuya was either extremely unlucky or that he was being targeted, as three of the fruits he tried to harvest exploded just as he was about to complete the harvest, revealing pests hidden inside the fruit. Despite such a setback, he had somehow managed to come in second, and win some prizes, as well as the right to participate during the actual harvest.

Lex quickly went to gather his winnings, 10 spirit coins, and then began to think about how he was going to meet Tetsuya. As he was not experienced in these matters, and since he was not expecting it, Lex was completely unaware that he was being followed from the moment he collected his winnings. Some people in the crowd noticed when the number of followers slowly increased, but they said nothing. It was best to stay uninvolved in other peoples trouble, not to mention they could soon be getting a free show.