The Innkeeper

After the diamond, the next listed item was a single teacup with an accompanying saucer, with an extensive floral design all over it. It was neither the cup nor the saucer that caused Lex distress. Instead, it was the law associated with the items. It was the law of femininity.

Even with his vast imagination, Lex did not dare imagine what would happen to him if he allowed such a law to take root within his body. This was a trade he absolutely could not participate in!

Immediately, Lex swiped the details away and looked at the final offer. This time, not only was the item listed, but there was a detailed introduction about the client as well.

The name of the client was Zuri Adisa, and she was originally a common four-leaf clover. Now, after the passage of countless years, she was recognized as one of the strongest beings in the origin realm - at least according to the emporium. She had clones across the realm in hundreds of thousands of galaxies, and her influence and power were beyond imagining.

The trade, if Lex agreed, would be conducted by one of her clones on a planet she inhabited. Actually, technically speaking, the entire planet, which was about 70% the size of earth, was actually her clone.

The item in question this time was a single blade of grass, within which was contained the law of regrowth. As if that was not enough, a number of other laws were also mentioned that played only a minor supporting role. The laws included the law of vitality, the law of refinement, and the law of healing.

Although it was slightly inconvenient to go over to another planet to make the trade, this was by far the most useful to Lex. If consuming that blade of grass somehow improved Lex's healing, even if by a small margin, it was worth it.

Then came the list of items the emporium offered. Although technically they were not as valuable as the previous items, they made Lex's eyes glow. These could go a long way towards not only helping Lex, but they could directly improve the Inn.

In fact, in the list of items Lex was presented with, there were a number of them that had no relation to laws but were valuable nonetheless. They would especially come in handy, especially since he wanted to strengthen his workers as quickly as possible without harming them.

Just as Lex was delving into the list and beginning to pick out things that would be useful to him, Mary called out to him.

"Lex there's… there's a situation. Strictly speaking, it doesn't really require you to do anything, but I think you might want to pay attention to future developments."

The hesitation and concern in Mary's voice drew Lex's attention. This was extremely out of the ordinary.

"What happened?" he asked, mentally readying himself to hear bad news. It was always bad news. It was never anyone dropping off a picnic basket for the Innkeeper.

"Do you remember Garlin? The snake that won the system from the well? You told us to keep an eye on him and get back to you about his activities. Well… something happened to him that we learned about very recently. Apparently, he was assassinated.

"Velma was looking into the details of how it happened, and originally I thought I'd just update you when you come back to the Inn since there's nothing you can really do about it. But just a few minutes ago, when Velma discovered the identity of the assassins, we also discovered that they had already entered the Inn after the assassination. But even that wasn't enough to get me to specially update you. What really drastically changed the situation was… that the assassins directly went up and challenged Ming Jie, the mountain-man, and John to a fight in the Murder Grounds."

"Wait, they just went up to them and challenged them?"

"Pretty much. I suspect they would have already picked a fight directly if they didn't want to end up offending the Midnight Inn."

"Is that other system user from earth at the Inn?"

"No, currently he is on earth."

"So they pretty much immediately challenged all the existing system users at the Inn?"

"Yes."

Lex was much too experienced to let his thoughts show on his face, but his mood underwent a drastic change nonetheless. An ominous feeling overtook him, and he decided to speed up this meeting as much as possible.

*****

At the Midnight Inn, three Rhinocentaurs stood face to face, their massive heights overshadowing the other guests. Their lower bodies were that of a rhino, with thick sturdy legs, hooved feet and a midsection that was packed with imposing muscles. From where one would expect a neck, instead a human torso appeared, though its proportions were much larger than normal humans. With biceps larger than most people's calves, a chest built like a warhammer could not budge it and a long, curved horn emerging from the human forehead, they put on a fearsome appearance. Each of them were at least 14 feet(4.2 meters) in height.

Behind them was the even more imposing figure of the mountain man. To the frequent guests of the Inn, the excitement of this particular guest had long passed. He did naught but sleep, no matter how one tried to interact with him. Even the three Rhinocentaurs were unable to wake him, at least without crossing the Inn's rules.

"It is pointless to wait here. We can just hire someone to keep an eye on him and alert us once he's awake," said one of the rhino's using his spirit sense.

"I say that is a waste of time," said another. "We should just sell his location details to someone in the chatroom and get immediate benefits."

"What about the other one? The Inn's employee?"

"That is also a tough situation. Based on our preliminary research into the Midnight Inn, the owner, the Innkeeper, is a devastatingly powerful cultivator. It is best not to cross him. Unless this 'John' accepts our challenge willingly, I do not see a way we can get his system either."

"Are you sure this 'Midnight Inn' isn't a part of a system either?" the second one asked, a hint of reluctance in his voice. It would love it if it could get and absorb a system that could grant something as impressive as the Inn.

"I've told you, according to the device, the Inn has nothing to do with a system. It has never failed before, so there's no reason to believe it'll mess up now."

"Easy for you to say," one of them complained. "You've already gotten your hands on the 'Overnight Celebrity system' from that snake! We're the ones still lacking."

"That's also why I have to be even more cautious from now on. Although I myself am a member of the organization, there's always a chance one of the other members will target me. The same goes for you guys. The moment you get your hands on a system, you'll have a target on your backs."

The three Rhinocentaurs went silent as they contemplated what to do. They did not want to give up so easily, especially since they were so close. It had taken them years as members of the organization before they actually found actual system holders!

Finally, in tacit understanding, the three of them pulled up an interface in front of them. Strangely enough, the interface was not that of the Midnight Inn's, and it was not visible to anyone else other than themselves.

On the top of the interface were the words 'System hunters chatroom'. The chat room had hundreds of billions of members across not only the Origin realm, but thousands of other realms. Yet none of them were worried that the secrets of the chatroom would be divulged, their identities leaked or the existence of the chatroom itself discovered. That was because the chatroom itself was responsible for maintaining its secrecy.

Even if one of the members of the chatroom was interrogated under torture, or their memories read, the chatroom's existence would not be discovered. That was because the chatroom would automatically erase all knowledge and traces linking itself to the member from existence.

No one knew how the chatroom came into being, but among the basic members of the chatroom there was a theory that the creator of the chatroom was the founder of their organization which hunted system users across the universe, and that he himself had a system linked to chatrooms. No one could say for certain as there was too much mystery associated with it.

The three of them exchanged a look, before a new post appeared in the chatroom. It was auctioning the location of two system holders, though there was a disclosure given that the system holders' environment was extremely dangerous. Within 1 second, the post had over 1 million responses. The auction period would last for a few hours, and the chatroom would administrate the auction itself, and automatically facilitate the transactions.