The Innkeeper

For a moment Lex hesitated, considering following the two officers. But the whole incident was weird. How did they find him? Why did they have a video of him leaving Larry’s house? The video did not look like it was from a security footage, the video was shot from street level. This meant that they had agents present at the time. If that was the case, how could they have allowed Larry to be attacked?

Most of all, he knew that Larry was struggling. If Larry had connections that could lead an investigation to follow him across the world, at a time where cross continental communication was compromised, then he would not have a job at a club where he gets beat up for a living.

His hesitation disappeared and he looked at the officer directly in the eyes, his hand practically touching his gun now. Should they make any sudden movements, he would be ready.

“I am sorry, but I am a US citizen, I don’t believe you can just randomly take me in for questioning. I am going to the embassy, if you have any concerns you can contact me there.”

Bringing up the embassy was a strong deterrent in Lex’s mind, as according to some convention on international Diplomatic relations embassies were immune to local law enforcement – or at least, something along those lines according to some tv show Lex had once seen. Moreover, embassies were usually very protective of their citizens.

Not that Lex needed any protection. He had his gun, and if the worst came to worst, he would retreat to the Inn. The reason he brought it up was because he wanted to see what reaction these ‘agents’ would have. That would let him know if this was normal procedure or there was something more going on._.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” Ben said as his partner slowly moved to corner Lex from another side. “You need to follow us for some questioning. I assure you, you will be let go in a few hours at most. Please cooperate, it is for your own good.”

To this, Lex did not reply. He kept his eyes trained on Ben, ignoring the other agent who was circling to get behind him. Though he remained silent, his stance as well as the aggression on his face let Ben know Lex had no intentions of cooperating.

Since the situation had progressed as such, Ben reached out aggressively to grab Lex. But who was Lex? Even without his identity as the Innkeeper, he was someone who had fought his way out of hordes of zombies and survived being hunted by hundreds of wolves. He was not a person that could be casually messed with.

Moving with a burst of speed, Lex grabbed Ben’s arm and twisted it, so that Lex appeared behind Ben with his arm firmly pressed against his back. It was at this point that Lex realized that while these agents were cultivators, their strength was not much greater than him. Lex kicked Ben on the back of his knee, causing the man to buckle and fall onto the ground.

This was just in time to see Ben’s partner leaping towards Lex, trying to tackle him. Despite the strength of his plunge, Lex felt the man’s move amateurish. Not even moving from his spot, Lex turned in one smooth motion and kicked up into the air. The lunging agent’s face practically flew into Lex’s kick on its own, and the man fell to the ground, unconscious.

With both attackers defeated, Lex was momentarily stunned. He was so used to getting beaten up that he was expecting a difficult fight. The only reason he hadn’t used his gun was that he knew the sound would have attracted a lot of attention in the silence of the night. But apparently, he did not even need it.

“I think you broke my arm,” Ben said with a grimace, as he tried to pick himself up from the ground. But how could Lex allow him to so easily get up?

Lex turned the man onto his back and stepped on his chest, to prevent him from getting up.

“I’m only going to be polite once. Tell me what you’re really after, and no one will get hurt.”

“I told you, I’m with INTERPOL, we…”

Lex did not bother wasting more time listening to him. He withdrew his gun, making sure to let Ben get a good look at it, then aimed it at Ben.

“I said, I’ll only be polite once. Every time you waste your breath, I’ll progressively ruder with you. So now, tell me, what do you want?”

Ben did not reply immediately, as he was frozen on the ground in fear. What he had experienced did not match Lex’s report. He was supposed to be an inexperienced, new cultivator, not a battle hardened fighter!

Realizing that Ben was shocked, Lex waved his gun to attract his attention and said, “I’m not known for being patient. Now, what do you want?”

Ben grit his teeth, but then promptly gave up. He wasn’t an idiot to risk his life over an unofficial assignment.

“Okay look, I’ll tell you! But I really am from INTERPOL! I got an assignment to interrogate you about Larry, and hold you for a few hours before letting you go! That’s all I know!”

Lex frowned, then kicked Ben on the head, knocking him unconscious. He looked around to make sure no one was watching, and then quickly left the area. He jogged for about twenty minutes, constantly checking to see if he was being followed, before he found a secluded corner and teleported back to the Inn.

A short while later, Ben finally woke up, groggy and in pain. First he checked up on his partner who, fortunately, was still alive. Then he made a call to report the situation. Whoever Larry was or why anyone was interested in was completely irrelevant to him. What he cared about was that Lex’s cultivation and strength did not match his files at all. He was too strong. Something like that would always attract someone’s attention.

*****

At the Inn, Lex was sitting at his study table, wondering about what had just happened. Larry was a complicated guy, but now his troubles had involved him as well. Lex needed to find out what was actually happening, but a sweep of the Inn told him that Larry was currently asleep in his room. He would wait till morning to talk to him, so until then Lex decided to focus on the Inn.

His additions were a huge hit, and guests lined the mountain and filled the forest and lake. But the problems that Lex did not even consider came just as quickly. More than one guest had slipped or tripped off the mountain. Though they were cultivators, had it not been for Lex’s guards quickly catching them, they would have been seriously hurt. In the lake, unexpectedly, it was not a case of drowning that caused an issue, but a swimming human bumping into a swimming beast.

Lex had to say beast because he had never seen any animal on Earth that could match this beast’s appearance; it had a lot of limbs and a lot of heads connected to what looked like a ball of play-dough but was hard as steel. The bump seriously injured the human, but since it was an accident Lex could not blame either party.

The forest had more predictable issues. Some people decided to camp out in the forest, but ran into some beasts who had a similar idea in the middle of the night. Suffice to say, the humans were greatly frightened. How was he even supposed to fix an issue like that?

Truth be told, it was not something that could be fixed. But he could reduce the scary atmosphere in the forest. Lex released tens of thousands of fireflies into the first and told the Galactic Sovereign turtle to feed them something that would promote their cultivation just a bit. With the soft yet natural light they gave off, the forest should not be as scary in the darkness.

The lake was also somewhat of an easy solution. He just expanded the lake, and divided the areas into humans and beasts. This was not a permanent solution, but would work for now.

The mountain was slightly tougher to deal with, so for now, he added various railings on the trails. But to deal with the situation properly, he told his A.I. staff to hike the mountain trails and take note of every climb that seemed dangerous to him. He would fix them one by one.

But that was not all. While talking to Moon, he had a few ideas of how he could fill in the empty land in the Inn meaningfully. One that he particularly liked and was currently planning was a lazy river! But, because of the freedom that the system allowed, he could take things even farther.

In front of him he had a hologram of the Inn opened, and he was slowly planning its path.

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