The Innkeeper

From the moment Lex decided to use his original identity to when he teleported and walked all the way to where Marlo's wife, Sophia was, he had already gotten several notifications from Mary about tasks that needed to be handled by him.

It may have seemed like the Inn had been functioning fine in his absence, but the truth was they were barely holding things together. It was a ship at voyage having its leaks repaired using duck tape.

An undeniable truth, unfortunately, was that the quality and standard of the Inn had fallen. It was not Lex's fault, for he had been doing his best to keep up the expansion of the Inn as its presence grew in the universe, but he expanded from having a few thousand guests at any given time to a few million in the span of a few months.

It was virtually impossible to keep up with the standard, especially because of Lex's cultivation level, which limited the amount of things Lex could do at any given time. An example of the high standard he had early on was the presence of unique places such as the Barbershop, Gamers den and Battle Ax.

They were more than sufficient to cater to a few hundred, possibly even a few thousand people. But with millions of guests, even if they operated at maximum capacity at all times, they still wouldn't be able to keep up with even 1% of the demand.

Due to the fact that such shops couldn't be replicated, the uniqueness of the Inn fell. Indeed, the Meditation, training, hot tub rooms etc. were good, but they were generic. Lex needed more unique attractions and features to keep up with the demand. Moreover, despite the strict control of the security team and his other employees, more and more people were beginning to misbehave at the Inn.

This was because while Lex and the rest had given demonstrations, that was a long time ago. Moreover, the people who were visiting for the first time may have not even heard of them.

These were exactly the reasons Lex had decided to temporarily not go to other planets and just focus on improving the Inn during this next upcoming period. The Henali assembly, in comparison, while still risky, would not take as long so Lex could still afford to go.

Still, while all of these were concerns, Lex was aware of them and already planned on fixing them. Sure it may take some time, but it would not be a huge loss. This was exactly why Lex could take some time to handle a few personal matters, such as the one regarding Earth.

What he did not know, however, was that an army had been silently gathering at the Inn for the past few months, completely under the radar.

When Lex visited the planet X-142, a mysterious group had begun to infiltrate it. Their purpose was unknown, though their actions suggested that they were either there to destabilize the Dmitri family, or steal from them.

The Dmitri family, a business oriented family that had bought the rights for the X-14 star system for a thousand years, had picked up on their infiltration quicker than anticipated, and had reacted more strongly than anticipated.

Many of the infiltrator teams were captured or killed. But fate is an unusual thing, for it was only a short while earlier that those planets had been connected to the Midnight Inn. The chances of one of those remaining teams encountering either a golden key or the golden gate that appears randomly were miniscule, yet that is exactly what happened.

As soon as a single member of the infiltrators figured out the nature of the Inn, he spread the word. It was so that this mysterious group, after entering the planet, began using a golden key to teleport to the Inn, and remain there until they were themselves required there.

Over time, due to the secretive nature in which they were operating, over 5000 such infiltrators had entered the Inn through various strategic points on the planet.

When the time was ready, they would return, and wreak havoc. Moreover, because they had been at the Inn for so long, they had a deep and thorough understanding of the Inn itself, and so made no attempts to create trouble.

In fact, even while at the Inn they were extremely careful in their behavior. They did not stick together,and instead split up as much as possible. They involved themselves with different events such as the Lady Cosmos and Earth Expo to fit in, and started to acquaint themselves with some of the workers and guests at the Inn to seem more authentic.

But now, for the first time since they began arriving, some of the group members were holding a secret meeting.

"Over the next few days, slowly spread the word," said a man wearing the Clark Kent glasses. "The operation will begin within one week. Everyone needs to be ready at a moment's notice."

"Yes sir," was all the reply he got, and it was all he needed. The plan was in motion now.

Oblivious to the nefarious plot being hatched with the Inn at the center of things, Lex was patiently waiting for Marlo.

The man had rented a Large house at the Inn, and practically lived here permanently. Considering it was just him, his wife and his son, spending money on a 2000 MP a night house was a little extravagant in Lex's opinion, but then again, who was he to complain?

Lex was genuinely impressed by the fact that Sophia did not seem to be bothered by his request to meet Marlo and directly called for him. After all, as a popular man, there must be many wishing to meet him, yet he was still so receptive.

The truth was that due to Marlo's newfound strength and complete disregard for social norms, most people feared even coming in front of him let alone meet him, so this was genuinely an uncommon occurrence.

When Lex finally saw him, he noticed that the former giant had finally started to regain some of the muscle on his body that made him seem more of a monster than a man. Yet currently the amount of muscle he had stacked up was still within the realm that mere mortals could understand.

"Well well well, look who has the guts to show up at my house after dropping my class," said Marlo wearing his signature mad grin. Unfortunately for him, now that his body proportions were actually normal, he looked handsome instead of crazy with that smile.

Lex simply shrugged and said, "your wife had my apartment ransacked. I didn't want to get pulled into your family drama."

Marlo, who had been fully intending on messing with Lex, froze. He had no idea about the details and turned to look towards his wife who was just filing her nails nonchalantly. She couldn't even be bothered to deny it.

"Well then lad, I'd say you did the best possible move to defend yourself by running far away," Marlo said with an approving nod. He sat down opposite Lex and made himself comfortable. His old butler from back in his apartment in New York appeared from a different room and began laying down snacks and refreshments.

"As much as I'd like to sit here and reminisce about the good old days, I'm here on some serious business."

Lex put the binder on the table in front of Marlo and said, "You can treat this as a request, or a favor. Or maybe if there's something you need, I can help you get it done, but I need your help to get this binder in the hands of the woman named Fernanda."

Marlo raised an eyebrow in curiosity. He recalled Lex clearly because he had been ordered by his step family to keep close tabs on him nearly a year ago. In fact, it was through Lex that Marlo first learned of the Midnight Inn, and gained his opportunity to improve his life. He not only had a good impression of him, but he was also quite intrigued by him. There was clearly more than met the eye about him, so now that he directly referenced Fernanda so straightforwardly, without making any roundabout excuse of why he even knew that name, he was even more intrigued by what was in the binder.

Without saying anything, Marlo picked up the binder and began perusing. At first he was nonchalant about it, but only a few minutes later his wide grin dropped and he became utterly serious.

The story about a hidden hand manipulating all the conflicts on Earth would have been too far fetched for Marlo to believe just a year ago, but now he doubted nothing. A few moments later, a tinge of red entered his eyes as he read about a certain conflict - to be precise, the one in which he had to sacrifice his golden core, and lost a majority of his comrades.

That too had been a part of a worldwide chess game between the 'prisoners' being held on Earth. If before he had only been intrigued in hearing what Lex was saying, now he was suddenly greatly invested. After all, it had just become personal.

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