Lex tetap duduk di tempatnya sambil mengamati layar-layar yang menampilkan seluruh peserta yang bersaing. Ini bukan rencana aslinya untuk Midnight Games, tapi berjalan cukup baik.
Mengadakan acara di luar Inn sebenarnya justru menyulitkan pengendalian detail, dan itu berarti biaya jauh lebih mahal.
Tapi dengan mendaftarkan diri secara keseluruhan, para planet mengikat dirinya ke Inn sebagai peserta. Lalu came tugas yang lebih sulit: menemukan planet yang tepat untuk jadi arena pertarungan.
Mustahil memilih planet secara acak, tapi di sinilah tenaga kerja masif itu berguna. Pekerjanya menyebar ke seluruh galaksi, mengumpulkan informasi. Karena tahu persis apa yang dicari, tugasnya relatif mudah. Bahkan tanpa portal Henali yang menghubungkan seluruh realm, setiap kekuatan besar punya saluran informasi masing-masing, dan Velma punya caranya sendiri menembusnya.
Dengan peserta yang mendaftar sendiri, dan lokasi target yang dipilih satu per satu, dia hanya butuh cara menghubungkan keduanya agar peserta bisa pergi ke planet-target.
Ternyata tidak se-tricky yang dibayangkan Lex. Satu-satunya bagian sulit: mengirim pekerja ke tiap planet yang diteror serangan terorisme dan wabah serangga.
Sesampai sana, dia hanya perlu mencari lokal dengan otoritas cukup, lalu membuat mereka mendaftarkan planet mereka ke Midnight Games juga. Bedanya, mereka daftar sebagai target yang harus diselamatkan, bukan peserta yang ikut main.
Meski sudah nemu celah, prosesnya mahal dan rumit. Faktanya, 21 MT yang sudah dikeluarkan tidak akan cukup untuk seluruh durasi Games. Cukup buat membiayai teleportasi awal dan hadiah saja.
Itu biaya operasi di luar Inn. Tapi mengingat tamu tak terhitung di dalam Inn, dan yang tak terhitung lagi yang akan nonton Games dan ikut berpartisipasi, Lex yakin banget bisa membiayai seluruh acara dengan mudah.
Lagi, apa yang lebih populer di semesta ketimbang nonton perang langsung? Dan di antara semua perang, ini beda jauh.
Hadiah buat pemenang, yang ditentukan di akhir, akan dikirim nanti. Tapi sekarang juga, setiap peserta sudah dapat hadiah individu. Membunuh cukup banyak musuh, menyelamatkan cukup banyak orang, atau melakukan tindakan heroik yang berkontribusi pada perang — seperti mengamankan intel kritis atau melacak pemimpin musuh — akan memberi mereka poin.
Setiap individu bisa menukar poin itu jadi hadiah pribadi. Satu info krusial: baik peserta yang berperang, maupun planet yang diselamatkan, tak satupun berisi Earth Immortal. Jadi dengan semua peserta di realm Nascent ke bawah, menciptakan cara naikkan kultivasi mereka, atau beri harta langka bernilai tinggi, urusan gampang buat Lex.
Semburan rumput acak di realm Midnight bisa ganti herba berharga buat kultivator realm Fondasi, dan embun pagi di rumput itu bisa membersihkan tubuh mereka dari segala kotoran.
Batu kerikil acak jadi harta berharga ber-sifat bumi, dan selembar kulit kayu acak punya vitalitas cukup buat nyawa orang yang sekarat.
Jadi nyediain hadiah, biar peserta breakthrough kultivasi dan jadi lebih kuat dari yang pernah mereka bayangkan, bagian paling gampang buat Lex.
Meski begitu, dia tidak langsung merampas panen melimpah Inn. Masih andalkan Sistem buat generate item hadiah, tapi karena bahan-bahan itu umum di Inn, total biayanya tetap rendah.
Begitu, Lex tidak cuma mengatur panggung perang yang sasaran musuhnya sendiri, tapi menciptakan sumber hiburan berkelanjutan. Penonton bisa mengikuti kisah pahlawan favorit mereka, menyaksikan perjalanan menyelamatkan nyawa sambil jadi lebih kuat.
Kalau di tengah jalan mereka suka sama seseorang, dan mau bantu dia lewati rintangan tertentu, mereka bisa bayar. Pembayaran itu menutupi biaya MP hadiah yang diterima pahlawan favorit, memungkinkan mereka lewati kebutuhan kumpul poin di momen kritis.
Tentu, karena ini acara Inn, tentara bayaran Reaving Dread juga dipekerjakan. Bukan cuma patroli di Inn buat bikin semua orang aman, tapi mereka tetap dekat di setiap planet tempat pertarungan berlangsung. Kalau ada immortal yang muncul, tugas tentara bayaran itu memastikan tak ada peserta yang tersakiti atau ditargetkan.
Hanya bermenit sejak Games dimulai, dan pendapatan Inn sudah melonjak drastis. Setiap planet punya papan skor, mencatat pahlawan terkuat, pembunuh terbanyak, penyelamat terbanyak, segala yang bisa di-ranking di-rankingkan.
Melalui portal Midnight, dia lihat ada yang sudah bikin daftar "Top Beauty Midnight Games", list pahlawan paling cantik dari seluruh planet, ras apa pun. Dibuat salah satu penonton, sepenuhnya berdasarkan voting.
Ada list buatan penonton lain yang bandingin jurus terkuat, dan lagi yang bandingin pertahanan terkuat.
Dengan mengizinkan penonton bikin dan mempopulerkan list-list ini, Lex memperkuat ikatan penonton ke Games, sama dengan para peserta. Makin terikat, makin boros belanja. Makin boros, makin kuat pahlawannya. Makin kuat, makin banyak bajingan terorist yang gugur. Loop sempurna.
Tentu, yang tak diketahui siapa pun, banyak hal berlangsung di balik layar. Bukan semuanya ditayangkan, karena bukan semuanya bagian dari Games.
Dengan mengganggu rencana terorist dan menarik perhatian mereka, Lex menciptakan distraksi buat kekuatan jauh lebih besar dan kuat bergerak diam-diam tanpa terdeteksi, memposisikan diri untuk momen kritis.
Lagi, selama pertarungan terbatas di bawah realm immortal, itu setara dengan tidak benar-benar melukai mereka.
Kuatan yang berani tantang Henali langsung tidak akan terbatas pada di bawah realm immortal saja. Tapi segala hal besar mulai dari kecil. Ini hanya langkah pertama.
Lex terus mengawasi, menyesuaikan di mana perlu dan cepat tangani masalah yang muncul. Karena Games baru mulai, inilah saat paling rawan masalah, jadi Lex memberikan perhatian penuh.
Baik soal Games itu sendiri, tamu di Inn, atau penonton dari realm asal, dia tidak mengharapkan gerakan besar ini berlanjut tanpa halangan, jadi dia waspada terhadap masalah yang timbul.
Untungnya, meski ada masalah, belum terlalu besar — sejauh ini.
Tapi dari banyak hal yang diduga Lex, satu hal yang tak terduga: ada kekuatan luar, sama sekali tidak terlibat rencananya, yang tidak cuma tidak bikin masalah, justru membantunya.
Sejumlah remaja dan dewasa muda tiba-tiba teleport ke salah satu planet peserta Games.
"Apakah kalian semua paham aturan ujian ini?" tanya salah satu dewasa.
"Ya, ya. Cukup masuk top 100 daftar paling banyak bunuh, dan bertahan seminggu buat lulus ujian."
"Bagus. Ingat, ini ujian individu, jadi kita tidak bisa saling bantu. Kalau kalian bagus dan lulus, mungkin kita ketemu lagi saat naik ke Ventura Bronze."
"Agak terlalu percaya diri, kan, Haris?" kata salah satu remaja sambil tertawa, tapi komennya tidak jahat. "Kamu begitu siap tinggalkan Ventura Brown?"
"Bukan cuma Brown, tapi Bronze juga. Ini baru awal perjalananku. Kalau kamu beruntung, mungkin bisa ikut menyaksikan legenda ku sendiri."
Semua tertawa. Suasana bagus. Kenapa tidak? Mahasiswa Ventura semuanya kuat, jadi mereka yakin lulus ujian mendadak yang akan naikkan mereka ke kampus Ventura level lebih tinggi.
Haris memandang portal, tapi pikirannya melayang ke tempat lain. Dia temuin Midnight Inn bertahun lalu, dan dulu bertemu pacarnya, Ayesha, di sana. Tapi sudah bertahun-tahun mereka putus kontak, sejak dia berhenti datang ke Inn.
Salah satu motivasi terbesernya naik level supaya bisa lebih bebas, dan mencarinya.
Seperti mereka, di berbagai planet, banyak mahasiswa Ventura tiba-tiba muncul, ikut ujian mendadak ini. Kedatangan mendadak mereka tak terlihat siapa pun, tapi tidak akan lama lagi aksi mereka menarik perhatian.
Lex kept sitting in his seat as he watched the numerous screens which showed all the competing participants. This was not his original plan of what to do with the Midnight games, but it worked out well enough.
Having the event take place outside the actual Inn made it much more difficult to control the specifics, and that in turn made it much more expensive as well.
But by registering themselves as a whole, the planets linked themselves to the Inn as participants. Then came the much harder and more difficult task of finding the appropriate planets to have the fights on.
It was impossible to just pick every planet he wanted randomly, but that is where having such a large workforce came in handy. His workers spread out across the galaxies, collecting information. Since they knew exactly what to look for, it was simple enough. Even without the Henali portal linking the entire realm, every significant force had its own information channels, and Velma had her own ways of tapping into them.
With the participants registering themselves, and the target locations picked out one by one, he just needed to find a way to connect them so that the participants could go to the targeted planets.
That, as it turned out, wasn't as tricky as Lex originally imagined. The only difficult part was sending a worker to each of those planets being consumed by terrorist attacks and the plague of insects.
Once there, he just needed to find a local with enough authority, and have them register their planet inside the Midnight Games as well. But they were just registering as targets that need to be saved, instead of participants taking part in the game.
Still, despite finding loopholes, the process was expensive and convoluted. In fact, the 21 MT that he had spent would not even last the entire duration of the games. It was just enough to fuel the starting teleportations, as well as prizes.
That was the cost of operating outside the Inn. But considering the countless guests inside the Inn, and the countless more who would watch the Games and choose to participate in some way, Lex was more than confident of funding the entire event easily.
After all, what was more popular in the universe than watching a live war? And even among wars, this one was like no other.
The prizes for the victors, decided at the end, would be delivered then. But even now, each and every participant was earning their individual prizes. For killing enough enemies, saving enough people, or committing some heroic act that contributed to the war in some way, such as procuring critical intel or spotting enemy leaders, they would get points.
Each and every individual could then use those points to redeem individual prizes. One critical piece of information was that whether it was the participants fighting, or the planets being rescued, none contained Earth immortals. As such, with all participants being in the Nascent realm and below, coming up with a way to boost their cultivation, or providing them with rare and valuable treasures was a simple task for Lex.
Any random blade of grass in the Midnight realm could replace a treasured herb for a Foundation realm cultivator, and the dew that appeared on the grass in the morning could cleanse their body of all impurities.
A random pebble was a valuable treasure containing earth properties, and a random piece of bark contained enough vitality to bring a dying person back to life.
So providing prizes for the participants, allowing them to have breakthroughs in their cultivation, and grow stronger than they could have ever on their own, was the easiest part of things for Lex.
Even then, he didn't directly strip the Inn of its bountiful harvest. He still relied on the system to generate the items given as prizes, but because they were common materials inside the Inn, their total cost remained low.
Like that, Lex set the stage not only for a war that would specifically target his own enemies, but he created a prolonged source of entertainment. Audience members could follow along their favorite warriors, following them on their incredible journeys to save lives and grow stronger in the meantime.
If, during that time, they decided that they liked someone, and wanted to help him overcome a particular hurdle, they could also choose to pay up. Their payments would cover the MP cost of the prizes their favorite warriors would receive, allowing them to bypass the need to raise points in a critical moment.
Of course, since this was an Inn event, the Reaving Dread mercenaries were hired as well. Not only did they patrol the Inn, keeping everyone here safe, but they stayed close to each planet where a fight was taking place. If any immortals showed up, it would be the mercenaries job to ensure none of the participants were hurt or targeted by them.
Mere minutes had passed since the Games started, and the Inns income was already shooting through the roof. Each planet had a score board, listing the strongest warriors, the warriors with the most kills, the most saves, anything and everything that could be ranked was being done so.
Through the Midnight portal, he could see that someone had already compiled a Midnight Games Top beauty list, listing out the most beautiful warriors from across the planets, regardless of their race. This was made up by one of the viewers, and the list was entirely based on votes.
There was another used made list comparing the strongest moves used by the warriors, and another one comparing those who had the strongest defense.
By allowing the viewers to make and popularize these lists, Lex increased the viewers attachment to watching the Games, as well as those participating in them. The more they were attached, the more they would spend. The more they spent, the stronger the warriors became. The stronger they became, the more of those terrorist scum they killed. It created a perfect loop.
Of course, what no one knew was that there was a lot going on behind the scenes as well. Not everything was shown on screen, since not everything was a part of the games.
By interfering with the terrorists plans, and attracting their attention this way, he created a distraction for a much larger, and much more powerful force to move silently and undetected, positioning themselves for the critical moment.
After all, as long as the fight was limited to just below the immortal realm, then that was equivalent to not really hurting them at all.
A force that had the guts to take on the Henali directly would never be limited to just those below the immortal realm. But all big things begin small. This was merely the first step.
Lex continued to watch, making adjustments where they were needed and quickly addressing any issues. Since the Games had only just begun, this is when they would most likely have the most issues, which is why Lex gave it his undivided attention.
Whether it was with the games themselves, or with the guests at the Inn, or those viewing from the Origin realm, he did not expect such a large move to go without obstruction, so he was watching for any problems that arose.
Fortunately, while there were problems, they were not too big - so far.
But of the many things Lex had expected, the thing he had not expected was that there were outside forces, completely uninvolved with his plan, that not only did not create problems for him, but ended up helping him as well.
A number of teenagers and young adults suddenly teleported on one of the planets that was participating in the Games.
"Is everyone clear on the rules of this trial?" one of the adults asked.
"Yes, yes. We just need to enter the top 100 on the most kills list, and stay there for a week to pass the trial."
"Good. Remember, this is an individual trial, so we cannot help each other. If you do well, and pass, then maybe we'll see each other when we get promoted to Ventura Bronze."
"A little too confident, aren't you Haris?" said one of the teenagers with a laugh, but his comment wasn't malicious. "Are you so ready to leave Ventura Brown behind?"
"Not just Brown, but Bronze as well. This is just the start of my journey. If you're lucky, maybe you can tag along and witness my legend yourself."
Everyone laughed. They were all in a good mood. Why wouldn't they be? The students of Ventura were all powerful, so they were all confident in passing this sudden trial that would allow them to graduate to a higher level Ventura campus.
Haris looked out at the portal, but his thoughts ventured elsewhere. He had discovered the Midnight Inn years ago, and used to rendezvous with his girlfriend, Ayesha, there long ago. But it had been so many years since they lost contact, once she stopped showing up at the Inn.
One of his greatest motivations in entering a higher level was so that he could get more freedom, and track her down.
Like them, on various planets, many students from Ventura suddenly appeared, taking part in this sudden trial. Their sudden arrival went unnoticed by everyone, but it would not be long before their actions began to attract attention.
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