Sekian lama, Lex makan sambil mendengarkan Mary memberitahukan segala yang terjadi selama dia tidur. Situasi yang memburuk di Realm Asal jelas bukan kabar baik. Terlebih lagi, fakta bahwa Fuegan jadi lebih aktif akibat aktivitas terorisme itu juga bukan tanda baik.
Dia kira Henali pihak yang menang dalam perang melawan Fuegan, tapi kalau tindakan terorisme baru ini jadi indikatornya, maka perang akan jadi lebih sengit. Itu kabar buruk untuk 1000 karyawannya yang ikut perang. Untungnya, sejauh ini mereka belum korban jiwa sama sekali.
Usai makan, dia atur jadwal untuk urus hal paling mendesak dulu. Biasanya itu berarti meeting dengan Charles, tapi Lex justru nantikan meeting dengan iblis yang mau mengadakan event 5 triliun MP di Inn-nya.
Timing untuk event semacam itu tidak sepantasnya, mengingat situasi realm-wide. Lagipula, dalam 6 bulan, atau 5 setengah bulan lagi, Inn akan berhenti menerima tamu baru. Kalau event butuh waktu lama, yang dia duga benar, maka harus ditunda beberapa tahun. Lex tidak keberatan, dia punya MP lebih dari cukup buat kebutuhan saat ini.
Dia kenakan Pakaian Tuan Rumah dan teleport ke kantornya, lalu suruh Mary panggil Rocketfellow. Iblis itu datang cukup cepat, seolah menunggu panggilan buat ketemu Pengelola Inn.
"Pengelola Inn, sudah lama tidak bertemu," ucap iblis berpakaian rapi sambil menodai topi.
"Semoga waktumu berjalan dengan menyenangkan," balas Pengelola Inn tenang, senyum hangat lembut di wajah.
"Ah, sayangnya tidak," jawab iblis, nada sedikit menyesal. "Beberapa venture terbaruku berakhir gagal total. Tapi itu proyek kecil, tidak banding sama apa yang kita siapkan ke depan. Lihat, selain urusan lain yang sibukkan aku, aku juga habiskan waktu ini buat mempersiapkan versi Lady Cosmos kita jadi sebaik mungkin. Aku rasa kamu akan cukup tertarik dengan beberapa proposisiku."
"Yakin kau sudah siapkan rencana matang," kata Pengelola Inn, "tapi sebelum kita masuk terlalu dalam, aku harus beri tahu sesuatu, kalau nanti mengganggu timeline-mu.
"Midnight Inn siap menjalani beberapa... renovasi, bilanglah. Sebabnya, dalam lima setengah bulan lagi, Inn akan berhenti terima tamu baru untuk waktu yang tidak tertentu. Jadi, kalau event-nya berlangsung lama, mending tunggu sampai selesai."
Iblis itu terkejut, kelihatan jelas saat dia diam sejenak mengevaluasi pikirannya. Semangatnya agak redup dan dia sandar ke kursi sambil mempertimbangkan.
"Sebenarnya, tahu apa? Ini mungkin bagus. Kita dapet waktu lebih buat menyempurnakan ide sebelum investasi. Mari bahas rencana-rencanaku dan kau bilang mana yang cocok..."
Meeting berlangsung lebih lama dari dugaan Lex, meski penolakan Lex soal kontestan menangkap budak dan memaksa mereka 싸움 sampai mati benar-benar mengacaukan rencana iblis. Tetap, selain kekejaman santainya, iblis punya banyak ide bagus, dan Lex yakin event itu akan sangat sukses.
Target audience event itu kultivator tingkat Nascent, bahkan mungkin beberapa Earth Immortal, yang keduanya punya umur sangat panjang. Oleh karena itu, event itu sendiri akan berlangsung minimal sepuluh tahun, yang juga justifikasi jumlah MP absurd yang dinvestasikan.
Timeline event didorong ke depan, yang ternyata cocok sempurna buat iblis. Dia meninggalkan meeting sambil tersenyum, tapi begitu dia teleport keluar dari Inn, senyumnya hilang.
"Karen, beri tahu yang lain! Timeline didorong ke depan! Kita harus bertindak dalam dua tahun! Siapkan semuanya."
"Tidak masalah. Target sudah ditemukan di galaksi Suera, dan kita dalam kontak erat dengan Fuegan mencoba kerja sama."
Kembali di Inn, Lex tidak bisa menahan erangan. Meski dia nantikan MP-nya, dia bukan fan meeting bisnis yang sangat panjang. Dia nggak tau orang bisnis di Bumi dulu gimana caranya.
"Mary, panggil Charles," ucap Lex sesaat kemudian, mengizinkan diri malas sebentar. Dia punya banyak yang harus kejar.
Tiba-tiba, seorang pria muda kurus berpakaian jas dokter masuk. Meski Lex tidak memperlihatkannya di wajah, dia terkesan dengan sikap dokter yang menampilkan penampilan tenang dan terkumpul, bahkan di hadapan Pengelola Inn. Harus diketahui bahwa siapa pun yang mau ketemu dia harus lewat lobby-nya, yang dipenuhi tekanan sangat kuat.
Karena tekanan otomatis menyesuaikan siapa pun yang lewat, tidak ada yang pernah mudah masuk. Tapi dokter baru ini kelihatannya benar-benar oke masuk ke kantornya. Bahkan seolah dia sudah duga rintangan seperti itu di jalannya. Belum lagi betapa sulitnya tetap tenang di hadapan Pengelola Inn, tanpa kultivasi sama sekali!
Sekarang dia sudah di dalam Inn, Lex secara alami memindai Charles, tapi tetap tidak menemukan apa-apa mencurigakan. Usianya 17 tahun, dan dia tidak punya kultivasi sama sekali. Sikap dan pengetahuannya tidak cocok dengan kredensialnya, tapi Lex bukan orang yang mau menghakimi.
"Dokter, kudengar kau cukup tidak puas dengan cara kami menjalankan hal di sini," kata Lex, mempertahankan suasana tenang dan hangat Pengelola Inn.
"Saya tidak akan bilang tidak puas, Tuan. Tapi saya punya banyak ide yang menurut saya Tuan akan suka. Kenapa tidak Tuan dengarkan saja?"
For quite a while, Lex ate while he listened to Mary brief him on all that had happened during his slumber. The deteriorating situation in the Origin realm was obviously not a good thing. Moreover, the fact that the Fuegan were becoming more active as a result of the terrorists' activities was not a good sign.
He had been under the impression that the Henali were on the winning side of the war with the Fuegan, but if these new terrorist acts were any indication, then the war was about to heat up considerably. That was bad news for his 1000 employees participating in the war. Fortunately, so far, they had not suffered a single casualty.
Once he was done eating, he organized his schedule to take care of his most immediate matters first. Ordinarily that would mean meeting with Charles, but Lex was looking forward to meeting the devil who wanted to host a 5 trillion MP event at his Inn.
The timing for such an event was not necessarily the best, considering the realm-wide situation. Moreover, in 6 months, or 5 and a half months now, the Inn would stop accepting new guests. If the event was going to take a long time, which he suspected it was, it would have to be delayed a few years. Lex did not mind, as he had more than enough MP to meet his needs for the moment.
He dressed up in his Host Attire and teleported over to his office, and had Mary invite Rocketfellow in. The devil arrived quite quickly, as if he had been awaiting a summoning to meet the Innkeeper.
"Innkeeper, it has been a while," the stylishly dressed devil said as he tipped his hat.
"I hope your time passed pleasantly," the Innkeeper replied calmly, a warm gentle smile on his face.
"Ah, I'm afraid not," the devil replied, a hint of regret in his voice. "Some of my most recent ventures have all ended in failure. But, those are all small projects, and don't compare for what we have in store ahead. You see, while other matters also occupied me, I have also spent this time preparing to make our own version of Lady Cosmos the best possible. I think you will be quite interested in some of my propositions."
"I'm sure you have prepared an excellent plan," the Innkeeper said, "but before we delve too deeply into these matters, I have to inform you of something, in case it might interfere with your timeline.
"The Midnight Inn is getting ready to undergo some… renovations, so to speak. As a result, in a little over five months, the Inn will stop accepting new guests for the foreseeable future. So, if the event is to occur over a long period of time, you may want to wait till afterwards."
The devil was surprised, and that could clearly be seen as he paused for a moment to reevaluate his thoughts. His excitement tempered just a bit and he leaned back into his chair as he went through some considerations.
"Actually, you know what? This is probably a good thing. This will allow us more time to refine the idea before we make our investment. Let's go over some of my plans and you can tell me what's appropriate…"
The meeting went on a lot longer than Lex anticipated, even though Lex's refusal to have contestants capture slaves and have them fight to the death put a real wrench in the devil's plans. Still, other than his casual cruelty, the devil had many good ideas, and Lex strongly believed that the event would be very successful.
The target audience for the event was Nascent level cultivators, and maybe even some Earth Immortals, both of whom had very long lives. As such, the event itself would also go on for ten years, at the very least, which would also justify the absurd amount of MP being invested in it.
The timeline for the event was pushed forward, which apparently suited the devil perfectly. He left the meeting with a smile, though the moment he teleported out of the Inn, his smile vanished.
"Karen, tell the others! The timeline has been pushed forward! We need to take action within two years! Prepare everything."
"Not an issue. The targets have already been found in the Suera galaxy, and we are in close contact with the Fuegan trying to work out a deal."
Back at the Inn, Lex could not help but groan. Although he was looking forward to the MP, he was not a fan of extremely long business meetings. He didn't know how businessmen back on Earth did it.
"Mary, send in Charles," Lex said after a few moments of allowing himself to be lazy. He had too much to catch up on.
Soon, a young, skinny man dressed in a doctor's coat stepped in. Although Lex did not show it on his face, he was impressed by the doctor's demeanor as he exhibited a calm and collected appearance, even in front of the Innkeeper. It had to be known that for anyone to meet him, they would have to cross his lobby, which was filled with an extremely strong pressure.
Since the pressure would automatically adjust to whoever was crossing, no one could ever have an easy time coming in. Yet this new doctor seemed perfectly fine coming into his office. In fact, it almost seemed like the doctor had already expected such an obstacle in his path. Not to mention how difficult it was for one to remain calm in the presence of the Innkeeper, with no cultivation at all!
Now that he was inside the Inn, Lex naturally scanned Charles, but still did not discover anything suspicious. His age was 17 years old, and he had no cultivation at all. His demeanor and knowledge did not match his credentials, but Lex was not on to judge.
"Doctor, I've heard you're quite dissatisfied with how we run things here," said Lex, maintaining the calm and warm vibe of the Innkeeper.
"I would not say dissatisfied, sir. But I have many ideas I think you will like. Why don't you hear me out?"
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