The Innkeeper

Origin realm, Blue Planet

On a planet remarkably similar to Earth, but not at all Earth, where all people, regardless of how they were named, were not actual people from Earth, a young boy was running for his life, a dark and mysterious figure chasing behind him. Even if it were not early morning, there would be few people around to save the lad, for the hills he was running in were far from any city or town. Even if he were near a town, rural Massachusetts was such that he could run all day and night and not run into another person.

As if that would have changed anything though. From the day that wretched prophecy came out, the boy’s life had been a living hell. Yes, prophecy! For unlike Earth, where cultivators had just become common knowledge, on Blue Planet cultivation had been the norm for a long time.

Deep within the sacred halls of congress, where hidden powers lie dormant, the speaker of the house spoke a prophecy that was not in any way ambiguous or contrived, and directly named him, John Fake Kennedy, a.k.a John F. Kennedy, the chosen one who would bring about world peace and, more importantly, named him as the inheritor for the sacred treasure with the power to control millions of souls, the Super Bowl!

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Vladimir Kardashian, a public figure, singer and fashion icon, did not care about right or wrong, for he had an army of brainwashed fans who would literally sell their own organs and fight to the death at his behest. With influence like his, even if he were convicted of any crimes, he would at most get a light slap on the wrist. In that case, what did he have to fear? He outright sent his own assistant, Dwayne the boulder, a champion of illegal and underground fighting, to go and crush the young J. Fake K.

Just as the boy was running out of energy, and it seemed like the prophecy would not come to fruition, a golden door appeared directly in the boy’s path. It was too close, he did not even have time to stop!

Instinctively, he closed his eyes as he expected to crash, but instead of hitting the mysterious door, he fell forward into a field or grass. Confused, he looked around and found himself in a completely unfamiliar environment.

The air smelled clean and fresh, and the grass was green and vibrant. There were no hills nearby, instead only open plains as well as a road that seemed to lead towards a small town in the distance. Nearby, there was a welcoming hearth lit with a small warm fire and a countdown. In the back of his mind, Fake gave an approving nod to the countdown. It was always smart to set a reminder for when tinder needed to be added to a flame.

Not letting himself be too distracted, Fake quickly turned to look back, but discovered that Dwayne the boulder was nowhere in sight. It seemed like he really had been teleported somewhere.

Fake was not alarmed at this realization. After all, as the child of prophecy, and destined savior of the world, didn’t it make sense if he stumbled across countless lucky encounters that not only kept him alive, but made him stronger?

What Fake did not realize was how lucky he really was. The golden door that he stumbled through was a random golden door that spawned through the Inns new Inter-realm feature that would allow golden doors to spawn randomly anywhere in the entire realm. The fact that this door opened on a planet, and then specifically right in front of Fake, was so statistically improbable it could only be described as lucky.

Fake was thoroughly exhausted so he let himself rest a few moments and catch his breath before he got up to explore his new terrain, but he suddenly felt something tickling on his red shell.

He looked down and saw that multiple strains of grass had bound themselves together to make a thick whip, which they were using to attract his attention. He looked down, the grass started angrily moving about as if to tell him to move his massive, fat body for he was crushing the grass.

“Oh sorry,” said Fake as he awkwardly moved away. After a few steps, the grass seemed to calm down. Apparently, the patch he stood on had gained sentience, but not all the grass was sentient.

Fake breathed a sigh of relief and wiped his forehead with his red claw. There was nothing unusual about this action, for Fake was not a human, he was a Krab-man. This was due to the fact that Blue Planet had nothing in common with earth, besides a few odd coincidences like names, historical events, geography, art and such.

Yes, Blue Planet was a planet inhabited by Krab-people who were mostly divided. If there was only a single thing in history that had managed to unify the Krab-people of Blue planet throughout their history, it was their lord and savior, MC-Donaalde!

But even that unity lasted only briefly, as soon wars started over the correct pronunciation of ‘Donaalde’, with most conventional historians going with the original British pronunciation, but modern generations preferring to add their spin to it.

Regardless, this would be a thing of the past once Fake brought about world peace. For now though, he had to get a better understanding of this new place he was in.

As if triggered by his thought, a small projection of another Krab-man appeared before him, and started introducing this place as the Midnight Inn! Apparently it was a hotel, and the best part was he didn’t need to pay directly, for the hotel would somehow go and collect the payments themselves so long as he had the necessary wealth located anywhere in the universe.

“Can I get a tour of the place?” Fake asked the projection. “Oh but I’m really tired from running, do you have any vehicles that can pick me up?”

“Not a problem,” the projection answered. “A golf cart has been sent your way.”

Fake thanked the projection and waited. To be honest, he did not have the energy to run around as he had a very low cultivation level. In fact, despite his cultivation, his strength at the moment was actually below what humans considered as ‘mortals’ who never cultivated. This was because Krab-people had a lower starting point than even humans.

Soon, Fake saw a small, yet magnificent vehicle, hurtling his way, driven by an unusual looking lady. In fact, the driver was very ordinary but Fake had never seen humans before so she looked strange to him.

But Fake was not racist and did not object to a human guide taking him around the Inn. In fact, they got along pretty well, and became fast friends. Pamela, the golf cart driver, told Fake all kinds of interesting tidbits about the Inn as the drove past all the major attractions. From the village to the massive mountain, to Main street and even the manor, Fake saw it all though it took a few hours to cover everything.

While Fake liked the Inn well enough, his heart truly leaped out of his chest when he saw the lazy river! A relatively small river with gently flowing water, with plastic doughnuts and small rowing boats carrying guests down with the water was extremely attractive to Fake.

So much so, in fact, that he immediately paid to rent a normal room for a couple of nights, for apparently he could not stay at the Inn longer than a certain period if he did not have a room booked or somewhere to stay, and had Pamela drop him off near the river.

Wasting no time, Fake made himself cozy by grabbing an empty plastic doughnut that was floating by, and setting himself in it. He let all his claws dip into the water, and let the doughnut flow on its own along the current.

The sensation of cold water against his hard shell calmed him down, while the gentle ebbing of the water rocked Fake’s doughnut, soothing his tense nerves. His life had been way too difficult for a long time, so it was good to finally relax.

Slowly, his eyelids drooped, and Fake fell asleep in the river. For a short while all was well, but unexpectedly, for the first time, one of the Inn’s latest features kicked in.

Blend Reality was a feature of the Inn that let portions of the Inn sometimes merge with the worlds the Inn was connected to. The system assured that all guests would stay safe and not accidentally enter a dangerous area, but sometimes blending the Inn and other worlds led to unique experiences that people could enjoy. Moreover, sometimes people from the worlds that were merged could enter the Inn like this.

As it happened, since Fake was asleep, he did not notice that his doughnut had gone from flowing down a river, to floating randomly in a small, secluded oasis. For a while all was well, until the only other person near the oasis suddenly noticed a weird creature right in the center of her water source!

Alysha was startled! This was the first time she saw another living creature since her Desert Farming system teleported her to the middle of nowhere. But, suddenly, the creature disappeared from her view. For a while, the young girl could not decide if what she saw was real, or just another mirage.