The Innkeeper

Chapter 2185: Irresistable sleep

Lex was taken aback, and read the notification again.

New Quest: The Midnight Inn is more than just an Inn - it is a concept that transcends the boundary of common sense, and so it does not need to adhere to common sense. Create a space for the Inn that can merge with other realms.

Quest Reward: Upgrade in Inn Teleportation control

Remarks: You know what else transcends the boundaries of common sense? An immortal having an old-age complex!

Lex ignored the remarks as if they did not exist at all. His system was too used to being snarky. Lex had already more or less confirmed that the type of treatment a system gave to its host depended greatly on the host’s position on the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum. Although Lex himself had made great strides personally, mankind remained pretty low on the spectrum so his treatment remained poor.

Heck, Lex had even seen a Cow Dao Lord now, which means cows had a higher position than humans on a universal scale!

Instead, he focused on the quest, what it could possibly mean, and its progress. The specific requirements for it were unusual. This was something he never would have thought to try on his own.

Using a Minor realm was not actually one of the requirements. What was actually needed was to tear open, and retain a stable piece of space from the Midnight Inn, trapping it so that it could be used and deployed as wished.

The space could directly merge with any targeted space, regardless of which realm it was sent to, which in itself was highly unusual. After all, all realms had slightly differing laws. This was also one of the reasons many Immortals or Dao Lords often chose to make specific realms their home base. Spending more time in one realm would allow them to familiarise themselves with the laws of said realm, making them stronger in it.

For a certain space to be able to fuse with realms, the laws involved were honestly far beyond what Lex could conjure up at the moment, let alone the others. That is why having clear directions from the system about how to trigger and complete the quest were essential. It more than cut half the work for Lex while letting him perfectly make use of the system’s features to complete the project.

This was the kind of thing he couldn’t take lightly, so he diverted a great deal of his focus towards the project, making sure that nothing went wrong. A part of him also felt like he was forgetting something important, yet he could not recall it. Whether it was because most of his mind was focused in the Temple of Fasting, or for other reasons, he couldn’t be sure.

More than once, he scanned Vera, for he had a feeling that what he was forgetting had to do with her and her family, yet he found nothing amiss so he stopped focusing on her for the moment. He didn’t have the processing power to spare. Besides, the feeling was incredibly faint, and he couldn’t be sure of what it actually was.

This was a rare peaceful time for the Midnight Inn, though it was during a period of war. Air of uncertainty and slight tension could not be avoided, even in a peaceful and comfortable environment like the Midnight Inn. Or maybe this was a sign of something else. Lex felt it, but couldn’t understand it. The guests of the Inn felt it, but attributed it to the war. The oracles of the universe might have been able to discern the truth, if only their powers weren’t affected by the impending Nexus event.

Perhaps that faint feeling was a warning for all, since not all things could proceed as planned... regardless of who was doing the planning.

Across the universe the war was becoming progressively more chaotic, especially since the Dao Lords had been trapped in Arch-Heaven. Undercurrents were surging, and while many forces were preparing to adapt to the ever changing reality of the universe, a change occurred.

This change was felt by many when it came, though very few actually understood what the change was. Nuwa, Eclipse, Ventura, and others of their station sensed it, and immediately reacted. Unfortunately, no one else could do so.

Atop the Jolly Rancher, Jack suddenly had a feeling - the opportunity he had been waiting for had arrived. He could finally exit the Major realm... but how? How? No one had the answer for that.

Inside the Origin realm, on a small, almost insignificant planet, Anita, Qawain and their daughter Almira were adapting to a more mundane life. Almira, the baby that she was, found it difficult to adapt to the sudden disappearances of all her doting uncles and aunts.

Where were the dragons she could ride? Where was the shiny phoenix whose feathers she could pluck? The peacocks she could ride? They were nowhere to be found.

As if that was not enough, her mother gave her none of the pampering she was used to getting inside the Midnight Inn. Instead, she made her live with, and work alongside all the other kids on the planet, which was hardly fun at all.

The worst part of it all was that even her mothers undead servants, who were particularly obedient to Almira, had been sent away to fight off the demons on the planet and protect the settlement they were in.

"Come on child, it’s time for your afternoon nap," said Qawain dotingly as he picked up his little princess by the leg, hanging her upside down.

Almira laughed, and flashed a smile at her father while hanging upside down. Unfortunately for her, her father’s Sword Heart was firm, and he could not be bribed with cute smiles. She could not avoid the nap.

Yet as father and daughter entered the room to sleep, something unexpected happened. A bout of drowsiness hit Almira, which was not so unusual. The unusual part was that Qawain too, who was cradling Almira, felt irresistibly sleepy, unable to hold on.

Almost at the same time, the both of them fell asleep, their bodies beginning to fade from reality. A similar scene was happening not just across the planet, but across the entire realm. If there was an entity capable of observing the entire universe, they would have noticed that this phenomenon was happening across the entire universe, with very few exceptions.

Not all fell asleep, but those who felt a sudden, irresistible bout of drowsiness were unable to resist it, whether they were mortals or Dao Lords. Soon after, their bodies would fade, and disappear alongside their consciousness.

The same happened within the Midnight Realm as well. Guests, workers, natives of the realm all suddenly felt a sudden and irresistable drowsiness and fell asleep where they stood. Mere moments after sleeping, their bodies began to vanish.

Lex was connected to the Inn, however for some odd reason, he did not notice the unusual disappearances at first. Maybe it was because of his decreased mental capacity, or maybe it was for some other reasons entirely.

Even the other guests around the Inn seemed to ignore those falling asleep, as if they could not notice them. For a short time, even Wu Kong himself failed to notice the anomaly, instead looking at the little project going on in Immortal Bastion and trying to understand the purpose behind it. Surely the Innkeeper had some deeper purpose behind this.

Why else would he wait until after the Tea Party to start such a project? Could this have something to do with the war?

It was while he had these thoughts that he felt something odd. The worker who was bringing him his morning omelette at 6 pm suddenly fell onto Wu Kong, unconscious. In fact, he’d fallen for a few seconds already before Wu Kong noticed.

The monkey did not panic or let shock affect him, despite the strangeness of the situation. Instead, he silently attached a single blade of hair to the worker, just in time for him to begin fading. As it happened, the blade of hair disappeared alongside him.

Once the worker disappeared, Wu Kong focused on the strand of hair and first confirmed that it had not been destroyed - merely transported elsewhere. Once he’d confirmed as much, he allowed the hair to transform into a clone to study the surroundings.

Yet the moment the clone transformed, Wu Kong felt a bout of drowsiness - an irresistible bout of drowsiness, not just in that one clone, but in all his clones across the universe.

"Dammit, someone broke the seal on the Dream realm!" Wu Kong exclaimed, immediately understanding as much.

He knew he only had a single second at most before he fell asleep, and there was only one being across the universe who he could trust to get him out of there.

Wu Kong appeared outside the Innkeepers door and knocked with an urgency that rippled across the entire Inn!