The Innkeeper

The kid completely missed the dramatic revelation that Lex timed for his eyes never left his plate. Lex only shook his head and continued to eat as well.

Planning this portion of the festival had been harder than Lex had imagined. The idea of theme parks was great, and Lex could easily come up with various ideas that the system would allow him to implement, which would have been too hard to do normally. But the issue was that while all the ideas Lex had would be great fun and excitement for mortals, they would lack the element of thrill for cultivators. Moreover, the greater the cultivation realm, the lesser the excitement would be.

Of course, such a situation only lasted a short while. Not only did he task the planning division to look into if there were any amusement parks or the like for cultivators, he himself had spent some time on the Henali portal doing some research.

As it turned out, the solution was simpler than expected. All he needed to do was throw money at the problem and watch it solve itself. Or, well, in his case, throw MP at the problem.

While a majority of the rides were for everyone, some rides would require the rider to be of a certain cultivation level at least. This was because, alongside the usual pattern that rides followed, various formations could be added to the rides for added effect! Moreover, since these were temporary formations accessed through the event panel that had nothing to do with offense or defense, there was a much greater variety.

Illusion formation, formations designed to disrupt a sense of direction, formations that increased the sensation of fear or excitement, formations that could slow or speed up the perception of time, and many, MANY more formations were used throughout the theme parks to make the rides as diverse and entertaining as possible.

Moreover, the idea of using formations made it so that the rides for mortals became more unique as well.𝒐𝑣𝓵xt.𝑪𝑂𝑀

As if that was not enough, there was also the race course! There was one, massive race track that spanned the entire Inn, as well as a few smaller ones here and there. Of course, simple race tracks would be boring so the tracks were not only bizarre, they were full of unexpected traps, treasures, hidden shortcuts, and dead ends!

Individual races and smaller tournaments would begin as early as today, but a main racing event was also planned that would only begin a week later. To even enter the main racing event, the participant would have to first win one of the individual races or tournaments. This way, when the main race began, most of the drivers would already be well known and have a following.

As for the vehicles used in the race? They were, of course, golf carts.

Some who were familiar with traditional golf carts might complain that golf carts were too slow for a racing tournament. They were not wrong. But there was nothing normal about this race to begin with.

One of the reasons the participants were required to win a race first was so that they would become familiar with the technicalities of the race, for Lex had drawn a lot of inspiration from one of his favorite racing game: Marlo cart!

In the distance, Lex could already hear the sound of the race commentator that Lex had hired. While he had originally planned to delegate this job to one of his workers, while he was planning the event, he came across a guest who seemed perfect for the job. Since Lex didn’t want to go through the hassle of having him go through a proper text and actually hiring him, Lex just hired him as a temporary worker.

The commentator was named Awry, and the vigor and charisma in his voice would no doubt excite all the countless viewers the races would gather.

“Hey kid, do you have any parents or guardians with you?” Lex asked as he looked at him from the side of his eyes. Soon, the lavish meal would end and Lex was planning on going to the theme park to take in a guests’ experience. He wouldn’t feel right about just leaving the kid alone though, which is why he was asking.

“Yeah, I do,” he replied, pausing eating just long enough to get those words out.

“Well, where are they?”

“They told me to go scam a sucker while they cultivate,” the kid responded, not even taking a second to think about what he was saying.

Lex suddenly regretted asking in the first place.

When he finally finished his meal, he looked at the kid again, who was still busy munching, and shook his head. Informing a worker to keep an eye on the kid and let him know if anything was wrong, Lex left towards the nearest theme park.

“Hey Mary, I know he didn’t request it, but let Gerard know he can take time off to participate in the races,” said Lex just as he walked up to his first ride.

It was simple enough as it was a merry-go-round. Except that the speed of the ride would slowly and steadily continue to increase until, eventually, it launched the rider alongside his seat into the air! Of course, the ride was supported by the system and the landing location was guaranteed. This was just a festival version of a train or taxi. Why waste time walking from one place to another when the commute itself can be a part of the ride?

That was the philosophy he planned this ride with, alongside many others.

Grabbing some cotton candy on a stick, Lex got on the ride and strapped himself in. He could not suppress his smile when he saw all the other excited guests get in as well, though many of them were also actually quite nervous.

“Hey,” Lex called out to one of the riders sitting near him, a young girl who looked both excited and scared.

When she looked over, Lex asked, “do you believe you can fly?”

She was confused for a moment, until something clicked in her mind and she responded, “no, but I’m definitely going to touch the sky today.”

Oh, that reminded Lex. Silently, he gave instructions and had Captain Cirk raise the hovering height of the ship. Theoretically it was too high for any guest to reach it with any of the rides, but Lex didn’t want to take chances.