Lex tapped his fingers on his armrest, his thoughts wandering about whether to involve Liz or not. He didn’t want her to become an official employee of the Inn, but it wouldn’t hurt to hire her as a temp. Even John had started out that way...

Speaking of John, the man was truly enigmatic. He was walking the path of an assassin likely because his tenets were set. That much Lex could accept. What truly astounded him was that John was also walking the path of a scholar. The man had delved into the study of techniques, not only so that he could continue to run Battle Ax, but so he could dissect the very essence of techniques.

What Lex found truly interesting was that John had accepted a client with the request to design a Lawcraft for him. Such a thing was exceptionally difficult, bordering on impossible. Even Lex could not imagine doing such a thing. After all, everyone had different tenets, which meant that they perceived, and thus influenced laws differently. John would have to understand exactly how others tenets worked, and then design a Lawcraft accordingly. It was absurd, honestly. Also, it was exactly the kind of crazy Lex had come to expect from Inn employees.

What Lex didn’t know was that John had been somewhat traumatized by watching Lex absorb Dragons Might, and so his understanding of what was and wasn’t possible had become askew. Combined with the Innkeepers indifference towards systems, John started to believe that everything easy was actually a crutch and only by doing the impossible would one reach the common standards of the Inn. Such a thing should be expected from a universal establishment.

Like, for goodness sakes, Gerard was dating the daughter of a Dao Lord, Z had some super, secret ancient inheritance, and Velma was being pursued by hundreds of millions of beings across the realm, hoping for a single date. Anita was literally an undead lich about to give birth, and the father of the baby was a sword. Nothing really made sense.

So, to avoid being the odd one out, John too started doing the impossible.

The thing that Lex noticed was... John wasn’t the only one who had started to do crazy things just because they didn’t realize how crazy it was. Sandra, the Inn worker with the power to control lightning, the one Z had asked out and had been rejected by, was now running a store where she offered to consume the traces of lightning tribulations trapped within peoples bodies and souls.

Sure, Lex was the first person to do that. But he couldn’t do such a job full time. Besides, Lex was somewhat of an exception to the rule because of all his perks. Sandra, though, just wanted to improve her own lightning, so she absorbed any and all lightning.

Now, that in itself was not crazy. The crazy part was... many of her clients were Heaven Immortals, while she herself was only an Earth Immortal.

Where was the fear and respect of lightning tribulations? It was as if no one gave the poor things their due fear and reverence. Absolutely preposterous.

Lex turned to look at the projection of a lady eating fried chicken in front of him - the one that carried the presence of a Dao Lord - and couldn’t help but twitch his lips.

"Why are you, a projection of a Dao Lord, eating an actual mortal chicken? How can projections even eat chicken?" he could not help but ask.

"Don’t you know it’s rude to stare at a lady’s food?" Mary asked between bites. "And I have the same projection capabilities as the Innkeeper. That means I can interact with the real world. No one can tell this is a projection either. If the Innkeeper couldn’t even eat chicken, how could he impress his guests? Don’t underestimate the system and its chicken eating facilitation."

Lex looked at her, attacking that bucket of fried chicken, not even a trace of ketchup or bbq sauce anywhere, and shook his head. Everyone at the Inn was abnormal. He was the only normal one.

"Besides, can you blame me? When you said you wanted to chat, I thought it would be for something interesting. The real

problem you’ve been unable to overcome. Instead, you talked to me about random stuff no one really cares about."

Lex’s lips twitched again. Random stuff no one cared about? He had literally talked to her about Rafael losing all his friends, ergo, Lex losing his friends. How was that stuff no one cared about?

"What do you mean the ’real problem’ I’ve been unable to overcome?" Lex asked instead of saying what he really wanted to say.

"The real problem of when you’re going to ask out that pretty little ballerina you’re always ogling," Velma said, pointing at Lex with a half eaten drumstick. "I swear, if your life was a book something like 2.26 million words would have gone by without you gathering up the courage to do what everyone can obviously see. ¹

"Tell me honestly, are you asexual? Do you not have romantic interests? I won’t judge you if you don’t, but how many years have I known you now? Like, for at least four decades now. For an immortal, that’s nothing. But for someone who up until very recently didn’t even know about cultivation, that’s enough time to start a family, suffer two midlife crises’ and have several problematic children. Yet in all this time, you haven’t even ever kissed anyone.

"You know what, I take it back. If your life were a book, all the readers would be cursing at you for being forever alone, or cheering you on for breaking free from the chains of societal norms. And trust me, you wouldn’t want to be one of those societal norms people."

Lex facepalmed. He had no words. He genuinely, truly, had no words. It was easier to respond to a Dao Lords letter than Mary’s rant about his dating life. Had gaining a projection unleashed her true personality? In that case, Lex might never let her get a body of his own, just because he feared what she might say then.