The Innkeeper

Chapter 1780: LovelessPenguin

“It’s always funny when newbies realize that systems aren’t such a big secret here,” said one of those sitting beside the dog.

“I remember when it happened to me. I wondered why I even got out of bed,” said another.

“Oh shut up Skip. You literally only ever talk about business or sleeping,” said the first.

“Better than Greaves, at least. All he ever wants to talk about is parks and long walks on the beach.”

Skip and Greaves were naturally the fake names that Hargreaves and Skipping were using. As it happened, the both of them were the two most active members on the island, while the others either stayed in their own worlds, or within their own courtyards, only ever coming out for the sake of their quests.

Speaking of quests, Obsidian had really increased the number of quests they gave out, collecting rare items and materials, manuscripts and techniques, increasing the amount of Quest Points everyone earned.

The number of services that Quest Points could be used on had also increased drastically in the last few months – not to mention it was the currency everyone used to give out their own personal quests.

By now, for all members of Obsidian, this place had become an absolutely key factor in their own development and growth, allowing them to gain even more success in completing their own quests. Just the other day, Hargreaves managed to get a B ranking in one of his quests – the highest ranking he had ever gotten.

Now these members wouldn’t leave Obsidian even if someone tried to drag them out. A lot of them were also saving up for their system upgrade service that the mysterious Sage had offered. A few of them were even saving up to have their systems removed – though no one could understand why anyone would want that.

Though, when one of them revealed that he had the ’Diarrhea everyday System’ no one questioned him again.

“Relax newbie, you’re not the only one with a system here,” Hargreaves said, waving his paw and indicating Cedric to sit. “In fact, the very requirement to join this place seems to be that you should have a system.”

What Hargreaves said was very true. From the time he spent a whole lot of MT for security, Lex had a list of suspected system users who showed up as protection – a very exploitable flaw in his own opinion. Lex suspected that the only reason he was able to do such a thing was because of the very high ranking of his own system compared to everyone else.

Regardless, once he had a list of those he thought had systems, and while John searched for other system users himself with the help of the Inns intelligence network, he could pick and choose who to invite to Obsidian.

As for sending them the keys, he left that to his own system. Lex had no idea that often, the keys would appear as rewards for his targets. As long as they got the keys, he didn’t care how his own system did it.

Cedric, too, had been someone Lex handpicked to get an invite – the very first Immortal – to see how immortals influenced his club. He wanted to see if they could discover any weaknesses or flaws in his setup since many Obsidian members now seemed ready to cross their tribulations. It couldn’t be helped, system users grew really fast.

“Saint Sebastian-Cheesecake!” Cedric exclaimed. Disbelief still gripped him. He had thought that he was special – that he had somehow gotten his hands on a system that was unique in the universe. Now, though, he didn’t know what to believe.

“Are you telling me that you all have systems?” Cedric said, careful not to confirm the existence of his own system just yet.

“Naturally,” said Hargreaves. “It was a bit of a secret at first, but the moment you go into the quest room and take a look at the services offered by the Sage – services open for every Obsidian member to see and avail – you’ll realize that the existence of systems is a secret to no one. Well, except the workers at Obsidian. It seems that if you try to tell them about systems, your words and spiritual messages get suppressed, and you get a one time warning to stop or be kicked out of Obsidian.”

“What… what kind of systems do you have?” he asked, still in a stupor, but the expressions of everyone when he asked the question woke him up, allowing him to realize that he had committed a faux pas.

“Excuse my folly, good sirs. The revelation struck me like thunder upon a clear sky, leaving my thoughts scattered like leaves in a tempest. Allow me the privilege of introducing myself to you, my peers and colleagues. I am Nathraval, at your service.”

Bumblethorpe bowed, his mind racing as he reformed all his plans. This revelation changed everything! The only thing on his mind was the kind of reward, the kind of upgrade he would get if he managed to procure a system, and placed it within his museum! It would be… it would be absolutely groundbreaking, he was sure.

But that did not mean he would take any untoward action here in Obsidian. The Sage was becoming ever mysterious to Bumblethorpe, and he did not dare mess with him. After all, he had no idea how the Sage managed to find so many system users when he’d never encountered even one!

His mind, instead, went to the ones spreading the rumors. Those kicked out of Obsidian were surely system users themselves. If they were foolish enough to reveal that they were former members, they were forfeiting any protection secrecy would have offered them. Not to mention, the Sage surely did not care for those who had been kicked out of the community.

Yes, coming to Obsidian was turning out to be one of the best decisions he’d ever made.

“You are quite eloquent in your speech,” said the as yet unintroduced member of the group. “I go by the moniker LovelessPenguin. It’s nice to meet you. By the way, although your previous question was a bit of a blunder, I don’t mind answering, with the caveat that you also reveal yours.”

Cedric smiled, and then shook his head.

“Too bad,” LovelessPenguin said, before turning to look at his own interface. Written boldly right on top was: Timekeeper System.

The function of his system was quite straightforward. For every day that he lived, his understanding of the law of time would increase. The condition was that his system restricted him from having a normal lifespan. The only way to increase his lifespan was to complete system quests, and he hardly ever managed to raise his lifespan more than 30 days.

After so long of living on the edge, LovelessPenguin had become a bit of a daredevil, chasing thrills and not caring about the long-term consequences of his actions. Of course, that also didn’t mean he had become suicidal.

He just liked to keep things interesting. So far, no one had taken him up on his offer to exchange details of their systems. He wasn’t worried, though. He was sure someone, someday would accept. After all, as far as he was concerned, he had all the time in the world.