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0.66% The Innkeeper / Chapter 9: Resignation

Kapitel 9: Resignation

With a thought, Lex returned from the Inn back to his apartment. He could return from the Inn back to wherever he entered with a thought. Returning to the Inn, however, took a few minutes, during which if the process was interrupted it would be cancelled. Lex wasn't sure why there was a difference in coming back from the Inn to going there, but it would go away when he raised the Inn level. Or so he assumed.

The first thing he did when he was back was check on the Fancy Monocle. He was really concerned about how much data it would use up to fill its database. If it just learnt everything from Wikipedia or some online library, that would still be bearable, but if it decided to download the entire internet to fill its database, there was no way that wouldn't invite trouble. That's assuming that downloading is how the monocle fills its database. Who knew how these treasures from the System worked?

Fortunately, when he found the monocle, the tab on the computer said 'database filled', and there didn't seem to be any problem so hopefully all was well. Lex put on the monocle over his right eye and took a look around the room and was instantly amazed. Random bits of data showed up around anything he focused on, and the data would disappear or expand based on his thoughts. He looked at a table and he was shown data about the kind of material, its dimensions, its durability, the amount of wear it had accumulated and so much more. He looked at himself in the mirror and he started seeing data on himself, his height at 6 feet 1 inch, his weight of 185 pounds, the length of his hair, the material his clothes were made from and much more. It was impressive, however, Lex disabled all the bits of information and kept it so that it would only show details he was interested in.

With a thought, he returned the monocle to the system and went towards the shower. It had been over a day since he last showered and he felt a strong urge to wash. After a long, hot shower and an equally long time in front of the mirror admiring his new body, Lex put on some pants, a T-shirt and sneakers and left his apartment. He could have sent in his resignation via email, but it didn't feel right. He wasn't close to his boss but still had an amicable, professional relationship with her, so it would be better. He also wanted to say farewell to a couple of his coworkers.

He plugged in his earphones, a New York standard, put his playlist on shuffle and was on his way towards the subway. Lex, lost in his thoughts, didn't notice, but his stride was greater and his pace faster. He exuded a sense of purpose and confidence that he lacked before, and his now sturdy figure attracted just as much attention as the soft smirk on his face. Once he got on his train, he opened the Midnight Store and bought a golden key to invite a guest. A key was for 100 MP and its price would double after each purchase and the price would reset once every week. For Lex, this presented a problem as buying keys was a bit of a gamble, as a guest would need to stay for at least 2 nights if he wanted to break even, or possibly buy something from the Gift Shop.

From Mary, he learned that 1 MP was approximately $1,000 if a guest was to use money. According to her, paying using some kind of spiritual item rather than cash would be more feasible for his guests from Earth. How was he supposed to know where to look for guests who had spiritual items? He had absolutely no idea, but his luck had been great the last couple of days, so he was planning on continuing to rely on it for this. When he reached his stop, a Golden Key 'fell' out of his pocket onto his seat but before anyone could notice he was already gone. For a while, nobody paid the key any attention, but eventually a young child was attracted to its shine and picked it up. He tried to show his mother, but she was preoccupied with something on her phone. He decided to show her later.

Unaware that his key had fallen into the hands of a child, Lex continued on his journey till he eventually reached a high rise building. He looked up to admire the building one last time and reminisced about the years he'd spent here. His company was on the 9th floor in this building with over 80 employees, many of whom Lex was familiar with. He worked as a web developer and the work was interesting enough at first, but he'd become bored with it in his recent life, like he'd become bored with everything else. At least he knew the reason for that boredom now, and even without resolving it, yet his current path in life left little room for anything but excitement. Taking a slow, deep breath one last time, inhaling the smells of the warm pretzels and bagels being sold from the food carts nearby, Lex shook himself free of his hesitation and moved towards his office with purpose.

It was still early, so people were still coming in. Harry and Elaine, his two coworkers who he was closest to, hadn't come in yet but his boss, Jessica, was already sitting in her office. He knocked on her door and waited for Jessica to call "come in" before he proceeded in.

"Hey Jessica, I'm glad I caught you early. I need to talk to you about something."

"Lex?" Jessica looked up from her computer and saw him come in the door. "I hope everything is well. When you didn't come in yesterday, I had someone try to contact you, but they weren't able to reach you."

"Yes, yes, everything is fine. I'm sorry I wasn't able to come in yesterday, but the reason why I wasn't able to come is what I'm here to talk to you about." Lex sat down on a chair opposite to Jessica and considered what to say for a moment before he spoke. "I'm here today to turn in my resignation."

"What?" Jessica exclaimed, taken by surprise. "How come? The company has always treated all of its employees well, and I've never heard any complaints from you before."

Lex let out a weak smile and replied, "You're right, the company has always treated me fairly and I've never had any complaints, nor had I any intentions of leaving before. However, I was recently offered a very promising position as team lead at a new startup. They needed a reply from me as soon as possible, which is why I couldn't come in yesterday as I was visiting their site."

"Ah, well congratulations," Jessica replied, quickly regaining her composure. She only knew Lex about as well as the other employees under her, which was enough to know that he was a competent worker and gave her very few problems. "Will you be leaving immediately? I must remind you that if you forgo your two weeks notice you forfeit your gratuity and any other benefits the company would normally afford you."

Lex smiled internally. Just the investments he'd made from his $7 million gave him a regular return higher than his salary, so money was the least of his concerns. "Thank you for reminding me, but I must start immediately. I will just have to forfeit them."

"Well, in that case, I wish you good luck on your new endeavors. To make it official, please submit a written application to Henry from HR, who will then have you fill out some paperwork and collect any company property you have, as well as have an exit interview. Once the process is complete, bring the papers back to me and I'll sign them."

Jessica was as formal as always, but in a way, that made things easier. Lex exited her office, but Harry and Elain were still not in, so he went towards HR. The process took much longer than he expected and a little over 3 hours later, Lex returned to Jessica. She looked over the papers and eventually signed off on them.

"Well, it seems you're moving onto bigger things, Lex," she said as she stood up from her chair. "I wish you success and great fortune in your future endeavors."

She reached out for a goodbye handshake and Lex complied, thinking it a good way to say farewell. What he did not expect was that as soon as they held hands, Jessica's eyes widened in shock and she blurted out "A cultivator?".


Kapitel 10: Cultivators on Earth

Lex was taken aback, and the surprise showed clearly on his face without the Host Attire to help him control his expressions. For a moment, they both just stared at each other before they both quickly regained their composure.

"How can you tell?" Lex asked, not bothering to try and hide the fact that he was cultivating. He needed to learn more about cultivators on Earth, and how he could come in contact with them. An opportunity such as this would be impossible to find again.

"How can I not tell? You're not even trying to hide your internal strength. Hasn't anyone told you that you need to be careful? If I was a regular person you could have seriously hurt my hand."

Lex immediately realized that he was probably using more force in his handshake than a normal person. This meant he still didn't have a good grasp of his strength yet, as he hadn't even noticed.

"I'm sorry, I just broke through yesterday. I guess I'm not used to my strength yet. Wait, does this mean you're a cultivator as well?"

Jessica didn't reply, but stared at him intently. Silence filled the room and slowly tension started to build until it began weighing on Lex.

"Who is your mentor?" she finally asked, her tone suddenly accusatory. "What district do you belong to? Why haven't you disclosed yourself in the Bluebird office?"

Jessica's grip on his hand strengthened and Lex suddenly became aware that he couldn't pull it out. He was panicking a little now, but the situation wasn't out of control yet. He could still redeem himself.

"I don't have a mentor. I don't know what you mean by district. You're the first cultivator I'm meeting."

"How could you cultivate if you don't have a mentor? Don't lie to me, my cultivation is a lot higher than you and I'd have no problem at all taking care of you. Explain yourself here clearly or I'll take you to the Bluebird office. You should know how they treat undocumented cultivators in their territory."

"No, please, listen to me," Lex pleaded. He could feel the pressure she was applying on his hand, and he was sure she'd crush his bones if she used even a little more strength. Even if Regal Embrace was focused on defense, it could do little for him if the gap in strength between him and his opponent was huge. He needed to quickly come up with an explanation that didn't expose the System. He was too young to die! He'd never have expected to encounter danger on Earth; he thought it was the other worlds that would endanger him. Fortunately, when he learnt Regal Embrace, it also gave him general information about other cultivation techniques so that he would understand how Regal Embrace was different. He could use that information to explain how he taught himself.

"I found my cultivation technique on a piece of paper in a bottle on the beach. It explained a lot about cultivation, but I just thought it was some kind of yoga. It wasn't until I tried it out and felt the changes in my body that I started taking it seriously. I just broke through yesterday for the first time. I don't know anything else about cultivation other than what I learnt from that bottle, and I've never met another cultivator before."

Lex tried to sound as desperate and as honest as possible, which he was in the beginning, as Jessica was very intimidating. It wasn't until he remembered that he could retreat to the Inn as long as he was given a little bit of time that he recovered internally.

Jessica stared at him a while longer, trying to determine if he was telling the truth. Ultimately, she let go of his hand, but just as Lex was beginning to feel relief, he felt a strange aura surround him. It was the first time he felt something like that - if he had to choose a word to describe it, it would be sharp. He felt as if any movement he made could hurt him, and that he was in more danger than before. The aura, however, disappeared just as quickly as it came.

"I will believe you, for now. But you have to follow me to the Bluebird office. All legal cultivators must be registered and have an identity token on them at all times. If you try anything funny or try to run away... well, I'm sure you felt my Qi surround you just now. As the sub-district head, I have the authority to eliminate any suspected threats."

Lex suddenly got goosebumps. This was bordering on insane! He was just trying to quit his job, and his life was threatened time and time again by his ex-Boss. The cultivation world really was dangerous.

"Fine, fine. I'll follow you. We've worked together for so many years, you know me. I won't do anything 'funny'."

At Lex's words Jessica was suddenly reminded that she had indeed worked with Lex for a few years now, and although she did not have an intimate knowledge of the man, she'd spent enough time with him to get an idea of the kind of person he was. She relaxed visibly, but didn't drop her guard completely.

"Follow me and act natural. If anyone in the office asks where we are going, just say I'm taking you downtown to the legal office to finalize your resignation."

Lex smiled weakly and nodded. He followed her out of her office, and they cut through the building quickly. He noticed Henry was sitting at his workstation, but this didn't really seem like the time to catch up. Fortunately, no one questioned where they were going.

When they reached the street, a black SUV was parked at the door with a chauffeur waiting for them holding the door open. Lex climbed into the car behind Jessica and they were off. For a time, they sat in silence. Lex, who had once again regained his composure after constantly being threatened, was thinking about how he could remedy the situation. A lot of it depended on how they treated him at this so-called Bluebird office. But waiting to see how things turned out wasn't something Lex could do, he had to take initiative.

"So... are cultivators very common?" Lex asked, sounding reluctant.

Jessica hesitated, but answered eventually. "Cultivators are rare enough so that the general populace does not know about them, but are common enough that there are special laws pertaining to them. Most powerful or old families have them and most of the upper echelon of any large companies have them. In democratic governments, they are rarer, but every military is full of them. You can consider it as if any person of a certain status has at least some interaction with cultivators, if they are not so themselves. Even a normal person who raises himself to success will end up encountering them eventually, and may even become one."

"So how come they're such a big secret? I never even believed they were real until I got my cultivation technique."

"It's a secret, but not a closely guarded one. There are tons of books and movies and shows about them everywhere. But most news outlets strictly control what's reported as actual news and cultivators themselves have a huge incentive to keep things quiet. Cultivation resources are rare and the more demand there is for it, the greater the competition will be."

"If it's not such a big deal...then why did you react so strongly to finding out I'm a cultivator?"

"There is a stark difference between a registered and unregistered cultivator. Because of their increased strength and abilities, if cultivators are not regulated, there would be chaos everywhere. In older days, clans or sects used to maintain the peace. In the modern day, things have changed. In the US, 3 private companies have the government contract to regulate cultivator activity, Bluebird is one of them. They maintain a list of registered cultivators, and some basic information about them. This way, if an incident occurs, they can more easily track whoever was responsible. Unregistered cultivators, though, are a different story. Registering has no real drawbacks, and instead has many benefits, which is why only those people who have something to hide don't register. Most of the time, they're criminals who've run away from another country, or people with malicious intent." Jessica hesitated a bit once again, unsure of how much more would be appropriate to reveal. Eventually, she decided to give Lex a warning.

"You should be very careful. If you really did cultivate yourself and have no background to rely on, then you fall under the most vulnerable category of cultivators. Although cultivators have to follow special laws and their activities are regulated, they are also afforded special privileges. It's not so bad normally, but if a cultivator with a high level of cultivation ever perceives you as a threat to his or her interest, they won't hesitate to kill you, and at most they'll just get a fine. If you want to survive, I strongly suggest you join an organization as soon as possible."


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