The Innkeeper

The Rhinocentaurs had long felt that they were forgotten, which was not necessarily a bad thing. At least they didn't face insane torture or death, which made it easier for them to wait for their rescue. During this time, they spent more or less every waking minute perusing the groupchat and its various channels, becoming incredibly active, allowing them to stay up to date with all the latest information.

It wasn't as if they had anything better to do anyway. It was a bitter sweet experience, for on one hand they were saved from eternal boredom, but on the other hand they had to read about others who were out and about, living their lives. At least they developed some renown during this time.

But, recently, they experienced a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions. First they elated when they learned that there was progress on their quest, and that the person who had accepted it finally had a lead on a golden key to enter the Inn. But as soon as they started to expect a rescue, they received the thoroughly disappointing news that the Inn had shut down and stopped accepting guests for an indefinite period.

Since then, the silent, standard days that they had gotten used to once again became excruciating and filled with despair. But eventually they were coming to terms with it once more. However, what they did not expect, whatsoever, was to suddenly see someone finally address them regarding something more than just the food they were going to get. What's more… he was holding a system.

"Recognize this?" he asked, in a tantalizing tone.

The Rhinocentaurs immediate impulse was to deny everything, but they had spent too long here and had been exposed to a lot of very strange things, not to mention this entirely new, extremely energy rich area they were in. They had no idea what powers the Inn had at its disposal, so the idea of lying was quickly disposed of. Not to mention, they had already been interrogated once regarding systems, and the third of them who had a system had gone missing so long ago…

"It's a system," one of the rhinos said gruffly. Even if they were trapped at the mercy of others, it did not mean that they could show weakness. In a way, their own pride was all they had left.

"Yes, I recall you all came to the Inn with the intention of hunting guests with systems. You even had a way to identify who had a system and who didn't. I've put this off for a long while, but how about we discuss how inappropriate your behavior was. To be honest, I put off having this conversation because I was hoping someone would come and rescue you, but it seems I was overthinking."

The Rhino's froze, and didn't know how to respond to that. The rescuer had been coming, but was locked out. Did the fact that this tiny human had been waiting for them to be rescued mean that he was stronger than him? It was hard to compare. Even though the Inn was extremely impressive, and showed them incredible things, the reach of the groupchat was not small either. Some of its senior members were famous across the entire universe.

For a very long time, Lex had mastered the art of reading the thoughts of whoever he was talking to based on their facial and body expressions. There was also his sixth sense which helped him know exactly how a conversation was going. But his abilities became weaker when it came to other races, for it was harder to read their expressions.

Now, though, with his recent upgrade, he discovered that while he still struggled with the same stuff, he could read their soul language! It was a lot more revealing! In fact, Lex would go as far as to call it a lie detector ability, but that would be too one dimensional. Not only could he very easily detect lies, but also whatever emotions the others were feeling.

While it was also thoroughly revealing to the swirl of emotions his targets were feeling, and brought a whole new aspect to interrogation, it also made Lex grateful for the Host Attire. He might not even be able to keep up his facade for a fraction of a second if the Host Attire didn't hide everything about him.

Through the unexpected rise and fall in emotions, he could sense that the two were likely expecting a rescue but faced some obstacle. Nevertheless, he did not confront them. It would be better for him if they remained blissfully unaware of his ability to detect what they were feeling.

"I feel like you two have probably been able to stretch your legs in a while, right?" Lex said, as he released the chains binding them. He was not afraid they would escape because, well, where would they go?

The Rhinos were surprised, and stood up hesitantly. They didn't know what to expect, especially when the human in front of them kept tossing the system up and catching it. They had put so much effort into procuring a system, and even got imprisoned because of their attempts, but he was playing with it like a ball. Where was the fairness of life?

"I'm sure you have many doubts, and I have many questions. Normally we'd go through the whole process where I'd ask you stuff, you'd deny knowing anything. Then I'd punish you, and you would still deny it, so on and so forth until you either tell me what I want, or you become incapable of responding. I'm sure you've been expecting something like that to happen, right?"

The Rhinos exchanged looks. In fact, not only had they been expecting it, they had also thoroughly prepared for the eventual interrogation. As mere basic members of the groupchat, they did not have access to many features, such as the emergency retrieval which would teleport them to a designated safe spot created by one of the groupchat members, or the overriding function, which would override their memories so that through any interrogation they can provide answers that seem real, but don't implicate the chat in any way. After all, if they try to reveal the chat, they will get punished by the groupchat accordingly.

But that aside, they were given a thoroughly vetted list of answers they can give without compromising themselves while satisfying the interrogators. In fact, they had been given quite a number of those to use according to the situation.

A situation where, instead of being tortured, they were treated fairly was also addressed. Both of them suddenly pulled up the relevant chat within their view so that they could refer to it as needed.

They remained completely unaware that, even though Lex had his back turned on them, he could read all the emotional fluctuations their soul was going through, and somewhat guess what was happening in their mind.

"It would be best if we can avoid that," one of them finally said. "When we came to the Inn, we had no ulterior motives against the Inn, and were unaware of the rules. If we are given an opportunity to redeem ourselves, then we will do what we can to aid the Inn with whatever it needs. After all, like I said, we had no intentions against the Inn when we arrived. The whole process that we went through was quite regrettable, especially considering that a platform such as the Death match was already given. We should have just used that."

Lex nodded.

"Yes, it was quite regrettable what happened. Although, the Death match was not a service that was created so you can force or harass people into accepting it. Even though John returned from the match recently, and quite successfully I might add, I do believe he was quite irritated at it."

Lex did not reveal that John was crippled as a result. His intention was just to reveal to them that the final member of their party was also dead, so that they give up on having any thoughts of waiting for external help.

"As for matters of redemption… well it's not completely off the table, but I think we should put that aside for now. You may not be aware, but the Inn has shut down all teleportation services in and out of the Inn for the foreseeable future. It might be years before they open back up.

"Instead, I think we should talk about making your time here at the Inn more bearable - enjoyable, even. How does that sound? As long as you obey the rules and don't cause any issues, I'll let you roam the lands freely, eat good food, interact with the people, and even cultivate again. How does that sound?"

How easily Lex dismissed the topic of their redemption unnerved them, but his offer was too good to be ignored. Even if they could interact with others through the groupchat and weren't exactly restricted in that sense, there was no comparison to actually being free.

"What do you need from us?"