The Innkeeper

Alexander and Helen drove all the way to a private airport, far away from any town or city. It was not the kind of place you could accidentally stumble into. After confirming his identity, the two of them were led to a hangar with a military helicopter. Getting in the pilot's seats, the two of them hurried through the takeoff protocols and left.

Alexander was naturally trained to pilot all vehicles so that he could deal with any situation, and Helen, who had been trained to be a wife to a cultivator, excelled in various seemingly random skills. Piloting an aircraft was just one of her many talents. This was exactly why among his close friend's group - when he still had one - Alexander would usually trust Helen with a request rather than the others. As much as he tried to hide it, he found it difficult to relate to the usual unengaged and unmotivated rich kids his age. At least Helen always applied herself in whatever she was doing.

About an hour after they started flying over land completely untouched by civilization, they suddenly found themselves in a very well hidden base in a valley. After having his identity confirmed, the two teenagers landed in one of the Morrison family's hidden military bases. While the Morrisons had a minimum military presence on Earth, it wasn't as if they had none. Yet today, the base was a lot busier than usual.

Before the Midnight Games began, Alexander had spent some time talking to some of the other guests. He had learnt from Chen that Vegus Minima was not the only planet that humans populated within that solar system. Despite that, the other planets were not mentioned by the Innkeeper when he announced the upcoming event.

That led Alexander to suspect that only people from the named planets would be able to participate. While he shared his suspicions with his family so that they would make any preparations they needed to, it was only after carefully selecting soldiers for his own small battalion.

Technically, organizing a personal battalion for himself would take longer and more careful planning, but this would suffice for his current needs. After careful and deliberate consideration, he selected 1000 of the best Foundation realm soldiers under his family's command. Originally, he thought that the number was overkill, and that there was no way he would need so many to follow him in the games. As it turned out, the number was still not large enough. But it would have to suffice.

Moving any number of troops from one planet to another took time. The only reason he'd even been able to gather 1000 Foundation experts was because most of them were already on Earth. The ones he had sent from Mars were only the elite few.

"How is their battle readiness, commander?" Alexander asked the man in-charge of this base.

"They're fully armed, fully prepped and fully briefed. We can have them ready to go in 30 minutes."

"Excellent. Do it. I want to be out of here ASAP."

The commander nodded and quickly ran off, screaming some commands in the distance. The teenagers simply remained where they were and watched as a 1000 soldiers fell into 100 straight lines in front of them.

Alexander naturally did not know all of them, but he had had detailed conversations with all the team captains. They had rehearsed different formations and covered a lot of what to do should communication be disrupted during the games. But, since Alexander had only theoretical knowledge in leading troops and no practical experience, he expected there to be a learning curve, which is why all the captains were also wearing cameras. Alexander would later on review the footage to see how his orders actually reflected on how he could improve.

Once he was satisfied, he nodded towards Helen, who opened a bag full of keys. A few hours ago he had her go to the Inn and retrieve them. According to the latest update he had received, Earth had not registered any of their participants yet at all. They were involved in whatever they were planning and had not made any actual moves yet. Or, even if they were making moves on Earth, they had not reached the Inn yet, which was great for him.

Once everyone had the keys, Alexander gave the command and they all simultaneously teleported away with a flash of light.

They appeared at the Inn in a relatively open area, away from the buildings and the manor. Yet almost instantly, their presence was noticed by the various guests. Their numbers were fewer, and they did not carry the same aura as the Jotun soldiers, but they looked impressive nonetheless.

"I'd like to register for the tournament," Alexander said to his personal hologram, the same as every one of his soldiers was doing.

"No problem, just give me a moment to start the registration process. We just need to make sure you are eligible to enter the tournament."

He could not feel the system scan him, but after just a few moments, he saw a holographic screen appear in his vision.

Contestant Name: Alexander Morrison

Contestant Affiliation: Earth

Contestant ID: E0001

Contestant Points: 0

In just a few more minutes, the rest of his troop was registered as well, the last one receiving the ID E1001. The E represented Earth, and the numbers represented the order in which they registered. Once the tournament started, there would, of course, be a rankings board and with thousands of names it would be difficult to identify which planet each participant belonged to. The ID number would make it easier.

"Your registration is complete," the hologram said politely. "Please refrain from returning to your world during the period of the games. If you are not present when a game begins, you will automatically be disqualified."

"Sure," Alexander replied casually.

The teenager expected that soon he would be summoned by his grandfather and the others, inquiring over his entry and why he didn't at least coordinate with them first. But oddly enough, the summon didn't come. It was ironic then that the highest echelon of Earth remained ignorant of the army that entered under the banner of their planet because they were in a meeting, yet everyone else learned of it.

It would be a few hours more before the Earthling realized what had happened and quickly reacted. What their reaction was and how it affected their plans, only time would tell. Lex was too busy to pay attention to what was happening at the Inn.

As for what Lex was doing? He had returned to Earth and was looking up some information on the latest idea he had. Not that he couldn't figure it out on his own, but he wanted to know how he could benefit the most.

As for what he was looking at specifically? Why, he was looking up how to set up gambling at the Inn. More specifically, he wanted to know how to set up the stakes. There was no way in hell that he would go around setting up stakes that gave twice or thrice the returns for a single bet. He had read enough light novels to know that all it took was some lucky, MC type character and a very unlikely bet to completely destroy his setup.

For a moment, he wondered if he was being corrupted. He himself had never gambled in his life. He hadn't even bought a lottery ticket, but now he was setting up gambling on an interstellar scale.

Then he saw a Banana store that sold phones for thousands of dollars and then sold the chargers separately. He then realized he was not corrupt. He was simply embracing the human heritage of pursuing profit. When dealing with so many species across the universe, it was important that he remembered his roots.

Just like that, the hours flew by and the time came close and closer to the beginning of the games. The Inn became unprecedentedly crowded. Thousands upon thousands of soldiers filled the once empty gardens. Anticipating such a situation, Lex had preemptively taken care of things.

Sending the soldiers into their separate individual rooms may cause a problem later for their commanders, so he had three makeshift bases built representing the three worlds. Hundreds of tents filled each of the base, taking care of everything from temporary housing, dining, plumbing to even things like meeting rooms and storage tents.

The three armies looked vastly different. Even though two of the armies consisted of humans, the ones from Earth were wearing a mix of kevlar and Spirit-tech while the ones from the Jotun Empire appeared to be wearing armor that looked like it came out of a renaissance fair. The beasts, of course, were not wearing any armor, but the fact that many of them were shrunk to the maximum height cap made it evident that once the time came, they would be of a formidable size.

It was three armies, because as of yet the devils had not brought theirs. But he had no doubts that they would make it in time. Lex almost wanted to take a picture. In fact, once the idea came to him, he could not get it out of his head. Taking out his phone he took a few snaps of everything secretly. This would be a great story to tell one day.