The Innkeeper

Alysha was startled to hear the Innkeeper directly mention her system, but then she looked at him with wonder and praise in her eyes. As expected from someone who could run the Midnight Inn. Even though she never mentioned her secret, he already knew.

"From… from the beginning, yes. I used to live with my older sister, Sebiline, on a planet called X-144. She used to work as a seamstress and I used to go to school and help her out in my free time. But, one day, everything changed. I was in a flea market, and an old man was selling an old necklace. It wasn't that pretty, but I thought it would look nice if I polished it, so I ended up buying it with the money I had saved up.

"When I went home and tried to polish it, the necklace accidentally broke. That's when the system first appeared. It called itself the Desert Farming system, and concluded that I wasn't in a desert, and so it teleported me to one. I… I was trapped…" Alysha suddenly found it hard to speak as she recalled that time, tears welling up in her eyes.

Feeling awkward, Lex offered her a handkerchief, though he did not interrupt her. She gladly took it and, after wiping her eyes, managed to continue the story..

"I was trapped in the desert with no way back. I had no food, no water, no shelter. I thought I was going to die. But fortunately, the system provided me with some water, and seeds that could germinate in the desert, and gave me a quest to grow them. Every day, it only gave me a limited amount of water, some seeds, and instructions on how to grow them.

"I… I didn't know what else to do, so I used to eat some of the seeds and plant the rest. I don't know how long it took, days, weeks, maybe years, who knows, but I was able to grow my first plant. Then I got more and more quests. With no way out and nothing else to do, I continued to plant and grow things in the desert - at least that way I had some food to eat rather than seeds. That is until… I got the quest to sell the grown vegetables. I failed that quest, because I had no one to sell it to. Then I failed the next one. Then the next one. Then… then the system said I have to sell the vegetables, and the quest failure would lead to death."

Alysha trembled as she recalled the moment when she read that quest for the first time. It was… a very difficult day.

"It was by luck that I ran into John, who gave me a key and brought me to the Inn! Here, I was able to sell the vegetables in the Guild room and finally fulfilled the quest. But now, I have another quest, and the punishment for failure is death again."

Alysha looked at the Innkeeper, tears once again swelling in her eyes. "I… I don't want to die. I just want to go back to my sister… I just…"

Alysha wasn't able to continue speaking as she broke down sobbing. Lex didn't move to stop her, and allowed her to vent her feelings as multiple thoughts ran through his mind. First of all, the way in which she got her system was far too different from Lex.

Lex was literally attacked by a shooting star while she got it out of an old necklace. Another difference was that her first few quests didn't threaten death, and only when she repeatedly failed quests did the death threats begin.

He also thought about her planet. X-144 wasn't a planet he had ever been to, but he knew about it. It was in the same star system as X-142. When he linked X-142 to the Inn, he received an option to link all the planets in the star system with the Inn, so long as he paid with MP. He had this option for his other planets as well.

He recalled back when he had only a couple planets linked, he thought about purchasing a link to the earth's moon, which would have cost him around 10,000 MP. Back then, that was an astronomical amount that he could not afford.

The issue now, though, wasn't with the planet X-144, but rather…

"This is indeed a matter I can help you with, but there are a couple of issues we need to address first."

The girl looked up at the Innkeeper with expectant eyes.

"The first thing we need to know is… was the desert you were teleported to on the same planet that you were on, or another planet entirely? Because even if I remove the system, and give you a way to leave the desert, if you're on some unknown, hostile planet, it could cause problems."

"I… I… I don't know. I'd never even left my town before."

Lex paused for a minute as he genuinely thought of a solution, as he didn't want to just leave her hanging. Fortunately, compared to all the problems he had been facing lately, this was an extremely easy one to resolve.

"Alright, I've thought of a solution. I can assign a mission in the Guild room for someone to find your sister and bring her to the Inn. That way, at least for the moment, you two will be reunited. As for your location, we can slowly work on resolving that as well. But first, I have a question for you. Regardless of whatever method we use, you will have to spend some time at the Inn. I can sponsor your time here, but I can also offer you a job, and allow you to become a worker at the Inn. What do you think?

"Before you answer, though, there is something you need to know. I am not doing all of this out of charity. I can safely remove your system, but in exchange, I will keep the system, and you will have to follow me to the Chamber of Secrets to remove all memory of the system. Is that acceptable to you?"

For once, tears of happiness filled Alysha's eyes and she was unable to stop herself from hugging the Innkeeper! Of course, considering that she had climbed over his table to do so, it left Lex standing quite awkwardly, but she didn't think about that at the moment. In her mind, the only thing she could think of was that she was finally about to be free from that accursed system!