The Innkeeper

Lex did not answer the question, but only smiled at the lady. Of course, as his face was covered by a mask she could not see the smile, so all she saw was that the man stood there silently without answering the question.

"Oh pardon my curiosity, it is not a required question," the girl said, realizing her mistake. As long as the other person did not break any rules, it did not matter what he did. During the registration process, he would automatically be tested to see if he has broken any rules, so if his arrival was problematic, it would be detected then.

"Actually, you may not know this since you just arrived, but the heir to the Tilaiyan Alliance is to be wed in a few days. It is naturally a grand affair, and has attracted a lot of attention. To prevent overcrowding of the planet from tourists and opportunists, the planet has just entered lockdown. The order was just passed a few hours ago, so it's perfectly natural if you arrived before then."

The lady explained.

"Please place your hand on the screen," she asked, as he held out a silver screen in front of him. Lex placed his hand on the chilly screen and let it scan him, but kept his attention on the girl.

"Will the wedding be screened? Since I'm going to be here for a few days, I might as well watch."

"The wedding will naturally be screened, but the first part of the wedding will be open to the public. If you can head over to the capital, Viday, then you can attend as well. Oh, if during your registration you disclose your identity, and your identity is special enough then you might get an invitation to the wedding as well. Speaking of which, you've signed up for registration. Please walk through the silver door to complete the process."

"Thanks," said Lex before proceeding as instructed. He had only been making idle conversation as he had no real intention to watch any wedding, or get involved in any way. In the following room there was a single seat with a projection crystal in front of it. As soon as Lex sat down, a number of questions appeared in front of him, awaiting his response.

The questions were more facilitation questions than anything else. The first question he got was if he needed any kind of special environment to survive during his visit to Tilaiya. Some examples included being surrounded by toxic or noxious gasses, extreme heat or cold, increased or decreased gravity etc.

A number of those could be provided for free, while a few of them required payment.

Then he was asked if he wanted to disclose his identity. If he did not, then he would be assigned an anonymous identity as many things on Tilaiya were linked to identification, such as bank balance, social credit, reservations, etc.

He was asked some unusual, and unsettling questions, such as if he wanted to create a will for his belongings on Tilaiya. There were certain procedures and forms he needed to fill out if his intention in coming here was to euthanize himself, such as body disposal and preference in burial styles. He was even asked if he had any enemies who he knew were also on the same planet. For the other things the reasoning was beyond Lex's understanding, but by disclosing the identity of your enemies, you would automatically avoid them while on Tilaiya. How that was managed was not disclosed, and Lex could not guess either, but it was basically guaranteed that you would not run into anyone you wanted to avoid as long as you mentioned it first.

His impression of Tilaiya changed a bit as he answered the questions, but to his surprise, by the time he finished answering the questions, his registration was complete. If he was investigated in any way, he did not discover it at all.

When he stepped out, the Blaze girl was patiently waiting for him.

"Welcome to Tilaiya, honored guest. Now that you have registered, there are a few things I need to inform you of. The first thing you should know is that currently your assigned identity has the rank of basic guest. The amenities, services and privileges you enjoy on Tilaiya are directly related to the rank of your identity. The higher your rank, the better the services.

"Your identity rank is determined by the bank balance you maintain associated with your identity. If you maintain a basic balance of 1000 Tilaiyan credits your rank will be raised from basic guest to honored guest, if your balance is at 10,000 credits then the rank will be distinguished guest, and so on.

"There are a few ways in which you can get those credits or maintain the bank balance. The first and simplest is if someone pays you or loans you some credits, they will directly contribute to your balance. Another is to do jobs and complete requests of locals or even the alliance itself. The most common way to accumulate credit is to either transfer it from your original, or other anonymous identities you may have in Tilaiya. Or you can sell or mortgage items. The facilitation center provides a convenient location if you wish to sell any items."

Lex suddenly felt like he was a saint, looking at the final form of a true capitalist. The entire society of Tilaiya seemed to be centered around money,or credit as they called it.

"I want to get some credits, and then rent a place to stay. Where can I do that?"

"Please follow me," she said and led Lex to another part of the building that was a lot busier. There were countless counters, yet each of them was dealing with a client.

"Here you can sell items to get credits, or claim credits from your alternate identities. Do not worry, claiming credit from an alternate identity will not link the two, as the process is done completely anonymously. If you choose to sell an item, then please keep in mind that most items have a fixed price. There is no concept of negotiation in Tilaiya. This works in your favor as well as anyone else's."

After ensuring that Lex did not need any more help, the girl led Lex to a counter with a small line and let him be. The experience somewhat reminded Lex of his youth. He used to travel a lot with his family, and at the airport they always used to go to a similar counter to exchange their foreign currency for whatever was used locally.

The memories ruined Lex's mood a little, as he did not like to think of his family much these days. But he did not let it bother him, and simply sold some spirit stones. 1 normal spirit stone was worth 1 Tilaiyan credit. Lex did not have any context for if that was good or bad, but he had countless spirit stones lying about so he couldn't be bothered to care.

After getting 10,000 credits and becoming a 'distinguished guest', Lex got some help in booking himself a hotel room and then finally exited the facility. He had already asked for directions, so he slowly strolled through the streets, taking in the views as he approached his seaside hotel room.

This really did feel like a vacation, which was not something he was complaining about at all. Once he checked into his room, Lex thoroughly inspected it both with his own senses as well as the Fancy monocle to ensure there were no spying or recording tools.

This was going to be his first time contacting an assassin organization so he felt a little nervous about getting caught. But he felt more excited than anything. This was so interesting, he never would have imagined himself associating with assassins.

Once he was sure that his room was clean, he set up an isolation formation he had bought from the Guild room, and then finally took out the card Powell gave him. He channeled his spirit energy into the card, causing it to suddenly catch fire.

In an instant the card turned to ash, falling through the air. But before the ash could reach the ground it shimmered, and then slowly vanished.

"How mysterious," Lex muttered, enjoying the spectacle. Considering how casual he was feeling, maybe he wasn't nervous after all, just excited.

The air rippled in front of him, and a portion of the room seemed to turn black and white. A masked elven figure appeared within the black and white area and looked at Lex.

"You have used a VIP card to contact Hix. If your task is accepted, it will be carried out with the utmost urgency and given the highest importance. Please share the details of the mission, and hurry. The Reality Filter we're using to communicate will not last longer than a minute. Please note that after you share the details, there will be an evaluation period in which Hix will decide whether to take on the task or not. All payments must also be made in advance in the scenario that the task is accepted."