The Innkeeper

Chapter 1666: Negotiations

An awkward silence filled the final room as Lex pretended like he hadn’t heard Interlinks murmurs. Despite having a cold and artificial voice, it did not act like an emotionless entity. Rather, it was as if he was unused to talking to humans. Or maybe he was just unused to talking to non-systems.

“Host Lex Williams of Earth,” Interlink began, increasing the length of what he called Lex once again. “I can merely urge you, but I cannot force you. To accommodate your needs, I have given you a reward that you have repeatedly asked your system for. I have also ensured your safety from the sole source of danger within the quest. I cannot be any more obliging than that.

“If you do not trust me to keep my word, there are no words I can offer you to change that. Though, for the sake of this critical mission, I will share some information with you to ease your mind. I have no say in Joint quests, or how they are issued as well as to whom they are issued. You are correct in assuming, however, that the Joint quests serve a greater purpose. But, again, that has nothing to do with me.

“Your other concern is that I am here, interacting with you, while my job is merely to manage systems. Well, I can definitively tell you that the information you will provide upon completion of this quest will directly enable me to perform my job better.

“As a general rule, Joint quests are a special kind of quest which provide great opportunities to the Hosts, but also benefit the functionality and capabilities of all Systems. Other quest formats serve other purposes.

“As for your other concerns, I do not know how to alleviate your concerns. I truly cannot control your system, but the ability to access it for critical maintenance and emergencies is something I do have. The ability to provide a Custom quest is also something within my prerogative since it serves my purpose. If this is not enough to convince you, you may reject the quest.

“You will suffer no penalty for rejecting the quest, but it’s not like you’ll be benefiting from it either – especially when the quest reward is so desirable.”

Lex wanted to scratch his head, but resisted the urge. That wasn’t how the script was supposed to go. Since Interlink wanted the information on the mural so much, he should have been willing to negotiate with Lex. Unfortunately, he directly declared that Lex could reject the proposal if he wasn’t interested.

Now it was a question of who was bluffing, and who wanted their objective more. Was Lex bluffing about not wanting the reward, or was Interlink?

“Can you at least tell me why this information is so valuable? Is everything drawn on the mural true? If so… who is this serpent man? Who are these people fighting him? When did this all happen?”

“I am not at liberty to say, nor do I have the knowledge you requested,” Interlink replied.

Though the entity gave Lex only limited information, in truth, he answered in more than just one way.

Once Lex had thought that there might be some central entity controlling all the systems. But based on Interlinks talk of not having the liberty to say, nor having anything to do with Joint quests, Lex began to think that there might be a whole group or organization that jointly controlled or maintained the various aspects of the systems.

In a way, it made sense. After all, the systems were quite complex and powerful, and one entity controlling all of that would drastically increase the requirements of that entity. At the same time, it did not make sense. How could the systems remain one of the universe’s biggest kept secrets if whoever was behind the scenes wasn’t strong enough?

Of course, all of this was on the premise that Interlink was telling the truth. So far, Lex’s experience had been that the systems didn’t usually lie, so he was leaning towards believing it.

“If I accept the quest, how will things go? Will you prevent the weight of the knowledge from affecting me?”

One annoying problem with the weight was that it tried to influence Lex into believing whatever he had seen. This was equally true for the murals which had proven to be false, which was one of the biggest reasons he didn’t believe in the story he had seen so far.

“No, you will just be prevented from reading the critical piece of information. The system will record what it needs to record as long as you reveal the information.”

Lex paused for a moment. He understood that he needed to be protected from the information. At the same time, he felt it was a bit of a loss if he didn’t get that information, too. He had been on his best behavior so far within these ruins, and that kind of felt… well it just didn’t feel right.

“I’ll make a deal with you. I will help you get that information, but in exchange, I also want to know what it says. You will have to transmit that information to me later on. From what I understand, being told the information indirectly has no consequences.”

Now, it was Interlinks turn to be silent, though Lex could hear it murmuring something, as if it was trying to decide.

“Unfortunately, after consulting the terms and conditions of archiving critical information, once it is recorded, I cannot reveal it to you once more. What I can offer you instead is the possibility to visit Abaddon for a short duration once again if you become a Dao Lord. By then, you should be able to bear the weight of this knowledge. Similarly, it shouldn’t be an issue for you to go through these ruins once more.”

“Yeah, but if I come here as a Dao Lord, Abaddon would be even more dangerous for me. Can’t it be at the peak of the Celestial realm?”

“No. According to my estimation, you must be a Dao Lord to bear the weight of this secret.”

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