Chapter 40: The Black Inn in the Desert

The Western Regions, the desert.

Chen Xiyi got off the carriage, put it away, and looked at the rolling yellow sand all around. The Sun above shone fiercely on him.

This caused a Heat DeBuff to appear in his Status Bar, which would make his Satiety Level drop faster. If his Satiety Level fell below 50, he would also get the Dehydrated status.

The Dehydrated status would actually deduct his Health Points.

“I won’t say much else, but why is there an Inn in this godforsaken place? They must be losing money so badly they can’t even afford pants.” Chen Xiyi looked at the old Inn not far away and couldn’t help but complain.

The broken Module he needed was inside this Inn. He suspected the Inn had some connection to this broken Module.

Otherwise, could it really be such a coincidence?

“There are four people in total: the innkeeper, the waiter, the cook, and the bookkeeper.” Chen Xiyi watched the four white dots moving inside the Inn on his map.

For now, they were white names, meaning they held no hostility or ill intent toward him, but that might change soon.

Because their prefixes all included the words “Black Inn.”

[Black Inn Innkeeper Ding Yu, Health Points: 100%, Status: Idle]

[Black Inn Waiter Zhou Xin, Health Points: 100%, Status: Idle]

[Black Inn Cook Li Ge, Health Points: 100%, Status: Idle]

[Black Inn Bookkeeper Zhao Sheng, Health Points: 100%, Status: Idle]

So, Chen Xiyi was considering one thing: should he just kill these people outright?

But he was also worried that they might know something, which made him a bit conflicted.

In this desert, due to the temperature and other factors, his ability to use Water Manipulation had decreased quite a bit.

The Home Game wasn’t exactly scientific, but sometimes it adapted to the environment. After all, water was prone to evaporating quickly in the desert heat.

“I could kill them, but it wouldn’t hurt to get the information I want first before doing so.”

Chen Xiyi thought it over. Since they were running a Black Inn here, if he went inside, he would definitely become a red-name NPC.

However, Chen Xiyi still had doubts: could they actually make any profit running a Black Inn in a place like this?

It was important to note that this world was a normal feudal society with low productivity. Ninety-nine percent of people never left their hometowns in their entire lives, and merchants wouldn’t come to a desert like this to trade.

This wasn’t some martial arts world where desert heroes or strange plotlines caused the desert to be constantly crowded. It was more likely that not a single person passed through here all year.

Apart from sand and the Sun, there were only some desert plants and animals left.

That was why Chen Xiyi believed these four must know something; otherwise, why would they try to make a living here?

Even lying on the street waiting for kind people to toss coins would earn them more than staying here.

So, Chen Xiyi guessed they must have another motive.

“Innkeeper, bring me your specialties and a pot of good tea.” Chen Xiyi pushed the door open slowly, his tone carrying a hint of laziness.

He saw the innkeeper sitting behind the counter chatting idly with the waiter. The cook listened with great interest, occasionally chiming in with a few words, while the bookkeeper sat nearby reading a book, looking rather bored.

Chen Xiyi’s entrance naturally caught the attention of all four. Guests in this desert couldn’t be described as few; they were downright rare.

But when they saw Chen Xiyi’s outfit, they couldn’t help but feel uneasy. The sight of him in full armor was somewhat intimidating.

Still, intimidating or not, as long as he was human, a dose of knockout drugs would take him down. No matter how tough his armor was, it would be useless then.

Even though he was a Black Inn waiter, he still had some professional courtesy: “Right away, sir. Please have a seat over here.”

As he spoke, he used a cloth to wipe down a table and chairs, then fetched a teapot and cup from the counter and poured Chen Xiyi a cup of tea.

Seeing this, the cook also stood up and headed to the kitchen to start cooking, while the bookkeeper didn’t even look up, keeping his eyes on the book in his hands.

Only the innkeeper showed a trace of curiosity: “Where are you from, sir? Aren’t you hot wearing that armor here?”

“Why are you asking so many questions, innkeeper? I have my own reasons for being here.” Chen Xiyi shot back.

It wasn’t that he was being rude, but since all their names had turned red, clearly indicating ill intent toward him, why should he give them a friendly attitude?

[Black Inn Innkeeper Ding Yu, 100% Health Points, Status: Annoyed]

[Ability 1: Digging]

[Ability 2: Management]

[Experiences]

[July: Idle during the day, dug for treasure at night with Black Inn Waiter Zhou Xin, Black Inn Cook Li Ge, and Black Inn Bookkeeper Zhao Sheng]

[July: Idle during the day, at night with…]

[July: …]

“…” Chen Xiyi opened the innkeeper’s detailed information. The experiences were almost entirely identical: idle during the day, digging for treasure at night. No one had come by all month, making the experiences incredibly monotonous.

But judging by the situation, they probably hadn’t found the treasure yet; otherwise, they would have left already.

And the broken Module he needed was likely part of that treasure, although he didn’t know what exactly the innkeeper was digging for.

“Just asking casually, sir. No need to say if you don’t want to.” Though annoyed, the innkeeper didn’t show it.

As someone running a Black Inn while also digging for treasure, the innkeeper had quite high self-control in this regard.

Besides, why bother arguing with a dead man?

“Alright then, if you have time to spare, go hurry up the kitchen for me. I’m so hungry my stomach is sticking to my back.” Chen Xiyi threw back another remark.

This left the innkeeper speechless. Hurry up the kitchen?

The cook had just gone into the kitchen; he probably hadn’t even started the fire yet.

“Please wait a moment, sir. I’ll go hurry them along.” The innkeeper didn’t argue and immediately agreed.

In his mind, he was thinking fiercely about going to the kitchen to tell the cook to add extra knockout drugs to Chen Xiyi’s food, enough to knock him out for good.

[Black Inn Innkeeper Ding Yu was extremely displeased with your behavior and intends to use knockout drugs to make you unconscious. Hostility Level +1, Hostility Level: 1 star]

The others, though red-named, hadn’t developed a Hostility Level yet. With just one retort, he had already pushed the innkeeper into his enemy list.

“Waiter, go prepare a room for me. I’m staying here tonight. Remember, make it clean.” After the innkeeper left, Chen Xiyi turned to the waiter.

“Right away, sir.” The waiter called out as he left, giving the bookkeeper a look before going, meaning “keep an eye on this fat sheep, don’t let him run away.”

“So, it’s just you left now.” Chen Xiyi looked at the bookkeeper, who had just put down his book, his tone carrying a hint of meaning.

Hearing this, the bookkeeper’s heart sank, and he felt a sense of foreboding.