Chapter 396: Closed Theater
“Your room is on the 3rd floor. Thank you for choosing our hotel,” the Registrar said to Ning.
Ning nodded and took his keys before walking towards the stair he saw over at the corner. Before he reached there, however, he heard a sound from over to his left and saw a chain gate open.
When it opened, it revealed a small metal compartment behind it, with three people in it. One of them was a staff member who seemed to work in there, and the other two were a man and a woman.
The man had a well-built body and was wearing the regular suit and pants, but for some reason, he had his head on a bow in front of the young lady.
“Honestly, why does my father even employ you when you can’t do one simple job,” she sounded angry. There was an annoyed pout on her face that didn’t do anything for her pretty little face.
The girl was wearing a sky blue gown, where the frill touched the ground, but he kept pulling it a little up as she walked. Her wide hat covered all of her head, but the black bangs still flowed down her left temple.
“I’m so sorry miss, but you don’t have to go. I will make sure to get the ticket right now,” the person who seemed to be her servant said.
“And what? Sit amongst the peasants? No, I refuse. I will go there myself and find myself a nice little seat,” the girl said.
“Miss, you don’t have to go. We can do it ourselves,” the servant said.
“No, I don’t trust you guys at all. Unless I go there myself, I won’t be satisfied. Now hurry up,” she said and walked past Ning.
Ning stepped to the side and let the two walk away. He then turned back to the elevator they had just come out of and said, “so, even Elevators are already made, huh?”
He walked in, completely forgetting the girl and the man he had just seen, and told the staff, “third floor please.”
“Yes, sir,” the staff said, side-eyeing his clothes.
‘Damn, I really need to get changed soon,’ he thought. Once he walked out of the elevator, he made his way to his room down the hall.
He opened the door to his room and found out that his room wasn’t as simple as he had previously imagined. From what he could see, there were pipes going up the side of the wall on the inside, maintaining the temperature of the room.
There was even a way to turn off the temperature regulation from what he could see but didn’t know exactly how it worked.
On the left side of the room was a bed fit for 2 people, and on the right was a night table that was also a closet to keep their clothes.
Ning didn’t really have anything, so he didn’t even take an eye towards it. The air in the room was slightly chilly and he was more than tired, so as soon as he hit the bed, he pulled up his blanket in went to sleep.
Within minutes, he slept like that was the best sleep he had ever had. No system, no timer, he slept through the night and even more.
When he woke up the next morning, the time was already noon from the shadows his window made in his room.
He woke up feeling refreshed like he hadn’t in a long while. “Geez, what’s the time, system?” Ning asked.
“Ah, I see. So I slept for like what? 18 hours?” as soon as he asked, he realized he was mistaken. The days in this world were around 36 hours long. So, if he went to sleep at around 6 in the afternoon, he would have been asleep for nearly 30 hours.
“Holy shit! I didn’t realize I was that tired,” he thought. “Being an Aether user, I thought I would have at least some form of resistance to sleep as a cultivator would.”
“The only time I’ve slept longer was back then after the incident at the Kanon house, wasn’t it?” he thought. That was also on this same planet.
“Sigh, I will need to keep my fatigue in check. At least until I get stronger as an Aether user,” he thought.
He could feel his stomach slightly rumbling, so he decided to go out and eat. “Wait, not in these clothes,” he thought.
He wanted to make cloth by himself, but that would cause problems with Reever and the boss if they found him wearing suits and pants without ever buying them.
“Eh, I guess I should just wear a black robe and hope I can mingle enough that I don’t get noticed as much,” he thought and bought a black robe with white inside.
The difference was obvious, but not very noticeable, so he gave it a pass.
“I wonder if the hotel takes care of my meals or I will have to go out to eat? I forgot to ask that,” Ning thought.
He walked out of the room and locked the door behind him. He then made his way to the elevator once more and waited for it to open.
The chain gates opened once more and Ning noticed a different staff in there. “To the ground floor please,” Ning said.
“Sure, sir,” the man said and pressed the button for the ground floor. Ning stood in the rattling elevator, waiting for it to reach the ground floor.
No one in the 2nd walked in, so he reached directly to the ground floor.
The elevator gate opened and Ning was about to walk out when he saw the two from yesterday walk in.
The girl seemed to be angry for some reason and the servant behind her was consoling her.
“Hello,” Ning passively said as he stepped to the side for the two and walked on. As he was going out, he could hear the servant explaining.
“It happens, young miss. They just have to shut down sometimes for no reason. If the entire staff had an illness at the same time, there is nothing we can do about it,” he explained. “Besides, they told us they would make the next booking free, right? We can go in next week.”
“I come all the way from…” Ning walked too far away and the gates shut down, so he couldn’t hear the rest of her words.
He walked to the registrar and asked, “Hello, do you have a meal system around here for your guests?”
“Yes, we do sir. There will be supper in about 2 hours and dinner at around 8 in the evening. We will also have a night meal at around 14 if you would like that,” he said.
‘Ughh, I’m hungry right now. Maybe I could go to Lisa’s place and buy some food,’ he thought.
“It’s fine,” he said to the registrar and walked out of the door. He remembered his way back and noticed that people weren’t looking at him anymore. Now that he was simply wearing black and white, no one was interested in looking towards him.
“It’s such a shame,” a man said to his wife as he walked right past Ning.
“I hope they’re alright,” the woman said.
‘What’s going on?’ he wondered and kept walking. On the way to the Golden Flour, he saw a major group of people staying outside the Theatre, demanding their money back.
The theatre people were trying to console the crowd, but most weren’t having it. They just wanted their money back since the theatre was canceled at the last second.
Ning lingered for just long enough to recognize that this was the reason why that girl back at the hotel was angry. ‘I would be angry too if they didn’t return my money back and instead said they would make that the ticket for the next week’s one,’ he thought.
He walked past them and made his way to the Golden flour. Immediately he noticed that there were a significantly low number of people in the bakery.
‘Is it because it’s mid-day,’ Ning thought. He walked in and was genuinely surprised to see no one there except for the staff and Reever who was whispering with his wife on the side with him.
Ning walked up to them and they noticed him coming. They immediately stopped whispering and Reever spoke, “Brother Ning, what are you doing here?”
“Um, I just woke up and was incredibly hungry, so I came to grab something to eat,” he said. He then looked around the store and asked regarding the noticeably low number of people.
“What’s going on? Is the store closed for tonight?” he asked.
“Um… haven’t you heard?” Reever asked.
“About what?” Ning asked.
“About the theatre of course,” Reever said.
“Oh yeah, I heard,” Ning said. “Poor people, getting sick right before it was time for their performance. That much suck quite a lot.”
“But, what does that have to do anything with you guys? Are you concerned about the theatre too?” he asked.
“Of course not,” Lisa said loudly. “We are more concerned about ourselves.”
“… sorry, I don’t follow,” Ning asked with a confused face.
“Look, brother Ning. The Golden Flour is responsible for making food for the theater actors right before their performance. Unfortunately, this time for some reason, the people who ate our food got terribly sick, and couldn’t do anything.”
“From what I hear, they keep on vomiting and having diarrhea. And the city had come to learn that it was from this shop, so no one is coming here anymore.”
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