Chapter 277: Fiasco at the Inn

Seeing how serious Zhang Lie was, Zhang Hanxiang acquiesced immediately, though she grumbled at having to do so. For her, this might well be the longest night she had ever lived through. However, Zhang Hanxiang couldn't bring herself to disobey her brother. She knew that, no matter what, her brother would always side with her, that he truly cared for her.

The same was true for Zhang Lie's two apprentices; to them, Zhang Lie had all but given them a new life. Without Zhang Lie, they wouldn't be where they were now, and their future would have been a miserable one. They would do whatever he told them to.

Zhang Hanxiang's entrance into the dimensional world handled, Zhang Lie finally freed up some time for himself.

He intended to consume the disaster-grade lifeform's flesh that very night. After informing Team Zenith and Zhang Hong that he would be returning to the dimensional world, he stepped through the teleportation array and appeared within the Blacksteel settlement.

Over half of the buildings in the settlement had been destroyed, but it had fared better than some other settlements in the aftermath of the beast invasion. Its signature black steel gates, however, had vanished entirely, leaving a gaping hole where the entrance was and making it feel much more desolate.

Fortunately, the Blacksteel Inn, which stood at the center of the settlement, was relatively intact. As he walked through the debris-strewn streets and stood underneath the inn's nameboard, which drooped as though it were about to fall, he felt a sudden dissonance.

Memories of his past life flooded back. After the disaster that had occurred, like a dead dog, he curled by one corner of the inn, which had turned into nothing more than a pile of smoking rubble. In this life, however, because of his existence and early defeat of the disaster-grade lifeform, the inn had been almost perfectly preserved.

Zhang Lie blinked a few times, then walked into the inn and requested a VIP suite.

"I apologize, sir, but no VIP suites are available at this point," the robot receptionist informed Zhang Lie.

"They aren't available?"

"They're all occupied, sir!"

Zhang Lie sighed. As he was about to turn and leave, a shocked cry rang out from behind him.

"Ah, aren't you the champion of the Void Cup, Zhang Lie? I heard you were from the Blacksteel settlement, but I never expected to see you here! May I have an autograph, sir?!"

The speaker was a youth seemingly at the cusp of adulthood. Perhaps because of his shock, his voice quavered. He scrambled to get a pen from the front desk, then proffered it to Zhang Lie.

Realizing that he would have to find a room elsewhere, Zhang Lie was feeling somewhat annoyed, but given how excited the youth seemed to be, Zhang Lie didn't want to refuse him.

He signed the hunter's armor, but the next moment, he regretted his decision. Almost immediately, the inn's lobby seemed to fill up with hunters.

"Zhang Lie!"

"Champion of the Void Cup!"

"Please sign my clothes!"

"Hug me, my hero!"

"Won't you give me a few pointers?"

Although he had tried to mask his appearance somewhat, Zhang Lie had severely underestimated his fame and popularity. More and more hunters came out of their rooms upon hearing the commotion.

Zhang Lie! This was a name that would attract any hunter in the settlement, because it was simply so well-known. Zhang Lie was a dragonlord of China, the strongest among the younger generation of hunters, and the champion of the Void Cup.

Each of these titles represented a massive accomplishment, let alone when they were combined.

"Ah, stop pushing me, look at the doorframe!" a hunter cried out, and the hunters within the inn all felt a quake that reverberated throughout the building.

Zhang Lie, standing by the front desk, saw a sight he felt he would never forget.

The inn might still be standing, but the stampede had given its foundations quite a shock. As more and more hunters began pouring it, the doorframe creaked as it was forced wider and wider. Finally, amidst Zhang Lie's horrified gaze, it and a portion of the wall crumbled, burying the lobby in a cloud of dust and rubble.

"Stop, stop!" In the end, Zhang Lie had no choice but to step forward to try to control the crowd. Otherwise, he didn't know how much further the situation would devolve. With how agitated the crowd was, however, even his shout didn't have much of an effect.

In exasperation, he activated [Eclipse], forcing everyone into silence with a crushing pressure.

"I'm happy to provide my autograph, but please be more orderly! Who do you think will be held responsible for this mess?" Zhang Lie gestured at the mess that the hunters had created in the lobby. "If any of you can get me a VIP suite here, I'll provide autographs for everyone around for the next two hours—but make sure to form an orderly line!"

The domain of [Eclipse] forced everyone to remain still as they listened to Zhang Lie's words. The moment he deactivated [Eclipse], the crowd did start to form a line, and one of the guests immediately stepped forward and handed Zhang Lie a key to his room.

Within mere moments, Zhang Lie had entered the room and was preparing to sign autographs for the next two hours, but as he glanced at the long line that snaked all the way out of the inn, he wasn't sure that he had made a wise decision.