Hailey was bewildered, and for a moment, couldn't understand what was happening. Then she tried pinching herself to ensure she was awake. Just as her thoughts were about to spiral, her assistant continued speaking.
"Do not be alarmed, dear guest, if this is your first visit to the Midnight Inn. The only way in and out of the Inn is through teleportation, and you were teleported here due to your interest in the Lady Cosmos pageant. You are free to leave whenever you so desire, and the Inn takes special care of security, so you are completely safe here."
"The Lady Cosmos competition?" she repeated, her attention directly diverting to what she cared most about. "Why would I be brought here for the Lady Cosmos pageant?"
"Why, to register, of course. The pageant is in a month, but participants are suggested to arrive a few days before the event so that you can become familiar with the format of the pageant and make preparations. Of course, you can register any time between now and when the event actually starts."
"I can… be in the pageant?" she repeated, dumbstruck.
"Naturally," the hologram replied once again.
Hailey was dumbstruck, and she looked once again at the wonderland that she had been transported to. Was this really not a dream?
*****
Earth, Interstellar Confinement facility
Vera Joel, a political prisoner and a secret oracle, was scribbling mindlessly in her notebook. She was bored out of her mind. It wasn't because the facility they were locked in was like a prison. No, the facility had everything from various sports courts, cinemas, shopping malls, schools and much, much more. After all, the difference between a political prisoner and a real prisoner was vast - they couldn't really be mistreated.
The one constraint on them, though, was that after the discovery of the Midnight Inn, they were regularly checked for golden keys. Even if they wouldn't be able to go anywhere else from the Inn, no one wanted to take a chance. And so she was stuck.
Until something changed, and she saw a vision of a new future. Her expression changed from boredom to excitement in a flash and she sprinted to find her mother, Kristine Joel. She whispered something in her ears, before the two jaunted off to a nearby store. From the shelf, they picked up a couple of magazines and quickly returned to their rooms.
"Are you sure?" Kristine asked, but the only response she got was a flash of golden light. Her daughter had already found a small ad for the Lady Cosmos pageant and had teleported to the Inn. Kristine shook her head and quickly looked through her own magazine. A moment and a flash later, she too was gone.
*****
Countless other women, or it would be more accurate to say females, from various parts of the universe began to learn about the Lady Cosmos pageant and started arriving at the Inn, one by one. Some saw the ads in magazines, some in news crystals, some in unskippable YouTube ads and some saw the venue at the Inn itself.
But, surprisingly enough, it wasn't Lex's own advertising that spread the word the most.
It was the Iron Heart pirates, the one for which Booty was first mate, that did the brunt of the work. From port to port, planet to planet, star system to star system, they spread the word and enticed any who would be willing to listen.
It need not be said that they recruited more members for the audience than they did actual candidates, for the love of beauty and competition thrived just as much in the worst of degenerates as it did in cultured socialites.
Naturally, they charged a premium for anyone who wanted a key for the Inn from them. After all, the Innkeeper wouldn't mind if they made a little pocket money while doing so much legwork, right?
*****
Completely unbothered by the steadily increasing traffic at the Inn, Lex continued his routine. Maintaining the mindset that Mary would let him know if anything went wrong, Lex was completely dedicated to being fully prepared for the Minor realm.
After all, this was the only time he would have. The pageant would begin right before he had to head to the Minor realm, and the two events would likely overlap. Soon after that would be Earth's Expo. Speaking of which, Miranda should probably be coming by the Inn soon to discuss the details for the event.
It was like this that Lex spent his time, the month gradually passing by, right up until 8 days before the Lady Cosmos pageant. One week before the event began, the participants were encouraged to come to the Inn so that they could start preparing. Lex thought everything was under control, for he had once again purchased the unlimited rooms option that he had once gotten for the Midnight Games. He was planning on purchasing the same kind of security as well and continued to let Mary handle things, but that's when she called for his attention.
"Lex, I think the venue for the event… is going to end up being too small. We're also going to need more temporary staff to handle the influx of new guests."
"Oh? How come? Did we end up getting a lot of participants?"
'A lot' was a relative term, and Mary didn't know what Lex was expecting. When he only advertised briefly on only three planets, he had tens of thousands of guests, so he should have adjusted for the Inn's new reach, right?
"Not too many. Due to Audrey handling things on Earth, we only have about 30,000 contestants from there and Mars combined. Due to various other restrictions as well, such as sex, age, and the requirement for a physical body, the number of contestants was also dropped to about only 2.6 million. After -" Mary had to stop giving her report because Lex, who had been leaning against a wall when he heard the report, slipped and fell, attracting the attention of Cwenhild and their teammates.
"Excuse me, I'll be right back," Lex said quickly as he quickly got up and rushed to the toilet.
"Repeat that again! How many contestants do we have?"
"Approximately 2.6 million," Mary replied calmly. "After having a discussion with the marketing and publicity manager Audrey has hired for the event, we came to the conclusion that the low turnout is due to a lack of trust or recognition of the pageant in the universe. After the first one airs, and people become familiar with the brand, turnout should be much higher. Of course, we can keep the participants in their rooms while it's not their turn, and thus manage them. But we can't force the guests to stay in their rooms all the time. Some of them will want to view the event in person."
"Mary, did you say… there are 2,600,000 contestants in the beauty pageant?"
"Yes. It's a good thing Audrey was incharge on sifting through the applicants from Earth, otherwise, if everyone who applied was able to participate, we would have tens of millions of contestants during the first portion of the event."
After he recovered from the initial shock, Lex's mind started working in overdrive and he quickly realized he had been underestimating the allure of a model on a catwalk. Leaving the bathroom, he promptly told Cwenhild that he had some urgent business he needed to take care of, and left.
On his journey back to his apartments, he continued to listen to Mary's briefing. It was tough to estimate how many guests there would be for this event, but Mary informed Lex that… the Iron Heart pirates had bought several million keys from them the last few weeks.
Honestly, the pirates hard work needed to be commended. It was not easy to travel to so many star systems in such a short time. Not only had they divided their crew into various, smaller groups to advertise to as many systems as possible, they had been working nonstop. After all, there was no such thing as a repeat customer for them. Once their customer visited the Inn a single time, they would be able to get their own keys. So, to make money, they worked nonstop.
Lex momentarily considered hiring the pirate crew before dismissing the thought. He had other things to focus on for now. As soon as he reached home, a particular gleam filled his eyes.
If Lex were a cartoon, his eyes would have transformed into giant dollar signs, as the capitalist in him had woken up once again - now with added authority.
First and foremost, Lex checked how much MP he currently had. Over the past few weeks, due to the increased number of guests, his income had seen a small boost. During this time, he had made a decent 400,000 MP. Considering how cheap his rooms, services and food were, this figure spoke volumes about the number of guests he'd had. That left him with a total of 7,311,000 MP.
It had been a while since Lex went on a crazy spending spree. He cracked his knuckles and got to work.