Episode 16

As Mao Lu smiled and opened his door, he heard the chant "We greet the new Gatekeeper!!!"

It was a thunderous cacophony of sound that made Mao Lu step back in shock.

In front of him he saw hundreds of people kneeling down.

When Gates had said that guests were here, Mao Lu had thought there would be a manageable amount of people. Two or three, at most five.

But those expectations were a complete underestimation of the sheer amount of people at his doorway.

There was a massive crowd on the landing and past the railing he could see even more people down below standing around his building. The crowd was just as big as a festival gathering of some kind. Seeing such an amount of people all kneeling before him wasn't just weird to Mao Lu, it was downright bizarre.

Mao Lu couldn't even guess what his neighbours were thinking, he was surprised that someone hadn't called the police already. He sure would have if he saw crowds of strangers outside.

This many people gathered around his small apartment building was so preposterous, yet it was right before his very eyes.

"Why are they all kneeling to me?" Mao Lu thought, flustered. He didn't know whether they were going to stop any time soon or whether he was supposed to tell them to stand.

"They're kneeling towards you because you are the Gatekeeper of this realm, it is only proper that they respect you. You have the authority to expel them, give them permits and passes. If they wish to stay in this realm or travel elsewhere their only option is to be on your good side." Gates gentle voice entered his head. "It is only right that these practitioners come here. They are only the first wave, there will be many more."

"Even more than this?" Mao Lu muttered to himself.

He froze for a few seconds until he realised that the kneeling wasn't stopping.

"Umm" he coughed, "You can stand up!"

As he shouted this a tall slender man wearing a black suit sprang to his feet directly in front of Mao Lu.

"It is my pleasure to welcome the 888th Gatekeeper. I am Vincent Clarity the Clan leader of the Clarity Clan." He spoke very quickly as he removed his hat, bowed towards Mao Lu, and gave a dashing smile.

He had amber eyes like a warm sunset, and he would have been perfectly handsome if he wasn't so thin, like a bag of bones. His sunset eyes roved up and down Mao Lu and a smile blossomed on his face, "I came to show my face and offer my respects, I hope we can cooperate. "

He put his long top hat back onto his head of white hair, and then turned and disappeared.

As he faded away Mao Lu barely had time to process it all before, he felt his robes being tugged. He looked down and had to hold himself back from retreating into his apartment, when he saw the little girl in the red dress that he'd met on the bus earlier.

"So, you are officially our Gatekeeper." Her pearly large white teeth were on display as she gave a huge grin that took up the majority of her small face. "As I said before I'm expecting good things from you. I am Little Red the elder of the Eastern association of Witches. I hope we see more of each other" she laughed as she transformed into a Sea Eagle and flew into the air, her little wings propelling her far into the distance in seconds.

Mao Lu thought in his head, "I hope we don't." As he turned and saw a youthful young woman with a very gentle smile. She had an ordinary face but there was still something very attractive about her.

She wore long white billowing robes, as she spoke, she had a very sultry voice. "I am Lady Winter the head of the Western association of Witches. I hope we can get to know each other better Mao Lu." She had a rather commanding, yet gentle presence and her voice was very seductive. Mao Lu couldn't help but unconsciously nod towards her.

This caused her smile to brighten. She then turned and left in a normal fashion, walking towards the stairs. As she went the crowd parted for her like the red sea.

"She is so very alluring, isn't she?"

"Not really my type." Mao Lu unconsciously responded and then stepped back in alarm.

"Oh, I hope I didn't startle you." A man with long flowing grey hair that went all the way to ground, apologised.

He looked like a teenager, so his contrasting grey hair was rather strange. He had a very classic look and wore robes reminiscent of the Ming dynasty.

"I am Song Ou, head of the Eastern Cultivator and Martial arts association. I am humbled to meet this Gatekeeper."

He gave a solitary bow and cupped his fists together.

Mao Lu responded in kind.

Song Ou bowed again and then kicked the ground, leaping into the air and onto a hovering a sword. He bowed again and then with a flash was gone.

Just as the brightness of the flash faded from Mao Lu's eyes, he saw a tall and handsome black man who wore a well fitted suit. He extended his hand and gave Mao Lu's a warm shake. "I am Aaron Doh representative of the Western Association of Cultivators and Martial artists."

Mao Lu nodded politely at him, and he only blinked, and the man was gone and yet another person was approaching.

But before the next person reached him, Gates announced in his head, "That is enough greetings. You should now go back to your apartment. The rest are irrelevant."

Mao Lu was rather stunned. He thought he'd have to greet all his guests and when he saw the next blue haired female smiling at him, he felt a bit bad as he bowed slightly towards her and then entered his flat and closed his door in her face.

"There are so many people out there. Shouldn't I greet them properly?" Mao Lu questioned.

"Greet all those hundreds of people? You are a Gatekeeper; they came to see you not the other way around. You have hosted them, they have seen your face, that is enough." Gates said sternly.

"But it was so short, and I only greeted five of them isn't that being unfair to the others?"

"Why do you think out of all those hundreds of people that those five were the first in line to see you?"

"Because they came first."

"Wrong! Try again."

"Because they were the most important."

"Exactly, they were the most powerful and they represented powerful factions. The five of them said it themselves. Out of the people that have just come they were the most important, everyone else was simply irrelevant. It is good enough that you showed them your face.

Soon even more will come not just those from this planet but practitioners from other planets in this realm will come to greet you. Only the powerful out of all of them are worth your time."

Mao Lu slumped against the closed door. "I see."

That had all been very fast, he wasn't even sure he remembered all their names.

He peered through the peephole on his door and was spooked to see that no one was standing outside anymore. He opened the door to check, and everyone was really gone. All those people had disappeared in just a second.

"This is insane." Mao Lu muttered, he had nothing else to say. This was all really insane to him.

After a few minutes of staring at his now empty landing, he closed the door and jumped onto his bed. This was all crazy. It was only now that he finally had time to pause and think, that it struck him how crazy this all was.

"This is all too much." Mao Lu muttered as he looked up, only then noticing that Gates wasn't on his coffee table. In a small panic he yelled "Gates where did you go?"

"I'm right here. Look at your belt."

Mao Lu looked down and was surprised to see a cute little keychain sized Gates that was hanging off his belt like a neat accessory.

"You gave me a small heart attack, I thought you disappeared for a second or maybe one of those guests might have taken you when I wasn't looking." Mao Lu breathed in relief.

"You don't need to worry; I shall be by your side until you die. And I promise you I am not easily stolen."

"Well that's good." Mao Lu commented, even though the phrase 'until you die' gave him the chills.

Mao Lu jumped back onto his bed and switched on his phone. He looked in horror again at the crazy number of voicemails and missed calls.

He spent the next hour listening to them.

Fei Bing Bing and Zhao Detong's messages consisted of them asking where Mao Lu was, why was he late, and telling him they needed to talk to him. In each voicemail they sounded progressively more worried than the last. In Tanaka Kato's messages he was just saying that Zhao Detong contacted him and now he was worried. Tanaka's voicemail also became progressively more frantic.

Bei Lao's voicemail was also Tanaka asking Mao Lu where he was.

Even Frank Wang and Fang Kai left worried messages.

The odd one out was his Manager, that just angrily yelled, "Don't expect to get paid for skipping out on work! If this happens again, you're fired!!!"

Mao Lu felt warm inside, not because of his shitty manager, but because of all his friends. He knew he was really lucky to have so many people that cared about him.

He messaged them all back with a "Sorry I came home feeling sick and I only meant to have a short nap, but I ended up oversleeping and my phone was switched off."

The moment he sent it he got a call from Zhao Detong.

"So, you were asleep. Didn't you hear us knocking like crazy on your door?"

"I'm sorry I didn't. I just slept like a log."

"Are you okay Lu?" Fei Bing Bing's voice cut in. "You don't need us to come over and take you to the doctors, do you?"

"No-no-no-no-no I'm okay now. I feel so much better after that good rest. Seriously don't worry about it. And you guys live in Xicheng, it's 30 minutes away by car and it's so late right now. I'd feel terrible if you guys came down so far so late. I don't want you to get into any accidents."

"Then we'll come down tomorrow." Zhao Detong said rather forcefully. "When do you finish your shift at the convenience store?"

"At 5pm."

"Then we'll see you then." Zhao Detong hung up just like that.

Mao Lu sighed and then looked at the other messages on his phone.

The one from Tanaka Kato read: "Oh thank god. I was really worried, the way that Detong guy said it on the phone I thought something bad might have happened. I'm glad you're okay. Look after your health"

Mao Lu replied "I will, don't worry"

Frank Wang sent him a "You okay now?" on WeChat.

"Yes, don't worry about it!"

Mao Lu swiftly replied to the flurry of texts he was sent, including the foreboding "We will have a chat on your next shift" that was sent by his Manager.

If this was the Mao Lu of yesterday, he would have been dreading those words, but he found himself smiling instead. Because he was now staring at the notification sent to him by the bank. The amount of money that had been sent to his account was no joke.

"I'm rich!"

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