World Keeper

Chapter 1234: You Can Count on Me

Thelsa listened to the Keeper’s request, finding it rather unusual. Of course, she had heard about the increase in the monster reports issued by various worlds. However, she hadn’t expected there to be some malevolent will behind it, one which sought to bring danger to their world.

When the Keeper explained that it was this very will that caused other Keepers to invade their realm from time to time, she felt as if she understood it a bit more. Thus, it was imperative that they deal with this problem, but not so thoroughly that this foreign will is provoked once again.

Thelsa was sitting within her living room when she received the message, leaving her with a pensive expression. In the back of her mind, she compiled a list of people that she believed that they could rely on for this assignment. Naturally, there were nowhere near enough people to form such a comprehensive task force, but it was a start.

No matter what we choose, we’re going to need to set up a super-high level training course. She thought to herself, trying to determine how she could do such a thing. It was not a problem for her to raise armies of millions with divine strength, but their levels would only be in the one or two thousands at most. Trying to get an army capable of protecting so many worlds, they would need a minimum entry level of five thousand.

Ultimately, there were only two ways that Thelsa could think of to make this work, and both of them required her to seek help from another individual. Blank, may we speak for a moment? She asked, focusing on sending the message to the Origin of Games.

The two had had little contact over the last century or so, but they were certainly aware of each other’s identities. Thus, it only took a few moments before light flashed in front of Thelsa, the first AI Origin appearing before her. “You called?” He asked, seeming curious what would make the Saint of Shadows seek him out.

Thelsa hesitated for a moment, before nodding and explaining the situation that they were in. Once she had finished, she presented her two ideas. “There are only two ways that I can see to get through this in any reasonable time, before Olympus is unable to cope. The first, I’m not even sure if you are capable of, which would involve directly modifying people’s level to forcibly strengthen them.”

Blank thought about this for a moment, before shaking his head. “Actually, I can do that rather easily. However, I would rather not resort to this manner of strengthening. If someone’s level is increased without the proper training to go with it, then they could even end up weaker than before the adjustment was made in the first place, unable to properly control their bodies. If I may, what is the other method?”

Thelsa let out a long sigh. “The other method is for you to create a new game, one specialized in pushing people beyond their limits. It would need to be a synchronized game, so the changes would affect their real abilities. Given the other games you’ve been releasing lately, I thought you might have a way to do this.”

It had been well over a century since the last time that the Greater Pantheon had released their own game. And, while those games were not completely abandoned, their playerbases were far less active than they used to be. Many of them only played games such as Fragments of Acidia or World Seed for the advantages that they could bring out of the game, such as new divinity.

In the meantime, however, Blank had begun releasing more and more titles himself after becoming the Origin of Games. These games, like those released by the Greater Pantheon, all contained their own complete universe within the virtual world. He had more than two dozen such ‘universal’ titles under his name at this point, each with their own special theme.

Hearing Thelsa’s request, Blank gave it some serious consideration. “To clarify, are you wanting this to be a single player game, or another online game? There are very different methods I’d need to use, depending on your answer.”

“Honestly… either one could work, as long as it achieves the end result of increasing people’s strength.” Thelsa said with an awkward smile, not sure what to offer beyond this suggestion.

Blank closed his eyes, seeming lost in focus. “Given the circumstances, we don’t need this to be something popular with the general public. In fact, it wouldn’t be terrible to have it be something exclusive to military or adventuring groups. For this, I believe that a single player game with optional team play would be the optimal solution.”

“I can create a simple simulation combat game. There would be two versions, one with Lorek’s world laws, and the other with Earth’s. With each version, players progress through increasingly dangerous levels of combat, earning rewards that they can redeem for equipment. To ensure that there won’t be a case of people growing so much that they can’t keep up with their own power, I’ll add in a ‘forced reset’ system when they die.”

“Upon death, their level within the game will be reduced to the lower limit, and they will need to fight their way back up to their normal level. Of course, this reduced level won’t weaken them in reality, but they won’t be able to start leveling up again until they have reached their previous level.”

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Thelsa listened to this explanation, her hope growing by the moment. “Great. How much time do you think you’ll need to set it up?” She asked, hoping it wouldn’t take more than a few months. If it did, it might arrive too late to be of proper use.

“I’m already finished.” Blank explained calmly, producing two thumb drives in his hand. “The game’s systems are all fairly basic, and everything needed for it is already available. These contain the access program for the simulation, and my main body is currently placing them within the virtual world.”

Thelsa’s brow twitched, her mouth hanging open in surprise. She hadn’t expected him to be able to finish it that quickly. “T-thanks. Do you need me to pay you or anything for your work?”

Blank simply smiled, shaking his head. “I’m already receiving more money than I know what to do with from the subscription fees to my other titles. Unlike gods like yourself, I no longer receive additional strength from the faith of others. If not for the need to pay for people to manage those titles, I wouldn’t charge a subscription to begin with. However, this game you asked for doesn’t require any management staff, so I won’t need to worry about that.”

Thelsa nodded her head slowly, accepting the thumb drives. “Well, thanks. I’ll try to get all of this organized, so we can start training volunteers.”

For a problem such as this, it was important to lay the foundations as quickly as possible, that way they could make sure that everything would be ready before the danger became overwhelming. Of course, for that to happen, she would need to communicate with not only Olympus, but also the leaders of various realms in order to determine what level of authority this new group would have.

James looked at Lifre, who was standing alone within an educational stream, in front of a large device. Meanwhile, Chelsea walked up from the side, hands in her pockets. “Which methods are you going with this time?” She asked curiously, looking at the stream. She had already finished compiling the list that Lifre had given her, so she joined James’s work as an assistant.

“This time, we’re trying the Ascendancy Scripture, Chaos Inversion, and Creation’s End methods.” James said with a nod. This was one of the hardest parts that they could find for the process of ascending someone with multiple domains. Each of their fallen domains needed to be obtained through a unique method, just like a god’s domains did. However, there were requirements for this process that they weren’t entirely aware of.

What they did know was that the process needed to be able to be automated. If they had to go and find void beasts to refine every time they wanted to do this, they would never be able to create a machine to do it all on its own. Thus, James picked a few of the more feasibly automated methods of ascending as a Fallen God.

First, there was the Ascendancy Scripture, which was how Dana had originally been promoted as a Fallen God. This was done by using a void script to engrave a fallen domain onto the target. Next, there was Chaos Inversion, which took a spark of divinity and reversed its nature, turning it into a spark of the void.

Finally, the Creation’s End method simulated the destruction of a universe, pouring the power of chaos into the target’s soul. This method was rather dangerous, and could often result in the target dying from an information overload. However, Lifre’s soul was more than strong enough to accept the information.

Now, it was just a matter of trying to find a balance between these three, and hoping that they could get it to work. James reached forward, typing a few commands into the simulation, and starting the experiment.

Barely thirty seconds later, there was a massive explosion within the simulation, shattering the machines that were monitoring Lifre and causing the entire simulation itself to collapse. Immediately afterwards, Lifre appeared in front of them, a sheepish expression on her face. “Sorry.”

“Not your fault.” James said, looking back at the last few frames of the simulation to try to identify the cause of the explosion. “Was there anything that you noticed on your end this time?”

Lifre hummed thoughtfully, closing her eyes and thinking back. “It felt like everything in my head was clashing all at once. Your fancy void script, the flipped divine spark, all of it just went out of control before I could do anything.”

James pursed his lips, but nodded his head. “There might be a conflict with these three methods that we haven’t discovered. If we still had the Origin of Fate around, we could ask her for advice, but that’s not an option anymore. And Lena’s not here to copy her or that other prophet.”

Lifre shrugged her shoulders. “Well, we’ll just have to do trial and error, right? I mean, in the worst case scenario, I’ll just split into three bodies, and take each method simultaneously with each body.”

As soon as she said that, silence filled the lab. Chelsea and James looked at one another. “Could that…?” James asked, and Chelsea furrowed her brow.

“Potentially, but she would need to filter everything.” Chelsea said, before looking at Lifre. “Would you be able to completely filter out your divinity and saint energies between each clone? That way, each clone only had one of each?”

Chelsea knew that this was an incredibly challenging task, as one’s divinity was ingrained in their very essence. However, Lifre nodded her head readily. “Yeah, that’d be easy enough. Changing myself is my best skill!”

Chelsea nodded her head, a smile on her face. “Then, for this next one, let’s try that. Instead of trying to fuse all of it into one body, we’ll treat each of your clones as separate entities that are all being promoted to the same Origin. Then, once the process is complete, there should be a resonance between the three, leading to one absorbing the inner universe of the other two. If this works, you should be able to get an inner universe that is three times the size of a normal starter Origin.”

“Sweet!” Lifre grinned, before her brow twitched. “Just give me a minute, first. Apparently, another report came in during that last test, so one of my clones is rushing off to deal with that. We can continue once it’s done.”