Chapter 1069: Expectations_World Keeper

Chapter 1069: Expectations

 Ashley’s heel tapped impatiently against the floor as she sat at her desk, waiting for the first report toe in from her team. To her, this was an incredibly serious problem. If a monster were capable of hacking into the system to create a new ss, even if that ss was meaningless, it opened the door to a window of possibilities that she did not want to deal with. For instance, what was to stop a monster from simply deleting a ss from the world?

 Soon, a familiar face entered the office, holding a folder in her arms. Her steps were hurried, and she immediately set the folder on Ashley’s desk. Ashley offered a small nod of thanks. “Good work, Jamira. Let me know when there is an update.” She said, before opening the folder and reading through the text.

 The first topic discussed in the file was what Ashley was most worried about, and caused her to sigh in relief. The world’s system hadn’t been changed. Instead, it was simply the system of the affected individuals that were changed. Simr to the effects of the system stone, but with an altered code. This meant that there was no danger of a bug appearing like this that would cause massive chaos.

 The second topic covered was the nature of the ss, ording to what had been dissected from the code. The closest trantion that they could make for the ss was ‘Void Touched’, and its abilities were based on games, forcing people to y by a set of randomly determined rules.

 Ashley arched a brow, reading through that again. She hadn’t read wrongly. The rules were determined at random, with not even the ss holder having a say. The only problem was that there was no set list of rules to choose from, so they could literally be anything. Or, rather, the list itself was corrupted within the code, using an improper variable that led to the list being undefined. The only properly defined ability was the ss holder being able to respawn, seemingly with no limits or restrictions.

 When Ashley came to the end of the report, she saw a suggested method of dealing with the monster, which was to kill it within a space where the system was nullified. Doing so would remove its respawn ability, and cause it to be truly killed.

 Without dy, Ashley approved of this n, as well as suggested that they arrange a new system stone for the contaminated individual if their new ss did not dissipate.

 <hr>

 Ashley’s order was transferred to Lavender, who was surprised that even something like this did not warrant the direct intervention of the Keeper. Still, the fact that it was able to be dealt with so easily was something that she could be proud of.

 She ryed the order to the response team, but they would need to wait for some time for a system stone to arrive. Now that there were no aliens left to be encountered, these items were produced almost entirely either by the Metong or in Fyor, thest ces where they would have value. Since the file for the stone was not in the public domain, they could not simply create one through the Digital Conversion system.

 As she was waiting for the next report, one of the team captains came in to report. “Priestess! The situation within the Epoch has been dealt with!”

 Lavender paused, recalling which report that was. “How many survivors?”

 “Reporting, a total of thirty-eight crew members, including the two who sent the distress call, have been confirmed. Twelve memetic entities were in under the effects of a pulse suppressor, their bodies disposed of. All surviving crew are being ced in Code 9 Quarantine, as per the rmendation of their Security Manual. For the time being, the Epoch has lost itsmand staff, and will be unable to take further missions.”

 Lavender simply nodded her head. Although she was sure that she would be able to get away with it, issuingmands about the operations of ships after their immediate crisis was cleared was outside the scope of her job. Her primary job was to transcribe any potentially hazardous reportsing in.

 If something were to happen to one of the other two, she did have her ownbat powers, but this was where her focus was. “Understood. In that case, you can move onto the next one.” She said, gesturing towards the ‘safe’ pile. Thankfully, the new reports had stoppeding in for a while now. All that was being sent out at this time was updates from the various ships, some maliciously trying to infect other vessels while their broadcasts were intercepted and blocked by the nearby station.

 The captain simply nodded his head, taking the report and reading through it. The memetic entity listed didn’t appear to require any special measures, so he saluted and left to begin his work.

 <hr>

 I looked down at the summary of the reports from various worlds. To summarize, the first voyage beyond the Hypene Network could be deemed a catastrophic failure. The shields meant to protect against these types of monsters were wholly unsessful. The only ships to escape safely were those that did not face these monsters in the first ce.

 Turning to the side, I nodded my head at Tsubaki, who had returned from her outing, as calm and collected as ever. “Let Ashley know that she can begin her marketing for the new game by the end of the week.”

 Tsubaki simply nodded in response, though she looked concerned. “Understood, my Keeper. However… is that wise? Codex Chaotic was only just released within thest few months, so the public may not be ready for a new game world to explore.”

 I leaned back in my seat, thinking it over. “Honestly, I don’t consider Codex Chaotic to be in the same vein as the other games we’ve released, due to its nature as a primarily single yer game. However, I also don’t think that Ascension will receive the same warm response as our other games.”

 Tsubaki blinked slightly, not fully aware of the details of the game. “If the game is released by my Keeper, then surely it will be sessful.”

 I simply gave a low chuckle. “I actually don’t expect it will be, whether we’re discussing amongst our own people or other Keepers. There are other systems built in to supplement, but the core of the game is just the Skill Master system, and there is no story or existing world development. These games should be numerous on the market, with too many people just pping a game together and calling it ready.”

 Tsubaki hesitated again, before voicing her main question. “If you don’t think it will seed, why are you allowing Ashley to publish it?”

 I nced towards Tsubaki with a small smile. “For experience, and so that she can obtain the necessary code for the new system. After this game, I n to tell Ashley to hold back on any more projects until she is ready to create NPCs for the games she makes.”

 Tsubaki’s eyes widened when she heard that. “Won’t that take quite a long time?” She asked, though I honestly didn’t think so.

 “Not if we take what already exists in the world, and modify it just enough to make it work. I n on pointing her towards a temte that was created a while back. Speaking of… do you know how Ana is doing?” When I asked that, Tsubaki seemed to understand.

 “To my knowledge, Ana has retired from her teaching position, due to being unable to keep pace with the constantly evolving technological and magical developments. Furthermore, as she is not a fully awakened magical intelligence, there is a limit to her capabilities.”

 I gave a small nod at that. Ana was my original attempt at creating a sentient artificial intelligence, using the card magic of Deckan as a form of object-oriented programming. The result could bepared to an extremely high-functioning chatbot that had its own understanding of human emotions developed through a period of observation.

 If Ana’s base concept was taken and used as the temte for NPCs, changing their programming just enough so that they had a survival instinctparable to humans, they would be able to create decent NPCs without worrying about souls. I doubted that they would perform as well as the NPCs in Fragments of Acidia, but something like those found in Vision Expanse shouldn’t be difficult to pull off.

 This was the drawback to making games the ‘simple’ method through the system, and also why Sarah’s games were so popr. Although she took the time to create them, they had their own concepts and stories behind them, and there was far more for the yers to do than simply y in an open sandbox. At the very least, a sandbox game needed its own unique system, simr to how World Seedbined the trees with the Elemental Seed magic system, as well as monster taming.

 “On the other hand… There is a target audience for Ascension in my world. People will likely view it as an emergency measure taken by us to give people an alternate path to strength. The Skill Master system gives a safe way for anyone to obtain a domain, outside of divine forging or the chambers that James and his group made. Theoretically, anyone could put in enough effort and be a god with up to three domains, achieving their own trinity.”

 The concept of a trinity might be seen as outdated, now that the divine circuits were poprized, but there were still certain benefits to be found in the stability it provided. Furthermore, the surplus of options made it popr for people to seek more than one domain.

 ‘I understand.” Tsubaki nodded her head. “In that case, do you n on having any of us seek domains in this way?”

 I shook my head at that. “You and Lifre are already goddesses with your own trinities. I don’t even think the game will be decent for your trials,pared to what Codex Chaotic can provide.”

 After I said that, Tsubaki’s ear flinched slightly, and I had clearly caught onto one of the main reasons that she asked about trying the game. “Honestly… I think that the next game should be made with Lifre’s help.”

 Tsubaki blinked in confusion when I said that, tilting her head. “Lifre… making a video game?” Tsubaki acted like she couldn’t imagine Lifre typing a line of code, let alone an entire program.

 I let out a lightugh, reading her expression. “Not making the game, but the story. If Ashley can incorporate a story written by Lifre into the game’s code, she might be able to set that as the ‘goal’ for the NPCs of that world to strive towards. Think of it like how Fragments of Acidia has an already established storyline, and yet there is no direct sign of Sarah or anyone else from her team having visited the world.”

 “This means that the world evolved towards its current direction in a guided manner, which we can confirm because we have been forced tounch the game twice. It has a history, but none that would directly link to Sarah herself. Otherwise, people with powers rted to time could observe the history of the world from before its purchase to find clues about her. And I’m confident that Sarah wouldn’t make a mistake like that.”

 Tsubaki nodded her head, seeming to follow my train of thought. “So, you believe that her team contains someone specialized in writing divine stories, simr to Lifre?”

 “It might not be divine. It might be a Fallen God, or someone with an extremely weird Saint Energy. Either way, she definitely has someone writing an extensive world overview every time she makes one of her games.”

MillionNovel

Chapter 1069: Expectations