World Keeper-Chapter 1202: Digital Dawn

Blank stood waiting for Chelsea within the void, a series of blue orbs floating around his body with a flickering light. When Chelsea arrived, she was surprised once again to see so many cores already prepared. As if he didn’t even consider the possibility of failure, and the potential need to redesign the cores from scratch.

Still, shaking her head, she gestured for him to follow her, and led him towards one of the newest worlds that they had created. This was just a basic universe, one without any game systems installed on it, where Chelsea and her team were testing out their ability to create customized worlds, not simply copying what already existed.

Regardless of that, they still had the necessary void defenses around the world, preventing regular void monsters from attacking it. As they approached, Chelsea held a hand out towards Blank, who wordlessly passed her one of the cores. Chelsea looked at the core, thinking to herself. If this works, wouldn’t it be possible to reorganize the game system within the world into its own unique core, rather than having it integrated into other cores?

After a moment, Chelsea shook that thought away. Even if they could do so, there was no real reason to, and it would just be an unnecessary risk. At most, if they used the linking method of the Underworld core, they would be able to create a game system that allowed them to maintain their levels even when moving between worlds without merged law systems. While that would certainly be nice, it wasn’t such an important thing that they needed to prioritize this research.

More importantly, there were numerous potential downsides that could prove catastrophic. For instance, levels could be entirely reset when switching over to the new system, forcing many people to have to relearn their higher level abilities if they relied on the system guidance. Or, perhaps worse, if the levels of the two systems were combined, frequent travelers between those worlds might find their bodies simply exploding due to the sudden influx of energy.

In general, it was something to keep in mind for later, but not necessarily something that they needed to worry about at the moment. So, Chelsea focused on the task at hand, floating past the void barrier and up to the universe border itself. Then, she placed one hand on the universe, and closed her eyes. She wasn’t strictly sure how to go about fusing this core into the world, so she attempted to let the core itself guide her. If Blank had created it to fuse, there should have been a clear reaction.

Sure enough, she could feel a resonation when she brought the blue core closer to the world border. As the two touched, the core seemed to dissolve, turning into streams of light that fused with the universe itself.

Once the core had been completely dissolved, Chelsea waited, staring at the universe before her. She was looking for any signs of internal damage. Perhaps stars would begin to flicker out, or maybe entire galaxies would be erased. Anything smaller than that wasn’t really possible to observe from outside of the universe, so she was just waiting to see if there was anything critical that would show that the universe itself was on the verge of imploding.

However, after waiting for what felt like ten minutes, she did not notice any significant changes within the universe itself, and nodded for Blank to approach. He did so, leaving the rest of his cores behind, and the two quietly entered this universe, arriving at what looked to be a habitable world with a dense atmosphere and plenty of greenery.

“Looks like the world laws haven’t been destroyed, at least.” Chelsea said pensively, looking around. “Did you bring any tools to test if it is working.”

Blank nodded his head slightly. “If it is, this should be rather simple.” He said, before creating a copy of himself, which abruptly disappeared from in front of him. “Digital lifeforms like myself, upon reaching sentience, have a natural ability to connect with local networks. Because we are directly sending our essence into the network, the method is compatible with virtual reality software, so it can be used interchangeably.”

Chelsea hesitated at that. “So, for people that master this method, they could potentially use your new digital world as a form of instant travel between different universes, simply by choosing a different point to exit from?”

Blank smiled, simply nodding once again. “That is indeed true. However, I would not advise this being used for mortal individuals. Similar to the Underworld, the digital realm would likely not be too kind to a body made of flesh and bone. One must be able to convert their entire essence into a datastream, or there is little hope of entering the network.”

“Right… anyways, what is it like? You should already have feedback from your avatar, right?” Chelsea asked, to which Blank looked thoughtful.

“Indeed. Right now, the network in this world appears as a vast emptiness. I was simply taking my time to interact with it and experiment with creating domains. After all, if we want to complete this test with the next world, we will need a landmark to reference.”

Chelsea agreed when she heard that, though looked over at Blank once again. “You seem extremely confident that this will work. Aren’t you at least prepared for the possibility of failure?”

Blank merely smiled. “Of course, I am prepared. However, I always approach a task with the confidence that I will succeed. Furthermore, after I created the first core, I was awarded with an achievement by the system. Thus, I am quite confident that this will work out as intended.”

Chelsea seemed surprised that he had even been recognized by the system enough to obtain an achievement before testing his invention. “I see… Is your digital world manipulated in the same way as the normal internet?”

Blank confirmed this with another nod. “That’s right. I created a compiler program, built into the core, which allows for people to use basic programming language to interact with the digital landscape. Of course, individual domains will have their own protective firewalls installed to prevent them from being hacked, but that is normal.”

After saying that, Blank smiled wide. “The test domain is ready. We can move on to the next universe to complete the trial.”

Chelsea nodded wordlessly, opening up a void gate. She took Blank out into the void, and he gathered his remaining cores, letting them repeat the process on another world. At this point, Chelsea wasn’t really surprised anymore that the core was able to integrate smoothly with the universe. Rather, she had other thoughts on her mind. If this followed the same pattern of trinities that other facets of the system followed, did that mean that there was a limit of nine cores per world? If so, she was curious what other types of cores they could install.

Soon, they were back on another planet, and Blank sent another avatar into the digital world. After only a moment, he smiled, nodding his head. Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out a small visor, holding it out for Chelsea. “I believe that you will want to see this, as well.” He said, and she arched her brow.

Still, she took the visor and put it on. Thankfully, this device was powered by mana, so there was no problem with the activation once she sat down on the smooth ground. A moment later, she felt her vision going black, finding herself standing in an empty void. She recognized the sensation as being similar to virtual reality, and yet different at the same time. For instance, she could still feel all of her energy, and even her resonance with the void, which would normally be blocked in a virtual world.

Turning around, she saw two iterations of Blank standing before a large building, which seemed to hover within the emptiness. Chelsea couldn’t help but chuckle when she saw the large sign on the side of the building, which read ‘Hello World’.

Chelsea walked over to the two Blanks, which merged seamlessly into one as she arrived. “So, how does time pass within your digital world? Keep in mind, we have Lorek and Spica to deal with, and their accelerated time flow can often cause issues with communication.”

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Blank nodded his head seriously. “Yes, I had quite some trouble getting that facet worked out. Previously, the internet would be unreliable within Lorek and Spica, at least when accessing servers of other worlds, due to that acceleration. To solve that, I attached the relevant world’s time flow to the domain in which that world was created.”

“So, if someone from Lorek or Spica created a domain within this digital world, time within that domain would flow twenty times faster than outside of it. As for public areas, such as traveling between domains, I have the time set for the standard flow. However, individual users can choose to increase their own time up to the maximum allowed within the network, which will match the fastest time of any connected world.”

Chelsea listened to his explanation, nodding along with it. “At least, there shouldn’t be any connectivity issues, if this is backed by world laws. Let’s give this a day to settle, while my team monitors the primary energy cores of these two worlds. If we don’t detect any abnormalities, we can begin implementing the network across other universes.”

The announcement of a new virtual world shocked the vast majority of civilians. This was not like some systems, which would only impact those on the upper tiers of power, or only selected groups. Everyone used the internet in one form or another, whether it was for gaming, work, or simply talking to their friends.

Although this virtual world was still new, there was a simple process available for website owners to transfer their domains over to the virtual world, allowing for uninterrupted services. Within days, the virtual world had expanded into a sprawling network, looking from above as if it were a giant city.

The most excited for this change were undoubtedly the Metong. As their minds were a form of artificial intelligence itself, they were able to easily connect without the use of any external devices. Furthermore, with their galactic empire, this network made it more convenient for them to visit other worlds, whether for research or defense purposes.

It would take time for the infrastructure of the old network to be gradually taken down, but people were already becoming more and more invested in this new virtual world, especially those among the younger generation.

While the rest of the world was marveling at the new network, I found myself only more worried about what was to come next. The information about this new type of world core was remarkable for sure, but I had to consider that other Keepers of my rank likely knew about it as well.

Would it be possible for a Keeper to create a core containing their game system, and forcibly install that on another Keeper’s world through an invasion? There would be no direct communication between the two Keepers, but there was the risk that it could override the local world’s laws if it was not handled correctly.

However, how could I defend against an attack like that? If the enemy installed a special core that allowed them to travel anywhere they wanted, and use special techniques to hide outside of normal space, what would I do?

Given how experienced Sanction was as a Keeper, the odds were high that he was capable of using methods like this, now that he had advanced to the fifth rank. I sent a note to Chelsea, advising her to create contingency plans in case the enemy used such a method of attack. We needed to consider multiple types of cores that the enemy could use against us, and how to counter each of them. At the same time, I assigned her team with the research task of seeing if it were possible to safely extract an auxiliary core from a world. Otherwise, if they used a core capable of destroying the world it was attached to over time, we would have no defense against it.