World Keeper-Chapter 1240: Manpower Shortage

Finally! Lifre’s eyes widened as she looked at the newly evolved void monster before her, which had taken the form of a giant book, thick teeth protruding from its cover. She had lost count of how many monsters she had forcibly evolved, only for them to not contain any useful information.

There had been a few that looked rather promising, monsters that contained the ‘concept’ of a story. However, they did not meet her basic requirements, which was to be able to selectively filter out information from a story to use as the target for an ability. freewebnøvel.com

This book, on the other hand, did exactly that. This was the book’s third evolution, and Lifre felt as if it was just a few steps away from being able to turn into a full-fledged void god. Of course, she wasn’t going to let that happen. No, instead, her head grew rapidly, mouth opening wide like a snake’s. Before the book could fly away, she had consumed it in its entirety.

Closing her eyes, Lifre felt the rules contained within the book. There were still a few that she didn’t need, and she quickly filtered those out. The rest, however, she directed to her inner world, towards a small planet that she had established. Once I let this settle for a while, it should integrate with the world laws, and I’ll be able to start doing more story-related powers!

The power that she had harvested this time was rather simple. Well, it was simple in theory, but the actual work behind it was quite annoying. Regardless, the end result was that it allowed someone to conjure up a fictional landscape around themselves by reading a book.

With this out of the way, Lifre dismissed this avatar of herself, freeing up one extra slot for her to send off to fight more and more monsters. Which was nice, given that her focus had become fairly divided lately…

Thelsa watched the screen before her, sitting at a desk in the back of the SCRU headquarters training facility. It had been almost a full day since the training began. For those few that had stayed inside the entire time, that meant more than two hundred and fifty years. Thelsa couldn’t imagine going into a secluded training session for that long, without even taking the time to connect with the outside world.

Granted, they did have the ability to communicate with each other, but that was hardly the same thing. However, the results did speak for themselves. The first five names on the ranking had all surpassed the six thousands for their level.

Unfortunately, this meant that their progress had slowed down considerably, needing longer and longer to complete each floor. The unluckiest among them had already died several times, having to be sent back to the starter level to train up from scratch again.

Thelsa tapped on a screen next to her desk, pulling up detailed information on the top five fighters. As expected, they didn’t reach this level just by putting all of their levels into one class. That would have been both ridiculous and suicidal. Even at high levels, it was important to maintain at least some level of stat balancing, or else your energies would become more and more difficult to control.

These five combatants had all managed to maintain a decent stat distribution, with only one or two of their stats surging ahead to represent their specialized class. For instance, the figure in the lead was specializing in his training as a monk, so his endurance and dexterity were considerably higher.

Meanwhile, those that kept having the most problems were those that were stuck at the bottleneck of a legend. It was possible that they would be able to get through one or two more floors with their own power, but that would not help them grow. The biggest problem was the fact that they had to create a unique method of using their powers, a method that nobody had created before.

Given just how many people there were in the various worlds, this was far easier said than done. Especially since these legends that they were trying to make were only for their secondary classes, as they had already completed the ones for their primary classes.

Unfortunately, there was no real way for Thelsa to help any of them with this step. You can’t teach someone to have an original idea, after all. They could only rely on their own trial and error.

I could probably get Blank to create a bypass for the legend requirement, but would that defeat the purpose of the requirement in the first place? As Thelsa understood it, the requirement for people to create such a legend to break the level five hundred limit was in order to stop them from always relying on the system’s guidance. By creating that legend, they were breaking free of the mold imposed on them by the system.

Once that shackle was broken, they would have an infinite potential for growth within that field. However, it was very important to break that shackle in the first place, or else their fighting styles would become too rigid.

Closing her eyes, she connected with Blank once again, discussing the matter. When Blank heard her thoughts, he gave a small humm in thought. While completely removing the legend requirement may be unacceptable, perhaps we can create a training challenge that will allow them to achieve the same effect.

How do you figure? Thelsa asked curiously, eager to see what the Origin of Games had come up with.

What if we gave players a choice? They could either attempt to create their own legends, or they could reproduce existing legends. Of course, if they choose to reproduce existing legends, the conditions will be more strict. For instance, maybe they will need to reproduce three existing legends in order to earn their ‘legend ticket’.

Additionally, they won’t have a list of legends available to look at for inspiration. Instead, they will be doing the same form of training that they are now, but they will not be penalized as harshly for not being the first person to come up with a certain idea. Of course, there will naturally be those that draw inspiration from famous figures such as yourself, seeking to replicate your individual feats.

Thelsa cleared her throat, moving on from that subject. Would you be able to create a list of existing legends like that, and the method for people to surpass their limits?

As long as it is done within the game, it is possible. I would need Ashley’s permission to do so in the real world, or else the system firewall may very well target me as a malicious intruder. However, as long as they pass the level five hundred benchmark within the game, they should no longer face those challenges in the real world.

Thelsa let out a long sigh of relief. I would appreciate it if you could set that up, then. Do you need me to pull everyone out of the game while you make the update?

Of course not. The age of offline maintenance has long passed. Blank said in a calm tone. I’ll send an avatar of mine over to work on the game worlds in a moment. My main body is helping a new Origin understand how to use his powers.

Thelsa blinked when she heard that. The idea that an Origin was created without even having the knowledge of how to use their abilities was rather telling. Chelsea would never have allowed someone to undergo the process without at least some understanding of what would happen.

If new Origins are being created now, we’ll need to get ready soon. Calamity-level monsters may not be our only threat soon. She thought, forgetting for a moment that the connection with Blank was still open.

Quite right. In fact, I’ve been considering granting your unit a rather powerful advantage. One that may very well prove critical for your future endeavors. Blank spoke up, causing Thelsa to blink in confusion.

What’s that?

Respawn. He added in a light tone. I’ve been working on a respawn mechanic in my inner universe. With a bit more tweaking, I think that I will be able to apply it to these games. Once players hit the requirements I set, they will be able to save their profile within the game. Then, if they die, their save file will activate.

It’s not a perfect solution, as they will lose their memories from after they created that save state. However, from what I’m seeing, you only have a thousand troops. Only half of them are fit to patrol each set of world laws, which means only a maximum of five hundred can be deployed.

Five hundred people of such strength would surely be enough to take care of such incredible monsters. However, there are still likely to be casualties arising, and multiple monsters attacking at once. Five hundred would easily suffice, but fifty? Five? Without a way to renew your forces, you will ultimately be eradicated.

Thelsa could only grunt at that, having considered the problem previously. Unfortunately, there just weren’t that many high level fighters that were willing to risk their lives fighting monsters in the depths of space on a regular basis. Something about self-preservation and not wanting to die for total strangers.

Admittedly, Thelsa could understand why so few people signed up for this. She herself had been a ‘secret savior’ for over a millenia at this point. She had seen the downfall of the ruling class of Fyor, and had even played a part in it herself. In all this time, she had come to understand people. She couldn’t blame them for not wanting to fight such cosmic horrors.

Even now, Lifre was unable to prevent every monster that appeared from causing damage. There were entire planets that simply didn’t detect the incoming threats in time, and were quietly erased without ever having the chance to send in a report.

That was the problem with monsters that moved so much faster than light. Conventional methods of detection were useless, and planets that were properly equipped had to constantly be scanning for incoming threats from deep space. Otherwise, they would join a growing list of missing colonies.

Who would want to die such a meaningless death? To be stationed at a poorly defended world, only to perish before ever seeing your killer.

For that reason, Thelsa had immense respect for the thousand volunteers that had joined her cause. They were not only able to fight, but willing to do so. With a small sigh, she nodded her head. I would really appreciate it if you could get that system set up. Otherwise, it will probably take me longer to find and train new members than it would take for those members to fall in battle…

I understand. I’ll focus my full attention on establishing that system once I am done setting up your legend bypass, and helping this Origin. Blank assured, and Thelsa could only agree. A respawn system wouldn’t help much if people weren’t strong enough to fight in the first place, and an additional Origin could very easily become a major fighting force on his own.

As Thelsa thought that, she noticed one of the top five players she had been watching suddenly surge in levels. From the low six thousands, he surged all the way to seven thousand in a single push. Thelsa was briefly dumbfounded, before soon realizing the cause. The man had taken on a new advanced class, Summoner, and had rapidly leveled it up. This made him the first of the trainees to surpass the Calamity class, and prove capable of fighting the very monsters that they were preparing to face.