World Keeper-Chapter 1260: No More Holding Back

When Tsubaki first heard the report from Dale, her brow furrowed, and she let out a deep sigh. It didn’t take her long to figure out the true crux behind the previous misunderstanding, glancing off to the side at Lifre, who was still doing her best impersonation of a potato. Due to her nature as an author, Lifre tried to approach the previous crisis from the perspective of a narrator, analyzing the events in a way to further the ‘plot’.

However, she had overlooked the truths of the system that had been presented to them in the past. And by the time Tsubaki and the others returned, this misunderstanding had been taken as fact, leaving them no reason to question it.

Closing her eyes, Tsubaki sent a message to Chelsea. Lady Chelsea, please implement your backup plan for the safety of occupied worlds. She stated, knowing that Chelsea must have created at least one or two of such plans back when the issue first became apparent. There is no reason to worry about system retaliation.

There was a brief pause before a confirmation was received, though Chelsea sounded somewhat distracted as she did so. From what Tsubaki understood, it was likely that she was focusing on the law merger at the moment. Of course, that also meant that it would be difficult for her to immediately defend the various planets from the impending monster attacks.

Tsubaki crossed her arms under her bust, thinking about how she could solve this issue. At most, she had an hour before the first planets would start to be destroyed. As she was thinking about that, an idea occurred to her, and she quickly walked out of the room. Julia, I would appreciate your assistance in an important matter. I understand that you have only just reunited with Lady Aurivy, but I assure you that this cannot wait.

A few minutes later, Julia walked out of the gates of Olympus, straightening her hair. When she saw Tsubaki standing there, she cleared her throat. “What can I help you with?” She asked curiously.

“First, my apologies for pulling you away from Lady Aurivy.” Tsubaki said, bowing slightly. “There are two things that I need your help with, to ensure the continued safety of our inhabited worlds. Both of these tasks will require you to use your powers as an Origin in new ways, so we need to proceed quickly. We have less than an hour before this problem could potentially overwhelm the SCRU team.”

Julia blinked at that, before nodding her head with a serious expression. “Sure thing. What’s up?”

Tsubaki quickly explained the massive surge in monster spawns after they were just promoted to the sixth rank. “It is likely that this spawn rate will remain constant, or it may fluctuate over time. However, we should not expect that it will be just a brief period of activity. This brings me to the two methods that you can use to help solve our crisis.”

“First, as the Origin of Plants, you have the potential to capture plant-based monsters in the same way that Lyrica captures animal-based monsters. If you copy her method, and apply it to your own domain, that will be another substantial percentage of monster attacks that will no longer be an issue.”

Julia hesitated for a moment, but nodded her head. As if being summoned, Lyrica jumped out of a window high above, grinning as she fell towards them. “Did I hear my name gettin’ mentioned, boss?!” She asked, landing on all fours in front of Tsubaki. Tsubaki’s brow twitched for a moment, confident that Lyrica had been listening in from the start, and sent her a firm look. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll teach the little elf how to do it! Well, I say that, but I’m not that great of a teacher…”

“It’s fine.” Julia smiled calmly, undisturbed by Lyrica’s eagerness to help. “We are more accustomed to manipulating world information than you are. If you let me touch you, and focus on that part of your inner universe without resisting, I should be able to understand it well enough.”

Lyrica blinked, tilting her head curiously before looking at Tsubaki. Seeing the kitsune nodding her head, Lyrica pat her chest with one paw. “Got it! Leave that to me, then!” She said in a confident tone, placing her paws on her hips.

Julia reached out, pressing her hands on Lyrica’s shoulders and closing her eyes. Using her World Sight, she investigated Lyrica’s inner world. Particularly, she followed Lyrica’s own consciousness to a small moon, where a stone pedestal was created. Above the pedestal was a projection of the galaxy, with countless dazzling lights flashing within it.

Thankfully, Julia’s World Sight was perfect for analyzing the world laws that made up this pedestal, as well as the region of space where it was located. As long as Lyrica didn’t resist, she could analyze any aspect of her inner universe in detail. Of course, the premise of this all was Lyrica herself allowing it. But, given how much faith Lyrica seemed to have in Tsubaki, she showed absolutely no hesitation when it came to allowing Julia to examine her inner universe.

About five minutes later, Julia nodded her head, pulling her hands off of Lyrica’s shoulders. “Alright, I should be able to quickly replicate that.” She said in a confident tone, which surprised Lyrica.

“Really? It’s that easy? You don’t gotta pay nothin’ for it?” She asked, and Julia shook her head. “You guys really have it different from us, huh?”

Julia simply chuckled. “It’s all about studying.” She said, before turning to look at Tsubaki. “What was the other method that you wanted me to use for my Origin powers?”

Tsubaki smiled, glad that the first process was done rather fast. “You are familiar with the Solar Trees created by Giles and Sprigga, correct? They have long-since occupied the stars of every inhabited world in nearly all of our original universes.”

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When Julia nodded her head, Tsubaki continued. “I want you to weaponize them. Using your power as the Origin of Plants, integrate the trees more deeply with the Hyperlane barrier. I want the trees to be able to fend off the monsters that make it through, the ones that aren’t considered either plant or animal-based.”

In truth, there were only a limited type of monsters left to ward off. Aside from Plant and Beast, there would be gem-type, elemental-type, or slime-type. And while they did have access to a Master of Gems in Hal Tua, she already had her hands full with her own problems. Asking her to split her focus to protect all realms from gem-type monsters would clearly be too much.

Julia thought about this, nodding her head. “Alright. I can get the pedestal set up in half an hour. As for the Solar Trees… that might take a few days. Creating a new mutation of that scale won’t be a simple matter, and there are the energy requirements to consider. Reliably fighting monsters with such high levels will require an immense consumption, meaning that I may need to tie them into the World Tree itself.”

Tsubaki hesitated, but reluctantly agreed. There was no sense in rushing this. Even if they used Hal Tua’s method of creating the phenomenon, it would need to be tweaked to work properly. “Alright. In that case, I’d like both of you to use whatever monsters you capture as a security force, and order them to patrol the areas under the most danger.”

Both of the other Origins nodded their heads firmly, with Lyrica then tilting her head towards Tsubaki. “What ‘bout you, boss?” She asked, and Tsubaki let out a sigh.

“I’m going to need to create a new type of contract. One that provides a protective field around occupied systems. Between this contract, the work of both of you, and our current security forces, I believe that we will be able to create an airtight defensive barrier.”

Julia nodded her head in agreement, a smile on her face. However, a moment later, she blinked. “What are we going to do about Fyor?” She asked, causing Tsubaki to freeze.

Fyor… right, we do still need to consider the defensive measures there. Unlike other inhabited universes, there were no Solar Trees or defensive structures on the outermost layer of Fyor. This was because the entire outer region of space had been ravaged long ago by massively powerful monsters and memetic entities.

Until now, the crystal spire had been able to protect Fyor from any threats on its own, but it was unclear if that would continue to be the case. In the worst case scenario, the spire itself could be destroyed by a massive monster, cutting off Fyor’s entire lifeline.

Granted, the size of the monster needed to do that would make the King from the cosmic invasion look like less than an ant. Its body would need to be measured in thousands of light-years before it was able to do any significant damage to the spire by ramming into it.

That wasn’t to say smaller monsters stood no chance, but they would need specialized abilities. For instance, if there was a monster that caused any form of mana to rot from its touch, that rot could potentially spread through the entire spire. That was just a very specific type of power, and not one that would typically be found on a wild monster.

“For now, we need to focus on our other realms.” Tsubaki said with a shake of her head. “As for Fyor, I’ll try to make another contract for them, but it will probably take a bit longer.”

Unlike Julia, Tsubaki fully intended to utilize the method of directly purchasing a phenomenon from Hal Tua. The reason was that her contracts were so complex that creating world laws for them in a short period of time was entirely infeasible.

The reason that these contract powers would still take a while to create for her was the simple fact that Tsubaki herself would need to pen the contract. In order to ensure that it covered everything that she wanted, and didn’t hinder the normal activities of citizens within the world that she was targeting, she had to make a comprehensive contract. I’ll need to ask Lady Irena for help with this… surely the Goddess of Justice is experienced when it comes to contracts.

With that said, the three Origins separated, each going their own way. Lyrica needed to resume planting her pedestals, Julia had to create her own, and Tsubaki had to go write up her Terms and Conditions…

Thelsa bit her lip as she looked at the screen before her. The SCRU teams were taking heavy damage. Several teams had nearly been wiped out, only barely managing to defend with the help of monsters subdued by other forces. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before they were overrun, and their respawns wouldn’t be able to keep up with their death rate. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

As she was thinking about that, there was a knock on the door. Thelsa blinked, curious who had come to visit her. When she opened the door, she saw the familiar black-skinned AI Origin, Blank. “Blank? What brings you here?” Thelsa asked nervously, afraid that Blank was going to mention something wrong with the game system that they were currently exploiting.

“There is little time to explain.” Blank said as he adjusted his tie. “May I come in? I have been apprised of the situation, and have been given full authorization to resolve the problem as thoroughly as possible.”

Thelsa was stunned, but still stepped aside, allowing Blank to enter the large conference area. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m introducing a new class for all SCRU players.” He said in a solemn tone, walking over towards Thelsa’s terminal. “This class will automatically be applied to them upon their next respawn, or when they next log into the game.”

Sensing Thelsa’s curiosity, he continued to explain while channeling his power into her terminal. “This class, known as Monster Hunter, is one that I have been tinkering with since you had me create this game in the first place, though I never implemented it due to an egregious issue of balance. I believed that Ashley would be quite upset if such a class were introduced without her permission.”

“Now that I have full approval, I can put this class into practice. The Monster Hunter class provides a percentage-based bonus from the system itself to any damage inflicted on monster-type enemies. Additionally, they have a stat distribution similar to the Perfect Self class, and have an innate link to the respawn system I previously devised.”

“Should a Monster Hunter be killed by a monster-type enemy, they will automatically respawn on the surface of the nearest planet ten seconds later. Unlike the current respawn mechanics, they will not lose any experience, and thus will not suffer from memory loss. However, this means that they will still remember the pain of being killed when they are respawned, and that shock alone may cause lasting trauma if experienced repeatedly.”

“Regardless, I am setting the base level of this class to five hundred for all active SCRU players, meaning that they will be able to bypass the requirement to create a legend.” After Blank said that, his hand left her terminal, his power no longer flowing through it.

Thelsa was left stunned, listening to Blank’s explanation as he implemented the new class. It was only now that she was able to truly process just how much power the Origin of Games could have over the world’s system, if he truly desired to use it.

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