As those of us in the Admin Room continued to watch the daily lives of the people below, I felt a small ping in my mind, a message arriving from the system. I blinked, confused at first before realizing that fifty days must have passed by. It hadn’t been hard to lose track of time lately, as there were quite a few advancements to be had. However, since the message was here, I thought that I might as well see who I was going to be up against. My next round wouldn’t be until the month after the upcoming meeting, so I had plenty of time to prepare.

BloodBrother? That was certainly a name that I was not familiar with, causing my brows to furrow slightly. Granted, there were nearly ten thousand Keepers out there, and I had met less than a hundred of them. If we were counting the ones I was personally familiar with, it’d barely be ten.

I smiled to the others, standing up and excusing myself from the room, making my way to my bedroom. It didn’t seem like Terra was around, so she was likely playing with Udona and the others. Either way, I sat down at my desk and focused, deciding who I wanted to talk to about this. The Gilded Branch would have the most reliable information, but they also charged for it. My own guild… Oldbeard would probably know of any big shots in our rank, since she was the same rank. Aside from her, there was also Aerial. Or, Talon if I remember her true name properly. I hadn’t spoken to her since my very first meeting with the Gilded Branch.

Since there were two other Keepers with my rank in the guild, I decided that it would be best to check there first. I could investigate with the Gilded Branch if I needed more later. Opening up the guild chat, I found that it was rather quiet, with Sarah and Oldbeard being the only ones actively talking.

Oldbeard: So you use a conditional formula for your simulated intelligences to prevent them from having a soul… I had always wondered why the worlds you released never had real people in them. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still very lifelike, and it must have taken a long time to get the program running properly! I just thought it was a weird design decision.

SarahLasting: Honestly, I just thought that it was too cruel to put souls through some of the things that gamers do. How many times would you expect the same NPC to be killed and respawned? It would be even worse without the respawn, as the soul would be recycled to use in various monsters that are farmed regularly.

Oldbeard: I guess you have a point there… I never really thought of it like that. Your worlds were always so amazing that I was able to ignore the more soulless NPCs.

EarthForceOne: Sorry, is this a bad time?

SarahLasting: Hmm? Not at all, we were just talking.

Oldbeard: Hey! Did you get everything with the field worked out?

EarthForceOne: Yeah, thanks for the clarification last time. Once I passed the information over, they’ve managed to get a prototype printer up and running. I actually wanted to talk about something else today.

SarahLasting: Oh? Ah, right, I just got my notification as well. You want to get information on your next opponent?

EarthForceOne: That’s right. If it’s not too much trouble, at least.

SarahLasting: No trouble at all. My next match is against someone I’ve faced before. He’s a repeat customer, so I thought I’d send him a present this time, and let him test out a world I’ve been working on.

Oldbeard: Wait, really?! I’m jealous! Let me know when you’ve got it released, okay?

SarahLasting: Will do, don’t worry!

EarthForceOne: What do you mean, let him test it? You can trade worlds like that, too?

SarahLasting: Well, it’s not really a trade, since I’m not asking for anything. I’m letting him be my beta tester. I’ll send the world over in a storage medium, that way once he installs it somewhere in his own world, he’ll have full access to the world in the state it was saved.

When I heard that, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the mana stones that Tsubaki and Dana had created. Those were likely treated the same way, creating their worlds within the local Keeper’s void as soon as they were brought over.

Oldbeard: Anyways, who’s the guy you’re facing next?

EarthForceOne: The name that came up was BloodBrother. It’s not one I’ve heard of before, so I wanted to check here, since I thought you and Aerial might know about them.

SarahLasting: …[email protected] , are you free?

Oldbeard: Ah… him.

Aerial: What? Sorry, I’m here now.

Aerial: Ah… just to be clear, are you attacking or defending?

EarthForceOne: I’m attacking… and I’m guessing that means he’s not a good Keeper?

Aerial: Quite. I almost had to reset because of him. If you’re attacking, that means you don’t have to worry too much.

EarthForceOne: Well, what can you tell me about him?

Aerial: It’s quite a lot to say over text. Would it be alright if I came over, and we talk in person?

EarthForceOne: Sure, that would be fine.

After settling that, I sent an invite to Aerial, inviting her to join me in my Admin Room. I set the point of arrival to be the living room, now that I knew that was a thing that could be adjusted… Thus, I got up from my bed and made my way back out.

“Did everything go okay?” Aurivy asked when she saw me coming back into the living room. However, I had only just enough time to nod my head, getting ready to open my mouth before a shark’s head sprouted up from the floor in front of her, regurgitating a young, ginger woman onto the couch.

Aurivy’s smile froze at that, neck almost creaking as she looked at the woman covered in bile sitting next to her on the couch. There was a look of utter disgust on the woman’s face as she focused, quickly cleaning herself off. “Sorry… I always hate that one.”

“Me too.” I nodded, remembering when I myself suffered from the jaws of the land shark.

“Well, my appetite is thoroughly ruined.” Aurivy grumbled to herself, before turning to look at Talon. “So! New friend?”

“I… believe so? I have met your Keeper once before.” Talon answered with a small smile, extending her hand to Aurivy. “My name is Talon. Or, as the system calls me, Aerial.”

“Ohh, that second highest in the guild.” Aurivy nodded her head, happily shaking Talon’s hand. “I’ve only met Sarah, so it’s good to meet you! Though… maybe next time not in the same way…?”

“Yeah, I think I’ll have to set up an actual reception room after this.” I agreed readily. I wanted to let her appear in the living room, just in case she got a rather normal entrance. How could I have forgotten that the system just loves to give anything but a normal entrance?

“Quite.” Talon chuckled, before shaking her head. “Anyways, I have something to discuss with your Keeper.”

Aurivy blinked at that, looking over at me. “It’s about our next opponent. You can say it in front of them, Talon. They’re all going to need to know this, sooner or later.”

Talon gave another nod, her smile growing just a touch. “Very well. Roughly three Standard Years ago, shortly after I increased to Rank Three with Sarah’s guidance, I was attacked by BloodBrother. You shouldn’t be fooled by his rank, he is an expert Keeper. At the very least, I haven’t found a record of that title being killed in at least fifty years. Given the fact that his methods match his name, it’s likely that he was of the same generation as Sarah, the ones who chose the titles themselves.”

“Matches his name… he uses blood?” I glanced over to Scarlet when that thought crossed my mind. If the opponent used blood as an offensive tactic, then Scarlet would be the perfect counter to them. However, I naturally couldn’t send her in an invasion. Furthermore, they likely have methods to resist such obvious divine control.

“Not blood, per se.” Talon shook her head, bringing a hand up to comb through her hair. “Disease. He’s a Monster Keeper, but his monsters are plagues. The ones that he sent after me came in three ranks. The first were almost microscopic insects that infected the blood of living creatures, using it as a host to spread their plague.”

“The second was an energy form monster. When it entered a populated area, it exploded, infecting the energies of everyone around it. Those infected would gradually have their energies converted into the same type as the creature itself. I lost an entire realm just to that type of monster…”

“However, the third was the worst. It was a single entity, a God of Blood, Infection, and Death. It was my first time having someone send a deity with three domains after me in an attack. Since it was only one person, it took me months of hunting to find them, our fights crossing numerous realms. He had established a divine law upon his arrival, causing anyone that died to infect others around them with their ‘death’, dooming them to the same fate.”

“If someone died by being mauled by a beast, anyone else around them would soon find themselves attacked by all sorts of feral animals. Even the beast that killed them would be subjected to this law. Those that fell to their deaths would spread a ‘death by falling’ to those around them, giving them a compulsion to seek out higher places for various reasons, before causing accidents to make them fall.”

“Whether a death was by disease, violence, or a pure accident, that death would affect everyone within ten meters of them when they died. It only took two weeks before hospitals all across my worlds collapsed, the doctors dying in droves. Without doctors, the death rate spiked higher and higher. After I killed that god, and the invasion was finally over, I had to immediately get one of my companions to undo that divine law. And by that time, only six percent of my total population had survived.”

I felt a chill run down my spine when I heard that, trying to imagine the horror of a contagious cause of death. “I’m surprised that you didn’t reset after all of that…” I shook my head as I said that. If it had been me, I couldn’t guarantee that I’d have kept going with that world.

“I almost did… most of the people in that world that I cared for had been killed. If I didn’t have the ability to bring them back as companions, and if Sarah hadn’t been there for me, I would have surely reset. Even then, my rank dropped back down to two from that attack, and I had to take drastic measures just to get things back to working order. Sarah was kind enough to help me pick a world on the market that is good for repopulating after a tough battle.”

I gave a small nod, moving to sit in a free chair. “Sounds like we can’t just let BloodBrother off without some kind of a fight.” I muttered, thinking about what would be needed to fight a world which cultivated such dangerous diseases.

“He’s been idle at the third Rank for years. I wouldn’t expect him to be an easy opponent.” Talon warned, her eyes showing genuine concern. “Part of me has been scared to fight him again, and part of me has been wanting to, in order to get my revenge for the pain he caused me and my world. So… if you really want to attack him, I can tell you the strategies that I have thought of.”

I smiled towards Talon, nodding my head. “I’d appreciate that, Talon. Any advice that you can give me would help.”