After Udona had finished grabbing her snack and went back to her room, I put in a call to Balu, saying that I would like to purchase information about UpperLevel if any were available. Unfortunately, she seemed rather busy at the time, so she said that she would be by in a few days to handle the transaction. She even promised me that she was going to set an alarm and write it on her wall to make sure that she didn’t forget.

Curious, I asked what had her so busy, and it turned out that she had just recently been forced to reset again. Since she was having to build up her world from nothing, she had to devote her attention to that for the moment. It seemed like she had gotten paired with another hostile Keeper, and sent everything she had at him.

There wasn’t much that I could do about that. I could potentially contact Alkahest, but since I had already made an appointment with Balu, I felt it was best to keep that. All I could do was wait for Balu to be ready.

Jamira jumped to her feet with a wide smile, running over to the phone that had been placed on the wall of the team’s office. She picked it up, quickly dialing a number. “Miss Ashley, we’re ready for you.”

“Already?” Ashley asked back in surprise. She had only left her team to work on the new assignment a day prior, and assumed that it would take at least a week to work on a system of this size.

“That’s right, ma’am.” Jamira confirmed readily. “We had to run through numerous checks, but the system appears to be entirely self-contained on its own. All we had to do was verify that there wasn’t any lingering code in other modules, and write up the interface.”

Ashley nodded her head, taking a moment to think it over. Since it was a Multi-World system, it seemed like it did not have anything strictly to do with the laws of the world it was governing, and existed as a pure supplement. That was something important for her to keep in mind in the future. “Is it possible to adjust the cost of creation? For instance, to allow those with admin accounts to lessen the burden?”

Jamira hesitated, looking back to the team before shaking her head. “I don’t believe so, with how this system is established. We can increase the cost, but the system strictly converts the energy provided into the finished product. However, with this, we did receive the framework for systems that can cross the borders of different system laws. With your approval, the team would like to study this framework.”

“If we can crack the code, we should be able to begin safely implementing future systems more cheaply by using this framework.”

Ashley’s eyes went wide when she heard that, quickly nodding her head. “Yes, please get on that right away.” If future systems could simply have the framework installed, they could save both time and points. Was this part of SarahLasting’s business plan? By saving various systems like this, she could easily create worlds, and do so cheaply enough that they would be feasible for reselling…

“Let the team know that they may play Fragments of Acidia, as promised. I’ll be conducting the full release in one week.” After saying that, Ashley quickly hung up, relaying the information to Dale. Now that the patch was ready, it was time for preemptive damage control…

Julia sat on the couch of her room within Sanctum, Aurivy happily lounging and enjoying a lap pillow as they watched a projection on their wall. There didn’t seem to be anything particularly important showing at the moment, so they chose to watch the news for a bit, just to see if there was anything that either of them could help with.

“You seem quite happy.” Julia said as she stroked a hand through Aurivy’s hair, the small Goddess giggling happily.

“Well, yeah! It’ll be nice to finally have a bit more time to think.” Julia arched her brow at that, but didn’t comment. While Aurivy appeared to spend most of her time enjoying herself, she had no doubt that there were other issues going on in the back of her mind as a Greater Goddess. Like how she had suddenly ran out on one of their games the day that the ravenous planet nearly devoured Sanctum.

As she was thinking about that, she heard a soft tone playing over the news, the woman in the projection placing a hand up to her head. “This is just in, an important message from the Greater Pantheon.”

Julia’s head snapped up at that, and even Aurivy looked over in interest. “The Greater Goddess, Ashley, has just announced that there will be another major system update one week from today. This update is scheduled to launch alongside the release of Darkflame Technology’s new Keeper-sponsored title, Fragments of Acidia.”

“The full update log can be found on their website, for those wanting to prepare themselves. However, the summary of the update seems to be… a reworking of the current divine token system with a new global currency. A more convenient experience for those seeking to borrow the power of the Greater Goddess, Aurivy, for transportation. And…” The woman’s eyes went wide as she received the last major update.

“The ability to bring qualified items and entities from the Virtual world to the real world. It is strongly advised that everyone take the time to read over the update log on Darkflame Technology’s website, to see how the related updates will affect you. In the meantime, please view the trailer just released for the new title.” The screen flipped, showing the trailer for the new game, while Julia glanced down at Aurivy.

“So that’s what you were talking about.” She said with a faint smile. “Though, won’t bringing things out of Virtual be even harder for you? That should be some big collaboration with Ashley, isn’t it?”

“Uhm… no, not that.” Aurivy blinked in confusion. “That’s the first I heard about that bit, actually. Granted, it’s awesome, but the bit I knew about was just everything else. Guessing Ashley had to ask for something last minute, maybe?”

Aurivy knew that she wouldn’t be able to easily do something like that with Ashley, even if she tried. The only way that it could happen was if they had a third god involved with a domain related to creation. Even then, it would probably be a huge energy drain.

As she was thinking about the implications of the new system, her eyes went wide. “Well… that’s a thing that’s going to happen now, I guess.” She said with a faint chuckle, Julia looking down at Aurivy curiously.

“Something you’d like to share with the class?”

“No, it’s fine. It’s not something that will be an issue or anything.” Aurivy shrugged it off, going back to enjoying her lap pillow. “We’re definitely playing this new game, though.”

Julia simply chuckled at that, nodding her head in agreement. “Of course we are.”

Hanya’s eyes were wide in shock as she stared at the screen mounted on her wall. The game trailer was still playing, but she didn’t even have the mind to pay attention to it. Her mind was still reeling from the news that she had just heard before it began.

The door opened, and Geoff walked in, having been out training his magic skills. When he saw his wife’s face, his expression went solemn. “Is everything alright?” He asked. Her head slowly turned to look at him, eyes wet. Before he could ask further, and before she could answer the first question, there was a knock on the door.

Geoff turned his head, and could see the keeper standing outside his home. Given the timing, he assumed that it had something to do with what was bothering Hanya. As such, he went over to open the door. “Keeper, sir.” He said with a somewhat stiff expression, still not knowing what was going on.

“That’s right, may I come in?” The Keeper asked with a smile, seeming pleased that Geoff was home. Geoff gave a nod, stepping aside to let him in.

When the Keeper saw Hanya’s expression, he nodded his head. “I’m guessing that you already saw the news?” He asked, Hanya just barely able to twitch her head in confirmation.

“What news?” Geoff was utterly confused at this point. Had something happened before he came back?

“We’ll… be able to go back.” Hanya said, bringing one hand up to cover her mouth.

Geoff, not having the full story, clearly didn’t understand. “Go back where?”

“The real world.” The Keeper said with a gentle smile. “We’ve managed to work out a way for the two of you to be able to return to the real world, and I came here to discuss the procedure with you both.”

Geoff’s eyes went wide in shock, the information dropped on him out of nowhere. It wasn’t that long ago that the Keeper had promised to offer them a way back, should one become available, but Geoff had assumed that he would be waiting decades, maybe even centuries before such a thing happened, not mere months.

“What… what do we have to do?” Hanya asked, the Keeper moving to sit down in a free seat. The offer sounded too good to be true, so she was afraid that there would be some complicated procedure or risk of catastrophic failure.

“In short, nothing.” The Keeper responded with a shake of his head. “As long as the digital blueprint was created from a valid, real-world item or entity, it can be perfectly recreated in the real world. The only requirement is that the necessary energy be provided.”

“In the case of a living being, especially ones as strong as yourselves, the energy requirements would be astronomical. Enough so that dozens of high-level adventurers would need to cooperate to safely bring one of you out of Virtual.” Hanya’s shoulders began to drop as she heard that, a look of defeat beginning to emerge on her face.

“That’s why I will be handling the two of you myself.” The Keeper continued. “My total energy value is more than enough to handle the two of you without risk to myself. Additionally, once you are in the real world, you will be permitted to create another Virtual account as per normal.”

The two of them had already secretly been provided with the anti-meme that forced others to abide by the terms of service and made their Virtual selves recognize themselves as alternate egos. Thus, there was no need to go the extra steps for that.

When the Keeper’s words finished, both of the home’s residents looked at him in shock. The Keeper had already personally hosted their wedding, and gave them the highest honors he could in this world. Now, he was willing to personally expend his own energy to bring them out into the real world. They didn’t know how great his energy was, but being willing to do something like that himself was more than they had been expecting.

“And there’s no risk of damage?” Geoff asked hesitantly, the Keeper nodding his head.

“This is something handled within the system itself, not some divinity. It is fully compatible with any energy type. The only true restrictions are that objects and entities must originate from a valid world. These worlds are the ‘real worlds’ you know, as well as Vision Expanse and the new Fragments of Acidia. Aside from that, any object or entity from those locations, if a digitized file of them can be created, may be recreated in the real world. We have already conducted a test, and a person’s Virtual self meets this criteria.”

It seemed almost unreal for Hanya and Geoff. However, they now knew that they were really going to be able to live again.