A personal computer. In Gaius’ twilight years in his previous life, the computer had taken the whole world by storm, which was swiftly followed up by the advent of the smartphone. Unfortunately, Gaius never got to see the true heights of either device, as he passed away shortly afterwards.

“A computer?” Isabelle leaned forward and examined the item closely. “How do I use this thing to run Celestia?”

“It’s quite easy, really.” Gaius grinned. This whole setup was simply an approximation of the most convenient control and monitoring method he could think of, which was why there wasn’t actually a central processing unit. In fact, this so-called computer was just a mouse, a keyboard and a screen that contained the relevant parameters of Celestia. “This here is what we call a keyboard. You can see the alphabet and numbers here, while this mouse here is used to move this pointer I’m pointing at. See?

“Hmm…”

“Isn’t it like a Display?” Nakama asked. “Just bigger and more complicated, right?”

“That’s right,” Gaius replied. “How smart of you!”

Isabelle pouted, and then pried the mouse out of Gaius’ fingers. After demonstrating that she did know how to move the mouse around, the others followed suit.

“Alright, that’s the basics of operation down. Now we’ll move on to Celestia itself.” Stirring his will into motion, the mundane black screen, which was originally empty save for an energetic mouse pointer, turned into a map of Celestia. On a never-ending ocean were four strips of green that intersected at the centre, like two plus symbols placed on each other.

These strips would stretch on towards the endless horizon. Given that this was a virtual world, something as illogical as an infinite world could be partially realised. The power needed to run such a world was a lot lesser, and it was a self-sustaining cycle — the circle of reincarnation, the expiation of one’s physical form as they entered Celestia…all these served to fuel Celestia’s expansion.

Incidentally, everyone here had been in without needing to discard their mortal coil, but that was not something he could do on a large-scale.

Gaius could not conceive of any way in which Celestia could be broken from the inside. He had made it such that the energy levels of Celestia would forever remain constant, recycling and reusing any and all forms of energy that was seemingly expended.

After some time, this whole world would become a self-iterating process, and manual input would not be necessary. For now, however, Gaius wanted Isabelle and the others to watch over it as it continued to evolve and improve, adjusting any issues that popped up in the process.

Nexus, who was the best person for the job, would naturally be the leader.

“What an odd map,” said Isabelle. “I presume that these lines will never end, right?”

“No, they won’t,” Gaius replied. “For reference, we’re actually at the very middle, right over here. To be more precise, we’re high above this point, in a floating house that moves with the wind or something.”

“…Aren’t we in a small castle or something?” Isabelle asked.

“On the inside, yes. But on the outside, it’s just a floating ball,” Gaius replied. “Don’t think too hard about it. In here, if you wish for it, something will appear. That said, it’s limited by all sorts of common sense and limits, so only someone with administrator rights can make unrealistic and unreasonable things pop up with a single thought.”

“Administrator rights?”

“Yeah. Everyone here, basically.” Gaius paused for a moment. “Like the great gods, I guess.”

“Oh. That makes sense, at least.” Isabelle scrunched up her face, and a small cube appeared in front of her. “Right, what are Nakama’s sentient artefacts doing here?”

She glanced at the little soldiers clinging onto Gaius’ head, and then at Lightning and Stone.

“They’ll be helping out too. The first arrivals to Celestia need some guidance, right? The people in Cybral haven’t noticed the new arrivals yet or the chances to their world, since they’re occupying the intersection below me. As such, I’m going to get these guys to lead curious people to the new arrivals and get those amnesiac fellows nice and comfortable.” Gaius grinned. “I mean, I could do that, but I’m not interested in being worshipped or whatever.”

“Lead curious people to the new arrivals?” Xanadu, who had been watching the personal computer in interest, piped up.

“Yeah. You have no idea how bored some of these people are. Since all physical needs are usually met, there are some people that would jump at the hint of any excitement. A new sculptor with some fame? They’ll make a long trip just to place an order. A great god appearing in a distant city? They’ll be there.” Gaius reminisced for a moment, and then smiled. “In short, walking toys will definitely attract people over, and they’ll find those new-borns.”

“What’s going to happen next?” Xanadu asked.

“Anything, presumably.” Gaius closed his eyes. “I’ve provided a beacon to a world that has all the necessary conditions for peace; that’s my goal. Whatever happens next is up to the hearts of people. Even if there’s fighting, there’s no overwhelming disparity in battle, so people can resist. And there’s no real reason to fight here anymore.”

“So your job is done?”

“Once the three months are up,” Gaius replied. “It’s going to be a tough three months, since I’ve provided a demonstration of what awaits when Celestia is fully formed. More and more people who are dissatisfied with their lot in life will join us, and before long…”

He chuckled.

“You have a very evil smile on your face right now,” Isabelle noted. “But I like it.”

“I’m not plotting anything evil, though.” Gaius folded his arms. “Although some philosophers might just claim that.”

“Why?”

“Well, there might be a thinker that claims that this Celestia of mine isn’t a real world, since there’s no physical body,” Gaius replied. “In fact, if I’m not wrong, the great gods are probably going to use this angle of attack against Celestia. They’ll cite the destruction of the body as proof and all.”

La-Ti made a sad noise. “Does that mean I’m dead?”

“According to them, perhaps.” Gaius shrugged. “I think, therefore I am. Since you’re capable of thinking, I would argue that you’re very much alive; you just lack a real body. But let’s put this topic aside for now. I’m going to show you how to use this program…”