For the next few weeks, there wasn’t really anything major happening. No world-ending cataclysm, no massive monster trying to devour the cosmos. If anything, we managed to get ahead of most of the problems in our world. Granted, there were still space battles with those vessels traveling the frontier. There were monsters roaming the world, but nothing that threatened the very existence of reality as we know it.

…What does it say that reality-threatening creatures are a genuine concern that I have to worry about these days? I shook my head as I thought about that, recalling the other recent changes. In order to help get the new game established, Ashley asked me to double her programming team, taking it out of the budget that I gave her. Thankfully, I didn’t have to pay salaries to the programmers.

The only other thing was… Balu contacted me after more than half of the month had gone by, letting me know that someone was interested in purchasing the ‘protection’ that I offered. The price was only two thousand points, but that was still two thousand points that I didn’t currently have. When I contacted the man to discuss the plan, Balu negotiated a meeting between the two of us.

As soon as the meeting was set up, I told Terra to leave the world running while I was gone, unless something horrible happened. In the meantime, I accepted the invitation to Starkiller’s home. At first, I debated bringing Bihena along, but this was a business meeting, not a personal one.

The method I used to travel this time was… familiar to me. The moment that I saw an earthen fin rise up from the floor down the hall, I winced. I knew what was coming immediately, and laid down on the floor, curled up to make myself as absolutely small as possible. Terra looked at me in confusion, before giving a knowing look when the land shark leapt out of the floor. Being eaten alive by this monster once was enough, thanks.

After a brief moment of entering the mouth of the shark, I found myself deposited on a soft, pillowy floor. “Uh… Dale?” Balu blinked down at me, having been waiting for me.

“Landshark.” I muttered, wiping the mucus off as I stood up. Balu simply blinked again.

“But why were you--ohhh, right. I get it.” Balu gave a knowing look, taking two steps back.

“Brave of you to be waiting for me in the reception room, given some of the transfers I’ve had…” I muttered, shaking my head and looking around. We were in a wooden room with circular orbs hovering beneath the ceiling, giving off a gentle light. However, the wooden floor was unnaturally soft, deforming beneath me like a soft mattress.

“It’s fine.” Balu chuckled, shaking her head and causing her white, rabbit ears to flop back and forth. “Bellarose should be here any minute. It was better to wait for the two of you together.”

“Bellarose, huh?” Balu had mentioned the Keeper’s name before. In my mind, I was expecting a woman with a noble aura. Almost like a red-haired Irena.

“Yup!” Balu nodded her head. “Bellarose is one of the longest surviving Keepers to currently exist!” As she said that, a hole opened up in the ceiling off to the right, a torrent of water descending. Within that water, I saw the shadow of a humanoid form crashing down.

Realizing that this must be Bellarose, I went over to assist just as the stream of water was cut off. “Hmm? Oh, thank you. You must be EarthForceOne.” Bellarose answered, reaching up to take my offered hand. I could almost hear the sounds of my preconceived notions shattering.

The individual before me was a weathered old man with a long beard going down to his chest, and clouded eyes. I couldn’t help but mentally swap the Keeper titles of Bellarose and Oldbeard in my head, thinking that they worked quite a bit better in reverse. “You’re Bellarose, sir?”

“That’s right. I see Starkiller already told you about me?” He asked with a gentle smile, pulling himself up. With a flex of his will, he dried his body of the water that had covered him. “It’s been some time since I was last flushed… never a pleasant experience.”

Balu’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh. Let’s head over to the conference room first, shall we?” She gestured the two of us to the door, Bellarose and myself each having to take a moment to get used to walking on the deceptively soft floor.

Balu led the two of us through a series of hallways that felt more like a maze than either a home or an office. Given her memory, I had no idea how she ever found her way around anywhere. Probably just teleports herself to whatever room she needs to be in. I thought to myself with a slight nod as we arrived in a room with a large, circular table.

The three of us walked over to take up various seats within the room, each of which were just as soft as the floor. Honestly, even the table itself was soft and pliable. “So, Bellarose. Starkiller said that you are interested in buying my protection for this month?”

Bellarose smiled kindly at me, nodding his head. “That’s right. I’m not sure how much she has told you about me, so allow me to give a brief introduction. Are you aware of the condition to rise from the fourth to fifth rank?”

I gave a small nod of confirmation. “It’s the ability to create your own world without the system’s guidance, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. This is one of the ranks where the goal to advance is most well known. This makes it a prime opportunity for people like myself, typically referred to as ‘retired Keepers’. We rise up to the very pinnacle of the rank, and just before the discovery is made to advance us to the Rank Five, we shackle the world.”

“Doing so lets us remain relatively safe from most invasions, as our world can develop in other directions and solidify our foundation. However, it also turns us into incredibly tempting targets for hostile Keepers. Especially ones as old as myself. The older a Keeper is, the longer they’ve had to grow, they typically have substantially more points available.”

“If I had to give a rough estimate of my net worth, it would be roughly fifty million points.” Bellarose disclosed without a care, causing my eyes to widen in shock. Even Balu’s brow twitched at the reveal. “Don’t worry. I don’t think I’m in danger of losing my life in this invasion. However, it could be incredibly inconvenient for me.”

“My opponent, RagnaRocker, has a very peculiar means of attack. I have friends that have dealt with him previously. He sends in incredibly powerful void monsters, which attach themselves to various worlds and begin ‘apocalypse games’. These games can take many forms, but generally have a common goal, being the destruction of life. For instance, one of my friends was attacked by a void beast that was strong enough to declare a law. Anything that didn’t take the life of a creature at least half their level within ten minutes would die.”

Bellarose let out a sad sigh at that. “He lost over seventy percent of his population, and more than ninety-five percent of the non-sapient life in that world. And then the game repeated the next day, and his population dwindled to only ten percent remaining, and almost no non-sapient life. Luckily, they managed to find the void monster before it could trigger the third round of the game.”

“RagnaRocker doesn’t have a good track record of killing Keepers. In fact, he’s never completed a kill. With Keepers being the strongest being of the target world, they are the most likely to survive his games. However… he has caused Keepers to reset a total of thirty-seven times due to irreparable damages.”

Hearing this, I was naturally sympathetic to his plight. “So, you want to use this protect to prevent your worlds from being targeted by his games.”

Bellarose nodded his head. “I had an attack ticket of my own this year, as well. Unfortunately, I had to use it to avoid a battle with another troublesome enemy last month, so I’m left with no other option than to seek aid like this.”

“I’m sure that you will likely get other offers before the month is out. However, I wanted to meet you myself, first. I haven’t met an EarthForceOne since… oh, it must have been decades. He was a bit of a darker fellow, but always kept a smile on his face. It was a shame when he passed.”

I felt myself twitch slightly when the man so clearly described James. James was one of my trump cards, so I couldn’t easily reveal that a fallen Keeper had been reborn in my world as a regular inhabitant, technically a monster no less.

“Right… actually, there was something that I wanted to talk to you about, as well.” I spoke up with a smile, causing Bellarose to blink. “If I use the ticket to protect you, would you mind being a beta tester for a game world that I’m working on?”

“Oh? You’re already in the industry?” Bellarose asked with surprise, but I shook my head.

“I’m in the same guild as EverLasting, but no. This is my first game. It largely focuses on development via nature and natural energies. My team is planning to have a beta test version of the game ready by the end of the month. I could send the physical drive with the game data over to you to let you test it out and get your opinion.”

Bellarose’s eyes briefly widened. “You’re not worried that I’ll register the game first and steal your credit?”

I paused for a moment, before giving a somewhat self-deprecating smile. “The amount of points you’d earn from that wouldn’t even compare to your passive income. Besides, like I said, this is only the beta of our first game. I expect that there will be a few changes compared to when it is properly released, I just want your opinion on how appealing the idea is to both a Keeper and a wider audience.”

The old man stroked his beared, letting out a light chuckle. “Very well. I can easily satisfy this request. In truth, I’m quite the regular of your friend EverLasting. We even have a tradition in my world, where the most popular game every ten years will be taken and turned into a real world.”

That’s… not actually a bad idea. It would at least guarantee that it’s a game liked by the population. I kept that idea in the back of my mind, though I knew I wouldn’t be able to implement it right away. At present, the most popular game in my world was Fragment of Acidia. While there were other virtual reality titles, none of them even came close to the same level of popularity.

The gate to the fifty-fifth floor shimmered as four figures walked through. Petra’s eyes scanned the horizon diligently, before nodding her head. “Looks like the coast is clear.”

“Well… let’s find a spot to settle down.” Maria grinned playfully, punching her fists together. “I don’t believe that we’re not ready for this place after training with those ghosts for so long.”

Sora couldn’t help but chuckle in agreement. “Our levels have increased significantly. However, let’s try to find somewhere that we can get new gear from the current floor. We can use that new system to upgrade the materials of our equipment.”

Thelsa nodded her head. “That’s right. There wasn’t much in the way of harvestable resources that we could get to on the fifty-fourth floor, so a lot of our gear is still outdated. I’ll have the Survey Corps map out the area to find a good place to form a foothold. Once we’ve secured the area, we can lay the groundwork for the guild to create their city here.”

“Not even going to try to look for the next floor?” Maria taunted, though Petra shook her head.

“Thelsa’s right. We’re not ready to move further yet. Once we’ve each broken the level five hundred barrier with our main class, we can consider going further. Until then, we need to hone ourselves. Leveling up is just as much about comprehension as it is about fighting, right?” Thelsa gave an approving nod at Petra’s comment, her shadow spreading out along the ground.