Considering the time it took to construct each Void Core and find a suitable world to test it on, it took roughly twelve years before the official launch of the Void Core power plants. For this initial launch, each universe was assigned one core that would be held in a different realm to supply power to them on a grand scale.

James sat at his desk, not even wanting to calculate how many lives were ultimately lost in the research and development. Every failure meant the destruction of an entire universe, after all. Theoretically, it could be an infinite number of lives. However, they did their best to mitigate this as much as they could. For instance, making sure that the solar system that they appeared in was uninhabited, and that there were no signs of interstellar civilization.

There was no way that this would absolve him of all of the deaths, which was why James was personally the one that ordered the construction and activation of every Void Core. He could imagine just how black his karma must be at this moment. For that reason, he shut himself off from everyone, giving them no explanations or requests.

If someone helped another person with overwhelmingly bad karma, that person too would gain negative karma. He knew that just a fraction of his current karma would be enough to condemn his entire research group to an eternity of torture within the black chains that rested beneath the golden palace.

I can’t go out until I resolve this problem. He thought to himself, though such a deep karma was not something that would go away on its own. Unless he brought just as much good as the evil he had done, he would be forever tainted.

If karma can be wielded, it can be molded… it can be removed.. It’s just a matter of determining how. James was familiar with the One Light energy, having been the one to bring it into this world in the first place. He was the first to learn how to weaponize karma. Now, what he needed was to find a way to sever his karma, to wipe the slate clean.

Until that time came, he would not interact with anyone. Even Chelsea was forbidden from talking to him, unless she sent him a message directly from the Admin Room, where even karma couldn’t reach. James glanced at the title that he had received before he made this decision, Purest Black. For having the most powerful negative karma, his Luck stat was reduced by a full three thousand points.

Even the Keeper himself wouldn’t be able to sustain such a debuff, and so James quickly found his Luck stat more than two thousand points negative. Together with Charm, the Luck stat was one of the two great mystery stats of the system. Charm would subtly alter your mannerisms to come across more pleasingly, and generally increase your social skills.

Meanwhile, Luck influenced things even deeper. In a way, it was even tied to the Fate system. Luck, Fate, and Karma… now that would be a terrifying trinity of domains. James chuckled to himself as he thought of that, before shaking his head. Yo, Terra. I know you’re listening and waiting for me to ask. Can the Origin of Fate clear my karma?

Sure enough, Terra’s voice came back a few moments later with a solemn tone. I’m afraid not. If she were a true Origin, it wouldn’t be difficult. However, the process that she used to reach this point made it impossible for her to build up her Origin power to the degree she would need to clear that level of karma. As the Judge, Irena would have some authority to lower your karma, but not enough to help you.

So, either I create the energy to wipe karma myself, or I wait for Dale to buy a system that would do it in some way. James said with a low groan.

Someone in Ashley’s team is working on a system for one to redeem negative karma through true devotion to the Greater Pantheon, but it requires an offering.

When he heard that, James’s brow twitched. An offering to remove this much karma… I’d have to drain the vaults of every country in every world.

You’re not wrong. Terra chuckled dryly. But… are you really sure that you can create an energy to manipulate karma?

Why not? A savage grin appeared over James’s face. I’ve created energies that weaponize karma. I’ve created energies that view the weave of fate itself. Now, I just need to combine the two and add some new features.

…With your current Luck? There was an almost awkward tone to Terra’s mental voice as she asked that.

James’s face tightened up, unable to offer a response. With his current Luck stat, the weave of Fate would be actively working against him, attempting to prevent any action which may benefit him. I’ll just… need to overcome Fate, then.

Terra let out a light laugh when she heard that response. I’ll try very hard not to take that as a personal challenge, for your sake. Remember, don’t try to take the easy way out. Even if you managed to preserve your soul after death, the karma will remain with you. It will probably take a long time, but you have to persevere.

James gave a firm nod of his head. As soon as he left the lab, and flew to the deepest regions of space, he was prepared for that. It could take months, years even to construct this energy. Especially when Fate was actively working against him. Already, he had encountered five monster gods, eluding those he could while defeating the others.

Now that the void Core was complete, it was time to descend once again. With energy being far more readily available, there would soon be a technological boom. Hopefully, with every major institute focused on void defense, that would influence the direction of development.

When I descended, I made my way to the Ashtanu Research Institute, the door opening to let me directly in before I had the chance to knock. I had come with the intention of personally congratulating everyone on this project that had been decades in the making, only to find a flurry of activity.

Chelsea, Thea, Nora, Treisha, everyone was running back and forth in a panic, fixing machines that were constantly breaking down. “...Is everything alright?” I asked, Chelsea pausing at the sound of my voice.

“H-How did you get in here!?” She shouted in alarm, a loud crack coming from one of the Perfection Chambers. “Gah! Treisha, this one’s yours!”

“You… didn’t let me in?” I blinked. “The door opened as soon as I got close.”

“Oh no, that means that the automatic security is down, too!” She sighed heavily, focusing as her divinity grew. A burst of golden light spread out, and she nodded her head. “Okay, that issue has been fixed! Now, what are you here for?”

I hesitated to speak up, seeing the chaos of the lab. “Is this a bad time?”

“It’s going to be like this for a while.” Chelsea grumbled under her breath. “Anything connected to James is suffering karmic backlash. Udona said it was some law written by a Murphy in your world?”

My eyes widened at that. “Is it… that bad?” However, Chelsea simply nodded her head, not elaborating. “Okay… what can we do to fix it?”

“Right now? Nothing. If there is any potential fault in a device, it will flare up. It doesn’t matter if the fault is hardware or software. Until it has lost its karmic connection with James, it will keep breaking.”

“What about all of you?” I asked, looking around at the others.

“The fact that we have our own karma insulates us to a degree from the retroactive effect. Unless we actively do something that would benefit James in some way, our own karma is safe. Now, as I said, what are you here for?”

“...I came to congratulate everyone on their hard work.” I said, my voice somewhat strained. I had certainly not expected circumstances like this.

Chelsea rolled her eyes, not saying anything. However, I heard her voice in the back of my mind. You want to thank us? Find a way to get rid of the karma. I can’t even suggest helping James with my incarnation, or else she’ll have to join him in isolation. While I personally wouldn’t be opposed to that, it’s not what he wants.

I gave a small nod, thinking it over. “What about a system nullification area? Karma is handled as part of the system, right? If you take an item out of the system’s influence, will the karma remain attached?”

Chelsea’s eyes went wide at my suggestion. She turned, running for a nearby locker. From the looks of things, they had been so busy trying to fix machines that they hadn’t had the chance to try to think about a fix for the overall problem. I watched her root around inside the locker for nearly a minute before she emerged with a small box. “Nora! How are the repairs on the sprinkler system!?”

“Just finishing up, boss!” She said, Chelsea nodding her head and running towards Nora, whose upper body was half-buried in the ceiling. Once Nora came down, she opened the box to reveal a white gem and hit a switch. I could see a translucent barrier spreading out through the room, causing everything to quiet down briefly.

When she hit the switch again, the barrier collapsed back in on herself. “Okay… test it out. Knock on the sprinkler lightly.”

“Really…?” Nora gulped, leaning over and lightly tapping it with her multitool. There was a small drip of water, but nothing major. “It’s… not bursting?”

Chelsea nodded her head at that, before speaking carefully. “Of course not, James made it.” She jumped back as soon as she said those words, the pipe shattering less than a foot away from Nora’s face and spraying her with water. Her arms flailed helplessly, waving her multitool to cancel the flow.

Gulping, Chelsea activated the barrier again. “Okay… let’s quickly get everything fixed. After that, we have to be careful not to attribute anything in the lab to James, whether verbally or in writing. We can’t give him any form of credit, or whatever project is involved will immediately break down.”

Nora turned, glaring at Chelsea as her body was drenched from head to toe, the flow of water finally dying down. “Did you… really have to use me to test that theory?”

Chelsea offered an apologetic smile. “Sorry. You were the only one working on a system that wouldn’t be fatal, no matter how badly it malfunctioned. If one of the Perfection Chambers, or even the Divine Forge went critical, the entire lab could go down.”

Nora let out a grunt of acknowledgement. “I’m going to go dry off.” She said, descending her stepladder and marching away with wet plops of her feet.

Chelsea and I had matching, wry grins on our faces, while I focused on sending a message to her main self in the Admin Room. Can he use this to help himself?

Yes and no. Technically, he can. However, he already left, and he didn’t take anything with him. If anyone tries to take it to him to help, they’ll be infected by the karma along the way, and may end up getting killed while looking for him. Even the Greater Pantheon wouldn’t dare to mess with this kind of karma easily. As for using this constantly while going to find him… that’s even harder, because your energy is almost uncontrollable while in the negation barrier. That’s the primary point of it to begin with. Don’t even try to volunteer yourself, or I’m telling Tsubaki.

I winced, knowing fully well that if Tsubaki heard what was happening, and that I was considering delivering it to James, she would try to do so before I had the chance. Okay… hopefully it doesn’t take too long for him to figure out his problem.