Ashley’s heel tapped impatiently against the floor as she sat at her desk, waiting for the first report to come in from her team. To her, this was an incredibly serious problem. If a monster were capable of hacking into the system to create a new class, even if that class was meaningless, it opened the door to a window of possibilities that she did not want to deal with. For instance, what was to stop a monster from simply deleting a class from the world?

Soon, a familiar face entered the office, holding a folder in her arms. Her steps were hurried, and she immediately set the folder on Ashley’s desk. Ashley offered a small nod of thanks. “Good work, Jamira. Let me know when there is an update.” She said, before opening the folder and reading through the text.

The first topic discussed in the file was what Ashley was most worried about, and caused her to sigh in relief. The world’s system hadn’t been changed. Instead, it was simply the system of the affected individuals that were changed. Similar to the effects of the system stone, but with an altered code. This meant that there was no danger of a bug appearing like this that would cause massive chaos.

The second topic covered was the nature of the class, according to what had been dissected from the code. The closest translation that they could make for the class was ‘Void Touched’, and its abilities were based on games, forcing people to play by a set of randomly determined rules.

Ashley arched a brow, reading through that again. She hadn’t read wrongly. The rules were determined at random, with not even the class holder having a say. The only problem was that there was no set list of rules to choose from, so they could literally be anything. Or, rather, the list itself was corrupted within the code, using an improper variable that led to the list being undefined. The only properly defined ability was the class holder being able to respawn, seemingly with no limits or restrictions.

When Ashley came to the end of the report, she saw a suggested method of dealing with the monster, which was to kill it within a space where the system was nullified. Doing so would remove its respawn ability, and cause it to be truly killed.

Without delay, Ashley approved of this plan, as well as suggested that they arrange a new system stone for the contaminated individual if their new class did not dissipate.

Ashley’s order was transferred to Lavender, who was surprised that even something like this did not warrant the direct intervention of the Keeper. Still, the fact that it was able to be dealt with so easily was something that she could be proud of.

She relayed the order to the response team, but they would need to wait for some time for a system stone to arrive. Now that there were no aliens left to be encountered, these items were produced almost entirely either by the Metong or in Fyor, the last places where they would have value. Since the file for the stone was not in the public domain, they could not simply create one through the Digital Conversion system.

As she was waiting for the next report, one of the team captains came in to report. “Priestess! The situation within the Epoch has been dealt with!”

Lavender paused, recalling which report that was. “How many survivors?”

“Reporting, a total of thirty-eight crew members, including the two who sent the distress call, have been confirmed. Twelve memetic entities were slain under the effects of a pulse suppressor, their bodies disposed of. All surviving crew are being placed in Code 9 Quarantine, as per the recommendation of their Security Manual. For the time being, the Epoch has lost its command staff, and will be unable to take further missions.”

Lavender simply nodded her head. Although she was sure that she would be able to get away with it, issuing commands about the operations of ships after their immediate crisis was cleared was outside the scope of her job. Her primary job was to transcribe any potentially hazardous reports coming in.

If something were to happen to one of the other two, she did have her own combat powers, but this was where her focus was. “Understood. In that case, you can move onto the next one.” She said, gesturing towards the ‘safe’ pile. Thankfully, the new reports had stopped coming in for a while now. All that was being sent out at this time was updates from the various ships, some maliciously trying to infect other vessels while their broadcasts were intercepted and blocked by the nearby station.

The captain simply nodded his head, taking the report and reading through it. The memetic entity listed didn’t appear to require any special measures, so he saluted and left to begin his work.

I looked down at the summary of the reports from various worlds. To summarize, the first voyage beyond the Hyperlane Network could be deemed a catastrophic failure. The shields meant to protect against these types of monsters were wholly unsuccessful. The only ships to escape safely were those that did not face these monsters in the first place.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Turning to the side, I nodded my head at Tsubaki, who had returned from her outing, as calm and collected as ever. “Let Ashley know that she can begin her marketing for the new game by the end of the week.”

Tsubaki simply nodded in response, though she looked concerned. “Understood, my Keeper. However… is that wise? Codex Chaotic was only just released within the last few months, so the public may not be ready for a new game world to explore.”

I leaned back in my seat, thinking it over. “Honestly, I don’t consider Codex Chaotic to be in the same vein as the other games we’ve released, due to its nature as a primarily single player game. However, I also don’t think that Ascension will receive the same warm response as our other games.”

Tsubaki blinked slightly, not fully aware of the details of the game. “If the game is released by my Keeper, then surely it will be successful.”

I simply gave a low chuckle. “I actually don’t expect it will be, whether we’re discussing amongst our own people or other Keepers. There are other systems built in to supplement, but the core of the game is just the Skill Master system, and there is no story or existing world development. These games should be numerous on the market, with too many people just slapping a game together and calling it ready.”

Tsubaki hesitated again, before voicing her main question. “If you don’t think it will succeed, why are you allowing Ashley to publish it?”

I glanced towards Tsubaki with a small smile. “For experience, and so that she can obtain the necessary code for the new system. After this game, I plan to tell Ashley to hold back on any more projects until she is ready to create NPCs for the games she makes.”

Tsubaki’s eyes widened when she heard that. “Won’t that take quite a long time?” She asked, though I honestly didn’t think so.

“Not if we take what already exists in the world, and modify it just enough to make it work. I plan on pointing her towards a template that was created a while back. Speaking of… do you know how Ana is doing?” When I asked that, Tsubaki seemed to understand.

“To my knowledge, Ana has retired from her teaching position, due to being unable to keep pace with the constantly evolving technological and magical developments. Furthermore, as she is not a fully awakened magical intelligence, there is a limit to her capabilities.”

I gave a small nod at that. Ana was my original attempt at creating a sentient artificial intelligence, using the card magic of Deckan as a form of object-oriented programming. The result could be compared to an extremely high-functioning chatbot that had its own understanding of human emotions developed through a period of observation.

If Ana’s base concept was taken and used as the template for NPCs, changing their programming just enough so that they had a survival instinct comparable to humans, they would be able to create decent NPCs without worrying about souls. I doubted that they would perform as well as the NPCs in Fragments of Acidia, but something like those found in Vision Expanse shouldn’t be difficult to pull off.

This was the drawback to making games the ‘simple’ method through the system, and also why Sarah’s games were so popular. Although she took the time to create them, they had their own concepts and stories behind them, and there was far more for the players to do than simply play in an open sandbox. At the very least, a sandbox game needed its own unique system, similar to how World Seed combined the trees with the Elemental Seed magic system, as well as monster taming.

“On the other hand… There is a target audience for Ascension in my world. People will likely view it as an emergency measure taken by us to give people an alternate path to strength. The Skill Master system gives a safe way for anyone to obtain a domain, outside of divine forging or the chambers that James and his group made. Theoretically, anyone could put in enough effort and become a god with up to three domains, achieving their own trinity.”

The concept of a trinity might be seen as outdated, now that the divine circuits were popularized, but there were still certain benefits to be found in the stability it provided. Furthermore, the surplus of options made it popular for people to seek more than one domain.

‘I understand.” Tsubaki nodded her head. “In that case, do you plan on having any of us seek domains in this way?”

I shook my head at that. “You and Lifre are already goddesses with your own trinities. I don’t even think the game will be decent for your trials, compared to what Codex Chaotic can provide.”

After I said that, Tsubaki’s ear flinched slightly, and I had clearly caught onto one of the main reasons that she asked about trying the game. “Honestly… I think that the next game should be made with Lifre’s help.”

Tsubaki blinked in confusion when I said that, tilting her head. “Lifre… making a video game?” Tsubaki acted like she couldn’t imagine Lifre typing a line of code, let alone an entire program.

I let out a light laugh, reading her expression. “Not making the game, but the story. If Ashley can incorporate a story written by Lifre into the game’s code, she might be able to set that as the ‘goal’ for the NPCs of that world to strive towards. Think of it like how Fragments of Acidia has an already established storyline, and yet there is no direct sign of Sarah or anyone else from her team having visited the world.”

“This means that the world evolved towards its current direction in a guided manner, which we can confirm because we have been forced to launch the game twice. It has a history, but none that would directly link to Sarah herself. Otherwise, people with powers related to time could observe the history of the world from before its purchase to find clues about her. And I’m confident that Sarah wouldn’t make a mistake like that.”

Tsubaki nodded her head, seeming to follow my train of thought. “So, you believe that her team contains someone specialized in writing divine stories, similar to Lifre?”

“It might not be divine. It might be a Fallen God, or someone with an extremely weird Saint Energy. Either way, she definitely has someone writing an extensive world overview every time she makes one of her games.”