World Keeper

Chapter 939: Digitize

Try to keep an eye on them for me, Terra. I whispered mentally after I sent off Clara to handle her new world and the factories within.

Oh? You think something might happen with them? The felyn goddess asked in interest, causing me to shake my head.

Not quite. Rather, I want to test the viability of worlds with respawning resources. If we hit a resource crisis in the future, I can designate one of the floors of Fyor as a resource farm, and set everything there to be respawning.

While I didn’t like to personally step in and take action to handle smaller issues, it was different when the world was facing a crisis, such as the previous economic, energy, or food crises. For the moment, those were handled to a suitable degree, but I couldn’t be sure that the solution would be long-lasting. Instead, I wanted to make sure that such problems could be taken care of as they arose. If it was something that the mortals could handle on their own, then I was perfectly willing to let them do so.

That makes sense. Terra nodded her head, before speaking up. In that case, may I offer a suggestion, following this line of thought?

I blinked at that while Tsubaki once again began leading me through her palace. It had been a long time since Terra saw the need to step in when it came to the development of the world. Of course. If I’m missing anything, I definitely need to know.

I could practically hear the small smile in Terra’s voice. It’s not an incredibly pressing matter for the moment. However, within the next few years, it is bound to escalate. Some people have already taken notice, and are moving to create short-term solutions, but nothing that will stand the test of time.

Do you remember the new change you made to the food systems of the world?

Of course. I nodded my head. The new system makes it so that even low level civilians can eat high level food, just in smaller quantities. Now farmers and hunters can focus on providing high level materials and normalize the culinary requirements of the people. The only thing that each person needs to be concerned with, as far as their levels are concerned, is their serving sizes.

That’s right. Terra responded gently. As you said, this makes farmers and hunters focus on higher quality. Thankfully, the animal side of things can be dealt with thanks to Accalia’s Huntresses spreading out the territory that they cover. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for farmers.

Due to growing high level plants, those plants need to consume nutrients suitable to their level. Currently, farmers are able to work around this by redistributing the nutrients from deep in the soil or the surrounding area. Eventually, those are going to run out, and previously fertile land will turn barren.

I blinked when Terra mentioned that, having not thought of this issue before. …You’re suggesting I set the nutrients in the soil to be respawning? Is that something that even qualifies for my new system?

No, it doesn’t. And that’s one of the options you could go for. Regardless of what you choose, you’d need to buy a small adjustment to the system. The first option is as you said, set the nutrients to be respawning. However, this will make it so that nutrients are constantly being added without ever draining, due to the decomposition of more plants and animals.

The second option is to buy a small system for farmers, in which they can designate a farm for themselves. This system would enrich the soil of the farm to match the level of the farmer. It could also provide other benefits, such as increased crop yield or growth speed.

Another option is buying a world trait, Rich Soil, which ensures that the land maintains a certain level of richness to it. However, this would cause a rapid spread of vegetation over previously barren lands.

I gave a nod as she listed the options. Of the three, the second seemed to be the clear favorite, and for obvious reasons. Is it possible to use James’ void technology to produce fertilizer?

There was a slight pause after that, before Terra eventually answered. Theoretically, it’s possible. However, to produce the amount of fertilizer needed to cover every farmer’s needs, there would need to be hundreds of thousands of void factories devoted solely to that.

And doing that would create passages in the void through which void beasts could invade, right? I asked with a low sigh. No wonder Terra hadn’t included that as one of the options. While it was theoretically viable, it would open us up to greater danger. How much does the farmer add-on cost?

Only one hundred and fifty points. Terra seemed relieved that I hadn’t gone the void path for this development, but I couldn’t blame her.

I gave a small nod, but didn’t immediately return to the Admin Room to buy it. Let Ashley know. This can be a test for her and her team. Since the system is relatively small, let them try to create it first.

Ashley’s team had made some rather good progress creating the inventory system, and compiling all of the various game systems into a more tidy format. Hopefully, this was something that they’d be able to do themselves. If not, I would buy it and let them study the code. Speaking of, are they on any current project? If there’s something more important that they’re working on, I don’t want to take them away from their work.

Without any major orders, the team is working on individual projects. A lot of them are playing Fragments of Acidia, and some are trying to create their own systems. For instance, the lead designer of her team is trying to modify the Digital Conversion system to allow engineers and architects to create any item or schematic that they’ve saved in their personal system database.

I blinked as I remembered that. Right, that system. As I recall, that system can allow any saved file from a ‘real world’ to be produced via energy. Would we be able to use that, in conjunction with our energy production facilities, to create the fertilizer we need?

Terra paused for a moment, clearly considering it. This was similar to my void production idea, only without the threat of creating paths into the void. The only downside was the energy requirement. It’s certainly possible. Most of the resources needed would be produced via natural energy or ki. As long as there is a great enough ki supply, natural energy is practically unlimited.

I gave a small nod of my head, smiling to myself. You can let them experiment with the farming system anyways, but don’t worry about making it a high priority. Since it is something that the civilians can take care of themselves, the farming update would be a purely quality of life improvement.

Terra seemed to agree, though she added on another comment. Should I do anything about the ‘resource seed’ system one of them is working on?

Resource what now?

Terra gave a low chuckle, before explaining. One of the coders is trying to combine the inventory, Digital Conversion, and Consumer’s Digest systems. The idea, according to their design document, is that a farmer should be able to place a naturally occurring resource in their inventory and hit a button, turning that resource into a seed. Then, that seed can be planted and harvested like a normal crop.

I paused, blinking at that idea. I mean… it could work. Presumably, those crops would also need the same level of nutrients, though, if not more or specialized ones. You can let him continue. As long as the system isn’t something inherently harmful, they can work on it in their spare time. I just want any system to be run by me before it is added to the world.

I’ll pass it along. Terra nodded, before her voice went silent. It was good to know that the soil nutrients could be taken care of with what we already had. Honestly, farming could be entirely revolutionized if farmers worked in Fragments of Acidia, and then sent their produce out through Digital Conversion. All they would need is suitable energy, and they would be able to mass produce a variety of crops. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if some farmers had already moved over to that method in the last few years.

“Is everything resolved, my Keeper?” Tsubaki asked in a respectful tone, clearly having sensed my conversation with Terra.

“Huh? Right, sorry. Terra needed to talk with me. Everything is fine now.” I spoke with a smile. Part of me considered reminding Clara about the Digital Conversion system, since her planets had more than enough energy to support it. Come to think of it, Digital Conversion can be used to mass produce raw materials, so long as there is enough energy…

I let out a long breath, hoping that the creation of the Digital Conversion system wouldn’t bring about another energy crisis. Mana should be easily dealt with thanks to Fyor, but ki was primarily produced only in the territory of Bloodhaven. Very few people had earned the blessings to have their own respawning nodes. Ki was often used to provide a physical form to items, so it was one of the ones with the highest demand when it came to Digital Conversion.

“That’s good to hear. According to Clara, there is supposedly a secret room within my palace, designed by Tubrock. If you’d like, I was hoping that the two of us could look for it together?”

I blinked at that, before offering a smile and nodding my head. It wouldn’t be any fun to cheat and use my admin map or World Sight, so she clearly meant searching for it manually. “Sounds like fun.”

There was a flash of light as a kitsune logged into Fragments of Acidia, his body covered with silver armor. The only things exposed were his head and tail, and he had an excited look on his face. Recently, there has been a new craze going through the game, one that mages had been taking advantage of. Some called it a bug, but most referred to it as a feature to help those struggling with the programming aspect of Arcanobinary.

“Activate Digital Conversion.” He muttered to himself, a blue window appearing in front of him. His eyes quickly scanned the surroundings, checking to make sure that he was in a safe location. He had logged out at the edge of the city, so there weren’t too many creatures that would attack this close. With a small nod, he looked at the window and began navigating the files that he had saved. “Let’s try you.” He muttered, selecting one file to create.

His mana surged from his body, condensing in the form of a card hovering in the air in front of him. However, rather than the normal playing card that one might find in Deckan, this card was seemingly made of silver, with circuit-like patterns running along its sides.

Mages of Deckan had named these as ‘Limited Casting Assistant Devices’. Like normal weapons from Fragments of Acidia, they could be used as a catalyst for spellcasting. However, they only allowed a single, preset spell. By itself, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem. If anything, they would be less effective than a regular device.

The ‘bug’ came from a new invention that had recently begun to circulate. One that allowed someone to take the spell from these cards and upload them to a proper casting device. For mages of Deckan, this meant that they could digitize their entire spell library without having to worry about the pains of learning Arcanobinary.

The kitsune player quickly pulled out one such device, slipping the card into the slot on the top. There was a small whir as the device worked, before a green light lit up. With a wide smile, he continued to convert and upload his spells. After all, this wasn’t the end of the ‘exploit’, as the completed casting device could then be sent back to Deckan. While it was incredibly difficult to create a similar casting device purely with Deckan’s technology that could save hundreds of different spells, it was not a problem at all when one took the extra step of using Fragments of Acidia’s technology.