World Keeper

Chapter 967: Sealing Fate

Once I returned to Olympus with Tsubaki, I passed along the details that Philia had given me, as well as my own idea for the development direction of the game. I felt as if this game could be rather popular, and should be a good learning experience for the development crew. Of course, there were a couple of things that they would need to work out before they could finalize the project.

For instance, they would have to spend some of their budget to buy the mutation research tree for Sylvans, and make sure that the special seed for the Mother Tree was properly set up. However, given the sandbox nature of the world, it was still easier than having to come up with an entire universe of NPC storylines.

“What would you like to call the project?” Ashley asked after confirming the details with me, causing me to think about it for a moment. Eventually, a name did come to me, and I nodded my head in satisfaction.

“World Seed.” I spoke with a smile. After all, it was a game combining the concept of a world tree with the Elemental Seed system. What else was I supposed to call it?

Ashley blinked at that, noting the name down and returning to her office. “The hardest part will be to create the framework for the AI, but thankfully they don’t have to be as detailed as those from Vision Expanse or Fragments of Acidia. I’ll try to have a working prototype ready by the upcoming meeting.”

I nodded my head, not really thinking it would be that easy to release a new game. Although Sarah had given me some advice, I knew that the actual programming component would likely take some time. At the very least, we didn’t have to worry about anything like creating a graphics engine or a physics engine. In a way, the biggest hurdles to creating the game were handled automatically by the system.

Chelsea let out a long sigh of relief when she leaned back, deciding to take a break from the creation of her void script. She hadn’t completely finished it yet, but needed to peel her eyes away from that project. Even Chelsea wasn’t able to focus on something like that for too long without risking her own sanity.

In the meantime, she decided to do one of her other favorite pastimes. When she wasn’t perfecting her own security, she was naturally attempting to crack the security of others. Now that a new patch had been released, that meant that there were potential vulnerabilities for her to exploit.

A small smile crept over Chelsea’s lips as she decided what she wanted to try to interfere with. Of course, there was no way that she was bold enough to do so with the primary world system. Instead, she had a special testing room that mirrored the outside world’s system in a more controlled environment.

After hopping up from her seat, Chelsea made her way to what she referred to as her System Bunker. Inside was a crystal egg mounted on a pedestal, with a large terminal positioned against the far wall. Chelsea grinned, walking over and flipping a switch on the pedestal to activate the system isolation.

“Let’s see… they shouldn’t have updated their security with this patch, so my usual bypass should work. Just to be safe, I’ll start it up slowly.” She muttered to herself, sitting down at the terminal and typing away at the keyboard. Line of code flashed by in front of her face, and she scanned it just as quickly.

Normally, it was possible for someone to view the system specifications with the right tools, gaining some insights into how things worked. However, if someone tried to alter any of the code or change any variables, the security system would immediately lash out and smite the offending individual.

That was why Chelsea could only do such a thing within this room, where she was able to relax the security measures of the system using her domain. She had already brought this loophole to Ashley, but they hadn’t worked out a way to fix it yet. At the very least, the items required could only be created under the influence of the system itself, meaning that invaders wouldn’t have the resources necessary to exploit the vulnerability.

“Okay, looks like there wasn’t a security upgrade. In that case, I’ll just use my bypass.” Chelsea spoke up, before quickly typing on the keyboard. “Now… what do I want to mess with?”

Chelsea’s options when it came to exploiting the system were rather limited in this situation. For instance, she could grant herself a thousand levels, but those levels would immediately be removed as soon as she left the area. In the worst case scenario, her body might suffer irreparable damage from being downgraded to that extent.

“There was that seed thing… but that’s Lorek and Spica only.” Chelsea pursed her lips, before typing a new command. The crystal egg receded into the pedestal, replaced with an almost identical one a moment later. As soon as this new egg was brought out and activated, the air seemed to briefly combust, the mana filling the room burnt away in under a second.

Once the transfer of systems was completed, Chelsea opened up her inventory. “What do I want to try?” A playful smile emerged on Chelsea’s lips, before she selected her multitool. Naturally, it had the ‘Tool’ tag, meaning that it couldn’t be converted into a seed. However, Chelsea rapidly typed away at her keyboard. “Highlight the target item to bring it up for the system to reference. Find the tags… and change to Natural Resource.”

Chelsea glanced out of the corner of her eye, seeing that the new tag had been applied to her multitool. However, she did not immediately turn it into a seed. First, she used the option to create a Digital Conversion File based on the object in her inventory. Then, she copied that file and downloaded it to a physical storage medium.

Next, she created a replica of the file, making sure to set aside her original multitool. If the system resynced to the outside world and it destroyed her multitool, James would never let her live it down.

Finally, after confirming that the new multitool still had the ‘Natural Resource’ tag, she selected it as a target to create a seed. There was a small flash in her inventory, the slot holding the multitool now replaced with a small seed.

After the creation of the seed she first created a new blueprint file, backing it up on a physical medium. Then, Chelsea gave a playful grin, grabbing the seed and walking to the door. The first thing that she did was toss the seed out the door, waiting to see if it would suddenly combust or erase itself from existence.

However, there was only a soft tap as the seed fell to the floor, causing Chelsea’s eyes to light up. Without leaving the room, she stretched her ki out to wrap around the seed and bring it back in. Only when the seed was back in the room did Chelsea put it in her inventory to investigate again, though her face fell as soon as she saw the results.

The seed had reverted from its multitool form, and was now set to only grow the basic energies used to create the multitool in the Digital Conversion system. “This was an item that was created outside the influence of the system. As soon as it entered the system control, it was detected?”

Chelsea furrowed her brows at that, lightly tossing her original multitool out of the room before retrieving it. Sure enough, the ‘Natural Resource’ tag had been removed from the item. She clicked her tongue, having been certain that there would be an exploit to take advantage of if she managed to manipulate the tags.

“In other words, the only way that I can do this is if I have the farm inside of my System Bunker.” Such a thing was entirely possible, though Chelsea didn’t feel the need to go that far for such a simple experiment. “If I tell Ashley to encrypt the tags, it will stop people from being able to change them like this in the future.”

After saying that, there were still two more tests that Chelsea could do for this experiment. The first was to toss out the storage drive that held the two files that she had created, and then pull them back in. Upon doing so, Chelsea was pleased to find that the files were still intact.

In that case… Chelsea grinned, creating an avatar of herself and making it walk out of the System Bunker. Once outside, the Avatar used the Digital Conversion system to recreate the seed that she had scanned, as well as the altered multitool.

The results were… mixed. The Natural Resource tag had been removed from the multitool, returning it to its default state. However, the seed still registered that it was set to create a new multitool. Chelsea’s eyes lit up as she noticed that.

Just to be safe, she ordered the clone to walk back into the System Bunker and then leave again, bringing the seed with her. Unlike before, the seed was not rendered useless upon passing through the system barrier. “Okay… that’s definitely an exploit that needs fixed.” Chelsea muttered, noting down the entire process.

First, the item has to be altered within a System Isolation Zone where the hacker is able to alter the tags of an item to assign the Natural Resource tag. Second, they must create a seed for that item. Then, a physical Digital Conversion file of that seed. Once these three steps are done, they will be able to use that file to replicate the seed within the primary world’s system.

Chelsea had no reason to believe that there wouldn’t be other people in the world with the resources to pull off something like this. In fact, as long as one had a domain related to programming or security, it wasn’t very difficult to accomplish. Encrypting the tags will help a lot with this exploit. However, there should be a check on the seed created by Digital Conversion, confirming that it was a natural resource. That should be enough to fix this exploit.

The giant mechanical figure stood in the vastness of space, his arms crossed behind his back. His gaze swept out and through the empty expanse before him, his gaze flashing with blue light. Even before his original downfall, the Head had been one of the few entities in the world capable of casually calculating and releasing fourth tier magic.

Now that he had been reborn, with access to more updated software and magic research, his prowess in this field only grew. His mana pulsed, and dust gathered from the emptiness, condensing in the distance before him. His eyes were calm as he watched the dust grow tighter, forming a sphere that grew larger and larger.

As the sphere grew, its surface changed, going from a rocky texture to smooth and metallic. Complex machinery began to build itself directly within the heart of the planet, expanding together with the surface. The Head remained far away, waiting until the world had reached the size of Deckan before allowing himself to come to its surface.

With my new factory world, I can revive the old race, and the Geer will once again roam among the stars. There seemed to be a satisfied glint in the Head’s eyes. At least… until he saw someone standing on this newly created world with him. She was incredibly small compared to him, with black hair and black eyes, triangular ears atop her head and a swaying, feline tail behind her. And yet, the Head felt a strange sense of crisis when it faced this creature.

“You are… a felyn. What are you doing here?” The Head asked, its tone solemn.

“It seems that you were only half fixed.” The woman stated, her eyes peering up to meet the Head’s gaze. “Your other half was not saved in the same database… Do you have no intention of recovering it?”

The Head’s eyes narrowed. Originally, he did indeed have multiple personalities, and these personalities cooperatively controlled the Head’s processing abilities. “There is no longer a need for another.”

“You seek to cast aside your mercy. In that case, tell me. What does the great researcher of the Geer wish to do?” Her words carried a dark pressure to them, causing the Head to briefly tremble. “If your goal is to overthrow the other races, I have more than enough means at my disposal to stop you. And this time, not so much as an atom will remain of your existence.”

The Head’s eyes blazed with fury at the blatant threat, before he forced himself to calm. “I wish to revive my race. The March and Metong are already prospering, while we have fallen to the wayside. Few even remember our name. I would return us to our former glory.”

The woman stared at him for several seconds, before speaking slowly. “So be it. Know this, however. I am Fate. Should you attempt to cross the line I have given you, only death awaits. You can run from it. You can hide from it. But it will find you. I will find you. No amount of domains will protect you from the wrath of Fate.”

The Head felt as if something had tightened around his body for a moment, before the woman simply turned and took a step away. As she did, her body faded away into nothingness.

…Who was she, and why do I have no records on her!?