After watching the crowd disperse, I let out a low sigh, turning around to face the golden node. Its appearance hadn’t changed since when I first saw it. Normally, the first thing you would do when entering a node like this to work privately would be constructing a gate to keep others out. Thankfully, that was not required here, due to the nature of the node’s inner wall being impossible to cross without divine energy.

Thus, all I had to do was push through that first wall, and remember to close it behind myself. As long as I did this, I would not be disturbed until I was ready to leave. The wall itself felt… sticky, like I was pushing aside a wall of honey, only to wade through an entire swamp of it. Is this what Blank encountered when he first arrived in the digital world?

The mere thought made me shudder, as it did not match with any of the stories he had shared about his early days. Stories of servers that looked like a primitive world, taking the form of stars dotting an empty sky. Compared to that, this seemed far, far worse.

After fixing the ‘wall’, I trudged through the swamp of golden goop, vaguely able to sense sparks of information traversing through the mass like neurons firing. Unfortunately, there did not seem to be any end in sight, and I was left to question whether the entirety of the network was currently composed of this viscous mass.

No, just no. I am not trudging through an endless swamp of honey. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, focusing on my divinity. She said that words can help me focus my mental image.

“An empty field of stone. Input from the physical world will be handled through the form of a standard data stream. The stream can be up to three meters in diameter, created from the base text of the data being transmitted. Arrange all current inputs in a circular formation in the sky.”

My divinity pulsed outwards as I was speaking, and I could feel the thick concoction slipping away from my skin. In its place was a dry breeze, and hard stone rose beneath my feet. Once I opened my eyes, I was relieved to see that the surroundings had changed per my description.

Looking up, there were currently only two channels open, each streaming information to one another and to the main passage to the internet. Okay, I guess two points can’t really make a circle, but it did the job I asked it to.

The restructuring of the network here was far from over. After all, I was able to learn something from the pulse of power that I had just released. This network was no mere hub for the gods’ online activities. The entire world of Sanctum was integrated as a physical server, with all of its divine energy giving increased space for the network to use.

I shuddered again at that thought, knowing that the power of a newborn god would never be able to reshape a digital world of that scale. Yet… I seemed to have done it? At least, I changed it to an empty stone platform that persisted beyond the horizon.

Maybe it’s because the entire server is made of divinity, so it is accepting the changes with the Map Domain using the lowest amount of power… The only other option I could think of was Ashley supplying me with a massive amount of energy, but I did not feel such a power being channeled through me. That seemed like something that I would notice.

I took a deep breath, focusing again. I knelt down, placing my hand against the ground. “Let’s try it this way… I want to automatically distribute server space within Sanctum based on divine authority and relation, with each segment taking the form of a solid stone planet. Each planet will have a broadcast point on its northern and southern poles to connect with other worlds. Unallocated server space will take the form of emptiness waiting to be filled in.”

After I made this declaration, the ground beneath me shook. In the distance, I could see a large sphere rising over the horizon, appearing as a moon orbiting the planet that I was staying on. Unsurprisingly, this other world was streaming information to and from the planet that I was standing on, though I could guess that the one I was on was far larger.

Since the worlds are remaining this close, I can guess that the gods involved have some form of divine connection. In that case, I’ll leave that alone for now. I knew that I’d need to contact Jessie and let her know that the blueprint I needed was no longer for a small server, but rather a procedural engine to generate entire planetary maps.

First… would it be better to leave it as spacious as this, or compress the files to increase overall space? There might be some lag if I introduce an automatic compression, after all. I had never dealt with a server of this scale before, so I was somewhat at a loss with how to proceed.

As I was thinking about that, a third world formed far in the distance, clearly independent from the two that already existed. This one seemed to hover off on its own, unrelated to the current setup. Once I saw that, my eyes seemed to flash. I’m an idiot!

I stood up, clapping my hands against my cheeks. “What we need is a sun! The sun will act as the central node connecting this network to the primary network on the other side. Every allocated world will gain an orbiting satellite that beams the datastream directly to this sun in the form of a solid bridge.”

“Wait… that will make the network lag to an unacceptable degree… let’s have portals. Every satellite beams the information into a portal, which leads directly to the sun. For every fifteen primary deity allocations, a new star will be created to serve as a transfer hub. Any information transmitted to these new stars will be beamed to additional portals created around the primary star.”

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I began to grow more and more excited as I spoke, Sanctum responding to my wishes in real time. A great spark lit up in distant space, soon creating a massive star that the two existing planets began to slowly orbit around. The final celestial body, the smaller planet near the one I was standing on, began to act like a moon.

Around each existing planet, I could faintly make out satellites where the datastreams were being beamed towards. These satellites then opened simple black portals to fire the datastream into before closing. “Okay… what else can I do here?”

I wanted to set this up so that it would all expand as it was required. However, I couldn’t really personalize each world in that way. To do so, I would need to access individual accounts. As an example… I could guess that I was standing on the planet allocated to Aurivy, but I didn’t know about any subordinate god under her command that could represent the moon.

To find that information, I would need to have the rights to access the information of the account directly. But that wasn’t something that I could easily automate with the Maps domain like what I was doing now. Even the creation of satellites was only something that I felt I could achieve because it was a part of the background map.

“Ah, let’s have the suns be purely for cosmetics and gravity to act as mini-servers within Sanctum. We don’t want anyone burning themselves to death upon arrival.” After thinking for a moment longer, I chuckled. “Since it’s already cosmetic… focus the portals around the sun into a single complex, sorting incoming portals by allocated space and server activity.”

Naturally, the sun was way too far away for me to see anything, so I created wings of fire to fly up to the data stream of my current planet, riding it to the portal at the satellite above. Once I was through, I was practically pummeled against a stone wall by thick streams of data flooding through the corridor.

“Wires! Within the compound, the datastreams take the form of thin wires with rubber shielding to prevent tampering! Repeated access paths lead to increasingly persisting wires to facilitate faster repeat connections!” I let out a grunt after saying that, falling to the floor. The datastream that had assaulted me condensed into a thin wire that stretched out from the base of the black portal, curving to move to an adjacent portal.

“Okay… let’s have stairs going down, and a main transit gate leading to the other network. I’ll make it pretty later.” I said with a faint sigh, hearing the sounds of rumbling stone as the stairs were created.

At the bottom of the stairs was a wide, concrete room. On the other side of this room, a metal gate was held firmly closed, the primary network resting beyond it. Every now and then, I could see a wire poking against the gate, trying to get through, and simply shook my head with a smile. “Outgoing connections from Sanctum use a secured channel. The gate is only for roaming data access, such as entities like myself.”

After I said that, the wire moved over to the side, a junction box created next to the gate that the wire simply plugged into. This caused me to let out a satisfied nod. If someone wanted to piggyback on these connections, they would quickly find it to be a very tight squeeze. Jessie would be able to properly secure the connection, but this was good for a quick fix, so that the few residents of Sanctum currently wouldn’t be without their connection until then.

With a small sigh, I moved over to sit at a bench that I created in the corner of the room, leaning back in it. “Outside of this building, place a ban on any non-divine entity creating bookmarks. This is the transit point for the Sanctum network, and people can take the portals to where they need to go.”

After saying that, I pulled out my book, flipping through the pages. “Call feature… here it is.” I muttered, summoning a golden wire that extended from my book to the junction box. There was a delay for several moments before the call connected, Jessie’s face being displayed on the other side.

“I know you’re not all that patient, but I can’t give you results this quickly.” She said in an exasperated tone, to which I chuckled.

“Actually, I’m calling to give you an update on my requirements. The server over here is… bigger than I thought when I made that blueprint.” I could see her eye twitching when I told her that.

“How much bigger?”

“I just got done designing a framework for automated solar system creation… A very basic framework, I should add. Sanctum seems to be a world made entirely of divine energy… and all of that divine energy is also doubling as physical storage space. If I had to compare it… I’d say that the total unallocated space on this end is the equivalent of one third of the total network we’ve had access to up till now?”

Jessie’s mouth hung open in a shocked gasp, though I could completely understand that reaction. “You’re serious, right? This isn’t an exaggeration?”

I simply gave a small nod. “I’m using satellites and portals to beam data, with the portal network being the primary transport method for people like us. That’s why… I need three security plans. One for the basic transmitters on each world, one for the satellites, and one for the primary hub, here. From your friends, I’ll need a procedural map builder. I’ve set the server to automatically allocate resources based on divine authority and relationship, so there should be some room for planets to arbitrarily change sizes at times.”

Jessie’s eye twitched again at that. “I’ll pass it on. What kind of buildings do you want me to have them include in the plan?”

I had to stop and think about that for a moment. “Right, we’ll need some kind of markets and such. People will go crazy to have a store operated here, since it would take a god to break in. Let’s see… we can set it so that stores can be leased with a payment, and will then be registered to that user. As long as that store is registered, it will be considered a persistent part of the map, and will be unaffected by the changing in planet sizes. That sound fair?”

“And who is getting this payment?” Jessie asked in a wry tone, but I simply chuckled.

“I’ll only take ten percent as a management fee. The rest… you can negotiate the split with your friends.” Blank would be paying the salaries of my necessary staff that would monitor this server, so anything I took here would be simple pocket money. As the people doing the bulk of the design work, it was only fitting to let them take the bulk of the profits.

Still, Jessie seemed rather surprised by that, speaking as if asking me to change my mind. “We’re talking about the world of the gods here, right? These ‘planets’ you mentioned would be created by the authority of the Greater Pantheon at best, maybe even the Keeper himself. You only want ten percent?”

“This is… a lot easier than I was expecting.” I explained with a small smile. “Everything here is divine energy, so there’s a really good synergy with my domain. You guys are the ones actually doing the work, so I’ll be fine with this much to pad my account. As for the price for property, let’s have it scale with the divine authority of the world they’re wanting to purchase it for. If someone wants to own a store on Ryone’s server hub, they’re going to need to pay the price.”