It didn’t take long for Tsubaki to get an idea of how to run things as a Keeper, and she quickly started to see the pros and cons of the system that she had established. Although it allowed people to focus more on a particular field than in her Keeper’s world, she had neglected to include an age requirement for one to choose their class.
This led to infants and young children haphazardly selecting classes without knowing what they were doing, which ultimately prevented them from truly honing their talents. More often than not, they would just automatically choose one of the first two or three options available to them, making the other classes almost nonexistent.
Realizing her shortcomings in this field, Tsubaki allowed her points to accumulate from cultural advancements for only a short while before she reset her world. This time, she designated it so that inhabitants of her world would get their choice of class upon reaching physical maturity. Doing this ensured that they had more time to consider what classes that they wanted. At the same time, she decided to use the points that she had accumulated to buy the Kingdom system, preparing for when her people would start to develop civilization.
The results of this reset shocked her. Thanks to the system prompts offering them the choice when they were at an age to be cognizant of their choices, their language development began far earlier than she had expected. She watched in awe as one small change to the system completely altered the early generations of her world.
This had Tsubaki thinking to herself. What would happen if the system provided more information? For instance, if there was an intuitive guide that explained the various systems of the world. When Tsubaki asked Dana about this, Dana simply smiled.
“Such a guide is already on the market! It automatically updates as new systems are added, too!” She said in a cheerful tone.
Tsubaki’s eyes widened again. She was tempted to reset once more and see how this change would affect the start of her world. At the same time, they were just starting to develop a written language… She closed her eyes for a moment in thought, before nodding her head. “Please reset the world again, apply all previous settings, and purchase this new guide.”
Dana blinked at the instruction, but ultimately complied. It was clear that she could guess Tsubaki’s reasoning, so she did so without delay. “Do you want me to keep an eye on their development again?”
“Please.” Tsubaki smiled, leaning over against Dana as the two watched the world below.
Dana’s smile grew wider at that, nodding her head quickly. The world began rapidly turning, the years passing in the blink of an eye. Soon, Tsubaki saw the stars appearing in the sky, as well as a meteor shower that had occurred for the first time in her world. She blinked, looking at the system prompt that appeared before her.
Did this guide make them take an interest in stars? Or is this just a random occurrence? She was pulled out of her thoughts when Dana suddenly gasped.
“Hey, Tsuba!”
“What is it, Dana?” Tsubaki asked, looking over. The world below was no longer accelerating, so something must have happened.
“They’ve set up their first nations.” Dana reported, surprising Tsubaki. “The Kingdom system has caused them to end their nomadic period early, and they began bringing tribes together to form kingdoms.”
“Interesting…” Tsubaki nodded her head. She glanced off to the side, and saw an achievement for the first nation to be settled. Her lips tugged up into a smile, and she quickly realized that the more fundamental information she provided via the system, the faster the early development period would be.
In fact, wasn’t this also reflected in her Keeper’s world? When the Digital Conversion system had been added, technology entered a booming period. When the farming upgrades were applied, people began focusing more heavily on farming. The system heavily influenced the way people lived their lives.
“Dana, I have a question for you…” Tsubaki began, looking over at Dana, who glanced back in interest. “The market on this side, is it connected to the true Keeper Market, or is it a simulation?”
“It’s basically simulated. There will be a lot of similarities, but also a few differences here and there. For the most part, it’s safe to say that anything on the real market will be on this one, and vice versa.”
Tsubaki thought about that answer for a moment, before nodding. “Please place the World Host, Arcanobinary, and Elemental Seed systems on the market, if they are not already present. Additionally, the Dungeon World and Card Law world modifiers.”
Dana blinked at that, before her eyes went wide. These were the systems that had earned the most points for Dale, while also being something that Tsubaki understood well enough to create herself. “You’re aiming to farm points.” She said with a nod, closing her eyes. “This market has something identical to the World Host already, but I’ve put the rest up.”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“I believe that this should be standard practice for anyone participating in this activity.” Tsubaki said with a confident nod. “If possible, I would like to include the inventory system that they originally created as well, but I do not have a proper understanding of all of its options. Instead… let’s wait until we have a total of five thousand points.”
Dana tilted her head slightly, but ultimately agreed. “Do you want to reset after that point, or?”
“No, I want to create a second world to use as an experiment.” After saying that, Tsubaki lowered her gaze to the world below. Now, it was only a matter of waiting. She would be able to get points passively both from her own world as well as from her royalties. At least, that was the plan.
InnerStratum has requested a conversation!
Just as she was preparing to have Dana accelerate the world again, she saw the system message appearing. Her blue eyes blinked slowly, reflecting the light of the window. A simulated Keeper wishes to talk to me?
She had already decided that she wouldn’t share the knowledge that this was not a true Keeper world system with the simulated Keepers, as there was nothing to gain from doing so. At worst, the Keepers she told would label her as insane. Still, there was no harm in establishing a friendship with them.
Tsubaki: Greetings, may I help you with something?
InnerStratum: Hey, I just saw your listings on the market. You seem to be a good seedling, so I thought that I’d get in touch.
Tsubaki: Is that so? Is there anything that you would like?
InnerStratum: No, nothing like that. I just thought it’d be nice to be friends, and maybe we could meet up and talk.
Tsubaki: I’m afraid I have to decline. I am quite busy managing my world. Though, I do thank you for taking the time to reach out.
Tsubaki quickly closed the conversation, shaking her head. With just a few sentences, she had already gauged the other party’s true reason for contacting her. Tsubaki was a new Keeper that had been in the system for just a few days. Yet, already she had submitted four new items to the market all at once, two of which were new magic systems.
Thinking from the standards of the normal system, there were only two logical reasons behind this. First, Tsubaki was a genius when it came to designing systems. If this was true, then meeting and talking with her may allow others to inadvertently gain insights to create new systems of their own.
The second possible reason was that Tsubaki had an inheritance, a legacy of systems that her former Keeper had prepared for her before his downfall. If the transfer of leadership was a willing one, Tsubaki could see something like this happening for a Keeper to ensure that their successor was able to thrive. Similarly, if this turned out to be true, it might be possible to learn what other systems she had waiting to publish and beat her to it.
Either way, there was no benefit to Tsubaki in meeting such an individual. If she were to enter friendly relations with someone, it would have to be one who she did not believe was after any secret information from her. Still, she did her best to be cordial, denying him as politely as she could manage.
“It’s time to set up an afterlife system, Tsuba.” Dana reminded her, lightly prodding Tsubaki with her elbow. Tsubaki blinked, pulled out of her thoughts. She had forgotten about this with all of the hasty development.
“I see… Please purchase the Astral Plane option.” From Tsubaki’s understanding of the afterlife systems, the Astral Plane was a localized version of the wide-scale Cycle of Reincarnation. However, there was one important detail that she wouldn’t overlook.
When a soul died in the Astral Plane and was reborn in the Material Plane, its memories were erased. Yet, there was no mention of the reverse being true. Thus, the people sent to the Astral Plane were likely to retain their full memories from life. With that said, Tsubaki looked over at Dana. “Will we need to purchase more options for this system, as it is creating an entire world?”
Dana shook her head with a bright smile. “Nope! We’re all good! There’s a reason that the Astral Plane is the most expensive option. Essentially, the properties of your world are automatically copied to the Astral Plane, creating a mirror that continuously updates.”
Tsubaki nodded her head in satisfaction. “I see. That is good to know.” As she said that, she stood, turning to walk back into the Sky Citadel.
Dana blinked in confusion, turning to watch Tsubaki. “Huh? Where are you going?”
Tsubaki glanced back with a smile. “I have to train. If I plan to descend upon the world, I need to master the fundamental abilities.”
The small elf nodded in realization, hopping up to her feet. “I’ll come join you, then! I know all the differences between the magic system of this world and ours, so I can give you hints within my capacity as the Goddess of Magic!”
“I would appreciate that.” Tsubaki’s smile grew a touch warmer, the two making their way to one of the Sky Citadel’s training rooms. “At the same time, I can tell you about my plan for the next world… it shouldn’t take long now before we are ready to purchase it.”
Thanks to all of the systems that she had just placed, quite a few Keepers had taken notice and were purchasing them. Like InnerStratum, they seemed to believe that she was either a genius or working with an inheritance. Either way, these systems would be worth investing in.
Meanwhile, Tsubaki herself didn’t have many other systems that she could potentially add to the market. There was the Sylvan race, but races are cheap and overflowing. She wouldn’t get much from those. The same was true for the centaur race that her Keeper had created. If Tsubaki wanted to put another system on the market, it would need to truly be one that she created herself.