After the proper measures had been taken to defend against memetic entities, the days began to pass rather calmly. While I did my training in the instanced world core that Aurivy gave me, the others were all working on their own projects. Chelsea was studying the creation of a new world, while Ashley was working on her next game.

The game that she had chosen to produce this time could be called more of a sandbox, akin to the game that Dana had designed a long time ago, or World Seed. In this game, there would be no NPCs, and the development of the world was left entirely to the players. However, there was one system that Ashley wanted for the game that caught me by surprise.

The game that she was creating used a cultivation system, but one that was integrated into the game’s main level system. The system was called Skill Master, and awarded participants skill points as they leveled up or trained themselves. They could spend these skill points towards a domain of their choice, designing the skills that they wanted so that the system could assign a price according to the compatibility with the skill tree and its complexity. Once they had spent a certain number of skills in a single ‘skill tree’, they would unlock a skill option called ‘Apotheosis’. Buying this skill would allow them to become a deity with their skill tree as their domain.

When Ashley told me about the system, I had habitually looked it up, noticing that its price was a full ten thousand points. Ashley assured me that it was fine, because aside from this system, the only other system that she would be purchasing for the game was a dungeon system to provide players with ample targets. Moreover, the dungeon system was only one thousand points.

Taking into account the ‘packaging fees’, that brought the estimated price game to a total of fifteen thousand. This was vastly cheaper than Fragments of Acidia, which had gone for almost ninety thousand points in total. I asked her if she had a good enough crafting system and other supplementary systems to help flesh out the game, and she assured me that she had taken care of that.

By packaging the item files of Digital Conversion as crafting recipes, following the crafting add-on that they had previously installed, they wrote a much weaker version of this system. Like this, they were able to save on the cost of getting a new crafting system from the market. Once they had all of the code put together, the game would be ready to publish. Unlike World Seed, this was a game that held the capacity to produce gods. At least, when combined with the technology to synchronize the real user with their game account.

After Ashley explained the concept of the game to me, as well as the systems involved, I briefly returned to the Admin Room and opened up my chat. Sarah and the others had all been a big help when it came to advertising my last game. It was likely thanks to them that a total of thirty Keepers had bought World Seed so far, giving Ashley enough points to begin production of another title.

EarthForceOne: How’s it going?

EverLasting: Hey. Did you hear?

EarthForceOne: Hear what..?

Aerial: Corona was defeated in this month’s game.

When I saw that message, my eyes went wide in surprise. I had never spoken with Corona before, and only knew that she was a female Keeper that had been forced to reset at one point. She was only at the first rank when I joined the guild. But, sure enough, she was no longer listed as a member of the guild.

EarthForceOne: I’m sorry, I hadn’t realized. Do you have any plans?

EverLasting: There’s not much that we can do. Her opponent was a Keeper at the third rank, and we don’t have anyone at that level. The best that I can do is put out a bounty.

EarthForceOne: A… bounty? Keepers can do that?

EverLasting: It’s not something done often, because it costs a lot of points to do so, and it depends on the credibility of the one issuing the bounty. If they’re unknown, nobody would accept the bounty, even if it was posted. But people know me, and they know I can pay. I’ll be issuing a bounty of one million points to whoever can avenge Corona.

My eyes shot wide once again at the size of that bounty. One million points, combined with whatever the Keeper would get from defeating the enemy Keeper, was an incredible sum. I could see many people tempted to act on this bounty. If I had the power to do so, I’d even want to get in on it.

EarthForceOne: Who was the Keeper that defeated her?

EverLasting: Savage.

EarthForceOne: Savage? They were my first defense. Assuming that they haven’t changed strategies, their main attack force was a black slime that could reproduce and infect the body of other creatures to convert them.

EverLasting: That’s good to know. They’ve likely expanded beyond that point, though. That was back in the first rank, in which you don’t have to worry about divine opponents much. However, if they followed the same theme, their slimes should have become divine monsters. Also, there should be other monsters to worry about when initiating an attack.

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Oldbeard: If they started with a slime race, they’re probably aiming for a galactic terror build.

EverLasting: That’s right. Slimes and insects are the best types to do that.

EarthForceOne: There’s one other thing that I remember. The slimes that came to my world used a type of verbal magic, which should be runic. Even if the slimes themselves have changed, that fact should have remained the same.

EverLasting: Thanks, I’ll be sure to include that with the bounty information. Since we know the foundation of their magic system, people will be able to more easily specialize against them.

EverLasting: Sorry, didn’t mean to hit you with all of this heavy talk. Was there something you wanted to ask about? You don’t hop into chat that much.

EarthForceOne: I’ve been spending a lot of time in my world, so it can’t really be helped.

Oldbeard: Why not get the Keeper Chat system?

EarthForceOne: Wha?

EverLasting: It’s a cheap system that some Keepers choose to get when they stay in their world for long periods of time. It lets them access their chat options while descended. Of course, it is entirely disabled during invasions.

I blinked in surprise, not remembering seeing a system like that. Was it one that required a certain rank to purchase, or had I just overlooked it? Given that there were millions of items on the market, either one was entirely possible. Pulling up the market, I saw that it was only worth five hundred points, so I immediately decided to purchase it. This would let me stay in touch with the guild more often, without needing to return to the Admin Room regularly.

EarthForceOne: Well, I’ve got that now. But either way, I came because my team is preparing another game, and I wanted everyone’s opinions on one of the systems, if that’s alright?

Ariel: Oh? Another one? I’ve got to say that World Seed turned out better than I had expected. It takes a bit of getting used to, but the trees can grow into major powerhouses over time.

EverLasting: For a first game, I’d say it was a good success. Anyways, what’s this system that you want to ask about?

EarthForceOne: It’s called Skill Master, a game-type cultivation system. Has anyone heard of it?

EverLasting: Yes… I’m familiar with it. Are you sure that you want to use this one?

EarthForceOne: Is there some problem with it?

EverLasting: I wouldn’t quite call it a problem. However, there is a detail about the system that isn’t inherently obvious. If a player with it dies, they lose all of their accumulated skills and have to start over. That is the ‘tribulation’ of the Skill Master cultivation system, and why it is listed there rather than a normal skill system.

EverLasting: Additionally, monsters in a world with that system will become more powerful as time goes on. Any monster spawned in the world has a chance to have access to their own skill tree, and if they do, they will have skills created by the players. So, if a player makes a wind slash skill, there is a chance that any monsters spawned in the future will possess that skill. The more skills there are available, the higher the chance that a monster will have one.

EarthForceOne: That’s… certainly a risk factor. If someone ascends to godhood with this system, will they still be able to create their own divine abilities normally, or will they be restricted to doing so within the system’s methods?

EverLasting: Once you have godhood, you’re able to transcend the rules of the world to some extent. While you can continue to invest skill points via the system to more easily solidify an ability, it isn’t required. Additionally, if you want to start working on another domain after the first, the price is exponentially higher.

I nodded my head in understanding when I heard that. Honestly, the fact that working on another domain was possible was surprising already. I made sure to pass this information along to Ashley while asking my main question.

EarthForceOne: Do you know how compatible the game system is with technology meant to synchronize the avatar and player?

EverLasting: There shouldn’t be a problem. Any memorized spells or techniques should be automatically read and added to relevant skill trees. There was one time when a master mage in my world entered the game, and because he had so many mastered spells, he was immediately given the chance to become a God of Magic. With this system, domains like Magic or involving certain weapon types like Sword become far more common.

EverLasting: However, I should remind you that any skills gained in the game are still lost upon the death of the avatar. That means that they won’t be able to be taken out to the real world anymore, even if the player’s main body has already started using them.

EverLasting: Because of that, most players stop playing the game after they gain their first domain, because dying would cause them to lose it, unless they had enough additional skills mastered in that domain to immediately reclaim it.

EarthForceOne: That sounds harsh… but I can understand why the system’s price was relatively cheaper if that is the case.

Ariel: Anyways! When are you planning to release this game? You’ve gotta let us know, right?

EarthForceOne: My team has picked out all of the systems that they want to include, they’re just working on putting everything together. This is going to be a full sandbox, so it shouldn’t take too much longer.

EverLasting: Not experimenting with making NPCs yet?

EarthForceOne: I’m not really that confident in doing so. My team is still relatively small at the moment.

EverLasting: That’s fine. I didn’t make my first NPC until my fifth game, and I ended up scrapping it because the NPC was just a self-insert. When I realized how bad of an idea that was, I got rid of the whole project.

My brow twitched when I heard that. Certainly, putting yourself as an NPC in the game would be horrifying, because it would give anyone the ability to analyze your skills. In a world where anyone could be out to get you, there was a greater need to ensure secrecy.

Still… I was surprised to hear the name Savage again, after so long. And the fact that they had defeated a member of my guild. Though, in doing so, they had incurred the wrath of a rich Keeper with many friends… so I didn’t envy them in the slightest.