I let out a long sigh, my arm dropping to my side as it grasped the bow. Even in the Admin Room where I couldn’t get hurt, my fingers felt sore from repeatedly pulling at the string. I had long since lost track of time, focusing purely on condensing void arrows one after another.

Finally, I had reached the point where I could reliably create one such arrow without the use of my World Sight, and do so swiftly enough to use in combat. While I had yet to master the ability to combine that with an energy arrow, that is still considerable progress.

Furthermore, it really gave me a better idea of just how much energy I was throwing around on a regular basis. Focusing, I sent my bow into storage so that it could be used whenever the situation arose. While I had yet to master the fine creation of energy arrows… I had spent enough time shooting that bow, and had finally completed Accalia’s training regimen for void arrows. One step at a time.

Shaking my head, I teleported myself back to the living room, noticing that only Aurivy and Accalia were present. The lycan girl lifted her head to smile at me. “How’d you do?” She asked, and I responded with a light shrug.

“I’ve got void down… but the rest will take time. Did I miss anything while I was training?” I asked, moving to sit down next to Aurivy.

“I’d hope so. You were in there for a week.” Aurivy teased, leaning against me and conjuring a large bucket of popcorn. “Want me to go over the highlights?”

I couldn’t help but let out a groan when she told me how long I’d been training, nodding my head. With a small grin, she popped a piece of popcorn into her mouth and began explaining. “So, Dana’s totally overpowered when it comes to the Ten Thousand Threads. That’s the first big thing. Ryone managed to convince Leowynn to accept some of her divinity to put her back in a decent condition, too. She dealt with the random number problem and the whole face carving void beast.”

“Finally, we got the last of the code for the new game headsets worked out. Marketing already started, and they’re set to hit the shelves in another week.” I blinked when Aurivy said that, before it clicked in my head.

“Right, they’re being developed from the Spica side of things. So one week is still almost half a year over there.” I gave a small nod of understanding at that. “I’m used to marketing campaigns lasting… a lot longer than just one week.”

Aurivy smirked playfully. “Well, there’s no need to build up all that hype when the person delivering the product is one of the Greater Pantheon. Anyways, Ashley asked me to have you head down whenever you got done training. Said she wants you to stress test the system for her. If it can handle copying your power profile, it can handle anyone.”

“Right… just to be clear, there’s no danger of getting stuck or anything like that, right?” I had to be sure, given that something like that could potentially mean the end of all creation…

“Only if your head’s too big.” She snorted in response. “It’s a purely non-invasive soul scan. Copies the information without taking anything away. In a way, it’s even safer than the original visors. At least those, Blank was able to trap people in games because it pulled them fully inside.”

“Right…” I nodded my head, glancing over at her popcorn bowl. “What’s with the popcorn, then? Expecting something to happen.”

Aurivy simply grinned. “I’m curious what will happen when you come back. Will the copy of your mind persist within the game, or will it go dormant like your host?”

“That… is actually a very good question.” I muttered, glancing towards the screen. If the copy of my mind did remain within the world, that would allow my copy to train or interact with the world as much as it wanted to, with the memories being synchronized the next time that I descended.

Of course, it was for that very reason that I expected such a loophole wouldn’t exist within the Keeper system. The Keeper’s mind should perceive events according to Keeper Standard Time, and this was an ironclad rule of the system. Most likely, its mind will either go dormant during the process, or it will pause whenever I am fast forwarding.

Shaking my head, I decided that it was better to discover the answer for myself as opposed to thinking over the possibilities in my head. According to what Aurivy had said, there would be no danger to my being even if something malfunctioned. Thus, all I had to do was briefly descend, take the scan, and then ascend and fast forward to get my answer.

“Take me where I need to be, then.” I told Aurivy, ruffling her hair as I descended. As expected, I found myself surrounded by golden mist the moment I appeared, my body whisked away from my throne in the Sky Citadel. Instead, I appeared within a dimly lit office overlooking a vast ocean.

“Ah, you’re here.” I heard Ashley’s voice, turning to see her wearing a black suit. From how it tucked over the shoulders, I could tell that it was very likely an open back suit to allow her wings more freedom. She wore a thin pair of glasses, though I knew she had no need of them, and smiled at me as I looked her over. “I’ve got to keep up appearances, after all.”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “So, Aurivy said that you needed me for something?”

“That’s right.” Ashley nodded, standing up and allowing her wings to wrap around her shoulders like a cloak. “We’re going to test out the next generation of gaming. If this works, and is able to download your current power profile, it should be capable of handling even the most unusual cases.”

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With a small nod, I stood, gesturing for her to lead the way. For the moment, I was suppressing my Keeper power, not wanting to alarm the entire company with my presence. “Have you tested it on other gods yet?”

“Naturally.” Ashley responded with a smile, leading me out of her office and down a wide corridor in her office building. Several people looked in our direction, but only a few seemed to immediately recognize me. “I have a digitized copy of myself waiting in Virtual for you.”

“...That sounds like it’s not just shorthand for Virtual Reality.” I pointed out, to which Ashley nodded.

“It both is and isn’t. With the new system, it is entirely possible to maintain a digitized copy of oneself permanently within the virtual world. To prepare for this, my company has cooperated with Blank in order to create a digital world in which everyone’s copies may live when they are not playing games or exploring the internet.”

“We call that digital world ‘Virtual’ due to its nature. Residents of Virtual will have access to any games or programs that they or their real-world counterparts have purchased. Currently, there is a Virtual Spica, and a Virtual Earth, representing the two different law categories. Of course, travel is freely permitted between these two.”

I gave a small nod, thinking of something that I considered rather important as we entered a room at the end of the hall. “What happens to someone’s digital copy when their real-world counterpart dies?”

Ashley’s stride faltered a bit when I asked this, as if she had not been expecting the question from me. She had a rather complicated gaze, before eventually letting out a sigh. “Server space isn’t infinite. When someone’s real-world counterpart dies, they can only pay their server rent with virtual currency. If they can’t pay, then we download their file and put it in deep storage. If someone else pays for them, or contact is needed for urgent matters, their file can be retrieved and uploaded again temporarily.”

“There’s not an afterlife for digital copies, unfortunately… and the soul still exists with the main body. Thus, even though the copies are fully intelligent, they are only mirrors of our true selves. They don’t even qualify as a true AI in this sense. It’s cruel to have to force someone to pay rent to simply survive, and to have to actively terminate them if they fail to pay, but it’s the unfortunate reality of the situation at hand.”

That was… certainly not the answer I was expecting. Part of me believed that Ashley would have created a form of digital immortality. And in a way, it was, as long as you could make your payments. But, I had to remember just how many people would need to use this. Not only across my main planets, but potentially the inhabitants of the Metong worlds, as well. “How are you even storing everything so far?”

Ashley’s smile became a touch wider at that. “It’s a special storage disk that James gave us the design for. He calls it the Miniature Void Drive. It stores information in a similar manner as the void itself, but with far less efficiency. If we were doing this with a pure ‘void storage’, we might be able to get away with a server the size of a marble. As it stands… the bottom seven floors of this building house the servers for Virtual Spica, with a similar system established on Desbar.”

My eyes widened at that. The fact that they had devoted a total of fourteen floors to these two virtual worlds, even taking into consideration the technology involved, showed just how serious Ashley was when it came to this project.

Looking into the room she led me to, I saw a large black chair. At the top of the chair’s backrest was a black visor made to fit completely over the head. Additionally, there was a table nearby with a wristwatch-like device sitting on it. Seeing my gaze on the items, Ashley nodded her head. “I’ve got everything set up for you. Once you arrive in Virtual, my copy will run you through setting up your account on that end. If that succeeds, we’ll just need to run a few quick tests, and everything should be good to go.”

Nodding, I walked over and sat in the chair, smiling towards Ashley. “Do your worst, Ash.”

A warm smile appeared on her face, and she nodded. Lowering the visor, she placed noise-cancelling headphones over my ears. At this point, I noticed that even my nose was covered by the visor, as if she was aiming to negate all of my senses aside from touch. This lasted for roughly thirty seconds before a blue light scanned through the visor.

Afterwards, Ashley pulled the visor off and nodded her head at me. “Alright, Dale. How do you feel?” She asked, helping me to sit up and handing me the watch from beside the chair.

“I… don’t feel any different.” I shrugged my shoulders, assuming that I should put the watch on my wrist. “I take it that means it worked.”

“I’d say so.” Ashley smiled, snapping her fingers. The office around us flickered and vanished, replaced by a long road lined with small houses. “Welcome to Virtual Spica. I’ll be helping you to set up your account.”

My eyes went wide at the realization that I was the digital copy, as opposed to the real self. However, after a moment, I felt myself adjusting to the idea. “You used a void technique to take care of the identity crisis issues…” I muttered calmly, to which Ashley nodded her head.

“That’s right, Dale. There are too many horror stories about virtual identities vying for control with their counterparts. We didn’t want something like that, so we used this little precaution. Unlike the other effect, this one was applied even to you as a safety measure. However, when you entered the testing room, you were introduced to an antimemetic effect to immunize yourself against the other effect we used.”

I already knew what effect she was talking about. “You mean that there’s nothing stopping this version of me from damaging or altering another copy’s soul?”

“That’s right.” Ashley nodded in confirmation. “Now, in order to complete your registration, you need to enter a username and password on the watch that I’ve given you. This will lock your profiles together and prevent outside tampering. The you on the outside is doing the same thing, and may have already chosen their account name. In order to ensure that both sides are fully synchronized, you both have to independently choose the same account name and password.”

“Because of this, the normal introduction process is a bit different. We don’t inform the user that they are in Virtual until their account is set up, with automated instructions for both sides coming from the watch and headset. It is only after the account is set up that we introduce the digitized copy to the true virtual world, allowing their experiences to diverge from that point.”

Nodding my head, I moved to enter a username. As long as my true self was made aware of this issue, I knew that he would choose the same. ‘Username: World Keeper. Password: EarthForceOne.’