Chapter 573: Sniping

Incoming Message from EverLasting!

I blinked as I sat at my desk, going over a few potential plans for the future. I hadn’t expected Sarah to call me suddenly, and then it hit me. I remembered that I had asked her to look for some information for me not too long ago about my next opponent. I had been preoccupied with adjusting my own worlds that the matter had entirely slipped from my mind.

EarthForceOne: I take it that this means you found something?

EverLasting: That’s right! I found some more recent information about Grudge! It was really hard, because circumstances are a bit special with this one…

EarthForceOne: What’s so wrong with it? Is he a special kind of monster Keeper?

EverLasting: No, definitely not that. From what I can tell, he’s actually a blank slate.

When I read that, my eyebrows shot up in surprise. This wasn’t the first time that I had heard the term in regards to a Keeper, not at all. However, it was the first time I had heard it for one this advanced.

EarthForceOne: You mean one of those that the system creates after a Keeper falls in a battle? But don’t they typically die early on to find their replacement?

EverLasting: That’s why this one is special. Every now and then, there will be a blank slate that… well, they just fail to die. It’s been just over a standard year since this guy took over as the Grudge Keeper, so for him to already be Rank Two…

EarthForceOne: His ‘chaotic method’ is to rapidly increase the strength of his world until it goes out of control and something ends up killing him.

EverLasting: That seems to be the case. He’s never attended any meetings, including the annual one, never sent an invading force in any of his battles, and nobody has had direct contact with him since he rose to power.

EverLasting: The only way I managed to find his identity was by looking up Grudge’s battle records. Since they’re wiped whenever a blank slate takes over, his history only goes back six months.

EarthForceOne: Are you sure that he isn’t the one that replaced the blank slate, and just building in a rapid, haphazard way?

EverLasting: Thought about that! That’s why I checked to see if anyone had seen him in the recent annual meeting. As you know, it gets really boring to just wait in your own Administration Room when your worlds are frozen, so even monster Keepers tend to attend the annual meetings. But nobody I asked had any memory of seeing or talking to the Keeper called Grudge.

EverLasting: It’s definitely not impossible that he isn’t a blank slate, but the odds are stacked against it.

EarthForceOne: So now the question becomes… do I launch an attack to reset the blank slate and try to get an easy world, or pass because he might have advanced too far ahead by the end of the month?

EverLasting: That’s really up to you! People noticed me checking up on Grudge, so others are probably looking to snipe him if you don’t. Nobody really feels guilty about sniping a blank slate that rose to power like this. Hell, even the System Companions would thank you for it, because they hate managing them. Easier just to reset it with a more successful one that can pass the title on sooner. Not to mention the achievement.

EarthForceOne: Okay, you said a magic word there. What achievement?

EverLasting: Heh, thought you might latch onto that. There are two achievements you can get if you participate in this battle. The first is just the basic one for defeating another Keeper in the games, ‘To the Victor’, which gives a nice lump of points and a special world-wide perk.

EverLasting: The second achievement is specifically for killing a blank slate. This one’s called ‘Mercy Killing’, and offers a perk that can be used once a year called ‘Sniper Scope’. This is why everyone calls it sniping to kill the blank slates. The perk lets you shuffle your next opponent for the next game, randomly changing to another Keeper of the same tier.

That definitely sounded like a useful achievement. Being able to swap my opponents would let me get away from a particularly dangerous monster or tyrant Keeper if I felt like they were too strong for me to handle.

EarthForceOne: What about the perk for To the Victor?

EverLasting: That one’s actually really good, too, if you plan on idling at a specific rank. It’s a big hit with avenger types. The perk is called ‘World Shackles’, and places a hard limit on the power of the world. Once the shackles are invoked, the world can no longer advance beyond its current level of power. If something wouldn’t ‘advance the power’, it works fine. But if it would… technology malfunctions, cultivators hit a bottleneck, magic turns chaotic, the world itself rejects the advancement in power.

EarthForceOne: That… doesn’t sound like a temporary thing.

EverLasting: Nope! Once this perk is activated, it is permanent until the entire world is reset. That’s why I said it’s only useful for those that want to idle at a rank. They build themselves up to the top of their current rank, then activate the shackles. Without a full-on assault from a hostile Keeper, it’s way too hard to kill someone at the top of their rank.

EverLasting: It’s not a very commonly used perk, aside from people who stay in the first couple ranks to kill enemies of their guild.

So one of the perks I was destined to never use, while the other one was something I could use in an emergency. Aside from that, there were the points that came with the two achievements, as well as the benefits that come from winning an invasion in the first place. Closing my eyes, I gave a small nod.

EarthForceOne: I’ll try my hand at sniping, then.

EverLasting: Thought you might! Happy hunting!

With that, the conversation ended, leaving me to my thoughts. If I wanted to simply destroy the world of a blank slate, I was sure I had numerous methods to do so. The only thing to consider was whether I could be sure that the forces I sent would arrive on the right world. Which I had no way of guaranteeing.

Aside from that, it seemed far more beneficial to kill the blank slate without destroying their world. If I did it like that, I would be able to look over their world and decide whether I wanted to keep it for myself, or refund it for more points. If I simply destroyed the world together with the blank slate, my only option would be to refund it.

Either way, there was something that I needed to do to prepare. I needed to get a force capable of destroying a second rank world. Which meant paying a visit to Dana and Tsubaki.

“I think we’ve just about got it over here!” Dana called out, adding the finishing touches to her latest design. According to all of her calculations, it seemed like this new design should be able to handle the creation of the Spirit Gem. They just had to test it out. And, to ensure that there were no unexpected consequences, she checked each of the… thousands of connections between the various shapes to ensure that they didn’t create additional spells of their own.

“Let’s get ready to test it, then! Head outside once you’re ready!” Tsubaki’s voice called back. Dana nodded to herself, finishing up the last of her inscriptions before turning into a stream of silver mist that flew through the passageway. As always, Tsubaki would send an avatar of herself in to test the spell, while Dana waited for the results with her main body.

However, Dana found something quite unexpected when she left the mountain. Tsubaki was prostrated on her knees, bowing before a lycan that stood at the base of the mountain. It only took Dana a moment to realize that this must have been the Keeper, and she solidified her body with a grin. “Hey, Keeper! Here to see the experiment?”

“Not this time.” He replied with a gentle smile. “I was actually wanting to talk with the two of you, if you can spare a few minutes?”

“For you, always, my Keeper.” Tsubaki spoke in a reverent tone, not hesitating in the slightest while Dana just shrugged her shoulders.

“While the two of you were at the recent meeting, did either of you come across the term ‘blank slate’?” When the Keeper asked that, the two girls looked at one another, before shaking their heads. “That’s not surprising, it’s a rather niche term in my circle. So, allow me to first explain.”

“When a Keeper dies during an invasion, they will be replaced by a self-destructive embodiment of the world’s laws. Their sole purpose is to die, so that the next generation of Keeper can be born from their world. It is a sad fate, but the one that they are created for, and one that they accept. How they go about it, however, is different. In the case of my ‘ancestor’, he created a world where special powers were completely randomized, until one came along that made him detonate himself.”

Tsubaki let out an instinctive shudder as she seemed to think about the Keeper self-destructing like that, actually looking up to him with pleading eyes. That earned a chuckle from him. “Don’t worry, I have no intention of doing anything like that. The reason I bring it up is that my next opponent in battle is one of these blank slates. His method of self-destruction is to advance his world so quickly that it will eventually overtake him.”

“So far, that method has failed. For cases like this, it is the duty of other Keepers to reset them in battle. As you may have learned, Terra is an embodiment of the system designed to aid me. Nearly every Keeper will have someone similar, and these embodiments themselves would prefer that the blank slates are reset and allowed to run their natural course.”

“That seems a bit sad.” Dana mentioned, thinking it over. “Someone born just to die and become the foundation of the next generation?”

The Keeper looked at Dana rather peculiarly. “Isn’t that what happens with everyone? Parents spend their lives preparing for their children to live, and die in peace knowing that they did all they could for them when their time is over. You can think of this as something similar, a step the system took to aid the first ‘true’ Keeper of each world by allowing them some foundation to build off of.”

Dana blinked in surprise at the comparison. “I… suppose. What do you need of us, then?”

“A force capable of killing a Keeper.” When the Keeper said that, the two maids looked at him in surprise. “I know that you have the Reality Gems, and these new items you’re working on. And I know why you are both reluctant to allow them to be turned into weapons. All I can say is that they shall only be used when the need to kill an enemy Keeper arrives.”

“And more importantly… if we have items like these, surely other Keepers will as well. I’m not naive enough to think that only I have a pair of geniuses like the two of you, able to create such wonders with fourth-tier magic. Once the world grows a bit stronger, perhaps items like that will be commonly seen amongst invaders. For this, we have to be ready.”

Tsubaki hesitated when she heard that, before nodding her head. “Very well. I’ll begin to lay the foundations of a proper defense against similar methods as soon as we are done carrying out your command.”

The Keeper nodded his head with a smile. “Don’t worry, I’m sure that the two of you will be able to handle it. As always, you have full authority to carry out any changes that you may need. However… have either of you thought about your rewards for attending the meeting with me?”

Dana blinked, having genuinely forgotten about it for a while. They had been promised the right to request a change in the world itself, so long as it did not consume more points than they earned for him in the meeting. “Instead of a system change to the world… can we ask for items?”

The Keeper looked at her, thinking it over for a moment before nodding. “I can’t give you the finished item without getting Tubrock and Ryone’s help, but I can give you the blueprints to create it on your own.”

“That’s fine!” Dana smiled happily. In fact, a blueprint was far more valuable than the item, as it could be used repeatedly and referenced to deepen her understanding. “In that case, I’d like a blueprint for an item that can refine liquid mana into a more efficient fuel source.”

That request seemed to surprise the Keeper, but he still agreed to it, before looking to Tsubaki. “And you?”

“I would like…” Tsubaki hesitated, unsure what request she should put forth. Eventually, her nine tails began waving in embarrassment. “I would like an item capable of finding the Keeper. I-I believe that it would be useful for the coming battle.”

There was a knowing grin on not only Dana’s, but even the Keeper’s face when he heard that request. “I’ll see what I can do.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om