World Keeper

Disabling the karma system was an easy step to take, though it was bound to have profound effects on the world. That was why I had waited to let everyone get prepared, not wanting to cause too much chaos when removing such an old system from the world.

Even so, there was a period of unrest as the preparations took place. All social systems that used karma as a measurement were either taken down or modified to find an alternative approach to achieve the same results.

However, if there was one group that was relieved by this change, it wasn’t criminals. After all, while they typically had negative karma, they sought ways to improve it to remain unnoticed. The group that was really relieved by the change were those in charge of research, where they had to worry constantly about sacrifices impeding the process of developmenting new technologies.

Of course, some were equal parts relieved and frustrated. For example, although Chelsea was happy that she wouldn’t need to use the null-world projection field that she created to avoid karma during experiments with world laws, it was frustrating because she had gone to all the trouble of making it.

Chelsea sat at her desk, spinning her digital pen with one hand and looking at her list of research projects. Several of them were crossed out now, as the projects themselves had to do with karma in some way. “Treisha, can you check the Moral Compass we have in the vault?” She called out, looking at an old, completed project.

“Sure thing, Chel!” Treisha called back, before walking down the hall. The ‘Moral Compass’ didn’t directly interact with the karma system, but it was one of the projects that she had to consider whether or not the removal of a world law would impact it. After all, it may have only been the karma system that was removed, but in doing so via the Admin Room, there was no telling if any of the other systems had small changes to compensate.

Because of this, the Another World Research Group was running a test on all of their main devices, ensuring that there were no critical malfunctions. Or rather, identifying where such malfunctions were. The Perfection Chamber and Divine Forge have to be remodeled now, and those were our biggest achievements by far. How many other devices will we have to fix up now?

The Perfection Chamber was an old piece of machinery, one that they had developed centuries ago at this point. Thus, it was only natural that it had been updated several times since its first conception. However, the extremely complex energy manipulation required meant that even the slightest change to the world laws could cause it to misfire.

And sure enough, after the karma system was removed, the latest model of the Perfection Chamber caused a catastrophic energy imbalance. Similarly, the Divine Forge now wasted the divinity invested in its operation.

The problem was that it was hard to identify exactly where the problem went wrong without extensive trial and error, so it wasn’t like they could release a quick patch and be done with it. It was safe to say that they would be working on this for several weeks, even with the enhanced research speed that came with their heightened stats.

Now there’s a system that could be fun. Chelsea mused to herself with a chuckle. A research system that received a buff based on the number of researchers and their total intelligence… nah.

After a moment, she shook her head, denying the possibility. For one, such a system would likely either be incredibly expensive or very rigid in what it allowed. Additionally, some of the best discoveries in history came from sheer accident while trying to create something else. If a system were the one responsible for handling the research, those accidental discoveries would disappear.

Chelsea thought back to the ‘research’ system in World Seed, using the Sylvan trees. This system had a great number of options, theoretically limitless. However, you had to decide what you wanted to research intentionally, and there was no ‘random development’ option. That was the sort of thing that she could imagine stifling the creativity of researchers.

As she was thinking about that, Treisha poked her head through the office door. “Just checked, and the compass seems to be working fine.” She responded with a smile. “Anything else?”

Chelsea shook her head, pulling herself from her random line of thought to look back at Treisha. “Not right now. How are the new world scans coming along?”

Because a fundamental system had been removed from every world, they had to take a new scan of every single world that they had created. Worse yet… this system had only been removed from the worlds that the Keeper had bought. In other words, the new Metong universe still had the outdated karma system, as it was an artificially created universe.

This created an imbalance in the world's laws, removing it from the ‘law group’ of the other worlds. It was like they were playing different versions of the same game. In order to fix this, they needed to update this universe’s energy cores manually. If they tried to force a merge in the current state, they might end up just bringing back the karma system to the other worlds.

“We’ve almost finished decompiling Deckan’s new core structure.” Treisha reported. “Once that’s done, we’ll run it through the program you made and compare the two. Are you sure we can handle the update, though?” She asked, a tinge of concern in her voice. It was only natural for her to be worried, since failure would mean the extermination of the Metong, and their entire Network.

However, Chelsea simply nodded her head. “If you had asked me that before I became an Origin, I would probably hesitate a lot more. As I am now, I should be able to forcibly stabilize the world if anything bad happens. At least, long enough for you all to correct any mistakes.”

In the worst case scenario, Chelsea would need to leave the research group for a while to maintain the world barrier, but she knew that wouldn’t be a problem. Still hesitant, Treisha nodded her head in acceptance. “Alright, then. I’ll let you know when we have the data ready.”

Pierce stood on the rooftop of a tall structure. After the removal of the karma system was announced, he decided to head back to Earth, waiting for the system update. In his hands, he held his faithful notebook, which he had often used to guide his way. “It looks like I really can’t anticipate the actions of the Keeper.” He chuckled, looking at the pages.

Several of the smaller notes that he had previously foreseen in his notebook had abruptly vanished the moment the karma system was removed. In its place, other notes had appeared, detailing events on entirely different planets.

Pierce had guessed previously that he would not be able to predict the Keeper’s actions during the last invasion. Otherwise, several of his predictions would have undoubtedly been different. Now, he had fully identified this blindspot in his foresight.

That said, his eyes drifted towards the notes written, and his lips pursed slightly. Most of these notes were about criminals who wanted to take advantage of the karma system being gone to commit even greater atrocities. The worst, as far as he could see, was an incident where an entire planet’s name had been crossed out, indicating that the planet would have been destroyed, or otherwise rendered uninhabitable.

He thought about that for a few moments, before pulling his terminal out and sending a message. He had a friend that was currently in that area, or would be with a bit of a push.

Walking down the streets of a magnificent city, an elven man paused when he felt the terminal in his pocket vibrating. Pulling it out, he saw a message from someone listed as ‘PL’. Can you head towards Sevast Pole? There might be something for you to take care of there.

The elven man let out a long sigh when he heard that. He didn’t seem to radiate any divinity, and in fact looked like an ordinary person. “He never gives enough details for things like this.” The man muttered under his breath, only to be called out to by a kitsune woman wearing a black tank top and jeans. “Is something wrong?” She asked curiously, glancing towards the terminal.

The elven man, however, shook his head. “It’s fine, Bria. We’ve just got a new destination. Can you guide the city towards Sevast Pole?”

The kitsune woman blinked, but nodded her head. “Sure! Should I get anything ready for the trip?” She asked, glancing up and towards the stars passing by outside of their flying city.

The elven man thought about it for a long moment, before shaking his head. “He didn’t say anything about that, so we shouldn’t need too much. Just make sure that the kids stay inside when we get there.”

Bria’s eyes widened at the comment. “He? Ah… this is from that Lycan guy, right?” She asked, not seeming to be too familiar with him personally. “You know he always leads to trouble, Jonas…”

Jonas offered a weak smile, unable to refute that claim. “Maybe, but he never asks for more than we can deliver, and it’s true that our presence tends to help with whatever is going on.”

Bria let out a long sigh at that, shaking her head. “Alright, fine. I’ll steer the ship. Also, I got a message from Lily. She said that she’ll be by later, if we can power up the warp gate for her.”

Jonas paused, but nodded his head. If it was Lily coming to visit, that either meant she wanted to check up on the kids, or she was coming to deliver one that needed a new home. Such visits had become fewer as of late, though Jonas couldn’t say that he was disappointed with that. The lack of children being made orphans could only be seen as a good thing, after all.

Of course, there was no way to completely remove domestic violence or unfortunate accidents, so Lily was always kept busy in her own way. “Got it. I’ll make sure to get everything ready for her. Is there anything else, then?”

Jonas was from the first generation of mortal gods, and had gathered a vast power over the years. However, all of his power was dedicated to the city and its inhabitants, leaving him looking like a normal person. It was only when he pulled his power back into himself that his true divine might could be shown.

Bria thought about it for a moment. “Hmm, that research team sent a message. Something about offering to help you become an even higher form of being? I wasn’t really that clear on the details, so I sent you the file they sent over. All I really got out of it was that you could have an entire universe of your own if you took the offer.”

Jonas couldn’t help but blink at that, resolving himself to check the file as soon as he got back to his room. “Really? I’ll need to look into that. For now, just let me know when Lily arrives. I’ll take care of some last minute preparations.”

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