World Keeper

Chapter 708: Desperation

Julius knew that his situation was bad as he paced in his office, unsure of what to do. The fact that someone had perfectly impersonated him, to the degree that the energy scanners registered them as him, indicated that they had likely studied him to the point where fleeing wasn’t an option. If he did try to run, they could simply step in and pretend as if he never left. If he ran somewhere public, then…

He shook his head at that thought. They were able to place a camera outside his home without him having ever noticed it. Even though he was currently a god, they no doubt had their methods of eliminating him. Julius clenched his teeth as he paced, trying to find a solution to his current problem.

The more he thought, the more he glanced at his self-created classes, the Hypnotist and Game Master. Hypnotism wouldn’t give him much of a benefit in his current situation, but Game Master… A small grin tugged at his lips as he sat down, quickly closing his eyes to focus.

I need to modify the Game Master class to include some insurance plans. The first one… let’s go with a respawn system, that seems pretty obvious. While he was focusing, his hands moved, releasing a large pile of cards on his desk, the various cards he had acquired with his Game Master class. I’ll need an influx of divine energy to kick this off.

With a thought, he sent commands to each of these cards, commanding their worship. Naturally, he could not completely change a person’s personality, but there was still some wiggle room to issue a command. For instance, employees working for a god might have the subconscious thought of worshipping their boss in order to get better work conditions. Beta testers who enjoy a game might do so in the form of praising the game’s designer. As for friends, they could send their praise to each other in the form of well wishes.

While this would not guarantee a total success for every target, he could still feel that the faith being poured towards him had increased compared to before. This allowed him to confidently design the systems he wanted to create, using this energy as the fuel. Respawn… I don’t want to be brought back to life at the same location I died, that would just be asking to kill me again. I also don’t want it to be at my home, either. Not while it is being monitored.

I’ll set the respawn point to be the Fairy Ring of my current world. That way, it will just look like I teleported in, and I can take the opportunity to leave for whatever world is currently connected. With that decided, he probed that concept, seeing how much energy it would take to complete. When he felt the cost, he furrowed his brow. The cost is too high, I wouldn’t be able to do anything else right now. Let’s add some restrictions, then.

First, the respawn time. Let’s make it a twenty-four hour cooldown period to mimic some of the harsher games. If I don’t appear for a full day, they’d probably assume that I was dead for real, anyways. Next… that’s still not enough. Okay, partition half of my divinity to be used as my respawned state when I revive. I can get divine energy back easily enough, as long as I survive.

With that, he probed the concept again, finding that its cost had substantially dropped. After breathing out a sigh of relief, he ‘installed’ the power onto his Game Master class as a basic feature. Okay, I’ve taken care of respawning. Now I need something that will help me hide myself after I respawn. If I appear alive and in good health after my death has been confirmed, they’ll take greater steps to ensure I stay dead.

Let’s see… a game master has to be able to play the role of an NPC. I can use that as a reason to put in a disguise feature. Now, how big do I want to make this? He furrowed his brow in thought, the various options flashing through his mind.

I’ll go with a full conversion. If they have special methods of identifying me through my energy, then I have to take steps to prevent that. Instead, I will set it so that I can create an identity for myself that does not surpass my original strength. When I do so, the memories of people related to this identity will be altered to take it into consideration, again so long as they do not surpass my original strength.

Finally, I will lose my divine power and gain a body befitting the new identity until such time that I choose to return to my original form. Once he set these restrictions, Julius let out a faint sigh of relief. After he used this NPC disguise, he could set himself up in a farming village and slowly accumulate his power in secret. Theoretically, it was a flawless plan, as his identity was entirely shifting.

I can only hope that they don’t have anyone constantly monitoring me with divine power even after I die, or someone capable of reading the thoughts of a god. While both were feasibly possible, there was little that he could do to get around such methods. If someone was truly persistent enough to keep monitoring him for a full day after his death, he could only hope that he was able to escape through the gate fast enough to get away.

With that taken care of, he installed this new power as another feature in his Game Master class, setting it to a more advanced level that he had already reached. Unsurprisingly, the expenditure for this system was far less than for the respawn that he previously created. As he let out his relieved sigh, a message appeared in front of him.

Special option for Game Master class has been opened. Respawn system has been detected. Do you wish to reinforce this system further?

Y/N

Julius was surprised when he saw this message, as it was clearly not one that had been created by him personally. Reinforce it further..? He considered that for a moment, before realizing that he may have stumbled across a secret feature of the system which governed the world. If that system was personally offering him a way out, he had no reason to refuse.

Understood. Reinforcing the Respawn system.

Added feature: So long as someone remembers your name, you will be able to respawn with a minimum of 1% of the power used when establishing this system.

When Julius read that, his mouth hung open in surprise, before he suddenly burst out laughing. Even the system itself is helping me! As far as he was concerned, this was an assured method of immortality. All that he had to do was shout out his identity before being killed, and he would be guaranteed to respawn after the cooldown was up.

On a whim, he created another system for his Game Master class. This one reinforced the standard minimap system that was already in place in the world, granting him the same permission of the highest level scouts while also accessing the minimaps of those nearby to keep it constantly updated. After he did this, his eyes gave a faint twitch, glancing at the minimap that appeared in his view.

According to this map, there was a red dot standing less than three feet behind him. However, that dot had not been there prior to his installation of the updated map. This meant that the only reason it was there now was that the new feature, tapping into the minimaps of those nearby, had accessed this individual’s map and registered him as an enemy.

Julius thought about turning around to verify the emptiness of the space behind him, but knew that doing so would alert the enemy. Instead, he stood up and stored his cards, his stress evident on his face. He did not need to hide this, as he had just witnessed video evidence that he was being spied on. It would be more unusual not to be stressed out.

After he left the office, he looked at the lycan woman sitting outside at her desk. “Prina, hold my calls for the rest of the day, I need to go out for a little while.” The secretary looked at him in confusion, unsure why he had suddenly decided to leave, but was not given the time to question it before he walked out the door.

Once outside, Julius focused, activating a teleportation spell. His destination was not his home, but rather the other side of the city’s business district. Going there would allow him to blend in with the crowd for a while.

As he appeared on the sidewalk, he began walking, doing his best to match the pace of the crowds. While doing so, he glanced at the minimap once again, shocked to find that there were currently five red dots in his immediate vicinity. Worse, there was a large cluster of them up ahead, within one of the buildings along the street.

Julius couldn’t help but glance at the name of the building, seeing that it was a personal remodeling studio. Businesses like this catered to those mortals who were unable to control their ki enough to alter their own appearance, with experts trained to help guide someone’s ki to get the desired results. This one was named ‘The New You’, and even had an advertisement for their effects on the sign.

On one side of the sign was a woman with a scarred face, a wound slashing down the right side and directly over her eye. The other side had the same woman, her face completely repaired. Not only that, but her skin appeared to be smoother and her hair more lustrous.

According to his minimap, this was the location where the red dots were gathering. Yet, Julius could not figure out why he would have enemies in a place like that. As if some divine providence, his sight was directed at the sign once again, looking more closely at the ‘before’ picture.

An eye with a slash through it. His eyes went wide at that, and he hastily cast another teleport spell. This time, he moved to an entirely different city, one where he had conducted business in the past. When he appeared this time, he let out a sigh of relief, seeing that there were no red markers within his map.

Relaxing his body, he began walking down the street, letting his mind wander. So, the enemy spying on me is basing themselves out of a remodelling studio? A smirk crept over his lips as he realized this fact, believing himself to have found his target.

Soon, though, another cluster of red dots appeared on his map, once again gathered within a certain building ahead. This one was a rather common restaurant, a chain establishment present in half a dozen worlds called Forest Diner. Its logo was of a large panther hiding within the bushes, branches obscuring his face. As Julius’s eyes were drawn to the image, he saw that one branch lined up perfectly vertical over the panther’s eye.

Chills washed over Julius’s body, now understanding that his opponent was not simply one remodelling studio. Or… he thought to himself at that. Maybe he was being paranoid? Perhaps they were only registering as enemies because of the sign, and the update to his minimap was taking his suspicion of the logo into account?

As he walked past the restaurant, his eyes glanced inside, only to pause in his tracks briefly. In the restaurant, over half of the customers were looking out the window at the same moment he passed, their gazes meeting his.

“‘Is this too much to be a coincidence’, he thought to himself as he retreated half a step.” A voice suddenly spoke up near Julius, his foot falling back just as it had narrated. “It’s just my paranoia, I’m not being followed.”

At the same time, another voice spoke up on the other side of him, sounding identical to the first. “Who is that? How could she know what I was thinking. I’ve got to get out of here. Maybe another world next… I could visit Galahad to ask about the movie.”

Julius’s eyes slowly turned to look beside him, seeing a felyn smiling back at him. She seemed to be reading from a golden book. On the other side of him, another felyn with an identical face was reading from a black book. “Oh no.” The felyn with the black book read out. “They’ve found me.”

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