World Keeper

Chapter 1084: Productivity

While Udona was struggling with ideas on how to forestall the collapse of the golem realm, Dana was hard at work within her workshop. With everything else out of the way, she wanted to work on her personal projects some more.

Due to the problems of energy consumption and large-scale regulations, she had to give up on the idea of a single tool that could act as a mass-produced protection device for the people of the various worlds. It was… regrettable, but there were simply too many problems with such a plan once she actually got into the creation process.

Similarly, creating a spell that could identify and punish wrongdoers would be no different from having an incredibly powerful computer do the same. While it would be possible, the popular was unlikely to accept it.

This began to narrow Dana’s list of projects as she realized the various faults that they had, trying to find one that was equally possible and still impressive enough to be something she could be proud of.

This led to her sitting at her workbench, drawing out the plan for a bracer with a small port attached to the front. In order to solve the problems that people were presently facing, Dana didn’t need to invent a new technology, only create a way to repurpose what already existed in a more usable form.

For this technology, what Dana was modifying was the cloning technology that Tubrock had created for Olympus. Specifically, what was used in Tsubaki’s training room to allow her to place herself in a mortal body to handle her trials.

When it came to law enforcement, their most common and simultaneously most difficult challenge was dealing with energy bodies. Most criminals that possess significant enough strength to stand against the police or the army would have long shed their mortal forms. This alone makes them far more difficult to confine, as they can simply reshape their body according to their thoughts.

Up to this point, the most common way of handling such threats was to hit them with a powerful sleep spell or similar effect, and then make sure that they did not wake up until they were in a solid room with no openings to escape from. This room was then covered in a system null zone and anti-magic, with the entire facility under specific void shielding to prevent any form of spatial travel.

Such cells were… costly to say the least. Between the raw materials for the prison cell and the energy needed to maintain the various wards, it was hard for the police to be able to keep criminals properly contained. And that was when they didn’t have some unique energy that allowed them to simply invalidate those wards.

Thus, Dana sought a way to resolve this problem. Sienna, I’m going to need test subjects. Train up six shadow people at various levels ranging from two hundred to one thousand, with a time limit of one month. All of them should be pure energy bodies by the end of the deadline. At least two of them should have gone through the three steps of perfection.

Understood. Sienna responded immediately, and Dana could feel the fluctuation in her shadow that indicated that this order was being carried out.

Dana’s plan was simple. A person’s entire being was divided into three parts, that being their mana, ki, and spirit. Ki was a reflection of DNA, and could be used to accurately identify an individual. Through the right refinement, it was even possible to reproduce true blood by converting their ki.

Meanwhile, mana and spirit were the core of the mind and soul. In Dana’s opinion, the hard part was not creating a mortal body through the target’s ki, but rather forcing the core of their being into that body. This was especially the case for divine beings, or those that had achieved all three steps of perfection.

However, Dana was confident that she could make it work, because she had time on her side. The port at the end of the bracer was a card launcher. When activated, it would launch a specially designed containment card at the target, trapping them inside. This was only a temporary measure, as most people strong enough to warrant this method would have a way around it.

If the occupied card was then placed back in the bracelet, it would put the contents inside into a vastly decelerated flow of time, while also collecting the ambient energy from them to produce the necessary clone body. Back at the police station, the body would be printed at level one, and the consciousness within the card would be uploaded.

If everything went according to Dana’s plan, this could take a new form of capital punishment. Rather than killing the individual, it would be their achievements that would be killed. A god could become mortal again, having to start over from nothing.

Of course, this wasn’t perfect. Dana knew that a god would not lose their full divine status from something like this. They would most likely become a demigod in their new body, due to the powerful energy permeating their body at the moment of transfer. Similarly, those that had achieved perfection would have an edge over their peers in terms of energy stability.

None of this would matter much, though, as they would still be reduced to level one. At this level, even a normal child would be stronger than them, so the police would have no trouble keeping them in check. They wouldn’t even have the energy to cast an advanced spell, no matter how powerful a mage they had been before.

The clone printer was something that Tubrock had made long ago, so it only needed a few modifications. Similarly, a capture card was not difficult for Dana to produce. The struggle came in the stasis field, and combining everything together into a form that could be made standard-issue for law enforcement.

“She seems to have found something fun to work on.” Tsubaki said with a smile as we passed by Dana’s workshop, hearing the sounds of heavy machinery echoing from inside. We had planned to come and see if she wanted to watch a movie together, but changed our minds when we saw how busy she appeared to be.

“As long as she is enjoying herself, that’s fine.” I nodded my head, hands in my pockets as I walked. Udona had already sent in her report about what was going on with Deckan, so there was nothing more that I could do about that for now.

Even if I wanted to get directly involved as the Keeper, the most that I would be able to do is create the universe for the populace to be moved to. I wasn’t able to mass-produce devices that didn’t exist yet, or move the population of two galactic empires to a different universe.

As for asking Aurivy to handle it as the Goddess of Travel? I have no doubt that she could if she pushed herself… but doing so would leave her out of commission for years to come while she recovered her power. If another incident happened that mortals had no way of solving, and we needed her power, there would be nothing that we could do.

I had faith that the Metong and the March could create the device they needed in time. Mass producing it in high enough quantities would be difficult, but they literally lived on planet-sized forges. There had to be ways for them to get it done.

“What do you want to do now?” Tsubaki’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I smiled back at her.

“Something productive… is what I’d like to say. However, there’s not much that I can contribute to the major leading powers at this point. I’m not a super scientist like James, or a brilliant political leader. There’s nothing that needs me to punch it really hard, so I’m not entirely sure what I can do for now.”

Tsubaki blinked, before nodding her head in understanding. “That’s reasonable. After all, there is little that one more set of helping hands could accomplish in these circumstances. However, to say that there is nothing that you can do is not exactly accurate.”

When I heard that, I tilted my head curiously at her, wondering what she meant. Thankfully, she continued. “There is one thing that you can do, and only you can do right now, my Keeper. If you are set on acting in a productive manner, and willing to expend some of your resources to do so. I am not talking about points, but rather something else.”

“I’m listening.” I turned to fully face her, and Tsubaki smiled.

“Currently, one of the leading problems facing the world is the inability to escape the Hyperlane Networks without facing the armies of memetic monsters awaiting outside. By my understanding, you have a way to fix this. Or, at the very least, a way to discover a way to fix it.”

I blinked in surprise, taking a moment to realize what she meant. “The Sorcerer title?” This was a title that I had gained long ago from the system, but I rarely used. The reason for this being that it could only be used once a month, and I was always worried that something else would come up that I would need it for. Gradually, this had led to me forgetting about it entirely.

Tsubaki nodded her head, and I began to give it some thought. It was only a matter of time before the mortals of my realm discovered the way to move beyond the Hyperlane Network. The problem was that they didn’t all have much time right now. Being restricted by the network would no doubt slow down the process of the Metong and March trying to save their worlds.

Thus, with a nod, I agreed, and began to focus. I needed to word this very specifically in order to get the result I desired.  At the same time, I began mentally recording everything, ready to project it with my Illusion domain to share the information with Tsubaki.

I need a magical construct that will allow a large transportation vessel to safely pass through the Hyperlane Network’s barrier and avoid the attack of memetic monsters outside. As soon as I finished my request, I felt information flooding into my brain. A dense diagram appeared, and I struggled to replicate it with my domain.

This wasn’t a third-tier spell diagram, or even a fourth, but one of the fifth tier. I saw a dark, silvery ball of metal with over fifty tiny spell formations embedded within. As I reproduced the image for Tsubaki, she was quick to note down the smallest detail.

Once I saw the finished product, a rough description entered my mind. “It’s a complete information barrier… This design will prevent any form of memetic infection by completely blocking out all information from the outside world.”

“The additional nodes on the device are to digitally reproduce ‘artistic renderings’ of the surroundings that have been censored of any form of contaminated information. The shield is meant to be constantly active, but the energy consumption… I don’t know if this will be viable.”

Tsubaki simply smiled when I said that. “Let them worry about the energy source. For now, they have an answer that is produced by the system itself. This can serve as a direction to guide them, at the very least. Now… if you don’t mind, can you save this illusion in some way? I would like to provide it to the research teams as a prototype blueprint, and I am not confident that I successfully reproduced the finest details of the fifth-tier spell construction.”

I nodded my head, focusing on creating a mana bead, and storing the image of the spell inside. “Pass your light through this, and it should be able to create a three-dimensional view of the illusion.” I said with a small smile, and she accepted the bead happily.