“We’ve got the first batch of targets.” Vivi spoke up within the void that Blank called a home, appearing before his desk with what seemed to be a small folder. Of course, such a thing was truly just that, a folder of files that she was passing off to him.
The digital god took that folder and looked through it, before shaking his head dismissively and setting it down. “Only three? I can’t move for so few, especially if they aren’t in the same area. I’ll flag their address so that we can monitor them more closely.”
Vivi smiled knowingly, having expected such an outcome. “I am merely passing you the information as agreed. Of the three, two of them are more likely to be natives of our own worlds. Only the one I placed at the top is someone I am sure is an invader.”
Hearing that, Blank opened the folder to look at the image. On it was a young human girl, appearing to be no more than a late teenager. “What makes you so sure of her identity?”
“Her immaturity proved to be her downfall. While those she is living with hurriedly stopped her, she still mentioned several key phrases. From those phrases, it was confirmed that she comes from another world. One where they see a ‘Keeper’ as the final boss to a dungeon rather than the ruler of a world.”
Blank blinked his eyes as he heard that. “I… suppose that the comparison isn’t entirely inaccurate. Were you able to acquire the identity of the people that she is living with?”
“Unfortunately, the new model only has microphones installed, and not external cameras.” Vivi was helpless in this regard. No matter how talented she was at sifting through data, she was incapable of altering the hardware of the devices. “Furthermore, they seem to have chosen to live in an area with a low level of surveillance.”
“I have confirmed the presence of four voices aside from the confirmed target. Two of these were present when she let slip the information, and indirectly confirmed their own involvement. These two also possess gaming headsets, but are using an older model and customized their avatars early. As for the other two, it is possible for them to be natives that were simply renting out a room. According to the reports, the house is owned by a married couple that has inhabited it for six years.”
Blank furrowed his brow at that. “If they’ve been there for six years, it’s highly unlikely that they are invaders as well… are you sure that the information wasn’t tampered with before you got to it?”
Vivi considered that possibility, before shaking her head. “I didn’t notice any traces of tampering. If they did so, their skills with computers would have to be quite extreme to bypass my awareness.”
“Very well. We’ll proceed under the assumption that the three are the only confirmed members of this cell, and the other two individuals can be seen as oblivious hostages. As long as they are around, we can’t make a move in the physical world, and it is pointless to dispose of them digitally if we can’t get all three at once.”
The silver-skinned woman gave a faint nod of agreement. “I’ll get back to monitoring the new units. When I have something more for you to make a move, I’ll bring it over.” After she said that, she closed her eyes, vanishing in a burst of silver light.
“My Keeper, we have received word from Vivi.” Tsubaki’s words broke me out of my monotonous thoughts, causing me to look over towards her in anticipation. “We have located three confirmed invaders, and she has reported some information that she has gleaned from their conversation.”
“Report.” Learning about three invaders was already incredibly significant. Getting information on Sanction’s homeworld? Now that was altogether another level of success.
Tsubaki gave a firm nod. “As expected, the individuals come from a society with a heavy focus on games. In fact, certain titles from our world are known to them. Namely, Natural Seed and Vision Expanse, though the former seems to be a much newer title for them.”
“In their world, the Keeper has not revealed his identity to the public. Instead, the term ‘Keeper’ is used to represent the boss at the end of a dungeon. While the details are unclear, there seem to be a great many personal benefits for them to gain by clearing one of these dungeons. Or, in other words…”
“In other words, killing me and winning the invasion.” I completed her sentence with a low sigh. “Give me their location, I’ll see what I can find.”
Previously, my mirrors had not been able to locate these invaders while using the search parameters of ‘a group of new arrivals from another realm’. All I found were normal travelers coming through the Fairy Ring. As such, it could be assumed that they had methods to hide themselves from divine energy.
Thankfully, I possessed a far more specialized energy, which existed for no other purpose than scanning. An energy that, to my knowledge, could penetrate any type of obfuscation. However, this was only the case if I knew where to scan to begin with.
Once I got the information from Tsubaki, I closed my eyes in focus, activating my world sight.
“Thank you for the meal!” A young woman said as she clapped her hands together, standing up from the table. She had short black hair and hazel eyes, dressed in a button up black shirt and long, tattered jeans.
Across from her was a man and a woman, each smiling kindly to her. “Don’t be like that, Kiana.” The woman insisted, possessing short red hair and a motherly figure. “You should go enjoy yourself. You start work at the tower tomorrow, don’t you?”
“Yup!” The girl, Kiana, nodded her head vigorously. “I just got the acceptance notice earlier. My mana levels are in the acceptable range, so I can go there to help out! I won’t let my good-for-nothing friends freeload off you anymore.”
The man let out a hearty laugh at that. “They’re just having a bit of trouble finding a job, is all. It’s not easy for most people, these days. Even the tower has increased the standard for mages that they accept, you know?”
“Eh? Why would they do that? Isn’t it better for them to be able to get more energy with more people showing up?” The concept of limiting their energy output didn’t seem very sensible to Kiana, causing her to raise the question. However, it was promptly answered by her host.
“It’s because of the refinement. Now that they are able to refine mana into a more efficient form, their overall output has started to exceed the demand by too high a margin. Any energy that they produce in excess of what they can use or store is simply wasted money, so they can’t afford to keep more mages on hand than necessary. The fact that you were able to get in already shows that you have extraordinary talent for one that has only practiced runic magic.”
“Heheh… I guess I just have a way with languages?” She stuck her tongue out playfully as she chuckled to herself. “Anyways, I’ll go play now! See you later, you two!” After she said that, she turned around, walking back to her room.
Blaque, Serin, how are things going on your end? Her voice emanated out along the party chat once she was alone in her room.
Still working on finding an apartment. ‘Honeymoon homes’ are hard to come by in this area. We might need to relocate if we want to use this excuse. What about you three?
The other two are in Natural Seed right now, confirming how much of the game is similar to what we have. I’ll join them soon. Tomorrow, I’ll be starting work in order to have a ‘legit’ source of income. The currency converter will get suspicious if people look too deeply.
Hearing her words, the man named Blaque let out a sigh. Maybe. I was thinking about getting a job, as well. Unfortunately, the only thing around here that fits my skillset is manual labor. At least Serin would be able to apply as an assistant teacher, once she’s done reading up at the library.
Kiana nodded her head, careful not to mention her earlier slip up in a verbal conversation with the rest of her party. The last thing she wanted was these two scolding her as well. They might even take it up with the guild leader. Sucks to suck, doesn’t it~?
Blaque simply grumbled in response, but a feminine voice spoke up. Definitely Serin. How are you coming at learning the local magic?
Serin’s question caused Kiana to stumble a bit. U-uh… I learned a little bit of runic in passing. Not enough to proc a skill, though. I managed to play a script spell off as runic for my test at the mage tower, and they seemed to buy it. I’ll be able to learn their geometric magic starting tomorrow. Once I have the skill, we can start sharing it around.
Her answer seemed to appease Serin, who let Kiana off the hook for teasing Blaque. They finished up their report, and Kiana made her way over to the headset resting on her desk. As she brought her hands to it, she first placed them on the desk, activating a concealed spell. Even if she was confident in their cover story, it was unwise for all three of them to be ingame at once without wards set up.
I watched as Kiana spoke with the couple that they were staying with, their conversation seeming completely natural. From that, I had my suspicions that they were simply innocent bystanders, but this was only confirmed when she left them. Then, as she entered her room, two streams of energy emerged from her head, forming links outside of my scanning area.
If not for my world sight, I would have never been able to notice this connection. It wasn’t mana, or even spiritual energy. Instead, it was some convoluted mix of the two, with a hint of the system’s own energy mixed in. Just from that component, I could guess that they hadn’t created this energy themselves, and were using some form of nonverbal system that their Keeper had purchased.
This makes things more complicated… The fact that they had a practically undetectable means of communication would limit my options to act from here on. Furthermore, while I had identified three of the invaders, and was able to follow the links from Kiana to the other two to make a total of five… there were still too many left.
“It seems that those three are all connected to the game right now.” I muttered quietly, and Tsubaki looked up with a small trace of excitement.
“Shall I inform Blank that he can act to eliminate them?”
Clearly, the thought of being able to defeat a group of invaders so swiftly made Tsubaki want to take action. However, I shook my head to decline her suggestion. “Don’t. They aren’t alone. Aside from those three, there are at least two more in the vicinity that are part of the same group. If we kill the three now, the others will be able to learn what caused it. As much as I really want to make some progress, we need to wait for a better chance.”
Tsubaki reluctantly nodded her head, agreeing with my line of reasoning. “I understand, my Keeper. If you could provide me with the details of the remaining individuals, I’ll pass them onto our network.”
With a nod, I created projections of all five confirmed invaders to let Tsubaki see them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make out the conversation that they were having via their private chat system. While I could read the information being sent, I had no way to interpret it as something I was familiar with. Even the mighty translator function didn’t help me understand the magical equivalent of encrypted code.
So is their script magic similar to SAO Alicization's Underworld's system commands, or what?
thanks for the chapter ^^
I love this novel! BUT! I always dislike the invader arcs (I'm more interested in the world building, personally). This opposing keeper for this arc really p*sses me off especially! I don't even care if they have a "good reason" for acting this way and hope they don't get any redemption. Seeing the invading "players" like normal people and the way they can just disregard the lives of this world after their keeper's philosophy has affected their perception of the world really drove that home for me. It would be better if I could just view the players as evil or self-obsessed monsters. But this is more like two good people forced to kill each other for the entertainment of a sick b@stard. Srry for rant...
I think the invasions are quite interesting though, and there is more than one way to defeat your invaders, perhaps the keeper can convince the people.. though I doubt it.
Well, early on, they DID say there were essentially 3 types of keepers, monster keepers, gaming keepers, and "normal" keepers. The 1st and 2nd being viewed essentially as evil due to the fact that every invasion they were given they would always aim to kill the keeper of the world they were invading.
This being the case, yeah, this arc seriously drives home how evil gaming keepers are. It's actually a lot worse from a moral perspective than a monster keeper.
@Jemini wasn't it 4? Monster keepers, Gaming keeper, Tyrant keepers and normal keepers?
@skiterz I don't remember any mention of Tyrant keepers. That seems to suggest more about how they handle their own worlds, the 3 types he was told about early on are more in concerns to how they interact with other keepers during invasions, the point being that "normal" keepers can actually be negotiated with and may possibly pull a stunt that will just end the invasion without the invaded keeper even needing to respond. (Such as dale sending in a fish with no will to fight, or another keeper that one time who sent Dale an injured and dying animal)
@Jemini
“Even better. That means that there is less that I need to explain. Still quite a lot mind you, but every little bit helps. Now, Keepers in the games can be separated into several different types. Many of them are fairly peaceful, and only fight when provoked, but there are a few that you need to watch out for. These kinds of Keepers can be divided into three types.”
Grimor held up his hand, lifting fingers as he began counting off and explaining the different Keepers I would need to keep an eye out for. “First, the ‘Game’ types that I mentioned before. The ones that see this as nothing more than a game. They won’t hesitate to throw everything they have at your world, even the entire population in order to win a game. Because afterwards, either they win your worlds, or they have to quickly reset their own and build it up before they are called again.”
As he lifted another finger, he named the second type. “Next are the ‘Tyrant’ types. They are similar to the Game type Keepers, except they are fully aware the seriousness of this. However, they tend to think along the lines of ‘I should be the only one with this power’. Out of the three types, they are likely the least threatening, if only because they rarely work together.”
With a deep sigh, he lifted the third finger. “And finally, the ‘Monster’ types. These are truly the most terrifying enemies to face for any Keeper, and they specialize in the games. Monster Keepers don’t raise civilizations, they don’t guide their people. They spend their time and points building the deadliest, most powerful monster race they can. Think of them like…. Ah, mind helping me out with this one, miss?” He looked over to Terra, who nodded.
in total 4 types, this is chapter 13.
@skiterz Ok then, thanks.
Yep can't do it anymore. Putting this novel on hold until the arc is done so I can speed read thru it in one go. Posting here in hopes that someone will reply when the story hits that point so I don't start it too early.
@Azaleigh
I think in about 3 to 5 chapters it will be done, considering they are already in the 'war' phase
@Azaleigh it ended.
@skiterz Thank you!