While the Keeper was performing his training, the rest of his domain was similarly busy. Out in the deepest reaches of Deckan’s space, the frontier exploration ship known as the Emergence was receiving a message. It had been over two weeks since their last sortie, so most of their passengers were quite relaxed.
The captain of the vessel sat within her personal quarters, having chosen to take the message privately as it came from ‘central command’. However, the image that appeared on the screen was not that of the exploration advisor, but rather the queen which held the highest authority back on Deckan.
“Queen Bria, I am honored that you would wish to speak with me.” The captain said, almost casually. Having been away from Deckan for so long, none of them were technically under the jurisdiction of any Deckan kingdom any longer. In a way, they were a sovereign territory floating through space, maintaining fair trade with Deckan. As such, it was normal for her to be more informal when addressing the powers that be back home.
Bria let out a brief sigh, looking towards the captain. “I’m calling you to issue an emergency return order on the Emergence for the near future.”
The captain’s eyebrows shot up, her tail swishing behind her as she looked at Bria in alarm. “On what grounds?” While certain circumstances could indeed force a recall of the ship, that was under the assumption that it would be worth the cost to do so. First, their journey would have to start from nothing when they left again.
Secondly, the emergency gate required a mana cost to activate relative to the distance traveled. Both of these factors meant that the longer a journey had lasted, the more difficult it would be to issue the type of order Bria was doing now.
“There is an emergency situation in the coming months.” Bria explained seriously. “The Goddess herself urged me to recall all available forces to prepare.”
Hearing that, the captain’s body went stiff. If the reason were not sufficient, she could choose to ignore the recall. However, this was not simply an order from Bria, but a warning from the Goddess herself. She had neither the reason nor will to defy Udona. “I understand. I’ll issue the return order immediately.”
“Sorry to trouble you like this.” Bria said with a weary smile. “Once the situation has passed, I will authorize Emergence’s second voyage. You can keep your rank and any crew that wish to remain aboard.”
“I appreciate that.” The captain nodded, feeling somewhat relieved at that. From her somewhat disrespectful display before, it would be entirely within Bria’s authority to have her replaced after they returned home with someone more loyal to the crown.
With that, the call ended, and the captain turned to walk out towards the bridge. “Attention!” She shouted, her voice echoing throughout the ship. “We are activating all Recall protocols, effective immediately!”
“I repeat, all Recall protocols are in effect!” When her words came through the speakers of the ship, passengers bolted upright. Anything that wasn’t fixed in place was converted into its card form and safely stored, while any experienced mages made their way to the mana core.
“All sectors reporting, preparations complete!” A male officer with black hair turned his head to inform the captain, earning a nod.
“Understood. Activate the Journey Home deck.” As she said that, she pulled a card from her breast pocket, slipping it into an open slot on her chair. The card had the image of the planet Deckan, serving as the anchor point for this large-scale warp spell.
Outside of the ship, dozens of cards shot out of concealed ports, forming a wide grid that encompassed the entire ship itself. Meanwhile, within the mana core, the mages were pushing as much of their mana as they could spare into the refinery. This mana was then condensed into a pale blue liquid, which was used as fuel to power the cards outside.
These cards began to glow brightly, lights shooting between them until the ship seemed to be encased in a glowing net. Then, without warning, the ship simply vanished. All that was left behind were the numerous cards that had triggered the warp.
“All readings, normal.” The black-haired officer said as he read from the screen. “Journey Home is a success.” Outside, they could no longer see the empty void, but rather the blue and green planet that they had once called home.
Within a vast expanse of darkness surrounded by blinking lights, a black-skinned humanoid wearing a dark robe sat behind a desk suspended in the empty void. On the other side of his desk, a red-skinned demoness sat wearing a formal business suit, her hands crossed in her lap as her wings draped over her shoulders.
“I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you quite so directly, before.” Blank said as he looked at the goddess opposite him, who simply smiled back.
“I would have called you through more conventional methods, but I felt that time was of the essence. I hope you don’t mind me making a personal visit?”
Blank shook his head slowly. “No, it should be fine. I never congratulated you on that game world you created, either. It has become quite the success.”
“While I appreciate the compliment, that was not entirely my own creation.” Ashley let out a low sigh. “It’s also not what I’m here for. I’m guessing that you’ve noticed the preparations being made?”
The artificially developed god gave a brief nod, a screen appearing next to him. “Let’s see… we have unusual gatherings of beastkin within territories not their own. All within businesses owned and run by other beastkin. On its own, nothing major, until you trace back the lineage of the business owners. Without exception, they all have a history which fails to go back more than two generations.”
“The centaurs of Sher Dien have become more reclusive, going by the rumors. A landline hasn’t been laid in that world yet, so I can’t properly assess their situation. Kione’s churches have begun contacting individuals of remarkable power to gather together. Even the March has begun heightened weapons and counter-espionage production. Shall I go on?”
Ashley gave a somewhat cramped smile as so many of their preparations were uncovered. “As I should expect of a digital god, I suppose. I’m here now because there’s a preparation which you are uniquely suited to help us with.”
Blank leaned back in his chair, giving the situation some thought. “Given the level of precaution being taken, I can assume that this is similar to the previous events in history, where invaders are destined to come from another realm. But, since you are coming to me, they should not be simple monsters this time, correct?”
“That’s right.” Ashley confirmed without hesitation. “The invaders this time should be coming from a more civilized world. In fact, according to our information, it should be a heavily game-focused world. It might simply be that they have a game system like us, or they derive their power from playing games.”
The black-skinned god seemed to catch on. “If they are from a civilized word, then the odds are that they will be incapable of speaking our language. They may well have means of bypassing this problem, but they would still have the desire to test our own games, both to gather information and simply enjoy themselves.”
“Right. That’s why I’m here. I want you to lay a trap for them.” A somewhat vicious gleam passed through Ashley’s eyes as she spoke. “Myself and the others won’t be available to help when the time comes, but you are another story. My company is releasing a patch for all equipment used to access the virtual reality games.”
“This patch will tweak the spirit scanners to search for suspicious activity. For example, if a spirit has been altered since its last use. This is a security update that we’re aiming to prevent equipment from being used after its host died, in case the invaders have a means to impersonate a victim.”
“Additionally, all new units being sold will have ‘faulty’ microphones with internal power supplies. These microphones will be constantly active, and their power supply will recharge while the unit is plugged in. If the invaders purchase new units to register for themselves, we’ll be able to monitor them. Once the invasion has ended, we’ll issue a recall and take back any of these units that are sold to protect everyone’s privacy.”
“And you want me to be the one monitoring the surveillance?” Blank guessed, his eyes trained on Ashley, who surprisingly shook her head.
“No. I have Vivi on that. You are the God of Games. When the suspicious activity is found and confirmed, I have given Vivi instructions to contact you with their location. While logged on, their spirits are partially separated from their physical form. Even if they set up terrifying defenses in the physical world, the most vulnerable point is still that connection.”
“Your job is to find that connection and sever it. Pull the invaders fully into whatever game they are playing, and tag their accounts. Unless they have specialized hacking equipment, they will merely be new characters. We can then issue public quests to hunt them down, tracking their movements in real time.”
Blank gave her proposal some thought. “Your plan is likely to endanger some of your own people, as well. What happens if the news about such events were to reach their ears before they log into the game themselves?”
Ashley mulled over his suspicion for a moment before answering. “I’ll visit the various police forces after this to secure their cooperation. I won’t tell them the full extent of the plan, just enough to get what we need. With their help, we should be able to contain the news about any collateral damage.”
“You are truly prepared to sacrifice some of your own people to make this work, aren’t you?” Blank seemed quite surprised by Ashley’s determination.
“I am fully aware that this trick will only work once. If we don’t get them all together, anyone that isn’t logged in will not take the risk. The best case scenario is that they emerge in multiple isolated groups, without a proper means to contact one another. If that happens, this would be enough to possibly kill them all. If not…”
She fell silent for a moment, as if hesitating over whether or not she should say what came next. “We must assume that every invader will have the strength to kill a god and destroy a planet. As long as that is true, I will resort to whatever dirty tricks I must to ensure that we suffer as few losses as possible. If people wish to criticize my choices later, I will accept that. If they choose to hate me, I will bear that hatred. But I will do everything in my power to keep everyone safe.”
Blank gave a brief nod, leaning forward against his desk. “Very well, I’ll go along with your plan. Once I have my targets, I will trap them within the games of their choice. This shouldn’t be too hard of a task. Though, if they possess an ability to prevent me from doing so, then I won’t be able to offer any assistance.”
Ashley smiled joyfully, happy that Blank had given his consent. “As long as you make an attempt. In the best case, this plan alone could cripple the invading army. In the worst case, it will put them on guard if they have defenses against methods like that. If that happens, we’ll need to employ some of our other plans.”
After she said that, Ashley’s body began to fade away, leaving Blank alone in the virtual territory that Ashley had found him in. He closed his eyes, putting his thoughts together to plan for the upcoming battle, now that he truly knew the scale of it. Before, he had been looking for every strange event he could find to locate clues that he could use, but now it seemed that wasn’t necessary.
“Trapping them in a game… interesting idea.”
