World Keeper

Chapter 662: Ghosts of the Past

Several hours passed as the first batch of upgrades were performed within my ‘detection city’. First, resource acquisition was upgraded twice, and then city power. Only when these three projects had finished did I upgrade my detection level. As I did so, the city seemed to rumble, buildings shifting around the Control Hub.

Next to the hub, a large satellite dish was quickly constructed. This dish stood over thirty meters tall, on a twenty meter tower overlooking the city. As the dish slowly rotated in circles, it let out a dull tone every few seconds. Looking at the screen in front of me, I let out a long sigh of relief.

Under the assumption that they didn’t know enough about the game or the language it uses to immediately construct a signal jammer, it’s safe to say that they’re not on this planet. That was the conclusion I came to when I saw the lack of any response from the signal tower. Although it was rare, it was possible within the game settings for two participants to be stationed at different points of the same world.

This setting was intentional, in order for me to have the first tier scanner set for a global range. From there, the scanning strength and range would continue to increase, until I was capable of piercing the dimensional veil to locate the target. In a way, this could be seen as the reverse of a Keeper Compass, pointing the way towards the invaders.

I should look into that on the market after this is over. If there really is an item or system to identify invaders like that, it would come in handy. Naturally, there were ways to do so with divine powers, but those were all conditional. For instance, my mirror scrying would not allow me to find anyone that was not near a mirror, unless I sent a projection of my divinity towards a target location and searched manually.

With a long sigh, I turned to look at Tsubaki and Dana. “It should be fine to announce my presence here now. Keep the location of this city a secret, however. Right now, I can reasonably determine that the enemy should not have appeared on this planet. While the other worlds are still a possibility, I won’t be able to scan them for a little over a week at the earliest.”

Tsubaki gave a light nod at my words. “Very well, my Keeper. What do you want us to say in regards to this invasion?”

I thought about that, before shaking my head. “Everyone that needs to know has already been made aware. Releasing a general statement to the public will only incite undue panic. With any luck, the situation will be resolved before the general public even becomes aware of the problem.”

I myself knew that such an event was rather unlikely. Had I the option, I would have based this game in Lorek instead of Earth. Sadly, the card containing the game would not function there, so I could only initiate it from this end. By now, it would have already been over a week since the invasion began in Lorek and Spica… Now I was able to see the drawbacks of having the accelerated time over those worlds.

“Dana, I want you to station two subordinates in the cultivation worlds. They’ll be in charge of liaising with the local fleets and monitoring for any sightings of the enemy. I trust that there won’t be any problems with your people going to those worlds?”

Looking over at Dana, I saw that the girl herself was unsure. “I’ve never sent any of my shadows to that world before, because I didn’t know if they’d be able to hold themselves together. The laws are too different. However, if it’s what you want, I’ll give it a shot, boss!”

I gave a small nod. “We’ll need to find out sooner or later if the World’s Shadow bodies can exist in those worlds. Otherwise, you yourself will never be able to enter there. Send over two weaker shadows as a test first, and then choose your representatives.”

“Understood, boss!” Dana saluted, before blinking. “Oh, uhm, I just got a report. It seems like Udona’s looking for you in Deckan?”

I raised a brow at her words, before realization struck me. Although I had never announced my presence in this world, it would be easy for Udona’s incarnation to know when the invasion began. After all, she would suddenly be cut off from her ‘main self’. And given that her staff was composed of Dana’s shadows, it was easy for her to reach out to me.

“Got it. Open a path for me, and I’ll head to her right away. In the meantime, Tsubaki, I’m leaving you in charge of the detection city.” I smiled towards the kitsune. “Focus on upgrading detection until the power starts running low, and then switch to power, residential, and market districts. At that point, we’ll need more ‘people’ in the city to continue further.”

I didn’t know exactly how long I was going to be gone, so I went ahead and outlined my development plan for the next few days to Tsubaki. If there were still no signs of the enemy by the time these upgrades had been finished, then it was unlikely that they were within a one lightyear radius of us.

After Tsubaki accepted my instructions, I stood and began walking towards Dana. The smaller girl stepped aside, a gate of shadows appearing on the wall behind her. Knowing where this would lead, I stepped inside without hesitation.

On the other side of the gate, I found myself in Udona’s office, the kitsune queen sitting at her desk. She had a look of exasperation on her face, while a black-haired maid stood next to her. “This should be our first time meeting like this?” I smiled, seeing her ears perk up when I arrived.

“Yeah…” She agreed, though let out a sigh immediately afterwards. “Sorry for calling you so suddenly. I know you have to be really busy with everything going on. ‘She’ explained that much to me a long time ago. But, this was the first time that I haven’t felt her in my head, and the others all wanted to introduce themselves.”

“Others?” I raised a brow, figuring that she likely meant incarnations of the other gods and goddesses. I was honestly not aware of how many were currently in the world, as I hadn’t been keeping track of them for a while now. Better to let them live their own lives, in my mind.

“That’s right. A few of them came by before we were disconnected.” Udona nodded, calling out. “You can all come in now.”

The door behind me opened, and seven figures walked in. Among them, I could easily identify Aurivy, the only halfling of the group. There was also a lycan, an ursa, a dwarf, and… three felyns?

My gaze couldn’t help but be drawn towards the trio of catgirls standing next to one another. Of them, two were very similar to one another, looking like they could easily be twins. Both had brown hair cut at their shoulders, and soft blue eyes. “We’re Terra.” They said in unison, grinning.

“I’m sorry, what?” Why were there two Terra’s? My mind had a bit of trouble processing this, causing the two of them to chuckle.

“When she wanted to create her incarnation, she selected our mother to give birth. She wasn’t expecting to end up with twins, or at least that’s what she told us.” The first said, while the other nodded.

“Well… you can’t both be named Terra, right?” I looked at the two of them curiously, and they shook their heads.

“No, I’m Terra, and she’s Firma.” The first said, pointing to her sister, who appeared troubled.

“What? No, I’m Terra, and you’re Firma.” She argued, causing the other to look confused. I had the faintest suspicion that this was a regular occurrence for them, and one that was not at all faked… Though Terra wasn’t able to control her incarnations as directly as the others, it was clear that she had at least some degree of influence.

Thus, I looked towards the last felyn. The others present were all easy to guess. It was only this one that I held some doubts about. “You’re… Irena, right?” I asked, guessing the only goddess in my pantheon who I knew to often leave her incarnations up to more of a lottery than selecting based on her own race.

This felyn, who had silver hair and red eyes, nodded her head. “That’s right, sir. Irena was the Goddess who lived within my body. However, my name is Alena. Before she left, she asked me to come meet you. Although I’m not very high level, she said that my talents might prove helpful under the right circumstances.”

I couldn’t help but raise a brow at that. “How so?” If Irena thought that something would be useful, then I was sure that it wasn’t just as simple as her having a high combat power.

The girl hesitated again, looking around at everyone gathered. “These are all… other people who were possessed by gods, aren’t they?” She asked, before her eyes went over towards the maid.

“They are.” I confirmed, able to see familiar traces of everyone’s divine counterparts in how they carried themselves. “And the maid is a trusted subordinate. If you have any secrets, they are safe here.”

The girl nodded her head, extending one hand. “Appear, the pledge of life and death.” She whispered, her voice ethereal as spiritual energy gathered at her fingertips. This energy condensed, forming a thick tome marked with a vaguely familiar symbol.

“This is my spiritual artifact. If I receive someone’s signature in this book, I will always be able to tell whether they are alive or dead, regardless of the distance. The signature has to be drawn by the person themselves, but it can be brought over from another document. Lady Irena had me receive the signatures from the various fleet captains using their assignment forms.”

When I heard that, I blinked in surprise, looking at Alena again. “You… where have I seen that symbol?”

The girl lowered her head briefly. “It is the symbol of the Wraiths, sir. I received their legacy when I was young, though I fear I’m the only surviving ‘member’, as it was in a lost ruin deep in the forest outside of town.”

The Wraiths… it had been so long since I thought of that group. Originally, I had created them with the intention of preventing malicious spirits from appearing and destroying civilization. I even created a set of rules bound by the quest system to ensure that their numbers would be limited and their existence secret.

The fact that only one existed now, and she wasn’t aware of the others likely meant that the old system had fallen apart in the past. Otherwise, she would never be able to receive the legacy of the Wraiths without encountering any others.

Still, it was surprising to learn that they even existed at all in the present day. Even more, they had developed their spiritual techniques to the point where they could emulate divine abilities to a degree. “I see… this will prove very useful.” I nodded my head in agreement with Irena’s assessment.

If at any point I needed to send out ships to scout, Alena’s book would allow me to see if any ships were attacked and destroyed before they could send a report back. This could potentially save hours, or even days that would otherwise be spent on verifying information.

Alena lowered her head again, a small smile on her face at the realization that she could be helpful. Most likely, given how she had been hesitant to display it around others, she had been keeping this ability quiet ever since she developed it. There could perhaps be some history involved in how the Wraiths were destroyed that left her wary of showing her lineage in front of others.

I would need to investigate more into the situation when I returned to the Admin Room after this invasion was over.