World Keeper - Chapter 1269: System Update

Eventually, Lena made it through the hallway, letting out a low groan as she carefully held the system core in her hands. “Not looking forward to having to do that again later.” She muttered, shaking her head as she walked down the hall. Most of the other security systems had already been disabled by this point, so the only one that was really a problem still was that hallway.

That said, even with her careful timing, she still ended up losing more than a tenth of her health against the five statues that she had triggered. Because of that, she was painfully aware that it was fully possible for them to kill her if she didn’t time it properly.

Walking through the passages of the tower, Lena made her way to the system core in the basement, passing through the screaming furnace where countless souls were trapped in eternal torment. And the very inconveniently placed mess hall directly adjacent to said furnace. I mean really, who does that?! Did he just treat the screams as music or something?! Lena thought to herself with a grumble.

Eventually, she reached the ‘core chamber’, where a blue core was suspended above a large device, acting as the core of the entire system. “I really hope they didn’t expect me to need to know to release any kind of update announcement or anything.” She muttered, grabbing the core and replacing it with the one that she was carrying.

Immediately, a pulse of energy rippled out, almost knocking Lena backwards as it swept through the tower, and then throughout all of Hal Tua.

“So, out of curiosity, what changes were included with this core?” I asked, and Chelsea nodded her head.

“Well, for starters, the main purpose of the core is to disable all of the current systems while saving personal data. See, that core in the tower isn’t really the core of the system itself, it’s just the thing that enables dungeon spawning on Hal Tua. The tower itself transmits the systems to the rest of the linked worlds. So, I had to do a bit of a workaround.”

“First, the core disables all active systems, overriding what the tower normally broadcasts. Then, it uploads the new, optimized code that we created, replacing the typical system of Hal Tua. As for specific changes… I replaced their class system with the one we use, and used the system converter you gave them for their invasion as the basis for seamlessly converting everyone to the new format.”

“Aside from that, I’ve temporarily disabled their dungeon system entirely. This isn’t permanent, just until we can create a better patch for the dungeon invasions. They’ve kept their skill system, crafting system, and all of that. This current patch was mostly for classes, and introducing the Digital Conversion system and virtual reality.”

I gave a small, hesitant nod of my head. “Of course, this means that they’ll need to completely rediscover how to ascend to godhood, since that was tied to their original class system.”

Chelsea smiled brightly at that. “Don’t worry! We’re already working on a patch for that with the next update. We’re tying that into the crafting system, so you can exchange a large number of skill tokens for a Token of Divinity. We’re just hammering out the details to get the number of tokens required to roughly equal the amount you would need to max out a class previously to prestige.”

“Once we’ve got that set up, we’ll be able to apply that system to our other worlds, too, and make ascension a lot easier for us.” When Chelsea said that, her legs started swinging off the couch happily. “After the final update, we’re planning on doing a full system overhaul for Earth and the other universes to unify the systems. Though, there’s not much we can do for Lorek and Spica without potentially devastating consequences, since their current world laws are tied to the way stars operate. Tinkering there might cause every star in the universe to simply die out. Which would be bad.”

The effects of the core transfer happened immediately, surprising nearly everyone in Hal Tua. Originally, their class system was very fluid. When an individual became of age, they underwent a ceremony to choose their class, which was often based on a single word, such as Craft, Conquer, or Magic. This class represented their wish for their future.

However, the ritual required a specially crafted medium to awaken the class, so it was not available for everyone. These mediums were expensive to purchase within the system. Typically, if you did not live in a major city, you were unable to access this awakening. Those who failed at this step were often seen as peasants, forever remaining as the dregs of society.

Without classes, one could not defend themselves against monsters. They could not unlock skills, and could only earn a living through manual labor. It wasn’t uncommon in some guilds for villages to be entirely wiped out because they didn’t have a single awakened ‘player’ to defend them against one strong monster.

Now, these so-called dregs of society, the peasants incapable of awakening even the most basic of skills, began to see immediate changes. They awakened classes such as Farmer, Hunter, Scholar, or various crafting classes as they went about their normal work.

Some of these individuals were so startled by this change that they immediately dropped their tools in shock, looking around nervously as if expecting someone to accuse them of a crime. How had they suddenly obtained a power that was originally only for the privileged few?

Their shock was nothing, however, compared to those of the actual players. Those who had reached a high level, seeing a flood of messages before themselves. Energy rushed into their bodies, forcibly evolving them to match their new classes. They became stronger, faster, more durable…

Yet, this was a double-edged sword. For those whose classes were entirely focused on one field, their body overspecialized. Their muscles might have become so dense that they couldn’t move properly, or so flexible that they had problems standing up straight.

These were common problems that had been solved thousands of years ago in Dale’s worlds, but those of Hal Tua had never had to worry about such things. Their bodies had never directly evolved due to their class levels, unless they trained in some special skill.

After this change, a voice spoke up in the minds of everyone, belonging to none other than the Goddess of Darkness, Flames, and Technology. Most people had never heard this voice before, so they were confused. However, Ashley briefly explained the changes that had been made, and how those who were currently inconvenienced by their class choices could overcome their difficulties.

She explained how everyone could find what classes gave what stats, and the need to maintain at least some semblance of a stat balance to prevent any problems going forward. Next, she explained that this was only the first system patch that they had planned, but it was the most significant as it directly affected the bodies of those involved.

Finally, she ended it with a brief introduction to the Digital Conversion system, as well as the virtual reality that had been applied to Hal Tua’s connected universes. Universes that kept their privacy barriers would only have access to their own virtual reality, as the connection between realms would be blocked by that barrier.

With that, Ashley’s voice disappeared from the minds of the people of Hal Tua, who were left stunned as they tried to understand what had just happened.

A few minutes later, Lena could be seen trudging back through the halls of Olympus, her health bar nearly half depleted after she had been made to walk through the hall of statues again. Thankfully, she had time to properly recover now. Or, at least, she hoped that she did.

When she got back to her room, she flopped down onto her bed, her clone walking over with a steaming cup of hot chocolate. “Good job.” She said calmly, holding the cup out for Lena.

“Thanks…” She said, taking it to sip on. “I swear, if I get called to go back, you–and she’s gone.” Lena groaned, suddenly alone in her room after her clone fled the scene.

With a long sigh, she continued to sip at the drink that she had been provided, turning on her terminal to look up Lifre’s stream. “Gotta make the most of this break while it lasts.” She muttered to herself.

“So, what’s the next plan?” I asked, looking over at Chelsea. “Are you planning to keep Hal Tua’s currency system, or switch them over to divine tokens like we use?”

Chelsea hummed thoughtfully at that. “I was planning to swap them over later, once I had the conversions handled properly. That was one of the last items on my agenda, honestly. Though, at the rate we’re going, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks to get everything finished at this point.”

I blinked in surprise, but nodded my head at her estimate. We had a lot more understanding with things like this than Hal Tua did, so it was only natural. “Were streams included with this system update?” I asked, to which Chelsea nodded her head.

“Yeah. Streams can broadcast to Hal Tua now, since they are tied to the virtual world. However, the only accepted currency right now is divine tokens, so they won’t be able to donate.”

“That’s fine.” I smiled, before closing my eyes and sending a message.

Udona? Can you work on getting some schools in Hal Tua converted for educational streams? They’ll need people to help them adapt to the new system updates.

A moment later, Udona’s voice responded positively. Sure thing. Ashley just sent me the ‘patch notes’ for Hal Tua. Once I’ve gone over the material that they’ll need to study, I’ll arrange for some teachers to be sent over.

I nodded in acceptance, glad to see that it would be taken care of. “Let’s see… what else is there?” I thought, going over the recent changes in the back of my mind.

Terra grinned, nuzzling against my side. “They just need to get brought into the current afterlife system.” She reminded, and I pet her head in appreciation.

“Yup! That’s on my list for the next patch.” Chelsea confirmed. “I’ll get that taken care of before too long.”

I gave another nod of appreciation at that. Of course, things were far from perfect in Hal Tua. There would undoubtedly be chaos for quite a while as people adjusted to the new system. At the same time, this would likely further motivate those looking to cause trouble with me, claiming that I was intentionally destroying their way of life or something like that.

However, there was little that they could really do, at least with Terra keeping a close eye on them. If they did get too out of hand, I was sure that she would do something. Would they like what she did? Oh, most certainly not! But, given that they were devolving into terrorists, I’d say the punishment fits the crime.