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Chapter 1053: Security Checkpoints

“You need to pay?” I blinked, looking up at Udona. “I thought that this was a collaborative effort?”

“The prototype was.” Udona said with that same smile. “Afterwards, the three of us agreed that I should be the one holding the patent, because I have the greatest reserve of divinity. Thus, I registered it with the Digital Conversion system, and can now independently print these books.”

That certainly made me less eager to immediately try it out. “How does it work, then?” I asked, handing the book back to her.

“It’s quite simple. Once you focus on activation, the first two pages are reserved for analyzing the situation via the Story domain, looking at the current narrative of the user. Then, the Security domain further delves into the situation, providing a detailed analysis. For this reason, the first five pages are reserved for the ‘situation breakdown’. From there, the Security and Education domains work to provide a guide on how to overcome the crisis.”

I brought a hand up to my head, massaging my forehead. “First of all… can you explain how the Security part works? If it uses the void to gather information, we might just be creating more problems for ourselves.”

Udona shook her head quickly. “No, nothing like that. Chelsea sealed a small part of her consciousness within the domain as she used it, containing her experience and insights into various matters. Sort of like a database to reference. When the manual is activated, that consciousness awakens briefly.”

That… would certainly make it easier to cover a wide range of scenarios, as well as ones not planned for. Of course, it also meant that the book could have a new version released later if Chelsea received any major enlightenments. “Okay… my only other concern is the concept of needing to read the book, since the time spent reading would cause most emergencies to already become critical.”

Udona beamed a proud smile when I said that. “Nothing to worry about there, either! Once the book has finished activating, a second activation automatically imparts all instructions to the user’s mind. This is an optional feature, so that the manual can be passed around after activation to let other necessary personnel read through the instructions if need be.”

“Right.” I nodded. “I assume that this isn’t going to be mass produced? Even your divinity wouldn’t be able to cope with that.”

Udona hesitated for a moment, before seeming to agree with me. “While I would like it to be possible, the fact of the matter is that there is no need for this to be a household item. This manual isn’t designed for daily use, and most people would never have need of it throughout their entire lives.”

“Instead, I plan to provide it for free to commanders in military operations, such as ship captains exploring uncharted space. Additionally, I will make it available to purchase from the adventurer’s guilds of any world, so those who often encounter unknown monsters will have access to it. The price will be expensive, but I don’t expect to make my full investment back, considering that it will be provided for free to the military. This is just so that I can mitigate the losses slightly.”

I nodded my head, glad to see that she had thought it out. “Do you have anything else important to report?” I asked curiously, to which Udona hesitated.

“There is one other matter. Chelsea is seeking permission to begin world creation experiments in the void, working together with Ashley’s team.” I was… admittedly surprised when I heard that, looking at Udona questioningly.

“She wants to advance us towards the fifth rank already?” I knew that the proper creation of a world without using the market was the benchmark for the fifth rank, so I was surprised to hear that Chelsea was already contemplating it so soon after advancing to the fourth.

Udona gave a small, knowing smile. “She said that it’s a necessary step to prepare for. Right now, the technology doesn’t properly exist to create the world in the first place. At best, they’ve reverse engineered the ability to make smaller bases. There will need to be several generations of devices in order to build a world at the same level as one from the system.”

I paused, before ultimately agreeing to the request. This was something that we would need to do sooner or later. Given the fact that RagnaRocker was planning to fight a Keeper at the peak of Rank Four, and had enough confidence in his victory to become enraged at us stopping him, our success in defending against that invasion meant that our full combat power should be on the higher level of the fourth rank.

Of course, there was still a lot that we had to do. While the Digital Conversion system lived up to its worth as a two hundred thousand point system. “You won’t be able to use Beta Reality to do this, but as long as she doesn’t cause any major problems, I don’t see a reason to refuse.”

Back in the Another World Research Group’s lab, Chelsea let out a soft sigh. She had already finished most of the preparations for her own energy fusion before having to leave to meet Dale, and then deal with the memetic monster… and then help with the creation of the Security Manual.

Now that she was finally back to the lab, and free of distraction, she was ready to take the final steps. The success rate in the simulations wasn’t at one hundred percent yet, but she doubted that she would be able to get it to that level without practical experimentation.

She printed out the formula, jumping up from her seat and leaving the office to head towards her energy conversion chamber. Everyone in the lab had one such room, which could be used to assist in the production of complex energies. This was done in a similar way to how Chelsea created the bone wand, the divine ring, and other such treasures.

Simply put, the formula laid out the process of the energy fusion, but did not rely on the Digital Conversion system. Instead, it merely mimicked the process of guiding the energy. Of course, there were numerous internal mechanisms that needed to be adjusted, depending on the guidance method.

Once she got to her chamber, Chelsea pulled out her multitool, aiming it at the device and adjusting the internal components according to the formula’s design. Once she was done with that, she fed the formula into the device and placed her hands on the input panels. Her eyes closed, and her World Sight examined the fusion process, watching for any abnormalities.

World Sight was unique in that it wouldn’t accidentally get mixed with other energy types during observation. Unless it was intentionally condensed, other forms of energy treated it as if it simply didn’t exist.

As Chelsea watched her experiment unfold, she could already spot small parts of the process that could be optimized. At these points, the reaction of the energy became more unstable, before having to be forcibly stabilized. Doing this exhausted an excessive amount of energy and caused a delay in the conversion process.

Thankfully, while smaller parts of the process had to forcibly be stabilized, the operation seemed to be a success. With a grin, Chelsea moved to a nearby terminal, making the necessary corrections that she had previously noted, and confirming the improved result. Once her energy was finalized, she needed to adjust her internal energy paths to accommodate it.

This process wasn’t difficult, as she had multiple ‘spare cores’ from James’s old nine tails project. With a thought, she purged one of the less useful energies from one of her tails, instead channeling this new energy into it.

Chelsea was far too familiar with the process of connecting an energy core to her network, and soon her tail was naturally producing the energy that she had just created. However, when she was done, her brows furrowed. She realized that she hadn’t gotten any form of achievement for the creation of this energy.

Is it possible that someone else beat me to it? She asked, though found it unlikely. These achievements wouldn’t be unique among Keepers, so her only ‘competition’ should have been Dale’s worlds. Who would be able to create this?

Although she had created the energy core in her tail, she hadn’t properly tested the effects of the energy. Closing her eyes, she sensed its structure, visualizing the energy as long strings of beads.

With a thought, she focused on splitting one such bead from the energy sequence, bringing it up to her hand. This singular point of energy was infinitesimally small, similar to a speck of dust floating above her finger. She focused on this point of energy, trying to pass her senses through it.

When she did, she felt the miniscule bead light up, and she was able to observe the surroundings from that point of space. Even when she moved it to the corner of the room, she could still observe her body from the altered view.

However… if it was like this, she wouldn’t be able to set up the conditions that she wanted for how the energy needed to work. Instead, she brought the energy back to her hand, and retrieved her senses from it. She brought up five more beads, forming a closed string of energy over her finger.

This time, when she passed her senses through, still only one bead lit up. It took a moment for Chelsea to realize that each bead stored a singular command, with the ‘strings’ between them serving to pass signals through.

Once she noticed that, she grinned, setting up a slightly more complex network of interwoven beads. She placed this small network at the corner of the room, and snapped her fingers. The moment she did so, she received a mental notification, as well as a shared view of herself from the perspective of the network.

Chelsea blinked, realizing that this particular combination was one that didn’t currently exist on the market. With a small grin, she pondered over the name. “I’ll call it… Integrated Security, or IS for short.”

Chelsea seemed surprised that the reward was a percentage increase, rather than a flat increase. Naturally, this made it far more valuable. Still, she needed to experiment more to understand the full scope of her new power.

It was at that moment that Udona sent Chelsea a message, saying that the Keeper had approved of her request. She clenched her fist with a grin, retrieving the energy node that she had previously installed. She was going to be busy for a while now…