Chapter 974: Anticipation

Chapter 974: Anticipation

Ashley sat in her office, looking over the information given to her by her team. It was nearing the end of the Standard Month, and the game project was coming along rather well. Without the need to consider things such as a graphics or physics engine, all that they needed to worry about was adding the features. Given her work in the old world, this made it feel almost too easy to create a game, especially when she considered that the true scope of the game they were making was an entire universe.

So far, it looks like almost everything is in a presentable state. The research tree needs some tweaking, and so does the Sylvan AI. Aside from that, we should be good to launch at the start of the year. Thankfully, the monster fusion system doesn’t appear to be causing any problems.

This system was something that they had to create on the market, and then applied to the game. Given that it was a new creation, there was always the chance that the system would throw a curveball and give it undesired effects. However, with the strict wording that Ashley had used when creating the system, it seemed like that wasn’t an immediate issue.

Currently, they were well under the budget that the Keeper had given them. Between purchasing the research tree, the Natural Seed system, and the Monster Pet Fusion system, they had only spent a total of fifteen hundred points. Everything else that they were using in the game was being repurposed from the other worlds under their control, such as the Guild, Kingdom, Party, or Private Message system.

Ashley wanted to avoid using more advanced systems like the Skill Proficiency system, since that would be giving information away about their own world. Still, she was proud of the work that her team was doing. If there was one thing that was giving her problems... it was setting up the admin commands for the World Spirit of this game.

Dale had previously expressed that he did not want to have to reset a world unless absolutely necessary, so they were testing all of these features on their testbed world. However, that was not possible when it came to the existence of the World Spirit, as it was intrinsically connected to the world that it was born in.

To avoid other people using time-related abilities to observe their people after the world was sent over, Ashley planned to get everything prepared, and then only have Dale purchase the final world when it was ready to go live on the market. That meant that she needed to have the admin commands in a working state without any way to test them.

We can test the basic commands with Vivi and Fifi, but the commands more unique to World Seed will have to be done blind.

She let out a small sigh at that, shaking her head. There was no other way to handle something like this without completely wiping the world when they were done testing.

I furrowed my brow, glancing back at Tsubaki. Or rather, the silver-haired avatar of Tsubaki. It had been nearly two weeks since I last saw the true Tsubaki, and I wasn’t the only one. Even Dana had expressed her dissatisfaction at not seeing her lately.

“Is there something that I can do for you, my Keeper?” The avatar of Tsubaki asked, a gentle smile on her face.

“Can you tell me how Tsubaki is doing with her training?” If I didn’t know that Tsubaki was working on mastering her legend, I would have assumed that she had gone for another Trial of Blood. Though... given what I had heard about her plan, she might still do that as well.

I need planetary defense systems. And the first batch of NPCs need to be assigned to monitor the various regions to prevent anyone from coming in and claiming our tech. For a machine empire like the one that Clara had made, everything would fall apart the moment another nation had studied and fully understood their technology.

In under a year, a single person had created a mechanical nation spanning dozens of lightyears. Clara was fully aware of what would happen if an existing superpower got their hands on the same level of technology.

Sienna sat atop a black throne, hovering in the air while hugging the white weasel against her chest. Her legs swayed beneath her as she stared down at the training monsters. She was creating more and more soldiers for the shadow army, both humanoid and monstrous, with each type serving a distinct purpose. For instance, the four-armed soldier wielding four bladed weapons, the rabbit-eared general that could pulverize a boulder with a light stomp, or the monstrous elephant-like creature with a flat back that served as a mobile artillery platform.

However, although Sienna was diligently working on training these monsters, her thoughts were elsewhere. In the back of her mind, she was excited, looking forward to the new game that Ashley had come to tell her about several days before.

In order to get ideas for their monster fusion system, Ashley had come to Sienna, asking her to provide real, working examples of how various monsters could fuse, with different possibilities for each fusion. A large bird was combined with a wolf, which could either turn the fur of the wolf into feathers it could flutter in different patterns for camouflage, or alternatively it provided the wolf with wings.

Sienna even suggested combining monsters with existing structures, though that idea had sadly been turned down. The goal of this new game was development via natural forces, so modern industry would be far less prevalent. Understanding this, Sienna instead suggested combining monsters of vastly different types, such as plant monsters with animal ones.

The initial experiment was to combine a Dead Man Tree--a tree that appeared to be a normal, withered tree, but would suddenly swing its branches down to grab the necks of passing creatures-- with a Human-Faced Spider. This spider was a massive arachnid measuring roughly two meters long, and had what looked like a person’s face on their back that they used to lure in prey.

The result was something that Sienna called the Hangman Tree. Similar to the Dead Man Tree, this looked like a normal, withered tree. However, it also had a series of cobwebs connecting the branches, making it appear far older and darker. Unlike the Dead Man Tree, this new monster did not lash out with its branches. Rather, it was able to use them to release webbing, grabbing creatures and pulling them up into the tree’s branches. Once in the branches, the tree would begin shifting its prey to the center, the very top of the tree’s trunk, where a gaping maw waited to devour them.

Although this example deeply disturbed Ashley, she had to admit that it was feasible to include it in the game that they were making. She promised to include plant monsters, mineral monsters, and even elemental monsters in the fusion system.

Now, it was Sienna’s turn to wait. This new game was supposed to be a real world game like Fragment of Acidia or Vision Expanse, so she wanted to see if she could reproduce any of her own creations in the game. At the same time, she wanted to try to get inspiration for all new monsters to create for her shadow army.

An enthusiastic smile appeared on the typically calm girl’s face, and she hugged the weasel against her chest a bit tighter, causing it to cry out in her mind. Gah! My bones! S-Sienna, gentle, I beg you!

Sienna blinked, a slight flush on her cheeks as she eased her grip on Kama. Sorry, I was distracted.