World Keeper

Chapter 527: I Want to Play a Game

I watched the scene of the invaders fleeing from nearby, my figure hidden within an illusion. Slipping into their rank in this state and tucking a stone into an unsuspecting caster’s robe had been simple. As for whether or not they discovered that Dana’s rain spell was simply a scare tactic, that didn’t matter.

Raindrops pelted me from above as I retrieved the storage card that Dana made me. From inside, I pulled another tidestone out. These pieces were leftover from when I was setting up my Fyor countermeasure, to ensure that I would be able to travel between the floors even if a crystal pillar were destroyed.

I hadn’t expected to need to use it in this manner, but I was not going to complain at the option to do so. Tsubaki. Tell Blank to interfere with their systems as much as he safely can, but pull out if things get dangerous. Then, grab Scarlet and yourself, and come to my location. It’s time for the final battle.

However, the voice that responded was not Tsubaki’s, but Leowynn’s. Does that mean that I will be able to help you, as well? There was a touch of excitement to her tone which caused the corners of my mouth to rise slightly.

Of course, Leowynn. I won’t hold you back this time. Even if I was going in with the element of surprise, I needed all the help that I could get in order to successfully dismantle this invasion force.

But first… I triggered my world sight, sending it into the tidestone in my hand. From there, I quickly found the fragment which I had ‘gifted’ to the invaders, allowing my vision to enter their base.

“What was that thing?” I heard someone calling out, appearing somewhat anxious. A warrior, judging by his armor, though his exact class was unknown.

The knight which had led their earlier march stepped forward and raised a hand to calm everyone down. “If the name she gave us is true… she should be a spirit. Something of a legend in this dungeon. An elven girl that was turned into a summon by her father postmortem, and then tried to do the same thing to him.”

There was a stir amongst the crowd as they listened to the man speak. “It’s unclear when she began working for the Keeper, but there have been a few sightings of her in recent years. However, given her nature, she is able to easily change her appearance, so I wasn’t able to properly recognize her. The failure this time lies with me.”

He lowered his head in apology, clearly thinking about the two people that Dana killed earlier. I didn’t bother with him, however. I didn’t just want this base. My world sight swept through the compound, and I noticed that there was nothing beyond its walls. A dimensional building set up within the infinite void.

Within this base was everything that they would need to survive. Water, food, and air were all imported either through magic or devices that I couldn’t understand. They had hundreds of bedrooms, enough to fit everyone, along with training areas and recreation rooms.

And of course, the one that I was really looking for, their teleport room. A large, rectangular hallway lined with circular structures. In front of each one was an image of what lay beyond the teleporter, as well as a written label. These were their warp points into the world, and I could easily identify the one that they used to get here.

My sight swept over these portals, until I found the one at the very end. The picture it displayed was quite similar to the room I was currently looking at, and it was labeled ‘Site Four’.

Immediately, I swept my world sight over this machine, looking for any trace that could be used to slip into the next base. What I found gave me a pleasant surprise. Deep inside the teleporter, there was a small, dimensional spark of a portal that was being maintained. When my sight slipped through that little spark, I found myself in the next base.

Its layout was identical to the first one I found, so I repeated this action. Again, and again. There were a total of thirty-six bases, and I did not stop until I had reached the last one. Only then did I withdraw my world sight, and see that everyone was prepared around me. Leowynn stood in full battle armor, Tsubaki and Dana standing side by side in their maid uniforms. Finally, Scarlet leveled a fierce glare as she wore her red dress, clearly ready to unleash her wrath.

“Everyone, remember to prioritize your safety.” I assured the girls with a gentle tone. “If it becomes too dangerous, fall back to my position, and I’ll get you out. I don’t want to lose any of you.”

The group before me nodded at my words, and so I focused, activating my ability to shift us through space. Now that I had personally ‘visited’ each of their bases, there was nowhere left for them to hide.

“Grayson, we got a problem over here!” Someone’s voice called out to the guild leader, just as he was preparing to take off his armor after the battle. With a grumbling sigh, he walked over, finding one of his mages sitting at a computer terminal.

“What is it, Regis? Did they find a way to cut our signal?” It wouldn’t be the first time that a dimensional signal had been interfered with, though they learned from their mistakes each time. Their network was strengthened through the use of multiple spells to lessen the risk of such a thing. And thankfully, each base had its own network to isolate any information that could be leaked.

“No, sir. From what I can tell… we’ve got a virus.” He looked at his computer, the screen flickering. There was confusion in his tone, which was normal given the circumstances. It shouldn’t be possible to have a virus on their terminals, not in this world. The level of their network defenses should have been too high for anything to get through.

“Isolate the system and sweep it.” Grayson said, before the lights began to flicker. Soon, another voice spoke up towards him, one that he could not recognize.

“I’m sorry, sir. I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.” The voice was monotone, almost robotic as it spoke through the speakers. Before the mage could act, the lights had begun to flicker. “You made it quite troublesome for me to find you. Just as I got to your network location, everyone was already leaving.”

“Thankfully, your systems all have a similar structure. As long as I waited, one of you would access the internet again. Now that I’m here… I want to play a game.” The voice shifted, becoming darker as it said the last line. Its voice was no longer set from this terminal, but instead from the speakers all across the base.

“For weeks, you’ve been infiltrating our home, replacing our people. You’ve killed them in secret to step into their lives. Well, now it’s my turn. I’ve hacked into your system and replaced one of your members. Right now, I’m somewhere in your base. All of your systems will identify me as the person I have replaced. How many people can I kill before you find me?”

When the voice died down from the speakers, a deep tension filled the room. Grayson knew that what he said wasn’t impossible. They had items specifically designed to copy certain energy frequencies that resonate with the system. It was how they prevented the status crystals in this dungeon from discovering the true names of those people that had been replaced.

At the same time… they were able to freely look through the memories of the party that they impersonated through special techniques. If the voice wasn’t lying, They would have no way of identifying the imposter before they made a move.

“One.” The voice spoke up through the speakers, after which a shrill scream echoed through the halls. Grayson turned and ran towards the source of the noise, finding one of their exorcists lying face-down on the ground. Blood had already begun to pool around him, and there was a blade wound that pierced cleanly through his chest.

“Who found the body?!” Grayson roared out, looking around. They had to narrow down the suspects as quickly as possible. If this wasn’t a bluff, and it didn’t appear to be, there was no point in retreating to another base.

“I-I did!” A young priestess called out. Grayson let out a faint sigh of relief when he saw that it was not a sword-wielder that stepped forward. “I was watching him… he only left my sight for a second… stepped around the corner… I thought he was suspicious, so I was going to follow him. There was a silver blade, a flash of light… and then I heard him fall. By the time I got to him, I didn’t see who did it!”

Grayson furrowed his brow, starting to think. Silver blade, and stealth. There were half a dozen people that matched that skillset in the guild. Of course, there was still the chance that the imposter had used their real skills, instead of simply copying what the ‘host’ knew.

Thinking of that, he looked around. “Did anyone have eyes on Trisha at the time of death?” Trisha was the name of the priestess that discovered the body. When she heard her name called, she tensed up, her eyes starting to water. She quickly began looking around, trying to find someone that would vouch for her.

“I did.” A young scholar spoke up. “She was standing near me before running off to follow him. She didn’t leave my sight before screaming.”

Trisha let out a relieved sigh, patting her chest. However, at the next moment, the voice from before spoke up again. “Two.”

This time, there was no scream, no sound to indicate where the kill had happened. The base was large, too large to search as a group. But splitting up would make them weaker targets. If they were to move in groups of two, and the imposter was mixed in with one group, it would be giving them an easy kill.

Grayson furrowed his brow, looking around before calling out over the guild chat. Everyone to the main hall. We’ll split into groups of five to search the base. Be vigilant, we don’t know where the enemy is hiding.

He knew that there was likely going to be some friendly fire here. Everyone’s nerves were stretched so thin that the slightest suspicion might set them off. If they moved as one unified group, there would be no place for the imposter to kill them. But if they did that, the base was simply too large, and they might never be able to find the killer in the first place.

As such, he was forced to divide them into manageable groups. Small enough that they could cover more ground, but big enough that they could fight back. At the very least, there would be sounds of battle that would attract the other groups before it was too late.

From within their security system, Blank simply watched the group with an amused smile. Naturally, he had no way to do any of the things that he claimed to. He had not impersonated anyone. All he did was wait for someone to enter a ‘blind spot’, where nobody was seeing them, and then personally manifest at that location to take them by surprise.

That, coupled with the ‘game’ he mentioned, was more than enough to put the guild into a panic. In fact, he had never even killed a second victim, something that he was sure that they would discover after everyone had gathered and taken a headcount. By calling out that there was a second kill after establishing the ‘truth’ of the game, he could make it appear that there were actually multiple hidden killers.

“Now, how will they fare when they don’t know who they can trust?” Blank asked in an amused tone, unsure how long it would take the Keeper before he arrived.

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