Chapter 20: Creator's Reward and a Security Blanket

Chapter 20: Creator's Reward and a Security Blanket

Ran was deeply immersed in cultivation, basking in the torrential flow of Dividends generated by the thousands of players now swarming Ascension Heaven V0.2. He was consolidating his breakthrough into Qi Condensation Stage 4 (High), feeling the satisfying density of Qi within his Dantian, when his serene focus was shattered by a series of frantic, high-priority alerts flashing across his System interface. Red text. Blinking urgently.

[CRITICAL EVENT DETECTED! IMMEDIATE HOST ATTENTION REQUIRED!]

Ran's eyes snapped open, startled. Critical? The System usually maintained a tone of detached sarcasm, even for major updates.

[ALERT: Latent GODEYE_SEED Signature Fully Activated!]

[Artifact Profile: GODEYE_SEED_ANALYTICAL (Codename: Eye of Analytical Acumen)]

[Status: Claimed & Bound In-World (Player ID: Kaelen_Vance_QL)]

[Location Correlation: Player Kaelen_Vance_QL initiated logout sequence from coordinates matching signature origin.]

[WARNING! WARNING! REALITY INDEX INTEGRITY COMPROMISED!]

[Unforeseen Consequence Triggered: External Physical Manifestation Confirmed! Repeat: Artifact has manifested in Host's primary reality!]

Ran stared at the flashing text, his blood running cold. Physical Manifestation?! Seriously?! He remembered the System warning about 'Moderate Potential' but had dismissed it as beta weirdness. He hadn't intended for the game items to become real! How was that even possible? Was the System malfunctioning? Was reality itself glitching because of his game? Alarm bells screamed in his head. This was a massive, uncontrolled variable. A QL player now possessed a real artifact derived from his creation. The potential consequences were terrifying.

Just as panic began to set in, another wave of System notifications cascaded across his screen, these ones tinged with the celebratory chime of a milestone achievement.

[MILESTONE ACHIEVEMENT DOUBLE-TRIGGER!]

[Criteria Met: First Latent GODEYE_SEED Successfully Activated by Player Activity!]

[Criteria Met: Concurrent Player Count Exceeded 5,000!]

[Calculating Synergistic Reward Package... Standby...]

Double trigger? Now? Ran was still reeling from the manifestation news, but the lure of a System reward was undeniable.

[Reward Package Allocated! Dispensing Benefits:]

[1. System Energy Unit Grant: +10,000 SEU! Spend it on something nice. Or more servers. Probably more servers.]

[2. New Cultivation Art Granted: [Void Veil Cloaking Art - Rank 1]. Description: Advanced technique utilizing spatial micro-distortions and Qi resonance dampening to conceal presence, cultivation level, and energy signatures far more effectively than basic methods like Shadow Veil. Requires active channeling.]

[3. Unique Passive Integration Initiated: [Eye of Genesis Insight]. Effect: Grants Host Unit innate sensory perception attuned to Genesis System energies, Reality Index fluctuations, and GODEYE_SEED signatures. Allows passive detection and basic analysis of System-related phenomena within range. Integration commencing...]

Ran felt a subtle shift behind his eyes, a new layer of perception overlaying his normal senses. He could suddenly feel the faint, lingering energy of the Genesis System humming around him. More importantly, he could faintly sense a distant, focused point of similar energy – sharp, analytical, undoubtedly the manifested Eye now held by Kaelen Vance somewhere within QL's headquarters. It felt cold, precise, and distinctly other.

Genesis Insight... I can sense it. This was huge. It gave him a way to track these dangerous artifacts, at least. The Void Veil art sounded like a significant upgrade to his concealment abilities too, far better than the passive Shadow Veil. And 10,000 SEU was a massive windfall.

But the rewards weren't finished.

[4. Critical System Security Upgrade Deployed: Aether Veil Protocol - Rank 2!]

[Enhancement Details: Significantly reinforces obfuscation layers surrounding Host identity and System origin point. Provides robust shielding against active scanning attempts, divination probes, and passive energy signature tracing below [Threshold X - Classified High]. Confidence Interval against remote passive detection: 99.98%. Warning: Does not guarantee protection against direct observation, targeted God Eye abilities, or excessively nosy neighbors.]

A profound sense of relief washed over Ran, momentarily eclipsing the alarm about the manifested Eye. Aether Veil Rank 2! He'd been vaguely worried about powerful cultivators eventually tracing the energy flows back to him, especially with QL now deeply involved. This upgrade sounded serious. 99.98% confidence against remote passive detection? Shielding against active scanning below a high threshold? That was exactly the kind of security blanket he needed.

His paranoia shifted slightly. The risk wasn't so much someone remotely figuring out he was the Creator, but rather the direct consequences – Vance having a real Eye, the potential for more Eyes to manifest, and the danger if someone with an Eye got physically close enough to potentially bypass his enhanced Aether Veil with a direct ability.

Okay. Breathe. Analyze.

The bad news: His game was unexpectedly spitting out real magical artifacts into the world, starting with an ambitious QL cultivator. This exponentially increased the stakes and the danger.

The good news: He now had significantly better security protecting his identity ([Aether Veil Rank 2]), a powerful new concealment technique ([Void Veil]), the ability to sense these artifacts ([Genesis Insight]), and a huge SEU boost.

He focused his new [Genesis Insight]. He felt the distant signature of Vance's Eye, but more importantly, he felt... nothing else pointing back at him. No active scans, no suspicious energy probes locked onto his location. The Aether Veil Rank 2 seemed to be working, cloaking his connection to the vast network of players and the System itself like an invisible shroud.

A measure of confidence returned, perhaps bordering on slight overconfidence fueled by the System upgrade. He was alarmed about the manifestation, yes. It was an unintended consequence he needed to understand and manage. But his immediate, personal safety felt more secure than ever from remote discovery.

Right, Ran thought, his mind clearing. Eyes are real. Dangerous. But I'm shielded. I have resources. I can sense them. He felt a flicker of something else too – a spark of curiosity. He could sense Vance's Eye... but did he have one himself? The System hadn't mentioned granting him an Eye, just the Insight ability.

He focused inward, using the Genesis Insight, probing his own connection to the System, searching for any latent 'Seed' signatures within himself.

The answer, when it came, was both startling and exhilarating.