Capítulo 35: Main Server.

"Anyway!" The doctor quickly went back to the main topic, eager to hide her blunder. "If it's an SSS rank quest then we shouldn't be too surprised that you got that much AP"

Lara fixed her with a curious gaze.

"Is… is AP the standard measurement unit you use for Aether?"

"Correct."

"Then… is a hundred thousand a significant amount?"

"I would call it absurd," Rebbeca replied. "That much could take you all the way to level 19! The amount of hunting you can skip is insane!"

Lowering her gaze in thought, Lara then turned her ruby eyes to Mark.

"If that is the case, how was Master able to gather that amount? I don't believe the Fallen we have slain could yield us anything out of the ordinary..."

'Right…'

If he understood it right, AP was different from EXP, which was just a way to measure progress and skill growth. Aether is an element that exists in reality, meaning it would be subjected to the laws of conservation of mass and energy. Something can't come from nothing, which leads to the conclusion that there has to be a source from which the Aether rewarded during the quest comes.

"Isn't that obvious?" Rebecca turned to look at them with a raised eyebrow. "It comes from the Main Server."

Mark stared back at the black woman, completely dumbfounded. It wasn't that he didn't understand the answer; he found it perfectly logical, in fact. Still, the idea of a server existing never crossed his mind. And the more he thought about it the more strange it seemed.

"Are you telling me I'm literally online right now?"

"Pretty much."

Rebecca's nonchalant reply only served to put Mark more on edge.

"What's with the pale face?" She frowned for some reason. "The Head General did explain to you what the LRGS does, right?"

Mark paused for a moment, holding his chin in thought before answering.

"It's a psychic program that helps people Awaken…"

"Exactly. When you Awaken, your soul becomes immune to Madness and can't be corrupted. And as you level up, your mind grows stronger as well, making you resistant to mental manipulation and attacks."

"I... I see…"

From what he learned during his conversation with Natalie, the LRGS is said to be a locally installed program that makes use of the resources already available to the individual after they Awaken. It isn't the program itself that grants the user abilities and helps them get stronger; all it does is accelerate the process of learning to use what's already there by providing the necessary guidance. That means it can't directly affect the people who have it or blow their heads off without a warning.

'No, it's not that simple…'

"This… Main Server, it gives out AP and items as a reward for quests, right?" Mark asked, his mind wandering back to the reward from the quest. "Since it can deliver physical items, I can't see how that isn't a huge security risk…"

"Well, it's the best that we have," Rebecca replied. "So far what you fear hasn't happened, but considering the alternative, we have no choice but to make use of it."

Mark had learned about the Awakened and Fallen during his earlier conversation with Natalie. The LRGS was a true miracle that could save entire worlds from certain doom. Without it, Madness would run rampant and countless innocent lives would be lost, and because of that, they couldn't just dismiss it based on the chance that it might be used for a malicious purpose.

Just then, Mark was hit with a sudden realization.

"Wait, was Lara sent from the main server as well?"

Rebecca paused her game and turned to look at him, her confusion apparent.

"Seriously, did the Head General really explain anything to you?"

"Well, it's a lot to take in, so…"

When no one said anything for a while, Rebecca heaved a sigh and shook her head in defeat.

"You know about Force Runes at the very least, right?"

Mark grimaced then said with a wry smile.

"I do, but… I wouldn't mind if you explained it again…"

It hadn't been half a day since he heard about them, but he was still having trouble understanding. The doctor let out another exasperated sigh then turned to Lara.

"Do you mind showing him?"

Lara caught on to what she meant and focused her mind. A moment later specs of light flickered into existence above her head and strange symbols began to form.

"These are Force Runes." She pointed at them with her right hand, but since they were right above her head she couldn't see any of them herself. "When put together they become a Halo."

"That's right." Rebecca nodded. "To put it simply, they work exactly like magic letters and circles. There is more to it, of course, but you could say that's the basic concept."

"So it is magic?" Mark frowned a little. The first time he saw something similar was on the monsters that tried to kill them so he didn't have such a good impression of them.

"There are worlds where that's how they call it." Rebecca shrugged. "Anyway, there are way too many Force Runes and by combining some of them you can create certain effects. Like the young miss over here."

"Ah, Natalie said something like that." Mark's eyebrows shot up. "She said the System is just an interface, and that its functions are actually just Runes working in the background." He paused for a moment. "Right, I got a notification telling me the Save and Load functions have been removed because I can't use a certain Rune. Do you know anything about that?"

Rebecca turned to him with a smirk.

"What? Did you think you would get yet another broken power on top of what you already have?"

"Why not? It's a main function of my game, after all." Mark replied.

As if she had just been reminded, the doctor opened the in-game menu and saved her progress. She even created multiple save files.

"Well, to put it simply, some powers have too high of a price." She said. "If even a Level 5 like you couldn't get that kind of power then it's probably something that no one can use."

Mark wasn't entirely convinced. Even if he believed himself to be the protagonist of a mediocre power fantasy webnovel, he still had the common sense to know that there would always be someone above him. He didn't think for a moment that his psychic potential was the highest it could be, and with that said, it would only be logical for someone more talented than him to have much more broken powers.

"All abilities besides the basic Force Field are just a combination of Force Runes." The doctor went on with her explanation. "Kinda like a computer program."

"Right…"

Though it sounded quite absurd, Mark didn't have trouble understanding the logic behind it. During his earlier conversation with Natalie, he was able to get an idea of how he was able to bring a character from his game to reality.

"The System made me use several Force Runes to create a vessel," He glanced at his maid as he spoke. "Then used several others to summon some otherworldly being and place it inside that vessel."

"Correct." Rebecca gestured for him to continue. "And where did the materials used in the process come from?"

Mark paused for a moment, held his chin then mumbled.

"Other dimensions…"

Magic or not, it was impossible to create something out of nothing. The Runes used in Lara's summon extracted energy, materials, and knowledge from the appropriate dimensions and turned them into a vessel that would host the mysterious being who would become Lara Becker, who was in turn brought from another dimension where beings of similar nature reside.

The process reminded Mark of something that happened a few times in a certain slime isekai so he didn't have trouble understanding the general concept, but he still found the details hard to grasp.

"Right…" Feeling a slight throbbing in his head, Mark heaved a tired sigh. "I hope the author doesn't make this power system unnecessarily complicated. My brain is heating up just thinking about it."

"Ha! You don't know how easy we have it." Rebecca scuffed. "From what I heard, before the LRGS the Awakened had to spend months and even years meditating on the Knowledge they received from the Whispers. We are lucky the whole process is handled by the program."

As someone who had to learn programming so he could create his games, Mark understood all too well the kind of convenience promised by the LRGS. That said, he couldn't help but feel like he would be trading a lot for that convenience.

'Someone who learned HTML would be able to do a lot more than someone working with one of those simplified website builders.'

As that thought ran through his mind, Mark noticed that Lara was staring at him. He couldn't tell much from her neutral expression, but he got this strange feeling that she was upset about something. Before he could ask, Rebecca spoke again and drew their attention back to her.

"Seriously though, a Level 5 LRGS sure is broken. Not only can you summon Awakened beings with their own set of powers, you also have access to an item shop and a crafting workshop. Talk about a cheat."