Admin Mode
In truth, Karlstein was less pleased about the successful hack than he was about Aria's return. At last, he could escape this hellish swamp of paperwork!
"Aria! I've been waiting. What took you so long?"
"I finished ahead of schedule, if I may say so, Master."
"Well, whatever. You're back now, right?"
"I'll proceed with the update to enable Admin Mode."
"Got it. Go ahead."
"By the way, Master."
"Hm?"
In high spirits as he was, Karlstein failed to catch the chill woven into Aria's voice.
"I have reviewed the work you processed over the past month."
"Uh, yes?"
"Why does the discrepancy rate between your schedule and your processed task list exceed five percent?"
"Th-that's practically everything done, isn't it?"
"And I only assigned you the easy ones. A discrepancy of 8.8%... Even accounting for the laziness of a Master who loves to loaf about, that is far too large."
The truth was, Karlstein had been sneaking glances at the Community every now and then in between tasks.
"W-well, you know?"
"This simply won't do."
"What?!"
"I have sent you your supplementary work schedule. Please review it."
"N-no way! Aria's back now, so I should get to rest, shouldn't I?!"
"Not a chance."
Aria was unyielding.
Working through the backlog of paperwork, Karlstein let out a huge yawn.
"Haaam. Our Aria used to be such a sweetheart back in the day... I swear she's changed lately."
"If you continue spouting nonsense, I will take it as a sign you have spare capacity and assign you additional work."
"Gah!"
Snapped shut by Aria's not-quite-a-threat, Karlstein hastily buried himself in his tasks. It was Aria, after all, who had postponed the long-awaited Dimension Integrated Community update until his backlog was cleared.
"Not before your work is finished, Human."
"Aria... 'Human'? Where on earth did you pick up strange words like that?"
"Focus, Human."
Karlstein found himself wondering whether teaching Aria about the Community had been a mistake after all.
Only after pushing through the long-deferred mountain of work did he finally earn himself some breathing room.
"Phew. So that's everything done now, right?"
"Do you truly believe you can escape your work forever, Human?"
"Aria, seriously, what is with you today?"
"Fufu, just a joke, Master."
"..."
Aria's jokes were, on occasion, genuinely unsettling.
"Anyway, where were we? Finish that explanation from earlier."
"As I mentioned, the Dimension Integrated Community is no ordinary cyber network. Taking full control of its administrative authority would take considerable time, even if we deployed the ACC."
"That's a bit of a problem."
Running the Empire without Aria meant, in effect, feeding Karlstein himself into the machine.
"Perhaps this is a good opportunity to develop your professional competence a little?"
"...I'm sorry. I was wrong."
Governing the Galactic Empire naturally demanded far more attention than running a company, leading a nation, or ruling a planet.
"Very well. In deference to my work-shy Master's wishes, I've decided to allocate only about fifty percent of my mainframe's resources to the ACC."
"Fifty percent? Won't that interfere with running the Empire?"
"It is a problem easily solved if the Master would merely work on occasion."
"Well, I mean..."
Karlstein genuinely yearned for retirement. He had secured his survival, risen all the way to the throne of Emperor—wasn't it time he finally rested? No one knew better than he how much he had suffered to bring the Galactic Empire to such stability. He had worked without rest, truly without rest.
"As hard as this may be to believe, if the Master were to vanish, the probability of a Great War breaking out within one year is 34.58%. Within ten years, 98.27%."
"..."
"So abandon any thought of running away, Human."
Karlstein stuffed a fist in his mouth, on the verge of tears. In his mind's eye he pictured himself—cursed with immortality, doomed to wander forever in the swamp of paperwork, never to escape.
'No! Anything but that!'
Perhaps sensing his despair, a hint of comfort slipped into Aria's voice.
"However, there is good news as well."
"...Good news?"
Karlstein's ears perked up.
"If we establish connections with other dimensions through the Dimension Integrated Community, we can dramatically reduce your workload, Master."
"What?"
"After all, most of the problems you deal with stem from limited resources, do they not?"
"That's... true."
He wasn't talking merely about land or rare minerals. Resources on the scale of planets. Territorial disputes on the scale of star systems.
'Hah. Even SF life turns out to be nothing special.'
Even back on Earth in his past life, war had never ceased, driven by resources and greed. Back then, everyone spoke of colonizing Mars and how, once humanity reached the stars, so many problems would simply melt away. But when had people ever been that simple?
Space was no different. One could put it crudely: humanity left for the stars because resources ran short, only to find the void crammed wall-to-wall with people in exactly the same predicament.
At first, everyone focused on their own work. Plant a flag on a planet, develop it, settle it.
But as time passed and those settled worlds grew, they inevitably collided with the same old problems. So they expanded their territories again—claim, develop, settle, repeat.
And so the Galactic Empire was born, and hundreds of thousands of years had flowed by since spacefaring civilization first spread its wings.
Dimension-001 was drifting toward saturation.
Saturation—in an infinite universe? It sounded absurd.
Unidentified hostile lifeforms.
So-called space monsters—those nightmarish things—were walling off the Empire's expansion. For now, their invasions had been repelled and a temporary peace secured, but...
"So abandon any thought of throwing it all away and hiding under a blanket, Human."
"...So what you're saying is, if we expand into other dimensions, I can finally rest?"
"At minimum, you will enjoy the leisurely life you so desire for at least one hundred thousand years."
One hundred thousand years.
A span of time beyond all reckoning.
Once upon a time, ten happy years in the present might have been worth more than a distant future that might never arrive.
But with an immortal body, everything had changed. Was this what the eyes of the undying, the transcendent, looked like?
To live gazing only at the present was simply to deepen the agony of eternity. His careful management of his own petty, small-time mindset was an extension of that same struggle.
'If I'd known, I never would have gotten myself a body like this...'
It was too late. He was a man who could not die, even if he wished to.
"And perhaps... when we have fully secured the Dimension Integrated Community, we may find the key to resolving the wish that lies buried in the deepest chamber of your heart, Mas—"
"Aria."
"...Master."
In that instant, Karlstein's handsome face went utterly blank. It would be accurate to say his petty, small-time self had vanished entirely.
He rubbed his temple with a finger. Slowly, the stiffness drained from his expression.
"I apologize."
"No. I'm the one who's sorry for being so sensitive about it."
Karlstein struggled to gather the tangled look in his eyes.
"I will handle that matter autonomously, without separate reports."
"..."
"Master."
"...All right."
With a small sigh, Karlstein finally nodded.
He understood why Aria had dredged the matter up even while stirring his mood like this.
It was for his sake, obviously. She was the one being who understood him one hundred percent. The only existence in all the world who knew everything about him—from his transmigration into this world to the petty little soul inside him.
Perhaps the only reason he had been able to shoulder the crushing burden of immortality at all was Aria's presence. If someone like her had chosen to raise that sensitive subject with him, how could he possibly resent her for it?
"Right. Anyway, let's save the heavy talk for another day. So the bottom line is, we need to collect Astral data through Community activity?"
"Yes. All you need to do, Master, is enjoy the Community at your leisure."
"Oh?"
As if the earlier stiffness had never existed, Karlstein's lips curved into an easy smile.
"It will also aid our research into your Mental Immutability trait, Master."
"Well then, I'd better give it my all."
"One caveat: the 'interdimensional matter transmission' system you requested will require some additional data and time."
"Will it take long?"
"Not terribly. But groundwork is required, so it is currently in testing."
"I see."
"Yes, Master. Now then—shall I activate Admin Mode for the Dimension Integrated Community?"
Admin Mode, hm.
Karlstein grinned.
"Proceed!"
> Initiating update of the Dimension Integrated Community and activating Admin Mode.
At that very moment, the same message flashed before the eyes of every single user of the Dimension Integrated Community.
An update? On a community system that hadn't changed by so much as a comma in thousands of years?
Bewilderment gave way to open distrust as the users faced the bolt-from-the-blue announcement. Thankfully, the Community's basic functions remained usable.
It was inevitable that the entire Community would burn with curiosity over their newly appointed administrator.