"Hey there", I greeted the rabbitwoman who was trying hard to push a cart.
"Oh... Hello, peko", she greeted back.
"I got a question, where's the nearest village?"
"Oh... Just follow this road and you'll arrive at Stonebell. It's my destination as well, peko."
She was visibly struggling with the cart. It would bother my conscience if I left her alone.
"If you want, I can push the cart for you", I offered.
"Really? But it's too heavy for you, peko. Even a beastwoman like me has a hard time pushing it. Maybe I should leave some carrots behind, peko."
"Don't worry. I got tricks on my sleeve", I said as I took her spot.
A violet screen appeared and I placed the command [Edit_mode_this].
Edit mode is a special ability that Coders have. They could "edit" any object they wanted. For example, I could "edit" a piece of paper to be harder than any rock or even turn into a solid gold. However, carelessly editing things would lead to Dump Files or worse, Bugs.
A screen appeared containing all the codes of the cart. I looked through it and found what I was looking for. I changed the codes to make it easier to push like decreasing the friction of the wheels and slightly altering how gravity would affect it. It shouldn't lead to problems.
"What magic is that?" the rabbitwoman asked.
"Hmmm... It's hard to explain but it's sort of similar to Reality Magic... If such a thing exists in this Server", I answered as I pushed the cart.
"Reality Magic? What's that, peko?"
"Basically magic that would let me alter the physical laws of the world. For example, it should be impossible to move this cart thanks to the weight of the carrots. However, I used my "Reality Magic" to make the "impossible" into "possible" by lessening the cart's weight without actually removing anything."
"Lessening a weight without removing anything? Is that even possible, peko?"
"With my sort-of magic, then yeah... Isn't magic supposed to be able to do something that's normally impossible?"
"You got a point, peko."
We continued walking as I pushed the cart. Thanks to the changes in the cart's codes, I had no problem pushing despite it having large carrots. It was great that I could mask my abilities as "Reality Magic" even if I didn't know if there was actually a magic that could alter reality itself.
"You're not from around here, are you? I'm Pekora. What's your name?" she asked.
"My name is Jun Inazuma. I guess you could say I'm from the east", I answered. It wasn't technically a lie. I was seriously from the east...of another world.
"I see... And why did you travel to this place, peko?"
"I have a mission to find some of my people who got lost."
"Lost, peko?"
"Yeah... There's a slight accident which misplaced some people from my place and now it's my task to find and bring them back."
"Accident that misplaced people? Was there something wrong with teleportation magic or something, peko?"
"That sums it up pretty nicely."
But in this case, the "teleportation magic accident" caused people to be sent to another world. This was totally out of my jurisdiction as a Moderator but the Admin had no choice but to send me. I didn't learn how to deal with these kinds of situations when I was in the Academy.
I may not look like it but I was a bit above average among Coders. My grades were decent in the Academy and I was in the advanced course. The advanced course consisted of more complicated lessons and stuff. A benefit of the advanced course was that it would take significantly less time to "graduate" compared to the regular course. However, there were no lessons on how to act in this situation even in the advanced course.
After all, it was the first time that two Administrators would attempt to connect their Servers. There were going to be some unexpected circumstances that happened for the first time. But why would Mithra make the mistake of sending people to another Server?
We arrived at a village and I placed the cart near a house.
"Thank you for the help, peko!" Pekora thanked me.
"No problem", I entered edit mode again and returned the cart's code to normal.
"Those violet rectangles look pretty, peko. Is that some sort of magic circle?" she asked.
"Sort of. But it's probably better to call them magic squares. They help me out with my Reality Magic."
"I know just how to thank you, peko", she handed me a gold coin. It had a rabbit's head as a symbol on one side and a carrot on the other.
"Is this the currency of this place?"
"No. It's a crest. If you are in trouble, you could use that, peko."
A crest? Was Pekora a noble or someone with authority? But why would a noble push a cart of large carrots?
I didn't bother asking about it as I placed the coin in my bag. The bag was a gift from Mithra. While it looked like a normal brown leather sling bag, it could store as many items as I needed no matter how heavy or big it was. Mithra personally did the codes of the bag and it wouldn't cause any sorts of Bugs or Dump Files even though it conflicted with a lot of codes. I would often analyze its codes when I had the time and in my 17 years as a Moderator, I could only understand 75% of its codes.
There was an inn and I spent money to rent a room for the night. Pekora and I traveled for the whole day that the sun was already setting. I wasn't exactly an athletic guy so it should be impossible for me to have traveled that far especially while pushing a cart. Mithra said my body would undergo modifications to survive in this world so I guess I became fit enough.
I entered my room and started accessing the Server's System. The Administrator for this Server was a person named Sera. This Server must be new since according to Mithra, there was no Moderator, I should contact the Administrator and introduce myself.
A violet screen appeared with the words [Connecting to Administrator]. It then changed into a video of a man in a suit. He had black hair and red eyes.
"You must be Moderator 1412", he said.
"Yes. I am Jun Inazuma, a Moderator with the ID 1412-5563-4689. I was sent by Mithra to retrieve the transported individuals", I replied.
"I see. I already gave you Moderator permissions in my Server and you already have enough money to survive for a year. What else do you need? Or are you telling me that you are just introducing yourself?"
"My introduction was merely a formality. I am requesting a Server Scan to find the transported individuals. Also, I need to know the key for the System Records of this Server."
"I will give you permission to access the System Records. As for the Server Scan, I can't help you."
"Why is that?"
"My Server doesn't have the codes to do an advanced Server Scan like Mithra's. The best I can give is a General Scan."
Ah... I got spoiled by Mithra's Server. According to the Academy, the code for a Server Scan was complicated. I should've known that Sera's Server was not that good.
"Okay then. I would like to request for a General Scan", I said.
A General Scan was different from a Server Scan. A Server Scan consisted of scanning the entire Server while a General Scan was for scanning only certain parts. The information one could get from the scans were different too. A Server Scan would give all the information one needs but a General Scan would only give a smaller amount of information. It would definitely take some time before I could find the lost people if Sera would do a General Scan.
Oh? You're thinking that I should use the System Records to find them? That would be valid. For example, I could search Pekora's name in the System Records and then I could get information about her like her current location and stuff, right? Well, here's where things get a bit complicated. The System Records had information about all the knowledge in the Server. Keywords: "in the Server."
In other words, things that were not from this Server would not be in the System Records. Eru was one of the people who got sent to this world. If I look up his name in the System Records, I wouldn't find any information about him since he was from Mithra's Server.
So why not go to Mithra's System Records and find him? Well, the System Record could only record what happened in that Server. Eru was no longer in Mithra's Server so Mithra's System Records wouldn't have any information about him. If I were to go back and look up Eru in Mithra's System Records, the latest information about him was the second before he got transported. The moment he left the Server, the System Records would stop recording information about him.
That was why I had no choice but to rely on scans. If I have their IDs, I could request Sera to do a General Scan of the Server and hopefully, find them. Curious how the General Scan works? Alright, I'll let you in on how it worked.
Unlike the Server Scan which scanned the whole Server, a General Scan could only scan a part. Depending on the codes the Server had, it could be as large as 50% of the entire Server to little 5% chunks.
Now then, how could Sera find the missing people using a General Scan? Everything has an ID. Even a blade of grass has a different ID from another. Once the Administrator knows the ID, he could perform a General Scan for an area to see if that ID could be found there.
For example, you could use my ID which was MOD 1412-5563-4689 and then do a General Scan between two Areas: A and B. You found my ID in Area B after doing a General Scan. Area B was a huge area which could be divided into areas B-1, B-2, B-3, B-4, and B-5. You then run a General Scan on all areas until you find my ID in one of them. If you found my ID in B-3, it could be further divided into B-31, B-32, B-33, and B-34. You would repeat the scanning process over and over again until you could narrow down an area where the ID could be found. That was how General Scans worked. They were a huge pain but it was the best we could do. This Server couldn't do a Server Scan after all.
"Okay. I'll do a General Scan to find the lost people. Do you have their IDs?" Sera asked.
"Mithra is doing a Server Scan to find the missing people. It should be done in a while", I answered.
As if on cue, I received a message from Mithra with the title [Confirmed missing people and their IDs]. I forwarded that message to Sera.
"I got your message. I'll do a scan for them now", he said.
I opened the message and took a look. There were 9 people who got sent to Sera's Server. It would take a while to save them. For starters, I could try to find Eru since we were close and all.
[List of transported people:
Hey there Moderator Jun. I made a list of the people who were confirmed to be missing from my Server. Click on their names and you'll see information about them from my System Records. Good luck!
Eru Reika
Korone Inugami
Suisei Hoshimachi
Izuru Kanade
Miyabi Hanasaki
Shien Kageyama
Sora Tokino
Subaru Oozora
Haato Akai]
Wait a damn minute! SUISEI WAS SENT TO THIS SERVER?!
Sorry Eru, I have to save her first. You probably wouldn't die soon since you're an agent. Yep. I was prioritizing Suisei since she was a harmless civilian while you were an agent. Nothing biased there.
"Administrator Sera!" I called out.
Thankfully, he hasn't disconnected from me yet.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Please prioritize scanning for Suisei Hoshimachi, the third person on the list!"
"Why? Is she some sort of-"
"Just do your damn job and scan!"
"Yes sir!"
I pray to whatever gods out there that Suisei is safe... And also the others, of course. It wasn't that I was biased or anything. Definitely not.