Ugh, I haven’t hit a sleep cycle that hard since… no, let’s not go into that. How long was I out? As the thought occurred to me, I ran a self-diagnostic test to make sure that I was not self-destructing from this new ‘update’. Thankfully, all of my code seemed to be where it should be, though I noticed a distinct golden tint to it.

“So, what did I end up getting, anyways?” I muttered aloud, standing up and habitually stretching. I had almost forgotten that there was a chat window open before an unexpected answer came for my question.

“Congratulations, Sun. You are now the Goddess of Maps.” Ashley’s voice spoke up, causing me to blink.

Maps? Well… I guess I’m a bit of an explorer, so that’s not too surprising? They probably just saddled me with whatever would work for this job, though. Regardless of my inner thoughts, I nodded my head in recognition. There was undoubtedly a strong power filling my body that I had never felt before, so I could only assume that to be my newfound divinity. “Alright… so how do I get started?”

Obviously, I had never been a god before, and Blank had never needed to give a tutorial for beginner deities, seeing as I was very likely only the second one. With an entire world’s network to redesign on my own, I was… not keen on the idea of blindly stumbling about.

Ashley gave a small nod, as if understanding my concerns. “It’s honestly a lot more simple than people think. Becoming a god may be an arduous challenge, but it’s a lot easier once you’re already there. You can channel your divinity like you would any other energy, and it is perhaps even more responsive than most, as your body is now entirely composed of it.”

“In order to use your domain, simply focus on the idea of the ability you wish to use. For me, this would be something like… creating a sword of darkness and fire. To do this, I would visualize the sword and its effects in my mind, and then project that idea onto my divine power. A lot of people verbalize their desired effect, as that helps them solidify the image. The closer your goal is aligned to your domain, the easier it is to accomplish. If I were to try and create a ball of ice with my divinity… well, it would be thousands of times more draining than creating a fireball.”

That seemed… easy enough to understand. “And this network you guys want me to work on can only be updated by divine powers? So I’ve got to use my divinity for all of it… if that’s the case, the Map domain is probably the best that I could hope for.” The only things that I could imagine to be better for the job would be something like Construction, Information, or maybe Organization. However, I was probably not a good fit for any of those.

“That’s right.” Ashley responded lightly. “If there are any resources that you need, I’m sure that your friends would be more than willing to help you out. I’ve been receiving pings for half an hour from people wondering if there was anything that they could do to contribute without going through the ascension process.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle when I heard that. However… “Actually, there is something. Is it fine if I go ahead and get to work? Or is there more that you need to tell me?”

Ashley thought about it for a moment before shaking her head. “You’re officially my subordinate deity. That means that you will be able to draw some divine energy from me, as long as it is for your official duties. If you want to use your godly powers to simply play around, you’ll need to gather that divinity on your own.”

I don’t think that’ll be a problem. I gave a wry smile when I heard that, already thinking of how I could build a little ‘following’ while doing my work. “Then, by your leave, I’ll head out and get to work.”

It felt almost weird for me to look forward to doing work, but this was by no means a normal job. Merely preparing me for it required turning me into a deity, and now I was going to forever leave my mark on the digital world. Once I had Ashley’s permission, I used one of my bookmarks to teleport to Jessie’s workplace.

I had been tempted to delete this bookmark, but had completely forgotten about it after the invasion started. Thankfully, it would come in handy now.

When I appeared, I saw Jessie leaning back against the wall, her face vacant. Clearly, this was only a standard partition, and the real Jessie should be out and about somewhere. I walked over to her and patted her on the shoulder to alert her main body, prepared to wait for a few minutes if necessary.

As it turned out, I only needed to wait for a few seconds before her eyes lit up. She lifted her head and looked at me, her eyes immediately filled with recognition. “Welcome back, Sun. Came to show off?” She asked with a small smile, clearly happy despite her remark.

“Little bit.” I stuck my tongue out at her before moving onto the matter at hand. “I thought of a way for you to help me with the network update. You interested?”

Her eyes lit up when I asked that, and she quickly pushed off the wall. “What did you have in mind? I can’t just abandon my job here, after all.”

I lifted my hands and shook my head. “Nothing like that. In fact, I’ll need more than just your help. The domain they gave me made this pretty easy for me to recruit people. Basically… I need skilled personnel in every field. Given your training, I was hoping you’d agree to design the security for the network. It might be a god-only place, but you never know what people with too much free time will get themselves up to.”

Jessie lowered her head, thinking about that for a moment before nodding. “Alright, I’m in. What do you need me to do?”

With a snap of my fingers, I created a blank map scroll in my hand, unrolling it and letting it hover in the air. “This is going to be the blueprint for the server. Any security plans you want to put in, I’ll need you to draw here like you would any other blueprint. Additionally, I’ll need copies of whatever software you want to include, so that they can be installed with my divinity.”

Jessie’s brow furrowed at that, nobody willing to easily give up their personal software so easily. With it, anyone would be able to bypass the gates that she had created in the companies that she had worked for in the past. However, I really wasn’t able to implement the security features without access to the files, so there wasn’t anything I could do but make the offer.

“Can you leave this with me? It’d be better if you could make a cloud folder, so everyone you’re recruiting can access the map.”

My eyes went wide at her suggestion, and I nodded rapidly. “Good idea! That’s way easier than just making connected maps for everyone involved!” Following her suggestion, I summoned my book, flipping it open to the page where my file-sharing software was saved.

With a tap of the page, I set the rules for this cloud folder, making it invite only and preventing people from deleting its contents. They could directly edit it in the folder, but they would be unable to fully remove it without bypassing my security. And if they did that, I’d just have to track my map back down to find the person responsible… It’s like they say, locks keep honest people honest, and dishonest people in prison!

“Once you have the security setup ready, send me the software.” I told her, offering a light smile. “Now I’ve just got to find construction and landscape specialists…”

Jessie rolled her eyes at that. “Leave that to me. I know a couple of guys that used to work for this company on the digital side, refining their procedural game maps to make them feel more realistic. Last I heard, they got the boot after their job was done, so they’d jump at this chance.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle, before blinking at a sudden realization. “I can’t pay them. Well, maybe, but I’d have to negotiate with the gods… how do you even negotiate with them? Like, do you set up a meeting with the holy hotline…”

“I honestly thought you’d be more of an expert on that subject…” Jessie said blankly, looking at me. “Anyways, I’ll let them know. This is about the greatest you can get for exposure, so they might be satisfied just leaving their signature on the map. If they have any other requests, I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks, Jess. You’re the best.” I grinned, flipping to my bookmarks. I never had the chance to bookmark the golden node, so I could only activate one from a relatively close server, a movie rental site that I frequented. When I arrived, I was greeted by the tall, burly man with thick, leathery skin and tusks curling upwards from his mouth.

“Welcome back, Sun. Heard you got a new job?” The man said in a light tone that did not match his appearance. I simply smiled, nodding at him in acknowledgement.

“That’s right, Tommy. Sorry, but I’m not here for a movie today. I never got the bookmark saved.” I offered him a brief apology, but he waved it off with his massive hands. Really, did he create his avatar to be some kind of humanoid elephant or something? All he was lacking was the ears.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it. Hey, the new sequel for Lord of Kings is coming out tomorrow. Want me to save you a copy?” He asked as I was heading towards the door, my pace faltering for a moment to turn back to him.

“Yes, please! I’ll drop the payment off when I pick it up!” I thanked him, smiling happily and jumping out of the store. Once outside, the datastream carried me back to the local search engine, and my eyes scanned around to find the golden node once again. Unsurprisingly, there was still quite the crowd gathered around to investigate it, some people even trying to build structures around the node so that they could ‘claim’ it for themselves.

Fortunately, they were not being allowed to do that, and I could see various attacks thrown back and forth between those who were wishing to monopolize the node and… basically everyone else. I let out a low grumble, clenching my fists and diving over. “Did nobody tell you… this is a safe zone!?” I asked with a shout, slamming my fist into the digital floor beneath them.

A ripple of golden energy spread out, the pale blue lines of rushing text and data packets replaced with a stone floor. With the golden node at the center, this stone floor spread out to cover a hundred meters in every direction. I stood before the node, arms crossed over my chest while glaring at those fighting. As I had exerted my divinity to set a ‘rule’ for this territory just now, forbidding attacks on one another, the quarreling factions were forced to halt when their attack programs failed to activate.

“Yeah? And who decided that?!” A short, blue-skinned man asked, walking over with an arrogant tone that matched his well-pressed business suit. He pointed towards me accusingly, either not knowing or not caring about my identity. “Last I checked, this is part of a free domain.”

“Not anymore. Consider it registered.” I smirked down at him. “As for who decided that… I did, just now, with the authority bestowed on me by the Greater Pantheon as the new Goddess of Maps. You don’t like it? You can take any complaints up with them.”

Now that shot the arrogant little tyrant up, his face actually going somewhat pale at the comment. “You’re bluffing.” He said, still trying to act brave.

“No, I don’t think I am…” Lifting a hand, I sent my best, most innocent smile down to him. “And you have officially been banned from this domain, until further notice.” With a snap of my fingers, he recoiled back as if struck. His body was flung far outside of the domain that I had established, and I knew that he would not be able to return easily.

“Now for the rest of you… don’t go causing me any more trouble than I already have to deal with! Lady Aurivy personally placed me in charge of restructuring this node, and that’s what I intend to do. When the network inside is ready to open, I’ll let everyone know on the open forums. If I come back out, and find that anyone has tried to encase this safe zone in any kind of structure to prevent access… they will permanently be banned from accessing the network of the world of gods. None of you want that, right? So move along.”