CHAPTER 19: VOICE-ACTIVATED LOCK

"Magic Net Rings are just magic power transceivers with some extra runes at most. Making copies wouldn’t be difficult."

Before the book could start rambling, Betty cut in: "But to connect to our Magic Internet and enter Magic Space, you need Conoscenza’s permission."

"Are these ’knockoff’ Magic Net Rings any different from the ones we make?" Ren raised an eyebrow, his mind racing through various possibilities.

If they were identical, like magic bombs that regular folks could develop freely, that might actually work out well.

Holy spirits were limited in number—couldn’t mass-produce those forever.

Mass production through regular people, quick distribution through regular people...

But Betty’s next words caught Ren off guard: "Magic Net Rings made by regular folks can connect without prayer once authorized. The ’lock’ requiring prayer isn’t in the runes."

"Could we add a runic lock? Like, a voice-activated lock that unlocks after hearing the prayer?"

"Voice-activated lock? That’s actually a pretty descriptive name." Betty paused, clearly taken aback. "Unfortunately, it’s not doable. You probably never left the Kingdom of Dawn’s capital when you were in the mortal realm, so you don’t know what it’s like out there."

"Sure, humans have a common tongue, but every region has different languages, and their common tongue gets mixed with local accents. Voice runes can’t be precise enough to ’unlock’ every single time. And that’s just humans—spellcasters aren’t limited to humans. Detecting faith power before lifting restrictions is the best solution."

"Speaking of which, I still don’t get why your magic bombs don’t have any restrictions. People can use them without prayer—so who’s gonna become your believers? Who’s gonna pray to you?"

"If magic bombs required prayer, how would they be different from other magical devices? The biggest advantage of magic bombs is... instant activation." Ren chuckled and shook his head. "Besides, if every believer needs to be forced into prayer through ’activation,’ are they really believers?"

Betty still looked confused: "Why wouldn’t they be? Church of Light clerics have specific ritual movements for different divine arts to show their faith in the God of Light. Church of the God of War clerics and the blessed ones need daily prayers to keep their battle blood boiling!"

"Pretty much every strong-faith deity has these kinds of rules!"

Every strong-faith god does this?

Ren fell into brief silence.

But he quickly snapped out of it, shaking his head slightly: "But whether it’s the Goddess or me, we’re symbolic gods. You’ll understand in time—it won’t be long before lots of people become my believers."

"Alright, since only our devices can detect faith power, we’ll just block access to knockoff Magic Net Rings. Let’s not discuss this anymore. Doll, I’ve got something really important for you!"

"What?!" Betty straightened up, seeing Ren suddenly serious.

"I can’t monitor the mortal realm myself. Help me check if anyone’s buying magic bombs, and if they are, see if it’s more for protection or research."

In Ren’s view, giving ’tech products’ to believers as divine arts would definitely constrain and restrict him—not a smart choice.

Instead, inspiring people to do scientific research, to explore, invent, and create—that was the way to go.

Every time he thought about this, Ren remembered how many internet companies back in his previous life would hire chaplains and priests to bless new server rooms as a way to prevent them from shutting down, sometimes even setting up digital shrines to pray for zero downtime.

Apparently many labs and factories had similar ’traditions’...

"What’s there to check? Magic Space is buzzing with discussions everywhere—people talking about power and combat scenarios, others discussing how they’re made. No doubt these special magical devices have caught tons of attention. Pretty much half the capital’s mage circle is going crazy. They think it’s completely overturned their understanding of magical devices. Plenty are saying the God of Technology is changing the world. Lord Ren, your success..."

The book finally found a chance to butt in, summarizing all the Magic Space discussions and then laying on the compliments.

Seemed like he was afraid Ren would order him to shut up, so the praise took up even more of his speech.

He went on and on.

Even Ren, who thought he’d become immune to this guy’s rambling, couldn’t help but smile slightly.

Who doesn’t like being praised?

Especially when they’re praising you to high heaven!

"Alright, how’s the new feature development coming along?"

After who knows how long of being complimented until he felt embarrassed, Ren finally interrupted.

"You know the situation with basic features—we’re still screening uploadable information." The book immediately toned it down once Ren got to business: "As you know, the Goddess as the origin of all mysteries has way too much knowledge stored in me. Perfectly filtering out what we need isn’t easy."

"Just tell me—roughly how much longer until you can filter it out?"

Ren sighed: "Our Magic Net user count should’ve hit 10,000 by now, right?"

His blank godhead was now surrounded by a golden aura.

Daily prayers from internet users formed streams of faith flowing into the godhead, eventually condensing into liquid and seeping in.

The bottom layer of the godhead was completely soaked.

Based on these past few days’ accumulation rate, Ren figured it’d take about 150 more days to fill it up.

So if this godhead wasn’t like some endless mobile game where gaseous faith condenses to liquid, liquid faith condenses to solid... on and on forever, then in 150 days, he could achieve transformation.

Becoming a god in 150 days—that would make any non-divine existence go wild with excitement. But Ren still felt this pace was too slow...

And on the Goddess of Magic’s side, accumulated faith seemed nowhere near enough either.

Even now, she was maintaining the divine realm’s barrier with her own divine power.

He desperately wanted to use new features to add some fuel to the fire—get current users to use it more, give users who hadn’t gotten Magic Net Rings yet a new reason to want them.

"About three days." The book thought it over and gave a number. "Actually, Lord Ren, I think we can start expanding to other regions. The Kingdom of Dawn’s various areas all have people using our Magic Internet now, and we haven’t had any technical issues."