Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 10 - Chapter Pr

Prologue 
Control AI Workspace 
“Ngh... There’s so much work...” A certain white cat was hard at work in a space populated by countless screens. 
It was control AI no. 13, Cheshire. 
Once in charge of spreading culture, he was now the odd-job AI, constantly dealing with various tasks piled up on him by the other AIs. 
Now, while Cheshire was working in this space, he had clones currently leading new Masters through the tutorial, and an avatar acting as a duelist. 
This ability to split himself and thus divide his processing power was what had gotten him the role of the odd-job AI. 
“I’m not at my best, either,” he grumbled. “Using my real body took away a whole lot of my processing power...” 
Recently, in the ruins near Quartierlatin, he’d unleashed his power as Infinite Multiplication, Grimalkin and crushed an army of pre-ancient weaponry. 
Doing something like that wasn’t without its costs, though. 
Unlike how it was with controlling normal clones, using the main body to its full potential left a burden on his processing power. In other words, it made him tired. 
“Nngh... But I need to clear some of this work to open up processing power for my match as Tom...” 
Tired or not, he still had work to do. 
All the administrative work was done by just thirteen AIs, so breaks were out of the question, especially when there were those who were even more tired than Cheshire. It was a vicious circle, like in a typical employee-exploiting business. 
Then again, perhaps you couldn’t expect any rest while managing Infinite Dendrogram — a world that was active 24/7 and constantly had several hundred thousand people connected to it. 
It made sense that they would have to use so much of their processing power. 

“Looking back at it, the first two thousand years here before launch were sooo easy... Even if you ignore the hell I went through because of Rockfell and Fanlong.” 
Cheshire grinned wryly as he recalled the time when he was The Lynx, Schrödinger Cat. Those were the names of the King of Kings and the Draconic Emperor of that time. 
It was now called “The Era of the Peerless Three,” but from Cheshire’s perspective, it was “The Era of the Peerless Two and an Extra.” 
Most of his memories of that time consisted of nothing but getting into trouble made by two people who were basically walking glitches. 
“Our recent incident reminds me of that time.” 
Cheshire had needed to deal with the pre-ancient civilization’s weapons back then, too. Remembering how hard it all was, he felt a bit nostalgic. 
“Oh, also...” 
He then remembered a certain newbie Master... who probably couldn’t be considered new anymore. 
Ray Starling — the man who’d taken Cheshire’s words about freedom to heart and then defeated half of Acra-Vesta, against whom Cheshire himself was hopelessly incompatible. 
Cheshire wondered what the young man was up to right now. 
“He’s probably having a hard time...” 
The young man had been caught up in all sorts of happenings ever since he’d started. 
The event in Quartierlatin had been preceded by the battle against Monochrome in Torne and the trouble with The Lunar Society. 
“I can’t get a break myself, but I really hope he doesss.” 
A rest without anything special happening. A silence after a typhoon. 
Cheshire thought it wouldn’t hurt for Ray to have that.