Episode 41 — An Otherworld OS That Surpasses National IDs.
On my monitor was an aerial photograph of "New Felsen" captured by the drone. Looking at the neatly organized city blocks, a certain "design philosophy" suddenly reared its head.
(…I can do it now. No, it has to be now. ID management of personal information.)
I stared into my empty glass and thought.
The reason the rollout of the My Number card system in Japan is moving at a snail's pace is that a massive legacy system—the "Koseki" family registry—has been deeply rooted since the Meiji era. Integrating existing databases costs many times more than rewriting a running old program, and above all, it’s a political nightmare.
(But this is a new city in another world. A brand-new "greenfield" with absolutely no baggage from the past. If I can create a perfect one-to-one mapping of "User IDs" and "Address IDs" here, I’ll have an ultimate management system that leaps right over modern Japan. All so that my future sleep won't be disturbed by administrative errors or "address unknown" troubles!)
Addresses won't be vague things like "the corner by the bakery." I’ll introduce a coordinate system where the city is divided into blocks, making locations intuitively obvious.
I was just starting to flesh out the specs for this "Isekai OS" on my own when—
*Ding-dong.*
The monitor showed Gustav and a very fired-up, smug-looking Elishua. She was clutching the digital camera I’d lent them as if it were a holy relic.
“Mr. Zect! We’ve captured the construction progress perfectly!”
“Master Zect! Look at today’s… I mean, look at the brilliance of the site!”
As soon as I let them in, Elishua shoved the camera’s rear monitor in my face. What I caught a glimpse of was a massive close-up of her holding her magic staff against a backlight.
(…Ninety percent of these are selfies. I don’t have time to check narcissistic progress reports right now.)
“Elishua, the camera can wait. I have something I want to discuss with you two. …Sit down.”
I spread a blueprint covered in numbers and grid patterns on the table.
“One unique number per person. And one coordinate number per house. By linking these, we can determine on the data level who is where and what they’re doing. I want to run the back-end of our management entirely on these ‘numbers.’ But the method of managing this is vital. Any ideas?”
Gustav knit his brows and peered at the drawing.
“…Defining people by numbers and land by coordinates? I understand the logic, but wouldn't searching for the numbers of thousands of people each time be a considerable amount of work?”
“Exactly. It’s pointless without a way to manage it…”
“…”
“…”
In the silence, Elishua, who had been thinking with her finger on her chin, timidly raised her hand.
“…Um, Lord Gustav. Those ‘Resonant Magic Plates’ we use for communication. Couldn't we use those somehow?”
“Hmm? Resonant Magic Plates? …Ah, those metal plates used for reporting? You want to use those?”
When Gustav asked, Elishua’s expression shifted from that of a narcissistic girl to a "developer."
“Yes! I gave one to you because it was convenient, Lord Gustav… but actually, that was a formula I developed back in my academy days. It allows stone plates with the same wavelength to ‘completely synchronize’ text and mana information. Regardless of the distance, if one is updated, the other updates instantly. If we apply this…”
“…Wait. It updates? ‘Synchronizes’?”
I leaned forward from the sofa.
(Wait… that’s a high-performance decentralized database that syncs data without going through a communication line or a server.)
“Elishua, can those plates be turned into personal ID cards?”
“We can do it! We give every individual a small ‘Magic Management Plate.’ We engrave their User ID and address onto it with mana. Then, the government office keeps an exact ‘Duplicate Plate’ with the same mana wavelength!”
“I see… So, what if the person moves and updates their address?”
“Yes! When the individual updates their own plate, the office’s duplicate plate will resonate and update automatically! There’s no need for officials to transcribe ledgers, or even for the person to show up at the office!”
“…Are you serious? That’s a real-time syncing device with biometric authentication. Elishua, that’s an insane piece of tech.”
I was genuinely shaken. The infrastructure that modern Japan is fumbling over—spending hundreds of billions on "cloud" and "security"—she had completed as a student hobby?
(Magic is incredible. And Elishua… she’s not just a narcissistic girl who wants to be in every shot. She’s actually high-spec as hell…!)
“Alright, let's make those ‘Resonant Magic Plates’ the core of Felsen’s Social OS. Elishua, you’re brilliant. …Wait a sec.”
I took the camera and connected it to the photo printer in my study. From the massive pile of "selfies," I picked one where, by some miracle, the grandeur of the site and her "cool" face were in perfect harmony, and I printed it out at the highest quality.
“Here, a present.”
“…!! Wh-what is this?! I look… so beautiful…! My beauty has frozen time itself…!!”
Elishua hugged the photo to her chest and started doing a little dance.
(…Magic is truly something. To think she’d solve a problem of modern society through the resonance of metal plates. This is essentially otherworld blockchain technology.)
I sank into the sofa and took a satisfied sip of cola.
The system named Felsen was now starting its "perfect boot-up"—fueled by stone, magic, and my sloth—leaving even modern Earth behind.
Tama, curled up on my lap, let out a satisfied purr.
NEXT→