Aoutentl, a player who had barely scraped out a narrow victory in only the fourth World Collision, let out a deep sigh.
He was a player who had joined this game not from Earth, but from somewhere else, through the form of a game called [The Fantasy World Creator].
He had never imagined that being good at games would actually give him an opportunity to become a god. Even so, as a skilled gamer and a fairly intelligent player, he intended to survive in this game until at least the fifth exit interval.
“Of all people, I had to run into a lunatic. Damn it.”
He had gotten through the first and second collisions by negotiation and cooperation. Those players could also be reasoned with, so each side had built up some military power while growing larger as an alliance of four species.
The problem was the third. They were an alliance of two players with fairly high military power, and their form was a military species enslaving defeated species. They had probably won in battle and received a “Surrender.”
The player count was 4:2. Aoutentl’s world had the higher total score. The problem was that they were badly behind in military power.
Fortunately, Aoutentl’s world had a few [heroic individuals], so they managed to hold out. If not for those heroes, how would they have endured? It was lucky that early in the game, the operators had distributed the right to create <Unique Creations> to everyone for some reason.
By the fourth collision, every one of them had succeeded in promoting theirs to heroes, so they had as many as four hero individuals.
Then, by accepting the enemy’s surrender—or perhaps taking them in through a humiliating alliance—and using them as their military branch, the alliance of six collided with a world where one strong player and two weak ones held the initiative by roughly keeping each other in check, and they fought a brutal, bloody war.
It was only because the military specialists they had used as allies did their part, and because the hero individuals fought well…
Thanks to that, one even rose into an epic individual. To have an epic individual appear at this stage was enough to make him want to cry.
However, both worlds had been devastated. It was a territory of about 160 square kilometers. A good land where forests, valleys, mountains, and grasslands were properly balanced, but fires had been set, beasts had run rampant, cities were destroyed, and fields had been ruined. Their <Life> score was only level 3, around 600…
Dangerous. Population was an absolute indicator, after all. Their total score had fallen to around 13,000 because of the war, so they really needed to raise it quickly.
I need to increase the population quickly. But how high are other people’s <Life> scores around now?
Usually, <Life> score was considered population score. “Livestock,” “war beasts,” “forests,” “fields,” and so on also added <Life> score, but in most cases, the population of the main species determined the Life Score.
Usually, people keep <Life> score high in proportion to the number of collisions. This is the fourth collision, so even at the minimum, probably somewhere between 926 and 1,944. In other words, the minimum should be around 1,400 points. Someone high might be around level 5 or 6, so above 2,000, or maybe a little over 4,000…
Unfortunately, among their six gods, there was no expert in population growth. In fact, he was not even sure how to increase food production further.
Since this is the shop interval, people will probably split into a class trying to buy Points and a class trying to sell Points. And if you ask which is better between good Traits and score… Obviously, in the short term, it’s score. Good Traits are stronger when strong people have them. If you’re in a weak state, it’s better to buy even common Traits and raise your score massively instead.
He looked through the Community. Perhaps the greatest expert in <Life> was selling that ability.
So the moment he asked his Angel to search—
「Title: ★Rank 1 Life Score★ A full 29,131 points >< Full-scale ecosystem consulting service from the strongest life cultivation player ♥♥♥ Please request lots of consultations!!!@@@」
—that ridiculous post had risen to the top of the Community’s popular posts.
Huh…?
For a moment, his brain stopped.
He entered the post first and checked it.
A <Life> score of 29,131. The LV.8 verification was blatantly stamped there. And judging by an update added afterward, the score had now exceeded 30,000.
U-uhhh…? A Life Score of thirty thousand? Our world’s total score is thirteen thousand, but one <Life> score alone is thirty thousand?
The first thing he felt was pure fear.
I-insane. Isn’t <Life> the most fundamental indicator in a world? You need a large population to do anything. But if <Life> is thirty thousand, then how high are the other scores? Even if I estimate it really coldly and say one-tenth. Even if I say three thousand each, doesn’t that mean the total score is over fifty thousand right now? At this stage?
And realistically, there was no way someone with thirty thousand Life had all other scores at three thousand. So an extremely reasonable conclusion emerged. That person’s other stats had to average at least ten thousand each. Meaning the total score could be estimated at around a hundred thousand.
In truth, the player “Nonhuman” had thirty thousand in Life alone, while all the rest were either rock-bottom or merely reasonably high, so the total score was only barely sixty thousand.
But whether it was sixty thousand or one hundred thousand, since Aoutentl’s own world score was thirteen thousand, the emotional impact would probably not have been much different.
Of course, certifications of <Military> 15,000 or 20,000 were also circulating around the Community… But military power came from grinding the people down extremely harshly, and defense was more advantageous than offense, so that was not especially meaningful.
But if <Life> was thirty thousand, the story changed completely. What kind of madman was this?
“W-wait, Angel. Is that person really rank 1 in <Life> score right now?”
Angels could only answer publicly available information, and they could not answer information that was too specific.
“Yes. That player ‘Nonhuman’ is rank 1 in Life Score among all players. For reference, second place is… 11,356.”
“They’re three times ahead of second place?!”
“Yes.”
“Is that person rank 1 overall?”
“I cannot answer that.”
“Then what score does the current rank 1 have?”
“Mm… The current rank 1 has 90,108 points. For reference, ranks 1 through 100 are roughly clustered around the eighty-to-ninety-thousand range.”
Then that “Nonhuman” was probably someone within the top 100. A lunatic existed. Of course, Aoutentl had not thought he was in the upper ranks himself, but there really was an all-time lunatic out there.
When he hurried inside, the first comment was already the best comment, and its content was short too.
「Comment 1: Is this crazy bastard serious?」
It simply blew away all sense of reality, but it was an expression he wanted to agree with. The comments below were more or less the same.
「Comment 2: What is this? I hit 5,000 Life and was feeling insanely proud of myself.
Comment 3: No, 5,000 is crazy too. That means level 6. But six times that is thirty thousand…
Comment 4: Um, operators? Did this person commit some kind of fraud?
ㄴ(Host): No. This was reached through normal gameplay allowed by the game.
Comment 5: No, what, do they have lakes full of Nectar, trees made of meat, and Candy and pudding growing out of the ground instead of grass and bugs??? What kind of land do you have to receive for your Life Score to hit thirty thousand?
(Author) Nonhuman: I started in a desert haha. (Truth Verified)
Comment 6: This really is a crazy bastard?!?!?!?!?」
When Aoutentl heard it was a desert start, he felt like he was losing his mind. Since the Host had attached (Truth Verified), it was not a lie.
Desert start…? Not a forest, not a beach, not a jungle, but a desert, the terrain where it’s hardest to raise <Life> score out of all terrain types and where you have to survive on <Mysticism> and <Faith> instead…? Thirty thousand in that desert?
In. Sane.
That was the only thought that came to mind. Aoutentl looked into the details.
「The greatest ecosystem expert in this game will raise your <Life> score >< Payment in <divine power> can be designated. Minimum payment required. 4 Points per 1 contribution. Only Points accepted. (Important!!!)
User review: Praise be! Thanks to Nonhuman’s consultation, my Life Score rose by 2,000 points immediately after the third collision, and my total score rose by more than 10,000 points. The divine power consumed was as follows. (Chart attached) It was well worth using. (Truth Verified)」
He had to do this.
This had to be done.
At the thought that receiving consultation from this player might save his hopelessly ruined world, Aoutentl conferred with his other companions and urgently requested that they apply for consulting advice. Everyone hesitated a little, but they applied, saying it was worth doing.
「Waiting list: 38,968 people. The more divine power limits you release, the higher your position can become.」
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
He was late.
Far too late.
Instead of admiring it, he should have applied the instant he saw it.
Aoutentl felt so wronged he thought he might go insane, but even so, he could not recklessly release his divine power limit. If he did and the other side raised contribution like crazy, the Points would become debt as-is, and that would be the end.
But.
Separate from having missed the chance, he could not help thinking this.
What kind of world could possibly produce thirty thousand <Life> score…?
He had heard it was a desert. But that only meant the initial starting point had been a desert. In reality, could it not be some kind of narrative trick?
Perhaps the maps acquired afterward were lands flowing with milk and honey. Or perhaps they produced Nectar. Deserts were one of the few terrain types where Nectar appeared.
Even so, this was far too much. His score was 600 now, but at one point, it had been 2,000. He had carefully filled eighty square kilometers of land with people, livestock, plants, fields, and so on to reach 2,000.
But even if it were twice that size, his world would probably be 5,000 at most? And that would require packing it densely with people, fields, forests, and livestock.
How do you create six times that within the same area…? It would literally be bursting with life-forms…? The population density would be too high to live.
Maybe if it were some extremely tall forest and dense jungle, with everything from floor to ceiling covered in trees and survivable…
No. Even then, to build civilization, you obviously have to cut down trees and expand space. Unless you live like barbarians, how would you get six times the score? Honestly, even if you did live like barbarians, getting thirty thousand points in an area this size would be impossible even if you died and came back to life…
It made no sense. No matter how much he thought, and thought again, it made no sense.
Aoutentl had no choice but to look around other parts of the Community in search of resources. He wondered whether he could somehow bring in slaves or livestock.
∞
Meanwhile, at that time, there was someone more shocked than any other player.
“A Life Score… over thirty thousand? Did I hear something wrong?”
The current rank 1. And rank 2 in Life Score. The player “Terrasion,” with 11,356 points, could not believe it while comparing the post uploaded to the Community with the Angel’s words.
The Angel, who had the form of a handsome human—specifically Homo sapiens—answered.
“Yes. The score of player ‘Nonhuman,’ who is rank 1 in <Life>, exceeds thirty thousand.”
“…How?”
If there were a land flowing with milk and honey, it would surely be this land. A world almost like paradise, where civilization and environment were in perfect harmony, all living things ate their fill, and life flourished endlessly.
Terrasion had a score of 2,800 in the second collision and had never once lost the rank 1 position in total score since the first collision after receiving that world.
The rank 1 player, who had been able to independently purchase an allegedly expensive mythic-grade Trait purely with Points accumulated through active trade and victory, could only mutter hollowly.
“How are they getting three times this??? Even making it ten percent better than this seems impossible???”
∞
After roughly finishing one consultation and looking for the next player, the Angel spoke to me.
“Um, by the way, Nonhuman. I understand why you tell other players, ‘It’s a trade secret hehe,’ and refuse to explain, but I don’t understand it either. Why is your world’s <Life> score this high?”
“Hm? Oh, that. It’s because my world is fucking hard to live in.”
“Pardon?”
“The evolution of life and the equilibrium of an ecosystem don’t happen in a paradise where nobody competes. They happen when everyone is struggling like hell, wondering if they’ll die or not, and clawing desperately to survive. Every life-form in my ecosystem lives in a horrible world where it might become prey an hour later, and when it goes to sleep, it has no idea whether it’ll see the sun tomorrow. In that process, they gradually develop vicious strategies and become tougher.”
“Are you making some kind of gu poison?”
Think of it that way if you want. If I was a Demon King, I should at least be making gu poison.
Some people use the expression that civilized society is a savage jungle. In truth, that is bullshit. Even a country in the middle of a civil war is easier to live in than a real wilderness.
A “real wilderness” is a place shittier than anywhere else.
So of course the toughness of my life-forms, completed in that shitty place, along with the stability and dynamism of the ecosystem, were higher than anyone else’s.
Now then.
Would the next player’s consultation complete the Points I needed to buy a mythic Trait?
Let’s hurry up and catch one.