World Collision - The Tenth: Part 3
GROAR!!!
The houses collapsed under the thunderous roar of the Loud Gumtoad. Dindinaron's relatively small-bodied species suffered fatal wounds even from a mere graze of the sonic blast.
"Someone kill that thing!"
"Call the army!"
It would have been ideal if the civilians went and died, but their low body mass was another problem. Though sluggish, the Loud Gumtoad's sheer size meant it could crush people simply by rolling or flailing about.
Its tongue was also remarkably agile. The elongated tongue could easily snatch up and swallow Dindinaron's species whole.
Even so, the Loud Gumtoad's massive frame meant that if the army arrived quickly for extermination, the threat could be contained—though if one went undiscovered for even ten days of growth, it could trigger a catastrophe. Smaller variants like the Lesser Loud Gumtoad, however, would screech at 100 decibels all day long, denying Dindinaron's people any sleep.
"GRAAAAH! I'm going to kill every last one of those toads!"
Those who charged forward in sleep-deprived rage were either bitten to death by the accompanying snakes or stepped on the Poison Gumtoad, which secreted a vicious toxin through its skin.
Because Dessert Desert creatures reacted so differently to chemical substances, the Poison Gumtoads had evolved by combining dozens of weak toxins into a "hit them with something" strategy. As long as the target was biological, one of four effects was guaranteed: paralysis, agony, unconsciousness, or death.
In this case, it was unfortunately death. Biin had selected the Uncommon trait Toxic Creature Enhancement at Life Level 15. Those afflicted died in a horrific and cruel manner.
The Uncommon trait chosen at Military Level 15 was Stealth Operations Specialization. The gum-based creatures, now essentially assassins, infiltrated enemy lines covertly, multiplied their numbers, seized the wetlands, and systematically devastated Dindinaron's ecosystem—already short on potable water due to its island geography—through mucus, poison, roars, excrement, urine, semen, and eggs.
Now it was not merely 70 percent. Ninety-five percent of the population had been forced into internal pest control. Since Dindinaron's civilians proved almost useless for the task, he relied on his foreign-species army to slaughter the nightmarish creatures again and again. Yet the toxins they sprayed everywhere, the calamity-like flying species, and the occasional Bisyakheet that swooped down pushed stress to its absolute limit.
At this point, anyone who could not read the opponent's strategy was a fool.
"These bastards almost certainly have no civilization."
The subordinate gods agreed.
"No matter how many scouts we sent into the enemy world, we found neither natives nor villages and cities. We assumed the enemy world's immense size was due to its mythic trait... but after searching this thoroughly and finding not a single trace of civilization, it makes no sense! Their entire world is nothing but a monster farm with zero civilization!"
As a former gamer, Dindinaron understood exactly how absurd that was.
Of course, it was possible to support something like an Animal Kingdom within the game. Some players even did it for entertainment.
But such strategies collapsed before reaching Round 5. Dindinaron had never attempted that kind of "entertainment" play and had no countermeasures for it. At best, choosing a trait like Fairy Tale Land that granted intelligence to animals might allow one to try.
Yet a player who stripped away civilization, intelligence, and technology entirely, filling the world with nothing but monsters, beasts, toxic plants, and insects, then conquered opponents simply by spreading them—this was beyond anything he could have imagined.
Still, as a seasoned gamer and bold executive, Dindinaron let out a sigh.
"Normally, a Life-based strategy would involve mass slaughter through disease... At least we don't have to worry about that."
Of course, a disease apocalypse was something Biin would eventually unleash. It was the most straightforward biological disaster imaginable.
Biin simply could not do it yet. Diseases were often highly toxic only to specific species, so sufficient biodiversity and steady cultivation were required before deployment. Moreover, diseases tended to evolve toward lower lethality over time, which complicated matters further.
The game itself seemed to have systems that prevented total extinction through disease. Simply put, the world started with no pathogens. The only exceptions occurred during disaster phases when related calamities struck.
Dindinaron's first-year harvest had been a complete failure, and so had the second. What had kept him in a better position than previous players Biin had faced were two major factors.
First, his stockpiled food was truly enormous. In extreme cases, he had enough preserved rations to survive roughly ten years of famine.
Second, Dindinaron's terrain consisted of an archipelago. In short, if farming failed, they could simply go to the sea and fish. In fact, fishing had always been his species' primary industry rather than agriculture.
Furthermore, Dessert Desert creatures were surprisingly resistant to salts—thanks to the desert's salinity—but gum creatures were not. They could not survive in saltwater.
Thus, his situation was far more manageable than Mitomok's jungle terrain. While Mitomok had gum creatures everywhere, Dindinaron only needed to thoroughly manage a few key water sources to avoid major problems.
Once he reached a point where he could endure while taking some damage, Dindinaron—knowing the enemy world was entirely wild—opened dimensional gates at random locations and sent large armies to establish camps.
"Even the Divine Gaze has its limits. There's no way they can detect us building hidden camps across such vast lands."
Unfortunately for him, one of Deity-World Oneness's core abilities was perfect detection of invaders' locations.
In other words, whenever they managed to secretly establish multiple camps as bases, Biin would dispatch Yogur-tosoth, Shuc-rimmurath, or the Sugar Lump Legion to raid and raze every single one.
"How do they keep finding us? Is this another trait?"
If the destruction was too thorough, they would simply stop sending armies altogether.
Yet Biin only sent enough forces to destroy what could "possibly" be defended. Dindinaron realized he was being drawn into a quagmire, but abandoning reconnaissance and bases would mean certain defeat in war.
So his decision was bold.
"Let's not go at all!"
"What?"
The subordinate gods were bewildered, but he had his reasons.
"Honestly, defense is far more advantageous in this game. Unless we can threaten their world while taking hits, there's nothing we can do during the dimensional gate phase. Let's just endure for a few years."
In reality, the Mystery Priests had grown skilled enough to easily handle both flying and amphibious species. As cooking Mystery Priests increased, they had also learned to some extent how to detoxify and consume these horrific creatures.
Dindinaron's strategy of focusing purely on defense was bold in its own way. After all, even Biin could not destroy a world that had committed entirely to thorough defense.
Especially since the island geography neutralized all of Dessert Desert's "infantry." Asking desert creatures to swim was simply too cruel.
Yet landing on the enemy’s main island was impossible. Dimensional gates could only open in the sky or on islands other than the main one. Thus, Dindinaron's main island suffered only minor damage from flying species, while the gum creatures on the outer islands were easily dealt with.
Defense was not bad. In fact, it was good. This was extremely disadvantageous for Biin.
Of course, the price was abandoning all reconnaissance of the enemy world, but honestly, what reconnaissance was needed in an entirely wild world? There would be no core locations worth targeting. (This was a miscalculation.)
Thus, in the sixth year—with roughly one year remaining in the dimensional gate phase—Dindinaron faced an unimaginable assault.
This was because the Spiritual Realm construction in Biin's world had only just been completed. Wafflach-Nacha, the space-time weaver, had finally established its nest in Creamland and successfully gathered enough space-time mana to cross into the enemy world.
Wafflach-Nacha descended upon the enemy world's main island via its web and immediately made landfall. It brought with it thousands of infantry forces—especially the [Candy] units—that had never been deployable before.
"Huh?"
It defied the common sense that such large and powerful creatures could not cross at this stage. Wafflach-Nacha commanded the Candies to rampage in all directions while it itself demolished buildings and devoured people with its monstrous limbs.
"The army!!! Assemble immediately!!!"
And just as the army began to arrive, Wafflach-Nacha vanished through a space-time passage, reminiscent of the nightmare Biin had once faced with the Cicadoz.
Then it would reappear on an island whose army had been drawn away and resume its destruction. When forces returned, it would move to another island.
The enemy world's Spiritual Realm and all major points were already tightly bound by Wafflach-Nacha's resilient webs.
Unfortunately, Dindinaron had no powerful hero units capable of facing Wafflach-Nacha alone. He possessed only an enormous army focused on quantity rather than quality.
"Weaken it with curses! That thing isn't invincible!"
Indeed, it was not. Its greatest weakness was a severe lack of mana, preventing prolonged combat.
Yet by binding targets with webs, it could siphon mana from the enemy Spiritual Realm. Detecting enemy positions with countless flying species, perceiving those sights itself, and alternating between the Spiritual and Material Realms, Wafflach-Nacha's miraculous terror brought Dindinaron's entire system to a paralyzed state.
"Th-this is a situation we never anticipated...!"
What use was a trait that prevented mistakes when meteors did not strike because of mistakes? Meteors simply shattered the game's rules and fell upon the board.
Despite his shift to a purely defensive posture, Dindinaron continued to be pummeled.
Struck by flying species, struck by amphibious species, struck by Wafflach-Nacha's space-time terror, struck by the Candy's abnormal proliferation, struck by various crop and weed terrorism...
All asymmetric forces that could not be countered without prior knowledge. Dindinaron's failure against them could not be blamed on incompetence.
On the contrary, he had held out remarkably well! Countless others had collapsed without stopping even one of these elements. Dindinaron had blocked every factor mentioned solely through "body mass."
Though extremely difficult to handle, the functions of state and society had not completely halted. Reassured by this, Dindinaron waited only for the dimensional gate phase to end and the dimensional passage period to begin.
Then his main force could sortie and extract resources from the enemy world instead. An opponent with no proper army or command structure could never stop them.
With such thoughts, he entered the dimensional passage phase.
Just as before, a hole tore open in the sky near the main island, and Yogur-tosoth's eye emerged.
"Huh. What... is that...?"
Then, from the dimensional passage opening below, the Magic Sugar Lumps that had been lying in wait activated their ritual and summoned their ruler. Wafflach-Nacha also assisted in greatly widening the passage.
After taking a deep breath—
Dindinaron's vision gradually blurred.