The Rice Cake Frog's Grand Tour
The fundamental premise of the game was simple: victory in a world collision meant the opponent's territory became yours outright.
At the time of the tenth collision, Biin possessed 1,024 divine fragments. In other words, roughly ten thousand square kilometers.
The Great Nature expansions that occurred during the seventh round increased by a fixed amount each round. Players could explore and claim even more Great Nature territory, and any land an opponent had expanded into would also be absorbed. As a result, total land area ballooned far beyond the base amount.
His tenth opponent, Dindinaron, had expanded into the Great Ocean. Including the ever-widening seas, the man actually controlled over thirty thousand square kilometers of territory. Focusing only on land, it came to about thirteen thousand. Biin's own world, without any ocean, measured one hundred and seventy thousand square kilometers. Combined, they now held two hundred thousand.
And through Biin's World Shaping, that area could be expanded even further. The seas couldn't be enlarged since he lacked the proper authority, but land was fair game. Rough estimates put the usable land at around thirty thousand square kilometers. Factoring in the additional expanded Great Nature, Biin's total territory now approached three hundred and twenty thousand square kilometers.
To put it in perspective, that was roughly the size of Japan minus a bit. Considering Japan was an archipelago connected by sea, the comparison felt surprisingly apt.
Yet among all this newly acquired land, an area the size of Hokkaido was completely ruined. It boasted devastation on par with an entire region irradiated by a Fukushima-level nuclear meltdown.
“Just what the hell am I supposed to do with this…”
Biin felt genuinely stumped. His opponent had literally ground up every last bit of experience and every living creature in his territory to create two colossal monsters.
It was extremely inefficient. Biin now understood that divine power could be used to turn divine fragments into legendary custom creations. But proper materials were still required. Without them, the opponent had brute-forced the process while already on the verge of collapse. The result? Almost nothing of value remained.
Biin had mobilized the majority of his current clones to reorganize the shattered terrain. He poured experience into the islands and seas that would become known as the “Solid Archipelago,” rapidly developing the area.
The problem was the staggering amount of resources this process consumed. Shuc-rimmurath and Wafflach-Nacha worked from the ground and sky to establish Creamland and somehow reconnect the broken landscape, but it was difficult for living creatures to survive there, and raising the original terrain level proved even harder.
The inflated land that came with the expanded Great Nature could have been enlarged even more if Biin wished. But he concluded that pushing Great Nature any further would overwhelm even his divinity.
“Pass this message to the legion commanders. I will continue supplying resources acquired from outside. Use them to manage and restore the ecosystem as beneficially as possible. If you call for my clones, I will answer immediately.”
The first through fifth legion commanders all acknowledged the order and began refining their respective sections of the world.
There was clear meaning in watching these great beings beneath the gods manipulate the world with their own hands.
Yogur-tosoth, First Legion Commander of the Dessert Legion and a being who had stood with the Dessert Desert since its earliest days, had been feeling rather dissatisfied lately.
Well, “lately” might be misleading. In terms of actual time, hundreds of years had passed. But ever since the seventh collision, he had suffered quite a few humiliating experiences.
Seventh collision: the humiliation of having every attack blocked by the flower spirit Tademoira (now Nyaltartep).
Eighth collision: the humiliation of being impaled by the volcanic giant Daioto’s spear and slammed into the ground.
Ninth collision: the humiliation of having seven eyeballs burst by a mere slingshot user named Irsan.
Tenth collision: the humiliation of being beaten by the giant monster Dangon, which the enemy had summoned in a final act of desperation.
In short, nothing but humiliation after humiliation. Of course, he had ultimately won every time, and Yogur-tosoth’s contributions had been significant. Still, humiliation was humiliation. For someone called the ultimate weapon, it was rather embarrassing to keep getting sent to the front lines only to be pummeled.
‘No… that’s not quite right for the most recent collision.’
Yogur-tosoth lounged near the Nectar Well, lazily sipping nectar while watching Chaltteoggua do the same.
He himself had been beaten black and blue by the enemy’s monster, yet this fellow had turned around and beaten that same monster instead. In other words, the Fourth Legion Commander was stronger than the First.
Even though he had endured humiliation, Yogur-tosoth still carried the pride of being the Dessert Legion’s ultimate weapon. To him, Chaltteoggua was incredibly irritating. As long as that thing existed, he could never truly claim to be the strongest in the legion.
‘And to think the Creator gave him an order, yet he’s just lying there drinking nectar…! Pathetic fool! Does he believe we were created merely to laze about and eat?!’
Yogur-tosoth decided it was time to instill some discipline.
“Hey. Chaltteoggua.”
When addressed, Chaltteoggua opened his massive toad-like eyes wide and stared at him.
“Yes, brother. Why do you call?”
Yogur-tosoth was startled by the title.
“Brother?”
“Yes. Is that not correct? The entire Dessert Legion is one family, and since you were created before me, you are Yogur-tosoth, my older brother. What did you wish to speak about?”
Yogur-tosoth’s mood instantly improved.
It wasn’t so much the idea of gaining family as the fact that this fellow was treating him with proper respect as a superior.
In that case, there was no need to be overly strict about discipline.
“The Creator has commanded us to manage and restore this ecosystem in the most beneficial way possible. So why are you merely consuming resources and lying around?”
Chaltteoggua answered with a slightly troubled expression.
“Ah… I apologize. Unlike you, brother, or the other legion commanders, I don’t possess a wide range of useful abilities. I only know how to fight like an idiot. I thought conserving energy would be the best choice.”
“Hmph!”
Yogur-tosoth felt even better. Chaltteoggua had lowered himself while simultaneously elevating Yogur-tosoth.
Of course, it wasn’t calculated flattery so much as Chaltteoggua genuinely believing what he said. Nevertheless, it allowed Yogur-tosoth to think, ‘I’m not weak; I simply possess a wide range of useful abilities, and I happen to fight well too.’ In that sense, it functioned perfectly as flattery.
“You are not wrong. However, even I, Yogur-tosoth, was not born with a wide range of talents.”
“Is that so?”
“Indeed. In the beginning, I focused entirely on combat ability just like you. Only after realizing that was not enough to contribute to this magnificent ecosystem did I develop a broader range of useful abilities.”
“I see.”
“Seeing you reminds me of the old days when I wasted nectar doing nothing but fight. While a pure combat role has its merits, perhaps you should try finding or learning some other talents?”
Since it was his older brother speaking, Chaltteoggua listened attentively.
“Yes. That makes sense. Simply showing up only when I’m useful isn’t good.”
Yogur-tosoth shrugged his bubbly body and tentacles, took a deep sip of nectar—“Aaaahhh, it’s being suuuucked awaaaay”—and slightly manipulated the surrounding climate to make the Dessert Desert environment a little more hospitable.
Chaltteoggua watched this absentmindedly, then called out to Biin.
“Creator.”
【What is it? Why have you called?】
Biin’s clone appeared instantly. Chaltteoggua asked carefully.
“Should I also develop a variety of abilities like my brother?”
【There is no need. It is fine for Yogur-tosoth to be specialized in many areas, but for you, excelling at combat alone is more than enough.】
“I see.”
【However, it does feel wasteful for a powerful being like you to simply lie around drinking nectar. At the very least, why not learn how my ecosystem is structured and how it operates?】
Chaltteoggua decided to follow the advice. Although he could fight at colossal size as he had against the giant monster Dangon, he compressed himself into his most energy-efficient form—shrinking down to about 509 centimeters tall—then slowly walked away from the Nectar Well to explore the Dessert Desert.
Come to think of it, Chaltteoggua knew almost nothing about the Dessert Desert.
Right after being created, he had trained in martial arts with the martial sugar lumps. Immediately after that, he had been thrown into battle against enemy monsters. It was fair to say he had no real understanding of how this ecosystem was structured.
‘I should take a look around the world.’
Having made up his mind, Chaltteoggua left the island near the center of the well, swam across the Nectar lake, and stepped onto solid ground.
“God. Could you give me a rough map of this world’s structure?”
Information immediately flooded into his mind. When viewing the Nectar Well as the center, roughly one-third of the world was the Dessert Desert that received the well’s direct blessing—an extremely brutal ecosystem inhabited solely by the Dessert Legion.
He broke a nearby gumi tree, beat a giant jelly to death, and began eating its meat. Biin’s clone immediately appeared and scolded him.
【Chaltteoggua. Do not damage the ecosystem too much. You are an abnormally powerful predator. Your presence causes evolutionary pressure to act strangely.】
After listening to the explanation, he learned that the creatures of the Dessert Desert normally competed with one another to reach appropriate sizes and forms. Growing larger was simply part of that process.
However, if a predator like Chaltteoggua appeared—one capable of casually killing even the largest and strongest lifeforms—the creatures would abandon the path of growing bigger and stronger. Instead, smaller and faster beings would survive, causing a massive shift in the ecosystem’s direction.
【The creatures of my original world were the same. There used to be many large herbivores and carnivores. But after humanity in our world hunted like mad, all the big ones died off and only the small ones survived.】
“Hmm.”
【It is not a good direction. An ecosystem’s diversity must be complex.】
Hunting one or two creatures was fine, but he should not hunt so many that it created evolutionary pressure. Chaltteoggua understood.
Since there was nothing more to see here, he quickly left the Nectar basin. As he moved outward, he saw more ordinary lifeforms—plants, insects, and the like. Before long, he discovered sugar lumps.
“Ugh?”
It was a group of magic sugar lumps. They lived by nibbling on leaves and branches in the nearby forest. They had little connection to Chaltteoggua.
Upon seeing his gigantic form, the magic sugar lumps trembled violently. It was likely due to his charm stat being far higher than that of normal creatures. Still, one heroic individual of somewhat higher rank approached cautiously and asked.
“@#%#^?”
Chaltteoggua’s mind went blank for a moment. He didn’t understand the language. When he requested interpretation from the god, the language they used was immediately implanted in his head.
“Great being?”
…was what it seemed to mean. After pondering what that meant, he realized the sugar lumps referred to the dessert legion commanders that way.
“Yes. I am the great being Chaltteoggua.”
“We. Serve Nyaltartep. Nyaltartep. Makes plants. Gives good scent, good liquor.”
“Ah. I see.”
“Over there, the lazy sugar lumps serve Yogur-tosoth. Yogur-tosoth summons storms. What can Chaltteoggua do?”
“Fight.”
“Fight? We don’t like fighting much… We don’t really have any reason to serve Chaltteoggua.”
“Hmm… I wasn’t planning on demanding that you serve me. Why did you assume I would?”
“Yogur-tosoth. Tells many to serve him. But we serve Nyaltartep. Nyaltartep is better than Yogur-tosoth. The lazy sugar lumps over there like Yogur-tosoth more. So we thought you would be the same.”
A strange thought occurred to Chaltteoggua.
In other words, the sugar lumps—who could be considered the representative intelligent beings of the Dessert Desert—had formed factions centered around the different legion commanders?
“Hmm…”
Conversely, although he wasn’t particularly interested, if he stimulated these conflicts between followers, wouldn’t that create even stronger evolutionary pressure?
With no reason to hesitate, he called Biin and made a suggestion.
“Even if the legion commanders bear no ill will toward one another, what if we make their respective followers and territories fight each other? Wouldn’t that cause them to evolve and compete more fiercely?”
【An excellent idea. I shall grant you an additional 10% nectar supply.】
“Oh.”
【However, having only the Dessert Legion fight among themselves feels a little lacking. Their intelligence is too low. We should invite some outsiders.】
“Outsiders?”
【Yes. Since everyone is currently undergoing maintenance, let’s invite a few groups. After all, I originally designed my ecosystem to function as a hunting ground for raising experience points.】
?
Chaltteoggua, whose personality was actually rather benevolent, became known as one of the Dessert Desert’s representative evil gods in a single day. He received more curses than all the other legion commanders had endured since their creation—simply because he had been the one to suggest the “invitation.”