The Open-Pit Mine

While two of my clones were busy communicating with Sesaisa and another was browsing the community, the remaining clone took on the task of restoring the ecosystem.

Thanks to the Spiritual Realm, my Faith had reached Level 6. The four clones split up across the Nectar Oasis, the freshwater lake and river, the cactus forest and valley, and the newly acquired land. Together, they would restore the ecosystem as a whole.

And I was Clone 4. The one in charge of the new ecosystem.

First of all, I had already won five out of thirty games. What that meant was that there were thirty-two god fragments existing in my world, and my world’s total area had reached three hundred and twenty square kilometers.

Just cleaning up the terrain properly was probably going to take quite a while. After all, the area had doubled from its previous size.

To be honest, it wasn’t that big. As far as I knew, Seoul was around six hundred square kilometers. So right now, I only had about half of that. At best, it was enough to support a tribal nation.

Of course, Seoul—which had once housed ten million people—wasn’t objectively a small city, but that was by the standards of urbanized civilization.

From a purely ecological perspective that had to support an entire population, it was indeed on the small side. Even South Korea had been a mess when it came to food self-sufficiency, and environmental conservation was the last thing on anyone’s mind.

The only reason this narrow world could sustain this level of ecological diversity was entirely thanks to the god fragments, which guaranteed a minimum right to survival.

Thinking about it the other way around—if I won the next game, would my world roughly reach Seoul’s size?

And Gyeonggi Province was around ten thousand square kilometers, so ten wins would get me to that level. Fourteen wins would push me past South Korea’s one hundred thousand square kilometers, and fifteen wins would give me the Korean Peninsula plus a bit of Manchuria—around three hundred and twenty thousand…

Right. That was a thing. I had heard the explanation. There were events that added extra land during the process.

Anyway, in the end, with 1,073,741,824 participants, the ultimate world size would be around 107 billion square kilometers. Adding in the extra land granted… maybe a trillion square kilometers? I couldn’t really wrap my head around how much extra land that would be.

Wait a second. Earth’s diameter is around twelve thousand kilometers… Using a simple formula to calculate surface area…

Earth’s surface area is about five hundred million square kilometers?

“Hey, Angel. So if I win, I’ll end up ruling a world roughly two hundred times the size of Earth. Is that correct?”

“There may be slight variations depending on how the game progresses, but that is roughly accurate. Is there a problem?”

She answered so matter-of-factly that I was even more shocked. I see. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hadn’t consciously calculated it, but this was playing on a truly cosmic scale.

Honestly, even if I had ten or twenty clones, controlling such a vast world would be nearly impossible.

“That is why most players appoint subordinate gods.”

But for someone walking the path of the Demon King like me, that wasn’t an option.

“Ah. I see. So that’s how it is.”

That was why it was even more important to carefully manage the ecosystem in the early stages. Once I passed the mid-game and the land area became too vast to handle, the ideal scenario was for the world to naturally reach a perfect equilibrium on its own—while simultaneously cultivating the Dessert Legion into a force capable of crushing every civilization without me needing to micromanage it.

“That makes sense. So what will you do next?”

I decided to examine the god fragments that defined the terrain in the game. Among them, several like River and Aquifer had overlapped and leveled up.

But since the newly acquired enemy world had sixteen god fragments, I needed to count those first.

From a broad ecological perspective, the enemy’s terrain consisted of steppe—a transitional zone between desert and grassland—desert and oasis similar to my own, mountains that looked like hills, rocky outcrops, a somewhat muddy and fertile swamp, vast fields, and a river. That made seven.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

However, when I looked closer from an ecological standpoint, there were eighth, ninth, and tenth terrains. In other words, about six of them had probably overlapped because they were the same type. That was my guess as I examined them.

The most noticeable one was what seemed to have been the most important location for the enemy’s community.

I remembered it clearly because the Dessert Legion had been met with pathological counterattacks every time we assaulted the place. There had even been a massive temple. It looked like it might have been Shika-doz’s dwelling.

Now that I examined it closely, I understood. The previous opponent, Elguano, hadn’t bought the Dimensional Traveler trait from the shop section. He hadn’t used it to strengthen his unique entity.

He must have purchased a legendary trait that reinforced structures or terrain and used it to strengthen the Spacetime Boundary itself.

And by consuming enormous amounts of resources—including a massive amount of Culture—he had raised the existing Shika-doz in that terrain all the way to Legendary rank.

Producing legendary entities was normally impossible, but doing it once at a low level was entirely feasible.

Unlike simply buying a trait from the shop and attaching it, this method consumed a huge amount of resources for creating special entities. However, because the source of their power came from the world’s own terrain and structures rather than shop-bought traits, it meant he could eventually create multiple spacetime ability users besides just Shika-doz.

In other words, Elguano and his alliance had probably planned to coast through the early game using Shika-doz’s transcendent terror and diplomatic abilities, then switch to producing an army of spacetime ability users in the mid-to-late game.

“That was quite a solid plan. It looks efficient and powerful too… Too bad he ran into a meteorite.”

I got hit by a meteorite too. My ecosystem score, which had been over thirty thousand, was now below ten thousand.

“That’s a really spoiled thing to say. You’re still in the top ranks and you’ll recover it quickly, won’t you?”

The ninth terrain was the world’s Spiritual Realm and its massive flow, visible through the spiritual flow layer.

This had been destroyed by Yogur-tosoth’s overwhelming power. I’d need to consult with Sesaisa to adjust it. This was also a god fragment.

Since it was a terrain that had existed in the game, I roughly understood it.

Where constellations were visible, the number of Mystery awakeners increased.

And to me, who could see the spiritual flow layer, the streams flowing from the constellations clinging to the sky were overturning the entire ground through the Spacetime Boundary. I could see that clearly.

It seemed this had raised the manifestation rate of shamanic talent among all living creatures across the world. Sesaisa confirmed my guess.

I see… While I had mostly received natural terrains except for the Nectar Well, this side seemed to be heavily tied to mystery instead.

And the tenth terrain was a bit perplexing. Not because it was bad or strange, but because using it was incredibly awkward.

Was this a natural terrain? Of course, in the game mines would recharge or recover over time, but I had thought that was just a game mechanic. Seeing an actual self-recharging mine was rather bewildering.

This world had raised the open-pit mine to Level 5, so they seemed to have mined the precious metals here to create accessories and temple decorations that boosted Shika-doz’s Charm. The problem was that this kind of thing was only useful in Technology or Industry-based builds. In an anti-intellectualism build, it didn’t mean much.

“Is this finally the time to develop civilization and make use of these resources?”

Maybe I could evolve the Rock Jelly into Gem Jelly, Metal Jelly, or Gold Jelly…

“Oh please. Why do you always try to solve everything with biology?”

I couldn’t help it. Smelting, blacksmithing, crafting—they all required Industry and Technology. Living organisms competed through their physical structures instead, so when resources like these appeared, I had no choice but to discard them.

“Don’t you think it’s a waste?”

“You can’t utilize every terrain that appears during the game anyway. The jellies can mine it, and then I can sell those jellies to other worlds to earn some points. That should be fine.”

“Still, such prime land…”

Prime land? The prime land here was their swamp and fields. Wetlands with accumulated nutrients—good soil.

I should connect the swamp, river, and freshwater lake, then link the mountains together to create an incredibly fertile grassland. Then I could let various herbivores and predators run wild there.

“That’s actually a pretty cool idea.”

“While we’re on the subject, aren’t you going to give me the victory trait?”

“The victory trait for the fifth multiple world victory will be granted when the ‘Disaster Phase’ begins. It means you should decide after seeing what disaster appears.”

I see…

I consumed a massive amount of divine power to move the mountain from that world to the one that served as the water source for my river.

When the two mountains merged, their level rose as well, making them even larger. The mana flowing through them became richer, and the ecosystem grew healthier.

Although the mountain could also be used as a mining resource, I decided it was better to use its pure mana to enrich the river and floodplain areas.

While I was at it, I mass-produced the oak varieties I had created in Sesaisa’s world and planted them all over the mountain. Since I had personally edited and evolved them, I could create them just by using divine power.

Then these wooded mountains would spread nutrients through the river across the vast desert and steppe grasslands. Those nutrients would flow into the clear freshwater lake and the muddy swamp, becoming the foundation for even more creatures to grow.

That meant I could create new soldiers too. A Dessert Legion specialized in running across plains…

“Have you thought of a name yet?”

Well. There were too many things to do right now. It was a good thing I had multiple selves.

I simply understood what my clones were doing through what could be called ‘communication.’

I was working with perfect efficiency through division of labor. If something major happened, only one clone would pay attention while the rest continued their tasks right where they were.

And as I tinkered with the ecosystem and tried to increase the number of new soldiers, a thought occurred to me.

Was this level of preparation really enough?

“Huh? Why the sudden doubt?”

The level of the game was higher than I had expected. Of course, I never thought I was the best in the world, but I honestly believed I would at least be in the top one hundred.

“Ah~ I suppose so.”

Especially that player named Elguano. The thought I had right before the collision—“Yogur-tosoth seems less useful than I expected”—had been completely overturned. If I hadn’t had Yogur-tosoth, Shika-doz alone would have one hundred percent destroyed my ecosystem and ended the game.

“That is correct. It was because you had Yogur-tosoth that the opponent became desperate, couldn’t freely commit terrorism, and you were able to secure victory during the dimensional rift phase.”

This guy probably ranked pretty high too. I had just been unlucky.

But the winner had to be first place. If I truly wanted to win, it was only reasonable to assume that everyone who appeared from now on would have plans on this level—or even better.

“Then?”

I needed a form of development different from what I had done in the game so far.

I had been lucky enough to receive the Nectar Well and created rock-eating jellies that then flourished.

But what if the first terrain I had received was this Open-Pit Mine instead?

I probably would have ignored the mine and just created creatures for the plains. I might have been stuck in the lower ranks.

However, rock-eating jellies were not creatures that existed on Earth. I had created them because I believed, based on the information I gained after entering the game, that such life forms were possible.

“In other words?”

A life form that could thrive in Open-Pit Mine terrain.

What if, by borrowing the power of mystery, I created an entirely new form of life—one whose existence and physiology could not be explained by Earth’s physical laws—that could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠form and grow its body using metals, precious metals, and gemstones as a medium?

Wouldn’t that allow me to fully utilize this precious Level 5 terrain?

“An interesting attempt. As the angel who informs you of the game’s rules, I will actively cooperate.”

What’s gotten into her?

“If you fail, you’ll finally realize your limits and start building civilization. And even if you succeed, those creatures might end up creating civilization themselves.”

…Because of the angel, I was now absolutely determined to create metal-based life forms.