The Hermit Crab's Perfect Regime

I could split my consciousness thanks to Deity-World Oneness and focus entirely on consulting, but Wahando probably didn’t have that luxury. In that sense, I held a massive advantage since I could devote myself solely to consulting on other worlds.

But the moment I stepped into Wahando’s world, I immediately noticed something was different. Specifically, the flow of time.

Ah, so the world itself was moving at insane speed, letting him use far more time than others, but from a god’s perspective the inhabitants were moving in extreme slow motion?

Wahando, who apparently had no subordinates at all, seemed to have been meticulously controlling his world this way. It was far more refined than Mihun’s brute-force approach.

Alright then. Time to consult on Wahando’s world. To do that, I needed a clear grasp of his current state.

But when I looked at the world itself, something strange stood out.

Three things stood out.

First, the score exceeded 600,000 points. I’d hit around that much myself, so I’d let it slide. The world was vast and had unclaimed territory, so that made sense.

Second, Military was low. Not just low—lowest among all stats. Sure, it was still at a level 7 military strength, but… seeing it listed as level 11, it looked like he had deliberately lowered it from over 220,000 points.

Third, Politics was completely insane. I literally couldn’t think of any other word for it. It wasn’t just the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠highest stat—it was so high it defied comprehension.

“Is this a bug?”

Had the positions of Military and Politics been swapped? That was the only explanation that made sense, because there had to be a limit to the Politics score.

The maximum Politics score came when my creations obeyed my system perfectly. “Perfectly” meant no one broke the law and no one resisted the regime.

Yet even though Life was high, it was only level 8 at 20,000 points. How could 20,000 beings generate 250,000 points in Politics?

I tilted my head, completely lost, and finally asked Wahando.

We both found the other strange, so we explained. When I told him I was using natural mutation and improvement of living creatures for Industry, Wahando gave a bitter smile and asked if such a method really existed.

And Wahando’s Politics score turned out to be surprisingly simple.

According to Wahando, his original world had ‘flow’ but was extremely small. It wasn’t devoid of mystery, but it was nothing like this world overflowing with it.

Still, his understanding of mystery and flow was higher than mine. He explained that a world’s Politics corresponded to an individual’s Mind, and Mind was the power that gave clear direction to one’s will and flow.

Huh?

Was that even possible?

When I thought about it, it kind of made sense. If the system was truly solid and everyone followed it with their whole hearts, and if everyone truly understood the system, then they would naturally meet its demands without being told.

It was a little weird, but if a dictator had a firm personality and clear tastes, wouldn’t everyone instinctively cater to them without being ordered to?

In other words, Wahando’s world advanced toward its goals without him having to give specific instructions. The members simply carried out what they had learned with sincerity, and the nation developed on its own. That was the ‘system’.

Once I understood that, the low Military score of only 22,000 points became obvious. I was almost embarrassed I hadn’t realized it sooner.

Both Wahando and the angel had said he held the top military score at the moment of collision. Which meant that outside of collision periods, he wasn’t number one.

After all, every world had a fixed amount of absolute time, right? That meant he could perfectly predict the timing of wars.

In other words, Wahando ran his system on maximum internal affairs until right before a war, then at the perfect moment he dumped every stored resource to explosively raise his military strength to the maximum.

After winning the war, he no longer needed the military, so he disbanded it…

Thanks to Time Manipulation Right, that process would be effortless. He really had chosen the most appropriate mythic-grade trait.

So Wahando wasn’t so much a military genius (though he probably was one in that regard too) as he was a genius of administration and system management.

I kindly explained. I told him about the gamchi flocks that formed societies but never quite built a true system.

In a way, Sesaisa, Mihun, Wahando, and I all had completely different directions.

Sesaisa ignored the material world and focused only on the spiritual realm.

Mihun ignored the masses of life and focused only on a handful of superior individuals.

Wahando ignored lives driven by instinct and focused solely on a solid system built on education and law.

But consulting didn’t mean denying the other person’s build. It meant supporting them in harmony with their build.

I hadn’t destroyed Sesaisa’s spiritual realm. I evolved his elephants and gave them life.

The same with Mihun. I left his world untouched and only increased efficiency.

Couldn’t I do the same for Wahando’s world? Couldn’t I make his absolute and ironclad system even healthier from an ecological perspective without touching it?

To do that, I first needed to understand Wahando’s world.

More precisely, I needed to understand his race—those hermit crabs.

I set the subjective time ratio to 1:1 and observed the hermit crabs’ ecology and daily culture.

Even though they were all lumped together as “hermit crabs,” there were clear differences between them in Wahando’s world.

Small hermit crabs. “Small” meant about 30 to 60 ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠centimeters in diameter. These individuals moved quite quickly and were skillful, so they seemed to form the artisan class.

Medium hermit crabs. Average ones around 140 centimeters. They appeared to be the mainstream race, with thick shells, powerful claws, jaws, eyes, and antennae that could function as hands.

By the way, they were ridiculously strong. Their claw grip could literally snap a Homo sapiens limb in half. Their movements were fairly fast even while wearing shells, and when they shed them they could run about as fast as a wolf. Thanks to that grip strength, they climbed trees easily too.

Large hermit crabs. Over two meters tall. Their claws were enormous and their bodies heavy.

The most surprising thing about these crabs was how insanely fast they were. Their speed was almost on the level of a bison. Even wearing shells they seemed to reach 50 km/h. Their claw strength probably surpassed a tiger’s bite force.

And then there were the palm-crab types that didn’t wear shells. There were some variations in species and size, but they too were “people.” They handled tools skillfully with their claws and antennae and were quite fast.

Broadly speaking, these four types. What was interesting was that their system was clearly a hierarchy, but the hierarchy seemed based on ability rather than species.

Just observing their civilization was fascinating, but there were several ecologically noteworthy points.

First, they were 100% carnivorous. They ate neither grass, fruit, vegetables, nor grains. Only meat—sometimes raw, sometimes cooked. They were quite good at fishing. Rather than raising fish, they simply regulated the population by fishing moderately from lakes.

Second, the shells they carried around—the biggest characteristic of hermit crabs—didn’t seem to be for protecting their bodies.

Then why did they wear them? Upon closer look, they were simply “clothes.”

About 50% were for aesthetic purposes, and the other 50% seemed to be for protecting themselves from sunlight or magic… in other words, from the ‘flow’.

Honestly, when the weather was nice, even Homo sapiens could walk around practically naked in crop tops and hot pants, and when it was cold they could bundle up in long padding. The crabs’ shells were exactly like that. They changed shells depending on the weather and situation.

Ah. Now that I looked, the ones soldiers wore had armor functions. The military shells even replaced backpacks, storing food, clothing, and medicine inside. Civilian ones were even more practical… basically used like bags that they carried their whole bodies inside.

Some even attached wheels to the outside of their shells and pulled them around for convenience… The hermit crab civilization was pretty interesting… Hmm…

Third, the mushrooms grown in underground farms seemed to be treated as meat. Well, they weren’t plants… Anyway, since they were low-quality food, the underground mushroom farms were basically just livestock feed.

For livestock they raised things like the herbivorous pigs I mentioned earlier. Judging from the evolutionary tree, it looked like they raised livestock from other races.

These friends’ lives went roughly like this.

They were born from eggs. They smashed the shell open with a cheerful claw-hammer, then used the very egg they hatched from as their first shell. When they grew older and needed to change shells, they received a new one as a gift from their parents.

They changed shells as they aged, passing their old smaller shells down to younger siblings or friends.

When they reached their species’ limit and stopped growing even after molting, they were considered adults. Until then they studied relentlessly. Once they became adults and sexually mature, they immediately formed families and became productive members of society.

This was a bit harsh. Individuals who couldn’t keep up with the curriculum or had serious disabilities were simply killed.

If they had physical disabilities but no intellectual defects, they could still be used as workers. But if they had intellectual defects, they were killed without exception. Fail school and you die.

Whether you called it cruel or the law of nature, removing inferior individuals was an instinct Homo sapiens possessed too.

Anyway, once grown they received military training while simultaneously working at jobs suited to their aptitude. That was all, yet everything clicked together like perfectly meshed gears.

Oh, but they knew how to have fun. They didn’t just work; they held feasts, sang songs, danced, put on performances—everything.

So… from a consulting perspective, it was simple.

This ecosystem would run perfectly as long as the population increased.

Their system was so perfect that there was nothing for me to touch, nor could I even touch it. And their system could easily handle any size of population.

To increase population, either food supply had to increase or fewer members of society had to die.

Anyone could think that far, and indeed Wahando had already maximized food supply within his world. Agriculture, forestry, hunting, fishing—he was doing everything possible. Since he played with a focus on trade, he had also acquired quite a few biological resources and was living quite well.

“This is tricky.”

The fundamental problem was this.

Because it was an Industry-centered world, environmental destruction was simply too severe.

Just look—fully a quarter of the world had lost its original terrain and become barren wasteland where only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠grass grew, and half was city, essentially industrial zones.

In effect, three-quarters of the world had bottomed-out terrain levels and had been squeezed for every last resource. It was a truly wretched scene.

The core strategy itself was to cannibalize one’s own flesh to destroy the opponent.

Sesaisa had destroyed nature too, but he hadn’t built cities on top of the ruins. This guy, however, had completely bulldozed resources to build the environment he wanted. No matter what consulting I gave, it would be meaningless.

He seemed to be systematically raising terrain levels after learning how from Mihun.

The spiritual realm side seemed to have received advice from Sesaisa.

And the region he had expanded into was none other than the Great Underworld, the place with the fewest living creatures.

Even if I tried to advise on agriculture, these guys didn’t eat plants at all and only ate meat. The energy efficiency of carnivory was inherently far lower than herbivory.

Carnivores ultimately ate herbivores, and the intermediate steps caused massive energy loss.

Although their Technology score was high, they had only just passed the ancient era. At this technological level, they couldn’t mass-produce food in factories. What on earth was I supposed to advise…?

……Huh?

“Lord Biin? Why are you suddenly like that?”

The angel, who had been quietly watching my agony, asked, but I was too deep in thought to answer.

I pondered for a moment. Wait, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could this work? No, no matter how I thought about it, it seemed impossible at an ancient-era technological level.

But… with their Politics level that went beyond absolute obedience to divine guidance and even anticipated it… maybe it could work?

“Hmm?”

I am now beginning the introduction of factory-style agriculture and livestock farming.

“Eeeeeeeeeeh?”