ALL NOVEL chapter 5
Chapter 5. Coral Gummy
“The protection period has begun. During the protection period, players do not interact with other players’ worlds. After the protection period ends, you will collide with other worlds.”
Winning within a year is considered a quick victory, so my remaining protection period was quite long. If the fight drags on, there are cases where you collide with other worlds during the battle.
That won’t happen for now, so I’ll deal with it when it does. For now, it’s time to make my ecosystem even more perfect.
“Thinking back now, insisting on the term ‘ecosystem’ is a bit annoying.”
Who cares. I’ll do my job.
The newly evolved life form, [Coral Gummy], evolved from [Sponge Pudding]. It doesn’t follow the Earth’s biological lineage, but just know that I named it that way.
Sponge Pudding, as the name suggests, lived like a sponge. What is a sponge? That yellow sponge with square pants.
And Coral Gummy is similar. The difference is that, as the name Gummy suggests, it is a bit harder. And it builds its body structures through sand, making it look more like a plant than an animal.
But it is an animal.
However, despite being animals, they obtain nutrients not by hunting jelly but by synthesizing nectar.
You might wonder what this is about, but originally, corals are also animals that perform photosynthesis by nurturing symbiotic algae inside them. These creatures are similar.
Instead of moving, they grow sturdy mineral structures that other predators cannot eat and store nectar jellies in their bodies.
And those nectar jellies, in turn, produce nutrients and live within the sturdy mineral structures made by the coral gummies.
“Then why not just create nectar jellies with sturdy structures?”
“That’s possible, and there are already such creatures. But if you think in terms of division of labor, it’s simple. In short, creatures that both synthesize nectar and create sturdy structures are neither good at synthesizing nectar nor sturdy.”
“I see. But if the weaker ones synthesize nectar and the sturdy ones protect them, efficiency increases.”
“Exactly. And before asking such a question, shouldn’t you first ask why ‘puddings’ eat jellies instead of directly consuming nectar?”
The answer is that nectar lacks the minerals essential for the growth activities of puddings, and puddings have a body structure that requires a large amount of minerals but cannot directly ingest minerals.
Nectar only provides life energy and no minerals.
Thanks to the ‘Construction Expert’ trait, coral gummies began to proliferate at an incredible rate at the bottom of the nectar oasis. Since these creatures consume minerals to build their body structures, the bedrock of my world started to erode rapidly.
Wait a minute. Eroding the bedrock…?
“I have a question. In the game, resources were infinite, but what about now? This world is supposed to return to its original state eventually. If I keep digging the ground to the bottom, will I fall into the sky?”
“No. The world appears flat for convenience, but it is actually ‘spherical in all directions,’ so if you keep digging the ground, you will end up digging upwards from the opposite point in the world’s coordinates.”
“So, even ‘land’ as a resource has its limits?”
“Such a thing is unlikely to happen, but… yes. And if you go to the end of the sky, you will come out from the opposite side of the ‘sky’ as well.”
I don’t quite understand what it means to be spherical in all directions, but I dig into the ground without worry.
The lake, after expanding in width, now begins to expand in depth. Coral gummies fill the deep spots, and various creatures seek safety among the coral gummies.
On Earth, coral reefs occupy only 1% of the ocean’s area but are home to 25% of all marine life. I aim for such an environment.
Basically, nectar is produced from springs at the bottom and diluted by the water created by nectar jellies above, which is then shared by the jellies on the water surface and on land. Therefore, corals at the bottom of the lake can consume the purest nectar.
However, despite such advantages, the growth of coral gummies was slower than expected.
“They’re not growing as well as I thought.”
“The depth is too great. The sunlight in this desert is formidable, but the upper layer creatures consume all that heat and light. As a result, the water near the nectar springs at the bottom of the lake is rather cold.”
Of course, this was somewhat balanced by the evolution of nectar jellies.
In short, nectar jellies on the lake surface receive direct light and heat but drink the most diluted nectar.
Those in the upper layer receive a lot of light and heat but drink highly diluted nectar.
Those in the middle layer receive moderate light and heat and drink moderately diluted nectar.
Those in the lower layer receive little light and heat and drink moderately concentrated nectar.
Those at the bottom receive very little light and heat and drink highly concentrated nectar.
“The ecosystem of my nectar oasis is already divided into five stages according to depth. You can see that they have evolved in different directions after continuous accelerated evolution. In short, the upper layer ones discharge almost no water but a lot of magic, while the lower layer ones discharge a lot of water but almost no magic.”
And not only the depth, but also the distance from the nectar spring at the center of the lake, the ecosystem was differently constructed.
In short, at the very center, there is a cluster of jellies gathered because the nectar rises a bit, but as you go towards the edge, the dilution increases, so there are creatures of the rock jelly line that consume a lot of water and rocks and produce a large amount of magic.
As the size of the nectar spring increases, the ecosystem will become more diverse.
In fact, in a lake of this size, such ecosystem diversity should not appear, but I forcibly increased the mutations and diversity by exerting my 〈divinity〉, so it can be said that I was somewhat unreasonable.
“What should we do then?”
“Create new life forms.”
“Not intelligent ones, right?”
“Right.”
Another microorganism. However, this microorganism can use magic.
“It will increase the mystery score.”
That’s right. Classified as 〈magical creature〉. It is a creature that lives by consuming magic. As much as it consumes magic, the growth of the nectar spring will slow down, but from the perspective of the entire ecosystem, it is a beneficial creature.
By consuming 〈divinity〉, a new magical microorganism appears. A small, slightly flat disc-like creature that lives by consuming magic within its body.
「You have created a new life form! What should we name it?」
“Topping.”
「[Topping] has been created.」
And then Topping evolves to create other creatures. This creature, which performs ‘magic synthesis’ to obtain energy by consuming magic, is given new functions.
「[Topping] has evolved into [Sun Topping].」
This creature, with several cilia like a symbolized sun, has the ability to move, and it obtains energy by consuming the pure magic and 〈water〉 overflowing in this lake, constructs its body with 〈earth〉, gains mobility with 〈wind〉, and releases 〈fire〉 attribute magic and 〈light〉 attribute magic as byproducts.
In short, it drinks the surplus resources of 〈water〉 and 〈magic〉 to create currents within the stagnant lake, replenishes minerals, and creates the most needed light and heat.
“You managed to think of that. Even though you came from a world with a low understanding of mystery.”
As the Sun Topping proliferated, the water level of the nectar lake dropped. But the inside of the lake began to shine brilliantly and heat up.
The light and heat that reached the bottom of the lake. Absorbing it, the nectar jellies proliferate explosively. As the jellies proliferate, the size of the coral clusters they inhabit also grows, and structures are created madly.
They dig into the deep bedrock of the lake that the rock jellies couldn’t eat, increasing the depth of the lake several times. The volume also increases. As the volume increases, more nectar jellies pour water and magic, some of which are consumed by the Sun Topping, but most enter the lake, causing it to multiply several times.
「The level of the 《Nectar Spring》 has increased.」
Now the level of the nectar spring is 4. Its diameter is nearly 2 km, and its depth is 50 meters.
Considering that the surface area of my ecosystem is only about 20 square kilometers even after engulfing other worlds, this nectar spring occupies a whopping 15% of the total area.
Even counting the area that has become a wetland due to the overflowing spring, about 40% of the total area is under the influence of the nectar spring.
For reference, the Oswald Oasis is also quite large. It occupies about 25% of the total area.
Although it is just plain water without nectar, looking at my ecosystem, it seems more like a wetland than a desert…
Well, originally, even in deserts, rivers and wetlands form around oases, and a rich ecosystem spreads from there, so it is normal.
“Isn’t it more natural for the seeds of civilization to sprout in such a fertile desert wetland?”
Anyway, the overwhelming life forms emanating from the Nectar Oasis supply more jellies to the creatures on the ground, the puddings eat those jellies, the puddings are eaten by other puddings, those puddings live and die to be devoured by gels, and the gels are eaten by pudding-eating gels and jellies.
“The world’s ‘Life’ score has exceeded 926 points and has risen to level 4. You can now choose a new trait.”
Before I knew it, the life score had reached the next level. It was a formidable growth rate, having only devoured one world.
“Huh… What is this… How is it already level 4?”
I acquired the trait ‘Carnivorous’. Now, the most aggressive, fastest, and strongest species among the puddings has evolved into [Meat-Eating Pudding], and in addition to the jelly-rock diet, it can now eat meat as well.
The previous world’s player, Oswald, had created chicken-like creatures and pig- and cow-like creatures for their race, and now they would have to run around the narrow grasslands to avoid the pudding attacks.
And the next world’s player would have to fend off the carnivorous puddings I sent, and after easily killing off these inefficient creatures, they would realize that those were just bait and that the main force was the mud jellies and gravel jellies that breed in freshwater, turning farmland into desert and freshwater into dirty jelly masses.
“The world’s ‘Military’ score has exceeded 100 points and has risen to level 1. You can now choose a new trait.”
“The world’s ‘Industry’ score has exceeded 100 points and has risen to level 1. You can now choose a new trait.”
For the military trait, I chose ‘Belligerence’. For the industrial trait, I chose ‘Expansive Construction’. ‘Belligerence’ is a trait that makes you less afraid of strong enemies, and ‘Expansive Construction’ allows you to build larger buildings.
When choosing a non-civilization build, the traits that come out only strengthen the biological side, so it’s good. Traits that can’t be chosen at all don’t appear.
“Rather than a non-civilization build, could you call it a ‘mindless’ build?”
“I’d prefer to call it an anti-intellectualism build.”
“Anti-intellectualism isn’t the right term for this.”
“Mindless is the same.”
Call it whatever you want.
So, whatever civilization the next world’s player builds, they will experience hell with the jelly and pudding offensive. Let’s check the ecosystem around Oswald’s Oasis first.
After all, the attack power of the Dessert Desert comes not from the carnivorous puddings but from the freshwater jellies that desertify the enemy’s land and turn water into trash.