LIGHTNOVELSTORY chapter 12
Chapter 12. World Clash – Third – 2
The moment they saw Yog-Tosoth, they attempted repeated ‘Conversation’ and ‘Surrender’, realizing that they had no chance of winning. I realized that I had already won this game.
However, when I did not accept the surrender, the opposing players attempted a fallback plan.
“In a situation where you can’t win even if you die and come back to life, can there be a fallback plan?”
There is. What it is, is to make me accept the surrender.
They gather all their strength to inflict significant damage on me. They can’t win, but they can at least threaten me.
You have another game next time, right? Can you win after getting hit hard by us?
That’s the threat.
“A reasonable strategy. But then, I have a question. Why don’t you accept the surrender?”
Well. Because I don’t want to be a worse person than necessary?
“You have strange thoughts. There’s nothing worse than soul annihilation.”
There is. Promising not to annihilate and then annihilating.
“Ah.”
If you’re going to eliminate them anyway, isn’t it a scam to accept the surrender first?
“It’s actually prohibited by the system. Annihilation is only possible in cases of sabotage, treason, or extreme incompetence. If you really dislike a god personally, you can only expel them by paying the amount of ＜Faith＞ corresponding to their contribution.”
“Then if that god keeps doing a good job, you can’t expel them even if you really dislike them?”
“Hmm. Normally, if they keep doing a good job, you’d keep using them even if you don’t like them… If you really dislike them, you can choose to ‘assign them no tasks.’ Since the score structure explodes every game, at some point their contribution will become negligible, and you can expel them then.”
I see.
Anyway, that’s why I don’t accept surrenders. It’s better to have as few intelligent beings as possible in this world.
The enemy’s vanguard tried to endure as much as possible by devouring the magic in the water plants, fish, ground, and air through mysticism, but ultimately they couldn’t withstand the onslaught of the carnivorous puddings and were annihilated.
And the problem is the carnivorous puddings and jellies I sent. There was no ‘water’ in the enemy’s land. It was a real desert terrain.
My puddings and jellies were annihilated because they assumed the enemy had a water source.
“Ho. That’s strange… How can there be no water at all?”
Upon scouting the enemy’s world, the moving sand and stone-like creatures were ‘spirit’ type life forms. They lived and moved through magic, not protein. Their bodies were made of magic instead of protein.
“Not just any magic, huh.”
Their bodies were composed of magic, and they drew power from sunlight, sand, and the magic and elements in the air, so they could live without water. Instead, it seemed they monopolized the magical resources of their world.
And the other species were small creatures that seemed to mimic hamsters. They were a bit larger, with developed arms and hands to make and use tools, so they were practically small humans.
Considering there are hamster species that live in deserts, it’s not strange. Some desert-dwelling mice can survive for months without drinking a drop of water.
Judging by the rocky hills and valleys in their world, they probably hide in burrows during the day and move at night. They must have an ecology that minimizes water consumption.
It seems there are cactus forests, shrubs, and bushes in the enemy’s desert.
If there are this many plants, it must rain occasionally. They probably have a strategy to consume water but minimize water consumption.
And upon closely examining the hamster species, they have ‘humps.’ Water? Fat? They probably have organs for storing energy. On Earth, such organs exist in camels, not rodents.
The hamsters’ food sources are insects, cacti, cactus fruits, cactus sap, and fields created in the valleys… And large herbivores that resemble camels as livestock.
I see buildings and tools made from split stones. The hamster city in the valley, the cactus forest, and the desert spirit area next to it. Is that how they’re divided?
“Wow. Your analysis of the hamsters is strangely detailed.”
What can I do? I don’t know anything about magic. Those stone spirit creatures seem to have created something like a village too, but they probably just eat magic and build their village with magic.
“Apologize to all spirit-type species.”
So, all my jellies and puddings sent to the enemy world are dead, and I can no longer look into the enemy world.
Now, I think about strategy.
In fact, there was no need for deep thought. My strategic choice was now only one.
Send Yogurt-Sauce to the enemy side.
Or intercept the forces coming in with Yogurt-Sauce.
“It’s simple.”
Well, it can’t be helped. There are no creatures in the dessert legion that can live in pure desert terrain, so what can I do?
“Oh? Then I’m curious, if the first or second opponent was in such terrain, how were you going to deal with them?”
In that case, they wouldn’t be able to live near water either, so I would just shut up and breed life in my ecosystem to win by score. Or just coexist until the next world collision.
“Wow… So the strategy was just to leave it to luck?”
That’s how ecosystem strategies are. If you can attack the enemy, just attack and starve them to death, and if you can’t attack the enemy, they can’t attack you either, so just endure.
“You know that’s commonly called a ‘freeloader build,’ right?”
If it works, it’s a strategy. And in such a situation, I would have evolved my creatures to not rely on water much.
【Creator. What should I do? Is it okay for me to enter their ecosystem?】
Hmm. Yogurt-Sauce. It’s cute that you ask for my opinion.
Honestly, if I send you out, I think we can just sweep them away and win easily, but I want to respond slowly by watching their numbers, so you focus on developing magic and creating countermeasures for the moves the enemy might use.
【Understood, Creator.】
Yogurt-Sauce then went to the Nectar Lake, grabbed the tentacles of Apjuice, and sucked up a huge amount of nectar.
【Yayaya, I’m being sucked in!】
The amount being sucked up was so much that it slowed down the growth of the entire ecosystem, but it couldn’t be helped. If we win this battle and can use more resources, and if Apjuice grows more, it will probably be manageable.
We had a few more chances to attack through the dimensional gate, but neither I nor the enemy sent out any creatures. They probably thought they would just die if they sent them.
Even when several years passed in the game and it reached the ‘dimensional passage’ stage, it was the same.
Yogurt-Sauce practiced magic alone, my ecosystem recovered to about 80% of its original state, and the enemies only occasionally sent a few scouts into my world.
Don’t I send scouts? I can’t. The dimensional gate allows me to select and send the creatures I want, but from the ‘dimensional passage’ stage, I have to command them directly.
But my ‘politics’ score, which indicates the control and loyalty of my creations, is 0. And the intelligence of my dessert legion is at the bottom. What this means is that even if I give a revelation with something like ‘divinity,’ my creatures ‘do not’ follow it at all. They’re just too dumb.
So, I used the remaining divine power to diligently tune my creatures. I was evolving the puddings to survive in environments with a lot of water and environments without water.
But, fortunately or unfortunately, the enemy sent an army.
It was an army that had been nurtured for over ten years in the game. It seemed like they had gathered all the resources they could, and more than half of the forces were composed of long-range magic users with the sole purpose of harming the floating Yogurt-Sauce. The rest were a massive number of hamster packs.
Interestingly, there was one species I hadn’t seen before. It was an insect-like species that could handle tools with its hands, but it seemed a bit lower in rank rather than the main force of the enemies. Maybe it was a species of a true player.
The insect species seemed to have magical abilities. They were preparing to shoot magic at Yogurt-Sauce together with the spirit species. At that moment, a message popped up for me.
“The opposing player ‘Sansan’ requests a conversation.”
A player I couldn’t block. Of course, I refuse. I answered by moving Yogurtos.
The battle between the enemy’s world and the Dessert Legion began. Actually, saying it started is a bit off, as my puddings had already caught the scent of meat that entered here a while ago (smell is their only sensory organ) and were running madly towards them.
A special-looking entity, let’s call it General Hamster, was weaving a formation with equipment made from cactus thorns and bushes, fending off the pudding’s flesh attacks.
Hamsters are in charge of physical attacks? That’s awesome. Thanks to their large numbers and thorough formation, the puddings couldn’t hit the enemy’s main force, the wizard troops.
【Creator, how should we handle this?】
Instead of attacking, try defending against their attacks.
【As you wish…】
Soon, the enemy’s wizard troops simultaneously unleashed their magic. Yogurtos moved its tentacles and countered the magic in mid-air.
Yogurtos’s magic magically blocked the magic of spirits and insects.
“Seriously!!! Your reaction to a high-level magic barrier created by a legendary creature against primitive magic is just that?!”
Well, what can I do when there’s no magic in my world, and I can’t see it… It’s like a military otaku getting angry, saying it’s not the same gun when you call a gun a gun.
Anyway, Yogurtos’s magic skills seemed quite impressive. It used a lot of mana, but it blocked the attack of the army they had desperately gathered without any damage.
“Yogurtos, you have the ability to ruthlessly ravage the enemies, right?”
【Of course. If you wish, I can annihilate them immediately.】
“Don’t do that. If possible, conserve your mana and slowly cook the enemies so our Dessert Legion can devour them.”
【If you don’t mind it taking a long time…】
After that, a one-sided massacre ensued.
Yogurtos’s main magic was wind magic. It ravaged the enemy camp with a tornado mixed with sand, water, and stones.
The lightweight hamsters were just swept away by the storm, and even the sturdier-looking insects and spirits started to get crushed by the storm mixed with water and stones.
And the Dessert Legion rushed towards the shattered remains and began to feast. Unfortunately, the spirits’ bodies were also made of stone, which was fatal as the rock jellies could dissolve and eat them.
“This is good. Unless the enemy is strong enough that you can’t defeat them without going all out, try to subdue them while collaborating with the Dessert Legion.”
【To increase the resources of our ecosystem, I understand. Everything is for the prosperity of the Dessert Legion.】
Prosperity.
【Everything is for the prosperity of the Dessert Legion.】
That’s it.
“Maybe not…”
Thus, the enemy world lost all its military power. Thanks to Yogurtos advancing while spreading water magic, the Dessert Legion took over the third world.
Now, my world’s area is a whopping 80 square kilometers. In this expanded ecosystem, but with no water, what can the Dessert Legion do?