A Way to Touch the Stars

"I was terrified at the time."

The Girl's Face growing on the Wisdom Tree said, "Although back then, I possessed only a hazy mind and had no precise definition of the word 'fear.'

"Yet every living thing instinctively resisted death.

"Every nerve bundle in my body convulsed and contracted violently, crying out the same thing—Don't eat me! Go away! Don't eat me! Go away!

"Then, something unbelievable happened.

"I felt that voice transmitted into the scavenger monster's brain through some mysterious and unfathomable means.

"After a moment of confusion, it truly gave up digging me out and tearing me apart. It turned around and went looking for other prey!

"It seemed that this brush with death had stimulated me to evolve an entirely new ability. Besides sharing sensations, I could also, to a certain extent, interfere with other lifeforms' brains, central nervous systems, and any sort of organ used for thought and decision-making.

"Of course, the extent of this interference was extremely slight. It could only make other lifeforms within my sensory range perform relatively simple actions that did not strongly violate their instincts.

"For example, I could make a scavenger monster that had not yet been driven mad by hunger give up devouring me and seek other prey instead.

"But I could hardly make it create a set of exquisitely intricate tools or deduce tangled, complex mathematical formulas.

"After all, scavenger monsters had very primitive brains and limbs. And at the time, I myself was merely an aggregate of these primitive creatures. Even I did not know how to make tools or derive formulas. I did not possess even the slightest concept of such advanced wisdom, so how could I possibly influence, interfere with, or teach other lifeforms?

"No matter what, even the most basic interference ability greatly improved