"Mom! Mom!"
"Through the chick... uh... little ball?"
"Through the little ball plot, it regarded Lord God as its mother."
"Mom! Mom! Am I your favorite child?—it asked."
"No, I'm your dad. If you keep shouting nonsense, I'll toss your little ass back into the furnace and remake you—Lord God replied."
"Then Dad! Dad! Am I your favorite little brat?—it asked again."
"No, I picked you up from a trash can. Now you're going back into the trash can—Lord God passed judgment mercilessly."
"No!!!—it let out such a wail."
Chen Ran: "... ..."
Wasn't this pop-up... being a little too dramatic?
It was really putting on a whole performance here, huh?
Unfortunately, it seemed Amiya, sitting on his shoulder, couldn't see the pop-up.
Which meant that even if Chen Ran wanted to complain, there was no one to complain to.
Still, once the pop-up stopped flashing, apparently having finished its act,
Chen Ran once again tentatively reached out toward the planet model.
This time, it didn't suddenly enlarge and shrink away. Chen Ran easily pinched the planet model between two fingertips.
And seemingly to prevent Chen Ran from lightly brushing its surface with his fingertips and scraping off a layer of terrain,
when Chen Ran thought, Oh wow... I need to handle this gently. It'd be hilarious if I crushed it,
the next second, he could clearly feel an invisible thin film appear around the planet model, meaning he no longer had to be so careful.
"Pretty user-friendly." Chen Ran muttered.
Unlike Chen Ran's praise, however, Amiya, sitting on his shoulder, stared at the planet model with a puzzled expression.
Eh... why was this planet... crying so miserably...
It was bawling.
It sounded like it was saying its dad didn't want it anymore?
Amiya raised her little head, wanting to ask her Lord God what exactly had happened just now.
But after thinking about it again, Amiya felt something was off.
"Why... can I understand what a planet is shouting?"
Amiya had found the blind spot.
Then, beneath Amiya's confused and bewildered gaze, Chen Ran pinched the planet model and turned back toward the table.
This time, Chen Ran wasn't going to throw this planet model into the trash. Last time, he had done so because that assembly-line-produced thing had been completely lifeless.
But the one he had made by hand was different.
So he looked around, searched a little, then finally picked up a transparent candy jar, unscrewed the lid, tossed the planet model inside, and closed it again.
"First mass extinction"
As the planet model touched the bottom of the candy jar and gave a slight bounce,
the translucent pop-up instantly appeared to make its presence known.
"... ... Forget it."
Chen Ran paid it no mind and merely clapped his hands. "Let's leave it here for now. Whenever it comes in handy, or whenever you want this gift, Little Rabbit, we can take it out again."
After saying that, Chen Ran sat down and continued crafting other planet models by hand.
It couldn't be helped.
The Terra planet from the Sea Creatures Worldline had already been placed in Chen Ran's captivity.
There was hardly anyone left to save on Demon King Rabbit's Terra planet.
So next, Chen Ran could only continue and see whether he could roll up Terras from other worldlines.
"I just wonder whether I can roll up a Terra from the Pre-Civilization worldline."
As Chen Ran crafted a new planet model, he muttered:
"Could I catch a Doctor then? Or Precise?"
"If I made those two pledge loyalty, what new abilities would I get? A new Technology Tree?"
"Oh, right. Speaking of that, among the three great salvation plans of the Pre-Civilization, I already have the Sea Creatures and Originium. What about Heaven's Point?"
"Come to think of it, what even was Heaven's Point? I remember it being some super cannon? The kind that could blast the universe apart in one shot?"
Chen Ran got back to his handiwork, while Amiya—
Although Amiya initially sat obediently nearby, watching planets come into existence one after another from nothing, the sheer spectacle truly made one unable to help becoming immersed in it.
But after marveling at Lord God's immense power, Amiya tilted her little head and looked around.
"Um... come to think of it, where is that red Miss Skadi?"
Ever since they finished eating, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi seemed to have vanished.
Amiya looked around and finally discovered that Heart of the Corrupted Skadi had taken all the little snacks she had packed earlier, floated onto that 'Food Planet,' and then started...
Um... feeding fish?
It couldn't be helped. Heart of the Corrupted Skadi's feeding motions were simply too familiar. Familiar enough that Amiya turned back and couldn't help glancing at Chen Ran.
Her Lord God... seemed to have fed that red Miss Skadi the same way before...
But because of that, Amiya felt that wasting time here really wasn't very appropriate.
So, without disturbing Chen Ran, Amiya gently floated up from his shoulder,
then turned around and floated onto the Terra planet from the Demon King Rabbit worldline.
She began observing how the remaining Terrans developed after all the higher-ups had died.
And so, who knew how much time passed.
When Heart of the Corrupted Skadi finished feeding the fish, and Amiya floated back with an icy expression—
the moment she landed on the table, Amiya saw Heart of the Corrupted Skadi float toward a candy jar.
But Heart of the Corrupted Skadi only circled around the candy jar a few times before seeming to give up and going to play with her Lord God instead.
"Eh?" A trace of confusion appeared on Amiya's normally cold little face. "That red Miss Skadi actually gave up on food?"
That really was a rare sight.
Thus, Amiya also floated over curiously, wanting to take a closer look at the candy jar.
Then Amiya abruptly stopped in her tracks.
Because it really was a candy jar, but instead of candy, it was packed full of planet after planet.
Although before floating away, Amiya had known that her Lord God would toss the planets he made by hand, ones that were not Terra worldlines, into that candy jar,
now that she saw the full jar with her own eyes, she was still deeply shocked.
If not for having had the experience once before, Amiya's scalp would definitely have gone numb, a chill spreading from her spine to the base of her tail.
Even so, Amiya couldn't help taking several steps back.
Fortunately, at that moment, her Lord God's voice came from beside her, preventing Amiya from falling into life-questioning despair:
"Oh? This one is finally Terra. I just don't know which worldline it is."
PS1: 6, the last two chapters got reviewed again yesterday, so I had to force myself back to writing the main plot. 15
Giving Kal'tsit of the Normal Line a Little Bunny Shock
"Terra"
A translucent pop-up flashed above the newly born planet model.
"Detected planetary native: Amiya..."
"Oh?"
Chen Ran still didn't know which Terra worldline he had rolled this time,
but after waiting several seconds and seeing the name of the supposed native, he immediately grew interested and turned to call out, "Little Rabbit, come here."
"Ah?"
Demon King Rabbit Amiya had only just recovered from the shock of the 'planet cup' when she heard her Lord God calling her.
Though she still hadn't figured out what was happening, Demon King Amiya obediently floated over. "Lord God? Did you call for me?"
"Yeah. Little Rabbit, sit here first. Just wait a moment."
"Okay..."
Demon King Amiya looked puzzled, but she obediently made a turn and floated onto one of Chen Ran's shoulders—because Heart of the Corrupted Skadi had already occupied the other one.
Seeing this, Chen Ran turned back and continued watching the translucent pop-up, waiting patiently.
"Amiya is rescuing the Doctor"
"Amiya is taking the Doctor through the beginner tutorial stage"
"Amiya is taking the Doctor through 1-7"
"Amiya has triggered the early-game boss encounter"
"Amiya is outmatched; ACE prepares to stay behind and cover the retreat"
"Terra from the Normal Line?"
Watching the constantly flashing translucent pop-up before him, Chen Ran instantly understood which worldline this was. "And judging by the looks of it, it's right at the beginning of the story?"
But honestly, this point in the timeline was somewhat late.
He hadn't rolled the Pre-Civilization, so he couldn't catch Precise.
He hadn't rolled Babel, so he couldn't catch Theresia.
Still, being able to roll the Normal Line was already a good thing. After all, that meant Chen Ran might even be able to roll End of the Earth someday.
Thus, Chen Ran reached out toward the planet model and made it continuously enlarge and shrink.
He wanted to find where the Little Rabbit of this Normal Line was, but when he looked down from high above at the battlefield in Chernobog, he discovered it was already shrouded in various catastrophes, dark clouds, smoke, and dust.
It was like someone had smeared a layer of mosaic blur over it.
Chen Ran blew a breath, and in an instant, the entire planet model looked as though it had gotten a buzz cut. The sky stretched cloudless for thousands of miles, bright and clear.
The scene before his eyes finally became completely clear. But when he looked toward the battlefield, he found everyone sprawled about in different poses.
Yet the one thing they all shared was that the cries of battle and slaughter, which could faintly be heard before, had completely vanished at this moment.
It was as though the entire crowd had been muted. In Chen Ran's eyes, the people, each as tiny as pixels, stood or lay motionless where they were, staring up at the sky as deathly silence spread everywhere.
Chen Ran paid no attention to those people. After searching for a long time, he finally found the Little Rabbit from this Normal Line.
That Little Rabbit looked like she was barely holding on, while Talulah, the early-game boss, held her hands in a loose grasp, maintaining a pose as though she were casting a fireball spell.
"I remember now."
Seeing this scene, Chen Ran understood. "I remember this part of the story. That Little Rabbit, Amiya, released a portion of the Demon King's power and blocked Talulah's wave of flames completely."
But perhaps Chen Ran's earlier breath had not only blown away all the clouds on the planet, but had also blown away the flames from Talulah's fireball spell.
So even though Chen Ran knew the plot...
"It really feels like these two are performing a silent pantomime over there."
Chen Ran found it rather amusing. "It's like those classic 'what a sci-fi movie looks like without special effects' clips."
If he remembered correctly, Little Rabbit Amiya wouldn't be able to hold on much longer.
Then ACE would step forward and say, "That's enough, Amiya. You've already done amazingly. Let us share some of your burden too,"
Before you continue