"Your Sea Creature No. 2 is stuffing itself like crazy."
"This one's starting to look humanoid too. You, then."
"Your Sea Creature No. 3 is stuffing itself like crazy."
"Looks like there aren't any humanoid ones left? Then let's take another little flower."
"Your Sea Creature No. 4 is stuffing itself like crazy."
Chen Ran: "..."
Seriously? Other than eating, what else could you do?
God Said: All of You Turn into White-Haired, Red-Eyed Beauties
Among the Sea Creatures, there was no saying like, "I fear my brother suffering, but I also fear him driving a Land Rover"—
But their Lord God did.
"Sea Creature 1: Didn't we agree it was all for The Great Swarm? Why did they get to eat first?"
"Sea Creature 2: Lord God! Lord God! Pick me, pick me! I want to eat too!"
"Sea Creature 3: Pick me next! Pick me!"
"Sea Creature 4: Why are they already eating? I'm so hungry..."
Through the Hive Cluster Mind, the better the Sea Creatures Chen Ran had picked first—like grabbing prizes from a claw machine—ate, the more the remaining Sea Creatures drooled.
Why could those Sea Creatures go eat first while they had to starve here?
Sea Creatures did not think like humans, so they did not feel jealousy, anger, grievance, or anything of the sort.
But they could think.
When they saw that Chen Ran had first taken those that were beginning to resemble humans, the remaining Sea Creatures evolved themselves toward humanoid forms.
Then, when they saw Chen Ran grab another little flower, they evolved themselves into little flowers too.
But by the time they had evolved into little flowers, Chen Ran stopped picking them.
"Sea Creature 1: Why isn't Lord God picking us to go eat anymore?"
"Sea Creature 2: Could it be that Lord God still isn't satisfied with how we look now?"
"Sea Creature 4: But humanoid forms aren't satisfactory, and little flowers aren't satisfactory either... What exactly does Lord God want us to look like?"
"Sea Creature 5: Ah! I have a little idea!"
He grabbed one Sea Creature and tossed it in, and it immediately started stuffing itself like crazy. He grabbed another and tossed it in, and it still stuffed itself like crazy...
It was not that Chen Ran begrudged them the food. No, rather, what did Chen Ran even have to begrudge?
Even if they ate an entire planet model, he could just make them another one by hand, couldn't he?
But Chen Ran's original intention in grabbing these Sea Creatures was to have them help him reroll starter accounts. Survive, evolve, give him some new abilities!
Instead, Chen Ran was staring at a screen full of pop-ups saying, "Your Appetite Increased" and "Your appetite is now equivalent to half a Kroos, you know?" He could not help feeling that something had gone wrong with the execution.
"Forget it... Sigh, forget it."
Chen Ran sighed. "Since you did help me fleece the system and harvest a huge wave of faith points, I'll fill your bellies first."
Chen Ran shook his head and looked back beyond the planet model. Just as he stretched out his hand, intending to continue grabbing Sea Creatures like prizes from a claw machine—
What he saw was that the once vast, black mass of Sea Creatures had turned into a vast expanse of white.
The Sea Creature swarm, which should have been a riot of diverse forms, had all turned into beings like the Predators—human bodies and limbs, with something atop their heads...
"Wait? Why do all of you have little flowers on your heads?"
What kind of combination was this?
Where had his enormous Sea Creature swarm gone?
Chen Ran always felt that the moment he looked away, something bizarre would happen.
After staring at that group of white humanoid things for a while, Chen Ran tentatively turned on the Hive Cluster Mind (Sea Creature version), which had originally been muted for everyone—
"Sea Creature 1: Hungry hungry! Food food!"
"Sea Creature 2: Food food! Hungry hungry!"
"Sea Creature 3: I want to eat, eat, eat—"
Chen Ran: "..."
All right, it was still them.
So Chen Ran muted everyone again.
"So why did you all suddenly evolve into humanoid forms? Weird. Could it be based on my preferences?"
"Though I've wanted to complain about this for a long time, most people's values actually follow their facial features."
"So why didn't you Sea Creatures make yourselves look prettier?"
"For example, evolve into cats. When people hear that Sea Creatures are ending the world, they'll think it's terrifying. Then they see the picture and find a bunch of cats meowing about taking over the world."
"It must have been those evil Sargol people! What bad intentions could cats possibly have—most players would probably cheer you on like that."
"But evolving into cats... I remember you originally lived in the sea, right? That would make you sea cats? A bunch of sea cats rushing forward yelling 'allall'... That would actually be pretty scary."
Perhaps because the earlier scene of flowers blooming in every variety had been so striking, this group of humanoid Sea Creatures was now genuinely pleasing to the eye.
To the point that Chen Ran sped up his claw-machine grabbing a little.
When the remaining Sea Creatures saw this, sure enough, they knew this method worked!
See? What had they said? As long as they turned humanoid and put a little flower on their heads, Lord God would definitely be satisfied.
Thus, the remaining Sea Creatures began competing among themselves.
Each evolved to look more human than the last, with better figures, brighter little flowers.
Until Chen Ran even saw a Sea Creature evolve white hair and red eyes—
"I suddenly feel that harvesting all the faith in advance was an incredibly correct decision."
"After all, if you Sea Creatures keep evolving like this, when human believers come later and ask what your doctrine is—"
"The answer will be, God said, all of you turn into beautiful girls. Remember, white hair and red eyes."
"That'd be pretty ridiculous."
Though Chen Ran was complaining, he made no move to stop them.
Rather, why would Chen Ran stop them?
Thus, with Chen Ran's tacit approval, a vast number of little-flower-topped 'Skadis' were born.
Well, they could not really be called Skadis. Chen Ran always felt that the three Abyssal Hunters basically all looked the same.
Have them take off their hats and clothes, stand them together, and you really could not tell them apart at a glance—
No, wait. If their clothes were off, why would he still need to tell them apart?
Wouldn't there be more important things to do?
While Chen Ran fell into deep thought, the Sea Creatures that had already pushed their bodies to the limit began competing over clothes.
Using scales or tentacles, they started adding all sorts of adornments to their pale bodies.
Because Heart of the Corrupted Skadi held a little biscuit and occasionally floated from Chen Ran's left to his right, then from his right back to his left,
The Sea Creatures now had a reference. After competing over body-covering fabric, they began competing over black stockings, white stockings, fishnets, and all sorts of other things.
This competition continued until Chen Ran got bored. He stopped picking Sea Creatures one by one with his fingertips and instead scooped up huge handfuls with both hands, tossing them all into that newly born planet model at once.
Chen Ran simply felt there were too many Sea Creatures. If he grabbed them one by one, how long would it take?
The Sea Creatures believed that Lord God had stopped being picky, which surely meant he was very satisfied with how they looked now.
Thus, through this subtle mutual understanding, the foundation was laid for the appearance of future newborn Sea Creatures.
Kal'tsit: Humanity Was Probably Beyond Saving
This identity as a god of faith was really only useful once. After that, it could be discarded.
It was merely a tool for fleecing rewards.
Even though Terra on this Worldline, where Sea Creatures had ended the world, was in ruins and desperately needed rebuilding, humans reproduced quickly. If rabbits as a race still existed, they would reproduce even faster—
But it still could not compare to having the Sea Creatures spawn another wave of troops.
"Though I remember... my first believer seemed to be that lucky person in this planet model, right?"
She was also the only human among all of Chen Ran's believers.
Now that the Sea Creatures had received benefits, what about this human?
Chen Ran considered it and decided he could not favor one side over the other. He decided to bestow some so-called holy relic upon that lucky person.
So he picked up his phone and ordered someone to bring him a lump of reinforced concrete, with two rebars crossed on top to form the shape of a sword.
"If someone can really break apart a lump of reinforced concrete with their bare hands... then you're seriously impressive."
"When the time comes, letting you ascend won't be a problem. Though ascension is a scam, of course."
Muttering to himself, Chen Ran dropped the lump of reinforced concrete into that planet model.
... ... ...
... ...
Not long ago.
While Chen Ran was still harvesting the power of faith, and the entire Sea Creature Great Swarm was chanting the words "Lord God..."—
The cries of tens of thousands of Sea Creatures were deafening, ringing through the heavens.
Even the human survivors hiding among the mountains, within underground bunkers, heard them.
But Sea Creatures capable of human speech were ultimately few. More of them roared, snarled like beasts, or barked meaningless sounds.
The survivors, unaware of the reason, were terrified, fearing this was the Sea Creatures' call to attack.
Then the woman who had long since been dragged away and pinned to a hospital bed, as though her sanity had hit zero, suddenly shot upright like a dying patient springing from her sickbed and shouted like a fanatical believer once more, "Lord God! I heard it! They're praising Lord God's holy name!!!"
That sudden howl made even Kal'tsit jolt.
Once the nearby medical operators came back to their senses, they hurried forward and pressed the woman back onto the hospital bed.
"Quick! Increase the dosage!"
"Dr. Kal'tsit! What should we do next?"
"Dr. Kal'tsit! Should we give her a sedative?"
"Dr. Kal'tsit!!!"
Kal'tsit came back to herself, glanced at the medical operators around her, who had panicked beyond all reason, and let out a soft sigh.
She said nothing. Instead, she looked at the fanatical believer with complicated eyes.
Unlike the others, Kal'tsit understood the Sea Creatures' language. Though it was chaotic, she could still roughly make out what that swarm of Sea Creatures was howling.
So... this fanatical believer had truly not been lying.
If so, then what she had said earlier—
That the Sea Creature god had been kept in a fish tank...
Before Kal'tsit could reach a conclusion, a thunderous boom erupted from the sky outside.
She instinctively turned her head and saw a dazzling Holy Sword, radiating brilliant light across its entire body, tear apart the heavens, cleave through the clouds, and descend from the sky.
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