Chapter 32: Land of Beasts
I honestly hadn’t had any particular plans for what kind of species to make in Downside back when I divided the world in two. It was only after I’d seen some of the more interesting creatures that had evolved there that inspiration struck.
While working on my system documents, I’d spent a little time ...
2025-10-15 22:06:03 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 31: Guardians of the End
t was time to move to the other half of my world, and finally deal with intelligence there.
I glanced at my Reality Points and frowned.
Reality Points 3973.53
Gross Generation +8.355/cycle
Universe Maintenance -0.177/cycle
Cluster Tithe -4.089/cycle 2025-10-14 17:06:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 30: Upside Down
I stared at the notification for a long while.
The elves and dwarves went about their business… building, shaping, and spreading their civilizations… while I simply sat there in quiet befuddlement. Even so, it was probably only a few years of their time before I finally waved the notification away and brou...
2025-10-13 22:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostThese are just simple AI-generated images that my beta reader created. Not really planning on using these long-term, but I did promise special perks here, and the images came out surprisingly close! So here you go, male and female elves!
Not really very good at creating elves, our poor MC...
I’ll probably post some world-building ...
2025-10-12 18:58:06 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 29: The People of Stone
So, my first species was ready… or rather, my first species that used my new system. The dragons didn’t really count. They weren’t there to provide energy; that had just been a happy coincidence born from them sorting through the mess of abilities. My new class-naming situation would also give me a lit...
2025-10-12 17:07:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 28: Splintering
I now had a good start for the species.
After a few hours of thought and running some simple simulations, I took a step back and did a little more work before finalizing anything. In the past, I might have gone ahead and just dropped it in, then tried to fix it later if a problem came up… but I was taking th...
2025-10-11 14:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 27: The First People
I set the pencil down and slid the notebook away.
I wasn’t sure exactly how long I’d been working, but I knew I’d slept for at least eight hours several times. Considering I didn’t need to sleep unless I wanted to organize my thoughts – and that only happened occasionally – I guessed ...
2025-10-10 16:12:02 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 26: Foundation Classes
Orpheus stared at me like I’d just grown two heads.
Actually… maybe that wasn’t a good comparison. For all I knew, Orpheus in her real form did have two heads. Maybe that was normal for her.
I briefly lost myself in a tangent, wondering if Orpheus saw me as I had constructe...
2025-10-09 23:07:37 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 25: The Fine Print
“– give your inhabitants any access to your interface!” Orpheus finished, sounding alarmed.
I double-checked that I had turned the mutation rate back down to normal before reducing the interface to a manageable size so I could glance at Orpheus. I smiled at her and gave a quick shrug, then turned my a...
2025-10-09 23:04:26 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 24: The Great Game
Vistaka flexed her wings, lazily working some of the soreness out of them.
Her recent ascension to Elder had left her far more powerful, but her infrequent flights out to hunt were not the level of activity she was used to. Every time she awoke, the stiffness took longer and longer to work out of her joints...
2025-10-09 22:07:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 23: The Children of the Moon
Orpheus flew around in a slow circle, but clapped her hands together.
“Be aware that shortly after your first intelligent species, you will likely enter the Fourth Epoch. Unless something strange is going on, I will likely take my leave of you at that time. Before I do so, I will give you a mean...
2025-10-08 17:33:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 22: Finished Prototype
The first thing I did was look for any creatures that had monster cores. I wanted to see how the monsters were faring, and whether they’d taken over the world or not.
The results were… a little complicated.
What I did find was that the various creatures with monster cores had, in fact...
2025-10-07 20:10:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 21: The Diversity of Life
I was almost ready.
Now that the new changes had been installed, I knew I had a lot more work ahead of me later… but for now, I could leave things be.
I didn’t turn the time dilation back to running the universe fast just yet, though. I still had one more important thing to handle.
Sw...
2025-10-06 16:12:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 20: Don't Worry, I Have A System
These small mistakes were getting annoying. I really wanted to take a break and let the universe run by itself for a while. But first, I had to make sure it would run without everything collapsing.
I took a heavy breath and let out a sigh before turning and collapsing into the recliner. Proppi...
2025-10-05 16:12:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 19: The Origin of Species
Once again, with the time dilation sped up, I could watch months pass in just a few minutes. Not that this world had a conception of months yet… but who knew what sort of timekeeping a civilization in this world would invent?
I sat back and watched the interface carefully, zooming in and out of var...
2025-10-04 16:12:02 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 18: The Grand Experiment
I crossed one more thing off my to‑do list with the creation of disease and infection. I wasn't proud of it, but I knew a life without that sort of pressure would be very different from what I understood. I still had doubts about it, especially about my implementation. I felt it was fairly clever and not ...
2025-10-03 22:12:01 +0000 UTC View PostVolume I Epilogue
Byron folded his hands together and looked at Turner as the door closed, leaving him alone with only Turner and Nikandros in the room.
Turner glanced at the butler, then cleared his throat apologetically.
“I’m very sorry, sir, but I really think this should be something that just the two of us talk about. ...
2025-10-03 04:37:53 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 17: The Second Horseman
A lot of what I had just done wasn’t all that expensive, since I wasn’t directly manipulating things currently in the world. Sure, there had been several tweaks to what was going on, and I had added a few things, but I didn’t really have sticker shock. The total cost was 173 Reality Points 2025-10-02 22:12:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 16: Node Network
Now that I had the various essences of Mana to work with, I had to see if they would properly fit into the conception of the world. Fortunately, I had kept Mana separate from actual matter, so I didn’t have to explain why something as prolific as air didn’t have a direct essence yet.
Sti...
2025-10-02 03:04:54 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 15: The Essence of Elements
I went ahead and placed the new animals and plants.
Now that I’d actually done it, I found myself wondering about some of the assumptions I’d made.
Could I have made a world where there was no real difference between animals and plants?
Where every creature was of the same basic typ...
2025-10-02 03:03:31 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 14: Core Concept
I was very pleased, because the moment I named my new organ, Orpheus was actually curious.
“I have only limited understanding of your old world,” she said. “But… isn’t a monster a bad thing?”
“It can be,” I agreed, as I began refining the parameters of the new organ and what it ...
2025-10-02 03:02:05 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 13: High Fiber
After another few hours of browsing menus and prototyping ideas, I finally settled on something for the plants.
Putting restrictions on living things wasn’t that difficult. But limiting what they could develop into… that was the hard part.
I stretched my arms and sat up, causing Orpheus to pe...
2025-10-02 03:00:30 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 12: Cohesion
The 1:10 ratio gave me time.
If I’d been a scientist trying to resolve everything, even with that dilation, the work likely would’ve taken so long that the rest of the biosphere would have died out before I came close to a solution.
Fortunately, I could alter the rules of reality itself...
2025-10-02 02:59:28 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 11: Mistakes Were Made
I pulled up the interface that showed me the world and zoomed out as much as I could.
It thankfully allowed for options like cutaway views and region overlays, and I could mentally flip it up or down, zoom in on various regions, and isolate elements one at a time.
I set the Time Dilation 2025-10-02 02:58:44 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 10: Emerald Blanket
FIRST EPOCH
You have started the flow of time in a new universe. The First Epoch has begun.
SECOND EPOCH
Your universe has become host to a stable, viable world capable of sustaining life. The Second Epoch has begun.
RANK UP - LEVEL 2
Due to your accomplishments, you are now a Rank ...
2025-10-02 02:02:38 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 9: Tea Time
I took a deep breath. Functionally, I knew I didn’t have to, but for some reason it still felt calming.
Briefly, I wondered how far this modeling of my personality went. If I could still feel anxious, if I could still soothe myself with a breath… how much of me was me?
I had a feeling that if I ...
2025-10-02 01:47:51 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 8: Night and Day
The first thing I had to do, of course, was add some atmosphere.
This was a lot easier than I expected. I could simply select it from a list and determine the depth along with various behavioral properties.
While I was doing this, I belatedly realized I was missing some important elements. In this case,...
2025-10-02 01:47:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 7: Landscaping
The interface could sometimes be overwhelming, but I was starting to get how it was customized to me. To make a cylinder, I just set the parameters – wall thickness, radius, and so on.
Now that I wanted to actually make some terrain, selecting the surface opened up something like a 3D paint program. I didn’...
2025-10-02 01:46:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 6: A Whole New World
I flipped back to the Matter and Energy tab.
I couldn’t help but speak aloud to Orpheus behind me… after all, what was the point of having a great idea if you had nobody to tell it to?
I opened up the Material Creation screen while I spoke.
“So Orpheus, handling a closed universe is main...
2025-10-01 23:44:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 5: A Magical Place
I considered the updated interface. Making my Sanctuary more comfortable seemed like an easy choice, but as I thought about it, I realized I wasn’t really tired. I’d jumped straight from death into working on this project without even sitting down. Logically, I knew my body wasn’t a real body, so it made se...
2025-10-01 21:35:06 +0000 UTC View Post