I Have a God Simulator

For a very long time, the islanders lived a carefree life.

Food was abundant on the vast island: berry bushes dotted the landscape, dense coconut trees grew along the beaches, and the shores were littered with washed-up shells, fish, and crabs.

The little people could fill their bellies relying on nature’s bounty alone.

They worshipped a friendly and gentle God: the Bright God.

Whenever the little people encountered a problem they couldn’t handle, the Bright God would send down a Blessing. He made rain fall during scorching heat, used gales to scatter giant waves, and dispersed torrential downpours with sunlight.

Under their God’s protection, the people of the Mingyue Tribe lived each day in ease and comfort.

The Bright God bestowed a seed called wheat, and the islanders began to try their hand at farming. But they didn’t pay it much mind, as there was no shortage of food on the island.

To the Mingyue Tribe, the wheat was just another delicacy, but its appearance drew the intense attention of large flocks of seabirds. The birds’ fondness for wheat far surpassed that of the little people, and they often swarmed in to peck at the grains.

Before long, the Mingyue Tribe found themselves perpetually plagued by the flocks. Many of these birds had come from far away, all for a taste of the delicious wheat.

The Mingyue Tribe even prayed and lamented to their God about the issue.

The Bright God simply summoned a wind to scatter the flocks, as if to comfort his people.

At some point, a strange, small monster began to grow in the wheat fields. The tribe’s Prophet learned from a divine revelation that they were called Beggar Grass Monsters.

Beggar Grass Monsters were born from weeds and were thinner than insects. A lone Beggar Grass Monster looked no different from an ordinary weed, except that it could twist its body to press down on surrounding plants, fighting for more sunlight and nutrients from the soil.

But once these Beggar Grass Monsters became numerous, they would cluster together tightly.

In the dead of night, the leaf-blades of the Beggar Grass Monsters would intertwine. They wove a great net across the ground, strangling all other nearby plants to seize vast swaths of soil and the sunlight above.

They were also skilled at Disguise.

The Beggar Grass Monsters grew to look more and more like wheat. They would hide secretly in the wheat fields, choke out the wheat, and take its place to receive the care of the Farmers.

The Mingyue Tribe found it increasingly difficult to distinguish between the Beggar Grass Monsters and the wheat.

The angry little people of the tribe tried all sorts of methods—fire, flood, and burial—in an attempt to eradicate the grass monsters.

They did manage to clear out vast patches of the Beggar Grass Monsters. But by then, the little monsters had already spread across the entire island: in the cracks of rocks, on the sandy beaches, in the water, in the trees... They would never be wiped out unless the whole island was burned to ash.

The islanders were utterly helpless against these little monsters.

It was only then that the Mingyue Tribe discovered the truth: the seeds of the Beggar Grass Monsters had been brought to the island by the flocks of birds. The monsters had no natural predators there, so they grew unchecked, rapidly evolving to their current state of total dominance.

The Bright God gave the Prophet a revelation: "Go to sea and find a new land."

But as soon as they took to the ocean, the Mingyue Tribe was met with a naval blockade by the East Sea Clan.

The Mingyue Tribe only knew how to build crude wooden rafts and were completely outmatched in speed and maneuverability by the canoes of the East Sea Clan. With Sea Monsters eyeing them menacingly from below, the Mingyue Tribe didn’t dare enter the water and had no choice but to retreat to land.

Harassed on two fronts, the islanders once again prayed for a Blessing from their God, hoping to escape their predicament.

Unable to bear seeing his little people suffer, the Bright God performed another Miracle.

He used a treasured artifact to concoct a special Magic Potion.

This Magic Potion transformed the island’s rats into Mad Traveler Rats. They launched a frenzied assault on the Beggar Grass Monsters, devouring every last one they could see.

Faced with the Mad Traveler Rats’ Hunting, the Beggar Grass Monsters were powerless to fight back. This time, they finally suffered a devastating blow. Eaten by the swarm of rats and turned into dung, they could no longer regenerate.

Seeing the rat swarm winning one victory after another, the little people of the Mingyue Tribe were all ecstatic.

However, the good times did not last.

Once the Beggar Grass Monsters that had overrun the island were mostly cleared out, the Mad Traveler Rats didn’t stop. They began to devour the other plants. Wheat, weeds, coconut trees—the rats ate everything.

The Mingyue Tribe could only watch helplessly as the Beggar Grass Monsters were replaced by the Mad Traveler Rats. They were still utterly powerless.

The rat swarms were even harder to deal with than the Beggar Grass Monsters. They moved quickly, could burrow to hide, and could even swim and dive.

When their numbers were small, the Mad Traveler Rats would flee from people. But once their population grew, they lost all fear, brazenly parading about and even sneaking into the tribe’s homes to steal food.

As the swarms continued to grow, the Mad Traveler Rats’ appetites became ever more voracious.

Finally, that day came.

The swarms began to hunt the islanders on a massive scale.

Facing a life-and-death crisis, the Mingyue Tribe exploded with unprecedented courage and ferocity. Armed with wooden spears and stones, they killed wave after wave of rats.

But alas, humans feel fear and grow weary. Every person who died was one less defender.

The rat swarms, however, were endless.

Their ability to reproduce far surpassed that of humans, and the Magic Potion had made them frenzied and tireless. Dead rats became food for other rats, fuel for the birth of the next generation. They cannibalized their own kind without a second thought.

The humans were gradually driven back by the swarms, cornered next to the Bright God’s Divine Statue on the mountain.

The God was furious beyond measure.

The Bright God sent down lightning and Hurricanes. The flames sparked by the lightning and the raging winds annihilated the swarms that covered the mountainside. Yet, none of the corpses went to waste, becoming meals for the other Mad Traveler Rats.

These tenacious little creatures relied on sheer Madness and an incredible rate of Rapid Reproduction to fight against the God’s mighty power.

Then one day, the God could no longer summon lightning.

The Bright God was tired.

The countless Mad Traveler Rats finally surged up the mountain, completely overwhelming the last of the humans and the Divine Statue.

Having lost all his Believers, the Bright God also met his end.

...

After reading the history of Mingyue Island’s fall, Luh Yao’s first thought was that it was utterly absurd.

The Mingyue Tribe was absurd.

And this player called the Bright God was absurd, too.

The fall of Mingyue Island was a perfect demonstration of how a Divine Player should *not* operate.

Overprotecting one’s Believers not only unnecessarily consumes a player’s Faith, but it also deepens the Believers’ dependence on their God.

Most little people from the tribal era weren’t very intelligent, so Luh Yao wasn’t surprised by their gluttonous and lazy behavior. Before the Garlic Tribe had been knocked around a bit, its people had also been content to just lie back and do nothing.

The core problem was that the player, the Bright God, had a flawed mindset.

Luh Yao had already figured out a working strategy: a Divine Player needed to use Faith to perform Miracles judiciously, propelling the civilization’s progress at critical moments while maintaining a certain distance from their Believers at all other times.

This approach not only teaches the Believers to be self-reliant but also gives the player more room to maneuver.

Mingyue Island had excellent starting conditions. If the Bright God had created a few natural disasters to apply some pressure, the little people on the island would have naturally felt the threat to their survival.

They would have learned to build sturdier houses to shelter from the wind and rain.

They would have learned to cultivate crops or raise fish to obtain a more stable food source.

They would have researched the Shipbuilding Technique; with ships to sail the seas, they would have had a way to learn about the outside world.

These were all steps in the right direction.

Yet the Bright God lacked the Patience to wait and chose the worst possible path.

He used the Broken Magic Potion Crucible to create a Magic Potion, unleashed the Mad Traveler Rats to deal with the Beggar Grass Monsters, and was ultimately consumed by the backlash from his own creation, losing both his people and his land... Throughout the entire process, the Mingyue Tribe played no part at all, acting like giant infants who only knew how to take from their God.

A God defeated by monsters of his own making. It was truly ironic.

A thought suddenly occurred to Luh Yao.

’If the Beggar Grass Monsters and Mad Traveler Rats entered the Garlic Tribe, could they handle it?’

Isabel replied, "My Lord, in the region where the Garlic Tribe resides, the Farmers have already learned how to deal with weeds."

"Insects often try to eat the crops in the fields, but those insects are hunted by birds, and rats are food for various animals in the forest... It’s not a closed ecosystem like this island. The Order over there is functioning as it should."

’That’s true,’ Luh Yao thought.

The initiative and responsiveness of the Garlic Tribe were beyond anything the sheltered little people of Mingyue Island could ever hope to match.

From the very beginning, they had faced the threat of the Forest Tribe, and had successively clashed with the East River Tribe, the Salt Pool Tribe, the East Sea Clan, and even numerous monsters. It was safe to say they had been walking on thin ice the entire time.

Humanity’s strength and resilience were forged in the crucible of one hard-fought battle after another.