I Have a God Simulator

After Yan Jiu became a Sand Walker, an idea occurred to Luh Yao.

He could have the Apostles screen a group of qualified Yao Race Extraordinary Beings, giving them a chance to become Cloud Monks or Sand Walkers.

This would serve two purposes: it would introduce a new population to the dilapidated world to help transform Yunzhong Temple, and it would also provide the Extraordinary Beings with a new path for growth.

However, this would require establishing a stable, long-term system. The prerequisites and selection methods weren't clear yet, so he couldn't rush things.

After becoming a Sand Walker, Yan Jiu's [History] was cleared, and he gained two new abilities: [Sand] and [Rule Walker].

The latter, in particular—the ability to travel stealthily using rules—was the core of being a Sand Walker.

After becoming a Martial Cultivator, Yan Jiu had once again become the pioneer of a new path.

Luh Yao had the Guest Monk guide him so he could first adapt to the Yunzhong Temple environment and get the hang of his new abilities.

Then he went to the bathroom.

When he came back and looked, Yan Jiu was gone.

Luh Yao opened the Golden Field's back-end and searched for related entries.

He got a single result: [Ascension]. Afterward, there was no trace of the man.

Luh Yao was floored.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been a good thing.

Ascension wasn't easy for Sand Walkers. In the past, many of Yunzhong Temple's Sand Walkers had failed their Ascension, ultimately merging with the Guest Monk in despair.

But for Luh Yao's plan, this was a disaster.

He had just chosen a driver to scout the path, and the guy had immediately done a burnout and driven off the grid.

The other passengers hadn't even gotten on board yet.

Luh Yao deeply lamented the loss of Yan Jiu.

After some painful reflection, he came to a conclusion.

'From now on, I have to emphasize to every person who changes class: Don't Ascend! Don't Ascend!'

Ascension wasn't as wonderful as it sounded.

In the [Banquet Bird] world, the Sand Tower formed from a Sand Walker's corpse still stood—a stark example of failure right there for all to see.

It was a path to an unknown destination, with no clear way back.

Luh Yao thought it over.

Whether it was the Era Update or the Ascension incident, it all boiled down to his own inadequate understanding and application of the world's rules.

He had to tackle the problem at its root to prevent similar issues from cropping up later.

Luh Yao officially decided to use Yunzhong Temple as a new experimental zone.

This world's rules were simple, and since there were no living creatures left, there was no risk of damaging an ecosystem.

Furthermore, because it was so thoroughly ruined that even the Era Updates had ceased, there were conveniently fewer interruptions.

Besides, Yunzhong Temple was large enough to provide ample space for transforming the terrain or running further species evolution simulations.

Compared to a normal world, this place—aside from its two wonders—was utterly worthless.

But as a laboratory for all kinds of experiments, it couldn't be more perfect.

He decided to get right to it.

Luh Yao clicked on the Golden Field, selected "New" within the rules, and created an entry for [Lightning].

Luh Yao had a soft spot for lightning.

'The power of lightning has been indispensable to my growth all this time.'

He opened a search engine, looked up some facts about lightning, and then clattered away, typing a simple rule under the new entry.

...

[Lightning]: A discharge phenomenon that occurs between clouds, between a cloud and the ground, or between different parts within a cloud.

Damage: 40

Speed: 15

[Lightning Frequency]

Lightning has a 1/6 chance of striking the ground.

[Lightning Structure]

Mostly linear in shape and constantly changing.

...

After finishing the basic definition, Luh Yao clicked "Complete."

The display showed that it required 145,000 Fire of Faith.

The number made Luh Yao wince.

'The R&D costs for a God are way too high!'

He tinkered with it for a while longer and figured out a little trick.

A rule applied to an entire world required an enormous amount of Fire of Faith to sustain. However, the more detailed and precise the description and its related definitions were, and the more he confined it to a small area, the more the cost could be drastically reduced.

Not far from the Cloud-Running Platform, Luh Yao used an Earthquake, a Hurricane, and Rainfall to create a small, artificial lake. It would dry up before long, but that was fine as long as it worked for a little while.

He designated the artificial lake as the rule's area of effect.

Luh Yao clicked "Complete" on [Lightning].

This time, the cost in Faith was only 1,200.

He watched the lake's surface with anticipation.

Cloud Monks of various shapes walked across the lake, and lightning did indeed appear. But because of the excessive clouds and mist, the lightning flashed almost constantly, seemingly without end.

In less than ten minutes, the entire [Lightning] entry displayed [Failed].

His first attempt at writing a rule had failed.

Luh Yao tried again.

After a dozen or so failures, Luh Yao finally managed to write a version of localized [Lightning] that could sustain itself stably for a relatively long time.

The key to making the lightning rule stable and lasting was to link it to the pillar Rule Powers of the world—in the case of Yunzhong Temple, that meant [Cloud] and [Sand].

It was like designing a circuit diagram: he had to integrate it into the existing framework. Starting that way was much easier.

Therefore, when creating the lightning rule in Yunzhong Temple, he couldn't just copy the back-end description from the Yao Race World. It had to be tailored to Yunzhong Temple's specific conditions.

He used cloud and sand as a trigger mechanism, leveraging their power base to generate the lightning effect.

The definition of lightning was now completely different.

...

[Lightning]: A discharge phenomenon between cloud and sand.

...

Below this, he could link the [Cloud] and [Sand] entries, creating an interaction that formed a simple, organic whole.

Having grasped this basic principle, Luh Yao's subsequent experiments became more purposeful.

He went on to experiment with adding [Drizzle], [Low Temperature], and [Humidity]. These rules were all based on the interaction between [Cloud], [Sand], and [Lightning], but their effects were not as stable as lightning, working only intermittently.

Subsequent optimization was also fraught with problems.

But at least he had gone from zero to one.

What Luh Yao had to do next was experiment with how to make these intermittent, crude, and problematic rules more stable and more useful for the world's overall evolution and development.

After finishing up with this experiment, Luh Yao moved on to his favorite part.

Introducing a species.

Yunzhong Temple was a lifeless world, so introducing any living creature would most likely be a death sentence. That made it crucial to pick a hardy, resilient test subject.

Luh Yao put on a pair of rubber gloves and found a suitable subject right there in his house.

A cockroach.

He used to think his old house had a few too many cockroaches; now he felt there were too few.

As the cockroach was projected into the simulator, he named the species and placed it by the artificial lake in the Yunzhong Temple world.

The cockroach now had its own stat panel.

...

[Sand Cockroach LV1]

Life Value: 3/3

Mana Value: 1/1

Damage: 1

Defense: 1

Speed: 6

...

After becoming an extraordinary creature, this species possessed the [Endurance] Trait.

Luh Yao dropped Sand Cockroaches into the desert world one by one.

Initially, they died constantly. The survivors ate the corpses of the dead to eke out an existence, and even then, they continued to reproduce with desperate instinct.

Luh Yao noticed that after five or six generations, one Sand Cockroach mutated.

Its Speed dropped to 2 and its Defense to 0, perhaps to reduce any unnecessary energy expenditure.

The descendants of this Sand Cockroach became more resistant to starvation. Their bodies grew even smaller and more shriveled, and they looked like little black seashells.

After generations of evolution, the Sand Cockroaches adapted further to the desert environment.

They gained the [Iron Stomach] ability, allowing them to consume sand and gravel for sustenance.

However, due to their small Body Type and the fact they barely moved, they looked like thin slivers of stone. Sand Cockroaches consumed very little, needing only a tiny amount of sand to survive.

One could say they were alive, but they actually existed in a state between life and death, retaining only the most basic biological traits.

But ultimately, they had adapted to their environment.

This was of great significance to Luh Yao.

He had originally wanted to observe the process of species evolution and extinction, so he chose cockroaches for their hardiness. He never expected them to actually survive in such a dilapidated world with its warped rules.

Of course, this was on the premise that they became Extraordinary Creatures after being introduced.

Though the Sand Cockroaches were insignificant, they formed the very foundation of life in this world. Their successful survival proved that Yunzhong Temple might truly one day regain its vitality.

Luh Yao decided to give them another push.

He opened the Golden Field, clicked on the [Tree of Creation], and selected a [Sand Cockroach] as the species base.

Then he pulled down the Artifact Bar. His gaze paused on the [Tyrant Whale Whiskers], but that Artifact came with an underwater breathing ability, which probably wasn't suitable for a desert environment.

In the end, Luh Yao chose the [Wild Horn] from the list, an Artifact that could call nearby creatures to gather.

He fused the Sand Cockroach with the Fire Seed Artifact, creating a new species.

It had harder, thicker elytra that resembled a ridged, grayish-brown carapace, like a seashell. Its antennae could retract into this shell, making it look, in some ways, like a flattened version of a hard-shelled snail.

Luh Yao renamed it the [Shell Cockroach].

...

[Shell Cockroach LV1]

Life Value: 3/3

Mana Value: 1/1

Damage: 1

Defense: 3

Speed: 2

[Endurance]

[Iron Stomach]

[Gregarious]

...

This insect species had completely abandoned its ability to fly and move, relying on its endurance and consumption of sand to survive.

What interested Luh Yao most was their method of movement.

The Shell Cockroaches would link their ridged shells together, moving through the sand as a large, slow-moving group that looked quite imposing.

This method of moving as a group allowed them to better cope with Yunzhong Temple's harsh climate.

When sandstorms came, their tightly linked carapaces created an interlocking effect. The group would form several layers, top and bottom, resembling a giant Lego seashell.

Luh Yao looked forward to seeing what they would become in the future.

As he was watching the cockroaches form up, a notification popped up in the simulator.

[The Elves of the south have presented a Sacrificial Offering.]

A long-awaited Sacrificial Offering!

Luh Yao clicked the entry, and the screen immediately jumped to the Southern New Continent of the Yao Race World.

At some point, a Divine Hall had been built outside Elf Lake. This Divine Hall was woven entirely from vines and wood, which fit the Elves' aesthetic sensibilities quite well.

A pale blue branch had appeared in the Divine Hall's Sacrificial Offering slot.

...

[Calamity Branches]: Faith +1/hour.

A magical branch nurtured from the corpse of a Calamity Beast. It must grow in water and has a certain chance of spawning a Water Elemental Disaster Beast.

...

A thought suddenly lit up in Luh Yao's mind.

'How could I have forgotten about this?'

'Yunzhong Temple is short on water, so I can just grab the Water Disaster Beasts from the Yao Race World and bring them over! They can wreak as much havoc as they want there. A dead world is the perfect place for their brand of chaos!'

'Over there, they won't be creating disaster—they'll be creating life!'