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Faith can be increased using prayers of wise race or death of any lifeforms according to their intelligence and strength.

-System, what is a wise race?- Sunny pressed, a new goal forming in his mind.

A wise race possesses the capacity for complex thought, self-awareness, and the ability to formulate abstract concepts such as belief, worship, and reverence. Their prayers, when directed towards a deity, generate significant faith.

Sunny nodded slowly. So, the tiny 0.0023124 Faith was likely from the sheer number of algae living and dying, a constant, low-level churn.

True, substantial Faith, the kind that would unlock major divine interventions, would come from sentient beings. That was the long game.

-Should I intervene to increase the evolution?- he pondered, gazing at the microscopic world of Veridia.

But then he saw his Faith points, still in that minuscule decimal, and sighed. -Let’s wait for few minutes to increase my faith points somewhat.- He needed a buffer.

Sunny again opened the God Chat to pass the time, hoping for more insight or simply entertainment.

Kairos: -Do you guys want to see something?-

-What are you boasting about this time Kairos?- ‘Skeptic’ shot back.

-I want to see what the bigshot is boasting,- added ‘Curious God’.

-+1-.-+12345.- A predictable flood of agreement followed.

-See this,- Kairos typed, attaching an image.

Sunny opened the image and felt a jolt of astonishment.

It was a clear depiction of Kairos’s lifeforms: not algae, not even simple multicellular organisms, but something far more complex.

A chitinous exoskeleton, segmented body, multiple legs ��� an Arthropod. A beetle-like insect, scuttling across what looked like mossy ground.

-10 times faster then others is truly terrifying. I am evolving my algae and he is boasting about his Arthropods,- Sunny muttered, a mix of admiration and envy swirling within him.

Kairos’s S-grade talent, -Time Accelerate x10,- was proving to be incredibly powerful in the early game.

The chat exploded with reactions:

-My algae died and here the bigshot has already evolved his lifeforms to Arthropods.-

-I want to hug the bigshot’s thighs.-

-I want to have monkeys for bigshot.- The desperation and sycophancy were palpable.

Sunny closed the chat after a few more minutes, a fresh resolve hardening his divine will.

He wasn’t Kairos, but he had his own path.

He checked his faith points again, the decimals now replaced by whole numbers. The sheer scale of life on Veridia was generating Faith faster than he had initially realized, especially now that evolution was truly kicking in and more complex algae were consuming weaker ones.

The algae populations were already above 1 billion, a testament to their incredibly efficient reproduction in a suitable environment.

And his faith points stood at a healthy 16.1526153. This was it.

-Now I can intervene to increase the evolution!- Sunny grinned, a surge of divine power flowing through him.

He wouldn’t directly force evolution, but he could create the conditions for it.

He used 4 Faith points to subtly decrease the available resources for the algae.

Not to a starvation point, which would decimate them, but just enough to spike the competition for survival.

This gentle pressure would act as a powerful evolutionary accelerator, pushing the fittest to adapt and thrive.

It was a delicate balance: too little competition would stagnate growth, too much would cause mass extinction.

Next, with a powerful mental push, he used another 6 Faith points to evaporate the vast, obscuring layers of water in strategic areas. Slowly, majestically, landmasses began to emerge from the depths of Veridia. Continents, islands, mountain ranges ��� not perfectly formed, but nascent land.

This would open up entirely new ecological niches, forcing the evolving life forms to adapt to a terrestrial environment.

The drowning landscape, once a uniform blue, was now revealing its hidden topography.

The remaining 5 Faith points he kept as an emergency reserve. If the lifeforms somehow vanished or stalled disastrously, he would need them.

Sunny then sat back quietly, observing the profound changes wrought by his will.

The newly exposed landmasses steamed under the nascent sun, slowly drying, preparing for the arrival of life.

The vast, billion-strong algae population, now stressed by resource scarcity, was already showing subtle signs of further diversification, adapting to new pressures. He began to think about the next steps.

The first seed had grown, and now, the true complexity of a living world was ready to unfold.

Chapter 4: Ch 4 : Misfortune

Chapter 4 - Ch 4 : Misfortune

It had just been half an hour since Veridia’s grand opening.

In the terms of the world itself, that translated to approximately 208 days, a significant stretch of time for burgeoning life.

Sunny grimaced as he considered the disparity. -I really envy Kairos for this talent of his,- he muttered to himself.

-In his world, 2,000 days would have already passed.

With divine intervention, the evolution and faith points will surely increase wildly.- The sheer temporal advantage felt insurmountable.

Yet, on Veridia, a quiet drama was unfolding beneath the waves.

The sprawling, vibrant algae populations faced their first existential crisis.

The huge threat of predatory algae had pushed their less adaptable kin to the brink of extinction.

But evolution, ever resourceful, sparked a miraculous defense.

Algae that could harness light, others that utilized dissolved soil nutrients, and those uniquely adapted to the specific conditions of the nascent sea united.

In a monumental leap, they formed the first multicellular algae in the world of Veridia.

Congratulations God Cosmos for the first multicellular life in your world!

Sunny grinned at the notification, a surge of triumph washing over him.

This was progress, tangible and significant. -It’s just a matter of time until I also gain arthropods,- he chuckled, thinking of Kairos’s boasting. -About an hour, I guess.-

His internal clock, still calibrated to his own perception, estimated the time until a similar evolutionary leap.

He checked his status panel. His faith points had stabilized and were now at a respectable 10 in total.

Deciding to capitalize on this surge, Sunny made two swift interventions.

He used 2 faith points to subtly decrease the resources in the sea, intensifying the evolutionary pressure on the now multicellular aquatic life.

Then, with a more significant expenditure, he channeled 4 faith points to increase the nutrient availability on the newly exposed landmasses.

His goal was clear: to entice the microcellular algae, and soon the nascent multicellular forms, to venture onto land and evolve into early fungi or plants, charting a path toward terrestrial life.

With his divine work set in motion for the immediate future, Sunny disengaged from direct observation of Veridia and opened the God Chat.

-Sigh! I am truly bored. I can’t just look at the algae growing; it was fascinating at first, but now it is just the same thing again and again,- typed a God named ‘Black Tongue’, echoing a sentiment many must have felt after the initial novelty wore off.

Just then, a chilling System notification rang worldwide, appearing simultaneously for all the Gods.

Global Notification

All Gods! Every day there will be one major misfortune on your world.

It can be plagues, disasters, and many other mystic misfortunes.

And death due to Misfortune will not provide any faith points. ������������������������������������������������.������������

Players can use their Faith points to prevent the misfortune.

Be ready, Gods!

The chat exploded in a torrent of furious messages.

-Curse you, Black Tongue!- typed a God, followed by countless others echoing the sentiment, blaming the bored deity for tempting fate.