The second the scan finished, I grabbed the continent on the map and with the flick of my wrist it broke apart. There were no tremors to warn of the approaching earthquake. Instead, the planet itself trembled violently. Trees shook so hard they were collapsing by the handfuls, and chasms were opening up around us. But Helios had reassured me we would be unharmed. The system considered where we stood and stopped anything related to terraforming from harming us. It formed a semicircle of protection around us, almost as if time itself came to a screeching halt.
Just ahead of us, a giant canyon formed, and magma seeped through the crack of the rocks. Trees which stood untouched shattered in half and fell into the growing chasm. Water rushed in from the distance, filling in the canyon as it expanded in size. The sheer violence of it all was astounding. But to be fair, I was also watching a geological change that would happen over hundreds of millions of years occur in minutes.
The gap between where I stood and the other continent only grew in size. Waves crashed against what was now a cliff side. The planet still trembled as the land masses were moving to what would be their new homes. But I wasn’t done. With another flick of my hand, I split the two. large continents in half once more, and gestured for the half to my right to go south, and the other towards the north.
It was as if the hand of god descended from the sky and tore the ground asunder. The ground here was ragged and torn. Rocks tumbled down into the sea below, and great gouts of steam shot into the air as water and fire met. With a fierce crack, the landscapes split into two, and magma boiled to the surface. Thunder clouds brewed in the air, and lighting split the sky. The cacophonous noise of a planet changing at this rate only grew in strength, splitting trees and crushing rocks.
While I waited for this to finish, I opened my menu and went to the naming function. Here I would label this spot, ‘Genesis’ for here it was the planet was made anew.
Once I was done, I watched the map as it changed in real time. The continent I stood on was jagged now. The coastline twisted and shifted with each passing second as entire sections plummeted into the sea. As if the planet were trying to find equilibrium before it settled. All around the world, the new continents were still shifting and falling apart as they moved. But as it ended, and only the occasional aftershocks and raging storms were all that was left of what I just did.
“What do you think?” I asked as I studied the new map of Ouradia. There were now four continents, and a myriad of islands that had formed from the rising magma and falling pieces of continents. There were easily hundreds that had formed, and even more so, that were still forming. But before I even considered dropping life on them, I wanted to let the planet rest for a bit. It wouldn’t do for life to be annihilated at conception because of what I had just done.
“It looks good. Enough land space for your races to develop, and enough islands to support unique races. But we will see once the planet has settled down a bit. It still needs time to finish finding equilibrium after all.” He pulled the small tree to his chest protectively as he gazed out across the new ocean. There was nothing there but a few islands and a raging tempest that howled and ripped apart the land as easily as paper.
“Shall we head back home and discuss our next course of action?” I pulled my attention away from the raging storm and looked around the continent behind me. Much of the forest was eviscerated by terraforming the planet. Smoke drifted into the air, and rain fell by the bucket full. Arcs of electricity shot towards the ground, tearing up trees, and leaving smoking holes.
I felt bad, staring at this damage. This planet was fine until I stumbled up on it. Life here was flourishing. But it needed to change to accommodate something more. Though it was unfair, this was the fundamental truth of the universe. Everything was a cycle that had to be respected, and if it wasn’t there would only be decay and stagnation. This was a sobering thought and not one that I would have had when I was only human. But being an administrator had opened my eyes to the bitter truth of the universe.
“Yes, my lord. When we return, I will walk you through the marketplace, and set up the final bits of this world.” The wind howled and kicked at his hair, and tore at the sapling in his hand. But his eyes glowed like molten gold as he stared across the landscape. With each passing second, more and more of his personality was shining through. While he may still be bland, I was excited to see what he would become.
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Total cost of terraforming was sixty percent of your creation mana. You have five percent remaining.
As he spoke, the annoying notification appeared in my eyes which I quickly waved away. I wasn’t too concerned about that right now. I was pretty satisfied with what I have. “Alright yeah, that sounds fair.” I took one last look around at my handy work before I set my hand on his shoulder and teleported us back to the command center.
“Before we start, I’m going to go plant this tree.” My companion quickly broke away and walked over to the far corner of the room. But before I could speak and tell him that there wasn’t a pot, or dirt, the wall expanded and dirt appeared from thin air. He dropped to his knees and quickly planted the sapling.
“How did you do that?” I really shouldn’t be dumbfounded at stuff like this, but here I was. I wasn’t even far enough along yet to even consider changing my command center. Yet here Helios was, doing it on the drop of a dime to plant a tree. I guess that was just a difference in priorities.
“Sorry, I should have told you sooner. You can alter the command center on a whim. There are some circumstances that don’t allow it, and some areas need modules. While we are on the topic, here.” He made a quick gesture with his dirt covered hand and another screen appeared in my vision.
Welcome to the administration control room modification screen. You are provided with a free vendor module as a gift.
Rules and general information regarding the use of administration control rooms:
1) Administrators can not die while in the control room, unless the capital planet is contested by an invader.
2) The size of the control room is predefined based on level.
3) If the capital becomes contested, then the control room will be teleported to a pre-selected location as designated by the user, and must be defended at all costs. Loss of the control room will cause a countdown to either reclaim it, or the user will die, or become subservient to the conqueror.
4) Defensive upgrades done to the control room will be made to the current technological scale of the most advanced species at the time of implementation. However, upgrades can be queued for advancement once established, as long as the relevant technology exists.
5) Any items created in the control room can be sent down to the planets under your control as long as it:
A)Does not exceed the technological level of the most advanced species at the time of creation, and if it does, only ONE copy may be sent at the cost of creation points. The item can also be labeled as a relic, which would reduce the cost of creation points, but only two may be sent down of the same type. Relics are capped at four based on administration level, and upgrades to the control room.
1. B) Materials created in the control room can not be transported down into any worlds owned by the user unless they are first created on the planet and and or exist there naturally.
6) Upon the capital being contested, the control room will take on the architectural design of either the most predominant religious ideology if the user did not set up a predefined look.
7) Any skills or abilities learned while in the control room will NOT be transferred onto the administrator when not in the room, nor will they exist when the capital world is contested.
Control Room Status Page
Control Room Health: 100%
Status: Uncontested
Rooms: Viewing Room
Modules: Vendor Module
Building slots: 1/3
Oh okay. There seemed to be a lot of restrictions on what I could do up here. Which made sense in the grand scheme of things. Letting Administrators create what would be literal god tier equipment and then ship it down to your planets would be busted. But the thing that caught my interest was that I wouldn’t be able to die up here unless I was under attack. That was a whole other can of beans that I wasn’t about to open yet. It was far enough in the future that I could put it off for at least a little while I got set up. Then I would figure out a contingency plan for it. Not now though.
The other thing that I thought was really cool was the vendor module. Which I was excited to explore! Ah, this was so much fun! I was like a child in a candy shop for stuff like this. While Helios was planting his tree, and my planet was terraforming. I might as well explore the shop, and see what this vendor tab does.