Pov Chy

I watched as she walked away, curiously looking every which way at new things she had never seen before. Her real form was quite powerful-looking, but it was quite weird to see a creature with six legs. Father tells me that she’s the first to reach platinum rank in his new playroom, but honestly, I can’t imagine how she could be so childlike after having gone through all the struggle to even survive.

I think she likes the human body as it can manipulate things in small ways, unlike her other body. I don’t have that problem in my own real body as it’s quite a lot smaller, and my claws can help me manipulate things quite precisely.

The only reason I’m currently in my human body is because, well, humans look quite soft and squishy and don’t have any displayed weaponry or even places to hide natural weapons. It’s still weird to me to think that animals like this conquered the surface world, but I can see how consciousness can help with that.

I didn’t think that doing this kind of job would make me remember my past like this, but I guess it wasn’t that different for me. The journey to platinum was a long and difficult one for me, because ever since I got to gold rank and started to develop a consciousness, I haven’t really enjoyed fighting.

That’s not to say that I’m not good at it, but I enjoy painting more. I also didn’t want to join the Academy, as that sounded like too much responsibility, and none of the options really drew me in.

Here, I can have my small cottage near a small stream, and I don’t even have to welcome newcomers if I don’t feel like it, as Father didn’t want it to be a mandatory job. Otherwise, it wouldn’t function as properly as he wanted it to. I still don’t understand how it’s possible for a platinum rank to be so new to proper thinking that she didn’t even have a name to call herself.

I know that he can make patterns, which he then uses to make monsters, and when those monsters have children, we creatures are born from them. But I never understood how much he could manipulate those patterns into something he wants to see come to life. It’s kind of humbling to think that with so much power, he still chooses to use just regular patterns from the surface world and gives us so much for achieving different kinds of goals.

There were a few others in this small village meant to welcome new platinum ranks. We had a place for them to sleep, where they could do some shopping, and more importantly, a large school where we could teach them the basics of language and everything else they need to know. The teachers were with the Academy, and they seemed quite excited to actually teach someone the basics.

We weren’t the only village of this sort; there were hundreds, and as more people like me and others who chose to join this playroom for various reasons, more of these kinds of villages were opened. But there were also larger settlements planned, and I know a few who were planning on opening up a sawmill to supply wood if someone wanted to build anything not made by Father.

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I personally haven’t been outside the playrooms or even visited the Academy, but I knew what was happening out there and in the surface world. I wondered if we were going to have some kind of civilization like they did, but it would be weird if it were to consist of basically only platinum ranks. Although, now that I think about it, could we have offspring with each other? I should find one of the Academy members and ask them.

I decided to take off my ring and revert back to my real body, that of a bobcat. I had a picture in my mind that I wanted to paint, and that was the first moment I saw her appear in that clearing. She was so frightened, yet she didn’t lash out, even though she had only known fighting for her entire life.

I think I admire her and the way she simply moved on and started to explore her new world with excited eyes. Yes, I was definitely going to have to paint another one when she was already in human form and learning about her opportunities.

It took about a month before we got another call that a new platinum rank would appear in the welcoming clearing. Charlotte was next to me in her human form. We had complained to Father about there not being enough of us to welcome so many new platinum ranks that would be coming up, but he was quite certain that the ones who came up would want to welcome others.

Charlotte was here, already ready to welcome someone who had lived the same life as she did. I like the name she picked out for herself; it somehow suited her human form.

Father also warned us that more and more creatures were closing in on platinum rank and that soon we would have a steady flow of them. I’m guessing that not everyone will be as gentle as Charlotte, but I knew of a town about 500 kilometers north where they already have set up an arena for fighting. It’s the one that will save your life, but it seems that most of us can’t just do a more relaxed life, at least not entirely. I’m guessing it will be the same with the newcomers, but we will see.

“Are you ready, Charlotte?” She smiled at me in that cute way.

“I’m in no way ready, but I will do it anyway. I still have some glimpses of memories about my life before here, and I’m guessing they will too, but they are hazy and getting hazier every day. I want to help them get past the troubles that will come in a few days so they can enjoy this new life they will have as much as I have.” Then we heard it. The displacement of air, and a new creature appeared.

It kind of looked like a vicious dog, but its eyes were so similar to Charlotte’s back then. I watched as Charlotte activated the mind communication bracelet. I wouldn’t be able to hear what she would say, but I was here just to monitor things, and of course, if things went wrong, I had the combat power to neutralize any threat without actually hurting anyone.

This one seemed a bit more guarded, but once again there wasn’t the viciousness I was expecting, and after a few minutes, I could see this creature starting to look around exactly like Charlotte did back then. I don’t think that even Father expected it to work out so well, but I guess these are still early days.

“Can you connect to him now?” Charlotte said, and so I did.

“Hello?” came a hesitant response from the new mind connected to me.

“She was the one who welcomed me,” I heard Charlotte say out loud and at the same time communicate to this creature. We could have both made the connection at the start, but it would be a lot more intimidating if two people tried to communicate at the same time in your head, especially when you have just developed the ability to reason and recognize that you are a person.

We continued to talk to him, and while it took a little bit longer, he eventually agreed to follow us and even accepted the body-changing ring. He seemed especially fascinated with everything around him when he was in human form, immediately starting to touch every object he could get his hands on.

“I remember vaguely having an interesting-shaped rock that I carried around, but I lost it some time ago. Do you perhaps have rocks here, and is there a way to manipulate their shape? I’d like to try to recreate it before I lose the memory entirely.” That question came out of nowhere.

“Yes, I think I can help you with that,” I communicated. It was still so weird that a person who shouldn’t be able to speak at all could so easily communicate thanks to these bracelets. From my understanding, they are quite common now in the playrooms, as some species literally have no way to communicate without them.

I’m pretty sure there should be an Academy personnel here who’s good at crafting. They should be able to help him. I had the feeling that every such welcome I was going to have wasn’t going to be as similar as I expected.