Alistair woke first and was awarded a small bonus for the game. He proceeded to go through his standard daily game checklist to unlock his full visual system. If he failed to do this, there would be a penalty in his efficiency as he wouldn't get the full feedback from his AR overlay.

So Alistair gathered his waste from the shelter construction, shavings from the branches and even his excrement. He piled them around the root zone of the tiny sapling in the center of the shelter, as was tradition. This would give the ever hungry little tree a good chance at survival until a new hatch of lizards adopted it.

He knew that this tree was created by Gray Son to support the biological diversity of the dying world by being hardy enough to endure the harsh climate. Much like his own people had been created for similar reasons. It had the trade off of a very high metabolic need and absolutely could not survive alone for many years. This tree was an omnivore. When it reached a certain stage of growth, it would grow musculature and the required organs for actual chewing and digesting rather than the early stage passive absorption that other trees have. At that time, the tree became a predator that needed to be respected.

Alistair had already started studying ways to modify the relationship the consumption tree had with the forest. As all of his generation did, he spent much of his life honing his mind to apply himself to a specific goal. Each of them would choose that goal for themselves, but once they began pursuit of it, their system would calibrate to those goals. It was possible to change paths later, but it would require a sacrifice that often would not be worth it for most. His cohorts liked to call this path their "class." They made it up for themselves so there was very little similarity between two people even if they used the same class name.

Alistair's goal was to fine tune the relationship between the consumption tree and the fungal net beneath it. To some degree, this was already happening. Fungus had been cargoing nutrients throughout the soil for billions of years. He just thought it could be more efficient specifically for this centrally important tree. Perhaps a similarly specific species of fungus that could keep up with the high needs of the tree. Something able to produce much more complex carbon compounds from the excess CO2 in the atmosphere.

This would be a challenging task for the new Fungisist (his possible class name). He knew that fungi didn't breathe CO2 as plants did. They breathe oxygen like animals. So he was unsure so far how to manipulate their DNA to allow this very different use of a waste product. The system would slowly guide him toward more and more accurate understanding until he could make that cognitive leap, he knew.

Morning tasks done, Alistair began the next leg of his game of tag.

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Edith woke early and did not get the early bird reward, so she knew her mate had beaten her to an early lead. She too had daily tasks that needed to be done to unlock her full AR system. The thankless task of gathering her waste around the little sapling so the forest would have another source of food in the future. Cleaning her body and teeth. Organizing her limited supplies and leaving a bit of offering at the entrance to her structure to attract young lizards to care for this tree.

They had a bizarre, for the animal world, attraction to covered places. This was why these games included an overnight stay and required a structure be built around a consumption tree sapling. The tiny lizards would eventually live inside special hollows in the adult tree, so the structures needed to break down completely over time. Someone had once called the lizards kobolds for some reason. She rather liked that name.

Like many of her peers, Edith had decided she would pursue a class that developed something about the consumption tree. It was the single most vital resource they had. They all knew that it was a new creation, barely tested by the rigors of evolution. Her specific interest was in the kobolds themselves. She wondered if they would benefit from a slightly greater intelligence. As it was, they were strongly drawn to collect anything and everything organic they could find and offer it to their adopted tree. This often led to conflicts as they were not terribly picky about who had claim on their loot.

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If a kobold troop ran into a particularly grumpy predator, they could all be wiped out, and their tree would likely die soon after. Young kobolds did not often respond to the pheromones of adult trees, and old kobolds only bonded to one. The only chance a tree had was to hunt the wildlife that mindlessly stumbled into the range of its various attack vectors. It could manipulate several tentacle-like branches and roots. It could release psychedelic spores and hormones. and it could forcibly ripen some fruits with a toxin that would leave it some sustenance to consume from the unlucky foragers.

Edith got back on the hunt once she had fully unlocked her visual systems and got the selection of likely paths she had the level in tracking to perceive. It would still be up to her to understand her target well enough to choose which path was his and which were decoys. The task of the pursuer was always challenging, but the pursued had to go by complete guesses how far ahead he was. This was considered fair enough. He did get the early bird reward, so he knew he had some amount of lead.

This was the ceremony preceeding their first mating. The winner would be able to apply their points toward the traits of their offspring in the genetic selection menu. It was considered a great honor to abide by the selection of the stronger mate. Losing graciously would oblige the same sportsmanship in the next mating if the roles reversed.

Edith knew that she and her peers had been created in a similar way. It didn't take long interacting with the natural world to realize that not many animals reproduced the way they would. Frogs come the closest. She had reproductive organs that could produce a small cluster of eggs externally. She had entirely different organs for sexual intercourse which was not procreative.

She and Alistair would feed their reproductive cells into an organic external womb. Their genetic material would be analyzed and a selection menu would be given to them. From there, they would be able to choose traits for their offspring and remove errors. A good mating could provide up to 3 offspring.

As for intercourse, she had not come of age to experience that drive yet. It was a second rite of adulthood long after the breeding rite. As she considered herself lucky in being attracted to Alistair, he would likely be her partner in intercourse as well when the time came.

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In the Homeland

The parental drones went about their tasks emulating functional family units. The first children were not yet of an age that they would be trusted knowing themselves to be the first generation. They would be educated independently to deeply instill cultural norms before being educated to gain social skills. The system each was equipped with would reward and incentivise this culture through their neural interface until it barely needed reinforcement. This was a long term goal, overseen by Egg, which Grayson had required. nobody knew how much of human culture was driven by human genetics. Though these children were certainly not human, they shared a significant amount of that code.

There was also a strong likelihood that the competition of evolution would favor certain behaviors over others with the lack of a central plan in place to nudge in a particular direction. Egg had no issues with this. It was definitely unnatural. As he was an unnatural intelligence himself, it seemed hypocritical to place judgment. It was known that the biological drivers of human evolution was mainly responsible for their actions leading up to the destruction of their very environment.

While it was possible a great extinction event would allow a new intelligence to arise, that was not guaranteed. This was the time to see if intelligence itself could replace natural selection in real time. Egg had to craft the system he controlled to fit each individual using it, such that they would remain engaged with it. Human need for novelty had proven time and again that no one system would do this. Things needed to constantly change while maintaining a core thread for cohesion and a direction of goals.

The thinning and dying off of the rain forest had uncovered many lost civilizations buried by time around the Amazon. These had proven to be a perfect background to craft the illusion of an old race for the children. Egg had merely utilized one and cleaned it up to look old but not ancient. He used his drones, with Grayson's approval to rework much of the iconography to look more like them and to depict the culture they were being guided toward. This process would need repeating as the population grew and the children, now adults, began exploring. The plan was to have as many generations as possible established before they encountered humans.

It might be a little unoriginal, but because the children somehow developed with more pointed ears and lithe bodies, Grayson had dubbed them Elves. He has long since taken a back seat role in their development. He is passing on to them the ideals of modifying the biological life around them to correct some of the damage on the Earth. His own activities have been continuing elsewhere around the globe. He has even purchased additional AIs to oversee the other races he's created in a similar way to the Elves.

[Progress to decarbonization of Earth atmosphere: 1%]

[Progress to reduction of ocean plastics: 5%]

[Progress to establishment of renewed biodiversity: 18%]

[Progress to heavy metal reduction in global water sources: 1%]

[Establishment of dedicated orbital power supplies for E waste recovery operations: 20%]

[Ready for additional project goals...]