Chapter 3: The Weight of Eons

Sunny frowned, a subtle discord rippling through his cosmic awareness. Something felt off—the algae, though proliferating, weren't evolving at the expected dizzying pace, not with a 10,000x time acceleration for his world. He had envisioned rapid, explosive diversification, a biological kaleidoscope unfolding before his divine eyes. Instead, it was... leisurely. "System, why isn't time flowing at 10,000x speed?" he queried, a hint of impatience in his mental tone. [Time is flowing at 10,000x speed.] [As a god, your consciousness synchronizes with the observed world. Your perception is also accelerated to match.] A slow, dawning comprehension spread across Sunny's cosmic consciousness, chilling him with its implications. "So that's why my algae were not evolving 10,000 times faster," he murmured, the realization settling like stardust. "But slowly dividing, in what felt like real-time." The System's logic, once explained, was elegantly simple, yet profoundly disorienting. To truly observe a world, to immerse oneself in its temporal flow, required a commensurate acceleration of one's own perception. His divine brain, a magnificent instrument, had simply synchronized with the accelerated reality he was witnessing. He had been, in essence, living those millennia alongside his nascent ecosystems, experiencing their slow, deliberate march through evolution at their pace, not his own. The sheer, unfathomable scale of time, compressed and then expanded, left a subtle ache in his awareness. It was a peculiar burden of godhood: the ability to witness eons unfold in what felt like moments, only to discover those 'moments' were, to his own perception, just as long as the eons themselves. The rapid division of the algae, though numerically astounding, had felt like watching a time-lapse film play at normal speed, each frame meticulously observed. With a mental command, Sunny disengaged from direct observation, pulling back his consciousness. The shimmering, accelerated view of his burgeoning world receded, replaced by the familiar, stable interface of the God Cosmos, and the more conventional flow of his own existence. A deep sigh escaped him, though as a being of pure consciousness, it was more a mental exhalation. He opened the God Chat, seeking a distraction and perhaps some commiseration. The chaotic stream of messages was a familiar sight, but their content had shifted from initial bewilderment to a mix of despair and cautious optimism. "I am dying here. I used up all my faith to form an algae. But it died." The message was from a user named 'Despair'. Sunny felt a pang of sympathy; a similar fate could have befallen him. "Upstairs I have only 10 algae for now I will trade with you once I have more." Another message from 'Hopeful_God'. "He doesn't have faith points. What can he even trade with?" 'Pragmatist' chimed in, highlighting the grim reality of a bankrupt God. "God of no lifeforms haha," mocked 'Joker', perhaps a tad too gleefully. "You can wait for the lifeform to develop themselves. It will be slow but with 10,000x time it is possible," offered 'Strategist', referencing the standard time acceleration, oblivious to Sunny's recent, disorienting revelation about perceived time. Sunny was joyful that his algae hadn't died; otherwise, he would have been utterly broken. The thought of losing his entire starting investment made him wince. Just as he was scrolling through the chat, a powerful, invigorating sensation surged through him. It was subtle at first, then intensified, a warm, flowing energy. He refocused on Veridia. Thousands upon thousands of his algae were no longer just passively floating; some were actively moving, engulfing weaker, less efficient kin. It was an invisible war of the microscopic, a brutal, elegant dance of natural selection playing out in the vast oceanic canvas. He knew what this new sensation was. "Faith!" Sunny exclaimed, his mental voice reverberating with newfound vigor. "Status!" A fresh panel materialized, updated with astonishing numbers. [God name: Cosmos] [Planet: Veridia] [Lifeforms: 15,334,566] [Talent: Skill-Resonance (SSS-grade)] [Faith points: 0.0023124] Sunny blinked, then reread the "Lifeforms" count. "15 million?!" he murmured, a genuine surprise. The slow perception was deceptive; his world had been teeming with life while he mused in the chat. The initial trickle of Faith, though small, was a testament to this burgeoning population. "System, how does my faith increase?" he immediately asked. The decimal points suggested a continuous, subtle generation, but he needed clarity. [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.