Chapter 42: Ch 42: trading races

Only 13 hours remained until the seventh day ended. With it came the inevitable disappearance of the old System, and the conclusion of the cooldown on Sunny’s talent. This time, the choice for a copied talent had already been made: he would take Umbra’s Cloning ability. As for the System’s end, Sunny wasn’t concerned. He saw it not as a loss, but as a monumental opportunity to profit while doing nothing. His primary focus now was on the future of his world. The Innovation Buff was about to disappear, and he needed a new plan for Veridia’s growth. He delegated the task of analysis and planning to Thea, who had been busy processing data from all the gods she was linked with. The answer came swiftly: Veridia required more races. Sunny’s vision was a world of both magic and technology, but with the elves and humans, only magic was being actively researched. Technological advancement was at a complete standstill. The world desperately needed races to push the boundaries of science and engineering. Sunny immediately opened the trading space and navigated to the "Lifeforms" category. Thousands of races were listed, from familiar elves and dwarves to giants, pixies, and mermaids. He bought pairs of many different races, acquiring 1000 lifeforms in total. His purchases included 12 dwarves, 4 pixies, 8 orcs, 20 barbarians, 5 fairies, 2 giants, and 2 titans. The remaining lifeforms were a mix of 154 merfolks—including mermaids, sirens, humanoid sharks, and octopi—and the remaining were all various beastfolks evolved from tigers, rabbits, wolves, serpents, and other animals. Humans and elves were not categorized as beastfolks because they had completely shed their animal features like fangs, tails, and horns. The price for all these lifeforms was negligible for Sunny, who now possessed a fortune of over 6 billion faith points. As he scrolled through the trading platform, he found himself feeling dejected. He had hoped to find mythical races like dragons and phoenixes, but they were nowhere to be found. Just as he was about to give up, one unique lifeform caught his eye. While all the other races were traded in male-female pairs, this one was alone. It was a humanoid figure made entirely of metal, with wires and gears visible beneath its surface. It was a primitive robot, a glimpse of the technological era he sought. This was a member of the Machina race. He immediately bought it. All of the newly acquired lifeforms were currently held within the void of the trading platform. Sunny summoned them to his God space, where they slowly came to their senses. Initially, Sunny felt a twinge of unease, as the act of buying and selling sentient beings felt like a form of slave trading. But he quickly reasoned that his intentions were pure; he would not treat them as slaves. As the lifeforms came to, they looked around in confusion until their eyes fell upon Sunny, who was seated on a throne of cosmic light. A collective gasp went through the crowd, and every single being, from the towering giants to the tiny pixies, instinctively bowed their heads to the divine presence. "Your previous Gods sold you to me as if you were slaves," Sunny’s voice resonated with a gentle, yet authoritative power. "But I, God Cosmos, am not like them. I will provide you with protection and a place to live. Look behind you; this is now your new home." The lifeforms turned as Sunny gestured behind him. The fabric of the God space tore open, revealing the majestic beauty of Veridia. Their eyes shimmered with wonder as they beheld the vibrant world. Without standing on ceremony, Sunny instructed Thea to arrange for the races’ settlement. The dwarves and the Machina were to be sent to the Eastern Continent, while the rest were to be placed in the Western Continent. He then summoned Nova to carry out the task of transportation. The lifeforms were stunned as Nova appeared, but their awe quickly faded when they saw the demigod’s relatively normal size to Titans. The two titans in the group, in particular, looked at Nova with a dumb, provoking expression, then glanced at Sunny as if to ask, "How is this overgrown lizard supposed to carry us there?" Nova, catching their dismissive looks, scoffed. In an instant, he grew to a colossal size, towering over the titans, who now looked like mere ants in his shadow. After a moment, he shrunk back down, as if to convey ’look at this you stupid mortals’. He then tore open space itself, creating a portal that connected directly to Veridia, and gestured for the lifeforms to enter. "Go on," Sunny commanded. One by one, all the lifeforms entered the portal, vanishing into their new home. Just as the last one disappeared, Sunny felt the Innovation Buff fade from Veridia. He didn’t waste a moment. He immediately cast an SS-Grade Fertility Buff upon his world, a choice Thea had suggested in her analysis. The buff dramatically increased the probability of all lifeforms having children, made twins and triplets more likely, completely removed the pain of childbirth, and guaranteed a 100% success rate. This was a crucial long-term investment, designed to rapidly increase the populations of all races on Veridia. Sunny then began to manifest divine embryos once again. He shaped them into the forms of each of the major races he had acquired: a human, an elf, a dwarf, a Machina, a pixie, an orc, a fairy, a giant, and a titan. He also created a single demigod for all the beastfolks and a demigod for all the merfolks. He intended to give them a single, powerful talent: the ability to copy any talent that appeared within their respective races. The cost for such an ability was, as he feared, in the trillions. Sunny’s head spun. He knew it would be high, but not this high. He began to apply restrictions, desperately trying to lower the price. Finally, he found a restriction that, while still consuming almost all of his faith, made the ability achievable: the demigods could only copy one talent from their race every 500 years. However, the copied talent would automatically evolve to SS-Grade upon acquisition. It was a long-term investment, but one that would ensure his demigods and his world would grow exponentially in power over the eons to come.