Chapter 5: Ch 5 : The Green Tide and Whispers of Divine Hierarchy

As the first hour of God-time drew to a close, a happy, almost incredulous smile spread across Sunny's face. It wasn't the kind of wide, boisterous grin he might have worn on the Blue Planet, but a subtle, deeply satisfying acknowledgment of his divine success. The reason? The astonishing emergence of life on the newly revealed landmasses of Veridia. Due to the immense amount of resources he had channeled into these nascent continents, the microscopic pioneers — mosses and lichens, mere specks in the grand scheme — were no longer content with their humble forms. They were evolving, rapidly and visibly, transforming into a diverse array of terrestrial flora: rudimentary plants, simple shrubs, and even the beginnings of bushes. The formerly barren, steaming rock was slowly but surely taking on a verdant hue, a testament to his focused divine will and the inherent adaptability of life itself. "Even with divine intervention, I didn't think it was possible to evolve lifeforms to such an extent so quickly," Sunny surmised, genuine surprise lacing his thoughts. The speed of development felt almost unnatural, defying his prior expectations of slow, eons-long progression. He decided to ask the System about it, a direct inquiry to the omnipresent interface. "Hey System! Why is evolution so swift in this world?" [The Evolution rate for first 7 Godly days is 1000% fast.] This succinct statement instantly dispelled all doubts in Sunny's mind. A 1000% (or 10x) acceleration in the baseline evolutionary rate for the initial seven Godly days was an incredible boon. It meant that his water world, despite its humble beginnings, was undergoing a hyper-accelerated developmental phase, a cosmic head start that compensated for his initial lack of diverse lifeforms or a time-accelerating talent like Kairos's. But a new thought quickly surfaced: why was this crucial information not yet rampant in the God Chat? "Those blabbers and boasters will not remain silent in chat if they knew about this," he mused, a flicker of suspicion joining his satisfaction. Was this hidden knowledge, or was something else at play? He opened the Chat panel, scrolling through the usual mix of complaints and minor boasts. After a few minutes, one message, typed by a God named 'Curiosity', caught his eye. "Hey guys! I asked the System about the time of my misfortune and it said it can be anytime in this day. Do you understand what it means?" "Bullshit! System doesn't answer any of the question. It is unreliable," retorted one God, immediately dismissing the claim. "I agree," another chimed in. "I just asked for the how much is the time acceleration and it didn't answer me. Unreliable++." "Wait a minute! Does that mean we have different systems? Because mine answers sometimes too," a third God interjected, sparking a wave of confused questions. "Let's analyze, guys! What is the thing which can be different since before the opening of the world?" typed the God named 'Strategist', attempting to bring order to the chaos. Many theories, ranging from starting planet types to initial faith points, began to flood the comments. "Guys, wait!" Strategist typed again, his next message coming swiftly. "According to me, the answer is talent." This theory made the whole chat fall silent. It was a simple, yet profound, insight that had eluded most. Strategist, sensing his advantage, began to clear their doubts. "Hey Curiosity, what grade is your talent? And two brother below him, what is yours?" "B-Grade," Curiosity typed, confirming his talent level. "F-Grade," replied 'Brother 1'. "No Talent," came the stark, almost melancholic admission from 'Brother 2'. The chat came to silence again, a different kind of quiet this time, heavy with the weight of implied hierarchy. "No talent? Haha. If I were in your place, I would have buried myself instead of chatting here," typed 'Joker', ever present to mock the less fortunate Gods. Sunny noticed this God, a constant presence who seemed to relish every chance to make fun of poor or struggling deities. "According to me, the higher the Talent, the higher the authority to ask the question from system," Strategist continued, undeterred by Joker's barb. "For example, I have an S-Grade talent, but when I asked the System why there are only 300,000 Gods in this Chat, the System didn't answer. If anyone has talent higher than S, can you confirm my doubts and ask System this question?" "Woah! Another S-grade talent," typed one God, awe in their digital voice. "Bigshot, can you explain your talent to us poor Gods?" a chorus of voices pleaded. "+1," "+2," "...+231322." The request quickly garnered hundreds of thousands of upvotes, a clear indication of the collective desperation for knowledge and advantage. "Look then," Strategist typed, attaching an image. Sunny curiously opened the image, and his face subtly distorted in a mixture of anger and disbelief. [Talent name: Children of Wisdom] [Grade: S] [Detail: All the lifeforms born in your territory will have 5 times the wisdom.] "System, why are all the S-talent stronger than my SSS-Grade talent?" Sunny complained silently, a mental shout of frustration. His "Skill-Resonance" was powerful, but situational and with a long cooldown. These S-grades seemed to offer immediate, constant, and far-reaching advantages. The System, however, chose to ignore him, maintaining its stoic silence. The revelation from Strategist broke every other God in the chat. "Crying ;-;. Why is the gap so big?" typed one God, expressing the universal sentiment of unfairness. "I don't think it is that great of a talent," said a God named 'Brutal', perhaps trying to downplay its significance. "You don't understand," another God typed, countering Brutal. "While your algae is developing slowly, his algae will find different ways to evolve and survive with the help of that wisdom." Sunny's thoughts echoed this sentiment, but he saw an even more terrifying aspect. "They don't understand the real threat of this talent," he thought. "While it is terrifying in the start, where the lifeforms will evolve and survive easily, it will become truly Godly when the wise races start developing." A wise race, according to the System, possessed complex thought and the capacity for belief. Imagine such a race with five times the normal wisdom. "One genius will take 50 years to develop something, but one genius with wisdom x 5 can do it in 1 or 2 years. Isn't it more terrifying than Kairos's talent?" Sunny wondered, the implications of such accelerated intellectual development sending a chill down his divine spine. This 'Children of Wisdom' talent wasn't just about faster evolution; it was about compressed history, rapidly advancing his future towards sentience, technology, and formidable power.