NOVEL WEB I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 5
I stood in a nearly empty room the color of the night sky. Though it was extremely difficult to make out, the area seemed to be roughly 100ft by 100ft.
Although the room was dark, it was not pitch-black and I could still easily see Mr. Flippers who was in my arms. The only objects present in this large void-like space were to the left of us where a desk with four monitors, a keyboard, a mouse, and a chair sat facing the black wall. On this wall hung a massive screen roughly 30ft long and 20ft high.
I guess this must be what the teacher was talking about.
It didn't take too much brain power to realize that this setup would be what I used to interact with the planet, though I was initially surprised to see computers in the room. The teacher briefly mentioned that the interface would take the shape of something we were familiar with using, so it was likely that I would be the only person with such a setup.
All of the monitors instantly turned on the moment I sat in the green chair, causing both Mr. Flippers and me to recoil from the sudden light. The monitor slightly to the left of me was the only one that had something displayed, with the others idly emitting a soft blue light. On this left screen was what looked like a yellow-gray sphere with a ton of tables and 2D dials surrounding it. I tried turning one of the dials out of curiosity causing the sphere's tilt to change as it was turned.
Oh wow, this thing is pretty thorough isn't it? Couldn't this break the balance a bit? I mean if someone were to make the planet's axis 90 degrees, it could completely make almost all of it uninhabitable. Well, the instructor might get involved if that were the case...
I sat there for a while experimenting with all of the various options, and although I succeeded in discovering what most did, I was extremely hesitant to immediately start utilizing them. It seemed that every action I took drained something from my body, which I assumed to be the Resource Points we were all supplied with. Obviously, the small test actions I did hardly made a dent in the gifted stockpile (it seemed similar to removing a grain of sand from a desert), but in a situation like this, I did not want to put any to waste with unnecessarily large experiments.
During one of my attempts to zoom in closer to the planet to examine its surface, the massive screen above me turned on and scared Mr. Flippers who had been waddling around aimlessly with a squawk. On the display was the now-familiar yellow-gray sphere. The actual visual seemed clearer than even the most advanced screens I had seen on Earth, but the impressive sight soon lost its luster from my inability to interact with the scene. With no mouse or keyboard attached to the large screen, I had no choice but to temporarily treat it as a glorified picture.
Alright, I think I got the basics down. I should probably plan out how I want to design this place.
With that thought in mind, I took out my notebook and began a few rough outlines for the continent's shape. My main goal in this design was for the planet to be both fitting for natural life and also completely stockpiled with natural defenses for the numerous battles my lifeforms would need to endure. Throughout human history, those who utilized the terrain to their advantage have always had a vast advantage over those who blindly ventured through it. Having the power to physically manipulate the terrain where battles would take place was such an overwhelming ability that it could make up for even a massive difference in personnel. For those who realized this fact, defensive success would be a near certainty.
One of the requirements was to have an area 500mi in diameter shaped like an octagon for the invasions to start. Of course, this made designing an appealing continent extremely difficult, however, it was really a blessing in disguise. Being able to know exactly where the invaders would come from would make fortifications much easier to prepare and could prevent them from being utilized against my own lifeforms if designed intelligently.
Defenses are not universal, however. A pitfall could slay a mammoth, but a pigeon would be unscathed. To design countermeasures, you need to know what you are trying to counter. I thought back to the different creatures I was exposed to and attempted to think of what could hinder the majority of them. Obviously, it is impossible for a defense to perfectly halt every one of those hundreds of odd creatures, but there were definitely some patterns that I distinctly remembered: one of them being that a decent chunk of them appeared to have reptile-like traits. The creature who was most hostile to me was clearly within that category as well.
I sketched the octagon region near the top left of my notebook and noted to make the axis around 30 degrees away from the sun with a wobble roughly the same as Earth's. Since reptiles are known for being cold-blooded, having them start in the equivalent of the Arctic might be a bit underhanded, but it was an opportunity that would be stupid to pass on. Even for the warm-blooded invaders, starting in such a brutal environment would be difficult to overcome, and as I did not notice many creatures well-adapted to the extreme cold, it would be unlikely to work in any invader's favor.
To make defending the initial invaders' advance simpler, this octagon would be a large peninsula only connected to the main continent by a relatively narrow and long land bridge from one of its 8 sides. Though the tundra this path connected to would be relatively empty, it would be closed off from the rest of the continent by a mountain range both to the south and to the north. The northern passage would have the extra benefit of being completely covered in glaciers caused by the natural tilt of the planet. No matter which path is chosen, however, the invaders would actually need to cross two sets of mountains due to the X-shape design of the main range, along with a small curved area to the south.
In this range would be a massive lake supplied by melting snow from the mountain peaks. Although it would be very deep, the extreme elevation of the mountains surrounding it would still leave its lowest point roughly 1,000ft above sea level. A few openings caused by valleys between the range would allow for some of the water to continuously drain and fuel rivers which would spread throughout the rest of the continent. To make sure that the invaders could not simply conquer the lake and effortlessly sail across the continent, the water would exit the mountain via a massive waterfall that would make Niagara Falls seem like a stream.
This mountain range would continue west into the ocean to form a massive underwater ridge south of the octagon that would make the water in the region shallow enough to prevent warm water from flowing north and also act as a major hindrance to any invading force sailing from the octagon. To get around the restriction of having only one land mass, I created a few underwater volcanoes in the southern portion of the ridge in hopes that they would eventually form a few islands similar to Hawaii. Of course, it would be far in the future, but I hoped they could form a role similar to the Galápagos Islands and be a breeding ground for evolution.
The east of the continent was shaped as a massive gulf to hopefully be a hub for trade and coastal development. Similar to the ocean ridge off the west coast, a shallow region would prevent most of this warming water from flowing to the octagon from around the globe. As to not interfere too greatly in the future trade, there would be decent-sized gaps in these shallow parts to the south to allow the easy transport of potential goods if a bit of navigational work was done.
I was at a loss for the design of the southern portion of the continent. Putting major defenses here would be meaningless as the world would have already been conquered if invaders reached this far, so I just went with a random and natural-feeling design for the coast, as well as added a lake to the south-east. Just in case the invaders found a way to sail past the ridges, I added a large shallow region on the south coast that resembled a massive reef, but I deliberately made a few passageways through the area for lifeforms to eventually discover and utilize.
Most of these defenses would be ineffective if my lifeforms decided to settle in a weird spot, so I formed a massive plateau in the southeast shaped as a star. There would be natural-looking steps leading to the top from the north and south. I hoped that some would discover this area and choose to settle at the top where eventually a major population hub would form. This spot would be ideal as it would benefit from nearly all of the natural defenses, be extremely far from the invaders, and according to my roughly predicted climate, be somewhat warm all year round to max out productivity.
With this rough sketch finished, I did a bit more polishing and detailing, including noting down resource distribution before turning to the monitor.
"All right, Mr. Flippers. It's construction time!"
After spending the entire night translating my sketch into reality, there was one thing on my mind.
...There are way too many Resource Points left over.
