I'll leave checking out other parts of the ecosystem to the other clones, and I'll just [eat] this.
I decided to take a closer look at the creature named .
Rice cakes are a jelly-like organism. Their ancestors are nectar jelly, and they are closely related to jellies, puddings, gummies, candies, jelly, and bread. Specifically, they are relatives of {Bread}.
"It seems a bit strange to say that bread is a relative of Mochi, but it also makes sense."
"Specifically, it branched off from {Dough}."
Now that there are so many species of life, let me refresh my memory. First, what is {Bread}?
There is a metal life form called {Dough}. It has almost no ego and just rolls around in the mines, eating the ground. It is the laziest and most useless creature in my ecosystem.
But it is a capable creature.
And then there are {Milk}. These are pure spirit life forms. They have no intelligence, so they fuse with {Dough}'s body and {Syrup} to take over their combined body, creating a metallic body but with the instincts of a spirit. The leader of these is Shuk-Rimuras.
But I naturally assumed that all the {Dough} would go extinct here. They were just incompetent creatures, with low intelligence, no defensive abilities, and only a large size.
I thought maybe it would all be kneaded with milk and just turned into bread.
"But maybe that wasn't the case?"
Dough + milk + syrup = bread. This isn't about cooking, it's about life.
What if we took the milk out and made a combination of dough and syrup? That would be {Mochi}. It's not combined with milk, which is a spirit life form, but a fusion of syrup and dough.
Just like if you put honey in Mochi dough, it becomes honey Mochi…!
"Oh. Are you going to go like that again?"
Anyway, there are two types of Mochis. Those that are pure syrup. And those that are more fused, like dough, syrup, and some kind of jelly-like life form.
There doesn't seem to be a clear superiority between the two types. The ones with the jelly-like lifeform are stronger, but they consume more energy. This is a serious problem in nature. Its lifespan also appears to be quite short.
So, what kind of creatures are Mochis? The answer is this: they are predators that are faster, more aggressive, and more fragile than bread.
Bread uses magic because it has spirits inside its body, but conversely, Mochis use martial arts through the syrup and jelly that have entered their bodies.
"It's similar to the monsters."
Yes, they started out as the same kind of people, but one became a herbivore magician, and the other became a hunting martial artist.
So, let's look at something like the {Carnivorous Bread} I sent to the enemy worlds so far. It has six legs, strong jaws, and a metallic shell. It's a normal, sturdy predator.
But when it grows in size, it becomes a {Dark Rim}.
It's a creature that magically eats anything in the enemy world and creates a cream land. A predator is a predator, but… it's dull.
However, {Carnivorous Mochi} is much more agile and strong. So much so that it is able to completely wipe out all the carnivorous puddings that hunted with their tentacles and replace their ecological niche.
It runs quickly on its four legs, and when it sees an enemy, it swings its neck forward in a 'loaded' state with its back turned, and shoots it at the opponent. The speed of this movement is impossible to detect even with the eyesight of a martial arts monster.
If it hits an enemy with it, it'll get a concussion or break an arm or leg. The head used as a hammer is flexible at the neck, but the head is made of metal.
Then they go and eat the enemy with the 'jaw under its neck'.
Ah. So that's not really a neck? I mistook it for a neck, but it's actually the front part of the body that's been transformed into a flexible, long body. The mouth is underneath it.
"Then I guess I shouldn't call it a neck."
Well, that's true, but let's just call it a neck for now because it looks like a neck. An elephant's trunk is actually the upper lip and nose combined, but we call it a nose. An octopus's legs are actually the octopus' lips, but we call them legs.
"Wait a minute… What did you say?"
Why? It's common sense, like octopuses and squids have beaks.
"Do those creatures have beaks?!"
Yes, octopuses and squids have a beak and mouth in the middle of their lips.
Anyway, it seems like the Mochis somehow got the "body-slam" gene from some candy and ended up in their throats. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to run at low speeds.
They can strike down enemies with a single swing of the neck, or even attach blades or thorns to the end of the neck to cut or impale them. It seems like the form will gradually converge toward efficiency.
I expected the evolution of storing the neck inside its body and then stretching it out straight to kill like a spear does, but I didn't expect the evolution of storing it inside the body and then quickly shooting pieces of dead skin off the body like a shotgun.
This creature possesses a truly "long-range attack".
Its effective range is only about 10 meters, but within that range, Homo sapiens would be reduced to a bee hive. Even at 30 meters, a poorly-placed hit would likely result in a torn limb.
Whether it's a {Santa Cake}, a {Hammer Cake}, or a {Spear Cake}, after swinging it a few times like the last body slam in your candy life, the neck loses its elasticity and just flops around. It even falls off the body. If they failed to hunt within the limit, it's over.
Anyway, carnivores die after failing to hunt a few times because they don't have the energy to hunt again, so I guess this structure is okay?
But what's surprising is that these guys have something of a social nature. In short, if one individual fails to hunt, other individuals nearby will share some of the food.
So, those who get exhausted after using their necks a few times move around in groups, while those who move alone are larger in weight class and their 'necks' are not expendable but can be used permanently.
Instead, when they go alone, the things they hunt become dull and large, and they are things that require multiple swings of the neck to kill, so their necks have evolved to become incredibly thick and strong.
I'm excited about the evolution of these Mochis. I'm willing to let them wipe out the existing puddings. I immediately asked Mihun to consult on their martial arts.
"Wow! There is a race that uses such mysterious techniques!"
"Can you give them martial arts? It's urgent."
"The method is difficult, but your syrup has the property of storing mysteries, so it is possible to create a new Indian method that combines the methods of Yosu, Yeonche, and Mu-gong."
"?"
According to the explanation, if the Heaven and Earth method lowers the spirit to the material world, and the Guide method elevates the body to the spiritual world, then conversely, the Humanity method aims for a place somewhere between heaven and humanity, that is, it is a method that tunes the entire body to somewhere between the material world, much like the 'brain', and the spiritual world.
I didn't know what he was talking about, so I just thought it was some kind of magic that took the middle path.
"That's right. It's a method that considers the path of moderation as the path of moderation."
It really didn't seem like there was much of a difference.
Anyway, with the Mochis learning a new magic, they've become even more diverse now.
First, there are {Santa Mochi}, which are specialized in hunting squirrels-like creatures. They approach stealthily, scatter squirrels, completely destroying the squirrels' wings, and then approach and devour their corpses.
And there are {Hammer Mochi}, specialized in hunting slow-moving jellies, reptiles, and large mammals. These creatures swing their thick necks repeatedly to crush and eat their enemies' bodies.
{Knife-blade Mochi} and {Spear Mochi}, whose evolutionary direction has not yet been determined, quickly swing around, cut, and pierce their opponents to kill and eat them.
In addition to these, all kinds of tricks have evolved, such as ambushing prey, climbing trees, digging and hiding in the ground, simply running and catching them, and using camouflage.
This time, what I wanted wasn't a final boss creature like Bisyakheet, but just a variety of predators, so I just endlessly accelerated speciation and evolution.
Then, the most obvious change was the weakness of the intelligent apes.
"Ukkii...."
"That scary. Not go near."
The Mochis that learned magic could hunt and ignore the magic of the magic monsters.
They were able to hunt with the ability to overwhelm the reflexes of the drunkard.
This is the result of enhanced physical abilities rather than intelligence. If intelligence were the key to conquering the wild, primates would be ruling the world.
"Yes???"
Of course, primates did prosper tremendously, but there were still many predators that preyed on them. The golden age of the primates was suddenly overtaken by a new predator called the Mochi.
These monsters used to trust in their magic and relax, or even just take it easy, but now they can't do that anymore. Since the magic monsters have no shells and are being outclassed, the mobs have started to actively hunt them.
The Sugar Lumps, too, seem to be immune to the chaos around them, researching various strategies and diversifying to advance.
Alternatively, many simply utilize their adaptability to migrate to nearby 'islands'. For example, they might avoid the Sugar Lumps, which are poor swimmers, by heading to the wetlands.
This is possible because the species called Mochi has not yet spread throughout the entire ecosystem.
"So, are you going to create a fourth dessert army commander now?"
Well. I'll see about that.
"Hmm? Surely, it's not because you can't think of a name?"
No, I thought of a name. It's a killer name.
But there's a reason for this, though. Dessert Army Commanders are powerful and useful, but their upkeep is incredibly, incredibly expensive.
"Yes. Even Nyaltartep is absorbing a tremendous amount of magic current."
Now, I don't have enough magic power, so I have to beg for magic stones from outside.
"'Import'? 'Begging'?"
Ah, stop nitpicking. You said it suits my personality, so why are you tackling me like that?
Anyway, even if I were to create a fourth army commander here now, I don't think my ecosystem would be able to handle it.
For my next opponent, I'm not so sure, but wouldn't it be better if they chose a Spirit Realm? If they're a player who expanded their Spirit Realm significantly, I'll probably consume less magic resources after I occupy it.
"That's a great idea. I'm sure the community activists will put in a lot of effort."
As that said, I looked into the ecology of the Mochis a little more. If Mochis were to dominate the world excessively, it wouldn't be much different from if the Sugar Lumps were to dominate the world.
But those worries were unfounded. The Mochis, with thick and strong trunks like the hammer Mochi, were instantly wiped out.
It may be because jelly and gummi-like creatures have very hard shells, but surprisingly, the Mochis, which only have one weapon, were hunted by the existing predators, [Puddings], which have six legs and four or more tentacles.
Puddings were duller than Mochi, but they had an armour that could withstand a certain amount of hits.
Since the Mochis have a habit of reflexively attacking when an enemy appears, they would attack, then get counterattacked by the pudding and die, which would continue for a long time.
As a result, the monsters still deal with the dull puddings with strategy and intelligence, and the monsters are eaten by the nimble mochi, and those mochi are eaten by the puddings.
The strange cycle continued.
Of course, puddings eat jellies and gummies, and the sugar cubes catch sweet potatoes and other jellies, and the Mochis don't only target sugar lumps, so it's not like they have infinite power...
Ecosystems are truly mysterious. Even when it seems like a species emerges and dominates the world, it naturally adjusts.
I wish humans were like that. Why do people keep pushing themselves beyond their limits?
As I was thinking about that, I suddenly thought of that guy Mihun.
That guy called himself a Jinseon, come to think of it, was something that transcended human limitations…
Judging by the way he talks, he seems to have lived for hundreds of thousands of years. Doesn't he get tired of living that long?
When I was human…
Should I ask him something?
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