3/1000
66/1000
143/1000
557/1000
989/1000
1000/1000.
Done.
It was early morning when, for the final time, Alex turned off the pump, disconnected the hose, picked up the silver plate, and climbed the wooden staircase into the house.
He stroked Michael, who lay curled by the radiator in the kitchen located on the first floor, then carried the plate up to the attic.
Alex had nearly reached the "1000" units of basic matter the previous night, but he chose to wait until morning before taking the final step. It proved to be a good decision, because right now he felt fresh, excited, and eager to unlock the silver plate's powers.
His heart pounded in his throat as he set the plate in the center of the attic and prepared to step inside. For weeks he had been calculating and recalculating the approximate date of the mission's completion, and now the time had finally come.
Alex drew a deep breath of the attic's stuffy air and stepped into the plate.
[Current Mission:
Collect genetic material from your homeworld: 13/13
Gather basic matter to form the foundation: 1000/1000
Congratulations! You have completed your mission. Would you like to continue?]
Alex pressed the glowing 'YES' button.
[You have reached 1st Rank: Beginner.
You have unlocked the following World Creation Protocol functions:
[Landscape Creator (I) – Available]
[Organism Creator (I) – Available]
[Biological Processor – Available]
[Time Acceleration – Unavailable]
[Available Area – 1000 km²]
…
[To reach Manager Rank 2, you must complete the current mission.
Current Mission:
Create a Level 1 World: 0/1]
Alex recalled the Manual's definition of the different world levels. It reminded him of the Kardashev scale, which classifies civilizations by the amount of energy they can harness. A Type I civilization can use all the energy available on its planet, while a Type III civilization has access to all the energy emitted by its galaxy.
Naturally, the silver plate employed a different scaling method.
Level 0 worlds contain no life whatsoever.
To reach Level 1, a world needed at least one species capable of producing offspring that had persisted for at least 33 generations.
Alex nodded. At first glance, nothing about the mission seemed complicated now that he had unlocked the plate's main tools. First, however, he needed to try them out. A practical test would not only help him understand exactly how they worked but would also be extremely interesting.
His first tool was [Landscape Creator]. When Alex selected it from the list, a new interface appeared on the plate's surface:
[Structure…
Scale…
Volcanic activity…
Vegetation…
Types of currents…
Atmosphere density…
Chemical composition…]
…
The list went on. Dozens of settings appeared one after another. At first, Alex tried to understand what each one entailed; then he simply read the titles, but even that soon became a chore. More than ten minutes passed, and still there was no end in sight.
At last, Alex simply scrolled to the bottom of the list — that alone took almost a minute.
There was an innumerable, almost overwhelming number of settings, each with a mountain of sub-settings. When Alex selected 'molecular composition of clouds,' the display filled with a dense grid of chemical formulas, percentages, and other variables.
Most of them were zeroes; the plate expected him to set up everything by himself.
It felt as though he had just climbed one mountain, only to find another, even taller, rising before him. It would have been natural to feel dejected after seeing something like that.
And yet, Alex wasn't going to give up. Gritting his teeth, he started scrolling back to the beginning of the list. Even if he had to re‑enroll in university to master all the required science, it didn't matter. He would do it, even if it took him many years.
He remembered his dreams, the bus, the frosty morning on which he found the silver plate, and the joy with which that discovery had filled his heart.
His life was meaningless before that.
He wasn't going to give up.
A determined light flickered in Alex's eyes, and suddenly…
[Tooltip adaptation to the Manager's intellectual level has been completed.]
The list of hundreds of settings was suddenly condensed into twenty simplified options.
Alex: "…"
[Thank you for your patience, Manager. You may resume your work.]
…
…
…