Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire-Chapter 203: Lots of exposition

Dalmanrach nodded.

"It's a long story, but I can see that you have a sharp memory. It will be easiest to start from the beginning, when the gods appeared—together with the entire universe."

I prepared to swallow a *lot* of exposition.

'Good thing that my memory is still perfect…'

"It was a time of freedom. Everybody did what they wanted, creating and destroying freely—until the first conflicts inevitably appeared. We fought, of course—but nothing came out of it. Every god is equal in power to every other one. What one god can do, another one can cancel, so nobody ever won or even achieved anything in those conflicts."

I shook my head.

"No way! From what I've seen, you are *anything* but equal! Even you—didn't others call you 'the suppressed one', Mr. Dalmanrach?"

He chuckled.

"And that's the interesting part, isn't it? Eventually, the gods realized they had to create a way to resolve their conflicts. And that's how the Game of Evolution was created—or at least, its prototype. It changed many times since its origination, especially as new players joined the Great Game."

"A game… With rules… And each god has their own animal…"

"A species of animal. The one we call the Goddess of Bees is actually a goddess of European honey bees specifically—at least on Earth-Alpha-0002. In other worlds, her species can be slightly different—your species is a common honey bee, for example. The Goddess of Bees claimed her title because she dominated other bee goddesses."

I bit my lip as I had a terrible guess. There had to be billions, or perhaps even trillions of gods, and…

"The entire history of evolution is just a game of gods?! Like some global strategy?"

Dalmanrach nodded.

"Yes. At first, it was just an arbitrary way to decide who will get more opportunities to act. Everybody agreed on the initial rules. According to them, players would create a species and evolve it. The more a species thrived, the more a player could evolve it, and the more he was allowed to do outside of The Game. And vice versa."

"At first, only a small number of gods joined the Game of Evolution. But gradually, more and more became curious about it, or the opportunities it created. The more players joined, the more influence on the other gods they had. And at the same time, their entire lives became more and more focused on the game—until they barely cared about the rest of the universe!"

Dalmanrach spoke the last words with clear bitterness.

"Until a certain point, there were still free-thinkers who did as they pleased… But then, the players made a new rule—either you joined the game, or you were declared a 'loser' and fully suppressed."

"You mentioned suppression again… What is it?"

"It means that, even now, at least a dozen of the other gods watch after every flicker of my divine power. If I try to do anything beyond the simplest actions, they will counteract these actions before they can happen. I and other suppressed gods are as powerless as you are. Well, perhaps slightly less so—I can still change my appearance, if you would prefer to talk to another… bee? Or a human, perhaps?"

Dalmanrach tilted his head, as if smirking.

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I narrowed my eyes. Was he trying to get me to admit something against the Goddess of Bees?

"You look fine, thank you, Mr. Dalmanrach. So… Let me see if I understand. All gods play the Game of Evolution, and if they win a lot, other gods agree to let them do whatever they want. But if they lose, will they restrict their actions more and more?"

"Yes, exactly. It's a system of counterweights, and the most powerful gods are ones who have the most allies. Such as the God of Humanity."

"And who are those Rulekeepers? They don't play?"

"No. Their main duty is to guard the star in the quarks and neutrons of which encoded the full list of the Great Game's rules. They make sure that nobody, even themselves, can change a single symbol of them without permission. But they also act as judges in the court—it doesn't distract them from the primary duties."

Gods sure liked to flex… What was wrong with good old books?

Either way, at least now I knew the gist of what was going on.

"And the Goddess of Bees had (supposedly) broken said rules, and I was brought as proof of it. But why questioning me? Why not just read my thoughts?"

"You can't feel it, but right now, the Rulekeepers are protecting your body and mind from any interference of others, including themselves. If someone could just scan you, it'd be too easy for them to fill your mind with whatever they wanted and skew the court's ruling in their favor. For a similar reason, this area is kept private right now."

Good thing that the Goddess of Bees clearly wasn't winning very hard—her position in the Game of Evolution must've been limiting what she could do to me. Although she was cheating anyway…

I shuddered at the thought and pushed it away for the sake of my sanity.

"Mr. Dalmanrach, so let's say the Goddess of Bees cheated—what would happen to her? And me? Is there a rule for that?"

Dalmanrach nodded.

"The rules are incredibly vast—they have a paragraph for every possibility. And I remember them perfectly, just as any other god. In your case, Nectus, if the Goddess of Bees is found fully innocent, you will be returned to Earth-Omega-0048, and then watched closely for a while."

"From what I and many others know her, the Goddess of Bees could have easily given you a system, then removed it just before this court. But she already gained a noticeable amount of victory points from your conquests and your incredible mutations, so I'm sure she will be pleased with herself."

'So even if I obey this bitch and keep silent, I will be left without my system?! I kept all the bonuses it gave me so far, but I still have a limited lifespan! Then there are all my girls… This entire "world conquest" thing was just a way to get some victory points and move her pawns on the chessboard a little! Possibly not even *my* chessboard!'

I grit my teeth, not for the first time wanting nothing more but to drown the bitch in a vat of insecticide.

"And what if the Goddess of Bees is found guilty?"