Hearing Roya's explanation, the Star Spirit deeply agreed.
He quickly responded:
"Understood! I'll begin immediately with restoring the population."
Roya said:
"My suggestion is that you first alter the planet's terrain. At present, the fragmented, island-like geography of this world severely limits population growth."
In a sense, population is the foremost measure of combat power.
If the pirate world's population could never truly grow, then any space flagship launched on expedition would inevitably become nothing more than a lone, isolated vessel—deprived of the homeworld's support.
Because sooner or later, there will come times when resources cannot be seized from the enemy. At such times, every planet must rely upon its own natural production.
Without sufficient population, the Star Spirit himself would remain weakened and powerless. Where, then, could there be surplus energy to transmute into bio-metal and hull-metal? How could he possibly sustain an expeditionary fleet?
Even if reshaping the planet's terrain required consuming a significant portion of his primordial energy, it would still be more than worth it. As the saying goes, sharpening the blade does not hinder the cutting of firewood.
The Star Spirit agreed at once:
"No problem! In addition, I will also make time to transform the surviving navy elites into simplified Imperial Primarchs—utterly loyal to your every command!"
Roya nodded inwardly, recognizing that the Star Spirit's mentality had shifted. His vision was now elevated, his perspective broadened.
With their thoughts unified, everyone dispersed, throwing themselves wholly into preparations for war.
On the one hand, they tightened the reorganization of their elite forces to meet the coming full-scale invasion. On the other, this allowed Vegapunk to dispatch cloned researchers into each contingent, to collect data on every warrior's armor specifications and weapon requirements.
As for Roya himself, he once again entered a state of selflessness and unity with the world, ready to continue refining his potential points—to bring forth every ounce of their latent power.
It was only then that Roya realized: his potential points had frozen at 4,000, no longer increasing.
"The psionic shockwave from the Seventh Overlord has ceased. It seems his upper energy limit is only about eight to ten thousand. That's why I can no longer gain potential from him."
"If I refine all four thousand points, my energy tier will stand on equal footing with the Seventh Overlord."
"But with my spiritual perception, far surpassing his, I'll be able to string this creature up and thrash him at will!"
With this conclusion, Roya felt all the more at ease, and immersed himself completely in refining potential.
In a blur, his spiritual perception seemed to enter another world altogether.
In this world, no tangible forms existed—only countless points of light.
Some were large, some small. Some clustered tightly, others scattered sparsely. All pulsed ceaselessly with shimmering colors.
Most shone in red, purple, yellow, or green. Only a very few emitted a soft, radiant white. Rarest of all were the pure black lights—like the very existence of a black hole.
"These light points… the feeling they give me… could they be the projections of the souls of living beings in the material world, manifesting here?"
Perceiving this vague truth, Roya was stunned.
Not far from him loomed a colossal soul projection—vast as an ordinary mountain!
When ordinary light points were no more than dust motes, what kind of terrifying existence in the material world would correspond to this mountain-sized soul?
There are always greater men beyond men, greater heavens beyond heaven!
Suppressing the shudder rising from the depths of his soul, Roya silently observed further.
"The different colors of light… they must represent different intense emotions."
"Red for brutality and bloodlust. Green for decay and despair. Yellow for unrestrained desire. Purple… could purple be hope and wisdom?"
After roughly distinguishing the meanings of the colors, Roya fell into a new perplexity.
"What does it mean, that these various flashes are projected here from the material world?"
"If the four-colored radiance represents intense emotions, then what do the gentle white lights—and the absolute black—stand for?"
A sudden spark of insight flashed in his mind:
"Could it be… that this world is the source of all energy in the material world?"
"The soul projections of living beings appear here in order to draw upon this unknown energy, transforming it into what they themselves need—and even allowing the excess to overflow back into the material world!"
"In fact, perhaps this place is the true origin of all souls!"
In that instant, everything clicked into place. Roya realized this was none other than the ineffable Warp—the subspace realm—and he began to perceive the fundamental link between the Warp and the material world at the level of the soul.
Everything became clear!
"The white lights and black lights are extraordinary souls who have achieved perfect balance among the four-colored radiances. In the material world, a white light corresponds to a true saintly being… while each black hole is the embodiment of a pure, absolute evil—a demon walking the earth!"
With this first glimpse into the mysteries of the Warp, Roya noticed he had already begun automatically absorbing its inexhaustible, enigmatic energies.
The most delightful surprise was that this absorption did not take the form of stored potential points—it was directly converted into his attributes of Fortitude and Psionics!
Though the growth seemed slow—requiring long spans to increase even a single point—here, the energy was limitless, free for the taking!
This directly solved the problem of his advancement. So long as he could keep upgrading, what did it matter if the pace was slow?
Even as he absorbed energy, Roya continued refining his potential points at full speed.
He still had the presence of mind to ponder:
"In this place, time and space seem not to exist. As long as one can mark a soul's projection, one can perceive its entirety."
"The Seventh Overlord was able to glimpse me through the Star Spirit's memory precisely because he exploited this property of Warp projections!"
"If every soul inevitably forms a projection here, then—if one were to strike a projection within the Warp—would that not wound the soul's body in the material world as well?"
The deeper his thoughts delved, the more wondrous possibilities of the Warp he uncovered. Yet with every revelation came new riddles, drawing Roya further into exploration and contemplation.
What might seem tedious or monotonous to others, Roya found endlessly exhilarating. He lost all awareness of the material world, freely roaming within the equally vast and boundless expanse of the Warp.
Gradually, even those colossal soul projections—majestic as mountains, vast as seas—no longer disturbed Roya's spirit.
For in the end, they were but insignificant fragments in this magnificent tapestry of the Warp, seemingly unable to even perceive Roya as he drifted nimbly among them.
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