"Since I was born in this strange world, three years have already passed," thought Dry. He walked through the streets of Canan, the capital of Cabon, his arms behind his back like a master, with two Level 2.6 Guards at a distance of two meters.
In his first two years of life, Dry behaved like an ordinary child: crying, babbling, drooling, and other things. But after some time, he decided to act more unusual for his apparent age, like an adult in a child's body.
Although the soul stone had tested him as a pure soul, his mature behavior left some clan members confused in the first days, wondering whether or not he was reincarnated. After much deliberation, they attributed this anomaly to his talent: "a talented individual is different from the rest," they said.
Upon turning two years old, the clan held an introduction banquet. Various sects, families, and powerful individuals of Cabon appeared with assorted gifts.
Well, it was a party worthy of a prince. Passing through a square full of people — some selling at stalls, others as street vendors, some buying here and there — Dry saw that Canan was a well-organized and tidy street; every individual had a genuine smile on their face, though he suspected some were just there to pass the time. Many stared at him; he had already grown used to that since the day of the party. It was on that day that he discovered the terror of his Level 8 talent.
He clearly remembers that some clan babies, himself included, boys and girls, all aged two, were twenty in total.
Their talents were tested, lined up in Indian rows: two lines, ten babies per line — a mix of boys and girls — with two scrolls floating at the beginning of each row. The hall was decorated in yellow and red colors.
That made the white scrolls quite illustrative and attractive: each baby was told to walk up to the scroll and place their hand for two seconds; then, the scrolls displayed the baby's basic information.
When Dry saw the information of the first baby on the scroll, he was horrified by the data and the crowd's reaction:
{AMAHIA Zhen, talent level 2.9}
When the scroll revealed this information, the crowd was stunned. They said things like: "On planet Orion, someone with this talent level has the potential to become a supreme." It was flattery upon flattery that left him somewhat embarrassed.
Then came other babies; their talents ranged between 1 and 2. But two twin babies had levels that horrified everyone at the party with fear — the twins were even granted the right to compete for the throne of AHIA patriarch. Apparently, according to clan rules, only those with the surname AHIA had the right to the throne. All other direct clan members not belonging to the patriarch's lineage and without the right to fight for the throne had AHIA affixed to their surname.
Example: the twins whose talents were Level 6 and 6.8, respectively. Their affixes vanished, leaving only AHIA.
GOONAHIA Jade became AHIA Jade — she was quite an unusual girl.
GOONAHIA Black became AHIA Black — a boy with the face of a future womanizer; many girls would suffer at his hands. Luckily, I'm the only handsome one myself.
Out of nowhere, I gained two competitors — me, who was the only heir!? Imagine my frustration at that moment.
Well, thank God that when my talent was revealed by the scroll, I gained an obvious advantage over them: Level 8. The moment the scroll showed this, there was a pause in the crowd's chatter for a few seconds; it was as if the world had stopped at that instant. Immediately after, the clan members expelled all guests from the party.
As I later learned, up until my party the maximum talent level in the entire universe — not just the planet — was 6.9; in other words, there was no being with talent Level 7 or higher. Mine was straight at 8.
The next day, the most powerful being in the universe came to my house, and by the way he looked at me, I knew at that instant that I was in really big trouble.
How did I know he was the most powerful being in the universe? Obvious — this damn thing in my head told me the moment he appeared before me; this damn thing showed me what I call "Bloody Bad Luck."
[Target found ✓ Primordial Supreme]
[Titles ✓ The Most Powerful Being in the Universe, The First Emperor, The First Primitive Beast, The First Supreme Being, etc.]
[Target's talent detected ✓ Level 6.2 Imperial Talent]
[The unit detected the agent was marked by the target]
[Calculating reason]
[Reason calculated ✓ To devour the agent in order to improve his talent and break the Universal barrier to evolve to the next level]
[Calculating target's action time]
[Action time ✓ 1000 years]
[The target will not devour the agent within the next 1000 years, which does not affect the unit, no action required]
The worst part wasn't even the information this damn thing showed, since I only have 20 years to live according to this damn unit.
The worst was that the most powerful members of the clan were with me — me, in my mother's lap, listening to the adults discussing the impact that the revelation of my talent would have on the entire universe. Suddenly a being appeared right before me. The three supposed most powerful beings I had known until then — the three pillars of the clan — as well as my mother and father right by my side, continued their conversation as if this being didn't exist. At that moment, I almost shit myself.
He looked at me, and after smiling as if he had won the lottery, disappeared. From that day, I said "screw it" and pretended to be normal.
I began to act as the adult only inside.
I started researching more about the world I was in and thought of creating an organization for my own use.
One of the things that worried me was that, with such an abnormal talent, someone might try to kill me. After some days and nothing happened, with doubt I asked my grandfather Grey why no rival clan had tried to assassinate me!?
Hearing my question, he laughed as if he had heard the best joke in the world and explained that most lacked the ability; and those who did have it wouldn't act out of fear.
In the universe, there are stories of less talented individuals who, after being killed, returned from the dead for some reason, more powerful than before, and annihilated their enemies. The most famous case is the Lord of Fire of the Delta Galaxy, who at age 10 was hunted by his enemies after they discovered his talent was Level 5.3. No one knows how, but after 20 years dead, the Lord of Fire returned far stronger — his evolution level, which before death was 1, was 6 upon returning twenty years later; he annihilated his enemies and is now one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Some say he is preparing to evolve to Level 7. Imagine you with your talent… who would dare take the risk?
From that day, I concluded I only had 2 problems: the unit and, if I survived, that target.
With the help of this damn unit, I understood what kind of world I was in and also noticed certain points about this unit.
In this world, all beings have the opportunity to cultivate, but not all have the talent to do so.
Cultivation, according to the unit, is the process of consciously evolving, working the potential existing in the body; with the body's evolution, the soul or spirit of the individual begins to change — a kind of transformation caused by the body's change. In this evolution, the spirit and body become increasingly synchronized with the world and its laws.
What allows the individual to communicate directly with the world and its laws, when the body reaches the extreme of its potential, is the famous Level 8, also called the half-step primordial; the body is capable of communicating and interacting with the laws of the universe directly.
The extreme of the soul, Level 15, is called the Primordial Tao — a theoretical level; according to the unit, no being or object exists at this level.
The peak in the entire multiverse is Level 13, also called Primordial Heaven and Earth; at this level, the individual can create and destroy universes with a single thought.
Talent indicates how easily a being can evolve to a certain level; it multiplies up to three times its own value, that is, talent level raised to the power of 3. The level of the universe or world, on the other hand, determines how far these beings can evolve; it is the line that limits the potential of beings in a universe. To break this line requires crazy and extreme measures.
The levels of evolution are divided into three categories or realms: human, earth, sky.
According to the unit: Levels 1 to 3.10 belong to the human category; Levels 4 to 6.10 belong to the earth category — each level in both categories subdivided into 10 parts called steps. Example: 1.2 means Level One, second step, and so on.
Levels 7 to 9.10 belong to the sky category; each level subdivided into 10 stages called heavens. Example: 8.2 — Level Eight, second heaven.
According to the unit, this universe only presents the possibility of evolving to these levels; the rest are beyond my reach.
As for the unit, I realized it has an absurdly high level; I think much higher than this world's level, but despite that, it is not omnipotent.
The strengths of the unit I've noticed are: its almost omnipotent capacity to know everything about something. An example is the fact that it knew my new name before it was given, knew everything about this world, could see everyone's talent without exception.
But when it comes to me, it has serious flaws, to my delight. Once I asked it if it didn't find it strange that, even though I wasn't reincarnated, I had memories of a past life. It scanned and said it found no information in my soul suggesting past life memories.
Then I asked if it didn't find it strange for a baby to be so aware of the world; it said it was normal, since some individuals are already born aware of the world even without past lives. This happens with extremely talented individuals like me — though my words suggested abnormal knowledge of the world, it justified it saying it was due to hereditary information passed by one of my ancestors; it even gave examples of beings with such traits, one being the famous dragons that are already born knowing.
I know very well what my situation is. After some tests, I discovered that the unit can only know what I actively allow it to know about my active thoughts.
It is fused with my soul or spirit, but very limited regarding me. I believe the only reason for this situation is that I have something of a higher level than it; I can't think of anything else, but I have no clues at the moment.
Dry thought as he walked toward a ten-story building. The buildings had architecture similar to 21st-century Earth; he had seen this type of architecture in the museum in his other life, when escorting a brat who had seen more than he should — if I remember well, he earned me good money back then.
Because of the similarities between past Earth and Orion, there was a time he thought he had returned to the past, but the magical elements of Orion made him sure he was not on Earth; in the museums and legends told about the past, Earth from 2021 until the time of his generation had no magical elements.
He entered the building; the receptionist stood and came to him as soon as she saw him. She wore a professional smile on her face, though her nervousness was noticeable — she even had quite a cute smile.
She looked about 20 years old, blonde, in high heels, 1.70 meters tall; she wore a vest with a name tag on her chest with the name Jandira. Dry noticed she had rather prominent breasts.
— Good afternoon sir, they are waiting for you on the third floor, room number 30 — said Jandira to Dry.
Dry looked at her with lazy eyes and followed her. She was very nervous being before the most famous and feared individual of the moment; not even the patriarch of the AHIA clan, Jun, had the fame his son AHIA Dry had.
In Orion, information travels relatively fast; technology is extremely advanced, and communication between galaxies has only seconds of delay — all known points of the universe can communicate without problems, hence information is open to all, except for private and military-level information.
Despite wars between some galaxies and certain disputes between individuals and sects, Orion's central continent is still the absolute leader of the planet. Little Dry has been famous for a year already; by this time there is no point in the universe that does not know about him. There is a list on CosmicNet, the universe's information network:
The list of emperors of the year 2031 (current year of the supreme calendar). This list shows individuals with the potential to reach Level 6.10, also called imperial level. The list will be updated in five years, and everyone already knows who the first name will be — just to imagine how famous Dry is.
Jandira brought Dry to the room door; as soon as she opened it she went back to the reception. Dry entered the room; inside were four individuals:
João da Silva, patriarch of the Silva Clan, the biggest merchant in Cabon; Georgina Samora, clanless, local chief of the newspaper "Orion Sees," the planet's largest distributor of information — she was the second most important person in the room; Steve McQueen, current leader of Canan's capital guard; and Jay Leno, the youngest in the room at 12 years old — he holds the title of man with the greatest Qi on the planet.
As soon as they saw Dry enter the room, they stopped their conversation and paid attention to the boy who acted like an adult.
— Good afternoon, little prince... I must confess that when my assistant told me you left a message for me to come to the Loan Hotel, I was rather surprised and curious! — only Georgina Samora spoke while the others waited to see what Dry would do.
Dry sat in an armchair and one of his guards gave him a milk pack; he received it and, using a straw, began drinking his milk. Georgina was somewhat embarrassed as she got no reaction at all from Dry.
— My clan has a precept that says the following: "AHIA is a small tree that only seeks to find enough water and minerals to sustain itself; when it doesn't have them, it spreads its roots in desperation until it finds them; until then AHIA seems like any other tree, but what makes it special is that when it finds water and nutrients, it stops expanding its roots. So too is our clan: when we don't have, we fight desperately until we do, even if little; when we do have, we protect desperately until the last of us. The first time I heard this precept I liked it very much, because I identified with it quite a lot," — said Dry as he drank his milk and looked at everyone in the room.
— For a small clan, AHIA has great precepts; I admire that, I like intelligent people — said Jay with a smile on his face.