In a desolate area, the space cracked, and a person fell to the ground.
"I was going upwards, but now I fell downwards, it feels weird."
That person was Yale who had just ascended.
At that moment, he felt a pressure generated by his ascension, and he knew that he must wait until it finished.
[Ascension effects canceled successfully.]
A notification appeared on Yale's head provoking that all the pressure dissipated, and his body adapted immediately to the surroundings.
"I bet this was planned by Alter Yale…"
Just as Yale thought, Alter Yale hid that function into the Last Wish System to erase traces of Yale's ascension in case that someone wanted to trace him down.
The first thing that Yale did after that was using his divine sense to scan his surroundings, but he was shocked to find that he could barely scan one thousand kilometers.
Before ascension, he could scan the whole universe even without the powerup he obtained from Alter Yale, and after ascension, Yale was already a seventh level immortal so he should have been stronger.
Of course, it wasn't that Yale was weaker than before. The truth was that in a universe of that level, a peak sixth level immortal would only be able to scan five hundred kilometers.
Higher universes were also far more stable, so the powers for each level were far more limited than in lower universes. However, since the restriction affected everyone, and the weaker ones were more affected than the stronger ones, those restrictions only made bigger the disparity of power between levels.
Yale tested a bit his own power and speed, but as he guessed, his destructive power and his speed were far lower than before ascension.
Previously, crushing a planet would have been easy for him, but at that moment, he couldn't even guess how big was the planet on which he was standing, so destroying it was obviously impossible.
On the thousand kilometers that he scanned there wasn't any trace of life, just pure wastelands, so he started to move randomly hoping to find someone who could give him some information of that universe.
It wasn't that Yale hadn't tried to ask the system in case that Alter Yale put some information there, but the system didn't reply, so there wasn't that kind of information, or he didn't meet the requirements to access it.
After several hours of travel, Yale was still unable to find any trace of life, and he started to wonder if he was in a planet without life, so he tried to get out the planet.
However, he found that after reaching a certain height, he couldn't scan any further nor pass through that point.
"Weird. If this was a random planet without people, there shouldn't be any restriction, which means that people are living here, it is just that I haven't met them yet."
With that thought in his mind, Yale returned to the floor and continued his travel.
Although he was flying, he would rather stay at floors level to avoid catching the attention of others.
Yale wanted to find people, but he didn't want to be found first by them in the case they were hostile.
After all, there were people stronger than him in that universe, so he couldn't be careless.
Of course, Yale was still one of the strongest ones since he was a seventh level immortal, but there were still eighth level immortals and ninth level immortals in that universe.
After several days and a lot of thousands of kilometers that made Yale thought about the size of that planet, Yale finally found someone.
There were three people, and it seemed that there was a conflict between one of them and the other two because that man was chasing the other two.
Those two seemed a couple. The guy was just an immortal who had recently reached immortality. As for the girl, she was on the guy's arms, and she wasn't even an immortal.
However, the man chasing them was a third level immortal and was already about to catch them.
What caught Yale's attention was that none of them were flying. They were running as ordinary mortals just far quicker.
Yale saw how the man finally caught that couple. If it hadn't been because the couple started to run far before that man started to chase them, they wouldn't have run so far.
"Dan, you bastard. How is that a little shit like you dared to steal our slave before we put the slavery mark on her?"
The third level immortal spoke with disdain.
"She is my girlfriend, not your slave!"
Dan replied with anger in his voice.
"No, she failed to become an immortal before twenty, so she doesn't have any rights left. She must live the rest of her life as a slave. She is just an object; how can she be a girlfriend of someone? Would you also be the boyfriend of a table? Well, what can I expect of someone like you who barely escaped that fate by becoming an immortal two days before your twentieth birthday?"
Becoming an immortal before the twentieth birthday was the way they differentiated between persons and objects.
The origins didn't matter, any being who reached the first immortal level before that age would be recognized as a person while those who weren't would be treated as objects or animals.
At least, that was the rule on their country, so the couple was trying to flee to any other country where the rules wouldn't be so cruel with untalented people.
"Jika, run. I will use my life to win some time for you."
He would rather die than let his girlfriend become a slave.
"No! I prefer to die with you than to live fleeing alone!"
She didn't want to become a slave, but she didn't want to live without Dan either, so she decided that death was the best outcome for her.
"Die? Impossible, you are a slave who has a monetary value. I can't let you die, or I will need to pay your price myself. As for that brat, you can consider him a corpse, but don't worry, I will let you watch while I torture him first."
Although Dan was an immortal, given his training speed, he was considered to be in the lowest part of the society, so not even his family would try to help him after he stole a slave from another family.
The fact that Dan and Jika were childhood friend and always loved each other didn't matter for them, the only status mattered in that country.
Of course, that third level immortal didn't think that he was doing anything wrong because he was just recuperating stolen goods.
"Uncle no! Why do you need to be like this? You always treated me kindly before…"
Jika was scared when she heard that her boyfriend would be tortured.
"Uncle? How is that a mere animal like you dares to call me uncle? What a shame! Forget about your memories as a person, a slave doesn't need them. Don't worry, the slavery mark will erase your memories and personality, so you will just live to satisfy the orders of your owners."
The lives of slaves in that country were far worse than anything that Yale had seen before ascension.
Even their intelligence would be erased completely, which also made that they couldn't train anymore.
"Sorry to disturb you, but I have some questions to ask."
That voice made that the three of them were shocked because just a moment ago, there wasn't anyone else there.
"I don't know who you are but get out. I am doing important business here."
Yale felt that Julie would be angry if she heard that what that man was doing had been called business.
"Senior, please ask, we will reply to any question!"
Dan decided to bet that Yale would save them even if it were only to ask some questions given that the other man had replied Yale so bluntly.
"Shut up! You better run quickly, or I will also torture and kill you!"
That man's father-in-law was from the family governing the country, a sixth level immortal, so he didn't fear a random traveler even if that traveler was stronger than him.
"I have a sixth level immortal backing me, so you should be wise to make a choice."
Yale's face didn't change before he replied.
"Of course, I know what I should do. You can call me Liye, but we will never meet again."
That man didn't think too much about those words, but in the next instant, his head had separated from his body while he felt a pressure far higher than the one, he felt from his father-in-law.
Only at death, he understood that a sixth level immortal wasn't a deterrent to the man he offended with his words.
In their country, a seventh level immortal had never appeared before because the area was a wasteland without anything valuable.
It was already great having three sixth level immortals on the country.
That man's soul was cursed to torture until disappearing thanks to the effect of Yale's sword.
Yale truly despised that man so he decided to use him to spread his name in hopes that Tofesh would hear it someday. Of course, he didn't believe that with such a small incident, his name would spread.
As for offending people, he was offended first by that man, and he just couldn't forgive actions like slavery.
