"This took a while. I'll need to go to a training center to digest and practice everything."

Roy went to the local UHA Training Center. They had all sorts of equipment there. You could do muscle training, train martial arts, train using weapons, adjusted gravity training, spell casting, mana absorption and manipulation training...

Roy got a room for mana training, and sat down on the cus.h.i.+on. He started meditating and practicing

. He completed the first cycle of stabilizing his inner mana in about half an hour. In the training rooms, there was about a 10 times richer density of mana than outside. That was specially made with some mana stones and magic arrays, so that training would be easier, and to increase the popularity of the Training Center. Most other centers would have mana density between 3 - 7 times, so it was a pleasant improvement.

If you were somewhere with rich mana, your mind would usually become calmer, you could think faster, and have a higher chance of obtaining some "profound understanding" of the world. That was why everyone would fight to get a hold of these cities, mountain ranges, hot springs, etc. to be able to flock their wealth and prestige, and to advance in whatever they wanted.

The mana in the training rooms was mixed mana. It was sort of mixture of all stage 1 secondary mana, and normal primary mana. It's called mixed, because it's just mixed. If it were distorted and chaotic, it would be called chaotic mana. That sort of mana existed in some places, and corrupted all life. It would be hard to think, feel positive emotions, and you would start to corrupt. Animals would become monsters, and monsters could increase in rank. Vegetation could become demonic, and turn into monster type plants, and the soil would become dead and cursed. Even humans could turn into demons if they stayed too long.

Roy currently only had a little mana in his reserves, so that's why he finished quickly. After just one cycle, he almost had stable mana. He really wanted to absorb this room's mana, but doing so was forbidden. There was limited mana in those stones, and while you could "bathe" in it, you couldn't absorb it. If you did, then the next person would have less mana to use, and the Training Center would have to restock itself.

He decided that he would complete another cycle, just to make it perfect. This time, it only took him 20 minutes, because he already familiarized himself with how to stabilize mana. The period of time for each cycle would gradually become shorter, the more he practiced it. On the other hand, if he increased his mana reserves, and absorb more mana, the time required would increase.

After the 2nd cycle, he felt his mana stabilize almost perfectly. And although he still wasn't as sensitive to mana as more powerful people, he still had quite decent sensitivity for his level.

Later, he went to a restaurant to have dinner. He didn't find a seat on the first, and second floor, so he went to the third floor. There, he saw a couple had just stood up, and left. He quickly went to take their former seat, and sat down.

He knew the restaurant was busy, so he understood he had to wait for a while. Finally, after about 20 minutes, the waiter came to his table.

"Sorry for the delay young man. What would you like to order?" The man kindly asked.

"Of course. Mmm, I would like pasta bolognese please. With a some strawberry juice please."

The man looked a little confused. "I'm sorry, did you say strawberry juice?" He asked. He didn't encounter "older" people who would still drink juice often, so he thought he might have misheard.

Roy blushed slightly. "heh... Yes. I really like to drink it, and it won't do any damage, so I thought, that maybe I should spoil myself a little."

"I see. Well, I was just a little stunned. I didn't mean anything by it. Will be ready in about half an hour." The waiter smiled.

"Sure."

Roy waited for awhile, and thought to himself "I wonder, who's the strongest person here? And on that note, what's their level?" He wondered this, because he wanted to know, how much time would take him to surpa.s.s them.

Roy was ambitious like that, so he always wanted to find his next "opponent" to compete with. Academically, he was on top of his cla.s.s, school, and the whole city (in his level, and before he went to GW). That started a trail of thought. Could he have become the best academically on his planet?

On Earth, Roy's home planet, there was a stable and healthy population of 1 Billion. After humans united in 2063, and formed the UHA, they gradually started to cooperate. With that in mind, they came to the conclusion, that a planet the size of Earth, should have a population the size of about 1 Billion. The shortcoming was, that humans had a ma.s.sive population of over 5 Billion. They would have to gradually decrease it. And that wasn't easy. So, women were forbidden from becoming pregnant. If you wanted a child, the only way to get one, was to adopt it.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

That may seem like it's not a lot, but to humans. Ohoho, they wanted to breed like rabbits. If I tell you how nasty of a creature they were, then you may even puke. Remember when you first meet one of them? That one seemed kind, but most of them were ruthless, and savage creatures. Anyways, let's continue...

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Most people wouldn't and couldn't accept this. But because of the strict law that was enforced, and the fortunes fact that some realized what would happen, if they didn't start decreasing the population. They had to bear with it.

After five years, in 2068, when the first GW portal opened, the population started to stabilize even more. And that was because, most people wanted to find the "thrill" of life, that they have been searching for their whole lives. They found that opportunity in GW. Because there, literally anything was possible, if you had enough power. You could fight monsters, become a n.o.ble, learn cooking from another world, become a smith, advance and research their technology, gain superpowers, learn legendary martial arts, use magic, be the ruler of a world, make your deepest desires come true (usually with elf ladies...), ride a fricking dragon, discover amazing and beautiful plants and creatures, gain the "power" to see more than 3 base colors, you could evolve, gain tremendous strength, learn faster with dense mana, be a G.o.d, and, the, list, never, ends...!

That was why a lot of people departed to stay in GW, or occupied themselves with GW instead of their own world. You may think that that's when their world would collapse, but no. A lot of them came back, to gain prestige because of their power, or because they were "loyal" to their world. And then they would help advance that world's technology, "liven up" the place, flaunt their power, to become the ruler of their world, etc.

Anyway, the current maximum population allowed for earth sized planets was 1 Billion. That was also Earth's population in the age of Roy Luck. There were exactly 1000 cities on Earth. The cities were named by their prowess (mostly by higher tiered and higher level residents). The system used was naming them by first, letters, to tell in which cla.s.s they are. And then a number, that told the rank within that cla.s.s.

Roy's home city was R23 of Earth. That meant, that the city was in cla.s.s 16 of city cla.s.ses, in power of its residents, and 23rd within its cla.s.s. A was the strongest cla.s.s (on Earth), and the number 1 meant that they were the strongest of their cla.s.s. But because there were fewer stronger cities, the "higher" you went. That meant that that there would also be less cities within a cla.s.s.

On Earth, there were 15 A cla.s.s cities, the fewest. And 47 Z cla.s.s cities, the most. The 15 A cla.s.s cities were the core protectors of Earth. In case of a monster attack, or an alien invasion, or another human planet attacking, they were the ones relied upon to protect Earth. The same was on all the other planets. Some planets even had SS, and SSS cities, but Earth was mostly abandoned so it didn't have those. Of course, on those planets, the SS, and SSS cities would be the main help.

...

After finis.h.i.+ng this thought, unknowingly, almost 10 minutes had pa.s.sed.

Because the food wasn't going to be served anytime soon, he thought back on his own strengths. The first thing that came to mind was his swordsmans.h.i.+p. He had practiced his families techniques since he was little. By now, although he was young, he still grasped almost everything he was taught. That already made him one of the swordsmans.h.i.+p experts in Sol (Earth's planetary system, also know as the Solar System) for his age. The fact that Sol was mostly abandoned contributed to that, but there were still a few billion people in it.

When he took an exam, the UHA Net AI checked his first soul level, and even found a few talents. The lest surprising one was Sword Fighting++. These "system talents" started appearing after GW appeared, so by the time Roy took the test, advanced technology was invented that could check these things. A literal "plus" was that he didn't have a normal Sword Fighting talent, he had, not a + talent, but a ++ talent. That showed extreme luck (in at least this aspect of his life), and that he had a lot of potential. Normal talents had an about 0.1% chance of appearing, one + talents had a 0.00001% chance of appearing, and a ++ talent had a chance of 0.0000001% appearing. There was also a +++ type of talent, but that would reside on level 2 of the soul, so Roy's older sister didn't allow checking it.

That would mean, that in a billion people, there would usually only be one person with a ++ talent, if even that. This was truly a blessing for Roy. Besides that, he also had another talent, Strong Willed. But because he had a talent of a ++ ranking, and talents could develop overtime, his sister hopped he would increase that talent (talents can develop overtime, as the person grows. It can increase in rank, decrease, or even disappear).

His next strength would be his "smarts". But he thought that that was obviously because of his, now know, gifts.

Later, when he became older, he didn't go for another soul check. Because he just didn't want others "knowing about his soul". So he didn't know if his talents developed or not. His older sister was eager to know, but she still backed off when he stated his mind, which also made Roy value her more as his family.

...

Without knowing, again, almost another 10 minutes had pa.s.sed. But because he started thinking about his sister earlier, he now began thinking of his family.

Ever since Roy was little, he only had his older sister with him. She took care of him, and he "took care" of her (emotionally). Her name was Mary Luck. To him, she was charming, an excellent cook, smart, and even beautiful. That was also the reason Roy didn't know why she was still single. He thought that "She at least deserves a boyfriend!". Although she wasn't home a lot, because of her job, she still called and asked all about how Roy's daily life was.

She worked for a company, that operated both in GW, and in some parts of the Milky Way galaxy. She worked as a head chef for a 3 Star Restaurant, so that further proved her talents at cooking. She worked with GW foods as well, so she also knew about poisons and that sort of stuff. And although she said she liked working there, Roy knew that she was probably being "disturbed" by some of the male higher ups of it. He thought, that their pay may be decent, they were still probably a, at least, shady company, and that she should get a different job. The company was called Stary Night (not Starry, but Stary). And it was a fairly big company.

It operated as a restaurant chain, and, well... almost everything. They specialized in delivery, cooking, producing, research, medicine, etc. So they were pretty big. But Roy still didn't like them.