Void Evolution System

Living in one city could only ever introduce one to the culture of that one city. To understand the world, one had to see the world in some capacity.

For earthlings, this wasn't too hard. The internet made it easy to connect with others and learn of their circumstances regardless of distance. Cultures became prominent, and melded together to form new forms of culture.

It was a truly interconnected world, but surprisingly enough, it was also an outlier.

Perhaps it was because mana was a new thing for Earth.

For most worlds, mana would awaken before life managed to take root. The presence of mana would transform the environment, making it inhabitable for life forms.

This was why certain concepts of physics were ignored as the worlds in the universe drifted down their own paths. Mana had fundamentally altered those laws for its own benefit.

On Earth, life came first. It evolved, eventually creating the food chain that existed there now. And without mana to aid its development, its dominant race found another way.

Electricity was such a basic form of energy, but it wasn't something everyone had learned to harvest.

Plus, the sort of connectivity achieved by Earth just wasn't desired by most worlds. Satellite technology and other similar branches were completely unnecessary when men and women could fly into the sky and achieve the same results with their bodies.

As such, when it came to technology that connected the world like cellphones and the internet, the actual number of societies that used them wasn't high at all.

Of course, the Sacred Abyss Universe was especially dull, so perhaps it was too much to expect technological development from them, but Damien didn't expect their society to be so backwards.

'It's like they're still in the dark ages.'

The Gehenna Tribe was different. They lived away from society, and thus, their lack of societal development in some aspects was understandable.

It was different when the people in question were living in large territories like these.

They were developed in the most necessary ways. They had a proper currency and economic system, they had extreme technological development in fields like agriculture and production, but their society had never evolved in terms of entertainment.

'There's no political structure since the politics are nonexistent. There's no societal growth because the people are forced to live in an established hierarchy that never changes.'

Overall, from the perspective of someone who'd seen other circumstances, it was bleak.

However, that didn't mean the people were miserable.

They didn't know any better than what they had. They didn't look at the greener grass on the other side and wish for it.

They made due with their situation and found their own happiness.

Perhaps it was hard for things like equality to thrive. Perhaps discrimination was frequent based on random features that some of them had.

But there was good inside the bad too. This was something Damien realized inmediately.

'The common people are the same almost everywhere.'

The mundane lives that people lived without power were all uniquely theirs, but also eerily common to how their peers on other planets lived.

It was almost beautiful in a way, the fact that sentient beings would always find a way to satisfy themselves, regardless of their circumstances.

Nevertheless…

'...I'm not here just to sightsee.'

Damien's main goal as he traveled from city to city in several different territories to experience their cultures was not a vacation.

He had a decision to make.

What were the people like in this world?

Was the Sacred Abyss Universe worth saving?

Life would've been a lot easier if the answers to these questions was no.

Just like the cosmos where the dark beast came from, if the Sacred Abyss Universe had no value besides as a tool, he could do with it as he pleased.

However, he came to realize that the people here had potential.

It really set in when he went to his own territory, or rather, the territory led by the new Saintess, Thalia.

Her leadership was completely different from that of her predecessors, and her reign begot more change than the citizens she ruled knew what to do with.

To accept her meant to throw away the old ways. The longer a society remained in stasis, the harder it was for its people to accept change. For the people of Sacred Abyss, it should've been almost impossible.

But it wasn't.

They changed and adapted in ways Damien could never believe.

Their minds were strangely receptive. Despite being entrenched in prejudice for generations, they were now a society that was closer to Earth's than any other.

Compared to the other territories surrounding them, they looked like they came from a completely different world.

If these people, innocent people, were to die just because they existed…?

'It just doesn't sit right with me.'

Damien didn't like involving people who didn't do anything. It felt pathetic to include their lives in the slaughters that took place.

The fact that the Sacred Abyss Universe had these common people, people who were willing and able to adapt to change, at that…

'...I have to conquer, not destroy.'

Damien had a bit to think about it.

'It's not much of a problem, especially if I take precautions…'

This world never had to be the main battlefield, did it?

'Yeah, but they're all here, and I can't really leave this world out of it until I kill them all.'

It was useless to consider saving the world before he could kill the Foreign Nobles. Drawing them into space wouldn't be beneficial at all, so it was better to just fight them, kill them, and worry about things like saving innocent lives later.

'On that note…'

Now that another year had passed, the Foreign Nobles were getting a bit desperate.

They'd stopped scouring the world themselves and had instead resorted to something they'd barred from the masses, technology.

There were drones in the sky at all times as if it was a science fiction work instead of fantasy. They blanketed this entire world, leaving no spot untouched, despite the fact that the world itself was as large as the Heavenly World.

Every being existing in the world was constantly being surveilled. It made Damien's life a bit harder, but it wasn't the end of the world.

He could still travel from city to city by disguising himself as existing people rather than creating new images. Plus, even with all this surveillance, they couldn't find him.

'If they've spent all of their time and effort in the past year to create a system to find me, then my bluff should've worked.'

At this point, Maveth was probably confused as to what Damien's purpose in this world was if he was simply hiding without attacking or retreating.

'So I'll show him.'

It was just another step in the plan, another deception that would ultimately lead Grand Duke Maveth to his doom.

With a trusty little gadget in his hand, a calm manifestation of absolute chaos…

'Let's get our first boss kill.'

Grand Duke Lance was first on the menu.

Today, as Damien declared, he would die.

His fate was already set.