Alice: "Are you sure you're okay?"
Riku: "Don't worry!"
Alice shot him a look. Although she was smiling, a hint of worry lingered in her beautiful eyes.
Why did Riku choose not to accompany the mother and daughter? Naturally, it was because the other universe was truly fraught with danger. It was a realm that felt terrifyingly hazardous just by sensing it.
Therefore, Riku had to go. A powerful universe brought higher rewards. Ordinary, weak universes were suitable as farmlands, places to plant, harvest, and take things slow. One should not drain the pond to catch the fish by squeezing them dry all at once, as that would be a waste.
A powerful universe, however, was like a secret realm or a dungeon. A single exploration could result in hitting the jackpot.
"Honey, then I will take our little cutie in to play." Alice held Little Keli's hand, standing before the Universe Gate and waving her slender hand.
"Daddy, you have to come over soon!" Little Keli shouted happily, hopping up and down.
Riku smiled and said, "Go on, have fun. Daddy will be there very soon."
The mother and daughter held hands and stepped through the Universe Gate.
After they left, Riku straightened his back. His body emitted a series of snap, crackle, and pop sounds like beans roasting, and a smile curled onto his lips.
"Come on then, let us see what is really going on."
***
A fine drizzle fell under a gloomy sky.
A shimmering, translucent phantom materialized in the middle of a street. He had long black hair and wore a black belted robe, and his handsome features seemed almost non-human.
This phantom was, of course, Riku.
However, Riku had not arrived in his physical body. He had come as a projection of his consciousness, leaving his true body back in his own Longhuang Universe.
Just in case.
Riku was not weak, but he still had to be careful. It would be a joke if he ran into some monster the moment he stepped out, got captured, and was instantly refined.
'The timeline of this universe...' Riku mused, scanning his surroundings. Judging by the clothing and the general atmosphere, it seemed to be the style of the era before the millennium.
Of course, he could not be certain yet. Riku had no way of determining exactly what kind of universe lay on the other side just by looking at the Universe Gate.
Riku knew that among the universes in the Crystal Wall Sea, many were familiar to him. To put it simply, they were places where information had leaked through in the form of anime, manga, games, movies, and novels. Similarly, within the vast Crystal Wall Sea, there were also completely unrecognizable universes. Riku could not always put a name to them immediately.
"Hmm?"
Just as Riku was about to investigate, he heard nearby chatter.
"Did you hear?"
"You mean that matter? Of course I heard!"
"Right? It is really just..."
"Yeah! Exactly!"
As Riku listened, he felt black lines practically forming on his forehead. What the hell were these two talking about? Did they actually say anything? No! Was it a yes or a no? Who knows!
Riku felt he should just take matters into his own hands, but just as he was about to move, they finally started talking about business.
"The head of the Graad Foundation has already designated his granddaughter as the heir."
"I remember her name was Saori Kido, right?"
"That is the one, that is the one."
The Graad Foundation.
Saori Kido.
Riku stopped in his tracks and gazed into the distance. He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and whispered, "This world? It really is dangerous. But then again, opportunity and danger coexist."
"Hehehe..."
With a faint chuckle, Riku's phantom vanished without a trace.
The [Saint Seiya] universe.
In a world where Major Deities walk the earth, Creator Gods run around every day, Absolute Gods watch from the shadows, and even further up... there is that existence known as the Transcendent God.
Riku knew about it, of course, and he knew he could not afford to be careless.
He did not rush into action. Instead, he stayed hidden and began observing various countries.
The Saints were unmistakable. He had already seen several familiar figures. Riku mainly focused on gauging their strength. He could confirm that Gold Saints, who possessed the Seventh Sense Cosmo, could truly play with planets like they were glass marbles. As for the weaker ones, as long as they mastered Cosmo, overturning seas and rending the earth was easy as pie.
"Besides the Saints belonging to the Sanctuary, I have discovered quite a few other interesting existences."
In a nursery that clearly belonged to a baby girl, Riku sat cross-legged in the void, deep in thought.
That special power clearly belonged to a sleeping deity. And those warriors clad in different types of Cloth...
Clearly, while the protagonists of the Holy War were Athena and Hades, other gods would also descend to the Earth in human vessels. Those who wanted to play would join in, and those who did not would just watch the fun.
As for whether these gods in human vessels had discovered Riku? That was a joke.
Do not look down on Riku. Although he was a weakened version and an underage version, and he might not compare to powerful beings on the level of Gaia or above—and he might lose more than he won against a God King like Zeus—he would have absolutely no problem facing ordinary gods.
Do you understand the weight of being Innate Divine?
"Honey, honey..."
"Hello? Hello?"
"Can you hear me?"
Just then, Alice's voice rang in Riku's ear.
Following the voice, a faint blue glow appeared by Riku's ear. An earpiece emerged; it resembled the Akasha Terminals from Sumeru but looked much more sci-fi.
This was something Riku had researched—a device that could communicate across universes through the Universe Gate. For now, it only allowed for voice communication.
In the future? Riku planned to develop it further. Maybe he could enable video calls, direct cross-universe teleportation, or even the transfer of materials between universes.