In the wilderness, during the nighttime, snow fell on the ground with the sound of howling coming from different directions.
Near a mountain, a bonfire was lit in the middle of a cave, and a man lay there who looked as if he had fainted.
Blood still flowed from the wounds on his chest and legs, and a frown remained on his face.
The wounds looked as if they were from a fight with a wild beast, with visible scratch marks on his chest and legs.
Michael opened his eyes, and they looked confused. Where is this? Am I not on the battlefield of the defense war? How could I be here?
The sound of howling from outside the cave made him very sensitive. Where is it?
From his perspective, he could only see blood flowing from his body, and he couldn't even feel his leg. He was stunned.
Michael tried to get up, which he instantly regretted as blood began to flow more heavily.
In the wilderness, in a cave, and with the same familiar injury—had he been reborn? Back to the time when he was a general warrior?
His brain worked quickly, adapting to its current state, and his hand began to crawl toward the bonfire.
Outside the cave, the stars twinkled in the cold air. There was no war, no familiar faces dying in the casualties of war.
Everything was so calm and beautiful, which brought a sense of an upcoming storm.
Michael finally remembered how he had died.
The Blue Star change began 1000 years ago when a large meteor fell on Earth, creating great chaos on the planet.
The impact of the meteor was more severe than anyone could imagine, as mutations started to happen to the creatures of Earth.
Animals grew stronger as their bodies were genetically more robust than those of humans. Even some humans began to gain power.
As exotic fruits were eaten by animals or humans, they started to gain power, which created great chaos, since the ratio of powerful wild beasts was greater than that of human beings. Not all humans could be considered entirely good, especially regarding who took the fruit.
At the beginning of the mutation, human weapons still provided great security, but as the beasts grew stronger, the weapons had no impact on high-level beasts.
Humans also began to search for exotic fruits, and traces of long-lost inheritance relics surfaced during exploration, which started the concept of the warrior for humanity, from where the path of the warrior begins.
The realms start with the Apprentice level, the Warrior level, the Elite Warrior level, the General level, the War General level, and the Warlord level.
Above the Warlord realm, there are other realms which are not in the public domain. The reason he knows is obvious—he was once a powerful man above the Warlord realm. Each realm is divided into the early stage, middle stage, and late stage.
Due to the heavy loss of human population, humans united, with every country creating a Blue Star Federation, under which every country was represented. The way of running the world shifted from different countries to the superbase system, where they divided the countries into seven superbases, and different levels of cities were built with fortifications to avoid more damage to humans.
The Blue Star Federation created superbases whose prime motive was to be strongholds for humans, and under each superbase, different large cities to small cities were run according to level.
Under each superbase, large cities have late-stage Warlord realm warriors as city lords, as the Warlords are directly appointed by the Federation, though they might be affiliated with different large families or martial halls.
Small cities have their base lord according to the requirements of the threat they might face, and different factions also open branches to observe and train new geniuses for their respective factions.
As for the powerful beings above Warlords, they also protect cities, but they generally spend much time on the battlefield or cultivating. After all, it takes a great deal of time to cultivate at a later stage.
They might be protecting a larger base, but normally, people cannot judge their realm, as it is difficult for people to even meet Warlords, not to mention those above.
Each superbase is a massive fortified city-state, overseeing hundreds of smaller cities across regions. All are monitored by the Blue Star Federation's Supreme Council, though they operate semi-independently. In terms of military, training, and development, the Federation still holds strong power.
While the Authority maintains peace, law, and planetary development, the real power lies within the factions as well.
Blue Star has now been divided into different sections that try to protect their core with powerful beings and provide a peaceful place for future generations to grow. Wilderness areas are still occupied by powerful mutated animal beasts that existed on Earth before evolution, and humans still fight with them, but the mutated beasts are the least of the troubles that humans on Blue Star face.
The prime target for humans is now the battlefield, which is connected to Blue Star in different places.
Thinking of this, Michael realized that the battle in which he died would be 30 years from now.
Although he was a warrior beyond the Warlord realm, he was still betrayed in the war, as there was a traitor on the battlefield where he was stationed. The traitor was the main reason the battle, which was balanced, became unbalanced, as the defense of the battlefield base was broken from inside.
Although the traitor was not a powerful human warrior, he still dealt a huge blow, allowing the Alien Race to enter the base on the battlefield and slaughter everyone.
In the process of protecting people, Michael fought the aliens, but he did not remember how he died—perhaps due to exhaustion of energy.
This time, even if he could not change the fate of everyone, he must change the fate of his close friends.
Then Michael looked inside the cave.
Although the cave looked normal at this moment, he knew clearly that he had survived such an injury last time because there was an exotic fruit which helped him heal as well as break through to the late stage of a General warrior.
Speaking of which, the Luminous Berry is a type of elixir fruit that radiates energy, aiding in both physical and spiritual healing.
Michael started to look around the cave for his sword, and with its support, he stood up.
As Michael moved toward the inner part of the cave, he could see the small berry plant at the end, where a few small fruits hung from the plant.
Without any delay, he moved toward the plant and picked the fruits, which were no different from berries.
Immediately, energy began to flow inside his body, and every cell began to devour the energy.
As his body consumed more energy, his realm began to break through from the early stage, climbing toward the middle stage, then to the late stage of the General warrior.
As his realm broke through, his body began to heal. At the same time, his spiritual power, which had been exhausted, began to replenish.
Michael, whose focus was entirely on his realm, did not know that a small object had begun to illuminate in the center of his forehead.