The Universal System worked just like the leveling up function in the game. You kill someone, you get experience points, and then you level up.
Simple, right? Not at all.
First of all, if you kill someone in a safe zone, you will get no experience points. For example, if you kill someone inside a city, you will receive nothing, the system itself refuses to acknowledge such actions and enforces its own rules without exception.
Another way to gain experience was through repetition. If you perform a particular action, lets say sword slashes countless times, you will receive experience, and the more you practice, the more proficient you will become in that field, with each movement gradually becoming more refined and efficient over time.
The same applies to abilities and skills as well. The more you use them, the better you will get, and with people being able to see their progress in real time, their motivation will remain at an all time high, as every small improvement is directly visible and measurable.
One could also gain experience by exploring this endlessly vast realm, where even moving into unknown regions and uncovering new places could contribute to one’s growth, encouraging people to step beyond familiar boundaries.
There also existed various naturally formed dungeons that did not actually form due to being connected with other planets, but instead came into existence naturally during the formation of the Realm itself, they were part of its very structure.
No one knew how they were created, but over time, everyone simply accepted them as a natural phenomenon of this world, without questioning their origin too deeply.
Other than the naturally formed dungeons, there were Trial Towers that granted experience through structured challenges, and beyond that, there was a Quest System, which included Realm Quests, Class Evolution Quests, Legacy Quests, Training Quests, Unique Quests, and many more, each designed to guide individuals toward growth in different ways while offering clear objectives to follow.
Indeed, there were Class Evolution Quests, through which one could embark on an entirely new path and evolve one’s class, but these kinds of quests were not easy to complete, as they required more than just strength and often tested one’s understanding, adaptability, and resolve in ways that could not be measured directly.
As for Realm Quests, Ash had a glaring suspicion that these were nothing but the Story Quests or World Quests from the game, the structure and intent behind them feeling far too similar to be a coincidence, with the only real difference being the name. And who knows how much everything change with him being in the equation.
Speaking of quests, the Universal System also helped mortals break their natural limits. Once someone reached a certain level and could no longer grow, they could apply for a Limit Breaker Trial, and upon clearing it, their body would evolve, granting them a new stat cap and, in rare cases, even new abilities that were not accessible before.
However, clearing such trials was far from easy, as failure did not come without consequences, and the difficulty seemed to scale far beyond what most people were prepared for.
Basically, if you are a normal person, clearing Limit Breaker Trial is almost impossible.
Once someone successfully cleared a Limit Breaker Trial, they would unlock the Evolution Tree of their race, allowing them to choose a path of growth based on their nature and abilities, further shaping their future development in a more specialized direction.
Other than these major aspects, there were many smaller elements that, although often overlooked at first glance, carried significant importance in the overall structure of the realm.
These included things such as World or rather Realm Bosses, Death Zones and Danger Zones, Realm Events, the Title System, and many more, each contributing to the complexity and balance of this world in their own way.
But among all of these, there were two items that stood above the rest in terms of desirability.
Legendary stones.
Currently, not many people new about them. But Ash read from the memories that people knew that these Legendary Stones were the most desirable things that everyone wanted.
Ash knew two of such stones that were in the game.
The Evolution Stone and the Potential Stone.
Their functions and abilities were exactly what their names suggested, yet their simplicity only made them more valuable.
One could grant evolution regardless of conditions, bypassing limitations that would otherwise take years or even a lifetime to overcome, while the other could increase one’s potential, raising the very ceiling of their growth.
There were different grades of these stones as well, and based on their grade, one could determine how effective they would be, making higher grade stones exponentially more valuable and sought after.
For example, a low grade Potential Stone would only increase one’s potential by a single rank, which, although useful, was nothing compared to what higher grades could offer.
There might also be more Legendary Stones present, after all this was Reality, and Ash was not going to blindly trust everything he has learned from the game in his previous life.
But this raises another question, if killing others could make you stronger, the whole realm would eventually turn into a place filled with nothing but war and destruction...
One has to realize that inside the game, there were endless monsters for the players to kill, but that is not true for this realm...
There would inevitably come a point where endless killing would lead to nothing but the destruction of everything, because unlike the game, there was no system of revival in reality, and every death was True Death.
Thus, to regulate people from falling into the path of mass slaughter, there existed Realm Guardians who ensured that nothing like that spiraled out of control, maintaining a balance that the system itself did not directly enforce.
After Ash gathered all the basic information, he realized that he was not connected to the Universal System, and even Snow was not connected to it.
That could only be because of the Soul bond they shared, which seemed to place them outside the system’s influence, or at the very least, beyond its standard reach.
Ash then decided to ask Eric whether he wanted to form a Soul Bond with him or get bound by the Universal System. After all, as long as he was inside Ash soul Space, Universal System can’t reach him yet.
It was Eric’s choice at the end of the day.
In all these thousands of years, Ash had never asked Eric to form such a bond, because he never wanted him to be restricted or feel tied down by something or someone.
But the situation had changed.
So when Ash explained everything about the Universal System to Eric in detail, including its benefits, its structure, and its limitations, Eric’s reply surprised him slightly.
According to Eric, he would rather form a bond with Ash than trust some unknown system, especially one that had appeared so suddenly and governed everything so quietly, without revealing its true origin.
Seeing him like that, Ash felt a faint sense of guilt, because he could clearly see a reflection of his own paranoia within Eric’s words, as if those thoughts had been passed on over time without either of them realizing it.
At the same time, it reassured him.
At the very least, Eric would not be easily deceived.
Thus, after Eric and Ash formed a Soul Bond with equal standing between them, Ash brought Eric into the outside world.
Time passed after that, and Ash eventually decided to purchase a shop in the Inner District of the City of Light.
However, purchasing anything required an identity, and to obtain one, it was necessary to prove that you possessed the Universal System and had no criminal record, as only then were you allowed to own property or even enter certain parts of the city.
Criminals who committed mass slaughter and other severe crimes were constantly monitored by the Universal System, which issued quests to eliminate them rather than taking direct action itself, leaving the task to others within the realm.
At the same time, the Universal System was fair in its own way. It would never show favorability towards Realm Guardians. Thus, even if a Criminal was inside the city, it won’t issue any quests and even not alert anyone unless the Criminal does something major or commit a crime inside the safe zones.
Because to the Universal System, everyone was equal as long as they were outside the safe zones. Safe Zones were only created to shelter the powerless people. Not because death was frowned upon.
Those who commit crimes inside the safe zones, their status window appeared red, in contrast to the normal blue, marking them clearly as targets.
As for why Ash decided to open a cloth shop, the answer was simple.
His clothes were destroyed every time he did something.
He wanted to replicate the runic formation of ’Unbreakable’ from the Eclipse, and inscribe them into clothes so that his clothes could remain intact no matter the situation, as repeated destruction had become more of an inconvenience than anything else.
Just imagine being naked in front of everyone, every time you fight. It was embarrassing. Although, one could create clothes with their own energy, but if there were stylish clothes available, who wouldn’t want to wear them.
And when he looked at it from a business perspective, the idea also held strong potential, since such clothing would naturally attract attention and demand in a world like this.
Thus, Ash simply followed what he felt was the most reasonable path and did what his instincts told him to do.
***