Author's Note: For those interested, there are now three advanced chapters (we're on chapter 7) on P-atreon, which you can read for just $3.
I also have a "main" story that is updated once a week: "Welcome To The Alternate Multiverse Chat Group".
So if you can, please go to my profile and check it out, and if you're interested, you can see another 3 chapters on my P-atreon, it only costs $3.
Remove the spaces and dash: p-atreon/ Krakenian01
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Third Person P.O.V
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, you've helped me so much, and yet I-" Ning'er repeatedly apologized, lowering her head even though Leek had told her there was no problem, so to calm her down, the boy decided to be a little more forceful.
Leek walked up to Ning'er and took her hands, making her jump and effectively stopping her apologies.
"Come on, I already said there's no problem, I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I think you ended up absorbing the part of my energy that I used to remove what was harming you"
"Absorb? That… that's not bad for you?!" Ning'er was sincerely worried, she knew that in a battle of soul forces, one of the sides could abandon defense and focus on absorbing the enemy's soul force, which would seriously damage the affected person's cultivation, temporarily crippling them and lowering their rank at best, while at worst it could instantly kill the victim.
The girl was quite worried that she had damaged the strength of the person who was her benefactor, ignoring the fact that, according to her knowledge, whoever absorbed soul force was also in danger of having their soul core filled with too much energy and eventually being destroyed, which would literally kill anyone's cultivation and leave them in a pitiful state, with horrible pains that could not be treated for the rest of their life.
Ning'er ignored all these dangers that could threaten her in favor of worrying about the person who had extended a hand to her during her most desperate moment.
"No problem, I think I understand a little why you worry, but I just need to get some rest, eat something delicious, and I'll be as good as new." He assured her while adding the most sincere smile he could give to increase his credibility.
Ning'er saw that smile and couldn't help but feel like she was levitating, her face felt hot, and her chest felt tight, never before had anyone smiled at her so sincerely.
"Let's put that aside." He said, letting go of her hands, and in her carelessness, she almost took them again, the warmth he had given her, she felt reluctant to part from it.
"I can tell that now that you have absorbed my ki, your strength has increased considerably." He said, inspecting her with a hand on his chin, and it was only then that Ning'er realized it.
For a few seconds, she examined herself, only for her eyes to widen, and she spoke in a halting voice as if she couldn't believe what had happened.
"I… made a breakthrough!" She said and quickly took out the soul crystal that she used every night to measure her strength.
Ning'er injected her soul force into the crystal, afraid that her senses had deceived her, but what she saw was something that was unheard of.
Her soul force was 75 an hour ago, and now, the crystal read 172.
Not only had she reached bronze rank, but now she was even more than halfway to reaching the second star.
Once again, her eyes began to shed tears, the crystal fell from her hand at the same time as the first tear hit the grass.
"This… is this really happening? I, do I really have a chance to be free? This isn't a dream, right? I won't wake up and remember this as a cruel joke of my own hopes, right? I'm allowed to be happy, right?" She asked, looking up at Leek as tears continued to fall.
'For this girl to cry and say all that, what kind of life has she led until now?' Leek thought before putting his hands on Ning'er's shoulders and nodding.
"This is the real world, you can laugh if you're happy, you can cry if you're sad, I would never judge anyone for expressing what makes us human"
And with the permission of a person she had just met that very day, Ning'er threw herself at Leek's chest, and for the first time in a long time, she laughed and cried, completely letting out all the emotions contained in her heart.
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Several Days Ago
Leek(?) P.O.V
I was in the dark, the flash I had seen before brought me back to the shadows without me being able to do anything, I was in a semi-conscious state, once again, I could feel my body, but it was as if I were a victim of sleep paralysis.
I could feel my limbs, but I was unable to move them, I could feel my eyelids closed, but I couldn't open them, I could hear an intermittent beeping sound, but I was unable to tell where it was coming from exactly.
My body shook, but it wasn't due to my efforts, it was like I was in some kind of box, and it was shaking, slowly, very slowly, my hand closed into a fist and then opened once more.
I had heard that to get out of the state of sleep paralysis you had to make your brain wake up completely, so thinking and moving a limb could help, the first would make the brain think voluntarily, and not automatically as when we slept, while the second would make the electrical impulses of the nervous system send the corresponding signals to the brain, making it concentrate more on the sense of touch and forcing it to wake up.
The movements of my "transport" continued every few seconds, and when I felt that I was close to breaking free and waking up completely, a rumble shook the place where I was while the sound of an explosion reached my ears.
"W-what happened?" My voice came out cracked, and my throat felt somewhat dry, I was in an uncomfortable position, upside down while my neck served as support on the ground.
The seconds passed, and after one minute or two, I was finally able to move freely and properly observe where I was.
"Why am I in a sphere?" I asked, noticing the design of this thing, but there was not much time to wonder about this because what I noticed about my body was even more striking.
"What is this thing?!" I screamed, seeing what I was wearing, it was some kind of full body armor in dull mustard and black colors with white lines, fitting perfectly to my body, with parts to cover my calves and with somewhat long shoulder pads.
"This outfit, I have definitely seen it somewhere." I said inspecting my body, until the realization hit me, after all, it was likely that anyone who didn't live under a rock and knew a little about pop culture knew who these iconic armors belonged to.
"A Saiyan armor?! What is going on?" I let out my disbelief as I touched the object all over, the material felt resistant but flexible.
It was then that I could find a red window right at my feet, and once again, the surprise hit me, this was a travel capsule of the type used by members of the Frieza force.
Not knowing what to say or think, I moved, placing my palms on one side of the sphere and pushing it in an attempt to make it roll so that the exit door would be in the correct position and I would be able to leave.
"Hmp!" I made an effort, and the ship rolled a few meters, now the window was facing horizontally. "Ok, one more push." I said, and after a second effort, the sphere was in the correct position, and I fell into the passenger seat.
"Ugh, well, now let's going to go out and try to find out what happened to me and where I am." I said looking at the door handle and grabbing it, but before I pulled it, I saw something written on the door.
"Hey little rascal, do you know it's not good to move around and cause a mess while you're in the line of dead souls? You almost caused a catastrophe by pushing the soul next to you, that would have created a domino effect and a huge chaos"
"What?" It was all I could say before continuing to read.
"Although I intervened before the worst happened, I had to sing to all the souls agitated by your prank so they would go back to sleep, but once again, you tried to resist, writhing until you fell off the soul conveyor bar, do you have any idea what could have happened to you if I didn't save your ass? Spoiler, nothing pretty"
'That... was that the place I was in?' I asked myself, remembering being in a very strange place before waking up here.
"If your soul suffered that fate it would have been more troublesome for me, but even though I saved you, I couldn't put you back on the treadmill because that would make others ask questions, so I simply threw you far enough away so my boss wouldn't notice your existence"
"That sounds like something a very careless factory worker fed up with his job would do!"
"Well, and about your appearance, the soul space is a mystery even for those of us who work here, but it seems that your last thought, along with my intervention, created an echo that changed your body from a human to a saiyan, funny, right?"
"That doesn't make any sense"
"Maybe you think that doesn't make sense? Well, I think so too, but meh, I've seen crazier things before, by the way, your second to last thought was about the primarchs of 40k, if you had kept that thought, you would have come to this world as one of them, I think Lion or Guilliman, too bad I can't see the Lion of Caliban or the Lord of Ultramar fighting in this world to unify humanity or something like that, but well, you're a saiyan now, and your name is Leek, good luck little monkey, I left you a couple of gifts so that if possible, you don't come back here for the rest of eternity, if even with this you fail and I see you again I'm going to get angry, do you understand? I hope so, bye bye"
I finished reading the message and fell into the ship's seat, processing everything I had read, this didn't seem like a joke, they could fake the ship, they could fake the armor, but the appendage sticking out of my lower back was something I couldn't explain in any way.
Once I reacted, I didn't know how long I sat there, but what finally made me decide to leave was my stomach, which let out a growl like the roar of a lion or a tiger, I was very hungry, and as far as I could see, there was nothing on this ship that could serve as food.
My hand grabbed the door handle of the ship again, and with a push, it opened upwards, and I could finally see the planet I was on.
The sun was shining high in the sky, and except for a ten meter radius around me, the place was covered in vegetation. "I hope it's not a hostile planet, and that there's nothing like radar that could have detected my ship, the last thing I need right now is some army being sent after my ass." I said, and just to be safe, I decided that both me and my ship had to get out of this crater and look for a better place to stay.
I looked at the ship once more, this time from the outside, wondering if I was really capable of carrying a solid metal sphere of this size. "Well, just asking me isn't going to answer the question, I'm a Saiyan, I should be able to do this." I said to myself before crouching down with my arms outstretched and taking the ship.
"1, 2, 3!" I counted, standing up with the ship in my arms, and to my surprise, it was… quite easy to carry, I mean, I felt the weight in my arms, and I seriously doubted I could bear the weight for several hours, but carrying it for a walk of several minutes or an hour? That seemed more than possible, thanks Saiyan physiognomy!
"Well, then let's go in... that way!" I decided while pointing in a random direction, first I had to find a water source, and then a food source, I didn't worry too much about finding a shelter, it might not be the most comfortable place, but I preferred to sleep lying down on the ship's seat instead of on the floor.
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Just a little background along with the continuation of the present story.
Remember that if you like this story, you can leave a comment, review, and a power stone, that will inspire me to write more, see you in the next chapter.