I Love You!

Martha, a rank 8 mage, found it terrifying not to notice someone staring at her.

"Who are you?" she asked while calling for reinforcements secretly.

"Hmm… you are beautiful," he said.

Her height was a bit short, slightly thin, and her face was pale.

As a mage, she could take on any look, yet she kept her original appearance. To most people, she appeared normal, maybe slightly below average. 

Therefore, hearing the green-haired man describe her as beautiful was weird, both because of the situation and because she didn't think of herself that way.

"Who are you? Why did you break in?" she didn't attempt to run. 

As a rank 8 mage, she could run if she found him hostile. Staling time is the best bet if he is so strong that she has no chance of escaping. In any case, there is no point in trying to run.

"I'm Savior Greenlong! Happy to meet you," he said. 

Rachel had already explained a bit about this world. He is still very upset about being unable to restore the people in his world, but he isn't the type to become bitter and depressed, losing motivation to move. He would restore them when he returned; until then, he would help whoever else he could.

Martha frowned.

"Okay, I don't mean your name! Who are you, and WHY are you here?" she asked, emphasizing the "WHY."

Savior tied his long hair and said, "I'm here to help." 

In Rachel's explanation, this world's people suffer from bad governance. He plans to fix it.

"What help? Look, this place is my private residence! You can't just barge in! Now, if you have an excuse for barging in, say it; otherwise, get the hell out!" she said.

Savior looked around and noticed where he was. His location was picked by Rachel, not by him. 

"Sorry!" he said and teleported away.

Marth's face got serious.

"Rank 9! How can an unknown rank 9 just appear? He is definitely from somewhere else! I should investigate his purpose for coming here!" she thought.

This world is a rank 12, with one rank 12 chairman known as Cooperation Democracy. 

There are many rank 11 and rank 10 immortals, too; in such an environment, rank 9 is not as eye-catching. But that is when one looks at the whole world from above!

A rank 12's land area is vast, far vaster than rank 11 worlds. One may not find a rank 9 even in one hundred continents. Only some continents that major corporations manage have a high concentration of rank 9s. 

This continent is not one of those. The Lyon continent has 10 rank 9s, all of whom are famous.

Prosperous is a major force in the area, but in the world, it's just a grain of sand on the beach.

After a while, two rank 9s arrived: a cultivator and a corporatist. 

A corporatist is a path similar to mages and cultivators. 

Mages study nature's laws to gain power, while cultivators explore the laws of nature and cultivate themselves to gain power. As a result, mages are better researchers, but cultivators are better fighters. 

However, if one were to determine who among a mage, cultivator, and corporatist has the most combat power, the answer is a corporatist. It's not even close.

Corporatists rely on external forces for power, specifically, the corporation. As a collection of many, the corporation is much more powerful, with much deeper pockets than any single mage and cultivator. 

It's just that corporatists are bound by their corporations. The corporation's board can order them to do things, and a corporatist must obey. Some corporatists have the majority shares in their corporation; they are truly powerful and unrestrained. After all, when one has the majority voting power, nobody can order them to do anything they don't want.

However, for those who don't have a majority, they run the risk of turning into a slave working for the corporation.

The universal law of this world is 'Corporation democracy.' Here, the corporation's shares aren't just on paper; they are ingrained deeply and fully supported by the world.

When one buys a share in a corporation, it also gets recorded in the world's laws. No matter what rank, nobody can take over a corporation without paying. Of course, one may still destroy a corporation. 

This is also the main reason mortals, despite being weak, still have some voice. They have some shares; therefore, according to the world's law, they have the right to participate.

Martha smiled at the two. 

The cultivator was her girlfriend, Eve, a major shareholder with 1.3% of the shares. 

The corporatist was her boyfriend, Philip, who is now nearly a slave of the new board of governors. 

Martha was at a time with both of them; regarding romance, she is open-minded, being with whoever she likes, without regard for gender. 

Many mortals also choose to be with both men and women; it is legal everywhere on the continent. There are no laws regarding social issues like this. 

For Martha, the logic of this is even stronger. After all, as rank 8 and 9s, they can freely change gender, looks, etc; they can even turn into other species.

Although the essence wouldn't change, and it just looks, the appearance is enough for private acts partners do together. 

Only the two rank 9s, her past romance partners, came among all she called. 

It wasn't very reassuring. 

As the CEO, everyone should obey her, but they know she is only the face and doesn't have real power. 

Still, as she ordered, they will eventually come, but they drag their feet. In emergencies, dragging the feet is the same as not coming.

"What's going on, Martha?" asked Philip. 

He is only mid-rank 9, but his combat power equals peak rank 9 mages. 

"A man just appeared here. He was rank 9. I think from another continent. We should investigate his origins and purpose," she said.

"A rank 9 out of nowhere? How did he appear here? The continent has a rank 10 protecting formation!" Eve was confused.

"I don't know. But he was strange. Prioritize this matter; I will go to report it to the board. This matter is serious enough to be reported." Martha said.

Philip nodded and said, "I will follow for protection. Eve, you go and investigate the clues. Call if anything is wrong." 

Eve and Martha nodded.

...

Savior closed his eyes and sighed. 

"Don't tell me it's love at first sight? These kinds of romances never go well!" Rachel warned.

Savior thought and said, "I don't know! My experience tells me that love is nonsense. But my heart wants to be attached to someone, to truly love someone for no reason. Not for money or power, pure love!" he sighed again.

Rachel almost puked! She was never a romantic person, even when she was human. She was rational, strong, businesswoman type. 

Now, as a pill container, even the tiny bit of romantic taste she had is gone. She looks down on romance, on loving someone without logic; she thinks those people are idiots. These are RACHEL's views.

She said, "Now what? You want to abandon helping people?" she asked.

"No, I want someone, preferably the girl we just saw, to be with me! I want to share my pain through the times! I will be immortal someday, and I don't want to spend eternity alone!" he said.

"Do whatever you want! Just know that a few people are now looking at your traces; hide if you don't want to be found!" Rachel controls this world, so nothing is hidden from her. 

Savior nodded and activated the 'between undead and living' state. Below rank 10, very few can detect him when he is in this state. 

...

Even though Eve tried hard, she failed to find the mysterious rank 9's location. She found traces, but it was as if he vanished at a certain point.

The board took this matter very seriously. 

Prosperus didn't have any rank 10, but Hype did. As a result, the board of governors requested Hype's help. However, Hype rejected it. 

There are only 3 rank 10s in the entire Hype Corporation. Their time is far more valuable than coming here personally to find some rank 9. They will come if other rank 10s attacked, but anything that can be solved with rank 9s should be handled by rank 9s. 

As a result, Hype sent 3 more rank 9s with good detection abilities for help. These 3 had a lot of skill but still failed to find anything new. 

As a result, it was determined that the man must have a treasure. They speculated the treasure allowed him to pierce through the protective formation. Therefore, he managed to come in and leave secretly. 

The board of governors requested the formation to be upgraded. Hype put the request in a long queue; maybe they will accept it in a few million years.

...

Savior, who changed his looks and disguised himself, was in a restaurant atop a tree. 

His current appearance was that of a man with red hair and white skin, and he also had pointy ears. After all, this is a wood elf 'city,' so if he wants to blend, he can only disguise himself as an elf.

Savior was naked, too! The culture of wood elves throughout the universe is about respecting nature and opposing clothing; these were default settings by 'Alive,' the rank 14 civilization that created wood elves. 

It's very difficult to change such default settings. Some species have more of a 'default setting,' also known as culture, and some have less. 

Some have none at all! The divine species is an example. They are a very adaptable species that can be both angels and demons; obviously, they are sold like blank sheets with no culture and memory.

Humans also are sold in different kinds. There are mage culture, cultivator culture, modern culture, medieval culture, etc. It's up to the buyer to choose what culture their humans would have. 

For wood elves, there is only one culture: respecting nature and liking being naked. 

The cultures can change, but it takes a long time. The wood elves here have retained nearly all their default cultures.

Savior looked at the food in front of him. It was entirely made of fresh vegetation; it didn't even have salt.

It looked delicious, but after eating one spoon, even Savior, who was more than 100,000 years old, barely swallowed it. 

Of course, he could have disabled his taste buds, but that would eliminate his purpose of trying new foods.

"These wood elves are amazing! How can they eat this?" he was astonished. He tried wood elves' plant-based food before, but those weren't as bad. The foods he ate before had salt and oil, were cooked, and were even delicious. On the other hand, this wasn't cooked, with no spices, oil, or salt.

"These wood elves are much more like their default culture. You know, the default wood elves oppose anything not in its 'natural form.' That means plant-based oil is prohibited; only salt directly taken out of a mine is allowed. Cooking is not allowed, as it changes plants out of their natural form," Rachel explained.

Savior sighed. He hates these kinds of strict laws. In his view, things should be flexible to accommodate everyone comfortably. What if one wood elf doesn't like it? Savior can already imagine scenes where their community would shun them.

As he was thinking of these, Martha finally arrived! 

"I'm glad you came!" he smiled.

"Is what you said true?" she asked.

"Yeah! I am the main protagonist; I can help you!" he said. 

The concept of a protagonist was not unknown to rank 10s. As the CEO of a corporation, Martha also knew what it was.

"Why do you want to help me?" she asked.

Savior said, holding up two fingers, "First, because I researched you, and I know you want to help people exactly like me. The second, because I love you, Martha!" he said.

"What?" she was taken aback! The way he said it made it more creepy than romantic!

"I said I love you!" he repeated. 

Martha suppressed the urge to leave; the 'main protagonist' matter is more important. 

"Okay... now, let's talk about what we want to do!" she changed the topic away from 'love'. 

"Sure," Savior started explaining his plans. 

After a while, Martha was shocked! "You don't get it! Hype is a rank 10 force! Your plan does not work!" she warned. 

Savior smiled, "You are underestimating my main protagonist's luck! With my luck, nobody below rank 12 can harm me! This plan would work, and we will save people from Hype." 

Martha went quiet. For now, she has managed to keep ordinary people from starving, but her ability has limits. Soon, Hype would start exploiting the mines with more intensity. 

At that time, the people in this world would be slaves in everything but name. The people have shares, but only a minority. They can be trampled upon when, like now, one force or coalition has a clear majority. Nobody needs ordinary people's votes, so they don't care about their suffering. 

Martha hailed from an ordinary, poor family. She wanted to help, but until now, she couldn't do much. Now, she has an opportunity to turn things around. That is if Savior was telling the truth. 

She knew about the protagonists's existence, but not much. She didn't know how powerful the legendary protagonist's luck was. 

She thought for a few minutes without talking. Then, she said, "Let's do it!"