BUILDING MY OWN EMPIRE - My Journey from Nothing to Overwhelming Power-Chapter 72 – A New Arrival

The man sat on the ground in heavy silence, in the middle of a vast stretch of red soil.

The land was dry, slightly cracked, its color leaning toward crimson...

As if it had drunk ancient blood and had not yet forgotten its taste.

There were no crops.

No wheat stalks, no trees, not even wild grass.

Only naked earth... stretching around him until the horizon swallowed it.

He extended his legs slightly, planted his palms behind him into the rough soil, then slowly lifted his head toward the sky.

The silence was not real.

From far away...

The sounds of battles echoed.

Dull booms...

Distant metallic collisions...

Cries that shattered against the wind and vanished.

Battles were taking place in scattered locations beyond the borders of this farmland, yet close enough for him to feel them... like an irregular pulse shaking the world.

And yet... he did not move.

He only listened.

In the sky, the scene was even stranger.

There appeared enormous objects there...

Something close to gigantic circular discs, suspended in the air, unmoving as if holes had been opened in the sky itself.

And from the depths of those circles...

Massive spears were being launched.

Long black spears falling toward the earth at terrifying speeds, tearing through the air with a sharp sound like screaming wind.

Each spear landed somewhere far away...

And then a moment later, its echo reached here:

A muted tremor in the ground...

And a heavy boom rolling across the horizon.

But what overshadowed all of that...

Was the cloud.

Above those floating circles, and above nearly the entire sky, stretched a colossal black cloud.

Not like ordinary clouds.

It was dense... layered...

As if a sea of smoke had gathered above.

Its edges moved slowly, like something alive breathing.

Every time a new spear emerged from those circles, a faint flash glimmered inside the cloud...

As though it were a dark heart pumping destruction downward.

As for the man...

He did not run.

He did not shout.

He did not even turn.

He simply sat on that red soil, listening to the world breaking apart around him...

As if he were waiting for something that had not yet arrived.

In front of him...

Two girls stood.

They were close together, each seeking a small piece of safety in the shadow of the other.

The worry was clear in their eyes... and the fear even clearer in the distance that separated them from the man sitting on the ground.

The man slowly raised his head.

He looked at them for a long moment... coldly...

Then he said in a calm voice:

"The other world."

A short silence followed.

Then he tilted his head slightly and asked with strange curiosity:

"What is it like?"

The two girls exchanged glances again.

The taller one took a hesitant breath and said:

"It’s... normal."

The man’s eyebrow lifted slightly.

"Normal?"

She pointed with a trembling hand toward the sky, where the circular discs opened their mouths and launched black spears toward the earth.

"There isn’t... this."

The man followed her gesture with his eyes for a moment... then looked back at her.

"Then tell me."

He leaned his body slightly forward, his eyes sinking into theirs.

"There are no monsters?"

The girl shook her head quickly.

"No."

"No supernatural powers?"

"No."

She hesitated for a moment, then added:

"People... are ordinary. They just live their lives."

The man fell silent again.

The impact of a distant spear shook the ground slightly... but no one turned.

He asked slowly:

"How do you protect yourselves?"

Confusion appeared on the shorter girl’s face.

"From what?"

He looked at her for a moment... then turned his gaze toward the horizon where distant columns of smoke were rising.

"From the things that want to kill you."

The girl swallowed.

"There are no... things like that."

She stepped a little closer without noticing.

"There are crimes... wars sometimes... but—"

She stopped when she noticed the man’s eyes narrowing slightly.

"But not like this world."

She said that while looking around her... at the black sky... and the earth that trembled every few moments.

The man asked again:

"Then... how do people live?"

The taller girl answered:

"They work... they study... they build advanced cities."

"Advanced cities?"

"Yes. Buildings of steel and concrete reaching the sky."

"Like the towers of the sects?"

"Yes. But far more."

The man remained silent for a long moment.

The wind passed once more over the red land.

And in the sky... another spear emerged from one of the circular discs, pierced the black clouds, and fell somewhere far away.

The man lowered his eyes slightly... as if thinking about something distant.

Then he looked back at them again.

This time... there was something different in his eyes.

Something that made the two girls freeze where they stood.

"Strange."

The taller girl whispered:

"What’s strange?"

The man looked at the sky... then at the horizon burning with battles.

Then he said quietly:

"A world without monsters..."

He paused for a moment.

"The battles there seem quite intense," Soman whispered. His voice was audible if anyone had been listening.

"Sit down. There’s no need for all this fear if you have no ill intentions."

The sisters did not respond.

"Are you from the same land as the leader?" Soman asked.

"Which country is your leader from?" the older sister asked. Her voice carried dignity.

Soman tried to recall his memories... then said,

"I think it’s called Earth."

"Earth isn’t a country. It’s a planet. In some ways it resembles this world in its geography. Inside Earth there are many nations... like the empires and kingdoms that exist in this world."

"I see," Soman murmured.

"On Earth," said the younger sister. Soman turned toward her, and she continued, 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"We don’t have things like giant monsters, catastrophes, or the system... but we do have humans who are like monsters."

"I think the monsters of this world are kinder than humans," Soman adjusted his sitting posture.

"At least... there are no monsters trying to expand their territory with blood."

Suddenly...

Soman slowly lifted his eyes.

He was looking at the sky.

From the black thread...

A man emerged.

His body slid out of the opening with solemn calm, radiating immense power.

He wore a long white robe, threaded with thin golden lines that shimmered in the dim light.

Around his body... a heavy aura of power.

Not entirely visible... yet felt like a pressure weighing down the air.

It seemed as if the sky itself retreated slightly around him.

The moment Soman saw him—

He leapt to his feet.

It was not a normal jump.

His body shot forward like a sudden wind, the red soil exploding beneath his feet as he dashed toward the two girls with a speed that nearly erased his image from the place.

They did not understand what was happening.

All their eyes saw...

Was that the man who had been sitting calmly a moment ago suddenly appeared before them.

Like a beast.

And in his hand...

Something like a black iron rod.

He raised it quickly.

The two girls froze.

It looked as though he was about to strike them.

But in the next moment—

Ting!

A sharp metallic sound rang through the air.

The iron rod did not descend upon them...

It struck something else.

A dagger.

A small dagger... barely visible because of its speed.

Then—

Ting! Ting! Ting!

Soman struck several daggers in succession, sending them flying away from the two girls like mad flashes of silver.

They had not even seen where they came from.

But they were coming from the sky... at deadly speed.

Soman grabbed both girls at once.

As if they weighed nothing.

Then he jumped.

Another dagger passed through the place where he had been standing a moment ago... slicing through the air with a terrifying sound.

Soman landed... then launched again.

His speed was so violent that the red soil scattered behind him like a cloud.

Ting!

He struck another dagger in the air.

But this time...

One slipped through.

The dagger passed close to the ground... then suddenly changed direction.

Slash!

It embedded itself in Soman’s foot.

His body paused for a brief moment...

But he did not slow down.

He kept running.

His grip tightened around the two girls as he rushed across the barren land.

Another dagger passed behind his back.

Then another in front of him.

But after several rapid leaps...

He stopped.

About thirty meters from their original position.

He gently set the two girls down on the ground.

They were panting... their eyes wide with shock.

As for Soman...

He slowly turned around.

He stood upright.

The dagger was still lodged in his foot... and blood flowed slightly onto the red soil.

He raised his head toward the sky.

Toward the man in the white robe... emerging from the black thread.

Then...

He smiled.

A calm smile... as if what had just happened moments ago had been nothing more than a small game.