Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

”Public enemy?” Uhtred let out a short, incredulous laugh.

However, John Allen was not joking. His face stayed dead serious as he gestured toward a quiet corner of the territory, moving away from the crowd of newcomers who were still looking around at their new home with intrigued, curious eyes.

”I’m not joking, Uhtred,” John Allen continued the moment he and Uhtred were well away from the crowd, his voice low. ”Everything has really gone to shit while you were away.”

John had intended to head for the trial a month ago just like the millions of others who chose to go. Uhtred had even left clear permission through Minh Quan, granting him access to the territory’s teleportation circle. But as the countdown to leave ticked away, he hesitated.

Looking back, he was damn glad he stayed. If he had left, Minh Quan would have been torn apart alone.

”After the top ascenders disappeared, it didn’t even take twenty-four hours for people to make a move,” John explained. ”The first ones to strike were the United New Eden Coalition.”

John had suspected them from the beginning. He knew how political bodies operated, especially now that they’d been stripped of their power. The moment figures like Uhtred, Zara, King Alexei — powerhouses who had dominated the top of the global rankings — vanished into the trial grounds, the Coalition sent out scouting parties and diplomatic envoys.

Their first target on this continent was Uhtred’s territory. Or more specifically, the regional dungeon he controlled.

Uhtred was the only person on the planet known to control a twenty-floor dungeon. Other ascenders held dungeons within their territories, but at most, those dungeons only had ten floors. The difference was massive. A ten-floor dungeon bred Level 10 ascenders. A twenty-floor dungeon bred Level 20 powerhouses.

For a government body trying to reclaim global control, leaving a resource like that in the hands of one man was unacceptable.

After the System integrated Earth, the old world order had been shattered in an instant. Governments collapsed, borders dissolved, and national lines became meaningless overnight. But the people who ran those governments — the diplomats, politicians, intelligence heads, and military strategists — did not simply vanish into thin air. Of course some of them died in the first days of the integration, but most were just scattered across the globe.

Over the past month, those scattered elites had managed to find each other again. And this time, their combined force was even more terrifying.

In the old world, national interests divided humanity. Americans fought for America, Chinese officials fought for China, and European nations defended their own interests. But the integration made that isolated mindset suicidal. These government officials realized very quickly that clinging to old national allegiances would severely handicap their survival and the survival of any future governance.

Power was no longer measured by national GDP, military budgets, or nuclear warheads. It was measured by individual level, talent grade, cultivation techniques, and territory control. Powerful individuals were rising across every continent, high-levelers who were capable of crushing entire armies alone.

Faced with that reality, former world leaders set aside their historical rivalries for the first time in human history. They pooled their talents, unified their scattered numbers, and gathered under the banner of the United New Eden Coalition, eventually changing their name to the ”United New Eden World Government.”

”Look, part of me gets what they’re doing,” John admitted, looking directly at Uhtred. ”The world out there is a chaotic nightmare right now. High-level ascenders with crazy ideologies are setting up little warlord kingdoms, terrorizing regular low-level people and enforcing their own laws just because no one is strong enough to stop them. The new World Government wants to bring back order. They want universal laws so individual strength doesn’t automatically mean you get to murder whoever you want.”

”That’s why I went for their meetings at first... back when they were just a coalition...”

John paused, rubbing the back of his neck with a tired sigh.

”I agree with that part of their goal. But I know you, Uhtred. You aren’t some tyrant trying to oppress people. You just want to be left the fuck alone...”

To United New Eden, however, Uhtred’s independence was the core issue. He was the highest-level ascender on Earth, which also meant, to them, he was the most dangerous person alive.

That alone wouldn’t have been an issue if Uhtred was on their side. However, when they previously invited him for a meeting in their territory, Uhtred ignored them. He had made his stance clear that he was going to be a sovereign power on his own.

That was the problem.

The general public didn’t trust the power of the government anymore, so they needed to really prove they could regain control. Uhtred was like the flagship figure standing in the way of that. A titan that was always going to be over their heads.

”So when you disappeared into the trial, they moved fast to fill the power gap,” John continued, his tone bitter. ”Propaganda, public broadcast... They learned how to use the System to make global announcements and messages. They have now weaponized public opinion against you. They put out statements claiming that your sole control of a twenty-floor regional dungeon was a crime against humanity and a threat to global public safety.”

”And they aren’t the only ones,” John added, gesturing toward the dead bodies of Vanezzi and his guards lying some steps away. ”The government was at least smart enough to only use public opinion, but La Familia Suprema were the ones brazen enough to step into your territory.”

The mafia syndicate hadn’t originally been based on this continent. Once they procured intercontinental teleportation circles, they expanded aggressively. Hearing about Uhtred’s twenty-floor dungeon, they moved in like vultures and started harassing Minh Quan.

Before leaving for the trial, Uhtred had set clear rules. The first ten floors were free for public use, giving low-level local ascenders a safe space to grow. Anyone pushing past floor ten paid a small fee of ten Multiversal Tokens. It was fair and sustainable.

La Familia Suprema didn’t care about Uhtred’s rules. They wanted free, exclusive access to the lower level floor. In fact, they wanted the entire dungeon for themselves.