A century of solitude had honed Astra's mind to a razor's edge, but it had not diminished his connection to the outside world. The Watchtower Partition had run continuously, a silent sentinel observing the flow of time on Planet Vegeta. A single year had passed there. King Vegeta had consolidated his power, Prince Vegeta's growth was proceeding apace, and the shadow of Frieza's eventual arrival loomed ever larger.
It was time to act. The theoretical knowledge of the first century needed practical application. The World-Seed required a power source, and the Saiyan Exodus needed a location. Both problems had a single solution: he needed to find a world, claim it, and build the infrastructure to harness its very life force.
The System chimed, its prompt perfectly synchronized with his intent.
[Multiverse Jump Available from Anchor Point.]
[Manual Destination Selection Enabled.]
[Objective: Secure a viable, uninhabited world for colonization and energy harvesting.]
[Calculating energy cost...]
Astra stood at the Ouroboros's viewport, the swirling energies of The Cradle a testament to the power he now wielded. He focused his will, not on a pre-set destination, but on a set of parameters. He fed the System his requirements through the [Circlet of the Architect]:
· A terrestrial world, Class-M or equivalent.
· Uninhabited by sentient life.
· Rich in biological and geothermal energy.
· Located in a remote, unstable sector of space, unlikely to be charted by the Frieza Force.
The System processed the request, the energy within The Cradle dipping noticeably as it calculated a path through the dimensional layers.
[Destination Found: World ID: P-381 "Vesper"]
[Status: Uncharted, Post-Glacial Recovery. High Geothermal and Biomass Potential.]
[Jump Initiated.]
The transition was smoother than the tear into The Cradle, a testament to the System's power and the stability of his Anchor Point. The Ouroboros emerged from a shimmering portal into the upper atmosphere of a world of breathtaking beauty.
Vesper was a jewel of blues and whites. Vast, sapphire oceans swirled beneath a thin veil of clouds. The continents were covered in dense, alien jungles of purple and silver flora, and plumes of steam rose from countless geothermal vents. The air was clean, rich with oxygen and untapped life force. It was perfect.
[Appraising: Planet Vesper]
[Status: Primordial. Dominant Life Forms: Non-sentient Flora and Fauna.]
[Energy Signature: High. Ideal for World-Seed Germination.]
But he was not alone.
His [Magic Sense] flared an instant before the ship's rudimentary sensors. A vessel, long and insectoid, bristling with weapons, decloaked from behind a nearby moon. It was not Saiyan, nor Tuffle. Its design was brutal, utilitarian, and marked with the insignia of a rival planetary trafficker—the Zarlac Syndicate. They were poachers, slavers, and scavengers who preyed on unprotected worlds.
A comm channel crackled open, a guttural voice snarling in a trade dialect. "
Astra's [Appraisal] of the ship was dismissive.
[Zarlac Syndicate Raider - "Scavenger's Bite"]
[Power Level (Ship): ~8,000]
[Crew: 12. Average Power Level: 300.]
Insects. A century ago, they would have been a threat. Now, they were a nuisance.
He didn't bother with the comms. He simply opened the airlock and stepped out into the vacuum of space. The Zarlac crew would have seen a small, unarmed figure in a simple flight suit, floating unprotected before their warship. They likely laughed.
Astra raised a hand. He did not gather Ki. He did not form a Jōgen Lance. He practiced Cosmic Energy Manipulation.
The space around the Zarlac raider hardened. The very fabric of reality became a vice. The ship's engines screamed as they were crushed into silence. Its hull plates buckled inward with a soundless shriek of metal. In less than three seconds, the warship was compacted into a perfectly spherical, molten ball of scrap.
He had not attacked the ship. He had manipulated the space it occupied.
He let the scrap sphere drift into the planet's gravity well, where it would become a shooting star and burn up on entry. A fitting end.
He returned to the Ouroboros and descended into the atmosphere, landing on a wide, stable plateau overlooking a roaring geothermal waterfall. This was the place.
The first phase of the Mandate of Genesis was complete. He had found his world. The second phase began now. Using the knowledge from the Data Crystal, he began the work. He did not build with metal and wires. He wove with energy and intent.
Over the following weeks, he laid the foundations. He tapped into the planet's geothermal heart, channeling the raw power through conduits of solidified light. He began constructing the skeleton of a Planetary Energy Tap, a vast, invisible network that would one day feed the World-Seed.
This was no longer just about finding a hiding place. It was about building a new home, and powering a new future, from the ground up. The Architect had claimed his canvas, and his first act was to erase a stain. The real work of creation was about to begin.