Chapter 122: Cosmo Cheat— Hōgyoku
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Barely ten seconds passed.
Ryo's vision, which had gone hazy for a moment, snapped back into focus.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary—no one noticed a thing. But the truth was, something fundamental inside Ryo had changed. Drastically.
"So this is the power of the Cosmo…"
He lifted a finger, silver light faintly glowing at the tip.
The power to break down matter itself.
This was the foundation of the Cosmo—the root strength behind Saints who could shatter galaxies and split the heavens open.
The strongest Saints weren't just warriors. With each motion, they could tear apart constellations and transcend life and death. Gods in all but name.
From rookie Saints who honed their five senses, to full-fledged ones who awakened their sixth and moved at the speed of sound—Then came those who unlocked the seventh sense, breaking the light-speed barrier with just their bodies. And finally, those who touched the eighth sense… exploding with such overwhelming power they could injure even principal deities.
It was a power system with a terrifyingly high floor—and an even scarier ceiling.
And now, Ryo had it. Even if he'd only just awakened the most basic form—the sharpened fifth sense.
Recalling the Big Bang he'd just visualized during his meditation, Ryo muttered with a complicated expression:
"So… like Sasha, I can manipulate all the particles after the Big Bang?"
In her diary, Sasha referred to this ability as a sign of Gold Saint potential.
Ryo even managed to recreate the entire Soul Society in his mind during meditation. A literal dream-born creation.
Of course, meditation was just that—imagination. Actually creating a world from scratch? That was still out of reach.
"With my Mythic five-digit Spirit Rank, becoming a Gold Saint should land me somewhere in the four-digit range, right?"
He sounded unsure—even to himself.
After all, the Cosmo he received was from the manga version, where things were even more absurd.
Case in point: Gemini Saga's signature move, Galaxian Explosion, could literally blow up an entire galaxy.
According to Ryo's understanding of the higher tiers in Little Garden, those capable of such feats—like Indra—were three-digit god-king level beings.
So… does that mean one Indra equals one Saga? Is Indra now a unit of power measurement?
And Saga wasn't even the only one—there were several Gold Saints who could match him.
Worst part? Saga wasn't even 25 when he died.
Ryo couldn't help but grumble:
"These Saints are insane. Most of them reach four-digit level by age 18, and if they burn their Cosmo recklessly, they can explode into three-digit-level power. If Little Garden humans were that strong, the gods would never sleep easy again."
It was true.
In Little Garden, there were even statements claiming that humans could never reach the three-digit level.
But then you look at Saint Seiya—Saga opens with a galaxy-destroying move and dares anyone to try and block it.
And that was with just the seventh sense.
"So… all Gold Saints probably deserve a 'four-digit freak' rating, huh?"
Ryo chuckled, half envious, half regretful. "Too bad the humans in Little Garden can't keep up…"
The difference came down to the rules of their worlds.
The Saint Seiya multiverse was developed by Chronos, a literal cosmic being.
Every living thing in that world held a fragment of the universe's origin. Put simply, every lifeform is a Cosmo.
That's why so many powerful Saints exist in that world. Their "hardware" was on an entirely different level.
"Come to think of it, the forum probably gave me this power after I was embedded with a piece of that universe's origin. And only after getting the Little Garden Core's approval could I fully use it here, right?"
Ryo refocused and brought his awareness into his spiritual core, examining the Gift section.
Just as expected—"Cosmo" had appeared.
[Gift: Cosmo (Fifth Sense)]
[Cosmo: Origin power from an unknown domain. Contains the potential to create a universe. Evaluation: Six-digit (Mythic). Potential unknown.
[Strongly recommended for further development.]
Looking at the system's notes, Ryo chuckled.
"So even the Little Garden Core is interested in a power that can create universes, huh?"
After spending time with the Core, Ryo had figured out one thing: If it benefits the Little Garden, it'll usually greenlight it—or even encourage it.
The Cosmo clearly belonged in that category. After all, it came from another multiverse, tied to the creation of reality itself—a domain the Core defined as an Unknown Realm.
In Little Garden terms, anything from an Unknown Realm… qualifies as one-digit class.
"Still… fifth sense is already rated six-digit?"
Ryo wasn't satisfied with just that.
The fifth sense was rookie-level. Only by awakening the sixth sense would he truly step into the world of Cosmo mastery.
And with his Hōgyoku, awakening it wouldn't be hard.
Ten seconds.
That's all it took.
The Hōgyoku's energy flowed from within his spirit core, pushing his newly-honed senses to their limit.
In that instant, his Cosmo dropped deeper—and the power of the sixth sense, "Intuition," surged forth.
From barely coating his fingertips, Ryo's Cosmo now spread across his entire body, saturating every atom and beginning a full-body transformation.
This was the entry-level of the sixth sense, what some called the Bronze Cosmo.
It came from the heart—a power born from the soul. And because of that, those who unlocked the sixth sense could develop countless supernatural powers.
Controlling elements, seeing the future. teleportation, crystal manipulation, mind reading, atomic destruction, temperature manipulation, nature manipulation, illusions, mental domination, instinct-based evasion, sensory manipulation…
Anything you could imagine, Saints could do if they kept developing their Cosmo.
The strongest Saints could wield tens of thousands of psychic powers simultaneously.
Take Kyōka Suigetsu, Aizen's iconic illusion ability—for Silver Saints, that was basically standard.
As long as they had sixth sense, Kyōka Suigetsu would be ineffective.
It's not that Aizen was weak—it was just a completely different level of existence.
Still… if Aizen knew about the Cosmo, he'd probably lose his mind trying to research it. That guy had an obsession with self-evolution that bordered on psychotic. Ryo figured it could be a way to make Aizen work for him in the future.
Still put supernatural powers aside, what made Saints truly terrifying was their Cosmo-enhanced bodies—rebuilt at the atomic level.
That was what let them destroy galaxies and roam across worlds.
Once you reached the sixth sense, your body alone could break the sound barrier.
And with deeper mastery—entering the Silver Cosmo—you'd only get faster and stronger.
"Bronze Cosmo caps at twice the speed of sound. Once you become a Silver Saint, that range goes up—maybe 2x to 5x sonic speed. But the real insanity comes later…"
With Sasha's diary as reference, Ryo winced.
"Fully developing the Silver Cosmo lets you go from 5x to 10x… then 100x… eventually even millions of times the speed of sound. And at that point—you transcend to the speed of light."
In Sasha's notes, the Silver rank had the widest gap in power.
That meant a newbie Silver and a veteran Silver could be literally 200,000 times apart.
How do you even fight that?!
"This sixth-sense power scale… is just as absurd as Little Garden's five-digit tier."
Ryo had officially lost all words for these god-slaying universes.
In Little Garden, four-digit rankers could reach light-speed thanks to Authority. People like Roc Demon King used Blaze-flash powers to hit that mark, while Leticia manipulated shadows to indirectly control light.
In Saint Seiya, the same level was reached purely through the Cosmo.
"Huh. The systems actually line up better than I thought…"
And if he remembered right, Saints also had divine authorities—"Godhoods"—similar to Little Garden's Divine Seals.
Now that was interesting.
Ryo casually picked up a small stone. He clenched his fist and took a moment to focus.
It vanished. Atomized.
"Right now, my Cosmo is at early Silver level… somewhere around five times the speed of sound."
He narrowed his eyes, tuning into the Hōgyoku, which was flowing gently within him like a stream.
"The Hōgyoku boosts my Cosmo by 1x every 10 seconds. Even with that pace, reaching Silver Saint peak will take 555 hours… about 23 days."
He let out a quiet sigh.
That wasn't unexpected. If anything, it was reasonable.
But what bothered him more… was something else.
"Sure, the Hōgyoku can compress the training time—but unlocking abilities still depends on me. And Cosmo development mostly hinges on belief. That's something the Hōgyoku can't help with."
Even though the Hōgyoku had limits, Ryo didn't mind.
Honestly, the fact that it could push him to the very limit of the sixth sense was already busted.
If he could imagine a power system—and his body could handle it—the Hōgyoku would make it real.
That was already a monstrous cheat.
"And going by the Gift's evaluation, the Hōgyoku probably can help me unlock the seventh sense eventually. It's just… my Spirit Rank can't handle it yet."
From what he'd read on the forum, five-digit Spirit Ranks could barely contain seventh-sense power.
Why? Simple.
Because his core didn't contain enough universal origin power.
After all, Little Garden wasn't the Saint Seiya world. Here, living beings didn't naturally carry fragments of the universe. Which meant Ryo couldn't just absorb power from his environment to level up.
"So in the end, the level of my Spirit Core will determine the ceiling of my Cosmo…"
Ryo's gaze turned sharp, but his lips curled into a smirk.
"Guess it's time to go world-hopping and stomp some weaklings, huh?"
It was funny to say out loud, but honestly… it was the most efficient way to grow stronger.
And Ryo? He liked efficiency.
"Once I finish stabilizing the community's economy, I'll pick a world to train the Cosmo in."
No way he was spending the next twenty-plus days grinding in Little Garden. If he was gonna put in the time, he'd rather do it somewhere he could make the most of it.
"Honestly, I hope the third member in the forum wakes up and asks something—or at least a new member joins."
With that, Ryo stood up and flashed a grin at Lily, who'd been watching him the whole time.
And that's when he spotted something strange.
Right next to her stood a short, unfamiliar figure.
.
.
.