Start from the God of Death and break through the world.

Chapter 978 Side Quest: The Strongest Universe

"The match... how much longer?"

Lu Li now understood why Beerus was in such a hurry; it was probably because his brother Champa had come looking for him. Something had happened between the two during a food competition, and they ended up betting the Earth on it.

"Hmm... I made an appointment with him in seven days. The guy from Universe 6 seems to be quite strong, otherwise he wouldn't be so arrogant. You'd better look for him carefully."

Beerus's expression gradually became serious as he spoke.

"Hey, explain yourself clearly, what does this have to do with Earth?"

Vegeta was in high spirits after his recent victory and felt confident in himself, so he no longer felt too reserved in front of Beerus.

Weiss stepped forward and explained, "It's like this: Lord Beerus's brother, Lord Champa, had a culinary competition with him. Because Lord Beerus was competitive, he used the food that Lu Li had found, and as a result, Lord Champa was completely shocked."

"So, this doesn't seem to have anything to do with Earth."

Lu Li was also puzzled this time. In the original story, Champa was shocked when he tasted the food of Earth, so he asked his angel to investigate Earth. As a result, he found that Earth in his own universe had been destroyed because of the stupid fighting between humans.

Champa, envious of his brother's Earth delicacies, proposed a bet: if Champa won, Beerus would give Champa Earth; if Beerus won, Champa would give Beerus the six Super Dragon Balls he had collected.

“Originally, it was fine. Champa wanted the food you gave us after he tasted it. Lord Beerus told him that the place of origin of these foods had become extinct, and only you had a lot of them in stock. After Champa learned this, he became very interested in you.”

Weiss said with a smile, "So what Champa wanted in the first place was you; he wanted you as a stake in the betting match."

"Oh? Did Lord Beerus agree?"

Lu Li did not expect that his actions would cause a serious deviation in the plot.

"How could I possibly agree to that?"

Beerus said unhappily, "You're my candidate for God of Destruction. How can I use you as a wager without your approval? I let Champa taste Earth's delicacies, and he said he'd bet on Earth too."

Lu Li was surprised that Beerus valued him so much. He smiled and said, "The bet at Champa is the Super Dragon Ball, right? If I'm willing to be the bet, could Lord Beerus give me the Super Dragon Ball after we win the match?"

Beerus wasn't really interested in the Wishing Ball, but he was a little surprised that Lu Li was willing to bet himself. He glanced at Lu Li and then shook his head. "No way. I just said that you are a candidate for God of Destruction of Universe 7. There's no reason for you to bet on this."

"Wouldn't it be great if we could just win? I had some wishes that couldn't be fulfilled by the regular Shenron, so I wanted to try using the Super Shenron."

Lu Li said with a smile that if they could obtain the Super Dragon Balls, their operations in this world would be much smoother.

"Tsk, you little brat, you really won't give up."

Beerus was surprised by Lu Li's obsession with the Dragon Balls. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Okay, but if you lose, I'll destroy you."

"Lord Beerus is quite strict, but I'm still confident I can win this match."

Lu Li said with a smile.

But the next moment, Weiss's words made his smile freeze, "Lu Li, if you're willing to be the stake, you can't go on stage to compete. After all, you're the prize, so only someone else can compete."

"what?"

Lu Li was a little confused. "What are the competition rules?"

"Universe 7 and Universe 6 will each select five warriors for one-on-one matches, taking turns. After defeating their opponent, they can continue to defend their title until one side is completely wiped out. Incidentally, during the match, the use of items and weapons is not allowed, nor can the opponent be killed."

Weiss explained.

Lu Li frowned slightly. If he couldn't participate, things would be hard to predict. In the original story, Universe 7 did win by a narrow margin, but he hadn't forgotten the lesson of Frieza. Explorers had entered the Dragon Ball world.

If there were explorers on Champa's side, the outcome of the battle would be hard to predict, especially since Goku's performance in such situations is often inconsistent.

"What, it's not too late to back out, but the Super Dragon Balls will be mine."

"Illustrious said with a yawn, "If it weren't for Champa's visit, I would have been in the midst of a sweet dream."

Lu Li remained in deep thought, while Vegeta was already eager to try. He had just defeated Frieza and was in a state of excitement, wanting to defeat all kinds of powerful enemies to prove himself, to constantly surpass himself, until he completely left Goku behind.

As for whether the bet is Earth or not, he doesn't really care. After all, even if Earth is in another universe, life will still go on; it's not about destruction.

On the contrary, if the bet is on Lu Li, it will have some impact on him, because he has been cultivating under Lu Li recently. If the person guiding him is gone, he will feel troubled and it will be a loss.

"Lord Beerus, if I were to participate, wouldn't it be a guaranteed victory? It would also earn you some prestige, wouldn't that be better?"

Lu Li still wanted to take the field himself because other factors were too unstable. If he lost, changing his leader would be a minor matter. He could cultivate like the angels of Champa, and Weiss's sister even claimed to be stronger than Weiss.

If he were to switch universes, all his previous efforts would be wasted, and Gohan's hidden mission would become much more difficult.

"You really want the Dragon Balls that badly...?"

Beerus glanced at Lu Li, "Don't make any strange wishes."

Lu Li leaned closer to Beerus and whispered a few words in Beerus's ear.

Beerus nodded upon hearing this. "I see. If you can help me win this match beautifully, I'll give you the Dragon Balls, but you have to keep your promise to me."

"Lord Beerus, please rest assured."

Lu Li said with a smile.

Vegeta, watching from the sidelines, was completely bewildered. "So, the stake has become Earth again?"

Beerus nodded and said, "That's right. So if you don't want to lose Earth, hurry up and find a powerful warrior." Vegeta himself wasn't worried about Earth's fate, since this wasn't a case of Earth being destroyed if they lost. However, he felt a little unhappy that God was using Earth as a bargaining chip in a gamble.

Of course, as a member of a fighting race, and in high spirits right now, Vegeta would not refuse such a challenge, and he was also eager to see what the experts from other universes were like.

If Goku were here, he would probably be pestering Beerus, shouting things like, "Let's do it! Let's do it! This kind of competition looks really interesting. I really want to fight them!"

"It's possible, but I think we should add a restriction to the competition: we can't let wild animals without basic intelligence participate. We should add a written test."

Vegeta said that he didn't want to fight those unintelligent, barbaric creatures, feeling that even if he won, it would be pointless.

"Do not……"

Lu Li raised his hand to interrupt Vegeta, "Vegeta, it's better not to add this rule. Think about Goku, can he really pass the written test? And there's also Buu who might be competing."

Vegeta fell silent upon hearing this. He carefully considered Goku's intelligence and felt that it was indeed a bit questionable, not to mention Fat Buu.

"The selection of the participants is up to you. I will come to Earth to pick you up in six days, and then we will head to the competition together."

Beerus yawned and said he was going back to take another nap.

At first, he rushed over in a hurry, his emotions running high, mainly because he was anxious about the fate of Earth or Lu Li. But after seeing Lu Li, he came to his senses.

As long as Lu Li participates, the competition seems to be foolproof. He has no need to be nervous at all and can treat it as a lesson for his younger brother.

After finalizing the arrangements, Beerus and Whis returned to their residence, while Lu Li took Vegeta back to Earth.

Back on Earth, Vegeta looked at Lu Li and asked, "Have you decided on someone yet?"

"Do you have anyone you'd like to recommend?"

Lu Li countered with a question.

Vegeta nodded. "If only five people can fight, besides you and me, the one most qualified to be a powerful warrior is Kakarot. Gohan and Buu can also fight."

Lu Li felt that there was no problem with the choice of Vegeta. In the original work, Gohan did not participate in the battle, but Piccolo replaced him because Gohan was busy with academic work.

However, Gohan has recently been inspired by him and has not neglected his martial arts training, so he is naturally qualified to participate in the battle as a strong fighter.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, six days have passed.

These days, Lu Li has been conducting intensive training for the contestants, not primarily to win the competition, but to improve their skills.

After agreeing to participate in the betting contest, Lu Li received a mission from the space.

Side Quest: The Strongest Universe

Mission objective: Make your current seventh universe the strongest human-level existence among the twelve universes as much as possible. Each time you improve your ranking, the Pioneer will receive a generous reward.

PS: The current ranking of Universe 7 is 11.
Task Difficulty: Easy to Nightmare
mission rewards:

Rank 10: Inheritance Crystal. Complete *1
Rank 9: Inheritance Crystal. Complete *2
Rank 8: Inheritance Crystal. Complete *3
Rank 7: Inheritance Crystal. Complete *4
Rank 6: Inheritance Crystal. Complete *5
Rank 5: Inheritance Crystal. Complete *6
Rank 4: Inheritance Crystal. Complete *10
Rank 3: Inheritance Crystal. Complete *14
Rank 2: Inheritance Crystal. Complete *20
Rank 1: Inheritance Crystal. Complete *30
[Note: This side quest is a long-term, cosmic-level quest; rewards for reaching each stage are cumulative.]

Failure Penalty: If the ranking of Universe 7 remains unchanged or declines before the Pioneers' return, all Pioneers' attributes will be reduced by 10 points.

This side quest covers a wide range of topics and offers very generous rewards, making even Lu Li, who had just become wealthy in the last world, very eager to try it.

If he could make Universe 7 the number one universe, he could obtain a full 30 Inheritance Crystals. Complete! Counting the previous accumulations, he would have a total of 95 Inheritance Crystals. Complete!

This is truly an astronomical figure, and Lu Li has no reason not to take on this task. Besides, he can also gain something from teaching the Saiyans.

He had communicated with Aizen, and Aizen had also received a corresponding mission. Aizen's mission was to raise the ranking of his Third Universe, which was more difficult overall and had less long-term benefit than Lu Li's.

Because the Third Universe is ranked higher than the Seventh Universe where Lu Li and his group are located, the route rewards they can obtain are less. Moreover, the development potential of humans in the Third Universe is not as high as that in the Seventh Universe.

The reason why humanity in Universe 7 is at the bottom is mainly due to Beerus's inaction, not because the universe lacks potential.

In fact, Universe 7 has many rare resources and special races that other universes do not have. If Beerus hadn't been sleeping all the time and if the Supreme Kai's side hadn't been having so many problems, Universe 7 shouldn't be second to last.

On the other hand, looking at Universe 9, the Supreme Kai and the God of Destruction of Universe 9 are very responsible and work hard. However, even so, Universe 9 is still ranked last and was the first universe to be eliminated in the Tournament of Power in the original work.

This is the difference in potential at the grassroots level of the universe. Even if Beerus just coasts along, he can still beat Universe 9. It's like an ancient emperor enfeoffing princes. Beerus was given a rich and fertile land, so he can easily make a living. On the other hand, Sidara, the God of Destruction of Universe 9, was given a barren land. Even if he tries hard to cultivate it, he will only reap very little.

Lu Li's mission and Aizen's mission do not conflict; they can climb the ranks together. The only difference is that only one of them can receive the full first-place reward.

Therefore, Lu Li is now training Vegeta and the others even more seriously, and he is also thinking about how to improve the overall strength of humanity in the universe.

To be honest, the high-end combat power of Universe 7 is not bad. Not all universes have beings as overpowered as Gillian in Universe 11. Universe 7 is already strong enough in terms of high-level combat power.

However, the level of humanity in Universe 7 is determined by a combination of factors, such as the overall strength and level of civilization of humanity. Of course, Lu Li felt that the strength of humanity accounted for a large part of this, after all, this is a world view with a heavy emphasis on combat elements.

Lu Li asked Aizen if there was any good way to raise the overall level of humanity in the universe, so that lower-level humans wouldn't be a drag on the high-level combat forces.

However, Aizen replied to him a few days later, telling him that the idea was not very realistic because Universe 7 was very chaotic and had produced many bizarre criminals throughout history. These troublesome criminals did whatever they wanted while Beerus was sleeping. People like Frieza might be okay, but people like Moro were complete destroyers of cosmic civilization and would certainly cause cosmic civilization to regress.

Therefore, the overall foundation of humanity in Universe 7 is too weak. Trying to improve in this area is both troublesome and ineffective. It would be better to focus on improving the high-end strength of Universe 7.

Aizen and Lu Li did some calculations, because once a strong person's strength reaches a certain level, their attributes will likely exceed 260 points, giving them the power to destroy the universe.

At this level, that's cosmic-level combat power. When someone at this level improves, their power is comparable to all living beings in the universe. If even one such being shows significant improvement, the overall rating of the universe will also rise.

(End of this chapter)