The Castle of the Entertainment Goddess.
Little Mortal appeared where he was before.
The first thing he did was to grab the mask with both hands and squeeze it, while saying coldly,
"Any last words, little mask?
You, being so slow to share the crucial information, cost me a lot, you know?
Now they know the imposter is dead, and I need to go and kill them all!"
The mask felt it could be crushed at any moment
If it didn't give this little monster a good reason to let it survive.
But it didn't know what to say.
It was new around here, and it didn't know about lots of things.
What even was the problem?
He won the challenge, didn't he?
The token vibrated at this moment.
It was the Soul Cube that attempted to aid its former teammate.
Little Mortal raised an eyebrow,
"What do you mean, little cube?
They are still there watching the fortune teller?
Didn't they see the imposter's name turn gray in the rankings?"
The token vibrated again.
Little Mortal let go of the mask,
"You were lucky, little mask.
It seems my 'main body' made its move!
So you have one chance now to redeem yourself."
The mask vibrated, asking what it should do.
...
The other side of the mainland.
The Mainland manager was still waiting nervously.
It did what it could to help its so-called'separated will'.
While waiting, it suddenly felt as though there was a change in the God of Prophecy.
It tilted its head and looked him in the eyes.
The other party, with a confident smile, looked back at it on his shoulder.
The manager's eyes widened in surprise!
He could only see one word in those eyes now.
[Control!]
Its 'will' was back!
The 'perfect plan' was still ongoing!
Not long after, the guardian token appeared at his waist while something invisible was delivered to his hand.
The next moment, a voice echoed with an aura that was released just for a moment,
"The Mainland manager was involved.
I temporarily sealed its body to prevent it from suicide and resurrecting somewhere else, but its influence surely remains.
The guardian token is working as they said.
Just know this,
The rule set by the main holder of the guardian token
will be applied to the universes under the protection of the holders of the 'child guardian token'.
We can proceed with the plan we agreed upon."
The voice was the same as the man who suddenly appeared and stopped God of Prophecy, Erebos.
It seems he was done 'confirming the truth'.
The sound of creepy laughter echoed from different directions and grew fainter and fainter.
God of Prophecy waited for a while, and then a passage opened in front of him.
He went inside with the white canary in its invisible state sitting on his shoulder.
When the passage closed, the white canary jumped up and said proudly,
"You are lucky that I covered up your mess!
Or they would know you killed that guy!"
But God of Prophecy looked at it in puzzlement,
"What do you mean, luck?
It was part of your plan.
We always knew that there were 11 outsiders,
But we never found one.
So you planned to bait him out while pushing the rest of your plans forward.
The invisible newborn, the guardian token,
The allure of taking over universes just by simply challenging the owners.
All of this was part of the bait to bring 'him' out of the 'shadow'.
You even planned to reveal yourself so they try to 'erase' the variable that might ruin their mission."
The manager was stunned,
"What!?
Impossible!
Even before you met with them, I didn't feel the presence of that guy!
How could I even know about his existence?"
God of Prophecy chuckled,
"Indeed.
You never knew about him.
However, you later discovered that a hidden existence should be there.
How else do you think they would meet with each other for billions of years without you, the mainland manager, noticing it even once?
They already knew about your existence,
And you yourself knew that they knew,
But you pretended not to know."
The manager asked in surprise,
"So he was the one concealing the area they met just now?
However, because the law used to conceal their meetings didn't match the law of the other outsiders, I realized that there was another hidden member whom I was unaware of.
I even calculated that when he dies, I'm going to take action and not let the matter be exposed."
God of Prophecy nodded and smiled, as if he was proud of it,
"Exactly.
You considered them trying to bait 'you' out, too.
Which they actually did just now, as you predicted.
However, they never expected to face an overpowered level 7 that they couldn't deal with.
And you should be able to guess who was the level 7 that just killed the guy, right, main body?"
The mainland manager thought for a moment and said excitedly,
"No way!
We now have our own level 7 fighter?
Is it the same newborn that I chose to be the guardian?
The guardian is already level 7 because he has 10 universes as territory?"
God of Prophecy chuckled,
"As expected of you.
Even now, with all your memories erased, you can see through everything."
But the canary looked at him suspiciously,
"But I didn't feel any level 7 aura on the mainland right now!
Where did you fight?"
God of Prophecy smiled,
"Didn't I tell you about the guardian territory?"
The white canary gasped,
"Level 7 creatures can already fight there without world law stopping them?"
God of Prophecy nodded,
"Indeed, we already have a place with its own rules, separated from the mainland.
As I said before, the success rate of your plan is..."
He didn't continue,
and let the white canary finish his sentence,
"100%!"
At this moment,
A couple of passages opened, and the rest of the puppets walked out.
God of Prophecy, who saw everyone, is back, said,
"Alright, main body.
I need to go.
One week from now will be the time for the guardian announcement.
And the time for me to execute the next step of your plan."
The white canary looked at him with shining eyes,
"I don't ask where you go, or what you do,
because I'm sure everything is already as I planned.
So I only wait for the result of our complete victory!"
God of Prophecy nodded and left with the speechless bunch of birth treasures.
What is even happening?
Are we still in the same story?
The outsider puppets could only watch the show helplessly...
It seems they were exposed a long time ago.
And the group of puppets from the Mainland, who suddenly discovered so much new information, felt they were the real 'outsiders' here!
....
The meeting hall of the God's Council.
A bird's voice sounded,
"Everything proceeded as I had planned.
You can go now and wait for the Guardian God's announcement.
If there are new updates that need your help, I will contact you personally or through Apollo."
.....
Planet Lubo.
The silver platform.
A passage opened, and Little Mortal walked out of the passage while complaining,
"Can you believe it?
That imposter was a level 7 who tried to copy my 110% of power!
I was like,
'dude, I am level 98, and you, with 91 levels less, not only want to copy my power, but you want to add 10% to it? That's level 107.8!'
Was he crazy?
Now he is dead and gone.
And guess what?
His universe is mine now, so he can't resurrect there because I don't allow it."
*Sigh*
"Anyway, at least we found out about some interesting things.
We found out that we have a Mainland Manager, who failed to advance our mainland to level 7 for whatever reason.
Another discovery is that our guardian territory is now independent and has no connection to the Mainland or the limits applied to it.
Or how else could that 'grave robber' level up and fight me at level 7 in his 'second phase' the other day?"
Then, while shaking his head, he looked around and saw a scene that didn't seem real!
He rubbed his eyes and looked again,
"Am I so tired that I see random illusions now?"
But no.
It didn't matter how much he rubbed his eyes,
The scene didn't change.
What he saw wasn't an illusion.
"What in the world is going on here?"
The silver platform, which was somewhere at the center of the crystalline area and wasn't supposed to be crowded, was now the opposite.
As far as he could see,
different creatures were floating in the air,
layer by layer, at different altitudes!
All of them seemed to be unconscious or in a meditative state.
From the sky, something like stardust was raining down on them.
At the highest point, a lady was standing in the air.
Her dress and hair color kept changing.
The sky above her kept changing, too, and scenes reminiscent of Aurora would appear.
The scenery was extremely entertaining to watch.
Little Mortal looked more carefully,
and saw many familiar faces among those floating in the air.
The managers, the newborns, his followers, his special forces, and many others.
He gulped and looked around nervously.
Then he saw something flying towards him.
The main crystal, who saw him coming, flew down.
Little mortal saw it coming and said in panic,
"Oh, it's you, little crystal!
How is big sister?
Do you know what's going on here?
Are we under a ghost attack?
Is everyone here possessed?
How is that possible!
I kept the door of every universe under my protection, locked the moment I won them in a challenge!"
The Crystal vibrated and explained what was happening.
Little Mortal wiped the nonexistent sweat from his forehead,
"I was scared for a second.
So it's the effect of Big Sister's advancement."
Then he looked at the crowd of unconscious creatures and snorted,
"Look at all these lazy freeloaders!"
Then he said in annoyance,
"Let me guess.
Nobody saw my fight just now?
What was the use of me, acting so cool while beating up that imposter who liked to invade people's privacy?"
The backpack came to him from farther away and trembled.
Little Mortal froze for a moment and then attacked while shouting,
"What do you mean by 'my coach assistant technique is worse than his'? How dare you compare that imposter to me!
My technique is called 'Coach Assistant'!
Do you hear me?
Coach assistant!
If I use it on old people, it's called helping the elderly!
If I use it on women, it's called helping the damsel in distress!
If I use it on children, it's called helping the future generation!"
BAM BAM BAM
The whole planet started shaking while Little Mortal shouted and beat up the backpack alongside the rest of the speechless birthday gifts, who received their shares.
They didn't know why this backpack couldn't shut its mouth.
This little demon is now level 99 if they add his new victory, and you are provoking him?
The main Crystal, watching the 'brutal' scene, shivered and felt happy to be 'free' now.
There was nothing for it to miss here with this violent boy around.
At the planet's core, Lubo, who saw him going on a rampage, muttered to itself,
"Interesting.
As more and more universes are coming under his rule,
and more planets merge with me,
I remember more interesting things from the past..."
Then it looked at the sky.
Its mouth started drooling when Entertainment Goddess came into its view.
Then it looked at the newborns and muttered again,
"The world law of this zone is actually using the opportunity of this girl's advancement,
to let these newborns recover their powers to where they should be... Level 6.
Why is world law so biased when it comes to Guardian Law and its territory?
It doesn't make sense..."
After a while, Little mortal, tired of beating the backpack, let go of it and said,
"Alright, Mr. Token, show me the new birthday gifts that I am connected to through karma."
The birth treasures 'came back to life' and came over to see.
Who could be their new colleagues?
The token's mechanical voice sounded,
[ 1. Voidstone Amulet
2. Crown of Decay
3. Scepter of Pestilence
4. Blood Devourer
5. Eyes of Despair
6. Hourglass of Time ]
Just the names alone didn't seem to point to any 'good nature' birth treasure.
Except for the last one, which was their old friend, the rest had scary names.
Little Mortal nodded, then paused for a moment and said,
"I know the first five are from today's meeting with the outsiders.
But who does this 'Hourglass of Time' belong to?"
[ The Goddess of Time.
Her birth treasure's mastery of time delayed the connection of its karma with you.]
Little Mortal was shocked,
"It can do that?
So overpowered...
Forget about this one, then.
I'll find a way to take it later..."
The prison cage vibrated.
The little mortal became surprised,
"Mr. Morleone used the hourglass to deliver a message?
How?"
The Crystal showed him the scene that was recorded by the main crystal from when they went to the God of Thievery's fake castle.
Little Mortal watched it and gulped,
"My 'passive fate skill' prevents me from going after this one, right?
It can actually manipulate time to some extent and even show the past?
Doesn't it mean it can show the future too?"
The Crystal vibrated and showed him another scene from its main crystal database.
It was a scene with the Goddess of Time showing what is going to happen in the near future.
Little Mortal furrowed his brow,
"Let's leave this one alone.
I don't think it can show the future in a normal way.
It's probably connecting to world law and predicting the near future instead.
But because world law is involved,
that 'near future' becomes the real future by force,
It can't be changed.
And for showing the past,
That's nothing special; it's just playing with scattered information and reflected light to recreate the scene.
But,
What if it had already shown the future, where it would be taken away by someone from its master on the day I chose it as my birthday gift in the parasite's council meeting?
It means she might be waiting for me to show up at any time, right?"
Then he snorted and said,
"Mr. Token, connect to the other five with the space mirror.
I'll go retrieve my other birthday gifts.
And little mirror, use the 14 universes to cover your tracks.
This batch of birthday gifts is with some uncultured and savage bunch that I don't want to deal with now.
They have a mission that they need to accomplish for me first."
The new and old birth treasures,
<-_->
Until now, none of them knew how this 'birthday party' worked, who was invited, or how he had just taken everyone's birth treasure away as a birthday gift...
However, it seems that at least one of them was lucky and, due to the time law, was safe, at least for now.
Soon, the karma connection was established, and the space mirror found the coordinates of the five targets.
A passage opened to the first one.
A red light was approaching from the other side, but the scenery wasn't visible.
Little Mortal went in through the passage as if he were going to his own room.
After a while, he walked back.
Now, a big sword, bigger than himself, with a black handle and a red blade, was on his shoulder.
The moment he stepped out of the passage, the birth treasures shivered!
This 'red sword' was really scary and arrogant.
But as if it felt something, it controlled its aura and became obedient the next second.
The birth treasures nodded to themselves.
One glance from Lubo, the Evil birth treasure at the planet's core, was enough to humble anyone on the spot.
Little mortal, who couldn't feel any aura from this new birthday gift,
didn't know that a certain 'black heart'
just took action and showed this arrogant newcomer who is the boss in this 'neighborhood'.
"Alright, next."
Another passage opened.
After a while, Little Mortal came back.
There was a pair of eyeballs in his hand, which were looking around weirdly.
While speechless, Little Mortal put them in one of the backpack's pockets while mumbling,
"I was wondering why that lady didn't have eyes...
So she actually took them out to give them to me as a birthday gift?
So considerate..."
Then he shivered and said,
"These lunatic parasites are so extreme!
Even in giving gifts!"
The birthday gifts,
<...>
Those aren't your gifts!
Another passage opened, and Little Mortal went in.
This time, he came back with a dark, swirling gemstone that seemed to absorb light.
Little Mortal threw it in the same pocket as the eyeballs and said,
"How does that guy even live there?
There was nothing in his universe!"
Then he looked at the birth treasures,
"And by nothing, I mean literally nothing!
That 'empty dude' was in an empty universe without anything inside it!"
Then he shook his head in disappointment,
"I was wondering why that thing didn't talk the whole time.
Anyone being alone with 'nothing' for so many years would be like that, not in the mood to talk..."
Then he sighed, as if he could understand him.
"Alright, two more to go."
Another passage opened.
Little Mortal walked in and came back not long after, excitedly.
A gnarled staff, topped with a skull that drips a viscous, greenish liquid, was in his hand.
Every drop of green liquid would stop mid-air before dropping on the ground, floating back to the skull.
It was like a scary special effect that anyone who saw it would feel the same.
It gives the feeling to onlookers that if this drop of liquid hits the ground, the whole world you live in would 'decay' the next moment.
Another scary birth treasure joined the team.
The older ones wanted to stay away from this one.
But they saw Little Mortal shouting,
"Look, everyone!
This birthday gift of mine can make
'green smoothie'!
I bet there is green apple and spinach mixed in,
Or why else would it be this color?"
Then he said with a slightly embarrassed and enlightened tone,
"I can't believe that Cockroach gave me such a thing!
How could such a disgusting creature be so kind?
I know cockroaches always absorb the dirty stuff and diseases to themselves, helping others to live a better life in the process.
But who would have thought it to be real?
Look how nice this one was to me?
Sigh, you can't judge people by their appearance, can you?"
While celebrating his luck for getting a good birthday gift,
Little Mortal ran to the backpack, took out a glass, and filled it with the greenish liquid coming out of the skull.
The birth treasures started vibrating.
Little Mortal looked at them and rolled his eyes,
"What do you mean it's a deadly poison filled with different diseases?
None of you has a nose like mine!
I could smell how sweet this thing is from a city away!"
And then he drank the liquid under the dumbfounded 'gaze' of the treasures.
Especially those who joined recently.
Seeing him drink it so happily and even enjoying it,
The new birth treasures, who were somehow unwilling to be here and had thoughts of rebellion, became humble on the first day of arrival.
If this guy doesn't die just now,
We accept you as our boss!
And naturally, he didn't die.
After drinking his fruit juice, Little Mortal put the staff, which was empty of its liquid, aside and said,
"Your smoothie was a little 'heavy'.
Don't let others drink your production, alright?
It's made for heavy drinkers like me."
The scary staff with the empty skull vibrated to say 'yes'.
What he drank was the product of billions of years of diseases and all kinds of different poisons.
A unique kind of liquid just for annihilation,
of which every drop could start a disaster on any normal planet if 'it' lets go of the restriction on it...
But its new boss just drank it.
Little mortal, in a good mood, said,
"Alright, let's go for the last one."
And the last passage opened for him to go in.
Not long after, a speechless Little Mortal came out with a crown on his head.
A twisted, rusted crown, adorned with decaying flowers and pulsating green gems.
The birth treasures nodded to themselves.
They knew why he was like this.
This crown was indeed ugly.
Little mortal placed the crown on the ground,
sat in front of it,
and said in a serious tone,
"Listen to me, little crown.
I give you one chance.
Turn beautiful, or me and the rest of your 'kind' here,
will be at your funeral tomorrow, while 'crying' like a river for 'losing' you."
And after a brief moment, as if communicating with its old colleagues, the crown turned gold. The flowers on it bloomed, and the aura of decay transformed into one of flourishing growth.
It obviously didn't want everyone to cry for it like a river tomorrow, and knew this new boss wasn't someone simple at all!
The first time he put it on his head, it tried to 'decay' his head and kill him for good.
But not only did it not work; he didn't even show any reaction to its full power, as if he didn't feel it at all.
The new boss didn't even know it rebelled...
How embarrassing was that?
The now beautiful crown decided to take this secret to the grave.
Little mortal nodded and said,
"Smart decision."
And hung the crown on the backpack.
Then he took out his notebook to check his quests,
[ -Main Quest number 1: ✓
Meet God's council and 'reveal the secret'.
-Main Quest number 2: ✓
Meet with the outsiders and 'reveal the secret' while showing it live to the parasite's council.
-Main Quest number 3:
Corrupted Police Officer's announcement.]
"Alright, I'm done with my first two main quests.
For my third quest, I need to wait a week for those lazy outsiders to be done with their things."
Then he shook his head in disappointment and turned to his birthday gifts,
"Unbelievable.
They need a whole week to become their own universe's guardian...
So slow.
If it were me—"
But he suddenly stopped talking,
His gaze locked onto the Guardian Token, and then he started chuckling,
"Well, well, well...
Look, who is the last one?
Now I can even decide when everybody becomes aware of my 'bet' with them?"
The birth treasures and the Guardian Token were confused as to what he was talking about.
But the Crystal, who knew about a certain bet, vibrated.
Little mortal nodded,
"Yes, Mr. Token is the last birthday gift that I can choose.
After that, my 'birthday party' officially ends."
Hearing his answer, a meeting between birthday gifts started.
They found new clues about this unreasonable
'I choose you as my birthday gift' sentence, which he used every time,
World law would come to fully support him and sever every connection they had to their previous owners.
In the end, they gained nothing from their meeting though...
They only found out about the bet and how it was after the information the Crystal shared with them.
In this bet,
He didn't know who was betting with him,
And those who bet with him didn't know they were in the middle of a betting game.
It was basically all about luck, and if he is lucky enough to bump into one of them.
And when it comes to the rules of the bet, it was completely unknown and only known to Little Mortal himself, it seems.
But they knew the whole secret would be revealed soon because of what Little Mortal said next,
"The day those lunatics and law-suckers are going to send me away,
It will be the day that I choose my last birthday gift, and the day I will be sure to make them regret sending me away!"
And started laughing like a little demon.
The birth treasures knew, based on the way his script developed in his meeting with outsiders,
They were really eager to send him 'back' as soon as possible.
As they said, he was a good research material.
So, probably, after the third quest, the guardian announcement, he would be kicked out of the mainland, and that day would be the end of the 'freedom' for a certain 'independent token', who wasn't in the same position as them from the start.
Everybody knew the Guardian Token was following Little Mortal only because he was a candidate for guardianship, not because he owned it.
The birth treasures couldn't wait for that day to come.
Little mortal went inside the backpack and came out in his suit.
The suit that makes you think of only one word.
[Professional.]
Then he picked up the punishment stick and snapped his finger,
"Big guy, send the whiteboard out."
A whiteboard came out.
"Chairs for the members of the birthday gift team, please."
Chairs appeared for new and old birthday gifts to 'sit'.
"Please invite assistant Ro—"
But he saw everyone, including her, still floating in the air.
The Crystal vibrated, giving him an idea.
Little mortal coughed,
"Excuse me, as I was saying,
Please invite the puppet squad to join the meeting."
The backpack sent out another batch of chairs.
The prison cage sent out the puppets.
And the Crystal started recording the reaction of the puppets excitedly.
When the puppets were out,
and saw the scene of someone in the sky, clearly trying to advance, and a bunch of known and unknown birth treasures 'sitting' on their chairs obediently,
with a certain Little Boy who seems to be the 'main character' with his professional look and the familiar stick,
They all went through a storm of different emotions.
Many questions were answered in their minds,
and many more were now added.
All these days, the one behind everything, the one who stole their birth treasures, the one who controlled their bodies in the previous 'show',
all of them were the doing of the same 'Newborn'.
Mortal!
But even now, they didn't have any control over their bodies and just sat on their chairs peacefully, as if where they were or what they were doing was part of their daily life.
Little mortal nodded at everyone and welcomed them,
"New and old members of the birthday gift team,
and new and old members of the puppet squad,
Welcome to today's meeting.
As you all know,
We have seven free days until the Outsiders are ready,
So, we should attend to some matters during this period.
This meeting has been held for the purpose of planning activities for the next 7 days.
Alright, everyone,
before we start,
If there are any questions or important matters that you want to talk about,
Please raise your hand."
The glasses of knowledge 'raised' its 'hand', and Little Mortal pointed at him with his stick,
"You, the friend with glasses, you can speak.
No!
I mean the friend who is only a glasses, please speak."
The glasses of knowledge, which were only glasses, vibrated.
The energy generated by the black hole at the center of our galaxy can't keep up with the planet's consumption.>
Little mortal raised an eyebrow,
"That's fine.
If our black hole isn't enough, tell Lubo to add some other black holes to it."
The glasses went silent.
An old voice sounded,
"Nobody can move black holes; don't be stupid."
Little mortal jumped behind the whiteboard,
"Who said that!?
Show yourself, you coward who always hides in the shadows!"
"It's me, Lubo."
Little mortal heaved a breath of relief,
"Oh, it's you...
You scared me for a second."
A certain group of 'outsider' puppets and their former birth treasures started vibrating and shivering in fear when they heard the voice and then the name!
Doesn't that mean it is already unsealed?>
Little mortal knocked on the whiteboard with his stick,
"Stop vibrating and shivering in the middle of our official meeting, or I'll beat you up!"
The new birth treasures turned silent.
They didn't know which of the two monsters was more dangerous, and which one they should listen to.
The most dumbfounded was the group of outsiders who couldn't show any reaction outside, but inside their minds was in chaos!
Just one look at the size of the planet, and they knew not only was Lubo unsealed, but it was even on a completely different path of growth while advancing in power!
Little Mortal, oblivious to their thoughts, asked,
"Lubo, what do you mean nobody can?
Aren't you an expert in 'devouring'?
Just devour a black hole and then spit it out to ours.
Don't worry, no one says you are impolite or uncivilized."
The old voice sounded again,
"I literally can't.
Even when I was devouring universes in the past,
The black holes would be left in infinite space, and then disappear."
Little Mortal frowned,
"Your math is so bad?"
The old voice was confused,
"What does math have to do with it?"
Little mortal rolled his eyes,
"Little glasses, you tell it."
The glasses vibrated, saying it doesn't know either.
Little mortal shook his head in disappointment,
"Looks like I should show you why mathematics is the foundation of everything.
So, I will use this opportunity to solve the problem of black hole transportation with pure mathematics."
Then he looked at the crowd and smiled,
"Are you excited?"
The birth treasures just looked at him blankly, but the puppets shouted together,
"We are!"
Even though they were forced to show excitement, inside, these level 7 supreme beings didn't believe his nonsense at all!
Even their so-called 'Lord' wasn't capable of moving black holes...
Nobody even dared to get close to Black holes, let alone move them!