Underworld.
In Queen's citadel,
Lilith received a message from her minions.
< The sky turned dark.
The target appeared in the sky.
He battled against a higher being with a beard and an eye patch,
Defeated him with four spin kicks.
The opponent disappeared and reappeared after the target patted a small cage on his waist twice,
And then the match was over.
The sky turned normal.
Later, the world law announced,
'Guardian Mortal has imprisoned the Higher being Galaxar.
Mortal wins.'
End of the report. >
Seeing the report,
Lilith went into deep thought.
For others, this report might look confusing,
But to her, it was different.
She started thinking about today's events as she muttered,
"The vulture, the hunters mainland, and its zone, which none of them detect him, proves I'm not the only one who can't sense him.
The first time I opened the gate and the vulture spoke to me, it gave me enough 'reason' to sense the other side, so I knew it was close by, and the lava sea was calm.
But the second time,
The vulture was far away, and not far away on the mainland, but far away in the infinite space.
And when it shouted at me loudly like that,
It gave me enough 'reason' to sense the other side even better.
What I felt was the sound of the wind and the movement of the lava sea.
I'm sure the movement was rotation.
From what I know, these hunters' target was the speedy mainland of my partner, so there was no reason for spinning there.
They should move in one direction consistently.
And not only that,
How could that vulture leave the lava sea after the gate opened?
It would stay there to guard it for sure.
And all of these sudden changes happened after my 'partner' came back again.
It means he was involved in all of this.
And what did he do after he was back?
He went back in a hurry and fought a higher being as fast as he could.
From the report of my minions, he was shown in the sky,
In a battlefield, a place for a 'fair' fight prepared by world law, and he fought as the 'guardian', which I'm still not sure what it is.
And his opponent appeared and disappeared after being knocked out,
It meant the battle required him to kill his target or prove to the world that he had defeated the opponent completely.
So he made him completely disappear somehow because he couldn't kill him or needed him alive for some reason?
And the cage is surely a birth treasure capable of imprisoning higher beings; it just needs them to be unconscious!
This shows the cage is definitely another birth treasure that he can control and order around.
And winning this way, he proved to the world law that the opponent is 'imprisoned', and when he won, he let go of the opponent to go back to where he came from.
From what he said about having a 'puppet squad',
It would be fine if he turned this one into a puppet like my believer, too.
But why didn't he?"
Lilith was confused.
"He fought the other party exactly after he came back from the Hunters mainland, so it should have something to do with that...
In his conversation with the librarian fairy,
He talked about a mirror that allows him to go anywhere he wants with it.
But if he could, why would he ask me to send him to the Hunters mainland...
Therefore, this mirror has some restrictions.
It surely needs a coordinate,
However, to receive it, the target must be seen by it at least once, or have the exact coordinates.
But what do any of these have to do with him beating up someone in such a hurry?'
Lilith paused her thoughts for a moment and then made a wild guess.
"Wait, what if he saw the other party in the Hunters mainland?
What if he challenged him somehow, and now he is using him as a 'connection' for his mirror that is locked into him?
He has many 'birthday gifts', and if only one of them is related to karma, the mirror can use it and connect to the higher being who has just lost to him...
Wait, is he trying to go there without my help?
Did he find a way to 'connect' his mirror to the Hunters mainland directly?
Did he make that place spin just to use it as a smokescreen for this?"
Lilith frowned,
"But that's stupid, any space passage opening in level 10 mainlands will be detected on the spot... So what's the point?"
While thinking about these possibilities,
Lilith became more and more confused.
Her partner seems silly and smart at the same time.
She didn't know if what he was doing had a reason behind it or not.
But again, she remembered her own shared territory up there.
The lava sea.
"This brat wants to use my lava sea in Hunter's side to sneak in?
That place can hide any space fluctuations.
That's why even my token that he could use to come back wasn't detected..."
Lilith bit her lips,
"I shouldn't have told him about the lava sea's uniqueness when it comes to space fluctuations..."
....
Planet Lubo.
Silver platform.
Little mortal was now ready to go and retrieve his birthday gift, the Hourglass of time.
"Little crystal, are you ready?"
The main Crystal vibrated.
< Ready! >
It told its master that it needed to go and take care of something, and it would be back in no time.
This mission had to be done perfectly, so it acted personally in the place of its Child Crystal.
What else could Entertainment goddess do to her independent birth treasure?
Little mortal nodded and said,
"Alright, the rest of you, wait for me for a moment.
I will be back soon, and we can start the meeting."
and he walked into a passage with the Crystal covered in black liquid, sneakily.
.....
Goddess of time's universe.
Inside her castle, she was now sitting on a throne, with her birthday treasure, the Hourglass of time in front of her.
She was staring at it intensely.
Sometime ago,
In the meeting with other members of God's council,
She received a weird message from her birth treasure,
Thinking about the censored message,
She really didn't know what to think.
Anything she asked of her birth treasure didn't receive a meaningful answer.
So the only thing she could do was to ask a certain person about it.
And that person was none other than the goddess of foresight.
This goddess could see the inevitable futures of herself and others.
Maybe her foresight came and went randomly, but the result was 100% accurate.
The first time she asked her about it,
The answer was 'I don't know.'
But when she asked her after their last meeting again,
She immediately told her the result, which was,
'1 year separation.'
Knowing the inevitable outcome, she didn't give up and left the mainland, returning to her universe with her castle.
Who could separate her from her birth treasure if she were in her own universe and always watching over it?
And unbeknownst to her, around 10 minutes ago,
A passage was opened behind her, and a little boy was with her for a while now.
Like the goddess of time, he was staring at her hourglass as intensely as her.
At the hidden passage behind the goddess, half of a crystal was out too.
Time passed, after another 10 minutes,
Little mortal slowly stretched his hand towards the hourglass, picked it up gently, and went towards the passage.
In front of the goddess of time, though,
The hourglass, or to be exact, an illusion of it made by a certain crystal, was left for her to stare at.
When Little Mortal returned to the silver platform, another illusion was created by the Crystal.
This one was for the hourglass of time, which included the Goddess of time and her castle.
So simultaneously, both the goddess of time and her birth treasure were watching a realistic illusion of each other, without noticing that one of them was taken away for at least 20 minutes.
After another 10 to 15 minutes,
The half Crystal went back to the passage,
And the passage closed while the goddess of time suddenly saw her birth treasure disappear.
She could only close her eyes in frustration and doubt her law of time.
How could this happen to someone who can see the future?
She already saw this future.
She had already seen 10 minutes in the future, where her birth treasure would be gone without any reason.
But what could she do about it?
....
Planet Lubo.
Silver platform.
The illusion for the Hourglass disappeared, too.
A teasing voice sounded,
"Well, well, well...
Look who's here.
The snitch birthday gift of mine, who was ready to sell me out."
Seeing the scene in front of it change, the hourglass didn't react at all.
It already knew about this future, and it was shocked 10 minutes ago.
The future that it would find itself in a completely foreign place.
The only thing out of place was this little boy,
That wasn't in the future it saw.
Seeing it not showing any reaction,
Little mortal kicked it away while saying,
"I dare you to spoil anything around here, little snitch!
Stay with the big guy, and don't talk until you are asked for.
Do you ... understand?"
The hourglass of time that didn't see getting kicked in the future came out of shock and looked into the next 10-minute future immediately.
Then it received the necessary information and the methods of communication with this famous mainland insulter from its new colleagues in the future, and vibrated before anyone could say anything to it.
The other birth treasures, which had not even said a single word to it, were already amazed.
'Time law' was not a joke!
So overpowered!
Little mortal went to the whiteboard and was going to write something, but the hourglass vibrated again.
It was as though it 'gasped' in shock at what it saw.
Little mortal's hand froze on the whiteboard ...
He turned around and glared at the hourglass, which was dumbfounded now!
In the future that it saw, what was written on the whiteboard, the little boy was naturally excluded.
So it didn't know what kind of reaction he would show when it *gasped*.
But the future information made it *gasp* in shock anyway.
Little mortal walked to the hourglass,
Picked it up and started squeezing it while saying coldly,
"Last warning!
If I see any sign of 'spoil' again from you,
It will be the last time you spoil anything!"
The hourglass vibrated,
< I would never do that again! >
while it was shocked inside.
It didn't see this part of being squeezed by him in its future vision either...
The hourglass became completely motionless.
It disabled all its future functions.
Little mortal went back to the whiteboard and started the meeting.
"Alright, everyone.
Please pay attention."
The birthday gifts,
Already on their seats, listened carefully.
"First of all, let me tell you how my business trip to the underworld went."
The birth treasures were speechless.
You were dragged there with chains,
What business trip?
"There, I met with my future 'partner', who is the underworld manager,
And we reached some agreements to collaborate in the future."
Then he started writing something while explaining,
"This is what I learned there about the normal mainland's level up."
[ Normal mainlands and creatures' level up:
- The Mainland's manager always needs to be 1 level higher than the creature's highest level.
(It was two levels for the evil Mainland.
And we can now be certain that outsiders can't level up to 7 while our manager is level 7. )
- Mainland needs to carry 10 universes for its first advancement to level 7.
- For level 8, the mainland needs to carry 1000 universes.
(The reason our Mainland is still at level 7 is that it is under invasion.
The outsiders achievement - > 06/11 )
- For Level 9, Mainland needs to merge with 10 other Mainlands.
- For Level 10, Mainland needs to merge with 10 other mainlands, each of which merged with 10 mainlands.
- Manager naturally advances with its Mainland.
For other creatures carried by the Mainland to advance:
- For level 7, they need to merge with 10 other universes plus enough accumulated law.
( Again, because our manager is stuck at level 7, no one can advance to level 7.
That's why this option is locked for all of the level 6 creatures of our mainland.)
- For level 8, they need to merge with 1000 other universes.
- For level 9, they need to help their mainland in finding another mainland to merge with.
If they participate in the merging process with others, they gain part of the approval from the mainland itself.
For example, if they are a team of 10,
Then they gain 10% approval each after the successful merge.
- And for level 10, it's basically impossible for any creature, because the manager always needs to be 1 level higher than the creature with the highest level. ]
At the end little mortal knocked on the board,
"As you can see,
On paper, normal mainlands seem to be on the winning side because they can actually have level 9 creatures on their ranking."
The birth treasures nodded.
"But from what I saw in the underworld,
That's exactly the opposite.
Evil Mainlands are on the rampage, and nobody can stop them.
Anyone can guess why?"
The birth treasures began vibrating and offering ideas, while Little Mortal started writing them down and sharing the information he had found in the underworld about the hexagons.
[ Possibilities:
- The merging process isn't easy.
- Mainlands with opposite laws can't merge.
- Why would any creature willingly merge with others?
- There is a hidden force helping the evil mainlands.
- The evil mainland's path is easier.
- The fast growth of the evil mainland stops the normal mainland's growth before they get too strong. ]
Little mortal read the ideas and nodded,
"As you can see, in practice, the evil version can grow a lot faster,
While the normal mainlands are still stuck at the 'negotiations' part.
So, for us to survive in this competition,
We need to use the third way of advancing."
The birth treasures nodded.
They already knew what he was talking about.
The third way was the 'guardian' way.
This planet was actually in a condition that it could host many level 7 creatures.
All of these conditions for the mainland to advance and allow the higher beings to advance were nonexistent for it.
So it means while the two other ways of advancing weren't looking good in the world's eyes,
And both were slow or weak at the end,
Their was getting the World's full support and approval.
"So, the only thing we need to do now is to find the third path of advancement for our own territory, the guardian version."
Little mortal then asked,
"Now, what do you think is the condition for a creature to reach level 8 in our territory with the information and pattern we already have?"
Another round of giving ideas started.
[ How to become level 8 in Guardian territory?
- Host 1000 level 7 creatures.
- 1000 universes as Guardian territory.
- Become Guardian of the mainland.
- Increase the size of the Lubo planet, and the black hole at the center of the galaxy.]
After writing down the guesses, Little Mortal said,
"As you can see,
We already have some ideas.
But we don't know which one might be the correct one.
So to be sure and not waste our time,
What path do you think is the best to choose?"
The birth treasures started vibrating.
Each one chose a path.
Little mortal nodded,
"Exactly!"
The birth treasures wondered which one of them chose the path he was thinking about, which made him say 'exactly'.
And they received the answer.
"We should try all of them simultaneously!"
The birth treasures nodded.
So he meant all of them were right.
What were they thinking?
"Now, let me divide the jobs."
[ How to become level 8 in Guardian territory.
- Host 1000 level 7 creatures. (? )
- 1000 universes as territory ( me )
- become Guardian of the mainland ( me )
- develop the Lubo planet, and the black hole at the center of the galaxy ( all of us ) ]
"As you can see,
I can handle most of the jobs, and four of the possibilities were already on the path to completion.
So we don't need to care about them.
But the only problem now is the 1000 level 7 creatures, which I think is ridiculous.
Whose idea is this?
Raise your hand!"
The backpack trembled.
Little mortal attacked it with a flying kick!
"Your idea is too far from reality!"
Then he wrote the important information in his notebook and cleaned the whiteboard.
"Okay,
After I meet with the underworld manager,
I went to... ?"
He didn't continue, so the birth treasures answered.
But they just sat there silently.
"I give you a hint.
Each mainland has a lava sea.
Each lava sea is connected to the underworld.
So I went to...?"
The birth treasures guessed it, but didn't want to believe it!
They vibrated with doubt.
They thought he had only found a way to go there!
Little mortal nodded,
"Exactly.
I went behind the enemy line and gathered some information.
This way I won't be clueless when I go there again as 'research material'."
The birth treasures were speechless.
Anyone against this little guardian had a hard time even knowing about his existence until they were already lost, let alone having a chance to have a fair face-to-face fight...
Little mortal chuckled and said,
"By the way, Lubo, and my outsider's gift,
That ugly vulture said 'Hi'."
The outsider's birth treasures didn't understand what he meant by vulture, but a memory in Lubo's mind suddenly awakened!
The planet suddenly started shaking,
And the angry voice of Lubo started echoing everywhere, saying all kinds of bad words that couldn't be said!
Little mortal was shocked at first, but then stomped the ground while shouting,
"Be quiet!"
The sense of dread that was spreading through the planet's core stopped, and Lubo became silent.
The rest wondered what this 'vulture' did to Lubo that made it go crazy all of a sudden.
How strong was the other party to even have the guts to mess with it?
Little mortal looked at the outsider's former birth treasures and asked,
"You guys didn't understand what I said?"
And they vibrated,
Little mortal nodded,
"Alright, so it's a hidden character and probably only the Lord knows about it.
Okay, let's get back to the topic."
Then he said while writing something,
"Pay attention, I want to use advanced mathematics to calculate the number of our enemies in the enemy camp.
By the way, that Mainland is called Hunters Mainland."
The birth treasures wondered how 'advanced' his math is going to be this time?
[ - Number of castles detected: More than 90,000 castles of level 6 and 7 creatures.
- Possible number of level 7 and level 6:
In their 'contribution list', they had Fortune Teller at rank 811.]
Then he pointed at the last line he wrote, and said,
"If we assume, because of his contribution to catching our mainland, he is the top player in the rank 6 category, with 810 other players above him in the contribution ranking, we can easily calculate the number of level 7 creatures, which is 810 in total.
So we are at least dealing with 800 level 7 creatures, because 10 of them are here on our side."
Then he pointed at the backpack,
"You! Big guy!
You said that to unlock level 8 advancement, we need to host 1,000 level 7s?
Can you see why I told you it's far from reality?"
The backpack trembled,
We already know that they are a level 10 mainland.
So, if even a level 10 mainland only has 810 level 7,
How could it be 1000 here that the World Law even favors us more than them?>
Little Mortal nodded,
"Correct."
However, the birth treasures felt that they had overlooked a certain important piece of information just now.
How many level 7 and level 6 creatures were in the enemy camp?
There were 90,000 level 6 and 800 level 7?
If the birth treasures could, they would sweat profusely now...
No wonder their mainland was on the run!
They didn't know if even this little monster could face such a force...
"Alright, pay attention.
I'm going to calculate the number of level 6 creatures with my advanced mathematics."
The birth treasures,
<-_->
We already know...
[ 90,000 - 810 = 89,190 level 6 ]
"As you can see, I actually calculated something that might be impossible for others.
Using math, I calculated the number of enemy level 6 creatures that we had no idea about just yesterday!"
The birth treasures felt that his mathematics was too advanced for them to understand.
The number they thought of was 90,000, but he showed them that they were wrong, and they overestimated the enemy.
90,000 level 6 seems to be an unbeatable force,
But 89,190 was... still an unbeatable force...
The Crystal vibrated.
Didn't you send him away before we arrived here?>
Little Mortal smiled and said,
"You don't believe it!
I actually saw him there!
Who knew this space pirate was already captured?
And not only that, guess who else arrived there?
I give you a hint.
It's shiny, it's black, and it tickles when it hits me!"
The birth treasures were in disbelief!
They asked if those black lightnings of 'fate' had actually appeared there?
And Little Mortal nodded excitedly,
"Let me tell you,
The first one went into the middle of a group of 20 of them and turned half to ashes in a moment!
The next moment, that Lord guy appeared and asked in panic,
'Are we under attack? Should we run away?'
And while he was sweating profusely, the ugly vulture arrived too!
But before having time to ask what's happening,
Another lightning came out and went straight to its ugly face!
The vulture almost wet itself!
It was like,
'I just got here!
Why am I the target!? I didn't do anything!'
But the lightning didn't listen.
The ugly vulture, though, wasn't weak at all!
It caught the lightning with its beak, thinking it's fine!
But guess what?
It wasn't fine at all!
The lightning took him away to the horizon!
I just saw it *whooshed* away towards the dark sky with that Lord guy!"
The guardian token at this moment said,
[ Karma connection with Galaxar has been established. ]
Little Mortal puffed his chest, raised his chin, and said,
"As you can see, using the opportunity my Passive Fate skill provided to distract the Hunters Manager, now my insider agent, the space pirate, has been activated!"
The birth treasures now understood what he did.
So this little monster actually beat up the pirate god because he needed him for a karma connection.
And now he could use the mirror to go back and forth between the two mainlands if he wants to...
But for him to challenge him, the other party would be gone for a moment, and the enemy might know about it.
That's why the black lightning arrived and started chaos to give him the cover-up he needed?
He actually found an opportunity because of that?
Was his passive fate skill real?
Or how else would he offend that lady from the underworld exactly at the right time, to catch him, take him to underworld, and then reach a deal with him so he ends up in the enemy camp exactly when the lightning was going to arrive?
Only fate could play you and everything else like that, to put you at the right place and at the right time...
But neither of them,
Or Little Mortal, didn't know,
That his so-called passive fate skill might have had another purpose.
.....
Hunters Mainland.
The Mainland itself, the vulture, and Lord were running around and trying their best to bring back all of the universes with the help of close to 800 level 7 creatures, which were still alive.
They needed to get back to the 'road' as fast as possible, or the other two mainlands looking for the same target as them would catch up.
The 'invisible to others vulture' on Lord's shoulder said,
"Contact Apollo,
Tell him about the changes on our side and the increase in our distance due to being slowed down because of this mess."
And Lord took out an orb like the one Apollo had contacted him with.
But both he and the vulture were shocked when they saw it!
The orb was completely cooked.
Black smoke was rising from it!
Lord took out two other spare orbs, but those were cooked too!
The vulture snorted in dissatisfaction, and while taking out another orb, said,
"Use this instead—"
But its eyes almost popped out...
The orb that was with it all the time was cooked too.
The vulture gritted its beak,
"That cursed lightning ruined everything!"
Until now, they had no idea why the lightning was targeting them, or who was behind it.
And all that aside, what made the mainland spin like that?
That was something unbelievable to them!
Unbeknownst to a certain little guardian,
His passive fate skill did more than he thought.
It even cut off the connection between the outsiders and the Hunters.
At this moment, the vulture suddenly received a signal and became even more shocked.
It muttered to itself,
"Erebos died?"
Because of the distance between them and the speedy mainland, it was only now that it received the 'information' about the death of the most hidden 'insider' they had there.
The very same higher being that Little Mortal called 'Imposter'.
While thinking about all the possibilities that might have happened there, it received another signal,
"Thanathel is back to level 7? How?"
Lord asked in shock,
"Is it possible that the speedy mainland actually advanced to level 8?"
But the vulture shook its head,
"Impossible.
Our members joined it before 'it' gathered 1000 universes.
While the mainland thinks of them as its members,
The 'zone' knows that they are outsider and stops the mainland from advancing.
Why do you think even after gathering more than 5000 other universes, it is still stuck at level 7?"
The two became silent.
With that lightning 'cooking' their only way of long-distance communication, they basically lost all contact with their 'insiders'.
The vulture waited for a while, but Thanathel didn't die like Erebos.
So it could at least feel slightly at ease.
A level 7 insider could do many things if he weren't kicked out of the zone.
Thinking of the possibility, it said,
"On the way, watch for Thanathel.
He might be expelled from the zone."
And left to catch the scattered universe.
...
Planet Lubo.
It was already night.
The temperature was now back to normal.
Entertainment Goddess and an unknown number of different creatures around her were now peacefully floating in the air, advancing to different levels.
The pleasant sound of the wind blowing through the crystalline mountain was like a lullaby for those who heard it.
But the real reason for this temporary peace was the sleeping little boy.
*Zzzzz...*
The source of chaos and trouble was now in a deep sleep.