Planet Lubo.
Forbidden Jungle.
The fairies were still wandering around the sealed garden, wondering to themselves what was happening inside.
Around 2 hours later, the seal was finally lifted, and Little Mortal walked out with a small deer.
"What's up, little fairies?"
The fairies flew to him.
"Boss, what were you doing inside?"
Little Mortal pointed at the deer,
"I was taming this wild deer.
Now you have a 'spirit garden',
Isn't that cool?"
The fairies jumped on the deer to examine its qualifications for the job while it looked around awkwardly.
The old fairy from Hunters mainland even finds the deer familiar!
A little fairy jumped on Little Mortal's head,
"Boss, what's your level?"
And he puffed his chest, before saying,
"4050!"
The fairies gasped.
Goddess of Foresight gulped.
She wanted to ask why she was brought here.
But didn't dare to.
She just stood in the corner quietly.
But her birth treasure, the lantern, vibrated,
Little Mortal turned to them, and just one glance from him made Goddess of Foresight turn pale from fright.
Little Mortal rolled his eyes at her,
"Little coward, why are you so timid?
And what do you mean by restriction, Little Lantern?
She is in her new home.
Isn't this place like a heaven for her compared to that 'pit' she calls a hideout and always stays in fear?"
The lantern vibrated again,
Opposite of those who didn't know this monster,
This lantern actually knew this Little Guardian was rough outside, but kind inside when it comes to his 'people'.
So it wasn't scared of him.
Little Mortal scratched his head,
"Danger?
Here?
The only danger on this planet is...?"
He didn't finish his sentence and pointed at a random fairy to finish the sentence.
And the fairy answered immediately,
"It's you, Boss!"
Little Mortal nodded,
"And everyone on this planet is my...?"
And pointed at another fairy, which answered immediately,
"Underlings!"
Little Mortal was speechless!
The old fairy kicked the silly fairy away and said,
"People."
Little Mortal nodded,
"Exactly!
And no one can harm my people here, even myself."
And left while snorting in dissatisfaction.
The old fairy shook his head,
"Little Lantern, don't argue with Boss.
Do you want to see your master's hair change style like us?"
The little fairies started laughing.
Goddess of Foresight looked blankly at the little boy who walked away.
Was she now part of his 'people'?
The Old Fairy from Hunters Mainland, who was looking at the small deer suspiciously for a while now, suddenly gasped!
"It's you! You turned back to normal!?"
And the deer nodded.
It remembered this old fairy from Hunters Mainland, where it would go and hang out with them in the past.
Both of them teared up when they remembered the good old days...
...
Mainland.
The mainland manager, with its beak wide open in shock, was looking at the sky.
In these past 10 days or so, it has seen many names turn gray.
Everyone in the mainland was looking for the members of God's Council to ask them what was happening, but they were in the middle of their advancement and nowhere to be found.
So, the White Canary took action and didn't let too many names turn gray to cover up for that entity.
While anxious, it finally saw some changes in a different direction.
First, it saw group after group of bubbles changing karma connection.
All to the Assassin God's universe.
And all of them were taken from those outsiders who were in the middle of killing everyone one by one as though there is no tomorrow.
And then,
When the last outsider lost its fate and karma connection with the universes he took over,
The White Canary felt that it had actually become a legitimate level 8, not one that cheated the old system.
As if something that was stopping the Mainland's growth was removed!
Now, even the higher beings of the Mainland could advance to level 7 if they merged their universe with others.
The White Canary was speechless when it received the information related to advancement.
It was close to impossible for other higher beings, these selfish creatures, to let someone take over their universe and merge with it.
Then it suddenly felt a sense of joy coming from the mainland itself,
And the next moment, it sped up and changed its path to a random direction.
It could feel that the mainland wasn't moving in the same straight line anymore, but towards a specific direction now.
The White Canary attempted to contact the mainland to determine its goal and the reason for its change in direction.
And soon it received an answer.
It was going to pick up some wandering universes that it passed by before, and now that it was 'clean',
It could allow them to join and become faster and stronger.
The Canary was at a loss.
This was obviously an act of gathering 'troops',
As if the mainland knew about the future clash between the mainlands.
And as if the situation weren't complicated enough,
It suddenly saw all of the karma and fate connections to Assassin God's universe disconnected!
All of the bubbles in the sky now were connected only to the mainland...
"What in the world is happening?
Did someone press a restart button?"
Wondered the dumbfounded White Canary!
....
The castle of Entertainment Goddess.
The main Crystal received the 'records' from Guardian Archive, which were all the fights between outsiders and higher beings.
Entertainment Goddess, who suddenly received two interesting news from the mainland itself,
One about the mainland itself advancing to level 8,
And one about how to become level 7,
Saw her crystal start updating her 'techniques' database.
"My beloved crystal, what new technique did you find?"
And the Crystal could only say,
It's nothing special.>
It thought its master might have a heart attack if she saw 4000 higher beings being slaughtered by those five outsiders.
Especially now that everyone has discovered the level 7 condition.
Entertainment Goddess nodded and thought it was probably some mediocre technique.
"By the way, do you know how I advanced to level 7?
The information from the Mainland indicates that I need to merge with 10 universes.
So how am I level 7 with only my own universe?"
Entertainment Goddess sighed.
Her crystal was so secretive...
At least that little troublemaker would answer her if she asked a question, even if the answer was nonsense.
Remembering Little Mortal, Entertainment Goddess thought of something,
And she sent a message to his child crystal, that she didn't know where it was.
[ Hey, Little Mortal.
Are you back, Boss of the secret organization?
Can you see if it's possible for a petite lady like me to advance again in your 'secret' place?]
The Crystal who saw the message was speechless.
It thought to itself,
'Does she know that little monster is behind everything? Or is she joking, calling him boss?'
But on second thought, it was obvious that she was saying it mockingly.
So, he probably told her in the meeting that the crystal never knew when it happened, but she thought he was joking, as he often did.
It was at this moment that the crystal actually discovered something interesting.
'Mortal actually never lies to my master...
But because what he says doesn't make sense at all, and it's so unreal, my master never believes it...'
The speechless crystal ignored the message and let the child crystal handle it.
It knew Mortal was extremely sensitive when it came to her master.
She was his first real 'friend' after billions of years of loneliness, so it was natural...
And in less than 10 seconds, he actually replied to her.
[ Hello, big sister, yes, I'm back.
After I'm done with sending a couple of million souls of the dead to the afterlife,
I ask Postman Mat to bring you the level 8 advancement ticket and 'live-action movie' invitation.]
The Crystal nodded and thought to itself,
'He told her another unbelievable truth casually...'
And Entertainment Goddess, who sighed after reading the answer,
"I don't even understand what he is saying...
Millions of souls of the dead?
Postman Mat?
Does he have a place that I can rank up in his pocket?
Whoever doesn't know who sent this message,
Might think he is the real Boss of that whatever organization..."
The curious crystal, which had many colleagues in the secret organization, after asking some questions, understood the entire message.
He didn't say a single lie.
Entertainment Goddess then changed the topic,
"Did you find any information about the mysterious death of so many higher beings in these couple of days?"
The Crystal, who just received the video evidence of every 'murder case' and saved them in its database,
<-_->
...
Planet Lubo.
A while earlier.
Before the Mainland changed direction to catch universes.
Little Mortal came back to the silver platform,
Put on his suit, and in his professional mode,
Brought out a paper and raised it towards the sky,
"Hello, I am Guardian Mortal,
And this is my application to become the Mainland guardian."
On the paper were the conditions for becoming a Mainland guardian.
But after a couple of minutes of waiting, there was no response.
The guardian token said at this moment,
[ The application for a normal guardian should be given to the Mainland manager for confirmation.
The application for a secret guardian can only be given in secret to the world law of the zone.
Therefore, a private message is necessary in this case. ]
The corner of Little Mortal's mouth twitched.
Then he tore the paper.
"Alright, you do it."
[ Request has been sent to the zone's world law.
Request has been received.
Request has been accepted.
This is the world law reply:
Guardian Mortal, congratulations on your promotion.
You are now the temporary secret guardian of the Mainland.
Your chosen path is Frontline Guardian.
Thus, the moment your identity as a secret guardian is exposed to everyone,
You will be known as Frontline Guardian again, and the effect of your Frontline path will be applied to all creatures in this zone. ]
Little Mortal was going to say something,
But he suddenly saw his body start emitting blue smoke, and the guardian token added another sentence,
[ Guardian Mortal, this is your reward for purifying your zone from outsiders.
10 trillion raw law. ]
Little Mortal shouted in panic,
"Request world law to send it to my crystal!"
[ Request has been sent.
Request has been received.
Request has been accepted. ]
Little Mortal closed his eyes in frustration and muttered,
"Man, what's wrong with world law?
I've been living in this neighborhood for close to 14 billion years!
And this dude still doesn't recognize me?
So ridiculous..."
Then he turned to his crystal,
"Little Crystal, how much was wasted?"
<1 million.>
"My goodness... A million?"
*Sigh*
"Forget about it.
Mr. Token, what was the deal with all that long explanation at the end?"
[ A secret guardian who started as Frontline Guardian can choose who will be under his protection.
Here, on planet Lubo, you are Frontline Guardian,
And everyone benefits from the Frontline effect 24/7,
And you can't choose who to be affected by it.
But on the Mainland, you can choose who benefits from it, and they won't know about the source of protection.
Until the day your identity is exposed,
And everyone can benefit from the Frontline effect, regardless of whether you agree or not.
However, if only one individual discovers your secret guardian title, the Frontline effect only affects that individual. ]
The little mortal nodded,
"Which means I can choose who to be under my protection, and if one person knows and tells someone else about the 'secret guardian',
They will be protected by the Frontline effect, too, until everybody finds out and the Frontline effect becomes public.
Got it.
But at the moment, the ones advancing to level 7 are already under effect like big sister,
So they don't need it...
Who else is left out there that is important?"
The puppet vibrated,
Little Mortal raised his eyebrows,
"Oh, right.
I forgot about that little canary!
And did you see it last time?
It even became smaller after it advanced!
And it can go up two more levels to reach level 10.
If it gets smaller each time, wouldn't that be funny?
Who would take such a small creature seriously?"
*BAM*
There was suddenly a smashing sound from behind.
Little Mortal was going to jump behind the backpack to hide,
But he saw that the backpack was the one that had just been hit by something, and it had been launched into the air.
Dumbfounded, he asked,
"What in the world just happened?"
All of the birth treasures were here; only the backpack was sent flying.
The punishment stick with white smoke rising from it, vibrated,
< Nothing, he went to the toilet. >
Little Mortal looked at it blankly and then scratched his head,
"I didn't know you guys needed to do that..."
The birth treasures vibrated, saying all together,
< We go once a year. >
Little Mortal nodded and noted it down in his notebook.
"Birth treasures need to go to the toilet once a year."
The birth treasures, who saw him believe their lies, sighed in relief.
The backpack, which heard him saying,
'Who would take such a small creature seriously?'
was going to say something,
But the punishment stick that received a secret message from the hourglass of time smashed it away immediately!
The other birth treasures disconnected from the universes they were connected to, so the sticl can attack with its full power!
They knew the backpack was going to say,
But we are forced to take you seriously. >
Or something similar to this.
It would surely make this little monster snap and give them a beating.
If it was before, that was fine,
But now, at whatever level he was,
That wasn't fine anymore.
What if he 'separated' them and just let them be like that?
Or condensed them into mini birth treasures matched to his own size?
Little Mortal put his notebook away and said,
"Alright now-"
*Shiver*
Mid-sentence, his body suddenly shivered like when a cold breeze passes by out of nowhere.
"What just happened?"
The guardian token answered,
[ After becoming Mainland Secret Guardian, the guardian territory connected to the remaining universes attached to the Mainland.
It includes nearly 2,000 more universes.
All the karma and fate connections have been removed from this universe we inhabit, back to the Mainland.
The 'secret guardian' effect is now fully activated, and everything in the zone is part of the Guardian territory. ]
Little Mortal was surprised,
"So sneaky?
And I leveled up 2000 more levels?
Well, that's good, let me count my level..."
At this moment,
Rose's voice sounded from afar,
"Boss, good news!"
Little Mortal turned around,
"Assistant Rose, what good news?"
"Boss, every level 6 creature on our planet just received a message.
We can host a level 8 now for every 1000 universes that are connected to the guardian territory!
And level 7 is unlocked for everyone!"
Little Mortal gasped, but then furrowed his brow,
"That's good, but we only have a bunch of first-step level 6, and 13 level 7s who just advanced...
So who can become-"
The Crystal vibrated, and a message was delivered with the familiar and entertaining voice of the first-level 7 who had advanced on Planet Lubo.
[ Hey, Little Mortal.
Are you back, boss of the secret organization?
Can you see if it's possible for a petite lady like me to advance again in your 'secret' place? ]
The Crystal just received a message and played it with her master's voice.
Little Mortal jumped up excitedly,
"Right!
Big sister!
And what good timing.
Did my fate skill trigger for her?"
And then he replied to her immediately.
After he was done, while forgetting to calculate his new level, he said,
"Okay, everyone.
We need to hurry; I need to get everything ready for our live-action movie and big sister's arrival."
Then he shouted,
"Assistant Rose!"
"Yes, boss!"
"Gather our seasoned actors from the previous 'movie' who are level 6 or close to level 6!
Little Crystal can push them all to level 6."
Rose nodded,
"Anything else?"
"Yes.
Prepare a place for our people to gather so we can watch the movie together.
We can enter the scene from there when it is our turn.
Oh, by the way,
We might have an honored guest.
She is a Queen, so we need to prepare a special place for her!
Tell big guy to take care of it."
Rose nodded and immediately left.
After the 'guests' leveled up to level 7 successfully,
The creatures around couldn't use them anymore for freeloading,
So everyone was going back to their home.
Rose needed to hurry and gather the old team before they left as well.
Little Mortal turned to the space mirror.
"Little Mirror, prepare a waiting room for our level 7 actors in that empty guy's universe."
< Okay. >
"Alright, everyone.
Now, I'm going to use my new unlocked ability that I gained access to after level 1000."
The birth treasures started retreating.
"..."
Little mortal was speechless,
"Not on you guys!
I use it to send those souls away.
You can join to watch the show."
The birth treasures sighed in relief.
"But remember one thing,
Don't make a sound when we go 'there'!"
The birth treasures became anxious again!
What did he mean by we go 'there'? Where?
"Okay, everyone.
Now here is the question.
If we are going to send some souls to their final destination, what is the best character that can do it?"
.....
The former main planet of the puppet master.
In his universe, the puppet master had no living creatures.
And this main planet was naturally the same when it was brought to planet Lubo.
It was a planet filled with different kinds of puppets,
Mostly made for 'war' purposes, or 'workers' to make them.
After the puppet master turned into a puppet himself,
All of these puppets became lifeless.
But after the souls were freed from the Soul Cube,
They all came here, and each one took over one of these puppets temporarily.
Until a while ago, when a certain soul brought the news that Guardian Mortal is letting them stay here.
While most became happy and excited after hearing it, a big number of them started fighting.
For what?
For the better and stronger puppets.
The entire place was now in chaos.
The mindset of these crazy souls was obvious.
If we are going to stay, then we should stay in the best puppet.
While some of them were worried about what that little monster would do if he saw this savagery, some others even thought they could rebel against him.
These souls didn't have a body, so they couldn't connect to the world law and see the real achievements of this monster,
And because the puppets weren't living creatures, the Frontline effect didn't show its effect on them.
So they thought it wasn't far from possible to take over this territory at least.
Even if that little monster beat them up, he couldn't kill them, because he was a newborn from an incomplete universe, and he simply couldn't kill other creatures.
While the chaos continued,
The sky suddenly turned dark.
All the quarrels paused for a moment,
And all of the puppets raised their heads.
Dark clouds covered the sky as far as their eyes could see in all directions.
*Rumble*
The sound of thunder echoed through the world, making the souls inside the puppets shiver.
Then they heard an otherworldly voice booming through the sky.
[ I am the harbinger of judgment, the blade of reckoning.
For too long, your defiance has torn the veil between life and death.
You, who have lingered where you do not belong, have denied the balance of eternity.
Now, your time has come! ]
The nonexistent hearts of the souls trembled!
Now, the gaze of every single puppet was locked onto a certain point in the sky, with a swirling vortex at its center, surrounded by clouds, from which a figure slowly emerged.
Deep red thunder crackles were dancing around the figure within the clouds.
The otherworldly sound boomed again,
[ I am Azrael, the angel of death, here to accompany you to your final destination! ]
As the newcomer introduced himself, his thousands of meters tall body came into view.
Black armor from head to toe!
Red glowing eyes!
A crown with ghastly green and ghost-like entities cycling around on his head!
A black scythe with black smoke all around it in one hand, and a book of names in the other!
With each step he took and every glance he cast with those blood-red eyes, souls in batches began leaving the puppets, flying towards the sky!
But none of the souls spoke, reacted, or begged him to release them.
Not because they didn't want to, but because they couldn't!
This entity was so terrifying and intimidating that they lost the ability to make a sound.
Outside of the puppets, nothing on this planet could detect these souls, except Mortal.
But now, another person appeared who could.
And this person was the angel of death, here to send them on their way.
They all felt helpless and powerless...
At this moment, another figure walked out of the vortex.
It was a black horse this time.
The angel of death jumped onto the back of the horse,
And raised his hand that was holding the scythe, as his voice boomed again,
[ No walls can shield you.
No cries will save you.
By decree of the eternal laws, your souls are forfeit.
Condense! ]
And this time, every single one of the souls suddenly came out of the puppets, and were pulled towards the angel of death in the sky.
The black horse slowly walked back to the vortex with the angel of death riding it, while his voice sounded on the planet Lubo for one last time!
[ Prepare yourselves, for oblivion awaits.
The reckoning begins now. ]
And the souls were all dragged to the vortex forcefully alongside the angel of death.
Shortly after their departure, the vortex closed, and the dark clouds disappeared.
No one on planet Lubo knew what had just happened.
But everyone, especially newly level 6 creatures, was sweating profusely now.
A certain Crystal displayed the event 'Live' for everyone to watch.
But no one knew what it was about, except for a few who recognized some familiar birth treasures...
....
In a dark and silent world,
A man in armor was riding his horse slowly.
Behind him, millions of phantoms, looking around in confusion and doubt, followed him.
Around them was only darkness.
And above them,
The phantoms of different creatures were moving towards a specific direction.
The black-armored man was moving in the same way as the phantoms, as if following them, in complete silence.
Time passed,
Maybe a day, perhaps a year...
Until a source of light appeared on the horizon.
As they moved towards the light,
The source was revealed.
The light was coming out of a gate.
A massive gate that you couldn't tell how big it was.
The black armored man stopped the horse.
He slowly raised his hand holding the book,
And pointed with his index finger towards the gate while looking at the phantoms behind him.
It was only now that the phantoms felt they could move freely again.
Looking at the direction he was pointing,
And the phantoms above their heads, which were traveling in the same direction and then entering the gate, all knew what he meant.
They should enter, like the rest of the souls...
So, they ... all started running in different directions!
"If we run in different directions,
He can't catch us all!"
"Run, everyone!
Run with all your might!"
"Who wants to die like this, you stupid death angel!"
The man in black armor was speechless...
"..."
He raised his hand, and all of the running souls were pulled back to him.
Then they started compressing together like a ball.
After all of them were stuffed together,
The man in black armor nodded.
Then he threw the 'soul ball' up,
Stood on the back of the horse with his back towards the gate,
And then jumped up.
When he got close to the 'soul ball',
His body tilted backward mid-air, aligning horizontally, almost parallel to the ground.
Then with a perfect 'bicycle kick', shot the soul ball inside the goal- *cough*, inside the gate.
After that, with a 180-degree rotation, he landed perfectly on the back of the horse again.
A sound of clapping echoed through this dark place.
Looking carefully, you could see some phantoms who seemed to be skilled at 'ball' games, clapping in approval for the armored man's performance.
The armored man nodded in response and then left.
....
Planet Lubo.
Silver platform.
The man in black armor riding his horse appeared.
The armor opened, and Little mortal with a group of birth treasures came out.
"And as you saw, ladies and gentlemen,
This was my new unlocked ability.
I can travel to different places without using a space passage after entering that world."
The space mirror vibrated,
< What was that place?
I couldn't find any space coordinate to mark it, so I can open a passage there! >
"I call it Dark world.
I only know the phantoms that were moving in one line, all originated from our universe, and they are souls.
Close to that big Gate, you can see more souls coming to it from different directions,
And if you go the opposite way of the path that the other group of souls is coming from, you can find different universes."
The Crystal vibrated,
< I couldn't record anything inside. >
"Well, because that world is a one-way path for souls of the dead.
I don't know where those souls go,
But you aren't supposed to come out of that world after you enter it.
The law over there for 'recording' or 'marking' doesn't exist because it's useless for the souls who enter and aren't supposed to leave ever again."
The space mirror vibrated again,
< You can go anywhere you want like this? >
"If I know the direction, yes.
For example, I don't know which way the mainland is.
So I can't go to that Dark world and just randomly move in a direction, I might end up in a random place that way.
And if I follow those souls coming from other universes, I can only appear in a random place in that universe, but close to planets with life.
But if I know the direction and the distance, it's fine.
For example,
If I am on the mainland,
I know if I go 'down', I can enter our territory in the underworld.
By the way, I can go through walls or any objects too now."
The birth treasures could only sigh.
He could go to anyone's universe through that world by following those phantoms?
And there won't be any space fluctuation either when he enters and exits?
Wasn't this a custom-made ability for an invisible troublemaker like him?
Where is the balance in this world?
Why does he keep getting more overpowered in a sneaky way?
And he used his condensed technique in a new way, too, and pulled those souls towards himself!
Doesn't that mean he can play with gravity and even souls?
How is any of this even possible?
Little mortal suddenly gasped,
"Wait a minute!
I forgot about the underworld!
Mr. Token, am I a guardian there now or not?"
The guardian token didn't respond for a while,
Then it said,
[ I did not receive any response from the underworld law.
Because of your 'secret' state, you probably need to enter the underworld and announce your 'promotion' to inform the Underworld about it. ]
Little mortal nodded,
"Alright, I'll ask 'Pat' to ask when he goes there to deliver the invitation."
All of the birth treasures vibrated at the same time,