Mainland.
Natural ground.
It didn't matter how long Entertainment Goddess waited there; the God of Contract didn't come out.
And because of 'privacy', no one could pry into the contract room.
While puzzled, she suddenly felt a bunch of angry Higher beings were coming this way.
She furrowed and tried to see if she could tell who they were.
Her law, the Law of Entertainment, was the best at feeling the changes of emotions in any creature.
At this moment, she could feel anger, confusion, betrayal, and doubt emanating from these sources of emotion.
There was even another one far away that seemed to be a god from the older generation...
After a while, her eyebrows raised in surprise.
She felt angry puppets were coming this way from all directions too.
It didn't take long for her to figure out who these angry creatures were.
They were the group of gods who had just left,
Minus the unknown lady and a certain sadistic woman, the Goddess of Punishment!
She knew well that the combination of this violent lady and many angry, confused, and doubtful Higher beings meant one thing!
Fight!
A big fight!
But then again, with her here, they would never fight...
She thought for a moment, and her eyes suddenly lit up!
She turned around and shouted,
"Little mortal, wake up!"
Wasn't one of the best hide-and-seek players in the multiverse, if not the best, just behind her?
Little mortal, with a sleepy face, woke up and sat on the bed, looking around in puzzlement.
As if he was sleeping here the whole time and didn't go around kidnapping kids and collecting gifts.
Entertainment Goddess shook him,
"Get yourself together and listen to me carefully!"
Little mortal stood up hastily and, with a military salute, said,
"Sir, yes, sir!"
Entertainment Goddess nodded,
"Good!
Little mortal, I have a mission for you!"
"I am at your service, Commander Big Sister!"
Seeing him like this, she played along too,
"Listen to me, soldier, can you hide my crystal with you like the way you hide yourself?"
Little mortal shouted,
"Affirmative!"
"Alright then, here is your mission!
I want you to hide here and record everything that is going to happen with my main crystal!
But run away if things get dangerous.
Alright?"
"Sir, yes, sir!"
Entertainment Goddess, while chuckling, patted his head and left after giving him her crystal.
Little mortal, seeing her leave, took out the small container with the black liquid inside.
The crystal became excited and turned small!
It was time to become 100% invisible!
...
Natural ground.
On this day, the contract room, for the first time after being built, was destroyed.
An apocalyptic scene took place after that.
Higher beings rushed over from all directions to watch the show.
And they weren't disappointed.
Meteors and icebergs fell from the sky,
Oceans and jungles rose from the ground,
One hundred-meter-tall stone giants' roar shook the heaven and earth,
Natural disasters like hurricanes and volcanoes erupted,
All kinds of puppets using different laws got crushed,
And in the end, everyone cried in pain while being beaten up.
Why did they cry?
Because a certain Goddess of Punishment, while shouting,
"Which one of you was it?"
Whipped them all...
In front of an old goddess, with such a vast accumulation of law,
They could just raise their butt to get whipped.
When it comes to the strength of higher beings, the older you are and the more unique your law is, the stronger you are.
The fight of misunderstanding, doubt, and betrayal escalated so much that a certain God of Judgment was forced to descend and stop the madness.
"Stop!"
An old man, in a gold garment, stern but compassionate, with sharp features that convey authority and balance, and long white hair, appeared above in the sky.
A halo of a scale was above his head.
The whole crowd calmed down the moment he said 'stop'.
It wasn't like an order, but more like a request from a higher authority.
They could decline, but it would be future troubles if they didn't listen.
He was the God of Judgment, the man who represents law and order in the Mainland, with the birth treasure that was connected to the world law directly.
The judge hammer.
Disobeying him meant going against the Mainland itself.
Not long after his arrival,
The old man gathered the angry crowd and started a trial on the spot to investigate why they destroyed the contract room and fought with such intensity.
It wasn't long ago that another mess like this, but worse, happened in the Mainland.
It was worse because the fighters were mostly from the older generation of higher beings.
But because the entertainment goddess showed up, the fight didn't escalate much.
After asking some questions, none of them said anything about their missing birth treasure, and only pointed out the matters related to the kidnapped newborns.
And due to world law interference, nobody noticed the missing birth treasures of the others, nor the peculiarities of their own situation, as they devised all kinds of 'valid' reasons in their minds to conceal the matter of their own missing treasure.
After a while, God of Judgment understood why they looked for the God of Contract.
They wanted to ask what happened to their contracts and why none of the newborns were registered or signed their contracts.
However, when they came here, he didn't come out of the contract room; that's why they tried to force him out.
But he was nowhere to be found...
God of Judgment was speechless.
How could such a mess happen under their nose?
Six newborns were kidnapped, and a god is missing?
How are they so useless...
But the world law interfered again, and even he didn't think of why they attacked each other after not finding the greedy old man?
If you had a problem with the God of Contract, why would you attack each other?
None of them knew the reason was that it was something related to the bet with Little Mortal.
The world law was activated fully at this moment to keep the mysterious bet going as it should, based on its hidden rules.
The God of Judgment thought for a moment and then called for a certain lady to join them.
"Space Goddess, please come over for a moment."
He knew that for such a thing to happen, and these not-so-weak gods to be helpless, there might be gods far stronger than them involved.
Not long after, a passage opened, and a lady in a black dress, adorned with moving galaxies, stars, and planets, walked out.
The crowd knew for sure why 'Space Goddess' was called over.
None of this would have been possible without her support.
How else could someone appear and disappear if not through space passages?
Here in the Mainland, she was the only one with advanced space law who could open passages.
No one else could.
And what was unique about her passages was their invisible state, created by her birth treasure, the Space Mirror.
No one could sense a passage was opened through her birth treasure until someone or something came out of it.
But because she was an old generation goddess, no one would dare to question her for selling her 'space services' to others.
And who in the Mainland wouldn't need her help for 'fast travel' at some point?
But it was different for the God of Judgment.
He had just called her over because he was representing the law of the Mainland, and everyone should cooperate with him when it came to Mainland law.
But to everyone's surprise, when she was asked about this matter,
While she herself became surprised after hearing about this news, she swore by the world law that she wasn't the one helping the culprit.
And now, she, too, was trying to figure out who was behind the kidnapping.
Not because she was worried about the newborns,
But because everything was pointing to her birth treasure's involvement!
The Space Mirror, which she lost some time ago!
At this moment, God of Judgment remembered something and asked,
"Where is the little girl who records everything?
Entertainment Goddess."
That was indeed a good question.
Why wasn't that entertainment girl here like always?
It was only now that many gods understood a fact.
Entertainment Goddess was actually like a peacemaker for the Mainland!
If she were here, would they act crazy like this?
Never.
Many higher beings who gathered here to watch the show went to her channel and smashed the 'law button' and 'subscribe button' while asking in the comment section,
Something big happened!>
The crowd involved in the fight was confused, too; such an opportunity was rare, and she missed it?
And her answer to the comments was,
Everyone became puzzled...
Those who were in the fight were stunned and baffled!
If she really recorded it, doesn't that mean she can already use their law as effectively as they can?
And sure enough, the record of the apocalyptic fight was uploaded, and started playing above her castle so everyone could watch it on their child crystal.
The one recording the 'battle royale' seemed to be a short 'cameraman' though.
They could even hear him shouting in panic,
"Oh no, I'm drowning!"
"Beautiful lady, help!
A big rock is falling from the sky!"
"Oh no, moving puppets!"
"Gasp, such a scary big sister!
Spanking everyone!"
The crowd being displayed in the video,
"O_O"
They knew who the cameraman was.
And those who saw the boring live broadcast of the newborn's ceremony knew who the cameraman was, too.
Probably the only newborn who wasn't kidnapped.
Not because the culprit didn't want him,
but because they didn't find him...
God of Judgment looked at the crow in confusion.
He didn't know about Little Mortal until the others told him about it.
The old man was speechless...
Was there such a newborn around?
He could only shake his head and ask Entertainment Goddess to come over, too.
A while later, she arrived.
God of Judgment waved at her,
"Entertainment Goddess, come here and join us."
She came to the old man's side and said respectfully,
"Greetings, God of Judgment."
He nodded,
"Can you show us the records of the ceremony?
I know you stayed here, so you should at least know what happened to the God of Contract?"
She nodded and looked around.
As if she were looking for something.
They knew she was looking for her 'cameraman', because her birth treasure was with him.
If she recorded you with her main birth treasure, then she can use your law technique as well as you.
But if it's recorded with a child crystal, then she couldn't.
However, it didn't matter where she looked,
She couldn't find him...
While speechless, she took out another crystal, and a scene appeared for everyone to see.
On the screen, there was their group.
They were being recorded from a not-so-far distance.
The crowd didn't know what to say anymore.
He was still recording them?
So invested in his job?
And he wasn't even far away, but close to them.
Then they all turned in the direction from which they were being recorded live.
And sure enough, a dirty little kid was sitting there, with a small grape-sized crystal in hand.
Even the three higher beings with the most seniority were baffled by the fact that they couldn't feel him even just a couple of steps away...
Entertainment Goddess shook her head,
"Little mortal, stop recording!"
But he didn't react.
Entertainment Goddess gritted her teeth,
"Soldier, good job.
Your mission is accomplished."
Little mortal put the crystal away, while secretly cleaning the black liquid from it, and ran to them.
While running, he even fell to the ground once.
The amount of embarrassment for these people who he filmed was immeasurable now.
Entertainment Goddess stretched her hand,
"Give me the crystal, soldier."
Little mortal, after a military salute, gave her the crystal,
"Sir, yes, sir!"
And she took her crystal back.
God of Judgment looked at her with questioning eyes.
She understood the meaning and said,
"I don't know what exactly happened to his incomplete universe, but after coming to the mainland, his memories are in a mess, as if it is mixed with the creatures he saw or had interacted with in the past."
The old man nodded.
It wasn't the first time he saw a broken newborn.
Incomplete Higher Beings from incomplete universes were mostly problematic because of what they needed to do to be reborn.
But not many Higher beings knew or cared about it.
"It seems you have a lot of trust in him to leave your birth treasure in his hand."
Entertainment Goddess nodded,
"Yes, I made a deal with him in the past.
He can't harm me in any way."
The moment she answered.
Everyone's eyes widened, and they all made the same sound,
"Eh?"
Even herself.
She was shocked because world law just forced her to tell the truth.
The rest were shocked because deals between gods were personal; you weren't supposed to say it,
Especially such an important part of it!
But the God of Judgment was surprised for a second time, because he received a message from world law.
He then chuckled and said,
"Interesting, world law just forced you to tell the truth?
It means even telling the truth about things related to him was part of your deal with him?"
Entertainment Goddess smiled on the surface to hide her shock,
"As expected of you, God of Judgment.
You are indeed the person closest to world law."
The rest were dumbfounded now...
Why would she make such a deal with a lawless Higher Being?
God of Judgment rubbed his chin and suddenly waved his hand towards Little mortal.
Entertainment Goddess furrowed, but didn't say or do anything.
Little mortal looked up, saw a scale appear above his head, and tried to catch it.
But his hand passed through it!
This was a divine technique called 'Judgment by Sin'.
If some people from a certain planet saw it, they might mistake it for the fake one Little Mortal was showing in his ceremony.
That version was a lot cooler, though.
The crowd knew why God of Judgment suddenly used his divine technique on him.
This little boy was really suspicious.
He could completely turn invisible; he had a deal with the Entertainment Goddess and world law as witnesses, and now there were missing newborns.
More importantly, God of judgment's birth treasure was missing too.
Kidnapping and stealing were sins.
So if he was involved, then he was a sinner, and the scale would show it.
But the scale didn't move at all.
He had no sin in this life.
God of Nature snorted,
"Senior, how about you scale his sin before his arrival?"
But he shook his head,
"That has nothing to do with this matter."
Then he turned to Entertainment Goddess, who seemed to be deep in thought,
"Entertainment Goddess, show us your records, please."
She nodded and showed them the record of the ceremony while puzzled as to why Little Mortal didn't have any good or bad karma.
The crowd here didn't know, but she knew well he had lots of fun on a certain planet before coming here, and he should have some good karma at least because he was a newborn...
The God of Judgment and the rest, after watching the record of the ceremony, were even more puzzled.
Nothing special happened.
The only thing abnormal was again Little Mortal, who could disappear all of a sudden and reappear somewhere else, walking around without any care for the world around him.
Even after being frozen in his first match, he disappeared again and then reappeared at another location, with one leg and one hand still frozen, as he struggled to free himself.
Then, after everyone left with the newborns, the little boy appeared again and slept on a bed from then on.
God of Judgment looked at him more deeply and furrowed his brow,
"Why don't I feel any law from him?"
Ice God snorted and said in a mocking tone,
"He is lawless."
Nature God chuckled,
"He was always like this."
The rest of them looked at him with some resentment.
God of Judgment was confused by their comments,
"Why do I feel you five already know him?"
They were going to answer,
But before any of them could speak,
Little Mortal shouted while pointing at them,
"Your honor!
They bullied me!
Where is justice? Where is Law?
Let's start the trial right here and right now!"
A certain Space Goddess almost burst into laughter when she heard him calling God of Judgment 'your honor'.
God of Judgment could only pretend not to hear it,
"What did you do to him?"
The crowd looked at each other and didn't know how to answer.
Sea Goddess said,
"It is related to Prophecy God.
We just helped him with something.
But it wasn't on the mainland."
God of Judgment raised an eyebrow.
"Alright, forget about that.
If it wasn't here, it has nothing to do with me.
Let's get back to the main topic.
Our only lead now is the God of Contract.
So let me summon him."
Then he closed his eyes and said,
"I, God of Judgment, summon the God's Ranking."
And then a stone pillar, with a list of names on it,
Fell from the sky.
BAM!
The crowd didn't care, but they heard someone gasp.
They already knew who it was.
But when they looked over, he had already disappeared again...
Entertainment Goddess coughed and said,
"I think the pillar scared him."
God of Judgment shook his head and began searching the list of names, simultaneously trying to find the little boy who had just disappeared, which he naturally couldn't.
This stone pillar that scared him away was called the God's Ranking List.
Gods were listed on it by their amount of law and power.
More than 6 thousand names were on it.
But not all of them were Higher Beings with a universe; the newborns were included in it after abandoning their incomplete universe and registering their names.
From the number of names that were more than the bubbles in the sky, you could tell how many newborns without a universe were on the list.
God of Judgment whispered,
"I, God of Judgment, summon the God of Contract to be present here for testimony."
It was one of the uses of the God's Ranking pillar given to the God of Judgment.
He could summon anyone who was on the mainland for testimony if it was necessary.
Another use was for Higher Beings to challenge each other if something serious happened between them.
If they won the challenge, they would win part of their opponent's law, and vice versa.
On the pillar,
The long list of names stopped at a name.
[God of Contract]
But when the crowd saw the name, which wasn't shining like the rest, and instead it was gray,
They 'gasped'!
If a name was gray, it means the owner of the name was a dead higher being with a complete universe.
Because if a Higher Being had a universe, then he or she could resurrect there if they died, like the God of Contract now, who was in the middle of his resurrection at this moment.
But if it were a newborn, then the name would disappear from the list, because they didn't have a universe to be resurrected in.
God of Judgment took a deep breath and said,
"Let's wait for him to resurrect."
The Puppet Master spoke suddenly,
"The Prophecy God asked us to take all the newborns and provide them with 'shelter'.
He himself didn't come, but someone related to him was here."
God of Judgment furrowed his brow and nodded,
"I'll talk to him about it.
Anything else?"
Nature God asked,
"Can't we ask the Goddess of Time to join us and reverse the time inside the contract room?"
God of Judgment shook his head,
"The contract room was jointly made by many of us to stop any kind of prying, including her law of time."
God of Meteorite scratched his head while saying,
"Can't we look for the newborns' names in the pillar?
Maybe they registered their names."
God of Judgment nodded,
"Let me see."
Then he started searching.
But he didn't find any of them, until he reached the last name at the bottom of the list...
[Mortal - 0 law]
Seeing the name,
He left without saying anything else.
That number '0' made his eyes hurt...
The speechless crowd knew why he didn't investigate further.
If there was no name, and even a god was killed here, silently, without anyone noticing, it was basically impossible to find the culprit by normal means.
They could wait for the God of Contract to come back to life and ask him directly about it.
It was easy for the God of Contract to find the culprit from the law that was used to kill him.
Like the crowd here, who could guess exactly the law that attacked them originated from the birth treasures of the higher beings they knew.
But the world law didn't allow them to mention anything related to birth treasures because of the secret bet.
And just like that, they face another unsolved mystery that they couldn't talk to anyone about.
They even thought that if others found out they didn't have a birth treasure, they might challenge them immediately.
Because a birth treasure wasn't just a normal treasure.
It could accumulate law, contain it, or share it.
It could even provide them with unique abilities, talents, or characteristics.
It had many benefits, which, while always weaker than them, it was the most compatible tool for them and their main law to use...