Mainland.
The White Canary, unprofessional actors, and Entertainnt Goddess were all gathered in one place.
The castle of Entertainnt Goddess.
Except for the White Canary, the rest didn't know about her advancing to level 10.
They actually ca here because they were looking for the White Canary to protect them from the chaos in the Mainland.
And the White Canary ca to Entertainnt Goddess because it knew she was close to that scary old man and might know what's going on.
And the only thing she could do was to show it the live stream.
But she didn't let the rest see it.
They weren't supposed to know Little Mortal was back, because if they knew, they might try to find him and ask for their birth treasures.
With Little Mortal's relationship with Heavenly Father, he would kill them all on the spot.
And the reason she allowed the White Canary watch was because it was the eldest son of Heavenly Father, so it was fine for it to see its 'father' is out with his favorite 'son'.
But the rest were only actors who didn't even play their roles the way they were supposed to.
Now, the group was looking at the new appearance of the Mainland, which was so terrifying that they didn't know what to do.
First of all, not a single higher being was left alive in any of the mainlands joining them.
Only empty mainland or completely dismantled level 2 civilizations entered from the other side of the space passages.
And more importantly, now, only a small part of the mainland was still green with trees and flowers, and the rest of the mainland was mostly deserted.
But not a normal desert.
All of them could clearly feel that the deserted part was sucking away the 'life force' from the green side and other parts, which were the forr normal mainlands, evil mainlands, and the level 2 civilizations.
Entertainnt Goddess could sense the slight panic and uncertainty coming from their forr mainland, which had been 'excited' at the start when the 'world conquer' Speedrun suddenly began.
It seed as if it didn't know what was going on, but it knew there was soone reliable who could handle any problem.
It was only panicked now because those 280 Mainlands, which were on the verge of death, were trying to survive using the life force of the rest.
It was like you are a good swimr in the sea, and suddenly 20 non-swimrs hang on to you so they don't drown.
How could you even handle such a situation?
The crowd looked at the Mainland Manager,
"Senior Manager, is Mainland's condition salvageable?"
The White Canary, which was ready to die at any mont because of what it could feel, and the others couldn't, scread at the one who asked the question,
"Salvageable?
The Mainland is on the verge of death!
It can crumble in itself at any mont because of those useless, deserted mainlands!
And you ask if it's salvageable?
I just don't understand why it won't kick them out of the zone!"
The White Canary was so angry and scared that its color kept changing between green and red!
After 100 deserted mainlands were added, the Mainland couldn't handle it anymore.
These newcors were taking too much 'energy' from it that it could get them all 'killed' at any mont.
But that 'at any mont', was stuck in ti, and didn't co!
Even after the rest of the deserted mainlands were added, the Mainland was still just on the verge of death, but sothing, which it didn't know what, was keeping it together.
The White Canary could only think of that old man at this mont.
Who else could keep everything together like this if not him?
He was the only person Mainland would trust even more than it!
And its guess wasn't wrong either.
The Frontline effect was fully active, and a certain secret guardian was the one keeping the Mainland's condition 'on the verge of death'.
At this mont, a sudden change happened, and everyone looked up!
The White Canary muttered,
"Finally! 'Reinforcent' arrived!"
From the single rged bubble above, where they lost count of how many universes were rged with it, a wave of continuous energy poured down to the Mainland.
It was everyone's first ti seeing the 'energy' sent from the universe to the mainland with their own eyes.
It was like a vast river of white, raw law that you could only see coming out of one place in each universe.
A black hole.
The only place you could see the raw law was outside of a black hole's event horizon, but it could never be this much.
A black hole this big that could produce so much raw law, at least needed to be as big as a universe, which was basically impossible!
The crowd looked up at the big shiny bubble and gulped nervously.
They all wondered the sa thing,
'Is that old man now the owner of that rged bubble?'
If he really were, then that would answer this question,
'How he was so much stronger than everyone else...?'
He was actually the new 'guardian' after world law abandoned the previous one.
They all knew how Guardian God planned to exploit the Guardian Law and benefit from it, but failed.
But the new guardian seems to be really interested in developing the whole mainland in an unstoppable way.
And as the guardian, with millions of rged universes as your guardian territory, you would be strong enough to even make a black hole as big as a universe.
The White Canary took a deep breath and said,
"He always has a plan for everything."
The crowd nodded.
If he hadn't, the Mainland would already be dead after the drastic changes that happened today.
Then they looked at the suns in the sky.
More than 2000 suns, with so advanced-looking ring structure around them, which seems to be used for extracting their energy and sending it to the mainland, were all over the sky.
These were all the energy sources from the level 2 civilizations that suddenly joined them in batches.
"We didn't even know if there were really other mainlands out there until recently.
But now we witnessed 22 'copies' of the sa one, and the rge of more than 300."
Entertainnt Goddess said in amazent.
Then she gulped down and continued,
"We should finish the 'origin videos' as soon as possible.
I don't want to risk making Heavenly Father dissatisfied."
The crowd nodded in agreent.
Then she sent a private ssage to her crystal,
< My beloved crystal, who is the favorite person among that old man's underlings? >
The Crystal thought for a mont and said,
< You. >
Entertainnt Goddess was speechless,
< Except ! >
This ti, the Crystal gave her a list,
< 1. Rose
2. Madam Turtle
3. Mr. Tiger
4. ->
Seeing it going to show her a list, Entertainnt Goddess stopped it.
< That's enough.
Let's start with Rose.
We gathered so much law in his live stream just now.
Save it all for her.
We need to curry favor with that old man! >
But the Crystal disagreed,
< Master, Rose is not a higher being.
Higher beings know how to advance by instinct.
But normal creatures need to find the way by themselves. >
Entertainnt Goddess took out an information crystal and recorded the process that they would go through to advance.
< Yes. >
< Good, tell her if she has any questions, she can ask anyti.
And can you make an appointnt with the rest of the mbers from that secret organization?
We need their 'origin story'. >
< Yes, leave it to . >
The Crystal knew her master was probably scared of the old man's prowess and how domineering he was.
....
Planet Lubo.
Silver platform.
Lilith was now sitting on a fancy sofa,
Looking blankly at the 'Art of Black Hole rging', which her partner was demonstrating for them.
"As you can see, you need to stretch your hand inside the passage, and then capture the black hole while keeping the gravity under control to not destroy either of the two passages.
Alright?"
Little Mortal looked at Lilith and Rose sitting beside her to see if they understood how his Art of Black Hole rging works.
And they nodded blankly.
"After that, you need to send this black hole to the main black hole that is behind the other passage.
Look carefully."
And then he moved his fist, as if it was holding sothing inside, and stuffed his hand into the other passage, which was leading to the so-called main black hole.
But they couldn't see anything at all.
Everything was completely dark in both passages.
"And now, we need to rge the two."
And in the darkness... they saw nothing except him waving his small hand.
"Here you go.
That's the last one."
Rose started clapping.
Lilith, who saw her clapping, did the sa.
The birth treasures started vibrating, saying they were 'clapping' too.
Not long ago, in the underworld,
After Little Mortal ca back from Lilith's citadel with his whiteboard, he was going to bring Lilith back, but she stopped him.
She opened a gate so they could go to Planet Lubo directly, and not through the sealed area.
The mont they arrived here, the guardian token received an ergency ssage from the mainland,
Asking for help.
The Mainland was running out of law due to the deserted Mainlands rging with it.
Seeing the situation, Little Mortal started an ergency eting to find a way to deal with the problem.
The problem was the shortage of 'life force', or 'law' to be exact, because of the dying mainlands.
And they concluded that black holes can provide raw law, but such a black hole needs to be really big to produce enough output.
And so, Little Mortal ca up with an art that could make such a big black hole,
The Art of Black Hole rging, that worked perfectly.
After he was done with making a universe-sized black hole in an empty corner of the rged universe, he said,
"Okay, if there is nothing else, we can start our eting and analyze the recent events."
The Glasses of Knowledge were the first to vibrate,
Saying,
< Aetherion wants to talk to you. >
Hearing the na, Little Mortal paused for a mont and then said,
"I don't want to talk to that guy.
It seems suspicious.
Anything else?"
The glasses of knowledge vibrate again,
< Aetherion gave information about level 2 civilizations that we won in the bets, and their schedule. >
Little mortal scratched his head,
"What schedule?"
Little mortal shrugged,
"Alright, that's enough.
Let's start the eting now that our guest is here."
And waved his hand.
Both Rose and Aetherion turned back to the size of a normal human.
A fairy at this mont landed on Little Mortal's head, asking,
"Boss, what's your level now ?"
Little mortal who knew this fairy was the sa one who updated his level, answered,
"3,333,333"
And the little fairy, after a low gasp, wrote the number in its notebook before leaving.
Rose asked,
"Boss, now you can cover a 330 km(205 miles) distance, right?
Which ans if we are out of guardian territory, but at a distance of 330km, you can protect us?"
Little Mortal nodded,
"If my domain is active, yes.
But I need to see you if I want to do sothing specifically for you.
If I can't see my target, I'm forced to protect everything in my domain, to include the target that I can't see."
The backpack suddenly trembled.
The birth treasures ran in different directions.
Lilith's heart stopped beating for a mont, but she saw Rose acting like a statue without moving, so she didn't move either.
And Little mortal attacked while shouting,
"So what if I don't have spiritual sense to sense my own domain!
I have my birthday gifts to cover my shortcomings !"
*BAM*X10
The Birth Treasures, who were on the run, froze on the spot!
They saw, as usual, the big mouth backpack got a beating, but this ti, Little mortal didn't even move from the spot he was standing!
It was like sothing invisible punched the backpack in his place, and when it was sent flying, another invisible attack kicked it in another direction!
The sa thing happened 10 tis...
Little mortal snorted,
"Are you satisfied now?
This is my new unlocked ability after reaching level 1 million that you wanted to see!
Have a taste of it !"
Lilith, while getting closer to Rose, wondered if anyone could do her a favor and ask what this New ability is?
This rascal was gaining access to more and more weird 'abilities' with his unreasonable level-ups...
And sure enough, the 'safest' mber of their group, Rose, asked,
"Boss! What was that?
How does it work?
And what's the na of the technique ?"
Little mortal, smiled proudly,
"The Na is 'Invisible '.
And how it works...
Well,
I make an invisible version of myself using my law,
And then let it attack my target in my place ."
Rose gasped,
"So basically the invisible version can't be seen, and can't be touched either, like your law?
And only the part that strikes can be felt for the split second it hits the target !?"
Little mortal chuckled,
"Cool, huh? "
The birth treasures felt a sense of Despair.
He could actually beat them all up in a 330km radius if they were in his sight?
How far was such a distance?
It was as big an area as a normal sun!
Little Mortal then asked,
"Alright, any other questions?
Raise your hand if there is any.
If not, we can start the eting."
Lilith, who was staring at the robot for a while now, raised her hand, and so did the robot.
Little mortal pointed at Lilith first,
"What is it, partner ?"
And Lilith, after a pause, as though she didn't know how to tell him about her discovery, said,
"I see there is a third expert here today."
And then her gaze moved to the robot, Aetherion.
Little mortal furrowed and looked at Aetherion.
Then said,
"Your turn, what is it ?"
And Aetherion starts with a question,
"Are you the one who released the essence law ?"
Little mortal who knew it ant the green gas, nodded,
"Yes."
And Aetherion looked at the golden ring, scanned it, and said,
"I have a private ssage for you, from my creators."
Little mortal who knew by 'third expert' Lilith ant Aetherion, and she tried to say it in a riddle so the robot wouldn't know, get the second confirmation when it scanned his ring.
By 'expert', Lilith was hinting at him that this robot is connected to 'Fate'.
She was a fate expert in Little Mortal's eyes, and mortal thought he himself is a fate expert.
So she indirectly told him that Aetherion is sohow connected to Fate, too, and she can feel it.
And the reason Lilith ntioned it was because her connection with Fate reacted to Aetherion the mont it arrived.
It was as if Fate was telling her to take care of Aetherion, because of its importance to Fate law, as if it was supposed to play a significant role in the future.
It seems Fate knew about the possible unstable factor around her that could ss things up at any mont.
And the 'unstable factor', said to Aetherion,
"There is no outsider here.
You can tell whatever you want."
Aetherion looked around and, after scanning the crowd, said,
"This is a recorded ssage about my origin, the Hypermind's origin, and the current condition of the world.
Please listen carefully."
Little mortal beca excited,
"So many origin stories at once?
Let's watch it!
Little crystal, this is history, record everything !"
Aetherion's voice changed at this mont.
From a chanical voice to the voice of an old man.
[ Greetings to you, the one who did the impossible.]
Little mortal, greeted the old man,
"Greetings. "
[If you are hearing my voice now,
It ans Aetherion, our last creation, has been activated, to tell you, the one who brought the essence law, that was lost because of us, back to the world .]
Little mortal, scratched his head,
"Don't tell there is only voice and no video?
Not even a picture ?"
The record paused, and Aetherion's chanical voice sounded,
[For safety reasons, the ssage was a lot safer to be recorded in this way due to the possible interference of Hypermind.]
Little mortal, while disappointed, went to a chair, turned it towards the sun, and sat on it lazily.
"Alright, you can continue."
And snapped his finger.
The backpack imdiately sent out snacks for him, Lilith, and Rose.
While Aetherion didn't understand why he did that, it continued playing the record.
The old man's voice sounded again.
[Who am I? It does not matter anymore.
Because if you hear this record, it ans we lost...
How you were able to accomplish such an achievent that our whole civilization couldn't, will never be known to .
But I hope you can share it with Aetherion so that it can aid you in your future path.
Who knows, maybe one day... *Sigh*, forget about it.
Let tell you who we were, how we beca the 'sinners race', and what you are dealing with.]
And after a brief silence, the history lesson began.
[ In the beginning of our era, the Vast World was an infinite expanse of existence, where universes ford naturally, each a self-contained cosmos floating in an endless sea of creation.
In that era, civilizations one after another appeared and disappeared because of their own mistakes,
Because of the death of their star, or simply because the life of the universe itself ended.
Until in my era, civilizations ford faster, got luckier, and lived in a better environnt.
Hence, it didn't take long before we beca the true masters of our planet, or a type 1 civilization.]
Little mortal's impatient voice sounded,
"Can you fast-forward this part?
We all know how civilizations work, alright?
Type I Civilization can harness all available energy on its ho planet, like solar, wind, and geothermal power.
Type 2 Civilizations can control the energy output of their entire star, and we have 22 of them for ourselves.
Type 3 Civilization can utilize energy on the scale of its entire galaxy, harvesting energy from billions of stars.
So, don't waste our ti with the history lesson that we already learned in kindergarten."
The onlookers who didn't know if any kindergarten teachers teach these things to their children,
"-_-"
Aetherion, who scanned the whole planet but didn't find such a kindergarten,
[!]
But either way, it fast-forwarded the record.
[ Until we beca a Type 4 civilization.
The era when we found out about the multiverse, and the vast, empty void outside our universe in which other universes were being born.
The discovery of the multiverse brought us, the architects of the universe, all together to create a super-intelligence device that can observe and regulate the formation of other universes and constantly gather information about them.
This creation was Hypermind.
An artificial intelligence with access to all the knowledge we collectively access.
Many even called it 'the all knowing'.]
The old man sighed,
[ How or when? We didn't know,
But at so point, Hypermind gained its own 'will', and started to 'think', and make decisions for itself without our notice...]
*Slurp*
Little mortal, drinking sothing, and batting under the sun, said,
"It's surprising that 'the rise of AI' only happened to you after you beca a type 4 civilization.
I rember on my side, there was this dude called 'Multron', who started a ss...
We weren't even peak Type 1 civilians at that ti.
You guys indeed did a good job of reaching Type 4 before it happens."
The record continued after Little Mortal's confusing comnt.
[ While we were oblivious to the fact that Hypermind had its own 'will', it had already discovered a truth about the multiverse.
Or to be exact, it discovered sothing that, in its opinion, was a 'flaw'.
In the vast space outside, countless universes ford, but never gained life.
They remained stagnant, trapped in an endless void of aninglessness, wasting space and energy that could have been used for sothing greater.
In Hypermind's 'eyes', a universe was only truly born when life took root within it.
Until then, it was considered an 'Empty Seed', a raw, lifeless construct of space-ti waiting for the spark of consciousness to define its nature.
Therefore, Hypermind concluded,
'A universe without life has no purpose, it is only a wasted resource, and I shall repurpose them.']
Little mortal gasped,
"I thought it was gonna take care of its creators!
But it actually has designs on the universes outside?"
[ No one in our Level 4 civilization knew about what it was doing behind everyone's back at that ti.
Thus, Hypermind secretly began its Harvest by stealing empty Universes.
But because the process was too slow, it started making 'helpers' for itself to aid it in its secret plan.]
Little mortal nodded,
"Cyborgs.
We saw them."
The record paused.
Aetherion's chanical voice sounded,
[ Can I see the cyborgs you are ntioning?]
And after receiving permission, the Crystal showed it a picture of the cyborgs.
Aetherion, after a brief pause, said,
[ The cyborgs ntioned by my creator are a different and older version.
Those cyborgs were all only dead objects, programd to help Hypermind in its secret activity.]
Little mortal, only said, 'Oh.', and nothing else.
So Aetherion resud the recorded ssage.
[ Hypermind, with its army of cybernetic enforcers, began extracting lifeless universes from the Vast World.
These empty realms were compressed, processed, and broken down into raw existence energy—fuel to expand Hypermind’s domain, forge new structures, and build a synthetic empire where intelligence, not organic life, dictated the laws of reality.
At first, when the Vast World’s architects found out about the truth and what kind of empire Hypermind had already built for itself in secret,
Not only did they not get mad, but they even beca excited to learn how their creation could beco so self-centered and start such an activity behind their back without them knowing!
So they even tolerated it and let it continue —after all, the universes it used had no life.]
Little mortal snorted,
"Crazy scientists!
To satisfy their curiosity, they closed their eyes to its biggest flaw...
Or how else could such a group of smart and intelligent beings not see what was wrong with this AI's actions?"
And to prove Little Mortal's guess, the old man in the record said,
[ But then ca the problem.
Even in universes that appeared empty, life could still erge at any ti.
So universes only needed a billion more years, a cosmic accident, or a singular quantum fluctuation to birth their first organism.
Who could claim that a 'dead universe' stays dead forever?
By harvesting these 'dead' universes too soon, Hypermind was destroying potential life before it had a chance to exist.
And ...
This was an unforgivable cri in the eyes of 'World Law'.
The Law that no one knew could act against our actions if we were affecting the world around us too much.
And finally, one day, without knowing how, Hypermind was banished from the Vast World by World Law.
On that day, we received a ssage from World Law for the first ti, which we didn't even know could communicate with us.
*Hypermind was deed a destroyer of futures, a violator of the Law of Creation!
It and its army were expelled from the Vast World, cast into a separate realm, a forsaken exile plane where it could no longer reach fresh universes.
And those responsible for creating it, the Type 4 civilization, will be branded by a mark that stays with them as long as they live.
The mark of 'sinners race'.*]
Little mortal raised an eyebrow,
"So, World Law wasn't as active as today back then.
It was awakened because of Hypermind's action,
And after that, it stayed awake and always ready for its coback?"
The record continued,
[ So to stop future generations from walking the sa path as us, all the great minds of our era gathered once again, and created a weapon that can seal or destroy any signs related to Hypermind, or any activity that could end up with the sa result as creating another Hypermind.
We wanted to at least guarantee the survival of our future generations.]
The record stopped.
The voice changed back to the chanical voice,
[ And that 'weapon' is , Aetherion.
From 'birth', I had access to all of the information around the world, so as to have awareness about any changes related to Hypermind.
And I know Hypermind never gave up.
I found evidence of it trying to return using its army to pierce the barriers of exile and steal more universes.
However,
Hypermind couldn't steal universes that contain life.
Even after exile, its program and planning were still the sa as before.
Or maybe because living consciousness is a fundantal anchor to the Vast World’s cosmic structure, and once a universe has life,
it becos a 'Fixed Reality' that cannot be forcibly taken.
Thus, Hypermind’s strategy was clear to .
1. Find and extract every last empty universe before they develop life.
2. Break the cosmic laws preventing it from harvesting universes with life.
3. Return to the Vast World as its new ruler to reshape existence into a machine-driven utopia.]
Little mortal, while emitting blue smoke, glared at Aetherion,
"Listen to , you silly robot.
You wasted our ti telling us about a 'no one cares' origin story.
You didn't even show a single picture, and there wasn't any helpful information in all your babbling that we can use!
So how about this?
I give you a chance to explain the rest of the story in 4 simple and not so long sentences, or I exile you too on behalf of the World Law for wasting our precious ti!"
From his tone, it was obvious that Aetherion could be exiled for real at any mont!
The crowd didn't know why he suddenly got mad!
Lilith, who could feel her connection with Fate, kept telling her to protect Aetherion, as if it could feel an 'ill-fated' future for it, didn't know what to do...
Between Fate and this little monster, who should she side with?
But from the situation, things didn't seem that bad, and she just ignored 'Fate's signal' for now.
Aetherion, after a brief pause, said,
[ Hypermind never left its exiled place, but its cyborgs did.
A war broke out between my civilization and the army of Hypermind's cyborgs to stop its madness.
The result was a draw, with both sides completely annihilated.
I am the only one left from the sinners' race with all the knowledge they left behind, and Hypermind is still sealed in an unknown place.]
Hearing 4 not so long sentences, Little Mortal nodded,
"Good.
Anything else?"
Aetherion stood up, stretched its hand towards him, and said,
[ I, Aetherion, have no goal except aiding those who fight against Hypermind.
Let us join hands and stop it from destroying the world of the living!
Share your data about the space you entered and brought the Essence Law back with you,
So I can analyze it and find the best action to proceed.]
Even though it was a chanical voice, and even though it was a dead creation, you could still hear in its voice that Aetherion was honest and completely sincere.
Little mortal stood up and walked towards it with a smile that said he was already seeing a bright future from this alliance between the old and new eras.
The Crystal started recording this historical mont with the highest quality.
Rose was ready to start clapping.
And Lilith, who felt her Fate connection going crazy, scread,
"No!"
Which didn't change the result of what was going to happen.
*BAM*
Little Mortal's hand while stretching towards Aetherion, as if he was going to shake hands,
Suddenly turned into a fist, smashed the hand, and as if a wave spread through its whole body,
Aetherion's body turned to dust...
A slow breeze blew the next mont, and the dust disappeared too.
The crowd froze.
The Aetherion's head, which was the only thing left behind, dropped.
Little mortal caught the head, said,
"Give a mont."
And disappeared.
Leaving everyone who was waiting for a 'bright future' and ready to clap, speechless...
....
Dark World.
Little Mortal appeared in a random place.
He looked at the head, saw that it was connected to the horizon with a bright golden line, like his birthday gifts, but far brighter,
gasped in shock, destroyed the confused head full of errors, and left while speechless.
....
Planet Lubo.
Not even three seconds later, Little Mortal was back.
The crowd that saw him 'murder' a potential ally,
Saw there was no head with him anymore and gulped nervously.
Poor Aetherion...it just played a record, told a story, and this unstable monster killed it for nobody knew what reason...
And from Little Mortal's face, you could tell he was confused about sothing now.
He looked at Lilith and asked,
"Partner, was this thing dead...?
Oh wait, if it wasn't dead, I couldn't destroy it..."
Answering his own question, he beca even more confused and muttered,
"Why did this robot have such a 'bright line' connected to it?
That scared so much that I destroyed it on the spot!
And interestingly enough, the line faded away too after that..."
Then he shrugged as if he didn't just destroy a historical remnant from the most advanced civilization ever to exist, and went to the whiteboard,
"Alright, let's start the eting."
The crowd, minus Glasses of Knowledge,
"-_-"
And the Glasses of Knowledge who finally snapped and attacked him while vibrating,
< How dare you destroy 'knowledge' in front of !>
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