Courting Death System-Chapter 63: Deals

"Out of the three, you are by far, the most interesting. What was your name again... Zeus, yes, your name is Zeus."

{Who are you and how did you get into my mind?} asked Zeus. He looked middle aged with long blond hair, blue eyes and a full beard. His body was bulky and full of thick muscles. In front of him was a crystalline or more like a humanoid diamond. She had no features, just diamonds. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"I am Lumen, nice to meet you. Worry not, I’m not here to hurt you or anything but I came to give you an offer."

{An offer?}

"Yes, an offer. I want you to become my Judge."

{A Judge? How does it work?}

"Simply put, anyone who breaks the rules that I put in place, it will be you who will judge them or in other words, dole out the punishments. But there are downsides to this position too. I will strip away all of your emotions to ensure that you give out fair judgement, you won’t have friends or family and you will do everything I tell you to do. In simple terms, you will lose your freedom and become my slave until I release you from your duties."

{If I work for you, how much stronger will I become?} asked Zeus. It was like he didn’t care about being alone or losing his emotions, he just craved lower.

"Such greed for power, you’re definitely the right person for the job. No wonder Shiva and Thor don’t hold a candle to you. They simply lack the hunger to grow stronger. As a Judge, your level will be Arch Mage and before you say anything, let me clarify things for you. Those who’ve reached this level of strength can only be counted on both hands in my World, nothing more."

{I agree.}

"Great! I promise you, this is the best decision you’ve ever made. Here are the rules that I drafted up and want everyone to adhere to. Anyone who doesn’t comply, deal with them as you see fit."

...

<Jeff, there’s someone here to see you. Someone on the same level as that boy so be respectful.>

[Got it.]

"Hello Jeff, I’ve heard a lot about you. And you must be Shoppy, nice to meet you. I like what you did with the place by the way. I’m Lumen, I’m sure you already know me."

[Nice to meet you Lumen. Wait, are you... Thee Lumen?]

"Of course, don’t my appearances send the message across?"

[Of course it does, it’s an honour to finally meet you. Can I get you anything to drink? Water, juice, coffee?]

"Jeff, so the rumours about you were true. Fear the strong and bully the weak, that’s a nice trait to have, it keeps your head intact."

[Thank you for the compliment. As you know, here, I’m just a small shrimp swimming with the sharks, I do things within my capabilities.]

"Very convenient. Jeff, I didn’t come here to have small talk with you, I came to tell you that your shop has caused me a few problems and I want them solved. I’ll give you two options, work for me and keep your shop, doing business as usual. Second option, buy the space you already occupy and third, go against me and die, what will it be?"

[What do you mean by buying the space I occupy and how much will that be?]

"Exactly what I said. After you buy the space you’ve occupied, you can continue to operate your shop but under a few conditions. The cost will be half of #@@++#$#$## that you’ve collected over the years."

[Half?! But that’s too much! I worked very hard to collect this much #@@++#$#$##. The number of lives I’ve taken... and you’re telling me to give you half, that’s not an option! What if I work for you?]

"My house, my rules. And if you work for me, you get to keep everything, I’ll even help you expand but there’ll be rules and instructions that you’ll need to follow. It will be like having two Systems while also not doing anything illegal or shady, at least, not without my instructions."

[And the benefits?]

"Without my permissions, no one will cause trouble for you."

[Just protection, nothing else?]

"As I’ve said before, your shop has been causing problems for me. Oh, there’s another option that you can take. Simply leave my World and explore the Infinite Space, there’s a lot of interesting things there. Shoppy knows all about it, isn’t that so Shoppy?"

<Yes, that’s where I disposed of Yezi’s disciple after he killed him. That’s why I was shocked by his sudden return.>

[Shoppy, can we survive in the Infinite Space?]

<No, so I suggest we pick the first option.>

[Fine, I choose the first option, where do I sign?]

"Nowhere, I’ll just take your word for it. These are the rules that the Apocalypse needs to adhere to. If you don’t then I just recruited someone who’s eager to test out his powers. I’ll take my leave now, bye." Lumen then disappeared.

[Shoppy, can we really not survive in the Infinite Space?] asked Jeff.

<Jeff, let me put it this way. You Earthlings had only explored five percent of your ocean right, now take Infinite Space as Earth’s ocean. There’s stuff that lives there but no one has discovered it yet, like Void Beasts. Trust me Jeff, you don’t want to live in the Infinite Space.>

[Okay I understand. Read the rules and summarise them for me please. I didn’t think Lumen growing stronger wouldn’t bode well for me.]

<Look on the bright side, we can now expand our territory without worrying about the entities that live in Lumen.>

[I guess that’s a good thing. By the way, did you really throw that boy into Infinite Space?]

<Of course, how else could I have done as you instructed if I didn’t throw him there. That’s why I issued the mission to not mess with that boy. Who knows who or what he came across in Infinite Space. Between Lumen and him, I fear him more than I fear Lumen because if he can survive in Infinite Space, he can survive everywhere. You don’t want someone like that as you enemy.>

[If you say so.]