“Oh my potato chippy goodness,” Karta said, staring at her back account with wide eyes. Sixty million heaven-grade spirit stones. Primordial gods were filthy rich! She had read that one percent of all the gods held fifty percent of all the wealth, but the reality of it only hit her just now. Sixty million heaven-grade spirit stones! Most gods struggled just to become millionaires! Karta swallowed and turned her head, staring at the old man who filled her bank account. Perhaps she should treat him nicer. Only idiots would kill the golden-egg-laying goose. “Are you hungry? Thirsty? Do you want me to get you anything?”

Vremya shifted to the end of the couch, glaring at Karta with a wary expression. “Stinky dog, what are you trying to do?” He closed down his banking app, thinking it’d hide his money from the greedy dog. If greedy weren’t an apt description for Karta, then no other adjective could do her personality justice.

Karta’s eye twitched, and she let out a growl. “I’m just trying to be nice!”

“Vremya, do you remember me?”

“Vremya, the council of primordial gods wish to send you an invitation.”

“Vremya, are you selling any time-accelerated rooms?”

“Vremya!!! Let me in!!!”

Vremya exhaled and turned his attention outside. After taking their money, it wouldn’t feel right to completely ignore the gods who came to pay him a visit. At the same time, he didn’t want to let them in. If he opened up the barrier, Kosmos would be the first individual inside, and there was no way in hell he was going to meet with her. Sure, they had fused once and combined their powers. Sure, they escaped a sure-death situation and slew an uncountable number of creatures of darkness. Sure, perhaps their fusion resulted in the strongest entity to ever exist. But! It was uncomfortable sharing a body with someone else.

Karta’s eyes lit up, and she patted Vremya’s leg. “Old man, you’ve been asleep for too long,” the Labrador retriever said. “You have no idea how to deal with social norms nowadays. Let me help you out.”

Vremya tilted his head. He Poiskled the current social norms. Just because he hadn’t had to use the information he gathered, it didn’t mean he couldn’t. However, the stinky dog seemed like a social creature, and she seemed to feel indebted to him. He could let her help him out.

A giant projection of Karta’s head appeared above the house, facing the gods stuck outside the barrier. “Listen up! The god of time is a very busy person,” Karta said. “If you want to meet with him, you have to make it worth his time. He’ll meet with one person a day—the sincerest one—and I believe all of you know the best way to show your sincerity. We’ll start at ten million heaven-grade spirit stones.”

Vremya’s eye twitched. Indebted his ass, the stinky dog just wanted to make more money. Was she really the god of potato chips? Perhaps she was the god of extortion in disguise. Then again, although Vremya called her a stinky dog, he didn’t really despise her. He knew the hardships she had to go through being such a powerless, weird, stinky thing with fur all over her body. Making money was difficult for her, so she had to use some unconventional methods. Who was he to judge her for that?

“A billion heaven-grade spirit stones!”

Karta turned her head. “Are you sure you don’t want Kosmos to come in?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Vremya snorted. “Even if she offers me all the spirit stones in the world, I won’t talk to her!”

“Why do you hate her so much?” Karta asked, tilting her head. “And why is she so obsessed with you?”

“I don’t hate her,” Vremya said. “I just don’t want anything to do with her. As for why she’s obsessed with me….” Vremya sighed. “Time and space are very powerful by themselves, but when they’re together, they’re unstoppable. Nothing can match up to their combined force. Kosmos got a taste of that power and became addicted to it. It affected her very being, and she finds it hard to live without it.”

Karta blinked. “And it doesn’t affect you?”

“My self-control is much stronger than hers,” Vremya said. “Power is nice and all, but I very much prefer living a simple life.”

“A trillion heaven-grade spirit stones! Vremya! Is that not enough? I’ll give you everything I have!”

Karta gulped. Everything that the god of space had…. Every god used her portal transportation system, and it wasn’t cheap! Kosmos was definitely one of the richer gods out there. Her wealth might’ve been just a little bit behind the god of automation. However, Karta knew the money was tainted. If she took it, Vremya would ditch her in a heartbeat. The giant dog head outside frowned. “Vremya will not meet with Kosmos no matter the circumstance. The rest of you can continue showing your sincerity.”

Vremya sighed and shook his head. There was something he hadn’t told Karta. It wasn’t as easy as he made it seem to give up that kind of power. However, power always came at a cost, and he wasn’t willing to pay the price. Vremya leaned back and stared at his display. The world now was so peaceful. Gods were aplenty, and the creatures of darkness weren’t able to do anything to harm society.

“No higher bids? Alright.” Karta patted Vremya’s display, and the messenger app appeared. She shifted her eyes to glance at Vremya. “Dvizhen wants to talk with you. Do you know him?”

“Dvizhen…,” Vremya said, his eyes narrowing. He scrunched up his forehead. He had heard that name before way back when. “The god of motion?”

“Yep,” Karta said, bobbing her head up and down. Her eyes lit up. “If you don’t want to talk to him, I can impersonate you.”

“Tempting, but I’m the god of time, not the god of scams,” Vremya said. He sat up and pressed on the display, activating the video call function. “This is Vremya.”

A hologram of Dvizhen appeared in the display. The god of motion looked like a small boy covered in a coat of silver paint. He was wearing a bear onesie with trains painted on it. Dvizhen nodded at Vremya. “As a representative of the council of primordial gods, I formally invite you, the god of time, to join the council. As a member of the council, you”—

“I decline.”

—“will have to…. Pardon?” Dvizhen froze. “You decline?”

“That’s right,” Vremya said. “I’m not joining your council.”

“You can’t decline,” Dvizhen said, his forehead scrunching up. “All the primordial gods are part of the council. To have”—

“Exactly,” Vremya said, interrupting the kid once more. “Kosmos is on the council. She and I cannot coexist with one another.”

“Vremya!!! Why do you hate me!? Let me in!!!”

Dvizhen put a hand on his forehead and groaned. “Look, primordial gods are too powerful, and society will collapse if they aren’t under supervision. If you don’t join the council of primordial gods, your future doesn’t look too bright.”

Vremya sneered. “Are you threatening me?” he asked. “Just because there’s a law about it, you really think I can’t hurt you?”

Dvizhen narrowed his eyes. “I was one of the original creators of that law,” he said. “No one has ever found a way around it. If you really can harm me, let me see.”

“You asked for it,” Vremya said and sighed. He stared right at Dvizhen using his vision from the barrier surrounding his floating world. Vremya deliberately raised both his hands and slowly clapped them together. Dvizhen vanished.

Karta’s mouth dropped open. “Old man! You said you wouldn’t beam me into the future anymore!”

Vremya rolled his eyes. “I didn’t send us into the future,” he said. “I sent him.”

“Huh?” Karta blinked. “How far did you send him?”

“Five hundred thousand years.” Vremya snorted. “Let’s see who else wants to threaten my peaceful existence.”

Karta stared at Vremya. “And why didn’t you send her?” she asked, pointing towards the ceiling. Although Vremya couldn’t see who the dog was pointing at, it was pretty obvious she was referring to Kosmos.

“I have nothing against her,” Vremya said. “Just because I never want to see her doesn’t mean I’ll make her lose all her users. That’s just mean.”

“But Dvizhen…?”

“He threatened me. You heard him.”