Atop the treelines, a young lad was in deep slumber. It wouldn't be fair to entirely call him a human, but he certainly had a humanoid form. Except, he had a tail of a monkey's and pointed ears, his eyebrows were unusually thick too with bushy brown hair. He hangs upside down from a particular branch with his arms crossed and a red staff in between them.

He was shirtless but wore thick red trousers. He had a relaxed expression as if he had no care in the world around him.

Suddenly, a voice shouted out.

"Oi! You dumb monkey!" He heard it, but he couldn't care less. He continued sleeping as if not hearing anything.

"Oi! Ugong! Wake up! It's me!"

"Ugh… So noisy… who was that?" He proceeded to open just a single eye and saw a familiar face among the three figures standing from some distance away.

"Ah! Marcus?!" His face finally put up a lively expression.

"Yeah! It's me! So get down here! Don't make me pull you down!"

Ugong then athletically jumped down from the branch and landed a little bit away from them.

"What's up?" He asked them.

"Well, we need you… that's what..."

"Eh…? Me…?! For what?" He then noticed that Zero was among them.

"Oh… What is this guy doing with you?"

"A part of our group…"

"Then that other guy? I don't know his name. Is he a God-Kin too?" He pointed at Andres.

"Oh… He's our leader, Andres."

"Is he a God-Kin, though?"

The person in question then spoke calmly. "No, I'm not."

"Really? And you're the leader? These two are ok with following you?" He was dumbfounded. After all, most God-Kins are quite arrogant of their heritage, so seeing these two infamous individuals following someone who's not is quite peculiar for Ugong.

"Yeah, that's right. I also wish to recruit you, if that's not a problem for you…"

"Of course that's a problem for me! I don't want to join any group, got it?"

"Please, we really do need you. Just give us a chance..." Andres' voice was wavering and his act even sounded convincing. However, Ugong remained resolute in his refusal.

"No. First, that Namgoong guy, then you? Why does everyone want me to be part of their group? I can climb this entire tower by myself."

"Then… how about we make a bet." Andres' face turned serious.

"Fire away." Ugong waved his hand a little.

"We'll fight you. It's only fair that the three of us fight you due to the difference in power level, isn't that right?"

"Umu… right, right… Go on." Ugong caressed his chin as if thinking…

"In exchange, if we win, you'll join us. If you win, we promise to leave you alone..."

"Just leave me alone…? Well, whatever. Not like I need anything from you guys… Sigh… Penalty, here we go... Time to experience it…" Ugong shook his head. Since because of the difference in power, he will surely incur Penalty. However, Andres shut down his worries.

"No. Let's make a contract. We're fine with you not incurring Penalties."

"Eh? Wouldn't that make it even harder for you guys to beat me?"

"Yes, but at least it'll convince you far easier regarding our capabilities as allies."

Ugong then smiled. "Ah, finally… Something interesting."

The two of them then uttered together.

— "Initiate Contract."

…

After a short time, it was finished.

[Creating Contract…

Contracting Parties: Party A/Sun Ugong]

[Party A's (Andres, Zero, Marcus De Vera) Condition:

1. None.

[Sun Ugong's Condition:

1. Ugong will not incur penalty during the following battle.

[Exchanges:

1. If Ugong loses, he will join Party A's group.

2. If Party A loses, they will leave Sun Ugong alone.]

[Effective Duration: Effective Until Cancelled By Both Parties.]

[Contract Created! Equalizer Contract is now in full effect, failure to adhere to the imposed conditions will be met with DIVINE JUDGEMENT!]

"All right. All set?" Ugong said excitedly.

"Yeah. All set." Andres answered calmly.

In an instant, the four of them moved from their positions at breakneck speeds.

Whoosh—!

Ugong swung his staff towards Andres, who then caught it with both of his hands.

Clang—!

"—? Your arms…!"

"Surprised?" Andres smiled, before blasting him with an energy blast on the abdomen while pulling onto the staff to snatch it away from Ugong.

However, he instead flew together with him since the latter didn't let go of his staff. Holding onto it very firmly.

Andres continued grabbing onto the staff and before they crash onto the ground, Ugong smashed the staff down with the end where Andres was holding.

Boom—!

A cloud of dust was kicked up and Andres spat blood as the ground beneath him cracked.

"Dammit…!" He grit his teeth in pain as he let go of the staff.

"Heh!" Ugong raised his staff and tried smashing Andres with it, however, he was stopped in place.

He looked towards a certain direction with an annoyed expression. "Marcus…!"

Using the opportunity, Zero appeared from behind him, proceeding with a rear naked choke.

Andres quickly got up and formed a bony dagger on his hand, stabbing Ugong on the chest with it.

"I missed his heart!

As Andres was to try again, Ugong broke free from Marcus' telekinesis using his strength and strikes the ground with his staff.

Andres quickly hopped back but Zero remained there. Instead, he released large amounts of electricity from his body to try to deal damage, but Ugong was unfazed as he tanked the resulting shock.

The earth began to rumble as pillars of earth rose up, missing Andres but hitting Zero from behind together with Ugong and sending them flying away.

"Shit!" Zero spat blood from the impact while Ugong simply laughed.

"Haha! I almost got beaten there!"

"You crazy fucker…!" Remaining determined, Zero instead tightened his arms around Ugong's neck.

"Fuck! This guy's mana reinforcements are unreal!"

No matter how tighter he gets, Ugong was still lively, being able to afford to speak even.

They crashed on the ground and Ugong used him as a cushion for their landing, making him let go due to the sudden impact.

"Shit!" He quickly blocked with both of his arms since he had no time to roll away when Ugong stomped on him with such great force, he was buried halfway onto the ground.

"My arms… Shit!" Zero groaned in pain.

Suddenly, Andres appeared out of nowhere with one of his arms transformed into a giant blade made from flesh.

Ugong quickly blocked it but he was blasted away once again by Andres' unoccupied hand.

"Zero!" Andres quickly pulled out Zero by his feet from within the earth and quickly tossed him to Ugong.

"Go!"

Ugong assumed a stance as the electrified Zero was flying towards him.

"What are they planning…?" He thought. "Whatever, I'll just play along. It was fun anyway…"

From his assumed stance, he thrusted his staff forward to meet Zero head on. However, as they met, a forcefield appeared in between them. Bouncing his attack and throwing him off-balance, and allowing Zero to continue forward.

"Dammit…"

Zero grab hold of his neck with one hand as Andres once again suddenly appeared, arriving behind him this time.

In a split second, the three others felt an extremely huge amount of mana gathering onto Ugong's right hand.

"The hell?!" Zero exclaimed.

"Run! Two of you!" Marcus tried flinging the two of them away with his telekinesis, however, it was futile, as Ugong was able to release this gathered mana.

"One Vision…!" He uttered, before releasing it with a snap.

In that moment. Everything came to a halt. Marcus was unaffected as he was quite far, but he saw how Ugong's released mana disrupted the flow of the atmospheric mana around them, thus leading to its collapse from the point of where Ugong released it, and the two are now seemingly being stopped in time. With Ugong completely unaffected.

"What the fuck?" He exclaimed.