Cameraman Never Dies

The blue light flashed a woman into existence. She was floating in the air, pushing gravity aside like it was a child throwing a tantrum. Ah yes, magic, thought Judge, the 'hold my drink' of science in fantasy worlds. I mean, magic can really do wonders.

The deity of stories slowly descended with the same, warm smile she always had when seeing him. If Judge was honest, he found her presence very welcoming, maybe because she had the same appearance as his mother, but her smile always managed to annoy him somehow. Let's be real, who likes that constant smile? Ugh. It was like living with a motivational poster that never shuts up.

"What are you up to now?" He asked in the most annoyed tone possible. While he liked her, his distrust was still stopping him from being the nice guy. Kindness always results in others taking advantage of you, Judge knew that very well, almost too well.

Trust was the most fragile thing for Judge, and this deity—despite looking like the world's sweetest mom—was on the same level as those shady street vendors who promise the best knockoff magic potions.

Deity finally descended in front of him, "I just wanted to congratulate you on your first recruit." She clapped her hands together. "I thought I needed to explain more about the skills for you, but you are managing to figure things out."

"Figure what out?" Judge removed his mask, and he had a doubtful expression on his face. His eyebrows raised like he just heard someone say they preferred pineapple on pizza.

"Many things, well for starters" She put her index finger on her chin to make a thoughtful expression, "That the contract will only be accepted if you are capable of providing your side of the bargain." She proceeded to summon a box full of popcorn and a throne to sit on. The scene now looked like some weird reality show about an awkward debate between two monarchs. Next on 'Real Gods of Fantasy Worlds…'

"You mean I can actually provide him with power?" Judge was as surprised as a kid who found out that Santa Claus wasn't real. It wasn't a great day for him either when he found out the truth about presents.

"Huh!? Fo hiffin fou?!" (Translation: "You didn't know?!") Her mouth was stuffed with popcorn, and it was at this exact moment Judge started to wonder why he was the one being reborn to do all the serious work.

She was feeling really comfortable with her clumsy personality in front of Judge. Leaving him to wonder just how was the person who came after him as the next cameraman able to speak to her respectfully, maybe she was lying about Judge being the only one disrespectful to her.

"What do you mean I didn't know? I was planning to crush his ego completely, that was the only thing between his pride and being my underling. And I never even once thought of giving power."

The deity swallowed the popcorn. "Well, I must tell you, the only the scriptwriter contract would only work if you are able to provide what you offered. Meaning you can and will, provide Viktor Ravensworth, AKA Hawthorne with the power he needs. The time period isn't mentioned, so of course, you got a lot of time.

Judge was the type who hated info dumps, but this had the word IMPORTANT written inside two quotation marks. So obviously this was an important material (well duh!). He didn't even hear her speak Hawthorne's real name (Well he heard it but he didn't actually gave it any importance).

"So you mean, I will provide him with the power he needs eventually?"

"Last time I checked, that was exactly what I said." She was starting to piss him off. Judge couldn't shake the feeling that she was just like a mirror image of him in terms of personality. Maybe she also took on his personality just like she took his mother's form.

"So," Judge was trying his hard to ignore her nonchalant attitude, he was having the most important info dump in his life and she was just like as attentive as a toddler in a maths class.

"Are there any other things you left out?" Judge immediately regretted what he said after seeing the deity's eyes full of pity.

"Don't tell me you don't know that you can give part of your power to anyone you have had a scriptwriter contract." His surprised face was all she needed to verify that he had, indeed, no idea such a function existed. She gave a sigh mothers give when their children just made them extra work, "Let me guess. You never read the backside of the script."

"There was a backside?!" Judge was about to have an existential crisis, he felt like a defeated man. Why was he reborn anyway, to see his parents? What would his parents say if they learned that their son was a huge cosmic failure of a man? (Or child, whatever)

"Haa, that's why I told you to double check." She put her hand on her head, and gave another deep sigh. "Now LISTEN carefully, I will explain about the skills you chose. I don't want to explain this again, so don't make me repeat it."

"I am all ears."

"So first, the studio. You create a separate space on your own, everything from manipulating it, to going inside your personal studio requires ether. Another thing about studio is that you can expel anything out of the dimension that you have created inside it, but it requires a whole load of ether."

Judge thought how he had just teleported his clone outside and also teleported to it, he must have a huge reserve of ether, perks of being a dragon, he thought.

"Second would be the scriptwriter contract. What it does is that, the people who have already signed the contract will always act according to your script in a given scenario. They won't even realize they're doing it—it's all natural. Not mind control, just… plot manipulation."

Judge smirked. Okay, so I'm basically a puppet master. Nice. That was the extent of what he knew about the skill and its effects.

"There is more to it, you can actually share your thoughts, ether, and other powers through the connection between you and the contracted. Meaning you are both linked"

Judge's smirk faded. Linked? He hadn't even considered the possibility of creating a little magical Wi-Fi network with his underlings. Great. More responsibilities.

"I don't think there is a need to explain about your Enhanced Cognition, That one was actually written in bold on the front side of the scroll, and it only had one side written"

"Is that everything?" It was Judge's first time sitting through an entire load of info dumping.

"For now." She said as she finished her popcorn, "Aah I forgot to tell one thing."

"I knew it" Judge sat upright for the next infodumping.

"Its nothing much, I just really enjoyed your story about a brave man fighting the Sky Talon." She smirked, "You know, the bird you fought." She let out a huge laugh that she couldn't hold in.