"Breathe… just breathe…" Zeel comforted, patting the Jumper on the back like an old college buddy…

The jumper wheezed, but the tempo of his wheezing decreased with each new fresh breath of air…

When Zeel was sure The Jumper wouldn't keel over and die, he grabbed The Jumper by the neck and started his interrogation…

"So, let's start simple…" Zeel mentioned, and examined the Jumper from head to toe "You name is Stefan, right?"

The Jumper didn't reply; instead, his blue eyes looked confused…

Zeel thought for a couple of seconds, switching from the English of 'The Mummy' Universe, to the English of 'The Jumper' Universe…

English was usually the primary language on all Earths but switching Universes meant switching the natural frequency of everything…

Vocal cords also used frequency to emit the correct sounds…

Hence, switching Universes meant having to switch languages, even if the language was the same in another Universe…

Syllables would sound different in different Universes…

After the switch was finalized, Zeel tried to speak again "Your name is Stefan, right?" he asked, and the Jumper nodded almost desperately…

"Who are you?" Stefan questioned back, but a quick slap from Zeel silenced the man…

"You shouldn't talk… I will do the talking… I don't know if you have a type of vocal power or something so only speak when I have my guard up… okay?"

A bit of Zeel's former paranoia peeked through from his old memories, but he quickly snuffed it out the next moment…

"Okay…" Zeel seemed pleased with Stefan's nodding, and continued "So, are you super confident, Stefan? Are you a lady's man?"

It was important to establish a baseline for the truth…

Stefan's micro-expressions, his resting heart rate, and even his pheromone scent were being memorized by Zeel…

Stefan shook his head, internally wondering if he had somehow slept with Zeel's wife…

After all, when it was easy to jump halfway around the world in an instant, Stefan was bound to sleep with as many women as he had fingers and toes…

Something that he may or may not lose depending on Zeel's interrogation techniques…

"But you have your name tattooed on your neck… and your arms… you even have a name tag on your shirt…" Zeel pointed out and Stefan paled…

Zeel nodded seeing that Stefan got the message…

"Just don't lie again, okay?" Zeel explained, gently snapping one of Stefan's fingers to demonstrate what would happen if he did…

Stefan stifled a scream, just nodding his head again and again until Zeel got the impression he would never stop…

But Stefan did stop when he noticed the displeased look on Zeel's face…

"Where are you from?"

"Minnesota…"

"Is it far from here?"

"Halfway across the world…"

"Were you looking for me?"

"My team has an operation set up around here and I am the scout… meeting you here was an accident – a hide fucking accident!"

Zeel frowned, he didn't like the sound of 'team', especially when it sounded military, but then again, where there was a military, there was bound to be connections to satellites…

Even without the nanites, taking over a satellite, albeit temporarily, should not be hard…

"Do you know David and Millie Rice?" Zeel questioned, and seeing Stefan's confused stare, he continued "How about Griffin? Do you know a Griffin amongst the Jumper Society?"

"No…"

"How about me? Zeel Crawford…" Zeel asked, grasping at straws "Do you know anything about me?"

Stefan didn't answer right away, but the look of recognition that flashed through his eyes didn't escape Zeel's perception…

It was more disbelief than actual recognition, however, so Zeel knew that Stefan merely heard his name somewhere, or was confusing him for someone else…

Still, with the mention of Zeel's name, the air started to stir, and Stefan was about to risk it all at a chance for escape…

Without a hint of hesitation or reluctance, Zeel hooked his fingers into Stefan's neck and pulled…

---CRACK---

Stefan dropped to his knees, and then fell face-first into the ground – dead…

The instant after Stefan's death, Zeel felt his mind grow clearer, and the exhaustion from earlier disappeared…

"Absorbing vitality?" Zeel questioned himself, feeling his affinity with his Death Divinity growing stronger…

Almost strong enough to stop his Divine Cloud from taking a shape…

As a First Stage God, Zeel's Divine Cloud now had to take the shape of his soul, but since his soul was currently damaged, the Divine Cloud was being molded into a 4th Dimensional Shape.

But it was surprising to figure out that his Death Divinity had altered his abilities so much… basically, Divine Energy could activate his abilities, but Death Energy was what fueled them…

This would present some problems because, more than ever before, Zeel would need to kill to keep his strength at peak levels…

'A problem for another day…'

"You have been watching for a while now… how about you come out before I go get you?" Zeel questioned, seemingly to thin air, but space quivered and someone appeared the next moment…

"And who might you be?" Zeel questioned…

The new Jumper took a couple of steps back, clearly ready to bolt at the first show of hostility, but with Zeel's increased strength, the New Jumper would not make it far…

And he seemed to sense that…

"Are you hunting us too?" The New Jumper inquired…

"Hunting?"

"Jumpers that help the Government hunt the rest of us down…"

"That sounds like you're implying they're a lot of you Jumpers around?"

"Enough…"

"More than ten thousand?" Zeel questioned, brows furrowed…

Ten thousand was the number of Jumpers in David's Universe, and they were born from the dispersal and mutation of Hermes' Divine Core, but things could be different in this Universe…

"Way more…"

Zeel sighed "And what's the size of the world's population?"

The New Jumper looked confused at the question, but answered the inquiry nonetheless "I would say about eight billion, maybe a little more…"

"So, less than one percent of the population are Jumpers, huh?" Zeel murmured to himself, but knew that was still around eighty million Jumpers worldwide…

From that little information, he could conclude a rough structure of the world…

"Okay, you can go… I won't kill you…" Zeel waved his hands dismissively, and just as the New Jumper was about to leave, Zeel stopped him "Just pass me the device in your pocket… you took it from this dead guy, right?" Zeel pointed at Stefan's corpse on the ground…

The New Jumper stopped, and seemed hesitant…

Zeel could tell he was wondering if he could make an escape, but it was too late for escape, so Zeel hoped the man would make the right decision…

"I can give you this if you give me some guarantees…" The New Jumper hesitantly mentioned, and Zeel instantly favored him more…

It was not a Homo-Superior's nature to take things for free – a price always had to be paid, and Zeel preferred to pay that price upfront…

Zeel smirked, feeling something stir in his Divine Core "Are you saying you want to make a deal with me?" he questioned, already confirming his next experiment…

When promoted to a 1st Stage God, Godhood now has the ability to make deals with two people, and Zeel wanted to see what benefits it could bring…

"A deal?" The New Jumper was unwilling but ultimately nodded "Sure… a deal…"

"State your conditions…" Zeel said with narrowed eyes, a mystical persuasion in his Godly Voice…

The New Jumper explained his hidden desires in a trance "If I give you this phone and I am killed by a Hunter someday… I just want you to look after my child… make sure he gets into a good school and such… a small favor…"

"State your name…"

"Dominic… Dominic Baptiste…" The New Jumper replied, tossing over the phone he had snatched from Stefan almost mechanically…

"Confirmed…" Zeel whispered, feeling some of his energy departing his body and being imbued into Dominic…

Dominic's eyes opened wide, but the next moment, the air shimmered and he was gone… it would take some time to control whatever power he got from Zeel…

Zeel caught the phone in one hand, and in the other hand, he held a flimsy contract that seemed as if it could be reduced to ashes by the wind alone…

This was his first deal as a God, and it felt like a sort of milestone achievement…

The contract dispersed into the wind, but Zeel knew that he could re-summon the contract with a snap of his fingers…

"Guess we'll see what happens…" Zeel murmured, and then turned his attention to the phone "It's a good thing I prefer technology to humans…."

To a Homo-Superior, they could get more information from technology than they could ever get from a simple human…

Daybreak came a couple of hours later, and Zeel was still browsing information from the phone…

It took him some simple coding to root the phone, disabling all outside interference with the device…

Next, Zeel read the Terms and Agreements contract…

This was something humans would rarely take the time to read, but it held a wealth of information for someone like Zeel…

With the rising sun, Zeel started his journey once more, only this time, he had a wonderful companion – a smartphone…

It also helped that walking could serve to enhance the signal on the phone…

At the moment, the signal bars were empty, showing a lack of any transmissions, but Zeel remained hopeful…

All he needed was access to a Cell Tower, and he could work his way up to a satellite…

A public one that nobody would notice was missing…