While Azathoth was exploring the nameless island, a rumor broke out secretly near the capital's central area:
"Sabrina Guevara was attacked by a Zerg accomplice and was seriously injured. She is in critical condition and needs emergency treatment!"
The news came suddenly, and no one knew where it came from, yet it seemed quite relevant. Those observing the important figures coming and going seemed to have a hint of worry on their faces. Furthermore, having not seen Defense Minister Antonio for several days, they also felt a certain uncertainty.
The atmosphere in the capital suddenly became tense. Rumors swirled among the public, and even the number of people going out for entertainment decreased. Rumors circulated that the military was conducting a door-to-door census purge, and even established nobles found it difficult to escape the investigation through connections. It was unclear whether the enemy's undercover agents had caught anyone, but they had uncovered many families with criminal records involving organized crime, drugs, or other serious offenses. Petty thieves were even more afraid to commit crimes outside the city, and for a time, public security in the city had improved significantly.
Another noteworthy aspect is that the Vatican was not involved at all in this purge of the capital.
Regardless of whether Sabrina is still conscious, Antonio does not seem to intend to follow her past habit of maintaining a balance and cooperating with the Holy See in all aspects and showing superficial goodwill.
But no matter what the bigwigs in the capital think, these have nothing to do with Azathoth and the current Igor. Compared with these, they are more concerned about the truth buried underground on the nameless island.
**
On the nameless island, the owner of the Little Star Food Processing Factory struggled to squeeze himself into an overly narrow armchair. He ignored the fat that overflowed from the gaps in the wooden chair back and stared at the leave application in front of him with a frown, lost in thought.
The male Beta in front of him had a strong body and had obviously endured a long period of physical labor, but now he looked a little listless for some reason. He clasped his fingers together and looked at him nervously, with faint dark circles under his eyes.
"Laurie, huh?" The boss didn't care much about the employee's name; he was just a stranger. "Are you sure you want to take this afternoon off? According to our previous contract, if you take a day off without a valid reason, you'll have one-third of your salary deducted. That's like working ten days for nothing this month, and you won't get any commission or attendance bonus. Even so, you're still asking for leave?"
"Yes, that's right." Laurie relaxed a little when he saw that his boss was not so angry. "I really can't bear it anymore. I want to rest for a while."
He swallowed and asked nervously, "You really haven't noticed anything wrong recently?"
"No." The boss was a little impatient. "Okay, if you want to take a leave, then take it. I'll ask someone to take your place."
"Wait a moment!" cried Laurie suddenly. "Who are you going to put in my place? Could it be John?"
"John?" The boss thought for a moment and asked in surprise, "The Alpha who lives next door to you? I heard you two had a bad relationship, but I didn't expect you to be so ungrateful." He thought Laurie was trying to curry favor by giving overtime pay to a colleague, so he said nonchalantly, "Okay, that's him."
As soon as he finished speaking, Laurie seemed to have heard the pardon and stumbled out of the office.
"What a weird guy..." the boss muttered, "But what does this have to do with me?"
He thought of the black-haired, blue-eyed boy who was sent from the Red Line Legion and always sat on the windowsill gazing out in a daze. He casually sighed that there were always freaks appearing in piles, and then happily began to imagine the extra income that would fall from the sky in the future.
**
The boy he was thinking about, Coffey, did not stay in the guest room as the boss had imagined.
He braved the inclement weather and ran to the food processing factory's main gate. Inside a makeshift hut that could barely accommodate two or three people, several gatekeepers shivered in the cold, their gaze fixed anxiously on the small windows, which were pounding with the patter of rain, threatening to shatter. Coffey ran steadily towards them, braving the pouring rain and howling wind. His ordinary, non-waterproof clothes clung to his skin, making him look rather disheveled.
It was not until he ran under the window that the people in the house saw his figure through the rain curtain.
A gatekeeper opened the door a crack, grabbed the door handle tightly to prevent it from being blown away by the wind, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "What are you doing here?"
Coffey blinked, shaking the rain off his eyelashes, and then he squeezed the door open and slipped in. Ignoring the surprised and confused looks of the people opposite him, he asked casually, "How do you feel?"
The security guards looked at each other, but considering his status, they didn't dare to say anything harsh. They replied in a gruff voice, "What else can we do? It's hard to see in this lousy weather."
"Really?" Coffey smiled, pointed at John accurately and asked, "You weren't supposed to be on guard today, right? What happened?"
John looked at him in astonishment, not knowing how he knew this. He was also inexplicably awed, and subconsciously replied, "Laurie, who was supposed to be at work at this time, has asked for leave."
Kofi's expression turned serious: "Do you know why he asked for leave?"
Ten minutes later, he received the information he sought. He retreated from the room, still pondering, and continued jogging through the rain. Visibility was limited in the heavy downpour, but he seemed unfazed, running until he reached the outer wall he had always seen from the gatehouse. Suddenly, he looked up, as if sensing something, and saw a black creature, slick and slippery in the rain, scurry through the brush before disappearing in a flash.
Coffey was stunned for less than half a second before he ran quickly in the other direction.
**
Igor stood in a pitch-black cave, wringing the water out of his gray hair. Hugo's eyes shone like searchlights, scanning the surroundings, making Wendy dizzy. After a moment, Azathoth patted his head impatiently, "Don't move."
The android curled his lips, dug out his two glowing eyeballs in front of Wendy's horrified gaze, and threw them over his head. The two things floated around them like floating lights.
Then Hugo, with his hollow eye sockets, turned to the little girl and smiled, saying kindly, "A multifunctional bionic eyeball that integrates a camera, analyzer, level meter, lighting tool, and more. Would you like one?"
Fortunately, although I'm afraid of ghosts, I'm not that afraid of this kind of 'bloody scene'... Wendy complained inwardly and imitated Erica's sweet smile: "No, thank you, Uncle Hugo."
“…”
After entering the cave for dozens of meters, Hugo still couldn't figure out how this cute and headless creature could become an uncle?
"But then again," Hugo said, giving up on delving into the question of human generations. He looked at the cave and sighed, "Raising pigs in a place like this isn't a bit of animal cruelty, is it?"
Isolated from the world, it’s either windy or rainy every day. People can hardly bear it. How do the pigs and chickens survive?
"Those who couldn't survive were eaten up, right?" Azathoth said nonchalantly. The tentacles he had sent out returned joyfully, and their master turned to Igor without changing his expression, "Are you cold?"
Um?
"fine."
In the dim light, Igor spotted the tentacles around him, casting terrifying shadows like seaweed on the cave walls. He couldn't figure out what was causing their activity. He didn't have any further curiosity, so he straightened his collar. The water stuck to his shirt and pants, which felt unpleasant, but bearable. The current environment clearly didn't allow them to leisurely wait for their clothes to dry before continuing. Even though they had avoided the guards and cameras, it was best to keep a low profile in their territory.
"Their focus isn't on the ruins. They probably think everything useful has been excavated. But our goal isn't the research data, but something more fundamental... Wait a minute," he paused, turning back warily, "someone's following us. Did they discover it so quickly?"
Wendy also turned around but saw nothing: "How did you notice it?"
It wasn't Igor who answered her, but Azathoth. The unfathomable evil god in the little girl's eyes withdrew his gaze from the human and said seriously, "Igor is very powerful."
Igor was taken aback by his proud tone before he smiled and said, "Just a coincidence." He didn't elaborate on how he did it, as there wasn't time for a detailed explanation. The skilled and daring team continued to advance at their normal pace, but Igor moved from the front to the back, while Hugo's eyes darted around in mid-air.
Half a minute later, the footsteps of the young human disappeared in the long Shandong tunnel.
Wendy looked up in the dim light and found that Azathoth had a smile on his face and looked very excited... He seemed indifferent to the surroundings when he bypassed the guards and came to the cave. Could it be that he became interested now because his brother finally decided to take action?
She was still thinking when she heard a loud bang behind her, followed by more and more sounds of limbs colliding and metal hitting the stone wall. At this time, Azathoth said, "You keep going, I'll go back and take a look."
He was obviously not worried at all and just went back to watch the fun.
Hugo: "Can't you see your tentacles?"
"How can they be the same..." Before he could finish his words, the figure in the black cloak disappeared from Wendy's sight.
She and the android stared at each other for a long moment, and Hugo sighed, "Did Azathoth really come here to help you solve your problem? He actually wants to go on a trip with Igor, right? Forget it, just come with me. He'll probably find us just a light bulb if we stay here anyway."
The black-haired boy pulled the gray-haired girl deeper into the earth. If you ignore Hugo's dark eye sockets and the eyeballs floating in the sky, this scene would look a bit like something described in children's adventure literature.
On the other side, Igor had already pressed Kofi to the ground, but the black-haired, blue-eyed boy rolled out from between his fingers like water and stood on the other side again.
Kofi was panting. Fighting Igor didn't seem easy for him, but the boy didn't look nervous. Instead, he looked a little curious. While Igor was frowning and thinking about a countermeasure, he asked, "Are you Igor Sullivan? Are you here for Wendy?"
"If that's the case, don't blame me for saying it directly. I think you've come to the wrong place."
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