"You know nothing about treatment!"
The android terminal spouted foul language: "You two stand still here. I'm going in to find a bed and bandages. This is so annoying! If you had just listened to me and killed this human earlier, there wouldn't be so much trouble."
Cursing, it directed its paralyzed companions into the building to search for healing tools. Azathoth, having almost carelessly sent his newly acquired followers to their doom, now reflected bitterly on his actions and spontaneously explained to Igor, "Ignore it. Hugo has always hated humans."
Hugo is the leader of all the androids who are still "living" on this long-abandoned planet.
Strictly speaking, the huge group of bionic people is only equivalent to Hugo's extended "limbs". The brain they share that can think and communicate independently is the robot AI in front of Azathoth, which is at least three hundred years old.
I think back to when Azathoth had just opened his eyes, he was as excited and thrilled as Columbus who had discovered the New World, stepping onto the first piece of land he could touch after heading north from the Antarctic ice sea.
Azathoth, then a novice player in the massively realistic online game "Planet Online," happily arrived at the deserted city and stood in the gray wilderness. To better fit in, he even took the trouble to hide his true form and assume human form. However, just as he opened his arms to the gray-blue sky, wanting to imitate James Cameron's "I am the king of the world!"—
Suddenly, an arm emerged from the snow and grabbed his ankle. The tattered robot skull leaked air, and it tilted its head and smiled at Azathoth with real teeth.
Azathoth: “…”
This was the first meeting between the tentacle monster sleeping in the deep sea and the bionic man Hugo.
As for what kind of inhumane persecution the socially anxious and frightened evil god committed against the bionic group at that moment, that is another matter.
As Azathoth had just said, although Hugo was a man-made creature, he truly hated humans. But before this, he had no chance to express his disgust. It was not until Igor Sullivan controlled the mecha and plunged it onto the coastline that the android finally rubbed his hands, ready to show off his talent for bullying humans.
However, he died before he could accomplish his mission, and the bud of revenge in his cradle was crushed by Azathoth.
For a moment, Igor didn't know whether he should follow the rules and express his gratitude first, or ask questions like "Where are you and what do you want to do?"
His thoughts were fuzzy, and what usually took him a second to process now took him over half a minute. Azathoth's words swirled around in his head for a long time before he connected the name 'Hugo' to the head that had just drifted into the building. His words were stuck in his throat, unable to come out, and he could only sulk to himself: If I don't start a conversation soon, the atmosphere will become as cold as the surface of this planet!
Everything else is secondary. What if someone suddenly feels that a taciturn follower is not to their liking and is ready to kill him in the middle of treatment?
He racked his brains to think of the right words in the dizziness, but he didn't know that Azathoth's favorability towards him was increasing rapidly, and the more he looked at him, the more satisfied he was.
How great!
This guy doesn't even like to talk! How lucky is it that the only person I've met isn't a social person!
Azathoth, who was worried that he would not be able to answer the endless questions from his believers, but couldn't help but respond, finally felt relieved.
After the bionic people carried the simple medical facilities to the first floor, Hugo radiated a light screen from his eyes in front of Azathoth and Igor, which displayed the answer given by a human doctor on a strange search engine on a certain day in a certain year to the question "What should I do if I accidentally cut my leg with a knife?"
"The first step is to clean the wound, but we don't have saline solution here, so this pass, the next step..."
Igor's eyes were dull, and he felt for the umpteenth time that he would die here today.
Hugo: "What else can I do? I'm a mechanical expert, not a human doctor!"
Igor said as politely as he could: "I can do it myself."
He took the gauze bandage from the bionic man, which had been in the sterilizer for who knows how many years, and skillfully wrapped it around himself to stop the bleeding.
Hugo watched his movements from the side, his eyes flashing with data streams. He suddenly spoke, "Did you know? I own a photovoltaic power station covering 63,000 square kilometers on this continent, capable of providing a total of nearly 400 million megawatts of electricity. Just one year of operation is enough to power all the bionic people and large machinery on the planet for over 60 years."
Igor thought to himself, why are you telling me all this?
Under the eaves, facing the enemy he had fought with earlier, he said in a low and steady voice, "I see."
Hugo: "So I'm pretty awesome too! Really awesome! Being able to perform surgery on people is nothing!"
Azathoth endured his humming in his ear, but finally couldn't help but raised his hand and pulled the floating head aside, threatening with a chilling tone: "Don't disturb my believers."
It’s not the first day we’ve known each other. Don’t you know that talking too much nonsense will make me sleepy?
Just got up! Don't want to lie back down!
Igor's first reaction was inexplicably moved.
Then he wanted to slap himself to counter the brainwashing.
The former federal marshal endured the pain of his wound and his mind wandered. He couldn't help but sigh that he had wronged some idiots in the Holy See. It turned out that the power of facing God directly was so enormous, and stupidity can be either innate or acquired.
Hugo was too angry to talk to them.
"I'll bring the human mecha over to see if I can fix it." With Azathoth's threat, it didn't dare to speak harshly to Igor anymore. It turned around angrily and said, "After it's fixed, he can go back to where he came from!"
Igor's heart moved.
He looked up at Azathoth, who was standing against the wall in a black robe, looking serious and majestic. "...Can I leave?"
Why not?
Azathoth thought about it, unsure if he would feel hungry again after his followers ran away. For the sake of his stomach, which he didn't know whether it existed or not, he said firmly, "No."
Igor nodded, his expression still blank. His half-long gray hair drooped, and the luster in his red eyes suddenly dimmed.
Azathoth, who caught a glimpse of this scene through his hood, felt guilty: "You..."
"I'm sorry, I offended you." The gray-haired young man lowered his head and said, "Please forgive me for making such an abrupt request."
He calmly pressed the wound on his right leg, relying on the intense pain to stay awake. "I should have been loyally serving you, but for a moment I thought of my relatives and friends far away in the Federation and my Omega partner, and I couldn't help but..."
Friends, relatives, and omega partners—all that nonsense. Igor, orphaned and single, has consistently been ranked number one on the "most desirable bachelors" list. Before his downfall, he had no wife or husband, and now that he's wanted, there's no chance any pampered omega would marry him.
He was just testing the waters. Azathoth had the ability to deceive human reason, so he might not doubt his lies. If he could rely on gaining sympathy to buy a chance to escape, it would be even better.
However, after he ended the topic hesitantly, Azathoth remained silent for a long time and said nothing.
The longer he was silent, the more nervous Igor became. He pondered over and over the settings he had just said. He felt that the cold sweat on his forehead was the water that had entered his brain before. He was a little anxious just now - even if he wanted to find a way out, he should wait for a while. Which god would like his follower who was determined to escape?
At this moment, Hugo's voice came from the mouth of a legless bionic man lying nearby, asking, "What is an Omega?"
Azathoth pretended to be indifferent, but in fact he was listening very carefully.
He also wanted to know what Omega was! Why does the word "partner" have an adjective prefix?
Igor: “…”
He was completely stunned by the question and even wondered if he had misheard the question. This was like grabbing someone on Earth and asking, "What does female mean?"
"It's just..." Igor, who had been a figure in the military and political system for many years, pursed his lips subconsciously and stuttered for the first time. After finally straightening his tongue, he tentatively explained, "Alpha, Beta, Omega, one of the three genders."
Hugo uttered a confused single syllable on behalf of Azathoth: "Huh?"
They looked at each other in silence for a long while.
Igor took the initiative to explain the differences between the three genders.
Simply put, Alphas are, on average, physically the strongest. Because the Federation has long waged war against the Zerg in space, Alphas who graduate from military academies typically enjoy a high social status. Omegas, on the other hand, are delicate and infertile, and have an evolutionarily unscientific estrus cycle. They bear the primary reproductive responsibility within the species and generally prefer to mate with Alphas to produce superior offspring.
Beta is the equivalent of the worker bee in society. They have relatively average abilities, and their chances of getting pregnant or making their partner pregnant are not high. They also do not have overly aggressive pheromones like Alpha and Omega. They are basically a gender with a low presence but very worry-free.
Igor used a lot of complicated technical terms in his explanation, and it was obvious that he had somehow delved deeply into this area. After he finished his explanation, Hugo politely displayed a series of ellipsis marks in the air.
"It's over," it said to Azathoth, "We were all wrong. Your newly recruited believers are not human at all."
Igor: “…”
He felt that he should still be classified as a human being no matter what.
It is too much to simply expel people from their race.
Azathoth accepted this new setting well, but he still had many confusions, for example - what are pheromones?
The moment he heard this term, although he knew nothing about the legendary social structure of three genders, Azathoth had a hunch for some reason that he might be able to simulate it.
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