"Go check it out!" Langman Griffin's fury ripped through the Griffin Mansion like a tornado destroying a parking lot. His secretary huddled to the side, trembling, and asked shakily, "Check... what? Haven't we already checked everything... and found nothing unusual?"
"No." Langman narrowed his eyes. "There must be something wrong with that girl named Erica that I overlooked."
He paced back and forth in the spacious living room. "Perhaps she has a more powerful backer behind her, and Ford Hill is just a cover thrown out... But that doesn't make sense. In a rural place like Port Alplai, even if O'Casey is incompetent, he should have at least 80% of the power. After Igor Sullivan stepped down...hiss!"
He suddenly cried out in pain, and his secretary immediately rushed over to express his loyalty: "Boss, what's wrong with you, boss?"
Langman: "...bite your mouth, idiot. Where's Terry's painkillers? Give me some."
This must be the retribution for you, boss, hurting others too many times.
Even as she thought this, the secretary maintained a worried expression, as if Lang Man was seriously injured and about to pass away. "Hold on, I'll go get your son's medicine for you!"
She took advantage of this critical moment and rushed out of the room without looking back.
Lang Man watched her run away, then said with a look of disdain, "To call you stupid is a compliment."
He sat down on the sofa, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the table: "Igor Sullivan... Igor, so that's it, could it be him?"
"Revenge? But how did you do it?"
**
Hugo: “I didn’t think of that.”
They were now on a flight to the capital. In order to take care of the gods' feelings, Igor, with his wealth, bought first-class tickets for the spaceship, so they now had a separate compartment.
Azathoth was staring at Igor thoughtfully, feeling that there was something odd about his followers' attitude today. Upon hearing this, he casually asked, "What did you expect?"
The compartment contained two rows of soft chairs facing each other. The space wasn't exactly spacious, reminiscent of an old train car. Igor sat across from Azathoth, peeling an orange. The young man's task of feeding the god was handled with natural formality. Before peeling, he emphasized, "I think you might need some vitamins."
——There’s something wrong with this sentence, Azathoth thought.
In the past, Igor never started his conversations with him with words like "I think" or "I believe", unless it was something that concerned him and he had to do something, then he would use a relatively tactful tone of suggestion to try to change Azathoth's decision.
Most of the time, Igor would say, "What do you think of xxx?" or "Are you interested in xxx?"
Only after Azathoth nodded indifferently in acceptance would those things appear before him.
In fact, as a god who has not communicated with others for many years and has some social barriers, Azathoth sometimes feels that Igor seems a little too restrained in front of him.
In fact, there is no need to do so, because he will not get angry at the occasional abnormal behavior of his followers.
To make an inappropriate analogy, a person has a cat. The cat gets angry and scratches the owner with its claws because the owner does not pet the cat properly. Will the owner ignore the beauty of the cat warming the bed and kneading the owner's milk and throw it away?
To Azathoth, Igor is much more precious than a pet. He thought for a long time about how to compare the relationship between himself and his followers. After pulling out several tentacles, he came up with a perhaps even stranger analogy. Maybe Igor is like his descendant?
He guided him, helped him, and protected him. He watched everything related to him when he was unaware, and felt his joys and sorrows at all times and was moved by them.
In turn, Igor belonged to him wholeheartedly... If Azathoth wanted, he could get everything from him.
This was undoubtedly an unequal relationship. Azathoth could sever their connection at any time, and for him, it would simply be a return to his original state of hunger, which, while unbearable, was not unbearable.
But for Igor, after Azathoth gave up on him, the best ending might be death.
Think about those lunatics lying in the hospital, enduring physical pain and mental fear every day. Do humans still want to escape unscathed from the eyes of God?
Therefore, Azathoth felt that Igor's cautious and low-key behavior might be the right thing to do. Although this prevented their relationship from going any further, it also prevented the other party from angering him and ending up in an irreversible situation.
Azathoth almost felt that this way of getting along would accompany him for a long time in the future and would never change due to external circumstances. After all, Igor was a very self-disciplined, rational and restrained person.
However, he never expected... perhaps it was just his imagination? Now his family seemed to be actively willing to change this one-sided relationship of domination and obedience.
Because of this imperceptible change, Azathoth actually felt a little excited, as if a different branch suddenly emerged in his monotonous and stagnant life - coincidentally, every time he had this feeling, it was Igor who brought him it.
"..." Hugo said, "I bet you didn't hear what I said just now."
Azathoth asked absentmindedly, "What?"
"The capital! To the capital!" If they weren't in the cramped carriage, the android might have jumped up. "Just because our child got into a fight at school and was bullied, and the parents were called in, we're about to step into the vortex of the federal center of power and status and face the cruel crushing and destruction of fate. What novel would dare to write a plot like this?!"
It finished speaking in one breath, turned to Igor and said, "Please pass me an orange, thank you."
"..." Has this machine been reading some weird, old online novel lately? Igor handed the peeled fruit to Azathoth, then turned back with a hesitant expression. "I saw you eat the mango from Mr. Ford's refrigerator earlier... Mr. Hugo, are you sure you can digest it?"
A gleam of light flashed in Hugo's eyes. "Yes, as long as the components in my body can crush the fruit pulp quickly enough, the juice that flows out won't short-circuit the circuit board."
Azathoth said to Igor while biting the fruit, "Don't worry about it. When the Hugo motherboard is scrapped, we will go to the recycling station to sell the scrap metal."
Hugo: “…”
"Azathoth, I was wrong." It whispered, not knowing what it was talking about. "By the way, the taste sensor is really useful. Do you want to try it?"
Azathoth glanced at it and suddenly stood up.
Hugo leaned back reflexively. The android looked fearless, but in fact he was quite afraid that Azathoth would really get angry. He muttered quietly, "If you don't want to try, forget it. My motherboard is not worth much."
Igor stuffed the remaining orange in his hand into its hand: "It's okay, there's someone at the door."
Hugo blinked, and after a few seconds he said, "It's an acquaintance."
It then expertly took control of the spacecraft's surveillance footage. "What is she doing here?"
A tentacle emerged and gently pressed the doorknob. The silent movement seemed like a hidden hand, preparing a surprise attack. Just watching gave anyone else goosebumps.
The people outside the door obviously didn't expect it to be opened suddenly. A blonde girl with bangs and closed eyes stood in front of the door, holding one hand raised to knock and laughing dryly: "Hello."
"Kuna?" Igor looked at her in surprise and closed the door after she entered the compartment. "Why are you following us?"
Kunna wanted to say she was just stopping by, but seeing the complacent expressions on Hugo and Igor's faces that said, "Don't explain, we understand," she immediately swallowed her lies and couldn't help but remember what a Zerg she had met before had told her:
"Although we are still unsure whether it is the incarnation of God or His favored one walking in the human world..."
"But remember, don't try to fool Him."
“Don’t try to figure Him out.”
“Don’t try to lift your head and look directly at Him.”
“We express our loyalty and purpose directly to Him.”
She abandoned all other thoughts, lowered her head, and said obediently, "The Zerg sent me here. You should know I've been in contact with them. After the Keminting incident, the Zerg captives controlled by Bishop Leopold were rescued and returned to their home system. One officer said they would remember your kindness in saving their compatriots and longed to repay the favor. Therefore, they hoped to meet with you in the capital."
"No need." Azathoth said without hesitation, "I don't want to see them."
As soon as he finished speaking, Hugo turned his head and seemed to have lost interest in Kunna. Igor, on the other hand, maintained a polite expression and prepared to open the door to ask her to leave.
Kunna quickly realized that the whole thing was decided in less than a second by this unknown but undoubtedly powerful and dangerous man. Although the other two were also invited, they did not seem prepared to oppose his decision.
She panicked and racked her brains to start a new topic: "...Sorry, before I leave, I wanted to ask if you have noticed anyone monitoring you recently?"
Igor paused in closing the door, lowered his head and asked, "What?"
"I don't know what kind of people they are," Kunna said quickly. "They've been frequently appearing near Happy Cemetery for a week now, observing my every move. If you haven't revealed yourself, I think they could only be after me because of my biological father, Richard Tollem."
Richard Tolum was one of the victims of the incident in Keminting Town. If someone wanted to find a breakthrough here, it would be easy to discover his relationship with Kunna.
She paused, raised her head, and carefully observed Igor's expression. Seeing that he had no other reaction and did not intend to close the door immediately, she breathed a sigh of relief: "I was a little worried that these people would find you too..."
Igor frowned. "I didn't notice it before. Either they hid it too well, or they just haven't found Mr. Ford's villa, which apparently has no connection to him."
Kunna didn't understand what he was saying but didn't ask. She remained silent and just took two more steps into the room to avoid being kicked out.
"But that's no longer certain," Hugo said. "Ford contacted me about Erica's situation, and with Quina receiving intelligence from the Zerg and boarding the same ship as us, regardless of whether the enemy is the head of the Griffin family or not, as long as they're willing to invest some time, a simple cross-elimination process can determine the approximate range of the target."
“I just don’t know how much they can understand.”
The android shrugged and made way for Kunna. "But if you ask me, for Langman Griffin's own safety, he'd better not delve any further."
Azathoth said with a bit of annoyance: "You should stand in front of him and say this."
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