Chapter 1801

NO. 416: It turns out to be a side branch that runs along the main line.

"Companionship?"

"That honored guest is someone even the High Priest specially instructed everyone to welcome warmly; you should seize this opportunity, Shixing Ling."

"Even if you say that… I have no experience in the service industry, this companionship…" The young man looked troubled, "Exactly what should I do?"

"Read the room."

"Huh?"

"In short," the priest leading the way bluntly said a few words, then realizing the reply was too vague, he called back, "Observe what the other person is paying attention to, what needs to be introduced or greeted on their behalf, but don't put too much pressure on yourself."

He comforted, saying, "Besides, who among all the followers here actually has the conditions to work in the service industry, let alone you who haven't done it?"

"What we do every day is either theft, robbery, assault, or hunting, fraud, doing business; the times we interact most with people are not chatting here, but putting on an act with them."

That's really self-aware…

"…" It's hard to say whether an ordinary person would be comforted by such words, but Aomo, upon hearing them, was indeed left speechless.

He was indeed quite speechless.

After letting Mogabas and the New Universe return to the beach together, he immediately severed the puppetry technique.

While handing over the temporarily hallucinating, self-less little monster to the volunteer Bai Ren for care, he retook control of Puppet MKII.

He had originally estimated the time would be only a few tens of minutes. As a newcomer who 'stabilizes daily practice controlling Jiduola, with adaptability rapidly increasing,' such a break could already be considered short, not enough to raise any concerns—until he saw that something had happened at this base, and the cause seemed to be his own negligence.

It's not that problems happen early or late; it's precisely when he momentarily diverted his attention that something went wrong, making it hard not to suspect that his momentary distraction itself was the cause.

While being controlled by his own puppetry technique, with a direct mental link, was the Star-Eater's information fragment in a suppressed state? Or was his own mentality unimportant? What mattered was that this body had no personality or will, only instinct, thus becoming a vessel that could activate that information fragment.

Aomo had barely a moment for these speculations to flash through his mind before he didn't even have time to verify them, when this seemingly enthusiastic priest gave him a brief interrogation.

Then came the present scene of him being forced to follow while running.

The amount of information was still considerable, but even with the monster-powered boost to his data-processing ability, it wasn't large; instead, he lacked sufficient freedom of action to seek out the logic chain and key evidence needed to fill in the gaps.

But the priest's 'invitation' was also hard to refuse; otherwise, it would just add a hint of danger to an already conspicuous situation.

So he followed along with a somewhat resigned attitude of just making do to meet up.

Black-hearted conglomerate merchants, top figures in criminal syndicates, corrupt officials in the government… Considering the dealings related to the Beast Cult, the partners Aomo imagined were nothing more than those categories.

Even in ordinary times, this could be counted as letting him earn a bit more merit for the Chief's girlfriend—though at this stage it's already meaningless—and also net him some bounty.

That would be welcome news.

But that's not the case in ordinary times compared to now.

Now, the focus naturally shouldn't be on those superficial material gains; what truly makes him think of 'just making do to meet up' is the other party's intelligence value in achieving the goal of 'destroying the Beast Cult.'

After all, he once said, he's not afraid of many problems, only of lacking direction; if he could obtain the identity of someone who has recently been heavily engaged with the cult, possessing some social standing or resource/logistics position, that would also serve as a direction for future arrangements.

Hmm, just a direction.

One can't just directly arrest and interrogate them.

Leaving legality aside, since you've just infiltrated and have proof of contact with them, if something happens to them, it's likely you'll be investigated again.

Even without decisive evidence, it wouldn't hinder the increase of three levels in the difficulty of his actions.

Furthermore, one must guard against there being a gun-wielding maniac in here—even without evidence, one must directly deal with oneself—given Aomo's dual observations and contacts as Shixing Ling here, he feels the likelihood of such a maniac in this place is not low.

One could even say that the newly appointed High Priest is exactly that kind of person!

Aomo firmly believes there is no leak of information or mistake in his acting, yet the priest's gaze toward him always carries an irrepressible regret, making it clear at a glance where that emotion stems from.

Such a sudden, decisive move to treat oneself as short‑term expendable in a vicious way is naturally abnormal.

The conclusions from the newcomer's manual he's read and from asking people everywhere about their tactics and observations likewise confirm this point—formerly, the Beast Cult may not have been harmonious and friendly, but at least it didn't use the obvious method of pretending to give newcomers a big gift pack in order to breed gu with them.

When everyone engages in internal conflict, it's purely a matter of fighting and framing others, and they basically always deliberately let newcomers off the hook to secure an observation period, assessing the potential value to avoid loss or waste.

After all, they've always been surviving, competing, and struggling in a high‑pressure environment; compared to the universal ruthless heart, what's more important is to utilize resources as thoroughly as possible, which can be said to make everyone an innate and acquired extreme capitalist.

It is also precisely for this reason that such an extreme waste of human resources is inappropriate, making everyone think he has offended some big shot above; yet, despite feeling regret for him, there is not the slightest intention to 'let him off'.

Encouraging, motivating words abound, and then they turn into some words that lure him to help them do things, essentially presenting a posture of 'Since the higher-ups don't want you alive, before you die, do something for me'—but if the aforementioned statements were merely slightly disguised, they would seem like this cult is talking about some harmonious, friendly family.

Perhaps it could deceive some inexperienced youngsters, but if it's the Star-Eater Zero controlled by Aomo, it would actually seem even more like an inexperienced youngster!

Running east and west, talking everywhere, taking on jobs everywhere.

Just like the ox-and-horse players in some RPG who go to villages to fix toilets, what they seek is naturally not those perfunctory rewards, but rather the words spoken by those who issued the commissions——

——To be frank, if Aomo were just making ordinary inquiries and chats, he might not be able to gather this much information.

In the Beast Cult, everyone has their own business to attend to. jpg

But if you can be tricked by them into doing work, then they are willing to chat with you a lot more.

The Star-Eater Zero's actions these past few days are precisely for these statements, yet most of them are limited to gathering evidence within the cult, and it hasn't even had a chance to conduct that evidence gathering before being 'covered' by this commission issued by the priest just now.

'Let it be covered, then,' Aomo thought helplessly.

Just treat it as picking up another nutritionally worthless garbage side quest; later, I'll use this as a pretext to dig out some more information from that priest.

Even the most taciturn person will talk a bit more when they need something from others; for now, I won't bring up that riddle about the distinguished guest's identity—when I myself go to act as a guide for that so-called distinguished guest, I can see for myself then——

——When he thought that, he also saw the tall black-and-white figure being led by several archbishops.

"Oh…"

A sigh, although not appearing on the scene, was also clear on the beach where the 'driver' was.

【Aomo: Can you get in touch with the Bar Beast X?】

【Bi Ze:? Sure, what's up?】

【Aomo: Tell him, the Light Beast, Fallen Type, has appeared right here in the Beast Cult.】

(End of chapter)