"Mom, I can help you too!"
However, this was not what Karen cared about at all.
Even if he was born with knowledge, even if he possessed innate wisdom and power, this child certainly wouldn't know how terrible and disgusting the world is. He sent a telepathic message to Karen, expressing his desire not to be sealed away, but he certainly didn't know that Karen was doing this for his own good.
No mother wants her child to suffer, no matter what burden she is forced to bear. Everything she does today is so that future generations will never have to understand what is happening today.
...But Karen isn't stupid either.
Just as she was about to send a message saying, "I'm doing this for your own good," the face of her own father—the Peacock King—suddenly flashed through her mind.
Immediately, she realized that what she was about to do was full of contradictions, and for a moment she was speechless.
After all, Karen herself ran away from home because she wanted to be free from her parents' constraints, to have the freedom to change the world she wanted to change—but this was far too early, far too early! She didn't decide to be independent until she was a teenager, so why was her child, still just a fertilized egg, already being disobedient!?
Karen could certainly tell her child that she was doing this "for your own good," and in fact, she genuinely meant it. But... could she really shut down a child who kept begging her? Especially since this child was her own? Especially since she herself was someone who chose to escape her parents and become independent for the sake of freedom, fairness, and justice?
Karen can't do it!!!
For the first time in her life, Karen was caught in a severe mental breakdown and a dilemma. She, who had always been so resolute, decisive, and frank, was now torn between her maternal instincts and her beliefs as a human being—something she probably never imagined.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Hayden quickly pushed Angela out of the room.
“Ms. Karen is really lovely,” Angela said happily. “She realizes she’s being hypocritical and is troubled by it. She only considers reason and isn’t swayed by self-interest. That’s the quality of a saint…though it still needs some refinement.”
Hayden scratched the back of his head but didn't complain. He genuinely admired Karen's self-awareness. Double standards are human nature, but Karen abhorred them and was even wary of her own. This was certainly something Hayden could admire.
However, Hayden is bringing Angela up now not to talk about this.
“Angela, I’m so grateful for your blessing to my child,” he said quietly. “Whether Karen struggles with it or not, it’s essentially a good thing. She’ll figure it out eventually anyway. So I’m very grateful for what you did, uh, whatever you did. I really mean it. Thank you.”
As for whether Hayden really intends to have twenty Superman children, we'll discuss that later.
“What I want to talk about now is something else… something I’ve recently started to notice.”
Hayden rubbed his forehead as he spoke.
“Actually, I already knew it subconsciously… No, I must stop ‘knowing it subconsciously’ from now on, and instead consciously and deliberately explore your secrets. I can’t keep thinking about maintaining a safe distance all the time. I have to be more proactive.”
Until now, Hayden has been trying to explore the secrets of Angela and the "Outer Gods," but he has always maintained a safe distance and has not actually ventured into the danger. However, this cautious research attitude must change from now on.
"So now I want to ask you a question clearly, and I hope you can answer me seriously—Angela, since the New Yatu incident, have you actually become less confused? Have you... actually remembered some things that you haven't told us?"
This is actually quite obvious. Ever since the New Yatu incident, or perhaps even since the beginning of that incident, Angela's behavior and speech have begun to change. Her speech has become more...coherent. At the same time, the things she can do have become more incredible than before.
At least Hayden didn't think Angela could have fathered a perfect biological child for him before. The blessing may have been there long ago, but this one seems like a new addition.
Sure enough, after hearing Hayden's question...
"As expected of my proud master."
Angela smiled softly.
"You will certainly notice when I started to change. Even when I rushed to New Jersey, busy confronting Mr. Adam and saving many lives."
“You’re absolutely right. Ever since Mr. Adam punched the moon, I’ve started thinking about more things.”
302: Not now!
Adam, boxing, moon.
Hayden scratched his head, realizing he had indeed overlooked this matter. He'd been too busy lately, and his mind was a bit muddled.
A few days ago, in a dazed state, he made a strange prophecy. Several sentences in that prophecy kept emphasizing "the blood of the moon".
The invincible sun still hangs high, only the blood of the moon can set it.
The blood of the flowing moon is the beginning of the world's end.
But what exactly is "Lunar Blood"? Hayden spent the last few days searching through some old books, including the archives left by Professor Albion. He did find some things that seemed to be related to "the moon" and "blood," but none of them seemed to fit.
For example, a woman's menstrual cycle is related to her lunar cycle, so the blood a woman sheds during her period is considered a powerful material for spellcasting in some ancient magical traditions. Menstrual blood could then be considered "lunar blood"... but this clearly doesn't align with Hayden's prophecy.
Then he looked at a lot of metaphors and symbols related to the moon, such as the relationship between the moon and water, rain, plant life, fertility, and snakes and various reptiles... Weren't these already mentioned a few years ago? In short, Hayden recently looked up a lot of mysterious symbols, magical principles, and myths related to the moon, but none of the keywords touched his intuition.
To be somewhat rude, after Professor Albion's sacrifice, Hayden no longer had any teammates he could entrust with research into ancient mysticism. While his companions each had their own specialties, Abigail might be the only one who could offer some assistance with these mystical aspects of ancient magic.
However, Hayden never considered that this "moon" might actually be the real moon. After all, the real moon wouldn't bleed.
However, when Adam bombarded the moon in New Jersey, he seriously punched it, creating a huge crater with an area of three million square kilometers and a depth of more than ten thousand meters.
This is a massive crater spanning three million square kilometers, roughly the size of India, not to mention its depth of tens of thousands of meters. Even a mortal standing on Earth, looking up at night, if the moon is full and the sky is cloudless, can see that crater with the naked eye—Mithra Bodhisattva hasn't finished repairing it yet. Perhaps it's not so easy to repair, or perhaps he's simply not in a hurry.
The moon doesn't bleed, but it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call this crater a "lunar wound."
The prophecy says, "The blood of the moon will be the beginning of the end of the world." Does this actually mean that Adam's attack on the moon will be the trigger for a world war? Hayden isn't sure if this interpretation is correct.
Prophecy is too complicated, but I've digressed. The focus now remains on Angela.
"Did you remember more things after the moon was bombarded?"
Hayden muttered to himself.
"Why? What did you remember?"
For Hayden now, exploring the knowledge of the Outer Gods and seeking the power that might defeat Mithra is his most important task.
But Angela shook her head: "I'm not quite sure either."
Wow, you're doing this again? Are you kidding me, grandma?
For a moment, Hayden felt genuinely frustrated. He couldn't even verify whether Angela was just giving him a perfunctory answer. Hayden was now unsure whether to maintain a reasonable skepticism towards Angela's words or simply believe her.
Fortunately, Angela hadn't finished speaking yet.
“After Mr. Adam attacked the moon, I felt that I could recall more knowledge, so I can indeed do more for you now,” Angela said thoughtfully, her bright eyes sparkling with a mysterious light. “This feeling… is probably like the haze in my head has lessened a bit, or like the interference of signals has lessened a bit.”
Signal interference?
Hayden couldn't help but start rubbing his temples again.
Everyone knows that the entire moon is the property of the Mithra Group, and specifically, the private property of Mithra Bodhisattva. In other words, nobody really knows what Mithra Bodhisattva is actually doing on the moon. Did Mithra Bodhisattva secretly build a strange interference device on the moon to shield himself from the outer gods, only to have it destroyed by Adam's punch?
By magical standards, it wasn't entirely impossible. Moreover, Hayden could sense something stirring at the edge of his intuitive understanding. In any case, Mithra must know some secrets about the Outer Gods. But Hayden couldn't personally go to the moon to investigate; that was the enemy's stronghold, and going there would truly be suicide.
"Okay, there must be some secrets on the moon, and these secrets are definitely related to you. But we can only investigate indirectly for now."
After much thought, it turned out the matter would come full circle, so Hayden shrugged.
"First, we need to make ourselves as strong as possible. Whether it's seeking knowledge from the Outer Gods to enhance our power or forming alliances with other large companies, we need to do both and make sure both are strong."
"Proceed according to the original plan. Angela, let's go to South America together to find Smoke Mirror Company. Let's bring the weakest super-enterprise to our side first."
Hayden chose the Smoke Mirror Company as his first potential ally, and this wasn't solely due to the prophecy of "[Emperor], [Sun], Blood and Moon, [Death]".
Since the events of New Yatu, Hayden has gained even more power… no, that's not quite right. He had already accumulated a great deal of power, but it was mostly fragmented pieces, pieces of a much greater puzzle. Now that he was actively strengthening himself (this "self" included his entire team and influence), he needed to purposefully and systematically assemble these pieces…
Then you need to add other suitable puzzle pieces.
Hayden is now seeking out the Smoke Mirror Company not only because he's searching for the ancient mysteries of the Outer Gods, but also because he's made some assessments. Some of the Smoke Mirror Company's characteristics are best suited to help Hayden piece together more of the puzzle leading to power.
Thinking about it this way, Adam really did leave Hayden quite a few gifts. Not just an inheritance, but also that punch he threw at the moon... Alas, in the end, fate is truly unbelievable.
Thanks to what Adam did, Hayden now has a plan that he can actively push forward.
Angela nodded in understanding, then asked curiously, "Master, do you have plans to have a child with that vampire? Although I don't like undead creatures, what if we had a—"
"No."
Hayden, who was starting to break out in a cold sweat, quickly interrupted her before she could finish speaking: "Don't even think about it."
“Okay.” Angela looked a little disappointed.
However, perhaps because she brought up the topic, about two minutes later, a strange question popped into Hayden's head.
"Speaking of which, Angela, your blessing to me is that I will get pregnant on my first try no matter which organic being I mate with, right?"
“This isn’t the principle behind blessings, but it is in appearance. As long as the recipient is an organic being, and female,” Angela replied with a smile. “If such blessings are misused, they could indeed cause some adverse effects. But I believe the master wouldn’t use blessings for bad purposes.”
...Clearly Angela hadn't noticed another problem.
"Of course not. But, uh,"
Hayden wouldn't normally say something like that, but everyone's been talking about it a lot lately, and now that things have come to this point, he doesn't want to keep backing down.
"If I get pregnant every time I have sex with an organic woman, even without contraception, wouldn't I be unable to enjoy the act normally?"
The effect of these words was unexpectedly good. Angela was completely stunned.
"...I did indeed neglect this issue."
It was quite unusual for her to say that, and Angela even frowned.
“Indeed, the master’s normal sexual needs are also very important. I actually neglected this matter, which is a major mistake on my part.”
For some reason, as Angela said this, Hayden suddenly had a very ominous premonition. Unfortunately, Hayden could not stop Angela from revealing her idea, and never could.
"Or," as expected, Angela thought for a moment and then tilted her head to ask, "Master, can we just use me normally?"
"no!"
Hayden quickly shook his head.
No, definitely not—well, at least until he figures out what Angela and the Outer Gods really are!
"Ok."
Angela sighed.
And that meant everything was as it should be. Hayden continued rubbing his temples, feeling immense pressure; while Angela wore a patient expression.
They hurried together toward the territory of the goddess Mikt.
303: Judgment
Just as Hayden finished packing his things and was about to walk with Angela to the company gate to make a delivery, something happened that he had not anticipated or planned for.
Suddenly, someone jumped out of the shadows and said to him:
"Sir, may I accompany you on your trip to South America?"
That's Hayden's female ninja, Momiji.
This question did startle Hayden for a moment, and then he frowned: "To say whether it's possible or not, of course it is. But why would you suddenly want to volunteer?"
Hongye hasn't had any major missions lately, but that doesn't mean she's idle. Counter-espionage is always a manpower shortage, and you can never let your guard down. However, [Flower Magic Company] now actually has its own counterintelligence department, so there's nothing wrong with Hongye leaving New Sprout City to do other missions... but why?
Then, as Hayden was thinking about this, he realized that he had actually found the answer.
At the same time, Hongye probably realized that her proposal was somewhat abrupt. So she hesitated only for a moment before immediately replying, "I... hope to have a chance to redeem myself."
What shame?
What Hongye was actually struggling with was the matter of the goddess Freya sending the dark elf spy Joanna over last time.
Hayden sent Momiji to investigate the identity of the dark elf Joanna, hoping to find out if she was a spy. As for Momiji's surveillance... well, it wasn't exactly successful. Although Joanna ended up making a fool of herself, and the incident ultimately had a rather comical happy ending, that happy ending clearly wasn't something Momiji earned. Basically, it was Karen and Hayden who resolved the matter.
Hayden and his team didn't really care who did the work. Their company was growing, but the core team was still less than ten people. If such a small team got too caught up in who got the credit, their unity would have collapsed long ago. As long as everyone worked together to get things done, why worry about who did it?
However, Kureha, having been a samurai lady in the old god era and later a company ninja in the new god era, possessed a completely different sense of honor and stubbornness than modern people. In her view, how things had turned out was a disgrace to her honor!
This shame of failure must be washed away by new success. But recently Hayden has only let her stay home, how can she possibly earn any credit for that? So Hongye must definitely fight for this field opportunity.
—That's pretty much what Hongye was thinking.
And Hayden now sees these ideas clearly.
Frankly, this isn't entirely a good thing. This old feudal aristocratic sense of honor sometimes makes them less prone to betrayal and less susceptible to being bought off by money and power than the new gods. But sometimes, this desire for honor can also be a flaw. For the sake of personal glory, they sometimes fail to consider the greater good.
In truth, Hongye is not weak. She originally possessed the level of a battle god, and in recent years she has benefited from a lot of support and compensation from Hayden and his group. Even if she were to fight an entire Vajra God squad alone, Hayden doesn't think Hongye would lose.
However, for Hayden and New Sprout City at present, this power is nothing more than a military force—a resource that can be deployed and mobilized at any time…
Thinking about this, Hayden couldn't help but slap his own head: Since when did he start calculating gains and losses in this way, and even treating people as resources? This is not good.
So Hayden said, "Of course you can come along. But you're asking for this not just because you 'want to go on fieldwork,' there must be another reason, right?"
If Hongye couldn't come up with any other reason besides wanting to go out and make a name for herself, Hayden would have spanked her. Fortunately, Hongye wasn't as foolish as Panya.
“My lord, the Central and South America ruled by the Smoke Mirror is a land of the dead, or at least a land created by the dead for the dead. It is a place ruled by spirits and the dead.”
She took a deep breath and then answered.
"And I am..."