Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 351 – Cat Dad’s Stepmom is a Diplomat

Thor secretly sent a voice transmission to Odin.

‘It’s that rumor brat again. We should have destroyed that dungeon when we had a chance.’

‘And suffer a heavy casualty, then got flanked by Solomon’s men in the aftermath? True, we could have killed that cathulhu, but we would have sacrificed a limb or two to take him down. And you know what? Killing a cathulhu will make us sworn enemies of Mu-Nyang and Chaos Demons. Look what they did to Pangu.’

Thor pondered. It was as Odin said.

The Pangu Church and his minions were forced to gather on W-2 planet to match the Mao Clan and the demon god’s main forces. From the info that they had gathered from the players, the Pangu Church in that world suffered defeat after defeat.

At this rate, the Pangu Church’s forces would collapse first in this attrition warfare.

Odin added, ‘Mao Miaomiao already regains some of his power. His level now is about 1,300, but his real cultivation base is a 13th-stage mortal cultivator.’

‘Wait a minute! A mortal cultivator at that level?! Normally, a cultivator would have formed a few stars in either their hearts or dantians!’

‘His foundation is monstrous in his previous life. He’s using a unique cultivation method that we don’t know. Well, he’s the right-hand man of Mu-Nyang for a reason. Pangu and Hongjun are running amok trying to nip the bud before Mao Miaomiao becomes a sage. Once he does, nobody in this universe can be his opponent, and he can potentially surpass Mu-Nyang when he was in his prime!’

Thor’s expression turned dark. Now, he questioned why Pangu had to pick a fight with Mu-Nyang, the cathulhus, and the chaos demons.

‘Stand down and endure this humiliation for now, Thor. We don’t want another Ragnarok War. Our goal is to rebuild and strengthen Asgard’s foundation. No more stupid prophesies and sneak peeks into the future. We WORK and EARN our future now!’

‘… Alright. If you said so.’

After chatting, Thor and Odin agreed that they would suck up to Madoka’s unreasonable demands. The latter swallowed his pride and lowered his head.

“I will withdraw Joan’s assets for you. Do me a favor. Please stop attacking and killing my people.”

Madoka smirked, “Had you been this cooperative from the beginning, nobody would have died! Glad you come back to your sense.”

“…”

Thor closed his eyes and suppressed his emotions. Odin crossed his arms behind his back, but both fists clenched so hard that the nails pierced the palms. The latter vanished and entered one of the ruined buildings.

A few seconds later, Odin brought out a sealed gold deposit box. He tossed it toward the scylla.

Madoka caught it and inspected the content. However, she was disappointed. Inside the box were five rings, fifteen chips worth 150,000 PACTs, and a personal artifact.

Nibelung Ring

Madoka inspected the ring and grinned. She laughed and flew away.

Just like that, the scylla goddess left Asgard.

After watching Madoka leave, Odin let out a long sigh. He blamed himself for closing Joan’s bank account and getting himself into this situation.

“Just 150,000 PACTs and some essence stones… I should have left the account alone.”

Thor grumbled and gazed at the town. The purple flame had been extinguished, and the survivors were rescued from the buildings. Many town guards and NPCs were respawned as the game treated them as monsters for players to hunt. Even Vain came back to life after everything was over.

The resurrected immortals rushed to Odin and groveled. They believed that it was Odin’s miracle.

“PRAISE LORD ODIN!”

“Thank you for bringing us back to life, my lord!”

The immortals cried, grateful for Odin’s blessings and miracles. As for the deity, he lightly snorted as he knew why and how these people came back to life.

It was not his work. In fact, it was either Pangu’s or Solomon’s doings.

While Odin watched and pretended to be responsible for their resurrection, he heard the voice transmission from Nian’s clone.

‘Now that I helped you, could you help me get Loki out of my sight, nya? He’s been a nuisance.’

Odin clicked his tongue, ‘So that was your doing?’

‘You can say so. I merely pressed a few buttons and respawned some town NPCs for you. Anyway, get this fucker outta here, nya! I want to cultivate in peace!’

‘Can you resurrect Joan and my soldiers, too?’

‘No. I can only resurrect townspeople. If they leave their home, they’re not longer respawnable. It’s the law of this universe.’

Odin learned something new. It appeared that Nian and Pangu were not that omnipotent.

‘Alright, alright. I’m sending my guy there to pick you up. Show me your location. I need a GPS.’

‘Now, you talk like a player, nya!’

‘I’ve been learning.’

Odin turned to Thor. He pointed his thump in the direction of the snow mountain range.

“We have a debt to pay. Go bring Loki and a new guest here.”

“A new guest? Who?”

“Nian.”

“WTF?! What the hell is going on here?!”

“Adapt, improvise, and overcome, Thor. Pangu must be desperate, and so do we. We might as well reconsider our policies from now on.”

“…”

Thor didn’t like this. A few days ago, Pangu already showed his true color by not sending troops to join the crusade. Now, they sent Nian here.

Odin read Thor’s expression. He snickered, “Sometimes, we have to join forces with our enemies to quell a stronger foe, and we’re in that kind of situation. After that, it’s a chicken game of who’s going to backstab who first. Just play along with me one more time.”

“Thieves can’t be trusted, you know.”

“We’re also one of the thieves. Just go.”

“Tsk.”

Thor turned around and flew toward the snow mountain range to fetch Loki and the new guest.

.

.

A few minutes later, Thor brought in the guests. However, in addition to the caracal cat, there was one more visitor.

Following Nian and Thor was the spear demon goddess, Ma Xingjuan. She came here as the representative of the Desert Frontier Continent.

Odin invited the two guests to his palace. The two glared at each other while they quietly followed Odin into an ancient temple with ancient roman architecture.

In the grand temple, roman pillars stood in columns. Each was 20 meters apart, which occupied a lot of space in the hall. However, because of such huge pillars, some sculptors had carved so many naked torsos of pretty women on the marble surface, turning them into fine arts.

The visitors didn’t care about the trivial sculptures or art. They entered the temple and waited for Odin to allow them to speak.

Nian glared at Ma Xingjuan, the younger sister of Ma Moxi. As the cat was aware that she was Mao Miaomiao’s wife in her previous life, he was hostile to her.

Meanwhile, the long black-haired Asian woman in a celestial robe ignored the glare. She held her trusty spear and gazed at the king of Asgard.

Since Odin chose to remain silent, Ma Xingjuan initiated the negotiation first.

“I’ll be frank, Your Majesty Odin, I’m here to offer a ceasefire treaty.”

“Ceasefire?” Odin bitterly smiled, “Not alliance or permanent truce?”

“That depends on your future actions and stance. Not long ago, you threatened to attack my stepson’s dungeon. Fortunately, you withdrew your troops. Had you attacked the dungeon, I wouldn’t have given you the opportunity.”

“YOU!!” Thor stomped toward Ma Xingjuan, but Odin pulled him back as usual.

The elder humbly lowered his head, not caring about his image or pride, “We appreciate your grace and your understanding, Goddess Ma. Actually, the Pangu Church tempted us to move our army there, and we went there for a stroll. Everything was a misunderstanding.”

“How nice of you. Be careful not to bite your tongue,” Ma Xingjuan was disgusted by Odin’s shamelessness. She then glanced at Nian’s clone.

“Well, I assume you have something to say, Nian.”

The cat’s clone smirked. He spat at Ma Xingjuan’s feet, “Once I recover all my mana and providence essence, you can say goodbye to this life and wait for your next reincarnation, nya!”

“If only you survive after you leave this country.”

Both Ma Xingjuan and Nian secretly activated their mandate domains.

SHINK

CLANK

Two invisible objects collided between them. Nian’s tail trembled as he sensed the feedback from the hit while Ma Xingjuan’s spearhead dented. The tail was healed, and the spear self-repaired after the probing attack.

Despite the assault, both deities didn’t move from the spot. From the outsider’s point of view, they were 50 meters apart, and they weren’t in a battle stance.

“Stop. This is my temple, not an arena.”

Hearing Odin’s warning, Ma Xingjuan and Nian dispelled their mandate domains.

Odin turned to Nian, “I hope you’re here for a peace talk as well, Nian. Otherwise, I’m going to ask you to leave.”

Nian scoffed, “I’m also here for the alliance talk, nya! Unlike that insincere bitch, the Pangu Church would like to correct our misunderstandings and reestablish our good alliance, nya.”

“I see,” Odin beamed the cat with a bright smile for a moment. Then, his expression turned dark. “But from my knowledge, you two are at odds with each other. May I ask if I make peace with one of you, will the other also befriend us?”

Nian yelled, “Hell, no, nya! Mao Miaomiao’s family and his clan deserve to die, nya!”

Ma Xingjuan rolled her eyes, “We just want to live in peace, but Pangu’s men are unreasonable as you can see. I wish we could avoid war, but this stupid cat never leaves us alone.”

“Then, will you still be our friend if we form a truce or an alliance with the Pangu Church?” Asked Odin.

“Truce or ceasefire treaty, yes. If alliance, we wage war with you.”

“That’s quite a tough choice.”

Odin sighed as he had expected it. He reconsidered his choices.

One – Join the alliance with the Pangu Church and wage war against the Mao Family, Cathulhus, and demon gods.

Two – Join the Mao Family alliance and wage war against Solomon, Pangu, the Olympus, Hongjun, and their alliance.

Three – Remain as a neutral faction and make friends with both sides.

Four – Think outside the box and secretly form an alliance with both of them.

Or five – Bow to no one! Be an idiot and declare war on both sides.

Odin inwardly laughed. Had he still had the same mentality as him in his previous life, he would have taken the last option. But as Odin experienced life and learned more about the hierarchy in the universe, he threw away his ego and shame.

Odin declared.

“Asgard and Midgard will remain neutral in this matter. If you wish to trade, we will happily trade with you. If you want to kill each other, you may do so, but don’t bring us into your conflict. If you wish to march your army through our territory, we will stop you as our country does not accept foreign troops in our territory.”

A faint smile appeared on Ma Xingjuan’s face. On the other hand, Nian’s expression turned ugly.

“Are you stupid, nya?! Mao Miaomiao and his wives will surely betray you! Didn’t you see what the Mermaid Kingdom did? Didn’t they just send a monster to attack your country?”

Odin laughed and Nian reminded him of an unexploited opportunity. He blackmailed Ma Xingjuan right away, “For that, I will have to ask the stepmother for the compensation that your stepson did.”

As cunning as he was, Odin rode on the momentum and pressured Ma Xingjuan, “Well, your son has brainwashed my subordinates and stole money from Asgard Bank. Before we talk about the ceasefire, could you reimburse us for our losses?”

“How much?” Asked Ma Xingjuan.

“One trillion PACT.”

Ma Xingjuan snickered, “Then, there will be war.”

“Oh, I’m kidding. How about 100 billion.”

“I’m not stupid. Your bank is only worth a billion at best.”

“Correction, 50 billion. But since we can still be friends, how about a billion PACT, and this incident never happened.”

“I don’t even need to pay a dime. Why should I care?”

“Then, there will be no peace talk. We will join the Pangu Church by default.”

“…”

Ma Xingjuan paused. She pondered for a while.

In the end, Ma Xingjuan didn’t have a strong mentality like her husband or the others. She tossed a ring toward Odin.

Odin inspected it. Inside the spatial ring were a million essence stones. If they could sell it to the players, they could earn more than 100 billion PACT with ease.

Getting the compensation, Odin was delighted, “I’ve accepted your sincerity. I swear by my father’s name that our troops will never participate, invade, or take part in any activity against your allies and your countries.”

Ma Xingjuan snorted, “I’m not finished.”

“Yes?”

“That ring includes the price of the alliance.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve changed my mind. The Mao Clan wishes to form an alliance with Asgard in a crusade against the Pangu Church! If you accept, I’ll give you another ring with the same amount of resources.”

“Hohoh!” Odin narrowed his eyes. He started to enjoy this peace talk.

On the other hand, Nian was stunned.

“NYANI?!”