Chapter 284: God and Believer (3): Even If He Were a Completely Useless Evil God, Would Ulysses Still Keep Believing in Him?

An Ruo followed Ulysses back to the Zerg Federation.

Once again, he confirmed that this really was the world of the novel he had written. Even the main plot hadn't deviated in the slightest.

But where the hell had this setting of Ulysses worshiping an evil god come from!?

An Ruo watched Ulysses seriously handle government affairs, looking perfectly normal, and almost wanted to grab him with his tentacles, shake him, and scream at him, demanding to know exactly where he'd started going off track.

In the end, he still couldn't ask such a thing. He couldn't expose his identity as the author, and without being able to explain that, he had no grounds to question him.

He followed Ulysses around all day, watching him change.

He was still the great villain from An Ruo's book, steadfastly walking his own path, yet that path seemed somewhat different from the one An Ruo had written.

His methods had become gentler, and some things were handled more discreetly.

Rather than confining Male Zergs to their homes and making full use of them, he was now more focused on developing Psychic Soothing devices. For that purpose, he even encouraged Male Zergs to enter the military, research institutes, and similar places to work.

Wait? Encouraging Male Zergs to work? Who?

Ulysses???

Had he somehow gotten former Male Zerg Archon Joshua's script?

An Ruo sprawled across Ulysses's shoulder and poked his head out to watch him process documents, still unable to understand how the plot had turned into this.

Of course, this was unquestionably a good thing for the Zergs.

It was good for Ulysses too.

And therefore, it was good for An Ruo.

He wanted Ulysses to be all right.

As early as when he first discovered that this was a real world resembling his book, he'd wanted to save Ulysses, wanted to change something.

Perhaps he'd had similar thoughts even earlier... Back when he first wrote Ulysses's story, he had imagined another path for him.

It was simply that everything about the Zerg world in the novel had destined Ulysses to walk toward that final dead end. An Ruo had never been able to find a way to break the stalemate.

But now, Ulysses had broken it himself.

Although An Ruo had yet to see the final outcome, light was already shining through the cracks, and that represented new possibilities.

Why? How had Ulysses done it?

The question plagued him.

The Ulysses before him was like one enormous mystery, making An Ruo itch with curiosity and want to dig deeper into him.

As though sensing something, Ulysses turned his head toward him and asked, "Would you like to partake of me?"

As he spoke, he glanced at the light screen, looking somewhat troubled.

"I still have some work on hand right now..."

An Ruo's entire body turned bright red, even the motes of light flickering across his consciousness changing color with his emotions.

It was only after spending time with Ulysses recently that he'd learned he could even change colors.

[No! I just wanted to... look at you.]

An Ruo hurriedly explained.

He did want to delve deeper into Ulysses, but not that kind of deeper. That was far too deep, and far too intimate.

Just remembering it made An Ruo feel as though his consciousness couldn't take it.

Ulysses lowered his eyes in disappointment.

He was the one who had said he still had work to do, yet he was also the one disappointed after being rejected.

An Ruo even began wondering whether Ulysses had once been hurt too deeply and become so disappointed in Male Zergs that he'd lost interest in all of them and shifted his sights to an evil god instead.

After so many days together, the way Ulysses interacted with him didn't really resemble an evil god and his believer. It was more like lovers, like a pair of Zerg lovers.

They spent every waking moment together. They shared the same bed. Ulysses almost never asked him for anything in terms of "divine power." He indulged him in everything, and whenever he looked at An Ruo, his expression was so gentle that he hardly seemed like himself.

If Ulysses didn't still occasionally call him "God," An Ruo might have misunderstood his own identity.

Oh, and like a fanatical believer, he loved offering himself to him.

An Ruo curled his tentacles around himself, and the red that had only just faded from his body rose again.

Fortunately, Ulysses couldn't see him or his colors.

Ulysses kept his gaze fixed on the light screen, the tips of his ears slightly hot. It took an extraordinary degree of self-control not to turn around and look toward where his god was.

Their minds were connected, so sometimes he could sense some of the god's excessively intense emotions.

Even without that, the formidable perception of an SSS-rank Female Zerg allowed him to sense certain changes, though he couldn't decipher them. Their psychic connection solved that problem.

Ulysses forced himself to calm down and accelerated the pace at which he processed his work.

Once he finished all this, he could go to the lounge and focus entirely on wearing down his god.

Ulysses glanced at the number of documents remaining below. Sometimes even he felt that there was simply too much work requiring his personal attention.

He thought of Cassian and the others and, after some consideration, assigned them additional work.

Latest intelligence on the rebels... search perimeter... target's hiding place... Underground District... execution plan...

While An Ruo was spacing out, he caught sight of several words and instantly snapped to attention.

He hurriedly extended a psychic tendril to get a closer look at the contents displayed on the light screen before Ulysses.

It took him a while to connect what he was reading with the hazy memories of the plot from his book.

Although he couldn't remember it very clearly, this was definitely one of Ulysses's investigations into key members of the rebel forces.

And then there was the distinctive location, the "Underground District." This had to be the incident where the protagonists were forced to hide in the chaotic Underground District, after which readers of the original novel nicknamed them the "sewer-rat little couple."

It sounded funny and lighthearted, but for the protagonists, it had meant repeatedly hovering on the brink of death.

Those days were probably the most miserable period the Male Zerg protagonist and Female Zerg protagonist had ever endured. Every day, they could only take turns sleeping for half a star-hour at a time, which was an enormous strain even for Zergs. Their feelings for each other also deepened rapidly as they went through life-and-death situations together...

For the plot of a novel, this was a necessary development.

But it wasn't necessary for the An Ruo of the present, and even less so for the protagonists themselves.

He looked nervously at Ulysses, agonizing over how he could persuade him to spare the protagonists.

Seeing that Ulysses was about to sign the document, An Ruo hurriedly wound his tentacles around him and hugged his hand.

Ulysses turned to look at him with apparent confusion and asked softly, "Do you think something is inappropriate?"

Inappropriate? Of course it was inappropriate!

He couldn't let Ulysses walk the old path of the great villain again!

Besides, the Ulysses of this world had already changed, and now there was An Ruo himself, an outside factor who had never existed in the book. No one knew what kind of butterfly effect that might cause or how much the plot might deviate. What if the protagonists went from being "on the brink of death" to actually dying?

At the thought, An Ruo's entire being tensed. Countless psychic motes flickered across his invisible, transparent tentacles as he rapidly considered his wording.

There were two plans in the document. One was essentially an extermination order that left no room for mercy. The other was comparatively indirect: investigate them covertly, with capture as the priority.

In the original novel, Ulysses had issued the death order—dead or alive.

The tip of An Ruo's tentacle curled.

He decided to push things in the other direction.

At least that option seemed relatively safe.

[I think... since these are important figures within the rebel forces, they must know a lot of internal information about the rebels, so capturing them should be the priority! Capture them alive first, then follow this lead and investigate further to uncover the whereabouts of the other rebel members!]

An Ruo declared righteously.

"Oh? Capture?"

Ulysses savored the word, the corner of his lips curving into a smile.

"Surprisingly, you're only asking me to 'capture' them rather than demanding that I spare them?"

[Huh?] An Ruo froze slightly, sending his confusion and explanation through his Psychic Power. [They're your enemies, after all.]

From Ulysses's perspective, there was absolutely nothing wrong with him being enemies with the protagonists.

In fact, it wasn't even Ulysses who had chosen to become their enemy.

The protagonists had chosen to become his.

A smile entered Ulysses's silver eyes as well, and he said with certainty,

"Very well. I'll capture them and hand them over to you for judgment."

An Ruo: [???]

How had he gotten dragged into this?

Was this a test?

Was Ulysses testing his identity as an evil god?

An Ruo was completely bewildered.

But then he remembered that in the original novel, the protagonists had survived even while repeatedly hovering on the brink of death. If the order was only to capture them, surely they should still be able to escape, right?

Most likely, An Ruo wouldn't actually have to face that problem.

An Ruo sprawled back across Ulysses's shoulder, withdrawing the tentacles that had been wrapped around him.

This time, however, Ulysses refused to let him leave.

He obviously couldn't touch An Ruo, yet he still made the motion of gripping his tentacle.

An Ruo instinctively stopped as well, as though Ulysses truly had caught his tentacle in his hand, taking hold of his consciousness and soul along with it.

Ulysses lowered his silver eyes toward him. For a moment, An Ruo couldn't understand the emotion within them.

"You care too much about them... Helios, and that Male Zerg. It makes me feel jealous," Ulysses said softly.

An Ruo went blank, unable to understand where this jealousy-like remark had come from.

But then he realized that Ulysses had accurately spoken the protagonist's name.

The realization nearly made his fur stand on end.

What was going on?

At this point in the timeline, Helios's identity shouldn't have been exposed yet!

He had always operated under a codename and had been extremely careful about concealing his identity. The Federation's Zergs only knew the codename he used within the rebel forces. They didn't know his actual name or personal information.

If Ulysses had known all along, how could Helios possibly have kept jumping around right under his nose for so long?

Once the genuinely SSS-rank great villain made a move, it didn't matter whether this was early-, mid-, or late-story Helios—Ulysses could slap him straight into the ground with one blow. If he didn't end up embedded all the way into the planet's core, it would already count as Ulysses holding back. Afterward, he could simply pick Helios up, haul him back to Capital Star, and throw him into the Military Region Prison.

So what exactly was going on now?

Even though An Ruo knew it was normal for reality to deviate somewhat from the novel, he simply couldn't understand a deviation this enormous.

It didn't even make logical sense!

Ulysses sensed the Psychic Power bristling throughout the entire room. Confusion flashed briefly through his eyes before he cautiously asked,

"Do you dislike it when I'm jealous of other Zergs?"

It was perfectly normal for Male Zergs to dislike excessively jealous Female Zergs.

But Ulysses remembered that on the aircraft when he went to pick his god up from prison, he had failed to restrain himself and revealed a little of his feelings toward Helios. Instead of getting angry, his god had seemed delighted, moving over to sit close beside him and gently explaining things and comforting him.

He had thought his god didn't dislike these occasional little displays of emotion.

But now, his god's psychic reaction put Ulysses on alert.

An Ruo was equally baffled by his choice of words.

[Jealous?]

Ulysses lowered his eyes, concealing the emotions within them, and said quietly,

"Helios is your favorite..." protagonist, "so it's difficult for me not to care about your favoritism toward him. But if you dislike it, I won't do it again."

He wouldn't show it again.

He would simply conceal his emotions more carefully.

An Ruo only half understood what he was hearing, but eventually managed to piece everything together according to his own interpretation.

The protagonist of the original novel, Helios, was also one of his believers!

As his devoted believer, Ulysses cared that another believer was receiving more of his attention!

Everything made sense now, but the whole book was about to collapse!

So in the real world outside the book, the conflict between Ulysses and Helios was actually a religious war?

A battle over who was the evil god's most favored believer?

An Ruo stared blankly.

Then all his strength left him.

He collapsed.

"God?" Ulysses called in confusion.

[Don't call me...]

An Ruo lay limply across Ulysses's shoulder, utterly drained.

[I'm just the Tentacled God of Rushing Deadlines. I'm in charge of writing and updates. I don't have any great divine powers, and I can't really help you with anything. I'm the most useless god there is.]

What he wanted to say was: Ulysses, go find another god to worship.

But after hearing him out, Ulysses thought for a moment and said,

"The God of Rushing Deadlines, in charge of updates... I understand. I'll immediately have someone draw up regulations for Federal websites requiring them to update according to your will."

An Ruo stared blankly.

Create website regulations for him and force authors to update according to a schedule he dictated?

What kind of terrifying idea was that?

More importantly, after learning that An Ruo was merely the God of Rushing Deadlines, Ulysses's first reaction wasn't to abandon him.

Instead, he wanted to help him "spread his faith"?

So... even if he really was such a completely useless evil god, Ulysses still intended to keep believing in him?