After the old priest left, Hao Ren nodded at Lily and the others. He then took a signal amplifier out of his portable space and placed the badge on the amplifier's receiver. That way, the encrypted signal from Olympus could be broadcast directly, and he could even use the badge's limited communication bandwidth to faintly sense what was happening on Mount Olympus.
The first few calls disappeared into the void without the slightest response.
Lily's ears twitched. "Is Apollo not home?"
Heiserana thought seriously for a moment. "Maybe his phone's charging."
Hao Ren: "...You two, stop fooling around."
Since the conventional calls were useless, Hao Ren had no choice but to activate cheat mode. He forcibly broke through the badge's functional restrictions, treating it purely as a signal-transmission device, and began listening for movement on the other end of the communication channel.
At first, the signal amplifier only transmitted meaningless static. But as Hao Ren continuously fine-tuned the device's frequency, faint other sounds seemed to emerge from the interference. Gradually, voices and roaring sounds began coming through the device.
Encouraged, Hao Ren further strengthened the signal's filtering and amplification in the direction he had adjusted earlier. Finally, a clear shout suddenly rang out: "...Ah! I'm bleeding all over the floor!"
Then there was complete silence.
The room instantly fell very quiet. The four of them stared awkwardly at one another, and the most embarrassed of them was clearly Hassu—though his expressionless face made it impossible to tell what he was feeling. Lily shot the old hunter a sidelong glance. "What was that about?"
"...'I' seem to have just killed Apollo," Hassu said strangely. "All right, at least we can confirm the situation on Mount Olympus now. The historical 'I' have already led troops to break through Olympus's rear defenses. The