Leaving Cheng Yu aside for the moment, the fat old man and the cloaked mechanical girl only rose shakily after Grete had taken Cheng Yu away.
The fat old man muttered to himself,
"The Beyond One. Definitely The Beyond One-and one even stronger than our leader."
Indeed, he had never believed Cheng Yu's claim about being the World-Destroying God. After all, to those who knew supernatural powers existed, destroying the world was a trivial feat as long as you were strong enough.
The fat old man would never forget how, when the leader first approached him, he had been effortlessly subdued despite being covered from head to toe in equipment made with the most advanced technology of the time.
He looked at the cloaked mechanical girl and asked,
"It looks like we'll have to relocate."
The mechanical girl shook her head.
"It's no use. We still have no idea how he learned our highest-level code phrase. Rather than expose more, we're better off leaving things as they are."
After pondering for a while, the fat old man nodded slightly, agreeing with her assessment.
Then he asked,
"So, why did you come to see me again?"
The mechanical girl said softly,
"I wanted to tell you that, aside from the general manager being fired, there have been no personnel changes at the company. We still don't know who the mysterious buyer who acquired 52% of its shares is. Never mind their age or gender-we don't even..."
At this point, the mechanical girl gave the fat old man a slightly scrutinizing look and said,
"Know whether they're a living being or an AI."
The fat old man looked at the mechanical girl and asked gravely,
"What are you getting at?"
The mechanical girl withdrew her gaze and continued, seemingly changing the subject.