"Question: Holou… who is that?"
The young goddess, waking groggily from her slumber, blinked her eyes.
She did not struggle against Su Mo's hand, nor did she show any surprise or resistance. With a blank expression, she simply asked the question.
"Holou is your name," Su Mo replied.
"Incomprehensible. Who am I?" the young goddess blinked again, posing another of philosophy's ultimate questions.
To this question, however, Su Mo immediately gave an answer.
"You are my pet." At least, in terms of their divine relationship, that was the case.
Holou, the God of Doubt, was a god born from questions. Her existence was far more ancient than the War God Artosh, predating all other known Old Deus.
At that time, she didn't know what she was or why she was born.
So she created the Ex-machina to try to solve her own doubts, but they failed to satisfy her. In the end, she even doubted her own existence.
Believing that she could confirm she was alive through death, she pierced her own Divinity and fell into a state of inactivity.
She had remained that way for an unknown amount of time, until she was rediscovered by Su Mo.
Holou, who had allowed herself to fall into slumber, had no ability to resist. Although her strength surpassed that of Kainas and Ocain, for Su Mo, she was easier to deal with.
He only needed to slightly interfere with her Divinity to subjugate her and successfully capture the young goddess.
At this answer, even a young goddess as dazed as she was realized something was wrong.
"Denial. I do not know you, nor am I a pet." She shook her head.
"Who are you?" Su Mo asked, using her own words against her.
"Puzzlement. I do not know," Holou shook her head. She had fallen into slumber because of the answer to this very question; how could she possibly answer it now?
"If you don't know, then I have already told you. You are my Vassal God." Su Mo repeated the answer and directly mobilized Holou's Divinity through the power of their contract.
Sensing the connection between Su Mo and her Divinity, the young goddess's eyes suddenly widened. After checking several times, she finally dared to believe it.
"Inquiry: Are you truly my Master God?"
"Of course." Su Mo nodded without hesitation.
Receiving this affirmation, Holou's eyes lit up. Her gaze toward Su Mo became eager, and the previous distance in her attitude vanished. It was as if… as if she were a young girl who had finally found her father.
Strange. With her strength, it shouldn't be difficult for her to see that this divine contract was a later addition by Su Mo.
Knowing this, her attitude toward him should be, at most, like Ocain's—more in awe of his power and status.
But her expression was completely different. It was like a fledgling seeing its parent for the first time, her eyes instantly becoming dependent and eager.
"Confirmation complete. The concept of the divine essence is deeply bound. You are indeed my Master God!"
"Request one: Master God, please tell me, why was I born?"
"Request two: Master God, please tell me, what is a heart?"
"Request three: Master God, please tell me, what is a pet?"
"Request four…"
A string of questions poured out without pause. The young goddess's eyes sparkled as she stared at Su Mo, awaiting the answers from her Master God.
Seeing her like this, Su Mo finally understood why Holou didn't question their relationship. To confirm her own existence, she had found her answer by piercing her own divine essence. Since she could sleep, it meant she had been awake before, which meant she was indeed alive.
If she was alive, then where did she come from?
Su Mo's existence naturally gave her a stable answer: she came from her Master God. If the previous Holou could not confirm what was herself and what was others, the connection between Su Mo and her divine essence directly confirmed her identity and position in this world.
That was the Vassal God, or pet, of the Master God Su Mo.
Holou's fundamental doubt came from the ambiguity of her self and her place in the world.
With the appearance of Su Mo as her Master God, this proposition was excellently buffered.
She no longer needed to study the relationship between herself and the world; she just needed to study the relationship between herself and Su Mo to solve all her doubts.
Su Mo acted like a relay station. All her questions about the world would be answered by him, her Master God. She only needed to be clear about her relationship with him. In a way, Su Mo had indeed taken on a parental role.
Understanding this, Su Mo was not impatient, nor did he find the young goddess's chatter annoying.
He immediately began to answer her questions in high-speed divine language that she could understand.
Although the language system itself had its limitations, as long as those limitations were taken into account, universal answers could be obtained.
"First answer: The reason for the birth of an Old Deus is often a prayer. To this day, no exception has been found."
"Second answer: A heart is the internal reflection system of external activities. I will explain this later."
"Third answer…"
Holou's questions were enough to make any Flügel collapse, but Su Mo's answers came faster than she could ask.
For Holou, who even doubted the definitions of concepts themselves, every answer from Su Mo brought more questions, but these questions were quickly filled with more explanations, each one an answer the Ex-machina could not provide.
Therefore, even as her questions multiplied, her eyes grew brighter and brighter, and her attitude toward Su Mo became more and more affectionate.
The long communication lasted for the better part of a day.
At first, only Azriel had plugged her ears and chosen to sleep. Later, even Jibril, a Flügel, couldn't help but yawn, feeling her head was stuffed with too much information, completely numb.
She couldn't understand why this god had so many endless questions, why she was so serious about such unimportant things. Were these strange concepts really that important?
Compared to Holou's strange obsession, she admired Su Mo's patience even more. To be able to answer such miscellaneous questions for so long—as expected of her Master!
It wasn't until the sun had set and the evening glow filled the sky that Su Mo stopped answering and asked Holou, who still wanted to continue, "Do you still remember the second question?"
"Search successful. The second question was 'what is a heart'!" Holou answered without a moment's pause.
"I said before that I would explain later. Now is the time." Su Mo finally spoke. "Just now, you asked over a hundred thousand questions, and I gave you over a hundred thousand answers. But you produced over a million more questions, correct?"
"Affirmative. Yes!" Holou nodded.
"All the doubts and thoughts produced by my answers, including all the fluctuations of thought that make you want to continue asking questions now, that is your heart." Su Mo gave a summary answer.
"The way you ask questions may be wrong, and the answers you get may also be wrong, but the fundamental driving force to seek answers itself is the best proof of your heart's existence."
To produce a mind that abides in nothing. He had a slight understanding of Buddhist theory.
"Chaos. My reaction itself proves my existence?" Even Holou was a bit confused now. If she didn't react, did that mean she didn't exist?
Seeing her confusion, Su Mo corrected her. "The reaction itself is just your thought. What determines that you will react is your heart. It is neither thought, nor non-thought."
This time, Holou was completely trapped. After pondering for a long time, she looked up at Su Mo with pleading eyes.
"Understanding failed. Requesting a simpler explanation."
Faced with this request, Su Mo naturally would not refuse. However…
"Why should I help you?" Su Mo asked.
"Warning. Because I am your pet. Is the Master God denying this relationship?" Holou immediately became nervous, looking at Su Mo like a father who was about to abandon her.
Despite being a god abducted by Su Mo, she was the one who was afraid he would run away.
It was hard to say who was taking more advantage of whom. In any case, Su Mo was her Master God, so he had to be responsible for her.
This was her basic line of thought, and also the reason she was so close to him and accepted all his explanations without reservation.
In her eyes, everything was uncertain, except for the connection between Su Mo and her divine essence, which was absolutely certain.
"Very good."
Receiving this answer, Su Mo's taming work was complete. It was not easy to educate this curious baby to the point of obedience. However, the gains were also great.
"Since you are a pet, you should also fulfill a pet's duties, should you not?"
"Accepted. The Master God's request is reasonable. What do you need me to do?" Holou quickly agreed with this logic.
"Do you remember the retainers you created before, the Ex-machina?" Su Mo went straight to the point. "I need you to recall all of them."
"Accepted. Order received."
A god has the most basic control over their creations. For Holou, this was not difficult.
At Su Mo's request, a total of thirteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-five Ex-machina, including a certain scrapped analysis unit, all appeared before him.
Unlike the reaper-like Flügel legion, the Ex-machina legion before them was more like a torrent of steel.
For the Ex-machina, Holou's existence was too distant; they had no corresponding data in their databases. But after the Master God appeared, the protection from a god immediately made them confirm Holou's identity and offer their loyalty to their long-awaited Master God.
"Question: Can you answer my question now?" After gathering the Ex-machina, Holou immediately looked at Su Mo, like a child asking for candy.
"Not yet." Looking at the Ex-machina legion before him, Su Mo shook his head. "Before we put them to use, they need to be modified a bit. Otherwise, they won't be able to meet the requirements."
The computational power of the Ex-machina was indeed good, but compared to the information volume of a divine realm, it was still far too lacking. To be a significant boost to Su Mo, they needed to be personally modified by him.
"Besides adapting their magic affinity, their computational power needs to be increased to at least the level of a second-generation quantum computer."
With that thought, he beckoned to the small analysis unit that had been disconnected from the main network due to an error.
"Come here. Let me see your body's structure."
"Yes! This unit's designation is Analysis Unit Schwrath—"
She, who had been allowed to reconnect to the Ex-machina network, was about to state her full name but was interrupted by Su Mo.
"Correction. From now on, your name is Schwi. Can you lift the power core on your chest?"
"Acknowledged. This unit's name is now Schwi. Power core is open." The petite Ex-machina accepted the command from the Master God's Master God.
"So this is the structure… The Ex-machina's self-evolution system has this kind of structure?"
Su Mo, who was disassembling one for the first time, immediately became interested and began to investigate it carefully.