Outside, the sci-fi equipment occupying nearly half the office began belching black smoke, accompanied by the sizzling sound of overloaded circuits from within.
BANG—!
With a sound like rolling thunder, visible sparks erupted, resembling lit sparklers.
"No! My Simulated Universe...!" Herta cried out in alarm, reaching out desperately. Her small, thin figure looked surprisingly bleak and pitiful from behind.
With a sensation like being yanked by a hook through the navel, flipping them head over heels, Stelle and Caelus snapped back to reality, finding themselves standing in Herta's office.
"Whoa! That was awesome!" With a wide grin like a husky that had just run wild, an exhilarated and slightly hyper Stelle cheered, leaping up from the access pod.
Piloting the Astral Express at light speed through the cosmos, smashing through those glass-like walls was incredibly stress-relieving, and even getting hammered by the Amber Lord... How could the word 'exciting' even begin to cover it!? It was even more satisfying than a goblin capturing a saintess!
Compared to Stelle, Caelus was much calmer. He was still processing the wild turn of events, and that last sentence from his System.
It wasn't until Herta, who had been pacing back and forth around the equipment, suddenly tripped (thump!), fell to the floor, and immediately started rolling around, big tears streaming down her face as she wailed, "The Simulated Universe! My Simulated Universe!"
Caelus watched Herta's routine—the pacing, the rolling, the tears—with a sidelong glance, a soft clap, and a silent sigh, thinking her performance was utterly brilliant.
"Herta, have you lost your mind?"
"You're the one who's lost your mind! The Simulated Universe! My Simulated Universe!" Herta shot Caelus a teary-eyed glare before resuming her transformation into a floor mop, rolling back and forth. The staff member on cleaning duty today was in for a treat.
"It's your fault I'm like this...!" Even while crying and rolling, Herta's tone lacked genuine despair; the undertone beneath the wailing was still one of calmness and... excitement.
"The virtual Aeon within the Simulated Universe is linked to the Path of Elation. I don't know exactly what happened, but it seems Aha briefly connected with you just now, and the entire underlying code of the Simulated Universe nearly blew up."
Thunk! The Herta puppet's head bumped against a corner of the equipment with a crisp sound. Thanks to that, her frantic movements finally ceased.
"The pure power of the Path of Elation flowed through the connection between the virtual Aha and you. Because you exited, it spilled out into reality and affected me. Otherwise, why would I possibly be crying and making such a scene?"
Slowly getting up, Herta wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and gave Caelus an annoyed kick. "So, in your eyes, I'm the type to pace, roll around, and cry just because the Simulated Universe had a hiccup?"
As an Emanator of [Erudition], even pure Elation power couldn't affect Herta's true self... but her puppet bodies are another matter. With the Elation energy spilling out originating from Caelus, it's highly likely her actions were influenced by Caelus's own thoughts.
"Nothing to do with me! It was definitely Aha! No way!" He seemed to recall seeing similar scenarios in fan works. But would Caelus really take the blame Herta was trying to pin on him?
Hearing Caelus's denial, Herta chuckled (hehe), her gaze towards him filled with rapidly growing interest. She hadn't expected Caelus to actually have a connection with the Aeon of Elation. Especially since, back in the Simulated Universe, Aha had addressed Stelle as 'Akivili', but Caelus as 'my friend.'
Could this guy be a Masked Fool? That would explain his earlier chaotic maneuvering, which seemed like something out of a brain-dead patient's playbook. The mental state of a Masked Fool isn't far off from psychosis, after all. But even for a Masked Fool, a connection to the Aeon of Elation shouldn't be this strong, right?
Interesting, very interesting! Bringing them here to test the Simulated Universe was absolutely the right call!
"Herta, is it broken? I wanted to play more..." Stelle peeked, looking at the smoking part of the Simulated Universe machine, her small face full of worry. It would be such a shame if something this fun was broken!
Herta glanced down at her purple-black dress, now spattered with tear tracks and covered in dust. She closed her eyes for a moment.
"Huh?" To Stelle's surprise, a desk drawer suddenly slid open. The dirty puppet climbed inside, and a moment later, a brand-new Herta puppet emerged.
"Are you Herta-emon?"
"What kind of weird nickname is that? It's just simple space-folding technology." There were several backup puppets stored in the office.
After the impatient explanation, the new Herta puppet immediately trotted over to the Simulated Universe machine on quick little steps. Her hands flew across the virtual interface as she began checking its status.
"Okay, most components and programs are fine. The problem is just... what? Overload due to excessive instantaneous computational pressure?" The cause of the failure was simple, yet it brought a fascinating, almost horrified expression to Herta's small face.
To calculate the Simulated Universe, she and Screwllum—the Lord of Planet Screwllum and a genius among the Intelligentsia—had invested the resources of several entire planets. The number might not sound huge, but could resources in the hands of geniuses be compared to ordinary planets? If an ordinary planet was an atom, the utilization rate of these resources by geniuses was more extreme than nuclear fusion!
The Simulated Universe possessed enough computing power to support the calculations of civilizations across several galaxies. Its instantaneous processing power could be pushed to levels sufficient to sustain one-seventh of the real universe. It could probably hold its own against Nous online for two seconds, yet it got fried within a single picosecond of contact? What on earth did it try to calculate?
"...What's going on with this section of code? Self-calculating? State unknown? Hey! Stop that!" Deeply engrossed in the Simulated Universe's anomalies, Herta was suddenly poked in the back of the head and spine by two pairs of hands. She slapped Stelle's and Caelus's hands away.
Herta crossed her arms over her virtually non-existent chest. "Well, it's not exactly broken, but there are some issues with the underlying code. We can't continue testing for now." She paused. "However, you two did well. The results from this test are quite remarkable!"
In such a short time, we gathered unprecedented data on Qlipoth and even encountered Aha. Plus, there's this unknown code currently self-calculating in the SU's foundation... that might be even more valuable than the rest!
"I just discussed it with a few partners. We've decided to shut down the Simulated Universe for now, invest more resources into it for an upgrade. But first, we need to figure out what's going on with that section of code..."
Hearing she couldn't play for a while, Stelle's shoulders slumped in disappointment. But when she heard about the upgrade, her face lit up again. An upgraded version will definitely be even more fun, right?
"Alright, you can go now. I'll contact you when it's ready again." Herta flicked her hair with a small hand, making a shooing gesture. From her perspective, giving the puppets to Stelle and Caelus was rather convenient; she could transfer her consciousness to them anytime to summon them for testing.
"You heartless woman, using us and tossing us aside... Next time, you'd better beg me to come back!" Stelle shivered with mock indignation. When will us one-year-olds ever truly stand up for ourselves in this cold, cold world! Only the little puppet's presence offered some warmth. Stelle hugged the Herta doll, nuzzling her own cheek against its small, delicate face.
"Alright, alright, we'll make her beg next time. Let's go," Caelus said, taking the soft, uncannily lifelike hand of his own Herta puppet in one hand, while grabbing Stelle by the collar with the other.
Despite the slight mishaps during the process, the 'Simulated Universe: Initial Test' mission was successfully completed. Seeing the 160 Stellar Jade added to his account put Caelus in a pretty good mood! His original 979 Jade, after finishing the 168-Jade 'Being Researched (Trio)' task and now this 160-Jade 'Duo Test' task, had climbed to 1307! He was less than 300 away from his next 10-pull!
"System, is the Simulated Universe alright?" Leading Herta's puppet with his left hand and holding onto Stelle with his right, Caelus walked towards the office door, asking mentally.
"I just ran a self-check. It seems only a small module got pulled into it. Not a major issue... In fact, it's only beneficial for the Host, no downsides." Now, Caelus could also gain Stellar Jade rewards for completing events within the Simulated Universe. As for the geniuses figuring anything out from that code? Highly unlikely. They would need to find true Elation through the virtual Aeon, and then somehow peek through to the real universe's Aha to even glimpse a fraction of it.
As the pair moved through the space station leading the Herta puppets, they drew a 100% head-turn rate. Staff members witnessing the scene stared wide-eyed, their expressions a mix of shock, horror, and intense envy. Someone even familiarly took out their phone to report to the Security and Medical Departments.
"Ah, yes, it's those two again... No trash cans destroyed this time, but they've targeted Lady Herta's puppets now."
"What!?" A wave of chaos ensued.
Caelus, in his great mood, paid no attention to the commotion. Stelle's steps were also particularly bouncy and cheerful.
"We're back!" Stelle dashed (thump thump thump) into the Master Control Zone, holding out the Herta puppet and shaking its little hand triumphantly. "Look! I brought back a great treasure!"
March 7th: "???"
Dan Heng: "..."
Himeko: "..."
But the one undoubtedly most impacted by this scene was the space station's master herself. Asta stared blankly at Stelle and Caelus fiddling with and showing off the puppet. After holding it in for a long moment, she managed only a single word:
"Huh?"
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