As a prodigy unquestioned by the world, she rarely felt such a visceral awe at another's talent.
After all, to most people, members of the Genius Society themselves are the most outlandish footnotes to the word 'talent'.
A genius sighing at another genius's aptitude always sounds like trying to lift oneself by the bootstraps—odd and self-referential.
Yet Bai Luan was undeniably an exception.
On her way back to her lab, she ran into Screwllum.
Screwllum keenly caught the rare, lingering emotion on Ruan Mei's face—something that had yet to fully fade.
Geniuses seldom wear such expressions, and even less so when the one wearing it is Ruan Mei.
In Screwllum's eyes, Ruan Mei meets everything with detached calm.
Seeing her like this piqued Screwllum's curiosity, and he asked what had happened.
Ruan Mei didn't hide it; she shared her discovery with him.
"Logic: I had assumed his expertise lay solely in machinery, yet surprisingly he also had accomplishments as an Biologist."
Hearing this, a flicker of surprise crossed Ruan Mei's eyes.
An unexpected bonus, it seemed.
She hadn't paid much attention to Bai Luan's mechanical pursuits—only heard a few rumors.
Screwllum's analogy, framed in her own field, made everything instantly clear.
Now both of them arrived at nearly the same thought.
"I'm curious how he does it—and even more curious why he chooses to, just because we asked?"
"On that, I believe I have a different answer."
Ruan Mei looked at Screwllum, curiosity surfacing on her face.
"Statement: His decision to aid our project is not always born solely from our request.
Partly, it's because our research benefits his own—just as we were drawn together by the simulated universe."
"So, Screwllum, what do you think his real topic is? The birth of life?"
Ruan Mei offered her hypothesis.
Whether turning inorganic machines into Automatons or conjuring vibrant organic life from nothing,
both touch upon life's emergence.
"That summary may miss the core."
Screwllum pondered for a moment:
"I believe the crux isn't organic versus inorganic, but that, to him, it is a life worthy of respect."
Following his reasoning, Ruan Mei continued:
"So his inquiry isn't the birth of life, but… how one should regard life?"
This time Screwllum nodded, voicing his approval:
"Affirmative: that is the question he explores, and… he has already answered it through his actions, showing the stance he takes toward life."
Screwllum looked at Ruan Mei and said:
"Logic: perhaps on this point we have long lagged behind him.
We still chase answers along our separate tracks, while he seems to have completed that core inquiry into life's meaning and attitude, and lives by that answer consistently."
Ruan Mei fell silent for a moment, scenes of her acquaintance with Bai Luan flashing through her mind.
She spoke slowly:
"Perhaps we should never have been surprised by his talent."
"Query: what makes you say that?"
"Think carefully."
Ruan Mei's tone was calm.
"Since we met him, he has always met our expectations; the most disappointing reply we ever got was merely a leave slip.
And a leave slip doesn't mean inability—only 'i don't feel like doing it right now'."
"Put that way, the past does seem to bear it out."
"We may never have truly gauged the ceiling of his 'gift'. We habitually measure him by the borders of our own knowledge, yet he steps past those borders with ease, time and again."
She paused, half-jesting yet half-serious:
"Who knows—if I walked up and asked him how to create an Aeon, he might hand me a feasible, even meticulously detailed plan."
"Frankly, Ms. Ruan Mei, to me such a demand of an individual life has reached the point of asking the impossible."
"I know."
Ruan Mei inclined her head slightly.
"So it was only a joke."
Screwllum looked at her, surprised, and Ruan Mei, catching his reaction, said:
"Seems the joke didn't land."
"No, I'm merely surprised."
Ruan Mei raised an eyebrow at him:
"Making jokes… didn't you do it too?"
Screwllum offered an elegant bow, neither denying nor confirming:
"Statement: perhaps that is one of the interesting changes he brings us."
The two exchanged a look, then tacitly ended the topic and went their separate ways.
Bai Luan still doesn't know that a quirky tradition is forming inside the Simulated Universe Project Team.
At the moment he is deep in Pokémon research; under his drive their numbers keep climbing, and the lab grows ever more crowded.
That forces Bai Luan to consider how to house these Pokémon properly.
The best way, naturally, is to find a suitable planet and remodel it from scratch according to their ecological needs, crafting an exclusive homeland.
Bai Luan could do it; it just takes time.
Right now the quantity and variety are far from enough to support a full planetary ecosystem.
Dump them onto a world in this state would only end in gradual extinction.
Much like ill-considered 'mercy releases,' seemingly good, but in truth deeply unethical.
So, until numbers and species reach a certain scale, they can't be placed on a planet.
Still, he can start terraforming a world suited to their needs.
Merely keeping Pokémon alive is pointless; he created them in the Honkai: Star Rail World to produce some overpowered combatants.
And Pokémon's true strength lies in trainers and their bonds—without those, their combat power plummets.
Hence… some trainers are needed too.
Looks like he'll have to produce the Pokémon game series as well.
While building the planet, cultivate players; when there are enough, reveal that he has prepared a real Pokémon world for them.
Hmm… he believes they'll be thrilled to join in as trainers.
Remodeling a planet isn't hard—just like when he refitted Hippolyta before; it only takes time.
But Bai Luan is short on time; the curios Amphoreus needs are still nowhere to be found, so neither the Pokémon games nor the terraforming can get much of his attention.
Hmm… seems he needs some help.
After a moment's thought, a suitable candidate surfaced in his mind.
Who could be more fitting than Hyperion?
He is both a seasoned game designer and has experience in planetary remodeling.
Leaving the task to him should pose no problem.