AR-214... Reveria, swept up in a surge of emotion, pulled 'Little Herta' into a tight embrace and twirled her around several times.
Fortunately, she remembered that Herta was still standing right there.
Refraining from doing anything more, she set 'Little Herta' down and simply pulled her close to snap a short clip with an old camera.
"The space station robots helped me fix this broken camera. This is the very first video it's recorded. Hehe~"
After leaving behind those cheerful words, Reveria skipped away, radiating joy.
Herta, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke up.
"You're quite the charmer, aren't you? I don't recall you being such a smooth talker before."
"...What do you mean, 'charmer'?"
'Little Herta' turned to look at her, planting her hands on her hips.
"I haven't even settled the score with you for slandering me and calling me a blockhead yet!"
"Hah, who's slandering whom? Hurry up and get over here. Look at what's running in your Simulated Universe."
Herta seemed uninterested in dwelling on the topic. Instead, she urged the other to come over and examine the data that had just finished processing.
"I just wanted to see if Xipe would react to shifts in mortal power the same way Nous does."
"And so you decided to interfere using Fuli's identity?"
"Well, it just seemed more convenient..."
Herta shook her head and sighed at the response, though she eventually said, "I have one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which do you want first?"
"The good news."
"Even though your simulation failed, Xipe's reaction was very interesting. Combined with the intelligence Gopher Wood brought, I think the next simulation event can be set during the Swarm Disaster."
"And the bad news?"
"If you want to calculate anything in the Simulated Universe from now on, I'm afraid you won't be able to use the Fuli account anymore."
Herta raised a finger and poked 'Little Herta' on the forehead.
"Huh? Why...?"
"This Simulated Universe is too realistic. Your movements didn't just startle the simulated Xipe; the other simulated Aeons have noticed that there's something different about Fuli. Especially that annoying fellow."
Herta looked at 'Little Herta'.
Every simulated Aeon inside now realized one thing: Fuli would interfere with matters within the Simulated Universe in an anomalous way.
It wasn't that they would actively sabotage Fuli's actions.
Rather, once they realized this, any presets or arrangements made under the guise of Fuli would draw their collective gaze.
Then, they would introduce a massive number of variables into the project being calculated all at once.
If that happened, it would be impossible to get the desired calculation results.
To Herta, this didn't really matter. Aside from 'Little Herta', no one else used the Fuli identity when logging into the Simulated Universe.
They had always viewed Fuli as nothing more than the simulation's stability program.
Only this dummy habitually logged in and naturally took over Fuli's account without ever remembering to switch.
But to 'Little Herta', it felt like the sky was falling. She genuinely found the Fuli account to be both convenient and easy to use...
"No way... have the simulated Aeons in there really evolved to that point?!"
"Isn't this exactly the effect you wanted? Don't start thinking about slacking off now that things have come to this."
Even Herta was quite surprised by the development, as the efficiency of the Aeons' evolution within the Simulated Universe had exceeded expectations.
However, Herta and Screwllum believed it was due to the influence of "Reality Mapping" brought about by the Memetic World.
Essentially, when the Simulated Universe used the power of Remembrance to map reality, memories related to the Aeons were mapped in as well, catalyzing the iterations of these simulated Aeons.
"...I didn't expect it to reach this level so quickly either."
'Little Herta' scratched her head.
"Alright, since it's a good thing, stop wasting breath. Let's talk about what you plan to do next."
Herta leaned against the console, raising a hand to tip her hat.
'Little Herta' walked over and looked up at her. "I thought you already had an idea?"
"Tch, I'm not fond of being led by the nose. Expecting me to realize that winged old man's dreams? Even a daydream isn't that bold."
"..."
'Little Herta' was speechless. If you're so unwilling, why even come? You clearly want her to do the work while you just "reap the benefits"!
"Then why did you make a special trip over here?"
"I was just checking to see if you'd been swindled by that old man."
Herta crossed her arms and gave a soft huff.
While she was interested, she certainly wasn't going to follow Gopher Wood's line of thinking. She had no intention of committing herself just because of a single letter.
"Calling it 'swindled' is a bit much."
"Has that Destiny's Slave you have such high hopes for replied to you yet?"
Just as Herta asked the question, as if on cue, a message from Elio popped up on 'Little Herta's' phone.
She clicked the notification. The content was a message from Jingliu, relaying Elio's words.
[Jingliu: Elio says that unless you stop everything you're doing right now, the Eighth Lord Ravager will always be connected to you. He told you to stop obsessing over it.]
[Nameless: ...?]
[Nameless: So, the suggestion is for me to stop?]
[Jingliu: No, Elio suggests you keep going. This choice isn't necessarily the 'best' one, but it is the most appropriate.]
[Nameless: It's not our first time collaborating. Does Elio have to be such a riddle-monger?]
[Jingliu: ...I'll ask.]
After a short wait, Jingliu's reply came back:
[Jingliu: Because of you, Bai Ming, the 'optimal solution' currently visible might not be the true optimal solution. Since this is already connected to you, it's better to choose the future most closely tied to you. Elio actually thinks quite highly of you.]
[Nameless: I don't quite get it, but thanks for asking for me anyway.]
[Jingliu: It's no trouble. Just be careful. From Elio's tone, it sounds like something big is about to happen.]
[Nameless: I will.]
Standing to the side, Herta finished reading the chat logs and shook her head.
"Only you would enjoy listening to that riddle-monger."
"Which eye did you see me 'enjoying' it with?"
'Little Herta' grumbled as she put away her phone.
Herta rubbed her chin, studying 'Little Herta'. "Still, I'm actually curious now. How could this upcoming Lord Ravager have anything to do with you?"
"Who knows. Maybe Nanook plans to snatch the Swarm I have in my hands."
'Little Herta' shook her head in confusion.
She didn't actually plan to do much.
Study Propagation, try to solve Reveria's Entropy Loss Syndrome, and then use Propagation in the Simulated Universe to try and split Harmony to see what specific state it would result in.
Nanook couldn't possibly fish someone out of the Simulated Universe, right?
But then again, she had no immediate plans to toy with the Swarm in reality. Where would Nanook even find an individual that was a cross between Propagation and Remembrance?
It was all the system's fault; the prompts had her obsessing over this lately.
"Forget it. In that case, I'll just dive straight into studying the Swarm Disaster. Maybe it'll just be born naturally."
Thinking it over, it would be better for this Eighth Lord Ravager to be born right in front of her than in some dusty corner of the cosmos.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL