Herta looked at Evan with a strange expression.
"...Wait."
"What exactly do you want one of my puppets for?"
"You don't actually have some weird fetish, do you?"
"You just tell me whether you're willing to give me one."
Evan calmly looked back at Herta.
"..."
Herta fell silent.
Every puppet aboard the space station had been modeled after her younger self.
Giving one away wasn't exactly a problem.
Besides...
No one except herself could actually operate one.
After pondering for a long while...
She finally nodded.
"Fine."
"You can have one."
"But if I give you a puppet, you have to promise you'll help me finish the Simulated Universe project."
"I don't mind."
"But..."
Evan narrowed his eyes at the little Herta.
"If I accidentally break your Simulated Universe..."
"You won't come after me afterward, right?"
"Huh?"
Herta blinked.
"...Fine, fine."
"I invited you here to help test it in the first place."
"If something goes wrong, that's part of the experiment."
"The Simulated Universe needs countless rounds of debugging anyway."
"And about the puppet..."
Herta agreed without much hesitation.
After all...
With Evan participating, they now had the perfect test subject.
An Emanator joining the experiment was an enormous advantage for Herta, Screwllum, Stephen, and Ruan Mei alike.
In truth...
They had long wanted to invite more members of the Genius Society.
If Yu Qingtu hadn't disappeared years ago, they would have invited him as well.
Now that Evan had come because of Dr. Chadwick...
There was no way Herta would let such an opportunity slip away.
"The puppet?"
"Never mind."
"I don't want it anymore."
Evan smiled faintly.
The dismissive grin immediately told Herta exactly what had happened.
This jerk...
He was teasing me from the very beginning!
What a complete idiot!
Helping with the Simulated Universe wasn't something Herta could simply force upon him.
Long before arriving at the space station...
Evan had already guessed why Herta wanted him here.
The Simulated Universe existed for one ultimate purpose—
To uncover the truth behind the Aeons.
At least...
From what Evan remembered...
Within the Simulated Universe, even the simulated Aha clearly recognized his true identity.
And yet...
Aha still insisted on treating the Trailblazer as Akivili.
Other Aeons also displayed fragments of genuine awareness within the simulation.
The Aeons...
Mysterious beyond comprehension.
Some had once been ordinary mortals.
Somehow...
They had ascended beyond all imagination.
They were enigmatic.
Omnipotent.
Silent.
Terrifying.
Their mysteries could never be explained in just a sentence or two.
Which was why...
Even before coming here...
Evan had already decided to participate in the Simulated Universe's next upgrade.
Because, strictly speaking...
The Simulated Universe offered something exceedingly rare.
An opportunity...
To meet the gaze of a simulated Aeon.
As a seasoned treasure hunter...
There was no way Evan would miss an opportunity like that.
Especially if meeting an Aeon meant discovering another extraordinary treasure chest.
At present...
The treasure chests he knew of were fairly straightforward.
Wooden chests.
Silver chests.
Golden chests.
Beyond those...
There were the mysterious Diamond Chests.
Not long ago...
He had also obtained the Lost Genius Treasure Chest belonging to Dr. Chadwick.
Who was to say there weren't even higher tiers waiting to be discovered?
A true treasure hunter never stopped searching.
Even if whatever he found wasn't especially useful...
It still made an excellent collectible.
Take the Byakugan, for example.
It was practically useless to him.
The power level was simply too low.
Besides...
Chakra and Path energy were fundamentally different systems.
There was no comparison between the two.
Of course...
Those thoughts remained inside Evan's own head.
But what Herta actually heard...
Was something else entirely.
An icy chill suddenly spread through the room.
The massive hammer in Herta's hand radiated freezing cold.
Then—
She swung it straight at Evan.
"...!!"
"You stupid idiot!"
"You absolute moron!"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The hammer rained down again and again.
Evan merely felt repeated impacts.
Not a single blow even scratched his skin.
Clearly...
Herta wasn't trying to hurt him.
Otherwise...
As both a Genius and an Emanator, injuring him wouldn't have been difficult.
The only complaint Evan had...
Was that she really didn't need to keep spinning in circles every time she swung.
"Y-You..."
"You..."
"Next time don't reinforce yourself with Path energy!"
"I'm going to smash you properly, you idiot!"
"Hey, Shorty."
"I'm supposed to be your partner now, remember?"
"This is how you treat your collaborators?"
Standing nearby, Screwllum finally spoke.
"I must agree."
"Herta."
"Your behavior is inappropriate."
"One should not treat a collaborator in such a manner."
"You..."
"You too, Screwllum!"
"You're an idiot as well!"
Screwllum looked genuinely puzzled.
He knew Herta's personality well enough.
She flared up quickly...
And calmed down just as quickly.
The four founders of the Simulated Universe argued constantly over research.
But none of those disagreements ever lasted long.
After all...
They were all geniuses.
Herta's Office
Arguably one of the safest offices in the universe.
At least...
According to Herta herself.
Before them stood an enormous quantum computer.
The heart of the Simulated Universe.
It resembled a gigantic eye...
Silently watching every Genius present.
The sight alone was awe-inspiring.
"The place I want you to investigate this time..."
"...lies during the era of the Emperor's War."
"Or, more accurately..."
Herta looked at the Simulated Universe with a puzzled expression.
"A massive blank region has appeared inside the simulation."
"We can't interfere with it."
"We can't even observe it."
"And yet..."
"The simulation continues functioning perfectly."
Screwllum continued the explanation.
"According to records preserved by the Candle Ink School..."
"The blank region corresponds to a period following the Second Emperor's War."
"It is referred to as the War of Schools."
"But whenever we attempt to observe it from outside..."
"All we see..."
"...is a chaotic Unknowable Domain."
The Candle Ink School?
"Knowledge shall become the opening chapter of death."
"Blood shall stain every page."
Evan had heard of them before.
Screwllum had even mentioned the organization while discussing the future Divergent Universe on Penacony.
The Candle Ink School differed greatly from both the Genius Society and the Intelligentsia Guild.
They deciphered the whispers of Finality.
They concluded that the Crimson Dirge foretold a declaration of war against the IPC.
After learning fragments of the future...
The school fractured into three separate factions.
The first consisted of the original core members.
They believed knowledge should continue serving all life.
They eventually followed the path of the Omen Vanguards.
The second group became terrified after learning the future.
Unable to accept fate...
They embraced Enigmata, rewriting history itself.
Their representative was the Candle Ink scribe,
Fomenko.
The final faction accepted the future as inevitable.
Rather than resisting...
They devoted themselves to preserving knowledge for generations yet to come.
Their representative was the Candle Ink archivist,
Oppenheimer.
From that point onward...
Not a single member of the Candle Ink School continued to follow the Path of Preservation.
"So..."
"This isn't actually about helping research the Simulated Universe."
"You want me..."
"...to repair that missing region?"
Evan looked at both of them.
"Exactly!"
Herta's eyes sparkled with excitement.
"Isn't it a fantastic idea?"
"You're a Genius."
"You're also an Emanator."
"There shouldn't be any problem entering the simulation."
Looking at Herta's eager expression...
Evan couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
Does she really have no idea what's hiding inside that Unknowable Domain?
If the gap truly corresponded to the War of Schools...
Then someone had deliberately hidden that entire section of history.
Which actually fit perfectly with Herta's lifelong research.
Ever since achieving fame...
She had pursued one thing above all else—
Knowledge Singularities.
The concept had originally been proposed by Lierta, the twenty-second member of the Genius Society.
Lierta theorized the existence of a unique cognitive threshold.
An infinitesimal probability...
Only attainable by an absolute genius.
While ordinary scholars merely interpreted phenomena...
Crossing that threshold meant touching the very essence of Erudition itself.
Countless geniuses had devoted their lives to pursuing Knowledge Singularities.
Most disappeared forever into the mist beyond the edge of the known world.
Even so...
Many members of the Genius Society continued chasing them.
Not out of ambition.
But because...
They were geniuses.
Herta was one of them.
Originally...
She had planned to enter the Unknowable Domain herself.
But now...
With Evan here...
Everything changed.
She no longer had to go alone.
She had someone to accompany her.
"So?"
"How about it?"
"It won't just be you."
"I'll be going too."
"The two of us together..."
"We're both geniuses."
"I refuse to believe we can't repair that Unknowable Domain."
"What do you think, Evan?"
Herta looked at him expectantly.
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