"Teacher… I'm glad you're okay."
Zhuxing's voice trembled slightly.
Lin Yi immediately sensed something strange about her mood.
Naturally, he couldn't blame her for the headbutt earlier that had completely ignored any sense of restraint.
He rubbed her head gently to comfort her.
"What's wrong, Zhuxing?"
"We've only been apart for a short while."
Tears shimmered in her eyes.
"Teacher, you lied to me again…"
"I was really worried about you."
Lin Yi gave an awkward laugh.
"Well… I really didn't expect Polka Kakamu to return so quickly for a second assassination attempt."
"In the past I would send you away when things got dangerous because I was worried about your safety."
"But now you're also an Emanator of Elation."
"I can't ignore such a powerful ally."
"This time was truly an accident… I misjudged the situation."
"Besides," Lin Yi continued.
"You know all the messy defenses I've set up in this lab."
"With such a short amount of time, how could anything happen to me?"
Zhuxing fell silent.
The intense emotions she had displayed upon seeing Lin Yi slowly subsided.
This was also one of the side effects of the Path of Elation.
All emotions became extremely intense.
But it wasn't entirely a bad side effect.
Strong emotional fluctuations made her highly resistant to Nihility.
She could probably even walk up beside IX and take a photo with it—then leave unharmed.
Perhaps the power of Elation had some kind of special advantage against Nihility.
After calming down slightly, Zhuxing spoke again.
"Teacher…"
"It's already been three months."
Lin Yi froze.
"Three months?"
"You're not joking?"
He grabbed her head and bent down so they were face to face.
Zhuxing had grown up under Lin Yi's care—and with Aha constantly encouraging mischief.
Even though she was usually well-behaved, occasional pranks weren't unusual.
But after looking into her eyes—
Lin Yi knew.
She was serious.
He fell silent briefly.
"Tell me what happened."
"From the beginning."
Zhuxing nodded and began explaining carefully.
"After I escorted Sister Qiqing to Clear Sky Cloud Sea, I left the area."
"When passing through the spatial distortion caused by the Void Barrier Phenomenon, I noticed that the Anti-Kakamu Protocol you had installed in the laboratory had activated."
"So I immediately rushed back."
"But for some reason, the spatial gates of the Warp Nexus wouldn't open."
"Even the spatial tools you gave me stopped working."
"I had no choice but to travel there through conventional means."
"But when I arrived outside the laboratory…"
"I discovered a massive temporal cliff had formed."
"It was like a giant rift separating the inside and outside of spacetime."
"The internal and external timelines were no longer synchronized."
"The flow of time was different."
"I tried multiple times to cross the temporal fracture."
"I attempted various methods to break through the rift."
"But all of them failed."
"There was also an extremely powerful energy field inside the laboratory."
"The energy level was terrifying."
"It indirectly stabilized the temporal cliff."
"No matter what I tried, I couldn't get close."
Zhuxing became emotional again while recalling the events.
Lin Yi pulled her into a brief hug.
"I'm fine. Relax."
She nodded and continued.
"Later, Great Herta arrived."
"She had been working in Herta Space upgrading the Simulated Universe."
"When she noticed that Polka Kakamu's portrait had been overwritten by a memetic virus, she immediately understood the situation—just as you predicted."
"Professor Screwllum was there too."
"They contacted Ruan Mei."
"They paused the Simulated Universe mid-upgrade and used it to analyze abnormal data."
"Screwllum used the backdoor authority on his scepter to temporarily access Laplace's Demon."
Zhuxing glanced at Lin Yi.
But his expression remained completely calm.
Backdoors were normal.
If Lin Yi had designed the system, he would have left several himself.
Just like Herta's Simulated Universe, which had long since been infiltrated from every direction.
"Using the computing power of Laplace's Demon and its proximity advantage…"
"They combined forces."
"With the Harmony Feather you sent earlier…"
"They corrected the abnormal universal constants modified by Polka Kakamu."
"Kakamu had altered three universal constants."
"First — π (pi)."
"Second — the Chaos Constant in the Gödel–Cooper Algorithm."
"Third — an unnamed constant related to spacetime curvature transformation."
"Herta and the others believe the change to π was one of the keys to Kakamu's mobility."
"As for the other two constants, they still haven't figured out her purpose."
Lin Yi nodded, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"So that explains the spacetime inconsistencies I sensed earlier."
"And the difference in time flow between the inside and outside of the lab…"
"I suspect the spacetime curvature constant affects Kakamu's relative time flow compared to the outside world."
Though he called it speculation—
His tone was completely certain.
"That would allow her to move at speeds that appear like teleportation to outside observers."
"Even with the entire star system around Shenxiao Space City sealed and frozen, she could still perform pseudo-teleportation."
"That also explains why I didn't detect any spatial fluctuations when she moved."
"The modification of π and the spacetime curvature constant together formed her mobility system."
"One for long-distance movement."
"One for short-distance movement."
"As expected of a Genius Society member."
"Terrifying."
Although Lin Yi spoke calmly—
He suddenly found the situation slightly amusing.
All those elegant, lightning-fast movements Kakamu made earlier…
Were actually performed in slow motion within her own altered time frame.
No wonder her relatively average physical body could display such incredible agility.
Geniuses relied on brains, not muscles.
Seeing her fight like that earlier had felt strangely out of character.
Lin Yi summarized calmly.
"Fortunately Herta and the others acted quickly and corrected the abnormal constants."
"Screwllum probably also used some method to stabilize the system and prevent Kakamu from modifying additional constants."
"Please thank them for me."
"No… actually…"
"It would be more sincere to express gratitude personally, wouldn't it?"
A voice suddenly spoke from the doorway.
Interrupting Lin Yi.
A tall woman walked in.
Her figure slender.
Her clothing style reminiscent of a mysterious magician.
It was Herta.
Or rather—
Herta's true body.
Lin Yi hadn't expected her to come personally.
"As you can see," she said calmly.
"This is my real body."
"Out of courtesy…"
"Shouldn't you also use your real body when speaking with me?"
Lin Yi replied calmly.
"Apologies."
"My real body isn't convenient to move right now."
"But Herta… what brings you to my space city?"
Herta crossed one leg.
She sat sideways on a floating key-shaped magic staff that appeared out of nowhere.
"I arrived three months ago."
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