Chapter 30: Just a slight move is enough to make a genius brain shut down

Brown, shoulder-length hair spread out like a silken veil around a face of exquisite beauty, tinged with an air of noble detachment. The girl wore a splendid black and purple dress.

Only the massive hammer in her hands slightly marred the picture.

This was the true master of the Herta Space Station, member #83 of the Genius Society: Herta.

"Lady Herta! You've returned."

Arlan quickly hurried over to the girl, bowing slightly, relief washing over him as if he'd finally found his anchor.

In the eyes of the space station's members, that petite figure, roughly 1.2 meters tall, possessed a stature and authority few outsiders could fully comprehend.

"Lady Herta!"

The Defense Section personnel behind him let out shouts of excitement and fervent excitement upon seeing her.

"While I'd love to ask why the station ended up in this state after I was only gone for a few months… Asta's little follower, you did well," Herta remarked.

Most of the time, she spoke bluntly. It wasn't that she lacked emotional intelligence, merely that she saw no need to employ it, usually finding it too bothersome to manage these researchers.

But regardless, these followers had fought and been injured protecting her private property. Herta wouldn't begrudge them a small bit of praise.

"Alright, I'm back now, everything's fine. You can all get back to whatever you were doing."

Before anyone could bask in the warmth of her compliment, Herta waved her hand impatiently, shooing away the group that tended to get overly enthusiastic at the slightest encouragement.

"Yes, Ma'am!"

With a unified, deafening roar, the Defense Section members turned smartly and marched off, following Arlan to resume their duties.

"So, you're saying this thing was originally human? Mutated by meteorite radiation?"

Herta tilted her smooth, small chin slightly, indicating the turtle-like Gurongi.

The latter seemed completely dazed, as if hit by a tremendous shock. The Gurongi shook its head, trying to push itself up with its hands.

Duang~!

Stelle acted fast, swinging the baseball bat in her hand. Crystalline blue patterns flowed along it like liquid light—the energy of the Path of Destruction.

She brought it down hard on the Gurongi's head with considerable force!

"Hey, be careful! Don't kill it."

Herta shot Stelle a glare, displeased with her kill-stealing tendencies.

If what the other one—the grey-haired boy—said was true, for a body and genes to change so drastically without the intervention of the Path of Abundance… now that was interesting research material.

It needed to be kept alive.

Called out for trying to steal the kill, Stelle scratched her head, looking sheepish.

Only then did Caelus realize Herta's first question had been directed at him.

"Yes. Apparently, that meteorite possesses a miraculous power that can grant the user's wish."

He vaguely recalled that Kuuga's Linto Stone seemed to have a similar property.

While explaining, Caelus circled Herta with a look of fascination, studying her with keen interest.

The girl's delicate and flawless face looked just like a doll's—well, she was a doll.

Although he'd been transported here before progressing much in the story, Caelus had watched so many fan-made videos that he considered himself an armchair gamer of sorts and had some grasp of these details.

Truly the work of a genius. Ignoring the inhuman joint structure, Herta's puppet looked indistinguishable from a real person externally.

He wondered just how realistic the internals were?

Or, more directly, how lifelike was this puppet?

Wait!

This is…!

As Caelus's gaze shifted from the inset joint at her knee up to that magnificent little face, his eyes, hidden beneath his bangs, suddenly sharpened, pupils focusing with piercing intensity.

He stared intently at the corner of Herta's puppet mouth. Those lips, undeniably realistic, shimmered with a soft, pearl-like luster.

That's right, a shimmer!

A light!

It pulsed like the captivating pink hearts in a succubus's eyes, utterly mesmerizing.

"Grant wishes?" Herta scoffed.

To her, it sounded like the superstitious exaggeration of primitive planet dwellers regarding something akin to a Curio effect. But anything capable of causing biological mutation was likely no ordinary object.

Oblivious to the change in Caelus's expression, Herta's racing thoughts suddenly halted.

Everyone, including the genius Herta herself, froze!

Caelus strode purposefully towards Herta.

As Welt watched in astonishment, Caelus reached out and pinched Herta's cheek.

As March 7th looked on in horror, he inserted his thumb into Herta's small mouth, gently prying her lips apart.

As Dan Heng stood in dead silence, Caelus leaned down, craning his neck, peering into Herta's mouth, forced open by his hand, as if searching for something within.

"Caelus, what are you doing!? That's criminal, you know that?"

Seeing her young companion manhandling a strange little girl, Stelle's expression shifted instantly. She looked like a police officer on a raid, seemingly moments away from slapping handcuffs on Caelus.

However, when she noticed the shimmer on Herta's lips, realization dawned.

"Trea- Treasure chest!?"

"Caelus! I'll help! We split the crystals!"

Without even waiting for Caelus's agreement, Stelle immediately rushed forward, using her own fingers to pull at the left corner of Herta's mouth.

Their thumbs and index fingers stretched Herta's mouth into a distorted square, making it easier for Caelus's fingers to reach inside.

The temperature inside the mouth was normal, some saliva was present, the small tongue was as soft as a real person's…

But Caelus had no mind for such excessively realistic details right now. He thrust his hand deeper into Herta's mouth, forcefully digging something out.

As a youth, she had solved the Lone Gulliver Wave Algorithm puzzle and the Sparkle Model conjecture. As a young adult, she discovered the conversion method for Sigma Baryons. In middle age, she proposed the Herta Sequence and published papers on rejuvenation.

Research breakthroughs that ordinary scientists might take a decade, or even a lifetime, to achieve were, for Herta, like casually flicking on an energy-saving light.

Yet this brain, arguably a treasure of the universe, was currently being completely fried by Caelus, causing a total system crash!

Bewilderment, astonishment, confusion—mostly, sheer incomprehension.

This sudden turn of events was entirely beyond Herta's expectations. Caelus's actions challenged her fundamental understanding of the behavioral logic of intelligent beings.

A deathly silence fell over the space station corridor.

"Herta, you're finally back…?"

"!!!"

"???"

A gentle voice drifted from the direction of the master control zone. Himeko and Asta were walking side-by-side.

Having received word of Herta's return, they had been waiting in the master control zone. When they realized Herta hadn't come there immediately upon arrival but had stopped in an outer corridor, they came looking out of curiosity.

Their elegant steps and words halted abruptly. The bizarre scene made Himeko and Asta freeze instantly.

Stelle and Caelus were pulling at Lady Herta's mouth, digging out her… saliva.

What kind of dream am I having?

Himeko's face was a mask of utter confusion, her mind blank and stalled.

Beside her, Asta's eyes widened, stunned speechless.

She quickly snapped back to reality as if waking from a dream, lightly tapping her temple with a small fist, her face anxious.

"Oh no! Himeko, I've been hit by an Antimatter Legion mental attack! I'm having severe hallucinations!"

Amidst their shock, March 7th, Welt, and Dan Heng felt a distinct churning in their stomachs.

They had personally witnessed Stelle and Caelus rummaging through trash cans, the latter even digging his bare hands through a disgusting mixture of wet garbage and unknown compounds.

Even knowing Caelus likely used some kind of energy shield to block the filth, the visual and psychological impact wasn't diminished.

Now, those same fingers that had dug through trash were probing Herta's tongue.

March 7th felt her bile rising.

Luckily, Herta didn't know what these two had been up to, otherwise…

"Fifteen pieces…"

"Eighteen pieces… there's more!"

"There's still more inside!"

"Pull harder, Caelus!"

Completely ignoring the darkening expression in Herta's eyes, barely visible beneath her bangs, and her face turning as black as the bottom of a pot, Stelle and Caelus excitedly continued pulling out shimmering crystals.

To outsiders, what they treasured as crystals appeared to be Herta's glistening, viscous saliva.

"Thish ish unshufferable?" Herta mumbled incoherently, her words garbled by the fingers moving in her mouth. The immense force pried open jaws she had clenched tight in fury.

"I'll get'chu!"

Herta raised her ornate black hammer high.

Their consciousness abruptly cut out. The last image flashing through Stelle's and Caelus's minds was a purple diamond, a hundred times larger than any crystal.

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