"You're going to the Herta Space Station?"
In a quaint room steeped in the cultural atmosphere of the Xianzhou, Old Yang, who was in the middle of informing Himeko about Caelus's encounter with the Masked Fool and discussing it, looked up at the grey-haired young man who had just burst in.
"Right now?"
"Yeah, something urgent came up."
"I see."
Welt picked up a porcelain cup with tea leaves floating in it and took a sip. "Isn't Stelle going?"
He knew that Stelle and Caelus often helped Herta test the Simulated Universe, and that Herta herself was very interested in them. The two of them always acted together.
"She's not needed for this part. I'll be back as soon as I'm done, though I'm not sure how long it'll take."
"Alright." Welt nodded. "Be careful, then."
It was just the habitual advice of an older person to a younger one; there was certainly no danger to be found on the Herta Space Station.
"Uncle Yang, you don't trust me?"
Welt fell silent for a moment.
You're the one I'm worried about!
He would be at ease even if Little March went to the space station or a previously explored planet alone. The only two who made him uneasy were Stelle and Caelus; their talent for stirring up trouble was truly remarkable!
"Well, Uncle Yang, I'm off. You can tell everyone later."
Caelus leaned in close to Welt and Himeko's communicator. "Wubba lubba dub dub, Big Sis Himeko~"
"I heard everything. I'm adjusting the docking Domain Anchor so you can use it directly when you return."
Himeko's gentle and soft voice came through the communicator.
The Astral Express was currently docked at a port on the Luofu. The distance between the Xianzhou and the Herta Space Station was not short, and real-world anchors weren't as convenient as in a game where you could teleport at will.
The Domain Anchor had a limited range. Even the Express needed several days of travel and two hyperspace jumps to get within range; under normal circumstances, a single teleport was impossible.
An extra-long-distance teleport would consume a large amount of [Trailblaze] energy, but they wouldn't hesitate to use it when necessary.
"Oh right, Uncle Yang, be careful with Tingyun. Something's wrong with her. Something is nine-out-of-ten, or maybe even ten-out-of-ten, wrong with her."
Caelus had originally planned to tell Old Yang about the Lord Ravager Phantylia replacing Tingyun, but since the real Tingyun was on the verge of kicking the bucket at any moment, he decided to first go help the imprisoned damsel in her revival match.
"Are you sure?"
"Nine out of ten" made Welt's thoughts stutter for 0.14 seconds, after which his expression grew solemn.
"Positive!"
Caelus snapped his fingers casually. "She might be the Lord Ravager Phantylia in disguise."
"Pfft—!"
Hearing this, Old Yang, who had been calmly sipping his tea, did a spit-take, staining his long grey coat with moisture.
*Cough, cough, cough!*
Wiping the corner of his mouth, Old Yang had no time to worry about the tea spilled on his clothes. He snapped his head up to look at Caelus, his brown eyes wide with disbelief.
"What did you say? A Lord Ravager?"
What was going on?
How did an Emanator of Destruction suddenly pop up?
"I'm only 99% sure right now, not a hundred percent."
A question mark popped up over Welt's head. What was the difference between being 99% sure and being completely certain?
"Anyway, let's not alert the enemy for now. I'll explain in detail when I get back."
Caelus was still relatively at ease about the situation on the Xianzhou. Although he didn't know the official plot, he knew from fan works that Phantylia was related to the Ambrosial Arbor.
As long as they didn't expose Phantylia's disguise directly, she surely wouldn't cause a major incident so brazenly.
There was one thing Caelus couldn't conclude, however: was Phantylia the one who brought the Stellaron to the Xianzhou?
If she was, fine. But if not, didn't that mean someone else was hiding in the shadows?
Not that it mattered to Caelus. The more the merrier!
Having dropped a bombshell on Old Yang, Caelus left the inn, hailed a rental starskiff at the nearest stop, and headed for the port where the Express had landed.
"Driver, to Cloudford," Caelus said as he boarded the private starskiff.
"You got it, young man. But the Cloudford area has been restricted for a few days now."
"Just get me nearby! Driver, can you step on it? My wife is cheating on me in Cloudford!"
Caelus's face was a mask of fury, his golden eyes seemingly burning with a rage that could incinerate the adulterous pair.
The old driver's pupils quaked. Catching... catching a cheater!? There was drama afoot!
"I get it! Hold on tight, young man~!"
The old driver slammed the throttle lever all the way to the top, and the starskiff's speedometer shot past 400 mph.
He steered with one hand while madly honking the horn and weaving past other skiffs.
Faster, faster, gotta make it in time for the best part.
"You have exceeded the speed limit. Please present your medical insurance card..."
...the starskiff's navigation system announced.
A journey that should have taken an hour and twenty minutes was completed by the driver in under fifty.
"Young man, need your big bro here to help?"
Upon arriving, the driver eagerly volunteered his services, looking every bit the helpful Xianzhou citizen selflessly aiding his fellow man.
"No need, thanks, big bro. You were a little slow. They already got away."
Caelus tossed out a line that would give the driver insomnia for half a year, make him wake up in the middle of the night just to slap himself, and inspire him to furiously practice his starskiff piloting skills, before sauntering off.
The chaos from the Stellaron crisis in Cloudford had not yet fully subsided. The area was still under lockdown, with ordinary tourists and residents forbidden from entering.
The shadow at his feet rippled like the surface of water. Caelus slowly sank into the kingdom of black shadows, using the shadow world to enter silently and head straight for the Express.
In one of the train cars, Caelus saw Himeko researching the world of Trailblaze gastronomy: coffee-boiled chicken with sweet and sour deep-fried bananas.
The sight made Caelus suck in a cold breath. He didn't dare disturb the fully focused Himeko, afraid he wouldn't make it off the train alive tonight.
Using the adjusted Domain Anchor, he made one super-long-distance jump and several short ones.
The journey was smooth, and he arrived peacefully at the Herta Space Station, which was orbiting a sapphire-blue planet.
"You got here fast."
In the least mysterious office in the entire universe, Herta sat behind her desk with her arms crossed, looking unhappily at the grey-haired boy who had just walked in.
"That eager to see Ruan Mei?"
Herta felt a bit annoyed.
Previously, whenever she had asked Stelle and Caelus to test the Simulated Universe, those two had made her beg, and they'd even made her call them "daddy" a few times. Not that a few words of pleading meant anything to Herta, who had long since optimized away her sense of shame.
But comparisons are odious.
Didn't Caelus's attitude make her, Herta, seem like some random stray on the side of the road?
"Darling, don't be jealous. I'm not cheating on you. You're my most beloved treasure~!"
Caelus took out a Herta puppet and hugged it, snuggling and kissing it and lifting it high.
Herta: "...?"
"I know you're beyond cure, but I still find it difficult to understand what logic you used to arrive at that conclusion."
Watching the Herta puppet being hugged, kissed, and gnawed on by Caelus, Herta showed not a trace of shame or embarrassment. Instead, she hummed confidently and said:
"I am Herta. For someone as perfect as me, isn't it only natural that I'd be your favorite?"
"Yes, yes, yes, of course! Miss Herta is the cutest in the universe~!"
Caelus made no attempt to hide his sincerity and affirmation.
"By the way, was it true what you said before about Ruan Mei coming to the space station?"
"What do you think?"
Herta rolled her eyes. "Do you have any idea how precious my time is? Lying to you would be a waste of *my* time."
"I'm the one who called her over. But don't get too excited. The Ruan Mei coming to the space station is most likely a 'slice.' Don't just look at how I like to use puppets; that Ruan Mei is no better, always tossing out a 'slice' to fool people."
"After you guys broke the Simulated Universe last time, we repaired it and are now discussing whether to start a big new project."
"What kind of big project?"
At the mention of the Simulated Universe, Caelus immediately perked up.
"We're planning to add something new to the Simulated Universe, a brand-new expansion module."
Because she was talking to Caelus, Herta was relatively patient and explained:
"For the next simulation test, I don't plan on loading Akivili's template for you two."
Herta shot Caelus a harsh glare.
Herta felt that the accidents in the previous two tests were inextricably linked to her loading the Trailblaze Aeon template for Stelle and Caelus.
The first time, the two grey-haired kids went joyriding on the Express as Akivili and smashed through Qlipoth's Subspace Crystalline Wall and the Wisdom Starwall, which led to Qlipoth's subsequent rage, the appearance of Aha, and the triggering of some mysterious, unknown code.
The second time, with the Aeon template half-loaded, combined with Caelus's ridiculous antics of drawing Abundance erotica to spread through the Simulated Universe, they managed to lure out Yaoshi.
Without the half-loaded [Trailblaze] Aeon template, the probability of luring out Yaoshi existed, but it wasn't high.
Therefore, the way to prevent the two grey-haired kids from breaking the Simulated Universe was to completely ban their Aeon identity cards and let them attract the Aeons based on their own compatibility with the Paths.
"But if we do that, the two of you won't be attractive enough. I'm afraid that even if we stretched out the time by several hundredfold, it would be difficult to attract an Aeon's attention in a short period."
"So, I plan to fix the Simulated Universe's timeline to a specific historical fragment, narrowing the scope. This method is more helpful for studying a particular Aeon."
Herta tucked a strand of her ash-brown hair behind her ear:
"However, there are too many Aeons, and I don't know which Amber Era to throw you into. Coincidentally, Ruan Mei has some thoughts on this. She seems to be particularly interested in the Aeon of [The Propagation] and suggested we lock onto the space-time period before the fall of the Swarm King, Tayzzyronth."
"The Swarm King..." Caelus mused, sitting in a ridiculously comfortable sofa-chair and enjoying a massage from a Herta puppet.
He vaguely remembered this bug mode in the Simulated Universe, the Swarm Disaster or something. Fan works hadn't mentioned much about its lore, but that wasn't a problem.
"None of us had any objections. Targeting any Aeon is pretty much the same, and besides, I'm actually a little interested in some of the things that happened in the universe during that period."
"In short, after our discussion, we've decided on the direction for the major update."
"So, when can I test it?" Caelus asked enthusiastically.
"The last two times, I had to beg you for so long to come test. Why are you so eager this time?"
Pausing for a moment, Herta looked at Caelus with some suspicion.
"But, you'll have to wait a while. The major upgrade hasn't even started..."
"Since when did you start making empty promises? Is it still just a new folder on your desktop?"
"Cut the crap. Do you have any idea how many resources and how much preparation it takes to give the Simulated Universe a major upgrade?" Herta said irritably.
"I called Ruan Mei here precisely for this upgrade."
"So when is she arriving?"
Caelus asked the key question, handing Herta a cup of tea at the same time. "Here, I specially brewed you some dehumidifying tea."
"Probably soon. She ran out of the ancient beast materials I gave her last time and asked me for more, so I just told her to go get them herself from the material reserve in the Olenji Starfield."
Herta looked at the tea Caelus handed her in surprise. "I appreciate the thought, but dehumidifying tea doesn't work on puppets."
"How do you know it won't work if you don't try it? I brewed this for you myself... And then what? When is she arriving?"
Caelus was very used to carrying on two conversations at once.
"On her way to the Olenji Starfield, it seems she ran into something related to a Lord Ravager, which delayed her a bit... Hmm?"
Herta took a sip of the tea and frowned. "What did you brew this with?"
"Desiccant! The package said it can keep damp puppets dry and in good condition."
Caelus beamed as if expecting praise. "I also added some mothballs to help you with pest control."
Herta: "...?"
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