"You trespassed on my private property without permission, disrupted my experiment, and even touched my body! Do you know you deserve death for that?!"
As Herta scolded Lucian, her expression remained terrifyingly calm, yet her voice carried clear fury, like a tigress about to pounce and strike at any moment.
And in fact, that was exactly what she did.
Herta had little patience for strangers, especially those who dared to anger her, so she gave Lucian no chance to speak and attacked right away.
"I'll lock you up and let you reflect on your actions! Not everyone can mess with me!"
Herta's four Magic Mirrors quickly surrounded Lucian, ready to drag him into the world within the mirrors and imprison him.
"Alright, calm down first." Lucian raised his hands. "If you work with me, I'll let you meet your so-called Droidhead."
He really did not want to fight Herta.
He knew she only acted tough toward her enemies but was actually good to her own people, so he preferred to reason with her before resorting to force.
"Work with you? Let me meet Droidhead? Are you right in the head?" Herta scoffed. "Did you think such a lousy lie could fool a genius like me?"
If one listened carefully, the anger in her words was obvious.
Clearly, she was furious that Lucian had interrupted her attempt to meet Nous.
Lucian once again remembered that angry women simply would not listen to reason.
"Alright then, if that's how it is... Disarm."
Because reasoning was now pointless, Lucian no longer bothered to argue and immediately used Disarm.
*Rip!*
In an instant, Herta's clothes burst apart and scattered everywhere—a white lace panty even flew straight at Lucian's face before he caught it.
Even Herta's Magic Mirrors shattered into fragments, scattering across the room.
All of this happened so abruptly.
By the time Herta came to her senses, she realized she was practically naked, completely exposed in front of a crazy man she didn't even know!
"Hiss!"
Herta drew a sharp breath, not screaming, but the sound of her breath was loud enough to make no difference.
What just happened?
Why were her clothes gone?
Now she had been seen naked, completely violated.
Chaotic thoughts raced through Herta's mind, freezing her for two whole seconds.
In those two seconds, Lucian got a full view, committing every detail of Herta's body to memory.
'Soft, pink, and supple all over.'
Lucian could not help but praise Herta inwardly, giving the highest rating.
It was hard to believe this was the body of a woman who had lived for so many years.
Needless to say, the de-aging technology Herta created truly lived up to its name.
In 2.0004 seconds, Herta shook off her scattered thoughts and immediately used her Path's power to conjure new clothes, covering herself.
"You damn pervert! I'll gouge your eyes out!"
Triggered again, Herta was about to attack, but before she could, Lucian calmly pulled out his phone.
"Try anything and I'll do that again, but this time I'll start taking your photos." Lucian threatened casually.
Herta's movements froze.
It did not matter if he had seen her naked—she could simply kill him.
However, if her naked photos made it online, her reputation, her purity—everything would be ruined in an instant.
"Huuhhh..." Herta took a deep breath, suppressing her anger. "All right, speak. Who are you, and what do you want?"
Seeing Herta calming down, Lucian smiled in satisfaction.
"My name's Lucian. I'm here to work with you and also become your friend."
Work with her?
Become her friend?
Herta's lips twitched, and her anger spiked again.
"You—who do you think you are?"
"Work with me? Become my friend?"
"Do you know how many people want to work with me?"
"Who are you, anyway?"
"What gives you the right?"
"Do I need to remind you again? I'm Genius Society #83, Herta—the scholar who solved the mystery of the Imaginary Leakage Phenomenon and the Solitary Waves Theory."
"You think I need to make friends with you?"
"Your handsome face is the only thing you have going for you, and that's it."
"Besides, you just tried to act like a creep with me! Even if I had to jump out this window and die, I'd never be friends with you!"
Herta unleashed a barrage of insults at Lucian, her fury spilling out.
To her, it was like a stranger barging into your lab at a critical moment and, without a shred of shame, demanding to borrow money, completely oblivious to what they had done.
"Is my identity as an Emanator of Abundance good enough?" Lucian asked as he lazily dug his ear.
"Ah, so you're just some leftover of the Abundance? Heh, not even close." Herta let out another mocking laugh.
Seeing Herta so resolute, Lucian felt a bit stuck, since he couldn't really just beat her up to make her accept his demand.
Sure enough, angry women were impossible to reason with—unless you could somehow make them feel satisfied.
Just then, Lucian noticed a device in the corner, projecting a hologram of Nous.
It looked like something Herta had made, modeled after Nous.
'Ah, I got an idea...'
Lucian suddenly thought of a plan, one that would make Herta eat her words and accept his demand.
In the next moment, Lucian turned his back on Herta and glanced toward the hologram of Nous in the corner.
"If you won't be friends with me now, then don't come begging me to be your friend later."
Upon hearing this, Herta looked at Lucian with utter disdain, as if he were a lunatic.
"Beg you? You must be crazy. If I ever have to beg you, I... I must be an idiot!"
Lucian merely nodded and hummed, then gazed at the hologram of Nous before using Disarm on it.
In the next moment, still facing away from Herta with his hands behind his back, Lucian spoke loudly.
"Droidhead, come here! I have a question for you!"
Hearing this, Herta instantly froze.
Was this guy actually insane?
He had just barged in spouting nonsense, and now he was casually asking Nous to come?
"Tch, what are you even pretending for?" Herta scoffed, realizing that the man before her was wasting her time.
What a joke.
Even she, an Emanator of Erudition, could not meet Nous—so what made this nobody, who did not even follow the Path of Erudition, think he could?
*Rumble—!!!*
Suddenly, the space station trembled violently.
Feeling the shock, Herta instantly realized it was a reaction to a surge of energy from the Path of Erudition!
In the next moment, the entire space station vanished, replaced by an endless galaxy.
Now, Herta and Lucian were no longer inside the space station but within the Path Space, and above them loomed a gigantic robot head shining with a blazing red light!
Herta's mouth fell open, her eyes widening in utter disbelief as she stared at the robot head.
She had to admit, this might have been the first time in her life she had ever been this shocked.
More importantly, she knew exactly what this situation meant—the man before her had caught Nous's attention!
Not just a fleeting glance, but true, unwavering focus!
Aeon Nous was about to speak to someone!
'No way... How is this possible... I'm the Emanator of Erudition here, so why...' Herta was shocked to her core, her scalp tingling. 'Droidhead, are you his dad or something? He calls, and you come running to him?'
At this moment, Lucian's back suddenly looked unbelievably imposing in Herta's eyes—bathed in red light, he appeared like a giant.
Unfortunately, before Herta could say anything, Lucian suddenly disappeared, and right after, Nous vanished as well.
"What...?" Herta stared in disbelief. "Did they... Did they go off to chat in private...? Without me...?"
Realizing this, she became agitated.
"Hey! Friend! Where'd you go?! Friend?!"
Unfortunately for her, no one answered.
What she did not know was that Lucian had not gone to have a private chat with Nous but had instead entered a character script.
Earlier, when Lucian used Disarm on Nous's hologram, just like what had happened to Seele, it also affected Nous THEMSELF, making THEM lose a piece of the metal layer of THEIR body.
However, since Nous's body was just a culmination of energy, it did not really matter because THEY could regenerate it again.
What mattered was that when Nous were struck by Lucian's Disarm, THEY naturally traced the source to figure out what was going on, and that was how THEY noticed him.
Nous tried to analyze everything about Lucian, but were unfortunately blocked by the Godly Script System.
As a result, Nous tried to imprison Lucian and examine him more closely, but just then, the script's cooldown finished at the exact moment.
Fearing Nous would get angry and obliterate him on the spot, Lucian immediately activated the script and vanished.
[Random character script starting...]
[Castorice]
[Randomly drawing a conceptual ability...]
[Godly Bandage: Consumes life force to produce 'bandages.' Anything completely wrapped in these bandages (living or non-living) will be 'restored' to the 'prime state' as recognized by the user.]