Welt, carrying Herta's puppet, wandered around the main control segment and finally found Himeko and Asta, who were in the middle of a conversation.
"Hey, Mr. Welt… Oh, why is Lady Herta with you?"
Welt silently adjusted his glasses. "I don't know what's going on either. Lady Herta seems a bit off. After seeing me, she suddenly went offline. Could something be wrong with her?"
"Uh… don't worry about it. With her abilities, there's hardly anything in the entire galaxy that could stump her," Asta said with a smile, adding in her mind, "Except for interpersonal interactions."
Welt set the Herta puppet down and looked around. "Where's March 7th and the others?"
Asta was a bit surprised. "March 7th and the others just went to look for Lady Herta. Didn't you run into them?"
"No."
"That's odd…" Asta twirled her hair with her fingers and glanced at Himeko beside her. "Sister Himeko, any ideas?"
"They just went to check on the Universal Synthesis Machine. Don't worry, they might have run into some new issue, but they'll manage."
…
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
Arlan, with a greatsword slung over his shoulder, had light armor covered in fine cracks. It was hard to imagine what kind of brutal battle he had just endured.
"Big Bro Arlan, you were amazing today! You single-handedly cleared out an entire segment's worth of Legion constructs. I roughly counted, and it's gotta be over a thousand!"
"Big Bro Arlan, with you here, we'll probably clear out all the remaining Legion forces in the space station in just another day and a half!"
"By the way, the [Company] recently sent people to ask Big Bro Arlan to shoot an ad. Something about promoting their latest bulletproof vest."
"What? Doesn't the Company always focus on economic efficiency? Big Bro Arlan's super cool, but he's not that famous, is he?"
"Hey, you must be new to the Security Department. Big Bro Arlan was personally trained… er, I mean, mentored by the Station Commander. He's top-notch in everything—music, chess, calligraphy, painting, sports, morals, arts, storytelling, comedy, singing… He even used to be a star!"
"What? I didn't know that! Big Bro Arlan was in movies?"
"…Enough, we'll talk about this later."
Arlan said calmly, and the group of underlings behind him immediately fell silent. Clearly, Arlan commanded great respect within the Security Department.
Arlan knew now wasn't the time to relax. Although they had dealt with the Legion constructs near the safe zone, at least two-thirds of the area was still out of control.
The priority was to report to the Young Lady in person and unlock wartime equipment access to continue the cleanup mission.
"Hm?" Arlan suddenly noticed a few familiar figures. Near the closest Universal Synthesis Machine, three figures—yellow, pink, and green—were crouched down.
Helpers from the Astral Express?
Arlan thought for a moment and decided to greet them. "Hey, you guys doing alright…"
"Huh?"
The green robot turned around, a question mark flashing on its large head screen. "Anything I, Cosmic Warrior, can help with?"
Arlan: …
Maybe I'm just too tired and mistook them for someone else…
"Eh? Arlan?"
A muffled voice came from the nearby Universal Synthesis Machine. Stelle's cheeks were puffed out. "Wan' some?" (You want some?)
Next to her, March 7th's cheeks were also stuffed full, looking adorably like a little squirrel.
Dan Heng, on the other hand, was eating at a leisurely pace. All in all, the sight of the three of them gathered around a Universal Synthesis Machine, munching away, felt… off.
"…What are you guys doing?" Arlan asked, stunned.
"Uh… eatin' cake," Stelle said, her words garbled. "Want some?"
"Why are you eating cake here?" Arlan asked, puzzled.
At that, the three of them froze. Dan Heng reacted first, wiping his mouth with a napkin, acting as if nothing had happened.
Stelle and March 7th exchanged a glance. "Oh no, weren't we supposed to bring this to Lady Herta? March, this is your fault! You insisted on tasting it, and now we've all forgotten the main task!"
March 7th swallowed the cake in her mouth with effort and huffed, "…Didn't you guys forget too?"
"For the record, I didn't forget," Dan Heng said, opening a gift box. "I ate after packing the cake."
"You're looking for Lady Herta?" Arlan seemed to remember something and pulled out a USB drive. "This is her delivery. I just managed to salvage it. It probably contains extremely valuable research data. Please pass it on to her for me."
"I need to report battle losses to the Young Lady, so I'll head off now. See you later."
Stelle took the USB drive. "Oh, got it. See ya."
"Time to get to work," Dan Heng said seriously. "Let's go to Lady Herta's office."
…
Beep beep beep.
Boop—
Beep beep beep.
Boop—
Beep beep beep.
Boop—
…
Stelle stared blankly at Dan Heng as he repeatedly entered the wrong password. "What are you doing?"
"Trying passwords," Dan Heng replied without looking up. "For some reason, Lady Herta changes her office password often, so we have to try a few times."
"Uh… isn't that gonna take forever?"
"Probably not," Dan Heng said. "Lady Herta's passwords usually follow a 'pattern.'"
"Explain."
"For example, the first password she set was the birthday of Herta Puppet 001."
"Got it," Stelle said, realization dawning. "So the second password would be Herta Puppet 002's birthday."
"Exactly. But I don't know how many times she's changed it, so we'll have to test them one by one."
"But how do you know the birthdays of these Herta puppets?" Stelle asked.
March 7th pulled out her phone and opened her social media feed. "Every time a new Herta puppet is created, Station Commander Asta drags the puppet along for a photo and posts it online. She even splurges on a big birthday party… though 'big' is relative to us."
In the photo, Asta's radiant smile had a hint of mischief, while the Herta puppet covered its face with both hands, desperately shrinking to one side.
"That's… quite the contrast," Stelle remarked.
Beep—
After a dozen or so tries, the door finally unlocked. The three entered the office, only to find it empty.
"Lady Herta?"
March 7th called out softly, but there was no response.
"Did Herta step out?" Stelle wondered.
"Actually, we've been in this situation before, and it turned out Herta almost never leaves. She's probably just hiding in some corner," Dan Heng said with a sigh. "Let's look around, but don't startle her."
Stelle casually placed the USB drive Arlan gave her on the desk and looked around. Finally, behind a projected portrait, she spotted a suspicious figure.
"Lady Herta?"
Stelle called out tentatively, but the figure didn't respond.
Dan Heng and March 7th approached as well. The three exchanged glances, silently agreeing on a plan. They surrounded the figure from three directions, and then—