Haha.
Bai Luan laughed, a hint of helplessness in his voice.
A faint, barely-alive, corporate drone aura emanated from him.
Just as Herta in the Little Black Room had said, Herta truly spent seven days solving the problem of containing the Stellaron.
Afterward, she left some Herta Puppets to manage the Herta Space Station, then came here and knocked on his door.
Normally, people would avoid difficult problems like the plague, but Herta, this genius, had a unique way of thinking.
She didn't have many major hobbies in life, just loved solving little problems.
A genius problem-solver, that's her.
"Do you have any other good ideas? Tell me, quickly!"
"Ms. Herta, I've already told you, I don't wish to interfere too much with your destiny."
"I'm not asking for specific details, just for you to point me in a direction."
Herta said, arms crossed, dismissively:
"Don't think I can't guess the true purpose of you leaving a Stellaron containment project at the Herta Space Station."
"Uh... I said..."
"Cut the act."
Herta interrupted impatiently, a knowing, cold smile playing on her lips.
"I'm not asking you to spoil the script of destiny, just to throw out a direction."
She took a step closer, an invisible pressure surging like cold tide.
"Since you've opened this door, do you think your 'destiny cannot be spoken' excuse can still fool me?"
Bai Luan was pushed against the corner, shrinking slightly, a sheepish grin on his face.
Geniuses are truly not easy to deal with...
Coming up with a problem isn't hard, but coming up with a problem that Herta would find interesting to solve is very difficult.
After all, she is a woman who has even defeated time; it's hard to imagine anything in this world she can't conquer.
Ugh... Bai Luan had a huge headache.
Everything was just as Herta in the Little Black Room had predicted; sure enough, the person who understood Herta's personality best was only Herta...
Herta's personality?
Herta Puppet?
Herta Puppet possessing Herta's personality?
Suddenly, Bai Luan had a flash of inspiration.
"Ms. Herta,"
He took a deep breath, speaking with a desperate, probing tone.
"Perhaps... we could introduce some 'variables' into the core code for manufacturing the Herta Puppet?"
"Oh?"
Herta's eyebrows arched ever so slightly, the sharp, inquisitive light in her eyes instantly replaced by intense interest.
She said nothing, merely gestured with her eyes:
Continue.
Bai Luan composed himself, organizing his words:
"You are flawless, that is beyond doubt.
But precisely because of this, perhaps we can use this point to inject some controllable, non-destructive 'random parameters' into your 'perfect clones'—the Herta Puppet.
Allowing each activated puppet to have subtle, unpredictable shifts in its core personality..."
He paused, observing Herta's reaction, and seeing no impatience, he continued to present the core bait:
"This way, you will be able to see and hear firsthand—how Herta under different 'possibilities' would think and act.
Then, you can ask these 'selves' under 'variables': 'What should I do next?' The answer... will surely be very interesting."
After saying all this, Bai Luan looked at Herta somewhat nervously.
Although this was something Herta did in a character PV released by miHoYo in his previous life.
But since he came to this world, whether everything was still running along the previous track was an unknown.
What if?
What if Herta found it boring?
"It really is more interesting here; it was right to come back from the Herta Space Station early. Truly worthy of this genius."
"Yes, yes, yes, Ms. Herta, unparalleled in the world."
Bai Luan breathed a sigh of relief, echoing her words.
This difficult hurdle was overcome.
Since Herta was interested in this matter, she should be busy with it for the foreseeable future.
Excellent, he successfully diverted Herta's attention from himself to something else.
"Oh, right, there's one more thing."
"There's... there's more?"
Bai Luan's recently settled heart leaped up again.
She wouldn't ask him for more good ideas, would she?
He wasn't some master of creating excitement; how could he have so many good things to create for her every day?
"Don't worry, it's nothing major."
"That's good."
Bai Luan sighed in relief.
"How did you create that pile of oddities?"
"Cough, cough, cough!"
Herta's single sentence caught Bai Luan off guard, and he immediately started coughing, looking at Herta in disbelief.
His eyes were full of, 'How did you find out?'
"You didn't really think you could hide it from me, did you? Check here, check there, it's easy to trace it back to you."
Facing Herta's question, Bai Luan didn't know how to answer for a moment.
He couldn't possibly say it was an ability given by the system, that he could fold a paper crane and it would turn into a living being, could he?
But from a scientific perspective, Bai Luan couldn't explain it clearly.
Just like that ordinary umbrella that could act as a parachute; whether from its structure or appearance, it was just an ordinary umbrella.
But if you took that umbrella and jumped from a tall building, opening the umbrella mid-air would cushion the gravity, allowing you to slow your descent like a cartoon character and land safely.
The system's power neither adheres to physics nor logic.
How am I supposed to explain this?
Bai Luan, somewhat resigned, said:
"Would you believe me if I said I made them casually?"
Whatever happens, happens.
I'm tired, let it all be destroyed.
"Hmm, as expected."
" ? "
Bai Luan looked at Herta, puzzled.
How did you accept that?
This most absurd explanation, how could you, a genius, believe it?
Wait, it couldn't be...
A bad premonition suddenly surged, Bai Luan's face changed drastically, and just as he was about to speak to remedy the situation, he heard Herta say:
"I truly underestimated you before; you are indeed a genius."
Ah ah ah!!!
It's over!
It's all over!
His earlier self-deprecating remark had become solid proof in Herta's eyes that he was a genius!
Geniuses can indeed invent oddities casually, and even the reasons for their inventions can be very arbitrary.
Thinking about it this way, his oddities did indeed fit the criteria of a genius.
Unconventional appearance, extremely casual purpose, and incredibly profound scientific principles upon closer inspection.
And his remark just now, didn't it indicate that he was a genius who could casually create such oddities!?
A bitter smile appeared on Bai Luan's face.
"Ms. Herta, actually, I have a system, and all my oddities are given by the system..."
『6』
Herta looked at Bai Luan:
"Heh."
Clearly, she didn't believe him.
Damn it, what kind of world is this, where no one believes the truth anymore?
After his attempts to remedy the situation failed, Bai Luan gave up.
Whatever, it doesn't matter anymore.
The more one schemes for something, the more one loses.
This famous quote from a certain blonde famous vampire truly holds water.
Bai Luan despairingly accepted the reality that Herta considered him a genius.
He pretended to be a genius just to stay here, to avoid any major disasters hidden in the background text of the Honkai Star Rail world from finding him, and to lie low until he boarded the Astral Express.
Then he would meet with Stelle or Caelus, follow the main characters, and as long as he didn't court death, he would essentially have a get-out-of-death-free card.
Now it seemed he had played the genius role too well.
Herta's perception of him had begun to shift from a vague, transparent genius to a genius with status.
If one day Herta considered him a peer in the Genius Society, that would be truly fun.
Who knows how much work she would dump on him then!?
Writing base code for the simulated universe? Developing DLC?
Or, if she got interested, forcibly pulling him in as an assistant for her crazy experiments?
Would that still be considered a pleasant daily life?
Who doesn't know that the most dangerous person in the entire Herta Space Station is Herta herself?
No, no, no!
This is the limit!
His genius rating in Herta's eyes could only go this far!
Bai Luan had to make Herta understand one thing in the coming period.
I, Bai Luan, might be a genius, but it's highly unlikely that I, Bai Luan, am *the* genius.
He would use his actions to mold himself into a "Schrödinger's Genius"—always in a superposition of "has a little something but not much" and "occasionally brilliant but lacking follow-through"!
This was a tough, arduous defensive battle for the future of his slacking-off career!
And the enemy was Herta! This cosmic-level genius!
In the cold despair, Bai Luan's eyes ignited with a trace of indomitable fighting spirit belonging to a corporate drone (though the goal of this fighting spirit was to lie flat).
『Working hard to lie flat? Humans sure have a lot of tricks up their sleeves.』