Time rewound to just a little while earlier.
"...So, what the hell is that thing floating out there?"
The Herta stared, utterly baffled, glancing between the instruments inside the spaceship and the pink-haired girl currently "drifting" outside.
Common sense dictated that without any protective gear, even a powerful Pathstrider would find it tough going in the vacuum of space.
According to the ship's radar scans, the pink-haired girl outside didn't seem to be carrying any equipment besides the clothes on her back.
So, following normal logic, Herta could easily conclude this girl must be a remarkably capable Pathstrider.
Heck, she was most likely one of those Abundance Path folks.
After all, aside from those "plant-people" and their insane regenerative abilities, who else would treat cosmic radiation and extreme temperatures like bath salts?
But here was the problem. According to scans from another observation instrument on the ship, the girl drifting in space was completely, utterly ordinary, no different from a regular human from Herta's homeworld.
So now, Herta was faced with a situation: either one of her two ship instruments was malfunctioning, or her common sense was flawed, or there was something seriously wrong with that pink-haired girl outside.
She didn't even need to think about it. Herta set the ship to hover mode, opened the hatch directly, and prepared to go out for a closer look herself.
It wasn't that she was being reckless.
As an Emanator of Erudition, there were certainly beings in this universe who could end her in an instant, but they were exceedingly rare.
Besides, before leaving the cabin, she'd specifically slipped on a pair of black lace gloves, equipped with a compact detection system of her own design. As long as she could make physical contact with this pink-haired girl, Herta could quickly rule out one of the three possibilities.
With that thought, Herta slowly drifted toward Lynelle's body.
"Looks like she's unconscious... Let's get a little closer."
Closing the distance between them a bit more, Herta examined Lynelle's form carefully.
"Race: Human. Pink hair. Physical state appears to be just post-adolescence. Height barely scraping 1.6 meters. Weight and physical indicators all normal... Weird. By all appearances, she really does seem to be an ordinary human..."
Herta frowned slightly. At this range, even without the detectors, she could analyze the girl's physical condition perfectly clearly. The thin layer of clothing was just as she expected, offering zero protection against the space environment.
"Maybe... I should bring her inside first?"
Thinking of a certain other pink-haired individual on the Astral Express, Herta pondered for a moment, then reached out to pull the girl back into the ship.
'What if this one's related to that March 7th? Their starting situations are a bit too similar, after all.'
However, right at that moment...
The girl in space suddenly opened her eyes.
"You are...?"
"Huh?"
Herta was stunned.
When she'd first reached out, she hadn't detected any signs of the girl waking up. How did she just suddenly spring back to life?
Moreover, Herta was certain—the instant the girl saw her, an unmistakable look of sheer delight flashed in her eyes. It was the kind of joy someone lost in an endless desert would have upon spotting a merchant caravan on camels, like she'd just grabbed a lifeline.
Unfortunately, the girl's delight was short-lived.
Before she could even finish her sentence, the time inside her body, which had seemed almost frozen, resumed its flow. And then... she turned into a firework.
Herta touched the red droplets splattered across her face, her expression darkening.
"...Whose idea of a sick joke is this? Or is some organization trying to provoke me?"
She felt an inexplicable anger.
Sure, as a member of the Genius Society, Herta's value was worlds apart from that of an ordinary person. But, just as a certain 'mutually-assured' mecha-bro once said, conscience played a pretty significant role in Herta's life.
One needed only look at the nineteen times she'd saved her homeworld from various apocalyptic crises to see that.
And this girl before her, though a complete stranger, had clearly seen Herta as her savior just moments ago... and then, without any warning, had died right in front of her.
This was undeniably a provocation aimed directly at her.
Whoever it was, if they dared to use a life to play such a twisted joke on her, they were going to pay the price.
A wand appeared in Herta's hand. She intended to preserve a sample of the "girl's" bodily tissues, to take back and investigate the clues slowly.
After all, while she wasn't exactly a specialist in biology herself, being the socially well-connected type among geniuses, she did have a friend who was "moderately accomplished" in the relevant fields.
However...
Another anomaly occurred abruptly.
Under Herta's instantly frozen gaze, the previous "puddle" of Lynelle rapidly reassembled itself, like a tape playing in reverse, reforming into her pre-explosion state, as if trying to say "let's just pretend that never happened."
"How amusing..."
A smile curled at the corner of Herta's lips.
It had been so long since she'd encountered something that piqued her interest this much.
--+--
"Holy crap, what did I just see?!"
Lynelle's eyes snapped open.
'Must've gotten up too fast—saw The Herta spawning in space!'
"Mmm..."
Perhaps because of Lynelle's sudden movement, Sirin, who was lying on her chest, stirred slightly, startling Lynelle into holding her breath and freezing. She waited until the purple-haired loli in her arms sank back into deep sleep before starting to recall the scene she'd just witnessed in space.
'No doubt about it, that was definitely The Herta. I've only seen her in the game, but I couldn't possibly mistake her…'
'But if that's the case, then the other world I'm connected to is Star Rail... But aren't Honkai and Star Rail in the same universe? Does that mean the other world I went to is actually the future?'
'Ugh... never mind, let's not think about that for now. Ever since I crossed over, my memories from before have gotten a bit fuzzy. I need to properly recall the Star Rail plotline…'
Maybe it was a side effect of the transmigration or something else, but Lynelle's memory of the Star Rail storyline was like pencil writing partially erased by a rubber—stuck in a state between clear and blurry.
Luckily, her daily routine involved either being tortured on the lab table or playing dead in a cage, so she had plenty of time to reminisce about the plot.
However...
[Ding... Host has met system activation conditions. System commencing operation.]
[Detected host's physical contact with "Herta." Character Card "Herta" added to the Character Pool.]
[Detected host's physical contact with "Herta's Lace Gloves." Gloves added to the Weapon Pool.]
[Detected...]
In a slightly—no, a very—familiar and delightful voice, Lynelle stared dumbfounded at the screen that suddenly lit up before her eyes, and the stream of notifications popping up on it.
"What? I have a system all along?"
"No, no, no, no, that's not the important part right now..."
Ignoring the content on the screen for the moment, Lynelle found it hard to believe.
"System, why does your voice... sound so much like Kiana's?"
[Greetings, Host.]
The system didn't directly answer Lynelle's question.
[Customer Service Rep Kiana-chan is at your service.]
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.