Conductor and Dr. Mei had originally intended to let Dr. Newton observe from the sidelines. Conductor held extremely high expectations for Dr. Newton.
Despite her current lack of professional knowledge—despite acting like a bit of a simpleton—there was no denying that she was also a once-in-an-era genius, standing shoulder to shoulder with Dr. Mei, Vill-V, and Dr. Mobius.
If Dr. Newton could be nurtured and allowed to grow, humanity's hope of defeating the Honkai would increase by another fraction.
However, this proposal was firmly vetoed by Expert.
Expert could already imagine just how troublesome Dr. Newton would be if she were present.
She recalled the days in her Helixcraft workshop—Newton lying atop operating machinery, using gears as a massage chair while asking questions nonstop:
"Why is this screwdriver shaped like this? Why can't we use a fork instead?"
"Heave-ho! Why is this machine so heavy? I can't lift it. Can I take it apart to see what's inside?"
"This buzzing thing sounds so lively. Can we use it to send telegrams?"
"Why are there so many game consoles in the workshop?"...
In short, if it was something that could be asked about, Newton would ask—once, at least. It didn't matter whether it was common knowledge or something beyond her understanding.
At first, Expert did have a method to deal with her. She dumped a pile of theoretical materials on Newton and told her to study them herself.
Expert had assumed Newton would be occupied for quite some time.
Instead, before long, Newton came running back with the stack of papers in her arms.
"Why are academic papers rectangular? Why aren't they circular?"
Good grief—even everyday items had to be questioned? Were you trying to reach the very end of universal truth?
And if she was simply ignored...
The moment Expert turned a blind eye for a while, Helixcraft... exploded...
Curiosity killed Newton—and dragged Expert into the blast along with her...
Thus, with her hair singed and smoking, Expert had tied the adorable little curiosity monster to a tree that automatically dropped apples whenever she spoke, forcing Newton to reflect properly.
Too annoying... with Newton around, work efficiency would drop to nearly zero—or even become negative.
Only a quiet Newton beneath an apple tree was a good Newton. Otherwise, she absolutely could not be allowed to observe workshop operations!
No wonder people always joked that Newton would knock over her own coffin lid.
Expert suspected that if Newton truly had questions, she would indeed burst out of her coffin one day just to demand why someone else wasn't "Newton" enough.
Mm, she absolutely had to keep Magician hidden from Newton. Just imagining Magician and Newton together—two perpetual-motion coffin lids.
Who knew? One day Newton might even ride a coffin board into the sky.
...
Expert's testing continued for a full month. Even with Dr. Mei assisting, the timeline barely shortened.
Looking at the simulated experimental data, Expert let out a breath and adjusted her glasses. "As expected... as long as we locate the Imaginary Singularity, we can use high concentrations of Honkai energy to recondense the Herrscher Core at its anchor point from the Herrscher's full-body DNA."
It sounded simple—but putting it into practice was anything but easy. Without the Second Divine Key, ordinary humans had no ability to even observe Imaginary Space.
"Imaginary Space is merely a mathematical concept—not a space in the literal sense..."
Dr. Mei murmured, repeating what Expert had said.
Although Vill-V had explained many things to her before, knowledge that overturned one's entire worldview could not be absorbed and understood immediately. For now, she could only passively accept what Vill-V taught her.
The theory of Imaginary Space had also been newly proposed by Expert. At this stage of the Previous Era, no such framework existed at all.
Even the materials Newton had previously brought contained nothing about it—only technological knowledge from the Three-Body universe. Naturally, that world had no concept of Honkai or Imaginary Space.
In fact, detailed research into Imaginary Space only began after Vill-V arrived in this world.
So it was only natural that Dr. Mei's eyes were filled with confusion. She needed Vill-V to provide further explanation.
Expert therefore elaborated on her earlier statement. "Yes. And an Imaginary Singularity refers to a pure singularity capable of triggering all supernatural phenomena and impossible constructs. The Herrscher Core is born from such an Imaginary Singularity."
"To locate the corresponding invisible, dimensionless pure singularity within Imaginary Space is, naturally, no easy task."
"An Imaginary Singularity exists simultaneously across all spatial dimensions. Moreover, this one is in a silent, inactive state."
"Without prior experience, attempting to detect a silent Imaginary Singularity from within a Herrscher's body is as difficult as humanity attempting to observe the original point of the universe's birth—the difficulty of the two is essentially the same."
When preparing for experiments on the Herrscher corpse, Dr. Mei had already anticipated that this would be an unprecedented challenge.
After all, Herrschers themselves were existences beyond imagination. To research such beings from scratch required intelligence equally beyond imagination.
Perhaps, in this era, the only person capable of producing meaningful results from studying a Herrscher was the pinnacle of human intellect before her—Vill-V alone...
Even though Dr. Mei had interacted with many leading researchers and cutting-edge fields, she truly had never encountered someone like Vill-V—someone who could effortlessly resolve any scientific problem.
In their daily exchanges, whenever she had questions, Vill-V could always provide answers with ease. Even Dr. Mobius would need to squeeze bubble wrap and ponder for a long time.
Was there truly a problem in this world that Vill-V could not solve? Perhaps she really could lead humanity... to defeat the Honkai...
Noticing Dr. Mei's distraction, Expert reminded her, "Do not relax. What comes next will be the most dangerous stage."
Because... Vill-V was about to let Occultist take the stage.
Of course, Expert herself could unravel the singularity puzzle of the Herrscher Core—but that would consume far too much time and require constructing entirely new equipment.
Expert pursued efficiency. All the prior tests had merely served to verify the correctness of the theory. The simulation experiments were the final validation.
After all, no one could say for certain what exactly the Previous Era's Herrscher Core was made of—what if it turned out to be flour?
It was precisely through these tests that Expert discovered something astonishing: the Second Herrscher's Core of the Void was not in a silent state at all—it had always been active!
But that did not mean that the Previous Era's Core of the Void possessed the later civilization's "one-dimensional circumferential strange loop," granting it the elasticity to reactivate and the possibility of being triggered by someone other than a Herrscher.