Ruan Mei ate her plum blossom cake while pondering in her mind whether Herta's ability to converse with another consciousness inside her head was a symptom of what might be called genius disease.
So-called genius disease referred to mental abnormalities. Almost every genius suffered from it, including herself.
From a very young age, Ruan Mei had discovered that she was different from her parents and even from the researchers at the institute. She had been born without much emotional fluctuation. Or rather, at that time, she herself was not even certain whether she possessed something called emotion at all.
In the past, even when she helped her parents or the scholars at the research institute solve major biological research problems, she never felt particularly happy.
She would not react like her parents or the institute's scholars—ecstatic, embracing one another, clapping in celebration.
In fact, when she saw her parents and the scholars celebrating, she would instead wonder which gene in the human body was responsible for making them smile so joyfully and hug each other like that.
She wanted to study it. She longed to study the source of emotional change in the human body.
Of course, that had been Ruan Mei's research in the past.
Now, she had long since unraveled all the mysteries of the human body, understood the root cause of emotional fluctuations, and thoroughly confirmed that she was not born devoid of emotion. Rather, she suffered from a form of genius disease—emotional indifference.
After testing, she confirmed that her emotions would not fluctuate because of changes in social relationships.
They would only shift slightly at the moment she completed biological research. Or rather, she would experience a faint sense of satisfaction.
Thus, Ruan Mei devoted herself to research. Not long after, she received an invitation from Nous and became the 81st Seat of the Genius Society.
Because she lacked material desires and was emotionally indifferent, she rejected recruitment offers from the Interastral Peace Corporation, the Xianzhou Alliance, the Family, and various other factions, choosing instead to live in seclusion on a frontier star to conduct her own research.
To this day, her research projects were no longer limited to humanity itself. The Borisin, Foxians, insectoid creatures of Propagation, the Antimatter Legion... even living planets themselves.
All lifeforms were potential research subjects for Ruan Mei, including geniuses.
And now, as she conversed with Herta, Herta herself had become her research subject. Through on-site observation, she had confirmed that Herta likely suffered from genius disease—dissociative symptoms.
According to Ruan Mei's research, Herta was not the only possible case. The 77th Seat of the Genius Society, Puzzle, might also suffer from this condition.
This lady was most famous across the cosmos for doing bad things with good intentions and good things with bad intentions.
When she kindly researched technology, it often resulted in massive destruction.
When she conducted research with malicious intent, it would instead bring about beneficial outcomes.
In Ruan Mei's view, this was the result of the left and right hemispheres of the brain battling one another.
Or perhaps, there was another consciousness within Puzzle's brain—one that influenced her research, causing her work to contradict her own intentions and produce the opposite results.
In Ruan Mei's eyes, Puzzle's dissociative genius disease was malignant, because Puzzle herself was unable to perceive that another consciousness was influencing her.
As for Herta's dissociative genius disease, Ruan Mei considered it benign, since the two split personalities could clearly communicate.
More importantly, the existence of two personalities perfectly explained how Herta had managed, in such a short time, to complete two great research achievements:
Solving the Fourth Cosmic Conundrum and deriving the answer to Solitary Waves Theory, as well as developing the Pathstrider Energy Amplifier and its companion artifact—the Soul Gem.
Because Herta's brain contained two personalities capable of conducting research simultaneously.
At this moment, an extremely bold hypothesis even formed in Ruan Mei's mind:
Herta had just declared her intention to create the Herta Sequence—Herta Puppet.
It was highly possible that she intended to replicate her own benign dissociative genius disease, splitting off more genius consciousness fragments.
In that case, Herta could conduct research in multiple parallel threads. Her efficiency would surpass even Ruan Mei herself, and perhaps even Yu Qingtu.
If this truly succeeded—if she created more genius puppets, endlessly dividing genius intellect and linking them in a Herta array through parallel consciousness, forming hive computation—
Perhaps Herta's intelligence would transcend the realm of genius, reaching the unknowable... rivaling the ascended astral computer—the Aeon of Erudition, Nous.
When that time came, would the Path of Erudition change masters?
At this thought, an inexplicable curiosity arose within Ruan Mei.
At the same time, she felt even greater recognition of Herta. Through this conversation, she had confirmed that she was not the only one harboring thoughts about the Aeons. Herta did as well.
One sought to ascend through biological research.
The other sought ascension through the division of consciousness and the stacking of souls...
As time passed, Ruan Mei's thoughts grew more numerous, and the way she looked at Herta became increasingly gentle.
...
Elsewhere, having already returned to headquarters, Polka Kakamond, the Lord of Silence, had changed into an extraordinarily ornate ceremonial outfit. She immediately confirmed that everything was exactly as Herta had said.
The more magnificent the garments she wore, the greater the amplification effect on Path energy.
A truly peculiar mechanism.
More crucially, her Knowable Domain genuinely could not parse that mysterious line of code.
This confirmed that her Knowable Domain was still far from perfection.
Her path was still long.
With this in mind, Polka Kakamond expanded her Knowable Domain, searching for any genius who had extended their hand toward the unknowable domain.
As long as a genius touched a forbidden boundary, she could carry out an assassination and use that as grounds to seek an audience with Nous, further refining her Knowable Domain.
Of course, for this assassination, she would wear her magnificent ceremonial attire and don the Soul Gem.
Not because she intended to utilize the amplification.
Rather, she wished to experience what it felt like to carry out an assassination as a magical girl.
In truth... every time the Lord of Silence had performed an assassination in the past, she had dressed extravagantly—a candy-colored evening gown, like a figure who had stepped out of a confectionery fairy tale.
It was precisely because of this that she had no desire to expose herself to the public, and had personally destroyed all paintings and video records related to her.
Polka Kakamond spun the scalpel in her hand, continuously expanding her Knowable Domain. Through certain special methods she had previously embedded within the club's outpost, she overheard the discussion between Herta and Ruan Mei.
She also noticed that while Herta conversed with Ruan Mei, she would occasionally fall into sudden silence—her brain activity becoming abnormally intense.
To be more precise, Polka Kakamond had already detected abnormalities in Herta's brain during their first meeting.
At that time, she had also believed that Herta suffered from genius disease.
But that was normal.
How could a genius exist in this world without illness?!
Just like herself—Polka Kakamond—who, with every assassination, changed into a candy-colored evening gown and used the scalpel in her hand to harvest lives with precision, striking the funeral bell.
However, after Herta's dissociation, she had managed to solve the Fourth Cosmic Conundrum in a short time, even develop the Soul Gem... and now she was preparing to create the Herta Sequence—Herta Puppet.
She intended to split off even more consciousness, then stack them together through some special method, gathering the wisdom of countless Hertas to climb to the pinnacle of Erudition.
To construct—
The Babel Herta.
To walk this special path toward omniscience...