The conversation among the three geniuses was overheard in full by Shipgirl Herta.
Shipgirl Herta could not help poking her head through the doorway and asking The Herta inside the room, "Madam Herta, do you need me to gather the Herta sisters and have them help you construct the Gaia planet?"
"Just like several days ago, when you led the Herta sisters in creating me."
Herman raised his head and glanced at Shipgirl Herta by the door, then gently shook his head. "That won't be necessary. Previously, we had to mobilize a hundred thousand, a million, or even tens of millions of little Hertas to create you because you were a cosmic megastructure that required meticulous craftsmanship."
"The Gaia planet I am about to create is different. It is merely a somewhat larger planet."
After The Herta finished speaking, she glanced at Ruan Mei and Screwllum beside her. "Follow me."
...
The group walked for a while and soon arrived at the bridge of Shipgirl Herta. The bridge was filled with sophisticated instruments, as well as an enormous floor-to-ceiling window.
From here, they could admire the incomparably beautiful cosmic scenery outside. They could also see the IPC's robots unloading cargo in an orderly fashion, continuously pouring the materials required to construct the planet into The Blue's star system.
At that moment, an incomparably enormous mountain of materials had already accumulated at the edge of The Blue's star system. Its volume was nearly comparable to the sun, yet even then, the IPC's ships had still not finished unloading everything.
A vast quantity of materials still remained to be unloaded.
Seeing this, Herman chatted casually with Ruan Mei and Screwllum for a while longer.
At the same time, through the shared field of vision of the countless residents of Herta City on The Blue, three colossal objects appeared in the sky.
The first was the sun. The second was Shipgirl Herta, whose size rivaled the sun. The last was the towering mountain of planet-building materials, a quantity vast enough to engulf nearly half a star system.
As countless residents witnessed this scene, waves of excitement surged through their hearts. At that moment, they all realized that the great Madam Herta was about to create yet another scientific miracle.
Time flew by, and several system hours passed.
The IPC's ships finally finished unloading all the materials. Seeing this, Herman raised the Herta Magic Wand in his hand and tapped the void.
Once, twice, three times.
Thud.
The gates of the Warp opened.
Endless psychic energy surged into reality. As the master of the Warp and psychic energy, Herta could naturally control it perfectly.
She combined the psychic energy into an enormous hand. Its palm alone was comparable in size to Jupiter, and every line across it resembled a mountain range. It was grand and immense beyond imagination.
This time, to construct the supermassive Gaia planet as quickly as possible, Herman released an extraordinarily vast amount of psychic energy in a single breath, creating a full ten gigantic psychic hands.
Under Herman's mental control, one psychic hand after another reached toward the mountain of materials larger than the sun, extracting raw materials from it to construct the Gaia planet.
Twenty-four system hours later, Herman had molded the outer form of the super Gaia planet. It was a city, or more precisely, a cosmic city-planet magnified hundreds of millions of times.
After shaping the city, Herman followed The Herta's design blueprints step by step and proceeded to the next stage, constructing the atmosphere.
Of course, creating an atmosphere was not difficult. He only needed to create an ozone layer, and The Herta had naturally mastered the formula for synthesizing ozone long ago.
Since The Herta had mastered it, Herman had naturally mastered it as well.
Herman waved the Herta Magic Wand. Honkai magic flames immediately appeared above the mountain of materials, rapidly melting vast quantities of icy meteorites into water. The water molecules were broken down and converted into oxygen, which was then combined with other elements to synthesize ozone.
Hiss...
One enormous icy meteorite after another melted. At the same time, an atmosphere began forming around the super Gaia planet. It spread outward from a single point until it completely enveloped the planet's surface to an altitude of thirty thousand kilometers.
With that, the Gaia planet's atmosphere was fully completed. Next came the chaotic weather system, an engineering project that Herman could finish with exceptional ease.
He only needed to use Solitary Waves Theory together with an extremely small portion of the Super Herta Astral Computer's computational power to simulate the most perfect possible weather-system model for the Gaia planet.
That was what Herman thought, and that was precisely what he did. Using the Herta Magic Wand, he cast Honkai magic upon the super Gaia planet and created its first wind.
That wind set the previously stagnant atmosphere into motion. Positive and negative charges began rubbing against each other, and lightning started to form.
At the same time, some of the water molecules within the atmospheric clouds exposed to sunlight changed from vapor into liquid, becoming heavy rain that fell toward the surface of the super Gaia planet.
Of course, since the super Gaia planet still lacked gravity, those descending raindrops were created through Herman's Honkai storm magic.
In any case, the prototype of the chaotic weather system began taking shape across the super Gaia planet. The next step was to create the planet's gravitational system.
To accomplish that, Herman needed to install a planetary core within the heart of the super Gaia planet.
Of course, this Stellaron was not that kind of Stellaron.
What Herman intended to install was a planet's core, not the Cancer of All Worlds capable of granting and distorting the wishes of others.
A suitable planetary core was already present at the site. The IPC had provided it after extracting it from a supermassive terrestrial planet several thousand light-years away. The IPC had sealed it using specialized technology, leaving it in a suppressed state. Within it lay terrifying heat and mass.
Herman continued waving the Herta Magic Wand. In an instant, a wormhole opened. Light flashed through the warped space, and the planetary core atop the mountain of materials was transferred into the interior of the super Gaia planet Herman was constructing.
The planet's gravity began to emerge from its magnetic field.
The birth of gravity caused the super-terrestrial Gaia planet, whose size rivaled the sun, to begin rotating.
However, the motion generated by the rotation of such a supermassive celestial body caused widespread tremors throughout the gravitational system of The Blue's star system, even throwing it out of balance.
Mars, Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and the other planets of The Blue's star system, including The Blue itself, began undergoing enormous changes to their orbital paths.
This change was undoubtedly negative. In a mere instant, the Super Herta Astral Computer, Ruan Mei, Screwllum, and the other geniuses calculated that Herta's creation of the super Gaia planet had altered the gravitational structure of The Blue's star system.
Unless this change was corrected, the celestial bodies within The Blue's star system would face the risk of catastrophic collisions within a single Amber Era.
Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, The Blue, and the other planets would collide in succession. There was even a possibility that eight planets would align and crash into one another in a chain reaction.
The Super Herta Astral Computer, otherwise known as the Fourth Mirror, immediately reported the situation to Herman.
Ruan Mei and Screwllum naturally noticed the electronic signal the Super Herta Astral Computer had just transmitted. Their gazes simultaneously focused on Herta's face, yet they found no trace of panic there.
That meant everything remained firmly under Herta's control.
Indeed, everything was exactly as Ruan Mei and Screwllum imagined. Herman remained supremely confident.
More precisely, he possessed absolute confidence in The Herta.
The abnormal parameters currently appearing within the star system's gravitational framework were identical to the situation The Herta had described in the Simulated Laboratory.
More importantly, The Herta had already prepared a contingency plan in the Simulated Laboratory.
Since a contingency plan already existed, he merely needed to follow it.
With that thought, Herman controlled eight psychic hands and sent them flying toward the terrestrial planets.
Before long, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, The Blue, and the other planets, eight in total, had all been grasped within the psychic hands.
The enormous palms that blotted out the sky began adjusting the entire star system from a macroscopic perspective, repositioning the planets and restructuring its gravitational framework.
At that moment, the entire star system fell completely under Herman's control.
When this scene entered the eyes of countless citizens of the Blue Federation on The Blue, their hearts trembled violently. They immediately began posting online:
"One palm has blocked out all sunlight across The Blue's entire star system, and it has even grasped the whole planet. I can actually feel the ground shaking. Is this the disturbance caused by the entire planet being moved?!!"
"That's right. It has to be... Adding a massive celestial body to a gravitational system would naturally cause an enormous disruption to the original structure. I just never imagined Madam Herta would use such an absurdly overwhelming method, literally seizing stars and plucking moons, to rebalance the gravity."
"An Emanator... This is the power of the strongest beings beneath the Aeons. Playing with the stars is nothing to them. And as long as no one stands in an Emanator's way, they could destroy an entire galaxy within the span of just a few years. To mortals like us, such methods are simply too extraordinary and too astonishing!"
"Right now, I only want to repeat what Herta 66 said on Keeping Up With Star Rail... Madam Herta is unrivaled beneath the sky! Madam Herta's beauty is beyond compare! Madam Herta possesses peerless intelligence!!"
"Madam Herta is unrivaled beneath the sky..."
The Blue's interastral network became extraordinarily lively.
Meanwhile, the universe's major factions were shocked by Herta's display. At the same time, they recognized that Warp-based psychic technology was indeed extraordinary. It was clearly capable of far more than merely storing the souls of deceased beings.
Soon, another system hour passed.
The stars returned to their proper positions.
Every planet had been placed in the most suitable location, and Herman had reconstructed the star system's gravitational framework.
A grand harmony and perfect equilibrium of gravity had been formed.
With this, a catastrophic collision among the planets could no longer occur.
The super Gaia planet, otherwise known as World City, was officially complete.
As World City was created by Herta, the consciousness of the universe itself projected into this star system. It was the will of HooH, Aeon of Equilibrium, and Xipe, Aeon of Harmony.
HooH, Aeon of Equilibrium, had sensed Herta moving the stars and restoring celestial bodies that had lost their order and deviated from their original trajectories, gradually heading toward destruction. By returning them to their proper positions, she had preserved the equilibrium of the entire star system.
In HooH's eyes, Herta had already set foot upon the Path of Equilibrium.
Meanwhile, Xipe, Aeon of Harmony, had turned Their gaze toward The Herta because They sensed her tuning the gravity of the stars and preventing them from falling into destruction.
As the Aeon of Harmony, Xipe could clearly hear the gravitational chords within Herta's actions as she adjusted the stars. It was a beautiful sound, making Them all the more eager for Herta to join the Family and enter the ranks of Harmony.
Of course, Xipe did not manifest to extend an invitation. After all, not long ago, They had received a joint warning from several Aeons.
As for HooH, Aeon of Equilibrium, after silently observing Herta for a moment, They withdrew Their gaze and continued exerting Their influence to balance the universe's trillions of galaxies, allowing the universe to continue existing instead of falling into Nihility.
...
After finishing the construction of the super Gaia planet, World City, Herman silently opened the system interface and examined it carefully. Only after confirming that his points had indeed increased did he breathe a sigh of relief.
It seems that The Herta's research isn't the only thing capable of increasing the Research System's points. Research and manufacturing performed by me, the system itself, can also increase them.
After thinking this through, Herman took out his phone and sent a message to Jade, the IPC specialist coordinating with him. "Construction of the super Gaia planet, World City, is complete. According to my design, it can accommodate a population of one trillion. The IPC may dispatch personnel to inspect and accept it."
At the IPC headquarters in Pier Point, Jade was working within the Strategic Investment Department when she noticed her phone vibrating. She opened the message, and its contents left her utterly stunned.
Madam Herta actually finished constructing an entire planet so quickly, and an enormous one capable of accommodating one trillion living beings at that. Isn't this construction speed far too fast?!! Based on the information the IPC has gathered, even with the assistance of tens of millions of Hertas, Madam Herta should still require a considerable amount of time to complete a Gaia planet.
After thinking this through, Jade immediately called Herta and asked how she had managed to construct such a supermassive celestial body so quickly.
"Naturally, I have my own methods. After all, I am Herta." Herman's voice was filled with pride. He also offered Jade a suggestion.
"Should you wish to learn more about the construction details of the Gaia planet, World City, you may consult my subordinate Dahlia. She was once a Pathstrider of Remembrance!"
Jade replied, "Thank you for the explanation, Madam Herta."
"Mm." Herman nodded slightly, then seemed to remember something and added over the phone, "Oh, right. Regarding immigration to the Gaia planet, World City, follow the same cooperation model as before. Find Pearl and sign an immigration agreement with her. Of course, the number of Credits required for subsequent immigration to the Gaia planet, World City, will increase."
"Understood. I will discuss it with Madam Pearl. In addition, once the inspection of World City's construction progress is complete, the construction payment will be transferred to your account immediately."
"Mm."
Herman nodded and ended the call.
At almost that exact moment, within the Simulated Laboratory, an excited smile appeared on The Herta's lips. "I've finally completed the Plasma Spark Tower technology. A new cosmic megastructure can now be scheduled for deployment."