Chapter 216: Please Call Me Operator Aha
"Holy crap... What did I just see?"
"Is this for real? Can the original uploader come out and explain?!"
"To be fair, didn't an Amber Era just pass recently? Did the Amber Lord, Qlipoth, actually strike Aha with His hammer? Like, physically?"
"It has to be special effects! But the production budget for this rendering is absolutely explosive. The lighting, the cosmic dust... it looks as real as a live recording."
Countless netizens across the galactic network were thrown into a frenzy by the sheer audacity of the video's contents. After all, this specific clash of cosmic entities had never been documented in any official historical archives or simulated universe logs. Naturally, the vast majority of viewers assumed it was merely a high-tier fan creation, synthesized by an incredibly talented artist with too much free time and a supercomputer.
But there are always a select few who can see through the digital veil.
Herta Space Station.
Deep within her private office, Herta was in the middle of retrieving a massive batch of simulated data. Without warning, her personal terminal—a device completely disconnected from the station's public grid—lit up on its own. A video player forcibly maximized itself across her holographic display.
"Interesting." Herta crossed her arms, her puppet joints clicking softly in the quiet room. "Someone actually managed to hack into my phone? Herta's personal device?"
She raised a delicate, synthetic eyebrow. A faint smirk tugged at the corners of her lips as she cracked her knuckles, fully prepared to teach this ignorant script kiddie a harsh lesson about the absolute majesty of the great Madam Herta.
As a core member of the Genius Society, her personal firewall was a fortress of algorithmic perfection. The number of entities in the universe capable of bypassing it could be counted on one hand. And those who possessed such god-like technical skills generally weren't bored enough to pull a petty prank like forcing a video to auto-play.
Therefore, combining this level of technical prowess with this specific brand of sheer boredom... there was an eighty percent chance it was Silver Wolf.
Hehehe, little Silver Wolf, Herta mused inwardly, her fingers flying across her physical keyboard to initiate a counter-trace. Still throwing a tantrum, crying and making a fuss, and now you want to hack the great Madam Herta's phone in retaliation?
While she rapidly deployed her counter-hacking protocols, she mentally drafted a few biting taunts to send the Stellaron Hunter once she locked down her IP. After all, the phrase "Silver Wolf, I wasn't crying and making a fuss" had recently gone viral across the entire interstellar web. Herta had quietly instructed Asta to use a fraction of her bottomless wealth to push the algorithm, considering it a small, friendly "helping hand" to humiliate the hacker.
However, her smug amusement vanished a fraction of a second later.
Something was deeply wrong.
The intrusion architecture didn't match Silver Wolf's signature style at all. The code wasn't just aggressive; it was chaotic, laughing at the fundamental laws of digital physics. The technical level was several terrifying notches above anything Silver Wolf had ever demonstrated.
After a grueling three-minute war of offense and defense, a rare bead of sweat formed on Herta's brow—a physical reaction from her true body echoing through the puppet's neural link. The opponent's processing power was infinite. It absolutely couldn't be Silver Wolf. If the hacker girl actually possessed this level of all-powerful digital manipulation, she would have breached the Space Station and deleted Herta's entire Simulated Universe out of spite long ago.
Defeated on the cyber front, Herta finally surrendered her keyboard and turned her full attention to the video playing on her screen.
[Herta]: This video doesn't look like a synthesis. The rendering of the imaginary energy is too flawless. It looks exactly like a live recording.
[Herta]: It's as if someone was actually floating right there with a camera, filming all of this in real-time.
Two glowing, golden bullet comments swept across the top of the video player.
As a verified member of the Genius Society, Herta's account came with top-tier Interstellar Peace Corporation (IPC) certification, complete with exclusive, unblockable visual effects.
Her casual observation instantly poured a galaxy's worth of fuel onto the comment section's fire. The bullet comments and direct messages began to skyrocket at a blinding rate of tens of millions per second. The mysterious uploader's follower count surged by the billions.
"Good heavens, Herta?! Is that actually Herta from the Genius Society?!"
"It has to be! Look at the IPC certification badge! That's the real Madam Herta, no mistake!"
"Wait, if Herta says it's real... then this video isn't synthesized?! It's actual footage?!"
"Who the hell could record this?! Could it be an Emanator of Remembrance?!"
"Oh my god, so the Amber Lord actually smashed Aha with a hammer?! It's all real?!"
Ignoring the exploding chat, Herta stroked her chin thoughtfully. She had just run the file through her self-developed forensic detection tools. The video was completely intact, untampered with, and lacked even a single pixel of artificial synthesis.
Could this... somehow be related to Leon?
For some inexplicable reason, that thick-skinned, overpowered anomaly of a man was the very first person who popped into her brilliant mind.
[Herta]: Leon, does this ridiculous video that just hijacked my terminal have anything to do with you?
Lounging on a plush sofa lightyears away, Leon blinked at the sudden notification.
So sharp?
He chuckled, popping a piece of fruit into his mouth. The video was entirely Aha's doing, a chaotic prank by the Aeon of Elation to stir up the universe. Leon was fully aware of it, of course. You could say it was related to him, or you could say it wasn't—but how did Herta immediately connect the dots to him?
Was it because of that meme picture he had casually posted a few days ago? The one titled "Four Aeons playing celestial tiles while Fuli takes bets on the side"?
Before he could type out a witty deflection, another message chimed on his screen.
[Ruan Mei]: That video... is it related to you? Was it truly uploaded by the Aeon of Elation, Aha?
Leon stared at the screen.
Good grief. Is the intuition of you Genius Society members all this terrifying?
[Leon]: You could say it's related, and you could say it's not... But yes, it was indeed posted by Aha. They thought it would be funny.
[Leon]: But seriously, why would you instantly link a cosmic god's shitpost to me?
In her serene laboratory, Ruan Mei looked at the reply, the corners of her elegant mouth lifting into a faint, knowing smile.
[Ruan Mei]: Intuition.
[Leon]: Your genius intuition is truly scary...
[Ruan Mei]: "You geniuses"? Plural? Who else asked you? Was it Herta?
[Leon]:...
Leon rubbed his temples. Her reaction speed was just too fast.
[Ruan Mei]: It seems I was right. I suppose I won't be preparing her portion of plum pastries for our next tea party.
[Leon]: Cough.
[Ruan Mei]: Just kidding. But Herta isn't quite as accommodating and easy to talk to as I am, so be careful how you handle her.
The beautiful arc of Ruan Mei's smile deepened as she set her terminal aside, her mood noticeably brightened by the brief exchange.
Meanwhile, at the Interstellar Peace Corporation Headquarters in Pier Point.
The video's explosive, unnatural popularity had triggered the highest level of algorithmic alarms, instantly alerting the IPC's Traditional Project Department. A panicked senior manager practically sprinted down the pristine glass corridors to report the anomaly directly to his supervisor—Zaitian.
"Another one of these gimmick videos?" Zaitian frowned, his sharp eyes narrowing behind his designer glasses. "Didn't I explicitly order that all controversial cosmic content should be heavily traffic-limited and subjected to manual review first?"
As a high-ranking executive holding authority on par with heavyweights like Diamond and Oswaldo Schneider, trivial matters like internet moderation should never have reached his desk.
"Supervisor, this video... we literally can't take it down," the manager stammered, lowering his voice as if afraid the terminal itself was listening. "We tried. The deletion protocols just bounce back with laughing emojis.... Madam Herta of the Genius Society just publicly confirmed that the footage doesn't show any signs of synthesis. She believes it's a live recording."
Zaitian's annoyance evaporated, replaced by a cold, creeping dread. He tapped the screen to play the video.
As he watched the cosmic clash, a thin layer of cold sweat broke out across his back, soaking his expensive silk shirt. The IPC's highest intelligence divisions had spent entire system cycles trying to figure out exactly why the Amber Lord had suddenly struck with His hammer during the last era, only to return to absolute silence.
Now, the terrifying, unvarnished truth was playing out right before his eyes on a social media app.
"Check the profile of this uploader immediately," Zaitian ordered, his voice tight.
"We already ran a full trace, Supervisor. It's completely untraceable. It's like a ghost in the network, manifesting out of thin air. It doesn't use standard data packets." The manager swallowed hard. "What's even more bizarre is the propagation method. Trillions of users' phones automatically followed this account without their consent, and the video forcibly bypassed lock screens to play at maximum volume."
Zaitian slowly looked down at his own personal terminal.
Sure enough, the mysterious account had quietly embedded itself at the very top of his 'Following' list.
Right before his eyes, the account's bio information updated automatically, the text typing itself out in bright, obnoxious neon colors:
[Hello everyone! I am Aha!]
[The content of this video is a 100% real-scene recording captured by the Memory Aeon, Fuli. If you have any questions regarding the cinematography—please ask Fuli directly!]
[Anyway, the collateral damage has nothing to do with Aha. Aha is only responsible for posting it to find some fun!]
[As long as this account can forcibly appear on your phone and the video can play automatically—Aha's ultimate goal is achieved! (Aha_Running_Away_Laughing.jpg)]
[If you mortals can't manage to find Fuli himself, don't worry! Aha is feeling generous and can do you a favor by personally sending you to meet Fuli! Ahahaha—!]
The office fell into a suffocating, deathly silence.
"The Aeon of Remembrance... and the Aeon of Elation..." The manager's legs gave out, and he slumped against the glass desk.
"Surely..." Zaitian's voice trembled, his pristine corporate composure shattering completely. "Surely... no one in the universe would dare to impersonate an Aeon... right?"
Zaitian removed his glasses, wiping the freezing sweat from his forehead with a trembling hand. His heart hammered violently against his ribs, yet a terrifying, logical voice in the back of his mind whispered that it all made perfect, horrifying sense.
If the video wasn't synthesized, then the only entity capable of recording a clash of Aeons so flawlessly, preserving every microscopic detail of the imaginary energy... would be Fuli, the Aeon who presides over the Path of Remembrance.
And the only entity insane enough to steal that memory and post it on the internet as a prank... was Aha.
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