Not long after the Astral Express crew disembarked, they completed identity registration and cargo transport procedures, then went their separate ways to explore the space station.
Himeko, meanwhile, came to Herta's office together with Nolan and Asta.
Herta always kept one of her puppets stationed here, so under normal circumstances there was no need to worry about whether she was present.
However, these days she had been maintaining the "Simulated Universe" together with Screwllum and Ruan Mei. That wasn't a normal situation—she might not actually be here.
When they opened the door, they indeed found a Herta puppet inside. It looked rather vacant, clearly indicating Herta's consciousness wasn't currently inhabiting it.
Seeing this, Nolan simply took out his phone and sent Herta a message asking her to come to the office.
Very soon, the puppet's previously dull eyes focused. She looked at the visitors in the office.
"Oh, Himeko, it's you. Did you bring something interesting this time?"
"Yes. In the last world, we unexpectedly encountered an unknown Curio. We don't know its function yet—I'll hand it over to you for research later."
Himeko nodded lightly.
"Alright, we'll talk about that later." Herta then looked at Nolan and said with a smile, "Maintenance on the Simulated Universe is progressing well. Come test it again in a few days."
"No problem." Nolan nodded. He was quite interested in Herta's Curios. After earning a few more bonds, he planned to exchange them for a nice collectible.
He glanced at Asta and continued:
"By the way, Miss Herta, I have something I'd like to cooperate with the space station on."
Nolan explained his intention to connect Teyvat with interstellar society for better development. The initial plan involved some trade cooperation and academic exchanges with the space station.
That alone would be sufficient. Under Nolan's influence, Teyvat's development had already been extremely rapid.
Their talent pool was beginning to lag behind. No matter how many opportunities appeared, they wouldn't be able to fully absorb them.
Fortunately, thanks to elemental power, their industrial capability could barely keep up with implementing newly researched technologies.
"A trivial matter. Aside from academic research, Asta has full authority over the station's affairs. Just discuss it directly with her."
Herta had no real interest in the topic. As she prepared to go with Himeko to retrieve the Curio, she suddenly seemed to remember something and looked at Nolan.
"Does your planet have anything worth researching?"
"Well… you're a genius from the Genius Society. You probably wouldn't care about ordinary things, and I'm not sure what would interest you.
"When you have time, I can take you there to see for yourself."
Nolan thought for a moment before answering.
"That works." Herta had only asked casually. After all, even Ruan Mei had managed to obtain a All-Devouring Narwhal—perhaps Nolan's world held other valuable specimens.
However, she was busy recently, so exploration would have to wait.
After obtaining Herta's approval, Nolan and Asta left the office and briefly discussed the preliminary cooperation plan.
Later, the relevant departments of the space station could coordinate directly with Teyvat's Sweet Flower Merchant Association. After all, Ningguang and the others were far more professional than he was in these matters.
After welcoming the Astral Express and roughly negotiating cooperation details, it was already noon on the space station.
With nothing else to do for the moment, he returned to the Wonderland Space. Over in Teyvat, it was around three in the morning.
Nolan went to Lynette's room, lifted the blanket, and hugged her as he continued resting.
The next day, early morning.
While having breakfast, Nolan briefly explained the cooperation with the space station to Ningguang and the others, asking them to make the necessary preparations.
After that, he planned to head to Celestia to assess the situation himself—just in case any complications arose later.
Celestia floated above the central region of the Teyvat continent. On a clear day, anyone with slightly sharp eyesight could look up from nearby and spot a faint shadow in the sky.
That was the legendary Celestia.
The people of Teyvat knew of its existence. There were even rumors that some had ascended to it—such as Vennessa, the first Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius.
Yet no one had ever truly witnessed anyone setting foot on Celestia with their own eyes.
After leaving the Wonderland Space, Nolan originally intended to extend his spiritual perception directly to Celestia and use spatial traversal to teleport there.
Celestia was clearly visible in the sky to the naked eye. For certain powerful individuals—or creatures and monsters capable of high-altitude flight—the height didn't seem particularly unreachable.
And yet, there were hardly any records of anyone going there. That suggested Celestia had something unusual about it.
For instance, it seemed to possess a trait that rendered it undetectable by spiritual perception. Nolan was certain he had extended his perception to that region.
But it felt like nothing more than a projection—hollow, completely lacking substance.
His interest was piqued.
First, he teleported to the section of sky where Celestia appeared to be, intending to approach it through flight.
As expected, things weren't so simple.
From the ground, Celestia didn't appear particularly high. But once he reached the skies, he found it still hovering above him—just as it had seemed when viewed from below.
Could it actually be in outer space, like a star? But if that were the case, it wouldn't have appeared so close from the ground.
A trace of confusion crossed Nolan's face.
After a moment's thought, he abandoned the idea of probing it with spiritual perception and instead activated his specialty ability—"Distance Between Stars," the power to manipulate distance.
This ability didn't require locking onto a target with spiritual perception. As long as he could perceive the target in any way—including visually—it would suffice.
Once the distance-manipulation ability activated, Nolan instantly understood the distance between his current position and the location of the target he could see—Celestia.
Twelve kilometers, three hundred twenty-two point five five meters.
If he wished, he could refine the measurement to an infinitely precise degree.
But this wasn't scientific research. Accuracy to the meter was more than enough.
Next, Nolan began adjusting the distance between himself and Celestia. The distance was calculated from the nearest point of Celestia relative to him.
If he directly reduced the distance to zero, he would appear at the exact position where he made contact with Celestia's closest edge.
That was precisely what he wanted—to touch Celestia.
Without hesitation, he set the distance between himself and Celestia to zero.
Since he was manipulating the distance from himself to Celestia, Celestia remained unmoving—while Nolan instantly appeared at its edge.
There was no spatial fluctuation whatsoever.
It was as though he had always been standing there.
(End of Chapter)
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