"This really is a question that even Nous can't answer."
The delicate beauty helplessly raised a hand to her forehead. Pity that such a sight had no audience, left only for her own appreciation.
The eighty-third seat of the Genius Society, Lady Herta.
Oh, and thanks to a certain scholar from the Intelligentsia Guild, she also had another name, The Herta.
Most of the time, Herta traveled through the Cosmos in the form of a puppet, observing every moment worth recording. It was not that her true body was inconvenient to move, she was simply too lazy to do so. Unless it was one of those crushing, brain-burning problems, she could not be bothered.
At this moment, Herta was thinking.
"Has the conflict between the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of Quanta entered an overheated phase? Is this something that happens periodically, or is this time an exception?"
Unlike most people in the universe who only half-understood such phenomena, Herta had truly reached the apex of the Imaginary Tree.
She had witnessed the raging waves of the Sea of Quanta, seen worlds struggle endlessly before ultimately collapsing.
While others were still speculating about what might have caused this phenomenon, she had already stepped past the question of consequences and turned her attention to the essence of the problem itself.
First, there was one thing that needed to be understood.
The existences known as the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of Quanta had been present since the birth of the universe itself. On this point, her thoughts had been confirmed after she entered that unique dreamscape belonging to Godzilla.
The universe had existed for countless years. Exactly how long, even Herta was curious about.
This question belonged to the Herta Problem Log and would be answered once she finished solving the items ranked ahead of it.
It was known that when the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of Quanta clashed, upheavals would occur in the worlds on both sides. Then could this be considered a rare opportunity?
Herta had no interest in opportunities of any kind. She only cared about her own research topics.
But she was genuinely curious. If someone were to rashly charge in, what kind of changes would occur?
Would they, like Mobius, receive gifts from both sides and leap into becoming a one-of-a-kind existence in the Cosmos?
Unfortunately, this curiosity was unlikely to be satisfied. Who would be so bored as to jump straight into an unfamiliar Imaginary vortex?
Thinking of this, Herta could not help but let out a soft sigh. A genius's curiosity was always so difficult to appease.
Still, sighing was not her style. As a genius, she would of course satisfy her own curiosity directly.
...
Humming a casual tune, Herta gracefully stepped out of her room.
She lifted her gaze slightly, and a colossal stellar structure came into view. Gear-like formations interlocked and rotated around one another, forming the image of a mechanical kingdom.
Herta quite liked this sight. She did not plan to ask Godzilla for help. She wanted to personally experience the mysteries within.
A lofty, top-down perspective was certainly efficient, but there were some angles that simply could not be seen from on high.
She was a genius by nature. Taking the high ground was the most ordinary thing in her life. What truly excited her was the process of unraveling threads, peeling back layers step by step, and finally revealing the scene behind the curtain of mystery.
She remembered a saying that went like this.
"Chaos is a ladder."
After so long without any activity, the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of Quanta had produced such massive fluctuations. Might there be some hidden opportunity within?
Her many experiences of observation drove her actions. Naturally, she was already moving in that direction.
…
Herta Space Station.
The station master arrived alone at the observatory, gazing up at the twinkling stars in the distance.
"Woof woof!" Peppy ran over with its tongue hanging out, stopping happily by Asta's feet and sitting back on its hind legs, its little head nearly resting against her shoes.
"Haha, Peppy, are you hungry again? No way. You ate a whole big bag of snacks just half an hour ago. You can't eat any more."
"Whimper…" Hearing this, Peppy looked up at Asta with pitiful eyes, trying to win her over with cuteness.
Seeing the poor little thing like this, Asta smiled knowingly. She crouched down and gently stroked its well-groomed, silky fur.
By the station's living standards, the cost of maintaining such fur was no small expense.
The warm, comfortable feel lifted Asta's slightly gloomy mood quite a bit.
Arlan, who had just stepped out of the airlock, saw this scene, opened his mouth, and then walked over.
"Miss, it's a message from your family."
Hearing that, Asta sighed and said helplessly, "How many times has that been these past few days?"
"…The seventh time."
The seventh time.
"Sigh, why are these people so determined to bother me all day long?"
A large reason she had run off to the space station in the first place was to avoid those annoying relatives, yet they clung to her like chewing gum, showing up wherever she went.
They had been quiet for a while, but lately she had no idea what had happened. They were stirring up trouble again.
Asta did not want to experience the scheming family politics, but she had no choice. She did not even know how many people were eyeing her position. With such a large family, this and that, there was no avoiding it.
Propping her cheeks up with her hands, she looked at Peppy, who was tilting its head at her in confusion, and said, "Arlan, what do you think it's about this time?"
"Uh, probably has something to do with the sudden appearance of Imaginary vortices in the Cosmos."
The universe was vast.
Fortunately, none of those Imaginary vortices had appeared near the space station, but stories of their terrifying destructive power had still reached the space station.
If one of those vortices were to appear near their station, the pressure on Herta Space Station would be immense.
Asta let out a soft sigh. What Arlan could think of, she had naturally thought of as well. As for what her family wanted, she could not be clearer.
They simply believed there might be something useful to be dug out of those Imaginary vortices.
As for why they contacted her, it was probably because they wanted to reach Lady Herta through her. After all, Lady Herta could be said to be the genius in the Cosmos who understood the Imaginary Tree best.
Asta knew her family's capabilities well. In other aspects they were flawless, but when it came to knowledge, there was no helping it.
A high IQ might make one a genius among ordinary people, but compared to a genius renowned across the universe, the gap was enormous.
Asta believed that Lady Herta had researched those Imaginary vortices, even if the question involved time itself.
But setting aside whether Lady Herta would even agree to her request, even if she did, Asta did not want to bring it up to her.
What was more, given Lady Herta's personality, if it was not something she herself was interested in, no amount of persuasion would work.
It was of course a good thing for her family to grow stronger, but only if the ones contacting her were her father and mother.
The fact that her parents had said nothing on the matter clearly meant they did not want her involved.
As for what those relatives were scheming, even Peppy's little brain could probably guess it.
"Arlan, could you help me…"
"Miss."
"What is it, Arlan?" Asta turned her head, puzzled. Under normal circumstances, Arlan would not interrupt her.
"Miss, something seems off outside the space station."
"Huh?" Hearing that, Asta instinctively looked out the window.
Normally, there should be nothing outside the station besides the station's own equipment and defensive mechanisms.
Ever since the incident where the space station was invaded, Asta had been especially attentive to its defenses, purchasing only the most advanced equipment. According to their programmed designs, these defenses should remain on guard at fixed positions.
Yet now, something unusual seemed to be happening. The defensive equipment she had spent half a month of allowance on was floating…
…
"That's strange. These devices were all calibrated."
When the technicians from the equipment department brought the facilities salvaged by the defense team back to the observation deck and conducted a thorough inspection, their expressions turned blank.
To them, this incident was downright supernatural.
After all, the equipment Station Master Asta had purchased was top of the line. Ever since it arrived, the defense department had treated it like treasure, practically bathing it in machine oil every day and giving it meticulous care.
If it were a defense officer accidentally pressing something after a drill, that might have been understandable. But the inspection report showed everything was normal, as if the equipment had simply gotten too bored and, in a fit of mechanical pique, run off together.
"Station Master Asta, I couldn't find anything wrong," the inspector said, shaking his head.
Hearing this, Asta stared silently at the turret before her.
If Arlan and several others had not reacted quickly earlier, the station's energy barrier would have already activated.
And this was not an isolated case. Similar incidents were unfolding across the Cosmos.
Machines in the midst of combat suddenly stalled and shut down.
Ships in flight suddenly "awakened a machine spirit," becoming completely unresponsive no matter how the pilots tried to control them.
…
"Master Diviner, is this thing broken?"
Qingque, who worked diligently with the sole aim of finishing her tasks so she could relax in peace, arrived at her workstation ready to finish today's workload, only to discover in shock that her equipment had gone on strike.
What was this? The equipment was slacking off harder than she was?
"That shouldn't be. I was the last to leave yesterday, and I personally checked everything. There shouldn't be any mistakes. And even if there were, it shouldn't be on such a large scale…"
Arms crossed, Fu Xuan muttered to herself.
"What large scale?" Qingque tilted her head, still completely in the dark.
"Obviously… wait. I remember I already sent people to check this. Everyone should know by now… Qingque!!!"
As the saying goes, remain unmoved by gains or losses.
Unfortunately, Qingque could not manage that. Timing her arrival to work so precisely was bound to be exposed eventually.
"Many devices in the Divination Commission have malfunctioned today. They were all personally inspected by me yesterday, there should not have been any errors."
"The other equipment have also become blurry and experienced interference."
"Some automatons in the Artisanship Commission short-circuited during calibration for unknown reasons, with accidental automatic activations."
"The Alchemy Commission…"
Jing Yuan listened groggily as everyone gave him information, his head spinning from the endless affairs.
System prompt: General Jing Yuan has logged out.
Reconnecting… General Jing Yuan has been forcibly logged in.
"From the sound of it, all the malfunctions involve mechanical devices."
Jing Yuan raised an eyebrow, keenly sensing that there must be a connection.
"That may be so, but who knows what's messing around behind the scenes. I even asked the Ten-Lords Commission's judge Huohuo about the Heliobi by her side."
"There are indeed some Heliobi fascinated by machinery, but they've all been suppressed. If there's anyone else capable, it would only be that hacker among the Stellaron Hunters."
Fu Xuan frowned slightly as she spoke.
If it were anything else, she would have many suspects. But this time, the affected objects were all related to mechanical data.
As for who could throw them into chaos in such a short time, that hacker from the Stellaron Hunters was undoubtedly high on the list.
Especially since the other party had previously been to the Xianzhou.
"Heh, Diviner Fu, you can't make accusations like that so casually. From what I know, many guests have arrived at the Luofu recently, but that little Stellaron Hunter girl isn't among them," Jing Yuan said with a chuckle, then continued.
"For now, let's leave it at that. We'll investigate further once we have more clues."
Everyone nodded. They all understood that without sufficient evidence, searching for someone would be like looking for a needle in the sea, and could easily spark public panic.
After everyone left, the relaxed smile on Jing Yuan's face instantly turned contemplative.
Mechanical anomalies were a truly alarming concept. The Xianzhou bore an ancient-sounding name, but in reality, its technological development stood among the best.
To combat the undying abominations, the Xianzhou had invested immense effort into its weaponry.
Creatures blessed by Abundance were largely immune to individual thermal weapons. Take the Borisin as an example. Elite Borisin warriors could even withstand starship-grade weaponry head-on.
Retro bows were actually individual missile launchers. Flying swords were neurally controlled autonomous combat units. High-frequency cutting weapons. Advanced defensive intelligent robots, the automatons.
Put it this way, if those weapons went out of control.
The tragedy of the Automaton Rebellion was still vivid in memory.
So…
"Who could it be…?" Lost in thought, Jing Yuan walked to the window, gazing at the faintly visible starry sky as he murmured to himself.
…
Belobog.
"Hah, out-of-control machines? No. Everything's perfectly fine in Belobog. Nothing strange like that is happening at all."
Serval listened to Tingyun's account on the other end of the phone, completely baffled.
These days, even the Xianzhou's equipment couldn't be trusted anymore?