"Interesting…"
The sudden intrusion had left Herta intrigued rather than alarmed.
Whoever this mysterious hacker was, he had effortlessly slipped into her systems and edited the Simulated Universe.
From the precision of his work alone, she could already tell— this wasn't some ordinary intruder.
This was another Genius.
Which one, though?
She couldn't say.
There were more than eighty of them in the Genius Society.
Even she didn't have the patience to cross-check them one by one.
For now, her only clue was the hijacked puppet standing before her.
Suddenly, the puppet's eyes lit up again.
"Right! I've decided—I'm going to build a space station.
Same scale as yours.
Think of it as payment for helping you improve the Simulated Universe.
You cover the materials."
And before Herta could even respond— the puppet went offline again.
Gone.
"Materials, huh?"
Herta shrugged, completely unbothered.
"Asta! Start ordering supplies."
"Wait—what?!" Asta blinked in disbelief.
"Ms. Herta, that was an intruder! You're really going to fund his space station?"
Sure, the price of raw materials wasn't astronomical, and she could afford it—barely.
But this was still no small favor.
And to a hacker, no less!
"An intruder?" Herta arched a brow.
"So what? He improved my Simulated Universe. I'm rewarding him!"
Her tone was matter-of-fact, as if that explained everything.
Truthfully, she wasn't angry—she was challenged.
If this really was another Genius, then Herta's competitive spirit burned hotter than ever.
Whoever he was, she would find him.
And if it took giving him an entire space station to lure him out?
So be it.
Someone capable of expanding the Simulated Universe so drastically
was a peer worth having— perhaps even a partner in uncovering the secrets of the Aeons.
Despite her arrogance, Herta was one of the more reasonable Geniuses.
She understood the law of equivalent exchange:
You give to gain.
She turned toward the Simulated Universe terminal.
Time to analyze what the intruder had changed.
Ten hours later— she was still analyzing.
And the more she looked, the more her jaw dropped.
It wasn't an "update."
It was an evolution.
From a simple blocky simulation… to a fully dynamic virtual cosmos.
By all logic, the memory load should've crashed the servers entirely.
Yet through a series of optimizations, it balanced perfectly on the edge of stability— just enough, without exploding.
One byte more, and it would've collapsed.
That kind of precision was terrifying.
If she could learn this technique, she'd no longer need massive terminals for future upgrades.
Just as she was about to peek into the source code— a red warning message blinked into view:
[This code is protected under private patent. Unauthorized access is prohibited.]
Herta: "...What the—?!"
She gritted her teeth.
You smug little…
Unwilling to give up, she tried inspecting other sections.
But every single new module— every tweak, every inserted line— was sealed behind unbreakable firewalls.
Two and a half hours later, she finally slammed her hands down in defeat.
Ninety percent of the new system was locked.
She could still edit her own original work, but everything else was inaccessible.
"He's insane, isn't he?!" she yelled.
"Seriously, what kind of lunatic spends this much time adding security locks instead of content?!
If you're going to patent it, at least leave a payment link!
What good's a secret if you won't even sell it?!"
Her furious rant echoed through the lab.
Meanwhile, far across the network, Screwllum had also gone silent.
The moment someone used Herta's credentials, he'd begun observing quietly.
After reviewing the results, he had reached his own conclusion:
"This person is a Genius… and one whose intellect surpasses even mine."
The level of refinement in the updated Simulated Universe was beyond anything the current Genius Society had achieved.
He sent Herta a private message:
Screwllum: "Ms. Herta, I think you owe us an explanation.
The Simulated Universe isn't yours alone, after all."
Herta: "My account got hacked. What do you expect me to do?"
She didn't seem remotely apologetic.
In fact, she was more amused than anything.
The Simulated Universe was a shared research project between four Geniuses, a tool for studying the nature of the Aeons.
If someone had made it better— then that was a good thing.
Who cared who technically "owned" it?
Well… aside from the fact that every new feature was now locked behind someone else's firewall.
That part did make her grind her teeth.
"Fine," she muttered.
"If I can't hack the Simulated Universe, I'll find a loophole in the puppet he hijacked instead."
No matter how deep the mystery went, she was determined to unmask him.
And when the materials for that promised "space station" were ready— she'd have her meeting, one way or another.
Back in Inazuma, within the dream machine chamber of the Tenshukaku, several dormant bodies rested— including Yelan's.
The moment she stepped into Inazuma, she had been drawn into the dream.
Su Ran, out of courtesy, had brought her unconscious body back safely.
He now stood beside a glowing array of circuits and etheric cores.
"This Sentinel Array sure eats through resources…" he muttered.
"Still, I have to hand it to the Aeon of Erudition—he really was generous."
Without the Aeon of Knowledge's support, he could never have scouted so many cosmic regions— nor located the Herta Space Station so quickly.
Now, with the Aeon's computing power lent to him, his inventions ran smoother than ever.
"Am I the first one he's ever shared processing power with?"
Probably.
Blessings were one thing.
But computing power—that was the Aeon's own essence.
For the Aeon to lend it freely meant only one thing:
Su Ran's value, in the eyes of a god, had reached an entirely new level.
~~--------------------------------------
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