Asta's reverence toward Su Ran made the researchers on the space station realize just how special this man was.
After all, seeing the young lady do a full 180-degree attitude shift was extremely rare.
Anyone who could make someone like Asta treat them with such respect was obviously no ordinary figure.
"There's a little Herta doll here too."
Sitting down on one of the station's terraces, Su Ran casually used a nearby control console and directly hacked into a nearby Herta puppet.
Then—he made it perform an otaku dance.
The sheer audacity of the act left everyone nearby stunned.
They could only admire Su Ran's courage.
Hacking Lady Herta's puppet alone was already insane—but actually controlling it to do that?
They didn't even dare imagine how terrifying the consequences would be if Herta herself found out.
Did he seriously think Asta alone could protect him?
Yet despite their pessimism about Su Ran's future under Herta's wrath, not a single researcher dared step forward to stop him.
They all understood very clearly—
Herta was someone they couldn't afford to offend.
But this man?
They couldn't afford to offend him either.
Raiden Makoto, who had been following Su Ran without really knowing what she was supposed to do, found herself watching the dance instead.
She wasn't someone skilled in singing or dancing, but she knew how to appreciate art.
Faced with such an unfamiliar style, she watched with a learner's mindset.
About ten minutes later, Herta finally noticed something was wrong with the puppet.
She immediately logged in and forcibly took control.
The moment the puppet returned to normal, many researchers realized what that meant—
Lady Herta had arrived.
Quite a few people were already waiting eagerly for the spectacle.
They really wanted to see how Herta would punish this man who had dared to offend her.
However—the moment Herta came online, she simply stared at Su Ran with her trademark dead-fish eyes.
"Are you that bored? You came all the way here just for this?"
Clearly, this level of provocation wasn't enough to truly anger her.
Of course, that was only because it was Su Ran.
If it had been anyone else, she would have already toyed them to death.
No conversation. No mercy.
But Su Ran was useful.
So she generously let it slide.
"If I weren't bored, why would I come here?"
Seeing Su Ran talk to Herta as casually as if they were old friends—the researchers were completely dumbfounded.
No one even had the mental capacity to appreciate the shock frozen on their own faces.
"Let me make this clear first—I'm very annoyed right now.
If you didn't bring a meeting gift, I will kick you out."
Herta crossed her arms, putting on an exaggeratedly fierce expression.
With her status, she really could intimidate most people.
"Oh. Then I'll leave."
Su Ran immediately stood up, dusted off his clothes, and prepared to go.
Herta was still crookedly smiling, clearly expecting a show—until she saw the teleportation interface pop up in front of him.
Her smile instantly vanished.
She lunged forward and grabbed Su Ran's hand just as he was about to operate it.
"You're already here—why are you in such a hurry to leave?
What, rushing off to reincarnate?"
In the end, Herta was the one who folded.
She felt completely, utterly played.
No matter how she struggled, she couldn't win.
"Didn't you say there was no meeting gift?" Su Ran shrugged helplessly.
"Do I look like someone who lacks that kind of thing?"
At this point, Herta didn't even bother saving face anymore.
"Fine. Come to my office. Hurry up.
There's a lot of content in the Simulated Universe waiting to be developed."
She stopped acting cute or trying to bargain—and directly dragged Su Ran toward her office.
There was no helping it.
Su Ran was simply too useful.
Even someone as world-renowned as Herta couldn't deny that—if she had a Su Ran,there would basically be no unsolvable problems.
"What a coincidence—I actually brought someone who can be used to test the Simulated Universe."
Su Ran winked at Raiden Makoto, signaling her to follow.
Still a bit dazed, Makoto had no idea what kind of experiment she was about to be thrown into.
But out of trust—she followed without hesitation.
Upon entering Herta's office, Su Ran noticed that the glow of the Simulated Universe terminal had changed significantly.
Seeing his expression, Herta explained:
"After your last modifications, the original processor was close to full load.
Adding more content would've caused problems, so we expanded the computing power and introduced new hardware."
"But compatibility is still an issue, so we could only wait for you."
Many of the systems here were protected by Su Ran's encryption.
Even with the combined intelligence of four geniuses, they couldn't crack it.
They could delete the data—but no one was willing to.
The content didn't belong to them, but it was incredibly valuable.
It offered tremendous insight into researching the mysteries behind the birth of Aeons.
Deleting it was out of the question.
They also couldn't optimize it—because the biggest issue was the newly added content.
They had no authority to modify it—only to delete it.
Since they hadn't created it themselves, their only solution was to keep increasing load capacity and computing power to keep the Simulated Universe running smoothly.
But once performance increased, compatibility issues naturally followed.
And since they couldn't optimize it—they could only wait for the last contributor to return.
And now—he was finally here.
Su Ran began operating the terminal.
After two and a half hours of optimization—Herta was stunned.
The original computing load had been reduced by one-third.
Which meant Su Ran's technology was even more advanced than they had anticipated.
His previous performance hadn't even been his limit.
At this point, Herta was starting to wonder if this wasn't actually Nous wearing human skin, just messing with her.
This massive change immediately caught the attention of Screwllum and Ruan Mei.
They both logged in to investigate.
In truth, they had already expected it—Su Ran had come again.
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