"W-Well, as you heard... I-I have to go sign for my delivery! Goodbye!"
Asta abruptly jumped to her feet like a startled little rabbit, her flustered voice still echoing through the room as she hurriedly fled from Lucian's bedroom.
Even her retreating figure carried an unmistakable sense of panic and embarrassment, as though staying even one second longer would have completely overwhelmed her.
Lucian calmly watched her disappear beyond the doorway before slowly lifting his cup of hot cocoa and taking another sip. In an instant, the rich warmth spread across his tongue, and for some reason, it somehow seemed a little sweeter than before.
Several quiet minutes later, after leisurely finishing his hot cocoa, he finally received the notification informing him that his returning conceptual abilities had fully recovered.
[DING! Follower Hysilens has returned BGM and Law of Calamity.]
[DING! ...]
[DING! ...]
[DING! ...]
As Hysilens and the others returned his conceptual abilities one after another, Lucian immediately came to the conclusion that the problem they had been facing had finally been completely resolved.
Immediately afterward, he opened the System panel and checked the status of his followers.
After confirming that not a single one of them had died, the last trace of tension in his heart finally eased slightly, which also indicated that Hysilens and the others had already achieved an overwhelming and decisive victory.
If that were the case, then there was naturally no need for him to continue worrying about that side for the time being.
"I really wanna see the look on Lygus's face when his mind completely breaks. Getting hard-countered by tiny data lifeforms has to be humiliating beyond belief..."
Lucian muttered with a faint, amused smile as he imagined Lygus's miserable and frustrated appearance.
However, only a moment later, the smile on his face gradually faded away, replaced by a much more serious and thoughtful expression.
"Looks like it's time to look for Black Swan and the Astral Express..."
===
Pier Point, Interastral Peace Corporation Headquarters, Intelligence Department.
Inside a vast room overflowing with computers and the relentless sounds of keyboards clacking nonstop, people dressed in IPC uniforms hurried back and forth with anxious expressions, while others remained seated at their stations, staring intently at their screens as their fingers typed without pause.
At the center of the room floated a massive holographic sphere that displayed real-time information streams from across the cosmos, countless lines of data cascading downward like an endless waterfall of light while several employees continuously sorted, filtered, and processed the incoming reports.
No one in the room spoke.
Every single person remained completely focused on their respective monitors and tasks, the atmosphere tense and orderly as nobody spared attention for anything unrelated to work.
Just then, amid the room devoid of any human voices, an urgent data stream marked 'Priority—High' was suddenly pushed onto the massive sphere, instantly drawing the attention of several nearby employees.
Its source had been traced directly back to Herta Space Station and transmitted through a special, encrypted channel reserved for the highest levels of communication.
In the next moment, a new window abruptly expanded across the holographic sphere, revealing an extremely eye-catching title in large, flashing letters.
[Shocking the Cosmos! Nous Personally Appears at Herta Space Station, Full Recorded Footage! Watch Now!]
Attached beneath the title was an edited and highly sensational dynamic video.
Even though the video shook slightly at times, the overall clarity remained extremely high, clearly displaying the iconic Master Control Zone of Herta Space Station in the background.
As the video began to play, subtitles filled with explosive visual effects and flashing highlights rapidly appeared one after another.
[Breaking News! A Peak Clash Between Erudition and Enigmata!]
[Has Herta Space Station Become a Battlefield of Gods?!]
[Genius Society #83, Herta, Faces Nous Head-On Alongside Her Companions!]
Reading the absurdly exaggerated subtitles, the entire Intelligence Department instantly fell silent.
All employees stopped what they were doing and stared fixedly at the massive sphere in disbelief, several of them subconsciously standing up from their seats while their mouths hung wide open.
"N-Nous?"
"Nous appeared at Herta Space Station?"
"Holy shit—this is huge news, actual live footage of an Aeon!"
"What kind of insane situation is this?"
As shocked exclamations continuously rang out across the room, the department director wiped the cold sweat from his forehead while staring at the 'special request' personally sent by Herta herself.
At the very bottom of the video interface was an additional line of small text.
[Promote the video as much as you can. Make the title explosive. Let the entire cosmos know, understood?]
After reading the request that had come directly from Herta, the corners of the director's lips immediately twitched upward slightly.
"Madam Herta... this is seriously outrageous..."
Nous!
An Aeon!
And THEY had actually fought against the Aeon of Enigmata, Mythus!
Even more unbelievable, the entire battle had somehow been recorded!
As expected of the famous genius Madam Herta!
But more importantly, how had she not died from the aftershocks caused by a battle between Aeons?
With that thought lingering in his mind, the director slowly took a deep breath and forcefully suppressed the excitement surging within his chest.
With news this explosive, wasn't he practically guaranteed a promotion?
At this moment, he genuinely wanted to thank Herta from the bottom of his heart for delivering such an outrageous gift directly into his hands.
"All of you, push it across every single channel immediately! Pause everything else!"
Wearing a solemn expression, the director gave his orders without the slightest hesitation, his imposing demeanor resembling a commander preparing for a decisive war.
"For the title, use this: 'Shocking the Cosmos! Nous the Erudition Personally Appears at Herta Space Station, Only to Be Sneak-Attacked by Mythus the Enigmata with a Heavy Punch! No Martial Ethics! Full Recorded Footage! Watch Now!'"
"Make it red! Make it bold! Add flashing effects!"
"Enable pop-up pushes! Pin it directly to the top!"
"Bombard every forum and every social media platform with short-video teasers!"
"Push it! Push it hard! Let the entire cosmos see it!"
Under the director's frantic orders, the entire Intelligence Department instantly sprang into action.
And so, within just a few short minutes, this clickbait news—packed full of 'explosive effects' and overwhelming 'suspense'—swept across the Interastral Network like a rapidly spreading virus.
Thanks to the IPC's enormous distribution channels and overwhelming influence, the news spread at an astonishing speed to every single corner of the cosmos.
Countless planets.
Countless civilizations.
Countless netizens.
All of them, scattered throughout different star systems of the cosmos, stared at the striking headlines and the gunpowder-filled edited clips displayed on their screens, every single one of them utterly stunned by what they were seeing.
[What the hell? Nous got beat up?]
[At Herta Space Station? Mythus did it?]
[No way this ain't some fucking clickbait. C'mon, just release the full video already!]
[Yeah, it's probably clickbait... but that footage really did come outta Herta Space Station...]
[Stuff from the IPC's usually isn't wrong, y'know.]
[Yeah, it even says the Genius Herta personally submitted it herself...]
[Damn... so they're saying she ran into a straight-up god-tier battle while meeting Nous and still walked away completely fine? Insane!]
[Heard it happened when Nous went to see Madam Herta, then Mythus got jealous and beat the hell outta Nous.]
[Hmm, the Aeon circle's kinda messy, huh...]
[For some reason, this feels kinda shippable... I'm lowkey shipping Nous and Mythus!]
In an incredibly short amount of time, the entire Interastral Network that connected the cosmos became completely flooded with gossip, speculation, arguments, and outrageous conspiracy theories, all of which rapidly shot straight to the top of the trending rankings.
And the mastermind behind all of this chaos, Herta herself, was currently sitting leisurely inside her office aboard Herta Space Station, one slender leg elegantly crossed over the other as she browsed through the internet while watching countless people shower her with praise and admiration.
Completely satisfied with the outcome, she narrowed her eyes slightly and smiled like a cat that had successfully stolen a fish.
"Hmph."
"You dumb hunk of metal, always acting deep and aloof, always ignoring me no matter what I say."
"Now the whole cosmos knows you got beaten..."
"Let's see how you keep maintaining that lofty, aloof image after this!"
Even though she was an Emanator of Erudition, Herta would never quietly swallow her anger just because of her status.
Nous's constant indifference had left her with a stomach full of pent-up frustration and nowhere to vent it, and now that she had footage of THEM being caught in a sneak attack, this was practically the perfect opportunity for her to retaliate through public opinion by thoroughly smearing THEIR reputation across the cosmos.
Of course, she knew perfectly well that Nous wouldn't care about this kind of thing in the slightest, but that didn't matter to her at all, because as long as she cared about it and felt satisfied after venting her frustration, that was already more than enough.
Herta smugly swung one of her slender, stocking-clad legs back and forth, the small yet unmistakably prideful gesture clearly showing just how satisfied and pleased she was with the news she had personally directed, promoted, and spread herself.
===
At the same time, deep within the Intelligentsia Guild, a man wearing a white alabaster sculpture over his head gazed intently at his phone, his attention fully fixed on the IPC's rapidly trending push notification.
He wore a black vest with a diamond-shaped cutout across the chest and another exposed section at his side, along with a blue cloth draped loosely around his right shoulder and a sleeveless white cloth wrapped around his left.
Dark blue pants covered his long legs, while golden sandals and arm braces embedded with blue gems gave him an almost ceremonial appearance. A single-strap garterbelt rested against his left thigh, and a leather strap was tightly wrapped around his right arm, further accentuating his unusual attire.
According to the fashion standards of Lucian's original world, his attire somewhat resembled traditional Greek clothing, albeit adapted into a noticeably more modern and refined style.
"Hmm... Nous, the Aeon of Erudition, got beaten up? Now that's something new...."
He was Veritas Ratio, a scholar and member of the Intelligentsia Guild who referred to himself as Dr. Ratio, an individual devoted to curing the persistent disease known as 'ignorance.'
After watching the video distributed by the IPC several times in silence, Ratio's expression remained calm and composed, almost completely unchanged.
However, beneath that indifferent exterior, even he could not suppress a faint sense of shock, since this was also the first time he had ever witnessed Aeons confronting each other directly.
Although the footage only showed a projection of Nous rather than THEIR true body, and Mythus THEMSELF never actually appeared on screen, the mere appearance of an Aeon projection was already enough to throw the entire Intelligentsia Guild into a frenzy.
"Herta faced two Aeons head-on and walked away from such a divine battle completely unscathed? Tch, what utter nonsense..."
Ratio acknowledged that Herta was undeniably a genius possessing extraordinary intellect, but surviving a clash between Aeons while even protecting the entire space station perfectly was simply too absurd to believe.
No matter how he looked at it, there had to be something else involved.
"What exactly is hidden on that space station that could attract the attention of the Aeons of Erudition and Enigmata? It might truly be worth investigating."
Ratio slowly removed the white alabaster sculpture covering his head, revealing the refined and handsome face of a man with wavy violet hair and reddish-pink eyes.
A thoughtful glint flashed across his gaze before he immediately submitted an application for leave, already preparing to head toward Herta Space Station to personally uncover the truth behind the incident.
However, he wasn't the only one thinking that way.
Many scholars within the Intelligentsia Guild, after learning that Nous had descended upon Herta Space Station, instinctively concluded that there had to be something extraordinary hidden there.
As a result, one after another, numerous scholars used the excuse of paying a visit, all wanting to uncover the secret that had managed to draw the attention of Nous to Herta Space Station.
===
In another star system, Himeko and March 7th had just finished Trailblazing through a foreign civilization and finally returned to the Astral Express after several exhausting yet rewarding days.
Upon stepping into the Parlor Car of the Astral Express, the familiar sight immediately greeted them.
Pom-Pom was busy cleaning the car as usual, huffing and puffing while dragging cleaning tools around with serious dedication, while not far away, Welt Yang and Dan Heng sat together at the same table, quietly listening to the IPC's broadcast coming from the retro-looking radio.
"Mr. Yang, Dan Heng, why aren't you guys welcoming us back at all?"
March placed her hands on her hips and complained with a dissatisfied pout after noticing that the two of them barely reacted to their return.
Welt calmly pushed up his glasses with his middle finger before finally shifting his gaze away from the radio and toward the two women standing nearby.
"Ah, welcome back."
Welt spoke with a faint smile, giving Himeko and March a small nod in greeting.
"We were listening to the latest news broadcast from the IPC. According to the report, two Aeons appeared at Herta Space Station and even fought each other."
===
[A bonus chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
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