Following the abnormal events in the Seclusion Zone, Stelle and Nero eventually arrived at a room.
There, they found another leftover-reheating robot.
It was hard to tell whether identical robots had been placed in different areas, or if this little thing had run over here while the two of them were exploring.
["Hidden room, bzzzt. Accessible only by Ms. Ruan Mei. Please present your credentials, bzzzt."]
Stelle showed it the access pass with Ruan Mei's fingerprint on it.
["Verification complete, bzzzt."]
["Please choose one of the following services: One, view historical cultivation records. Two, inorganic life companionship conversation service."]
Stelle chose the first option.
Another recording began to play. It seemed to continue directly from the previous one.
["I've thought of one form of life that I have no choice but to admit is impossible to fully understand." It was Ruan Mei's voice. "That is... an Emanator."]
"Ah... I guessed wrong." Nero stuck out his tongue after hearing Ruan Mei say that.
But there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't remember everything from before he transmigrated, which was perfectly normal.
"What exactly is an Emanator? I still don't fully understand," Ruan Mei continued. "Scholars see them as agents who carry out the Aeons' power."
"So when did they become closer to an Aeon than any other form of life? And at what point did that happen?"
"At first, I tried to create a Genius. I failed. That question still has no answer, and there is still a long road ahead."
"But there is more than one Path in the universe besides Erudition. If reason is cast aside, could there be an Emanator on another Path who is more primitive and more pure?"
"Of course there is."
"Tayzzyronth. Through the Simulated Universe, I was able to glimpse the beginning and end of the Swarm Disaster, and also... no, Beauty is a more complicated subject."
"...I gathered data from the Swarm King and its offspring, copied and cultivated them, opening up a completely new branch of research."
"A perfectly reasonable conclusion. I will definitely succeed. The one I recreate will bloom into a form of life unlike any before."
"Will Herta and Screwllum like this experiment? Probably not. So before they notice... I need to speed things up and find suitable assistants."
The two listened to Ruan Mei's confession.
"So she's trying to cultivate an Emanator. That's one crazy scientist. Looks like we've confirmed our target. An Emanator of the Propagation... should be a giant bug too."
"Speaking of which, she mentioned Beauty. That reminds me of the last time I played Swarm Disaster. I rebuilt the Knights of Beauty, then got the Xianzhou Alliance and the IPC involved and formed a space fleet."
"The bugs blasted apart by all that firepower were as countless as the stars. I wonder if any Emanators were among them..."
Nero wasn't nervous at all.
After all, even though Emanators weren't common, he'd already met quite a few. He had fought the ones he needed to fight, including some opponents who weren't Emanators but had equally troublesome abilities.
Jing Yuan couldn't beat him.
Aemdo couldn't beat him either.
And Phantylia was still burning inside the furnace.
Stelle, meanwhile, was left stunned.
"What space fleet?
"What Knights of Beauty?
"What interstellar war?
"Why exactly is the Simulated Universe you're playing different from the one I'm playing?
"Besides, I haven't even run into a single Knight of Beauty in Swarm Disaster!"
"Hehe." Nero didn't know how to explain it, so he simply smiled.
"Maybe my body gives me a few special privileges."
"So the Knights of Beauty followed the scent and came running, huh?"
Stelle narrowed her eyes.
"Mm... But maybe Aha is behind it. They do come over to secretly watch from time to time."
"Why do you make a mighty Aeon sound like some kind of creepy stalker..."
Just then, the leftover-reheating robot spoke again.
["Verification complete, bzzzt."]
["Please choose one of the following services: One, visitor records. Two, open the culture chamber entrance."]
"Tell us about the visitors," Stelle said.
["Ms. Ruan Mei, bzzzt. Extradimensional species, bzzzt. Plaster-headed man, bzzzt."]
Stelle blinked.
"Plaster-headed man? Never mind. Open the culture chamber entrance."
["Permission granted, bzzzt."]
The robot responded to Stelle's choice.
A moment later, an electronic unlocking sound came from upstairs.
"Let's go, Nero."
"Mm, let's catch bugs!"
The two took a shortcut back upstairs, returning to the same floor where they had first arrived in the Seclusion Zone.
As they reached the central platform, Stelle spotted what looked like a person in the distance. She immediately stretched out a hand to stop the excited Nero.
"There's someone over there. Nero, be careful."
She grabbed Nero's hand and carefully led him forward.
The man wore clothing that mixed Greek and modern styles. The colors were mainly blue and white, decorated with gold ornaments that had a distinctly Greek look. The sandals on his feet were especially eye-catching.
But the most noticeable thing about him was the plaster head he wore.
He was playing chess by himself.
For some reason, Stelle thought she heard chanting drifting down from somewhere beyond the sky, as though a choir were praising something.
At first she thought Argenti had arrived, but after listening carefully, the style of the mysterious chanting was completely different from his.
"Ah, the move of a genius. How will you answer it?"
The man moved a chess piece across the board.
His voice was very clear, carrying both steadiness and a hint of self-admiration.
"Oh, only an idiot would ask that kind of question. You simply play here...", He muttered again.
This time, his voice carried pride along with an inexplicable seriousness.
He reached out again and moved another piece.
Then he stared at the move he had just made.
He took a deep breath, hesitated as he raised his hand, then stopped again, seemingly thinking about what to play next.
Even through the elaborate plaster head, it almost felt as though they could see him frowning in deep thought.
"Ah... he's playing chess... all by himself..."
Stelle stopped with Nero in front of the man.
She thought about how she spent every day hanging out with Nero and March.
Looking at this scene, the first thought that came to her wasn't that this person's appearance here was suspicious, or that he might be the man the fried-rice robot had mentioned earlier...
Instead, it was: 'This guy must not have any friends.'
'How pitiful...'
Nero, on the other hand, stared at the man with shining eyes.
To be honest, he suddenly had the urge to rip the plaster head right off him.
But that would be incredibly rude, so he put a great deal of effort into holding himself back.
At last, the mysterious plaster-headed man playing chess by himself noticed that two people were standing in front of him.
He let out a sigh and stood up.
He waved away the projected chessboard before him and replaced it with a book he seemed quite fond of.
After reading a couple of pages, his gaze swept across the white-haired boy before finally settling on Stelle, who looked like she wanted to say something but hesitated.
"You look troubled.", He spoke softly as he walked over to them.
"Run into some trouble?"