Himeko and Dan Heng didn't linger at the Space Station for long.
Watching the Astral Express depart and descend toward Amphoreus, Bai Ming figured they were off to meet that pair, Cerydra and Hysilens.
As for Bai Ming, she was looking forward to the next time they met—hopefully, she'd get to see Welt then.
Regarding Void Archives... well, she wasn't exactly close with him. Besides, with him wearing that face, she wasn't particularly itching for a meeting.
"What a pity. Not a single clue. I wouldn't even know where to begin looking for the Solar System."
Bai Ming had asked Sparkle, but the masked girl hadn't visited that place yet in this current timeline. She didn't have the luxury of wasting too much energy on the matter either.
"Forget it. I'll leave the Kiana situation on the back burner for now. It's a shame, though; if I could find the place now, I might have caught a glimpse of that 'paramecium' Kiana from the early days."
Bai Ming shook her head and made her way toward the Simulated Universe.
She figured she'd put in a few rounds and perform some routine system maintenance while she was at it.
Lately, Herta and Screwllum had been buried in their research on the Elation Equation, leaving the upkeep of the Simulated Universe neglected.
She synced her consciousness into the system.
But before she could even begin the maintenance, the state of the Simulated Universe gave her a massive fright.
What the hell? How did Aha get into the Simulated Universe too?!
Bai Ming found it hard to process.
It had only been a few days since Herta and Screwllum got distracted by the Elation Equation. Somehow, in that brief window of inattention, the simulated Aha had managed to sneak in and seize control.
She looked around at the sheer volume of "worlds" the simulated Aha had projected using the system's computing power—scenarios lifted straight out of various literary works.
Among them were scores of masterpieces that had been discontinued or abandoned for various reasons, now forced into existence as the Simulated Universe calculated their "sequels."
And that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Bai Ming pulled up a few data streams and was immediately bombarded by a chaotic mess of simulated plots.
For instance, there was a romantic comedy featuring three Geniuses from years ago, now spiced up by Aha with "crowd-pleasing" tropes. There was another simulation depicting the first and second Emperors in the same era, reimagined as a pair of star-crossed lovers...
Bai Ming even spotted a simulation of her own life!
In it, she was gallivanting through the Simulated Universe, flirting with girls left and right, playing with hearts like a professional heartbreaker.
Names like Herta, Ruan Mei, and Acheron were the "normal" ones; the list spiraled out to include the Herta puppets, Sparkle, and even Celenova and Phantylia.
Bai Ming's vision went dark with frustration.
That simulated Aha... THEY really are having a field day in here, aren't THEY?
Using the Simulated Universe's processing power to calculate this kind of nonsense was like using a railgun to swat a mosquito. Bai Ming couldn't fathom how this simulated Aha had managed to beat out the other simulated Aeons and turn the entire system into THEIR personal playground.
Ignoring the chaotic simulations for a moment, Bai Ming began pulling the recent system logs. She needed to find the reason behind how this simulated entity had achieved such a feat.
She scrolled back through the records until she hit the day she and Screwllum had attempted to record the Elation Equation within the system.
When she saw the logs of those residual equations being "swallowed" by the simulated Aha, Bai Ming lost it.
Is there anything this guy won't eat?
The data had been a mess of corrupted code and shattered fragments—a digital nightmare. How could Aha gain such a massive boost by absorbing something so broken?
According to the logs, after swallowing that data, the simulated Aha triggered something akin to a "root code" evolution.
Compared to the other simulated Aeons, Aha's code had undergone a massive leap in iteration.
Within those lines of code, Bai Ming could faintly sense the scent of the Elation Equation.
In other words, the simulated Aha hadn't just mindlessly consumed the data; THEY had somehow utilized those shattered equations to complete a self-evolution.
One could even say THEY had, to some extent, "repaired" the damaged data.
But the question remained: was this something a mere simulation was truly capable of?
They had specifically implemented data isolation when they tried to leave the Elation Equation in the Simulated Universe. To think THEY could bypass those barriers was absurd.
While Bai Ming was still deep in the logs, the simulated Aha materialized beside her.
"Aha! Look at the wonderful job I've done! Isn't this world much more interesting now? It used to be so dreadfully dull."
"...Aha! You still have the nerve to show your face?!"
Using her administrator privileges, Bai Ming lunged forward and grabbed the grinning mask. She glared at the smirking entity.
"Wasting the Simulated Universe's processing power on this garbage... do you have any idea how much money you're burning?"
"Hahaha! Isn't it better this way? Why waste computing power on those dusty old historical records when you can create some joy in a virtual world instead?"
The simulated Aha clearly saw no fault in THEIR actions. Since it was all a fake world anyway, why bother mimicking reality and calculating boring scenarios? If it's all a lie, you might as well make it a fun one.
Bai Ming rolled her eyes. She knew there was no reasoning with THEIR personality.
Relying on her superior "realm" of authority, she forcibly pinned the near-sentient simulation down.
She began parsing THEIR source code, intending to give THEM a taste of what an "admin" could really do.
Originally, she planned to strip away the Elation Equation components and roll back the simulated Aha's data. But as the analysis progressed, she paused.
"Wait... what is this?"
She found something unusual in THEIR code.
Somehow—likely because the Simulated Universe couldn't handle the full weight of the Elation Equation—the simulated Aha hadn't tried to replicate the code exactly.
Had THEY done so, it would have just turned back into garbled noise.
Instead, THEY changed THEIR approach.
Using the Simulated Universe as a foundation and referencing the corrupted fragments, THEY had written a "simplified equation" for THEMSELF that could actually run within the system.
Compared to the original, this simplified version had discarded most of its content.
It had almost nothing to do with Elation itself; it only preserved the core "Skeleton of Paths."
This skeleton was incomplete and couldn't run on its own. It had even been stripped of the fundamental concept of the Path of Elation.
So, how were THEY using it?
The simulated Aha had modified THEIR own compatibility. Every time THEY needed to exert power, THEY would plug THEIR own code into the framework to perform a real-time calculation.
This way, the Simulated Universe didn't need to calculate an entire Path—only a specific trait of Elation at any given moment.
It drastically lowered the required processing power.
The brilliance wasn't in how it was simplified, but in the "pure framework of Paths" that THEY had distilled—one that lacked any specific Elation characteristics.
On one hand, this thing could help her accelerate her own understanding.
On the other hand, this framework might be universal.
One could potentially plug in data from other Paths into this formula—and you wouldn't even need the full data set. Even a partial fragment would yield a fraction of that Path's power.
It was essentially a universal ignition device.
You could toss in a small concept from any Path and it would work; the more you added, the stronger the effect.
This thing... could be mass-produced.
It was dangerous, to be honest. But then again, it was exactly the kind of thing Aha would do.
"Is this really something a simulated Aeon could pull off?" Bai Ming muttered, feeling the absurdity of it all.
She suspected the simulated Aha had some link to the "real" Aha out in the cosmos. But even if the real one had tinkered with this simulation, the entity was still bound by the limits of the Simulated Universe's calculations.
How could THEY have cooked this up using nothing but broken code?
And if it was the real Aha's doing... were THEY actually kind enough to plant a seed like this just to help Bai Ming understand the Elation Equation?
The simulated Aha, still pinned by one hand, huffed in indignation at her doubt.
"How rude! If you let me out of here, who knows who'd be the boss? I only stay here for the sake of developing this world!"
"Developing this world? What did you do?!"
Bai Ming immediately went on high alert.
She was terrified of Aha's "sudden inspirations," even if it was just a simulated version.
"Hahahaha! I've added the 'Reality Code' I developed into the source code of every other Aeon. Once they all get a bit smarter, the real fun begins!"
"Holy... what have you done?!"
Bai Ming was genuinely spooked.
Smarter? The simulated Aeons were already terrifyingly intelligent. If they evolved further, what then?
Setting aside Aha, the previous simulations of Ena and Tayzzyronth had already managed to project their influence into reality.
If they kept getting "smarter," this Simulated Universe was going to turn into a literal cage of Aeons.
"Hahahaha! Just a little something for the sake of a good laugh!"
"You're going to be the death of me!!"
Panicking, Bai Ming slapped a massive "Sealing Technique" on the simulated Aha before racing to scan the source code of every other Aeon.
If these simulations evolved again, they'd all be trying to break out into the real world. She couldn't even imagine the fallout.
Soon, she found the other Aeon archetypes. Aha had forcibly suspended their processes.
The simulated Aha had "anchored" these Aeons to their respective Paths within the system and then forcibly cut off their self-awareness.
THEY had turned them into nothing more than automated "Path Maintenance Programs."
And within those halted programs... THEY had indeed inserted THEIR simplified framework.
However, because their self-awareness had been cut off, the programs—though loaded—had never actually been triggered.
The simulated Aha had done all the prep work, but THEY hadn't pulled the final trigger.
Bai Ming let out a long, shaky breath of relief. It was a close call.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL