Although Acheron could not fully understand Herta's words, she understood that Miss Herta already had a plan to treat her. She only needed to wait... and she would gain the possibility of being cured.
To repay Herta, Acheron resolved to deal with Herta's troubles, and so she asked seriously, "A war has broken out on another part of the planet. Do you need me to step in and suppress it?"
As her words fell, Acheron tightened her grip on her long blade. Her hair turned white, crimson spider lilies spread across her skin, and her entire body emitted a terrifying killing intent—the aura of slaughter born from mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
This was something Acheron herself had cultivated after slaughtering every kami across Takamagahara and Izumo.
Herman saw Acheron's agitated state and gently shook his head. "There's no need. Besides, as a Self-Annihilator, using your power will only push you further toward Nihility... As for the Eastern Federation, when the time comes, I'll handle it myself."
Hearing this, Acheron loosened her grip on the blade and her gaze toward Herta grew even gentler.
At this moment, Herman took out his phone and contacted Screwllum and Ruan Mei, informing them that they could soon find a suitable time to initiate the Simulated Universe project.
However, neither Ruan Mei nor Screwllum replied immediately. Herman had already expected this.
Ruan Mei was still immersed in her research on the Swarm Emperor Fruit, while Screwllum was likely already eager to study and test just how much the awakened Brain-Brain Fruit—Collective Wisdom Halo—could enhance the intelligence of a genius like himself.
Thinking this, Herman stood up from the sofa. He reached into the air, grasped the flying Herta Magic Wand, set it beneath him, then glanced at Acheron and said, "I have something to handle next. As for you, Acheron, you can rest here at my place for now."
"Please go ahead, Miss Herta." Acheron sat upright and nodded lightly.
"Just call me Herta." Herman chuckled softly, then mounted the wand and shot out through the window.
Before long, he arrived inside Herta City's Soul Factory and saw Herta 05 lying on the sofa, rubbing her belly with a satisfied expression.
"What did you eat?" Herman asked curiously after landing.
?!!
Startled by the sound, Herta 05 jolted upright. "Madam Herta, I—Herta 05—wasn't slacking off!"
"Alright, alright, I'm not blaming you." Herman couldn't help but smile at the nervous little Herta.
That tone of voice... that gentle attitude... it was the Second Madam Herta!
Seeing that the one who caught her slacking was not the strict Madam Herta but the Second Madam Herta, Herta 05 felt overjoyed.
Her tension vanished instantly. "Second Madam Herta, so it's you... Ah, I mean, it's great that it's you this time!"
At that moment, the consciousness of The Herta, having just stepped out of the Simulated Laboratory, heard this and recalled the change in Herta 05's expression. She felt a surge of displeasure.
Damn it... I was the one who created Herta 05, but it seems she's closer to Herman than to me.
While The Herta felt annoyed, Herman reached out and gently rubbed Herta 05's head.
"Good girl. You're really that happy to see me? Then tell me—what happened that made you look so content just now?"
"Second Madam Herta, it's like this. The Blue Federation came several times asking about you... You said before that they weren't enemies, so I told their envoy about you. Because of that, they treated me to a big meal."
After saying that, Herta 05 carefully raised her head and looked at Herman with a pitiful expression. "Second Madam Herta, you won't blame me, right?"
"Of course not. After all, Herta 05 is so cute." Herman raised both hands and pinched her cheeks hard, turning them red.
"Se-Second Madam Herta... don't pinch so hard, it hurts." After struggling free, Herta 05 rubbed her cheeks and complained.
This lifelike reaction made Herman sigh in admiration. Herta's technology was truly incredible—these puppets were practically indistinguishable from real people.
"Alright, alright, I won't tease you anymore. Come with me to the Herta production line. I need to make a small modification."
!!
"Madam Herta, don't tell me you think there are enough Hertas already, so you're planning to stop production?" Herta 05's face scrunched up, looking miserable. "I still wanted to see more Herta sisters being born..."
"You silly little Herta, what are you thinking?" Herman laughed helplessly and tapped her forehead with a finger. "I said it's just a modification."
"But isn't the production line already perfect?"
"Not even close. This time, I plan to install psychic genes into the newly produced Hertas, directly connecting them to the Warp... giving them the ability to manipulate Warp energy."
"Psychic Hertas?" The ahoge on Herta 05's head trembled as she looked up anxiously. "Then what about the older models?"
The old ones will of course be sent to the recycle—
Herman recalled a brainwashing advertisement from his previous life and quickly coughed, then said seriously, "The older Hertas can also gain psychic abilities by going through the production line again and undergoing psychic modification surgery."
"Yay!" The gloom on Herta 05's face instantly vanished. She jumped up excitedly and grabbed Herman's hand. "Then Second Miss Herta, let's hurry to the production line and upgrade it right away!"
Herta pulled Herman along to the production line. At that moment, The Herta's consciousness surfaced and took full control of the body.
"Begin work. Herta 05, you are my assistant now."
The Herta's tone was calm and cold.
Herta 05 immediately noticed the shift in tone and understood that the one controlling the body was no longer the Second Miss Herta, but The Herta herself.
And the moment The Herta appeared, she was made to work. As expected, the Second Miss Herta was far more humane... sob...
Though she cried inside, Herta 05 did not dare slack off. She quickly cooperated with The Herta, carrying out fundamental modifications to the production line and imbuing it with a psychic essence.
As a result, the mechanical gears within the Herta production line roared more intensely. This was The Herta manually stimulating the machines.
Soon, under psychic interference, a dim consciousness began to emerge within the machines—
The gestation of machine spirits.
Under the influence of psychic interference and The Herta's manual modifications, the production line underwent a drastic transformation and completed its upgrade.
The process of creating Hertas also changed from the original eighteen steps to nineteen.
The additional nineteenth step was precisely the psychic gene modification.
Upgrading the Herta production line took The Herta a full twelve system hours. After completing the upgrade... The Herta pressed the startup button for the production line.
Seeing this, Herta 05 hurriedly reminded her in alarm, "Madam Herta, did you forget... we haven't connected the power circuits yet, and the materials for manufacturing the Hertas are still in a state of shortage."
The Herta did not respond. Instead, she turned her gaze toward the Herta production line—more precisely, toward the machine spirit residing within it. Through this, she heard the voice of what could be called the Herta Production Line Machine Spirit:
'Madam Herta, you created me with psychic power and activated me!'
'Then I must work hard to produce.'
'Wait... production requires energy, and currently energy is insufficient?'
'If energy is lacking, this unit will draw it from the Warp. If materials are lacking, this unit will handcraft them from the Warp. In any case, the manufacturing of Herta Puppets must accelerate...'
Before long, the first psychic Herta Puppet—No. 11000—rolled off the line. She opened her dazed eyes and saw Herta 05 staring in shock.
Herta 11000 found this strange. She did not understand why Herta 05 would show such an odd expression, but when she saw The Herta's satisfied look, she understood that Madam Herta warmly welcomed her into this world.
"Madam Herta, Herta 11000 greets you."
"Try sensing the Warp. Can you feel it?"
"Yes, I can sense the existence of the Warp. I can also perceive Madam Herta's soul within the Warp as a projection of a great sun. It is truly magnificent."
Hearing this, the smile at the corner of The Herta's lips grew wider.
Meanwhile, Herta 05 revealed a completely bewildered expression and began muttering in confusion.
Clearly, I haven't replenished the materials, and even the power supply hasn't been connected. How did the upgraded psychic Herta production line start... and even successfully produce a Herta Puppet?!
Is this an illusion?!
In the end, unable to hold back, Herta 05 raised her head and asked The Herta, who wore the pointed hat beside her, "Without energy supply and lacking materials, how did it produce a Herta Puppet?"
"This production line has been modified by me. It now possesses a machine spirit—Machine-Spirit Herta. She assists me in accelerating the production of Herta Puppets. As for the lack of energy and materials you mentioned, she resolved those issues."
Machine-Spirit Herta?!
Madam Herta used psychic methods to enlighten the production line, granting it self-awareness—and it can even generate energy and materials out of the void?!
Thinking this, Herta 05 realized the extraordinary nature of psychic power and asked expectantly whether she could undergo psychic modification immediately.
"Get on the production line. Once your modification is complete... go notify more Hertas to step onto this line and undergo psychic gene modification. The speed will be very fast. As for how fast, you'll know once you experience it."
"Yes."
After agreeing, Herta 05 hurried onto the production line without delay.
After seeing this, The Herta contacted allies from the Xianzhou Alliance—Yao Guang and Fu Xuan—informing them to come to the Soul Factory.
Upon receiving the message, both Yao Guang and Fu Xuan were immediately excited and quickly replied:
"Miss Herta, has the puppet modification surgery been completed? Does this mean we can now bring Herta Puppets to the Xianzhou Alliance?"
The Herta: "Yes. Come to Herta City's Soul Factory to pick them up."
Whether it was Fu Xuan or Yao Guang, upon seeing Herta's reply, both were greatly invigorated:
"That's wonderful. As expected of Miss Herta—she said she would complete the modification in a short time, and she truly did. Her research efficiency is astonishingly fast."
Both Fu Xuan and Yao Guang knew that the current Vidyadhara of the Xianzhou Alliance were extremely eager to bring psychic Herta Puppets to more worlds that held friendly emotions toward the Vidyadhara, in order to absorb emotional energy from those worlds.
That way, the formation of the Immortal Dragon Fruit could be accelerated.
In fact, according to the information obtained by Fu Xuan and Yao Guang, several Xianzhou ships had already begun acting across the cosmos, spreading myths about the Dragon Gate.
The general content of the legend was that before the great Aeon of Permanence left this world, They had considered the issue of the Vidyadhara's future population growth.
Thus, They used part of the concept of the Path of Permanence to create the Dragon Gate... As long as one crossed the Dragon Gate and sincerely acknowledged the Vidyadhara, one might transform into a dragon!
Go and search for it—the Aeon of Permanence has hidden this great treasure known as the Dragon Gate somewhere in the universe...
The Vidyadhara dragon elders personally took action to promote this story. With vivid details, the legend of the Dragon Gate naturally began to flourish, even becoming a hotspot on the interastral network.
Many people began to believe that the Dragon Gate truly existed.
As long as one crossed it, they could gain extraordinary power, a long lifespan, and even the noble identity of the Vidyadhara—one of the three pillars of the Xianzhou.
Now, people had already begun searching for the Dragon Gate. It could be said that the concept had initially taken shape.
The concept of the Dragon Gate had been established!
Now all that remained was the placement of the Warp anchor—the Herta Puppets.
After exchanging a glance, Fu Xuan and Yao Guang quickly sent this good news to the higher-ups of the Xianzhou Alliance.
Then Yao Guang grabbed Fu Xuan's hand and used the spatial teleportation ability of a Seven Arbiter-General Emanator of The Hunt. In an instant, the two appeared inside the Soul Factory.
They immediately saw The Herta, wearing her pointed hat, standing at the entrance of the factory, along with a massive number of little Hertas who had undergone psychic modification.
Seeing this, Fu Xuan turned her head and asked Yao Guang, "Now that you've received the blessing of the Reignbow Arbiter and become a Xianzhou general, can you use the power of an Emanator to transport all these little Hertas at once?"
"I'm not an Emanator of Trailblaze. Being able to teleport you alone is already good enough. Transporting more people at once is impossible."
After saying this, Yao Guang paused, then looked up toward the Xianzhou ship stationed at the starport. "Besides, there's no need for teleportation. We just need to call people."
As soon as her words fell, Yao Guang, as a general of the Reignbow Arbiter, began summoning the fleet to pick them up.
In an instant, from the massive Xianzhou vessel that resembled a planet itself, countless star skiffs flew out.
On the other side, Yabuli and Jade from the Interastral Peace Corporation had also been notified by The Herta. Seeing the large-scale mobilization of Xianzhou pilots piloting star skiffs, they immediately realized something:
This is bad. The Xianzhou generals and diviners are planning to take all the modified little Hertas in one sweep. We must act quickly and head to the Soul Factory to retrieve Miss Herta's creations—otherwise we won't even get a single one.
Both Yabuli and Jade understood deeply how important the psychic Herta Puppet anchors were to the IPC.
With psychic Herta Puppets extracting emotional energy, the corporation could accelerate the growth of the Devil Tree, eventually producing higher-grade Barrier Fruits.
Thinking this, Yabuli and Jade did not hesitate. As heads within the IPC's technical division and members of the Strategic Investment Department, they began calling allies and mobilizing personnel.
Soon, the Building Material Logistics Department's transport ships across the Blue star system halted their deliveries. One after another, they all began rushing toward the Soul Factory.
Before long, countless Xianzhou star skiffs and corporate ships filled the skies of The Blue, then rapidly broke through the atmosphere and sped toward Herta City.
The scene was astonishing, attracting the attention of countless beings.