Outside the lab, Himeko was chatting with Asta, who had just finished some official business and had come out for a breather. After a moment, a flicker of movement at the edge of their vision caught their attention. Caelus and March 7th were walking in from the main door. Both women turned to look at the pair, a bit surprised.
"You're back already?"
Himeko walked over to them, her expression one of surprise. She glanced at March 7th before her gaze landed on Caelus.
"Weren't you going to pick out some things? How come you're back so soon?"
Caelus grunted in affirmation and casually pulled a few items from his inventory to show Himeko.
"I've already picked them out."
Himeko looked at the miniature cubes floating in Caelus's palm and couldn't help but feel confused. Since when did the space station have such tiny mineral samples?
This didn't fit Asta's style at all. Doesn't she usually buy things in massive quantities?
Asta was also puzzled. The items Caelus was showing them didn't seem to match anything in the warehouse. She immediately pulled out a tablet and checked the warehouse's retrieval records. The result showed that Caelus had only taken a potted plant, a few duvets, a pile of rocks, and a pile of alloys...
What in the world was all that? Was Caelus's asking price this low? Wasn't that far too little?
Just then, Herta emerged from the lab. Spotting Caelus, she called out to him.
"Caelus, you're back just in time. Since you've already picked out your things, come on in. I'm all set up over here."
"Alright."
As Caelus started walking toward the lab, Himeko, feeling a little worried, turned to Herta.
"Herta, can we watch?"
Aside from being concerned that Herta's experiments might harm Caelus, she was also just as curious about his body.
Herta didn't refuse. She nodded, gesturing for the others to come in as well.
With Herta's permission, Himeko, March 7th, Dan Heng, and Asta all followed him into the laboratory.
---o---
Once inside, Herta had Caelus lie down on a bed. A moment later, another Herta puppet approached, holding a syringe.
"First, I'm going to draw some of your blood. Is that okay?"
Caelus nodded. The Herta puppet holding the syringe immediately moved to his side. It held one of his arms with one hand and, with the syringe in the other, stared at his forearm for a long time, unable to find a vein.
The puppet's eyes glowed faintly as it activated its scanning function. But after a moment, it seemed to remember that previous tests had already confirmed that no light could penetrate Caelus's skin. This put Herta in a bit of a predicament. She turned to Caelus and grumbled.
"Your arm is an absolute nightmare for any medical student. I can't even find a vein..."
With that, Herta took out a leather strap and tied it around Caelus's arm, trying to use the conventional method to make his veins pop out. To her surprise, no matter how tightly she pulled the strap, Caelus's arm didn't deform in the slightest, let alone show any bulging veins from the pressure.
Herta tried several more methods, all of which ended in failure. Helpless, she could only ask Caelus, "Do you know where your own veins are located?"
"Who has the time to memorize where their own veins are?"
Herta supposed that was fair. She sighed lightly and decided to just try her luck based on the standard human circulatory layout.
The Herta puppet held the syringe, cross-referenced a diagram of the human circulatory system from its database, and aimed for the approximate location before jabbing the needle in. However, the moment the needle tip touched Caelus's skin, the puppet applied just a tiny bit of pressure, and the hard needle bent with a creak into an L-shape, while Caelus's skin remained completely unharmed.
Herta: ...
Herta had the puppet switch to a needle made of a different material, but the blood draw ended in failure once again. No matter how hard the needle was, as soon as it touched Caelus's skin with any amount of force, it would bend.
Caelus's skin was terrifyingly durable.
"Fine. This is more or less what I expected."
The failure to draw blood didn't disappoint Herta too much. She had already mentally prepared herself for this possibility when the initial physical examination failed.
"Alright, you can get up."
Caelus sat up on the bed, looking confused as the Herta puppets around him began putting away all the equipment.
"Is that it? You're not going to try a little harder?"
Herta rolled her eyes at him, annoyed.
"I can't even break your skin. What else do you want me to test? Your eyesight? Of course, if you don't mind, I wouldn't mind testing just how much force your skin can withstand."
The only reason she was stopping was that she had no other way to conduct the experiment while guaranteeing Caelus's safety. She had plenty of ways to break his skin.
Just as Herta was about to ask Caelus to cooperate with another experiment, she noticed him sitting on the edge of the bed, deep in thought. This took her by surprise.
"You're not actually considering it, are you?"
Caelus looked up, his expression very serious as he met Herta's gaze.
"Life-threatening work costs extra!"
Now that he had wood and wool, he could make a bed and set his respawn point anytime. Cooperating with Herta on some life-threatening business was definitely an option.
Herta couldn't help but let out a sharp hiss of breath. How had she not noticed before what a death-seeker this little Stellaron brat was?
Her attacks were no joke. Forget breaking his skin, there was a good chance Caelus would be reduced to ashes.
Himeko and March 7th also rushed forward to dissuade him. "Caelus, you can't just agree to something like that..."
Hearing their words, Herta rolled her eyes dramatically, as if they were painting her as some kind of monster!
She waved her hand impatiently, cutting Himeko off.
"Alright, alright. Caelus, regarding your body, we'll wait until I find another way to study it. For now, cooperate with me on a different experiment. As it happens, another one of my projects needs a suitable test subject."
"What kind of project?"
"Hmm... a metaverse, you could say. Or perhaps, a Simulated Universe?"
Herta led the group to a massive machine. Pointing at it, she proudly introduced it to them.
"This device is a new instrument I created in collaboration with three other geniuses from the Genius Society. I call it the Simulated Universe! It's specifically designed to explore the secrets of the Aeons!"
"Aeons?"
Caelus was surprised. So this world really did have gods? No wonder March 7th had said she'd never heard of a god like him when he claimed to be the Creator God earlier.
This piqued Caelus's curiosity... Do Aeons have health bars? What kind of materials do they drop when they die?
"Come on, step up to the machine."
Herta directed Caelus toward the Simulated Universe machine and began fitting him with various devices, explaining as she worked.
"In a moment, I'll operate the machine to let you enter the Simulated Universe. We'll see if we can disguise you as an Aeon to attract other simulated Aeons."