Chapter 28: Outrageous! You're Just As Outrageous!
"Huh?" The Herta puppet tilted its delicate head, its synthetic joints clicking softly. "How is that even possible? That is Akivili's Astral Express. Why would Akivili possibly be involved in its own destruction?" Her painted features twisted into a look that clearly screamed, What kind of nonsense are you spouting?
Leon chuckled, shaking his head slowly. "Why do you insist on using mortal logic to dissect the minds of Aeons?" he asked, a playful glint in his eyes. "Blowing up their own Astral Express... who is to say that isn't just a brand-new, avant-garde method of Trailblazing?"
The puppet froze. Behind the screen, the real Herta fell into a heavy silence. Applying the rigid framework of human reasoning to the cosmic whims of an Aeon... it truly was a flawed approach.
"I certainly did not expect someone like you to utter something so insightful," Herta finally replied, her synthesized voice laced with genuine surprise.
"So, what exactly are we supposed to do now?" Stelle chimed in at the perfect moment, breaking the philosophical tension. "That Aeon of Preservation you mentioned earlier seems to have clocked out."
She was right. Inside the digital expanse of the Simulated Universe, the colossal, amber-forged figure of Qlipoth had quietly vanished shortly after Aha made their grand entrance.
Now, the Aeon of Elation was preparing to make their own exit, leaving only a series of iconic, mocking declarations echoing through the simulated cosmos.
"Erudition is nothing but a pile of scrap metal! Preservation is a total dullard!" The voice bounced off the virtual stars, dripping with manic glee. "The Hunt has absolutely zero sense of humor, and Destruction is just a raving lunatic! The Aeons are all so stubborn! Aha has no face! Aha has no face!"
The laughter shifted, turning strangely focused.
"Only you, Akivili... you are still alive. What an interesting opponent. Please, play with me more! That is all I want! Grow up, and then defeat me!"
With those final words, the entity scampered off into the digital void, adopting a ridiculously exaggerated running posture while chanting, "Aha! Aha!"
"Whoa... that exit strategy was incredibly cool!" Stelle and Caelus gasped in perfect unison. Their eyes sparkled with newfound admiration. Without missing a beat, the two Trailblazers began clapping enthusiastically, even bending their knees and swinging their arms in a bizarre attempt to imitate Aha's ridiculous running animation.
The Herta puppet stared at them. If a porcelain doll could convey absolute, deadpan exhaustion, this one was doing it flawlessly.
"Herta?" Caelus prompted, noticing the puppet's silent judgment.
"The simulation is stable now. You two need to exit the Simulated Universe immediately," Herta instructed, her voice flat and dismissive. "I have a massive amount of data to organize from that little stunt."
"Just click the exit button on your virtual interface... You know what? Forget it. I will handle it myself."
Back in her office, Herta slammed a red button on her console. In a flash of pixelated light, Stelle and Caelus were forcefully ejected from the Simulated Universe.
"Alright, I am going to compile this data and update Stephen and the rest of the Society on our progress," Herta's voice echoed through the laboratory speakers as the twins materialized back in the real world. "Go find Asta to collect your compensation."
The puppet then swiveled its head toward Leon. "Oh, right. What was your name again, hey..."
True to form, the great genius of the Herta Space Station had completely wiped his existence from her short-term memory.
"I am not 'hey.'My name is..." Leon opened his mouth, the name'Chu Xun' resting dangerously on the tip of his tongue. He caught himself at the very last second, swallowing his original identity. "My name is Leon. You could at least pretend to remember it! If you keep treating me like a background NPC, I am pulling out of your little testing program."
He crossed his arms, projecting an aura of deep annoyance. He knew perfectly well that Herta habitually deleted the names of anyone she deemed 'useless' to save brain space. Still, being tossed into the mental recycle bin stung just a little.
So hurtful, he thought, mentally wiping away a fake tear. You practically begged me to be your test subject, and you still treat me like a generic mob. Tragic.
"Fine, fine, I apologize! Leon. I have successfully logged your name into my memory," Herta replied, her tone shifting instantly to accommodate her prize subject. "If you agree to let me run a full diagnostic on you, go see Asta. I will authorize her to give you a custom Herta Puppet as a signing bonus."
She capitulated far too easily. Her burning desire to dissect the anomaly that was Leon completely overrode her usual arrogance.
"A reward?!" Stelle gasped.
"A Herta Puppet?!" Caelus echoed.
"Can we get one too?!" they demanded in unison, rushing up to the porcelain doll with stars in their eyes.
"Absolutely not. Herta Puppets are highly classified assets, not party favors," Herta rejected them without a second of hesitation.
Stelle narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms to perfectly mimic Leon's earlier posture. "Well, if you refuse to give me one, then I refuse to help you test the Simulated Universe!" she threatened, puffing out her chest.
"Oh. Okay. Whatever," the puppet replied, executing a flawless, indifferent shrug.
Herta's current obsession with Leon eclipsed any lingering interest she had in the Trailblazers. Stelle's grand ultimatum crashed and burned on impact.
"No... why?!" Stelle dropped to her knees, clutching her head as if the sky had just shattered. "Why didn't that work?! I copied Brother Leon's routine perfectly!"
"Perhaps... we failed to grasp the true essence of the threat?" Caelus muttered, rubbing his chin in deep, scholarly contemplation. It made no sense. Leon had used the exact same dialogue tree and gotten a legendary item drop.
The Herta puppet stared at the dramatic duo. Do these idiots think my life is some kind of stage play?
Deciding to completely ignore the two lunatics having a meltdown on her floor, Herta refocused her puppet's unblinking gaze entirely on Leon.
"Fine, you win. I agree to cooperate with your tests," Leon finally relented, letting out a long sigh. "You can have standard biological samples. Blood, hair, saliva—knock yourself out. But you can absolutely forget about that 'milk'..."
In truth, he was highly curious about the current state of his own body. Having a Genius Society member conduct a complete, microscopic physical examination on him was a rare opportunity to understand exactly what Aha had done to his physiology.
"Is that so..." The puppet tapped its chin, its voice dropping into a clinical, calculating register. "Are you simply dissatisfied because the Herta Puppet lacks the necessary biological realism for extraction? If that is the hurdle, do you find Asta attractive? I am perfectly willing to act as a matchmaker for you two. As long as you manage to... perform, when the time comes, I can simply harvest the resulting data."
"What on earth is going through that massive brain of yours?" Leon groaned, reaching out to pinch the puppet's soft, synthetic cheek. Outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!
Listening to her casual proposition, Leon's mind immediately flashed to those absurd tabloid rumors of crazy people digging through trash cans for discarded genetic material, artificially impregnating themselves, and then extorting wealthy heirs for child support. Was Herta's suggestion really any different from those unhinged scams?
Well, the only real difference was that Herta wanted the payload for a petri dish rather than a payout.
"It seems I am the one making a mistake here. Trying to apply the moral compass of an ordinary person to a member of the Genius Society is a fool's errand," Leon muttered, shaking his head in self-deprecation. He had literally just lectured her about not using human logic to understand Aeons, and less than five minutes later, he had fallen into the exact same trap with her.
"Is my proposal flawed?" The puppet blinked its large, artificial eyes. "My observational data suggests you are quite fond of Asta."
Fond was an understatement. After all, what sane man wouldn't appreciate a young, beautiful, and astronomically wealthy woman?
"Why are you so hyper-fixated on this specific biological sample?" Leon asked, caught somewhere between a laugh and a groan of despair.
"Because if the genetic data is incomplete, the results will be flawed. And if the results are flawed, I will simply have to hunt you down and extract more samples until I am satisfied," the puppet declared with absolute, righteous conviction.
Leon leaned in close, staring directly into the puppet's glassy, unblinking eyes. "If you want it that badly, why don't you come collect it personally?" he challenged, a wicked smirk playing on his lips.
Unfortunately, the porcelain face remained entirely static. It was far too easy for the real Herta to mask her reactions behind a synthetic shell.
Lightyears away, in her private sanctum, the real Herta froze.
Me? Collect it personally?
The concept genuinely stunned her. To be completely honest, the thought had never even crossed her mind. She was a reigning member of the Genius Society. Since when did she ever have to lower herself to perform manual, biological extraction?
, she wasn't a tyrant. Even with her Asta proposition, she fully intended to seek the Lead Researcher's explicit consent first. And didn't Asta already harbor a rather favorable impression of Leon anyway?
Yet, as her brilliant mind involuntarily simulated the logistics of personally extracting the sample from Leon, a faint, uncharacteristic flush crept up Herta's neck.
Just as Aha was the Aeon who possessed the most human-like emotions among the divine, Herta was ironically the Genius Society member who retained the most human quirks among her eccentric peers.
"I am afraid my physical body is... not suitable for such an endeavor," the puppet finally replied after a prolonged, heavy silence. "However, I am acquainted with another member of the Genius Society who specializes in this exact field. She should be more than equipped to assist."
The puppet tilted its head again. "Do not worry. She is exceptionally beautiful, and given her obsession with life sciences, she will definitely be willing to cooperate with your... extraction."
"Hearing you describe her like that..." Leon narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Why does that sound exactly like Ruan Mei?"
He remained completely oblivious to the emotional short-circuit Herta had just experienced on the other end of the connection. To him, the puppet was just as cold and expressionless as ever.
"You know about Ruan Mei?" Herta blurted out, her synthesized voice spiking in genuine shock.
"Of course I know her. Is that really so strange?" Leon smirked, leaning back as the elegant, quiet figure of the life science genius drifted into his mind's eye.
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