"Think it through...?"
Jiang Ling softly repeated Herta's words, then lowered his gaze slightly, putting on the appearance of someone carefully weighing the pros and cons in deep deliberation.
In truth, the moment the options appeared, he had already made up his mind. This was just for show.
Seeing him like this, Herta narrowed her eyes. A faint, confident, slightly amused curve rose at the corner of her lips as she leaned back in her seat and waited for his answer.
From Herta's point of view, Jiang Ling had no reason to refuse.
In the short span of their conversation, she had already gotten a complete read on him from top to bottom.
In other words: she had already doxxed him.
The only reason he worked for the company was to secure a better, more stable life. To Herta, giving him those things would be no more than a matter of a few words.
And there were some things she could offer that the company simply could not.
As for why she wanted Jiang Ling to join the space station...
On one hand, she found him genuinely interesting. He had guts, and unlike those people from the Intelligentsia Guild, he showed not the slightest reverence toward the Aeons.
If his research talent turned out to be good, Herta would not mind giving him a hand and turning him into her assistant—or even her student.
And on the other hand...
She wanted to see how this man, who had baited her out with deliberate provocation, would react upon hearing what sounded suspiciously like a threat of personal retaliation.
It was nothing more than simple curiosity.
But as far as Jiang Ling was concerned, he could not care less what Herta was thinking.
He still had two chances left. If this life was ruined, he could just continue in the next one.
Rather than staying as cautious and timid as before, he might as well carry the spirit of recklessness all the way through.
With that thought, Jiang Ling nodded faintly, then raised his eyes to look at Herta, who was watching him with obvious interest, and said with a solemn expression,
"Lady Herta, I'm an orphan. It was only with the company's support that I was able to finish my education and earn the qualifications to sit here and speak with you today."
"The company has nurtured me for so many years. My superiors and colleagues have long since become my dearest friends, my brothers in all but blood—"
Before he could finish, Herta impatiently waved a hand and shot him an annoyed look.
"What are you rambling on about? Just state your terms. Why dress it up with all this nonsense?"
"...You'll have to pay more."
"..."
Hearing those three words, Herta's mouth twitched involuntarily, and for a moment she was genuinely speechless.
She simply could not reconcile the straight-faced man before her—the one who looked as if the words loyalty and righteousness were practically written across his face—with the person who had just delivered that line.
So after all that, he was still planning to jump ship, wasn't he? Then what was with all that righteous grandstanding!?
After a brief silence, Herta pressed her lips together and began rummaging through her memory.
"Grade-I staff authority and benefits, one month of paid vacation a year, and... and what else was there again?"
It was not that Herta had a bad memory.
It was that...
she had almost never bothered learning about the benefits and待遇 for the station's staff in the first place.
To her, the space station was simply an oversized toybox filled with all kinds of curios. Nothing more.
Staff recruitment, supply procurement, renewals of materials—those tedious matters were all handled by Asta. Herta had practically no impression of any of it.
Even a genius could not recite details she had never cared to learn.
At that thought, Herta immediately waved a hand in irritation and said bluntly,
"...Forget it. Go discuss the benefits and terms with Asta yourself. I'm busy."
The moment she dropped those words, the crimson-violet light in her eyes rapidly lost focus, and in an instant the girl who had at least seemed somewhat lively became nothing more than a lifeless puppet once again.
"Phew..."
Looking at the Herta puppet before him, Jiang Ling slowly let out a breath. After a brief silence, the corners of his mouth began to lift, revealing a faint smile.
Before today, he had always acted with extreme caution, afraid of causing himself unnecessary trouble, afraid of pushing himself onto the chopping block and turning all his years of effort into nothing.
But now that he had obtained this power, he finally no longer had to live so exhaustingly.
At that thought, the smile on Jiang Ling's lips deepened. He rose slowly to his feet, intending to go find Asta and discuss the issue of compensation and benefits first.
As long as he could settle Asta's side of things, then once this round of Persona Extraction ended, he could follow this path and free himself from the life of a corporate wage slave.
With a job like Herta Space Station—high salary, flexible work—who would still want to stay in Pier Point every day?
And yet...
Crack—
Before Jiang Ling could reach the conference room door, a crisp shattering sound rang out in his ears.
The next moment, a shard of mirror glowing with faint silver light appeared before him, lines of text surfacing across it one after another.
[Turning Point #1 — "Preservation and Erudition" has been recorded. You may leave Persona Extraction and return to reality at any time.]
[Because the current individual has not yet come into contact with the "landmark" Herta Space Station, subsequent content may become distorted. Continue extraction?]
[Yes / No]
"Distorted...?"
Reading the words on the shard, Jiang Ling frowned slightly, clearly not having expected this kind of issue.
If every projection of the future based on this process could become distorted, then the very act of projecting the future would be meaningless.
As a transmigrator, even if his understanding of Herta Space Station was not especially deep, it still should not have been shallow enough to cause something like this.
Unless...
"...The prerequisite for calculating the future is that I first encounter the actual choice in reality?"
Jiang Ling gently closed his hand around the shard as that thought formed in his mind.
...
Herta Space Station, Master Control Zone, Station Chief's Office.
At that moment, Asta was staring gloomily at the mountain of documents piled up on her desk, letting out a helpless sigh.
"...Sigh. I've been dealing with these all day. How are there still this many...?"
Asta puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction, like an angry little pufferfish—but only for a moment. Soon enough, she deflated again.
There was no helping it. All of this work fell within the authority of the Acting Station Chief. If she did not handle it, there was probably no one else on the entire station who would.
Not to mention that every time supplies were purchased, Asta had to front the money herself first. At that scale of expense...
there was probably no one else who could afford it.
Please don't let any more documents come in...
The girl left that quiet prayer in her heart, then slowly straightened up and resumed working through the endless stack of paperwork.
But a prayer was only a prayer.
Knock, knock, knock—
Before Asta could finish approving the first file, someone rapped on the office door. A staff member hurried in, clutching a document in her arms.
"Station Chief Asta, just now—are... are you all right?"
The staffer swallowed the second half of her sentence when she saw the fatigue on the girl's face, and instead asked with concern.
"...I'm fine. You're here to deliver paperwork? At this hour... it shouldn't be something internal to the station, right?"
"Y-Yes. It's a visitation request from Pier Point. Since it concerns Lady Herta, I wanted to ask for your opinion first."
As she spoke, the staff member set the document on Asta's desk and explained softly,
"A P40-ranked researcher from the Technical R&D Department wants to visit Lady Herta to discuss a research collaboration. My authority isn't high enough to issue a response, so..."
"Mhm, just leave it here. I'll ask Lady Herta about it in a bit."
Asta nodded. She simply assumed it was some project the company had suddenly decided to push, nothing too different from before, but...
At almost that exact same moment, her phone emitted a special notification tone. Instinctively, she glanced down at the screen.
[Herta: Asta? I heard some guy named Jiang Ling wants to visit me. Is that true?]
Seeing the message from Herta, Asta froze for a moment.
She first looked at the document that had only just been delivered to her, then at the phone screen still lit in her hand, an indescribable look appearing on her face.
"This only just reached me. How did Lady Herta... already know about it?"
the girl murmured in astonishment.
-------
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