Bai Luan had been feeling a bit off recently.
A subtle sensation followed him like a shadow—as if a faint, almost imperceptible gaze was constantly and silently trailing behind him.
But every time he abruptly turned his head, all he saw was a Herta Puppet standing still, perfectly posed, and nothing else.
At first, Bai Luan simply thought he had been overthinking lately, making his nerves overly sensitive.
However, for several consecutive days, this feeling of being watched not only didn't dissipate but became clearer, like a persistent ailment that wouldn't go away.
This made him finally realize: something was wrong; this was definitely not his imagination.
To figure out who it was, Bai Luan did a quick investigation and soon caught the culprit.
The culprit was—a Herta Puppet.
Inside the Herta Space Station, Herta Puppets on standby were everywhere.
This was perfectly normal, as Herta's main purpose in deploying these puppets throughout the Space Station was to allow her to connect her consciousness directly to a puppet in the relevant section whenever she was too lazy to walk and needed to go somewhere.
Because of this, every time Bai Luan turned around and saw a Herta Puppet standing there, he considered it a natural part of the background.
But after it happened many times, he began to suspect the Herta Puppet, as the commonality in all those turns was the presence of a Herta Puppet.
Proving that the Herta Puppet was the anomaly was simple: he just needed to go to a remote section where no standby puppets were assigned.
Normal Herta Puppets, when not being controlled by Herta, would not leave their designated standby areas.
If a Herta Puppet appeared in a place where no Herta Puppet standby point had been set up, it would be a self-incrimination.
Bai Luan executed his plan.
He went to a remote section without any Herta Puppet standby, and when he turned around, the Herta Puppet that had been following him was still standing there, pretending to be on standby.
She tried her best to strike a standard idle pose, attempting to feign, "I've been here all along."
This was truly hard to keep a straight face about.
"You're that Herta Puppet I fixed, aren't you?"
Bai Luan walked up to her, asking with a wry smile, unable to help but quip.
"You should know there's no standby point set up here; following me would definitely expose you. Why did you still choose to follow?"
The Herta Puppet didn't answer, only slightly raised her head, her simulated eyes silently watching Bai Luan.
Bai Luan crouched down slightly to meet her gaze, his tone softening a bit:
"Tell me, why have you been following me?"
The Herta Puppet's gaze focused on Bai Luan's face, which was now very close. After a long silence, she spoke:
"I want to spend more time with you."
Before she finished speaking, the Herta Puppet reached out and gently clutched the corner of Bai Luan's clothing.
"Is that not allowed?"
Well, that gesture softened Bai Luan's heart.
If it was just following, it was no big deal.
After this incident, this Herta Puppet completely abandoned her disguise, upgrading from covert observation to an overt little shadow. Wherever Bai Luan went, she followed.
Eventually, Herta herself couldn't stand it anymore.
One day, she appeared from some corner, grabbed the idle puppet, dragged her aside, and began a merciless lecture.
The lecture's content broadly revolved around these core ideas:
"Can't you have some ambition?"
"Just because your intelligence improved, you only think about following him around every day? Isn't that a waste of your improved intelligence?"
"If only you'd use that newly upgraded brain of yours to think about how to 'backstab' me! Then I'd consider you to have some aspirations!"
Words of this nature.
The Herta Puppet kept her head down throughout, her hands meekly clasped in front of her.
She looked like she was seriously reflecting, a well-behaved appearance of knowing she was wrong, as if she had truly learned her lesson and resolved to be a new puppet.
However, the next day... the Herta Puppet still appeared behind Bai Luan right on time.
The only improvement was that she held a... camera she seemed to have tinkered together herself.
Bai Luan looked at the puppet, who held her "tool of the trade" with a "I'm working diligently" expression, his mouth twitching as he rubbed his forehead and quipped:
"Oh my, Remembrance path Herta, we're going to have our own March 7th on this Space Station."
Herta, finding that this fellow was unrepentant, immediately became furious and once again aggressively dragged her away, preparing for a second round of "love education."
But this time, the Herta Puppet did not choose to silently endure the scolding.
Just a second before Herta was about to start her lecture mode, she suddenly raised her life-saving artifact—the camera—quickly pulled up the photo album inside, and presented it to Herta.
Herta took it with a skeptical look and began to flip through the photos.
As each photo scrolled by, the anger on her face visibly dissipated, replaced by an expression mixed with surprise, admiration, and even... satisfaction.
The album was full of candid shots of Bai Luan.
There were his slightly furrowed brows when he was focused on work, his gentle smile when talking to Staff Members, his serene profile when gazing at the starry sky, and even those unguarded, somewhat childish moments when he occasionally slacked off and yawned... not a single ugly shot!
Each photo captured a unique charm, with perfect lighting and composition!
One couldn't help but marvel at the modeling quality produced by the system and this puppet's inexplicably maxed-out photography talent.
The system's power, great, goes without saying.
Bai Luan himself didn't pay much attention to it.
Sometimes, when he noticed the Herta Puppet's lens quietly pointed at him, he would even cooperatively strike a pose or flash a more natural smile.
Go ahead and take pictures. He was someone who uploaded entertaining videos to the StarNet, performing abstract acts in front of the entire universe; why would he be afraid of a few ugly photos?
But... I'm still here!
I'm right here!
Can you two please not start making deals in front of me!?
What's the difference between this and a kidnapper asking his hostage what color of snakeskin bag they prefer?
Bai Luan finally couldn't hold back and quipped from the side:
"Can you two please not do this in front of me!?"
At least act a little!
Herta glanced at Bai Luan.
"Quiet, I'll give you a reward later."
"No, that's not what I meant..."
"Say that again, and the reward doubles."
『Detail reward doubled』
Shut up! System!
Herta ignored Bai Luan, nodded at the Herta Puppet in front of her, indicating approval.
"Hmm, maintain this quality of output. This follow-up photography project, I approve."
Regardless of how many quibbles the process contained, in the end, the Herta Puppet's act of following and photographing Bai Luan received official certification and permission from the Space Station's highest authority.
Bai Luan could clearly feel that since then, the footsteps of that little shadow behind him had become more confident and blatant.
Well, since Herta herself agreed... Bai Luan looked at the Herta Puppet following him, and an idea gradually formed in his mind.
Let's make an entertaining video together~
He had long wanted to film a video with Herta in the same frame.
Then Bai Luan took this Herta Puppet and danced a "Lonely" together.
He titled the video "What You Can See When You Apply to Herta Space Station" and uploaded it to the StarNet.
"Oh no! The Herta Puppet has also been infected! The 'entertaining virus' is spreading within the Genius Society!"
"Yi Mu just moves his hands, and it's a lifetime's work for an original genius."
"How did he convince the Herta Puppet to film this with him?"
"Yes! Yes! This is what I want to see!"
"Is there anything he can't do?"
"I can't even imagine how much fun the Herta Space Station will be with Yi Mu around."
"I must apply to Herta Space Station immediately!"
The company department responsible for promoting the Herta Space Station looked at the exploding data:
?
What do you mean I did nothing, but the performance target was massively exceeded?
After a brief moment of bewilderment, the person in charge quickly checked the data source, then showed a look of sudden realization:
So, Mr. Bai Luan made his move.
He let out a sigh of relief, spread his hands to his equally curious colleagues, his tone becoming incredibly relaxed and matter-of-fact:
"Then there's nothing to be surprised about, colleagues!"
He even clapped his hands with a hint of excitement:
"The company's ancient legends didn't lie to us! Mr. Bai Luan's 'benefactor' attribute, he's still exerting his power!
Everyone, follow me and shout:
Great Benefactor Bai!"
"Great Benefactor Bai!!!"
Having filmed this long-desired entertaining video, Bai Luan was content, feeling that his life had become a little more complete.
However, he hadn't relaxed for long before Herta, who had appeared silently from who-knows-where, cornered him in the corridor.
Herta stood with her arms crossed, watching him at her leisure, her eyes, which seemed to see through everything, narrowed slightly, her tone carrying a dangerous, half-smiling implication:
"You've been... having a lot of fun with her recently, haven't you?"
Bai Luan's heart skipped a beat, his gaze uncontrollably darting around, trying to find a suitable escape route, his voice unconsciously carrying a hint of guilt:
"H-have I?"