Setting up a suitable ceremonial room doesn't need to be overly complicated.
And it certainly doesn't have to be the exact same 'wedding hall' ritual from Sylvia's memories.
To put it bluntly, it's just about needing a formal kind of acknowledgment.
This time, what Sylvia prepared was supposedly a more classical wedding ceremony that was once common on The Blue in the past.
The reason she didn't use the one from Acheron...
Well, one was to follow local customs. As for the other reason...
Alright, she just didn't really want to use the wedding ritual she'd used with Acheron on someone else.
At least not on a puppet.
After all, let's be honest, she just wanted a few more draws for the gacha, not actually do anything for real.
The room setup wasn't complex either. Sylvia changed the black dress on the Herta puppet into a blue gown.
Supposedly, it was the attire used in ceremonies of the past.
Sylvia changed into a matching set herself.
Then, after all the preparations were ready, the ceremony officially began.
And at this very moment—
Herta, with most of her focus still tied up in the Simulated Universe, was cracking things open a tad slower than usual.
Of course, Herta hadn't considered directly interfacing with the puppet. She simply re-established the connection and piped the puppet's visual feed to herself.
And then, the moment the projection flickered to life, it was a straight-up opening shocker!
For someone whose home planet was The Blue, even though Herta didn't particularly care, she still recognized the attire before her, the decorations, even every single gesture being made.
It was all, damn it, the traditional wedding ceremony from The Blue!!
"Well, this..."
Even for someone as worldly as Herta, this scene left her speechless for a moment.
Was this person perhaps a few cards short of a full deck?
If you really coveted her beauty, you could've just told her straight out.
This world was full of people praising her looks, liking her—one more wouldn't make a difference.
It's just a puppet. Whether you marry it or not, Herta couldn't care less, as long as you don't use her name to swindle people.
Was all this convoluted effort necessary, even going so far as to set up a signal jammer?
And then it just lured her right in.
It honestly made Herta laugh.
How did such a clumsy little thing ever set foot on the Path of Permanence?
But Herta never cared about such things anyway.
Besides, a little one who couldn't even muster the courage to say 'I like you' to her face—she couldn't expect her to have the guts to do anything more.
--+--
Meanwhile, Sylvia was smoothly going through a simplified wedding process.
Completely unaware that what she was doing was being live-streamed by Herta.
Then, the instant the ceremony officially concluded, information belonging to Herta appeared before Sylvia:
--+--
[Target: Herta]
[Favorability: 62 (Temporarily Amused)]
[Relationship: Partners in Name Only]
['Gotta give you a "6" for that one. Not even sparing the puppet? You must be seriously down bad!']
['Girl, you're being so extra, it's hard to even rate this. And no reward boost this time, just so you know.']
[Reward: One Green Draw]
--+--
The favorability is so low.
That was Sylvia's first thought.
Then, the reward is so low.
The favorability didn't even reach the threshold for the first-tier reward. Sylvia had worried it might only give a white card.
But just like that initial warning, it was downgraded to green.
And Sylvia roughly understood the judging criteria now.
With someone like Silver Wolf, even though there was no love between them, both parties had genuinely agreed to form a contract.
So that wasn't considered cutting corners or cheating.
But with that time with Acheron, and now this with Herta, the ceremonial contract was performed without the person's consent.
Plus, the favorability wasn't high enough to begin with, so the reward got downgraded.
But no big deal.
Something is better than nothing.
Look at Herta's favorability—it's not even 65 points.
Earlier, when Sylvia had even helped Herta improve the Simulated Universe, Herta's excitement in her tone was genuine.
But even so, the favorability was only 62 points, barely qualifying as friendly.
So Sylvia hadn't been wrong after all.
Geniuses like Herta and Ruan Mei—there's a layer separating them from ordinary people.
Herta's attitude might seem friendlier, but at her core, she's quite similar to Ruan Mei.
For them, investing emotions in a human is clearly something they'd look down upon.
So Sylvia never really held out hope of raising Herta's favorability.
Getting one reward was already good enough; she didn't expect anything higher.
So—
Straight to the draw!
Since there were no outsiders anyway, and the Herta puppet was under her control, Sylvia chose to draw almost immediately after seeing the reward!
But this time, whether it was hitting pity or something else, the green light suddenly transformed into purple, then violently burst into a golden radiance!
"Holy crap—?!"
Sylvia almost jumped up on the spot in excitement.
She even couldn't help but let a curse slip.
Honestly, after all the draws Sylvia had done, this was her first time hitting gold.
As that dazzling golden light gradually faded, a new skill appeared before Sylvia's eyes:
--+--
[Light Cone Imprint Technology (One-Click Install Version)]
['A technology for crafting Light Cones using memories']
['This is the Memokeepers' exclusive secret recipe. Use it wisely.']
[Triggers Memory Skill Set with [Memory of Photographs]. Special Effect: Light Cones are also photos of the past, capable of stably extracting Light Cone memories.]
--+--
"What kind of abstract ability is this...?"
Sylvia blinked. She hadn't expected this thing to trigger an additional effect.
When the contents of Light Cone technology flooded her mind, she realized she truly now possessed the ability to craft Light Cones.
But she didn't have the Memokeeper's ability to freely extract memories.
The pure [Memory in Photos] had obvious limitations.
But...
What did this special effect mean?
Once a Light Cone is crafted, would she still need to extract from it again?
Thinking this, Sylvia pulled out the only Light Cone she'd just obtained.
Then she activated the skill [Memory of Photographs].
Whoosh—
As the Light Cone emitted a glow and something like a Memobubble surged toward Sylvia, everything went dark before her eyes. Then, everything vanished, transforming into a boundless starry river.
A massive, majestic, unseeable dragon drifted through the galaxy.
Just this fleeting image made Sylvia feel that nearly infinite sense of 'Permanence.'
At that moment, the drifting dragon seemed to notice Sylvia's gaze. It suddenly turned its head.
Eyes full of majesty, blazing and bright like stars, glanced in Sylvia's direction.
Simultaneously, it curved its body, catching its own tail in its mouth.
Hum...
Sylvia felt a chaotic buzzing in her consciousness. This scene solidified into a clear memory, etched into her mind.
What she remembered now was far clearer and more vivid than the image on the Light Cone.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.