Herta was over in the corner, busy with all sorts of preparations.
She had just dragged over an inactive puppet, intending to let Bai Ming try infecting one to see what would happen.
Then she heard Ruan Mei's statement.
Herta raised an eyebrow.
"You're joining in too? Tch... how did my Herta City end up turning into some sort of party venue?"
Sure, she enjoyed pulling other geniuses into research projects, but that didn't mean Herta liked using her Herta City as the gathering spot.
Normally, she'd set things up somewhere like the space station.
It was all Bai Ming's fault!
Herta shot an annoyed glance at the innocent 'Hertatomb'.
By now, she had more or less adjusted her mindset, no longer feeling so unsettled every time she saw that face.
Hearing this, Ruan Mei pressed her lips together and let out a soft laugh.
'Hertatomb' spoke up to explain.
"Well, I thought about it, and Madam Herta, your home is just the safest place. I've never been to Screwllum's planet, Ruan Mei's always roaming around, and I don't really have a fixed address myself."
"Why not go to the Land of Light?"
"Does the Land of Light have equipment as good as what you have here?"
"Of course they do. The Ultramen's brains are far superior to the folks at the space station. I helped set up their very first research base, you know? Tossed a batch of puppets over there while I was at it."
"...Really? That happened?"
"Yep. Didn't AI Herta tell you? She's got a subroutine over there too. Basically, all my external territories are now coordinated by her."
"Never heard about it."
'Hertatomb' shook her head.
This was genuinely the first she was hearing of it.
That AI Herta never reported this to her.
And, AI Herta was actually this favored by Herta?
Not only was she still operational, but she'd even taken over all of Herta City's external territories.
Did that mean Asta was really done for?
No way. She'd have to tell AI Herta later to keep an eye out for Asta's existence over the next few decades.
"Heh~ Probably a surprise she left on purpose."
Herta chuckled lightly.
Then she handed over the puppet in her hand.
"Here, infect this one. Let Screwllum and me see what kind of virus this is that even I can't crack. Once I find my other self, I'm going to give her a good mocking!"
"Alright."
Listening to Herta's goal, 'Hertatomb' thought for a moment but didn't say anything.
She controlled the puppet to reach out, placing its hand on the Herta puppet's forehead.
Red and black garbled code, like a dark tide, surged along the arm and began corroding the Herta puppet.
The virus tried to spread further towards Herta herself.
But 'Hertatomb' forcefully restrained it.
She only made the Herta puppet stand up.
Watching the red and black static-like distortion flickering incessantly across the puppet's body, Herta clicked her tongue in distaste.
"This Irontomb's aesthetic is just plain ugly."
But despite her verbal dislike, Herta still carefully placed the infected puppet into a glass container.
She beckoned Screwllum to start the analysis together.
As for 'Hertatomb', she naturally continued sifting through that messy pile of data, trying to dig out useful information.
Then transcribing it bit by bit.
As for using equipment to transmit... completely impossible.
Any attempt would get infected by Irontomb's virus, making effective information transfer utterly unfeasible.
They could only rely on more primitive transcription methods.
--+--
Half a day later.
Ruan Mei arrived at Herta City.
Herta was already past caring about fixed NPCs constantly spawning in her personal space.
The Simulated Universe idea hadn't had time to progress yet.
This unexpected incident had led to her cooperating with Screwllum first.
And as the research deepened, although they still couldn't crack Irontomb's virus for now, Herta had confirmed one thing with her own two hands.
Everything Bai Ming said was most likely true.
Within Irontomb's virus, she had unexpectedly discovered a segment of code that didn't belong.
This program was embedded within the virus, and its function wasn't to enhance infectious capability.
On the contrary, it was hindering the virus's spread.
It even suppressed the virus's ability to infect the external world to a certain degree.
Without a doubt, this code segment couldn't have come from Irontomb himself or Zandar.
But some of the code clearly carried many strange traces.
Right now, Herta desperately wanted to crack open 'Hertatomb's' head to see what exactly was stuffed inside.
But until the viral infection issue was solved, she could only think about it.
Even this suppressed version of the virus had an infectious power fully worthy of the name Rubert III.
The more Herta researched, the more alarmed she became, wondering what level of disaster a complete Irontomb could bring.
Although 'Hertatomb' was there relaying some details, it just didn't feel satisfying to listen to.
The key point was, whenever Herta had a question, 'Hertatomb' had to search through her own mind.
And she might not even find the answer.
According to 'Hertatomb', the data in her mind was not only fragmented, but the corrupted data was also too extensive and chaotic.
Trying to extract clear, coherent content from it and then relay it was terribly inefficient.
Herta found it bothersome.
So after getting the general idea, she didn't want to hear more.
Instead, she focused on cracking the virus.
Striving to suppress the infection as soon as possible, so she could pry open Irontomb's skull and see what exactly happened in that strange future.
As Rubert III, 'Hertatomb' naturally helped too.
Admittedly, cracking your own code was somewhat absurd, but to be fair, the effect was excellent.
Often, as soon as Herta and Screwllum proposed a solution, 'Hertatomb' could quickly construct it within her own mind, using herself as the test subject directly.
The efficiency was leaps and bounds faster than letting Herta and Screwllum try things bit by bit from the outside.
As for Ruan Mei, while she wasn't specialized in computing, she had many ideas regarding Irontomb's virus infecting organic bodies.
Coupled with Ruan Mei constantly inquiring about the calculation process of the 'Prime Mover of Life'.
With the four of them working together, the construction of the Anti-Irontomb Equation progressed much faster than 'Hertatomb' had estimated.
At this rate, they should soon be able to suppress the virus's spread and then delve into her mind to see what was really going on.
--+--
On the other hand, by the time Polka Kakamond noticed that Herta was no longer focused on Amphoreus...
Half a day had already passed.
She didn't understand why Herta, who had seemed so enthusiastic before, suddenly lost interest.
But after a brief investigation, Kakamond discovered a suspicious point.
Screwllum had visited Herta Space Station yesterday, and Ruan Mei had gone to the space station today.
Two geniuses arriving at the space station one after the other naturally caught Kakamond's attention.
But by the time she investigated the space station, she found no one.
It was still that arrogant AI managing the station.
"At the place Herta herself is hiding?"
Realizing this, Kakamond frowned.
Because she had been unable to probe that place for a long time now.
The Knowable Domain simply couldn't penetrate it.
If it was that place, then she could only return empty-handed.
Kakamond had a vague feeling that whatever Herta was doing now definitely involved some secrets most likely related to Amphoreus.
Did she have a way to break in?
Kakamond wasn't sure, but it would definitely take time.
All she knew was, after losing Herta's infiltration efforts, relying on herself alone, she couldn't break through Zandar's defenses in a short time to discover what kind of place Amphoreus really was.
As for the Interastral Peace Corporation...
Their internal opinions weren't unified yet.
There were hardliners advocating for bringing out those genius super-weapons, firing a couple of shots first to see what happened.
But there were also conservatives outright rejecting such an impulsive proposal.
Were those things to be used so casually?
And while the Intelligentsia Guild was also trying hard to analyze things, their hopes of breaking through Amphoreus's firewall were somewhat delusional.
Meanwhile, inside Amphoreus.
Zandar was also utterly puzzled.
He always thought he was well hidden.
Hiding in a remote corner, peacefully calculating his creation.
Even Kakamond couldn't find him.
And his nine segments were all acting independently, eliminating any possibility of someone tracing the connections back to him.
So, where had he slipped up?
How did he get doxxed overnight?
It seemed like all the major powers in the universe knew of his intentions now.
Attracting prying eyes from all sides.
Where did the Interastral Peace Corporation get their information from?
If it weren't so inconvenient, he'd really like to investigate personally.
But fortunately, he had prepared contingency plans for various situations.
At the very least, for a while, barring special circumstances, outsiders couldn't get in.
He still had ample time to complete Irontomb's calculations.
--+--