The Simulated Universe, to put it bluntly, was still just a simulation—not a full-fledged reality.
If they were to genuinely craft an actual world, then neither Herta nor Screwllum could properly simulate the Aeons within it or study their mysteries.
But if they only maintained a gathering of Memoria, it would merely become something akin to a Dreamworld like Penacony—unbound, chaotic, and disordered, stuck in that ambiguous, half-real state.
The crucial part was to ensure everything remained 'illusory,' yet still reflected the truth.
Something like the feeling when Noa manifested—that was the essence.
After everyone worked together to solidify the framework of this 'Simulated Universe,' 'Cyrene' would, within the simulated world, mimic the actions of Fuli—treating this Simulated Universe as a genuine chaos, taking the Finality as the starting point and looking back toward the origin against the flow of time, thereby framing the cyclical causality of the entire simulation.
As for this step, Herta believed it was feasible.
But 'Cyrene' thought it was far too difficult—better to advance by adopting 'Fuli's method of reconstructing the world.'
Still, talk was just talk.
Herta was the project lead, so naturally, her plan took priority, while 'Cyrene's idea remained a backup option—just as in past research, Herta had fully cooperated with 'Cyrene's procedures too.
What if it actually worked, after all?
Under Herta's persistently detailed instructions, 'Cyrene' began to channel her power once again, gathering abundant Memoria and condensing them into a single mass.
During this, the entire station shifted into full-power operation, with Divine Herta continuously deploying various instruments around the Memoria, directing 'Cyrene' to merge more devices into it.
As the creator, 'Cyrene' could clearly feel the nature of this Memoria—which should have been entirely under her control—being altered.
But that was exactly what they wanted, so 'Cyrene' did nothing, allowing that external force to gradually assume control of the Memoria cluster.
A chaotic Memoria world gradually took shape before everyone's eyes.
Step one of the experiment—a smooth success.
An ambiguous Memoria world gradually formed, yet remained fixed in that half-formed state.
The empty world lay in chaos, devoid of anything.
Screwllum took charge of inputting the underlying code, allowing this simulated world to begin evolving toward the concept of a universe.
Next, it was Ruan Mei's turn to step up—cultivating the proto-forms of the simulated Aeons.
This task was something only Ruan Mei could handle.
Of course, Ruan Mei didn't let 'Cyrene' off the hook either.
On one hand, 'Cyrene' needed to play the role of Fuli creating the world within it; on the other, Ruan Mei simply enjoyed the feeling of exchanging ideas with Bai Ming.
That kind of mental synergy—minds aligned yet not overly overlapping—was sheer delight for a genius.
Joining Ruan Mei within that chaotic world, while Ruan Mei cultivated the Aeon prototypes in the chaos, the two Hertas continuously fed various pieces of information from outside.
Knowledge drawn from the Nous's mind—if disclosed directly—would shock the entire universe.
Yet in this lab, such insights spilled out casually, as though they were free.
The first to be cultivated was Noa, mainly because Noa truly didn't mind being studied by Ruan Mei.
If not for Noa's inability to let others 'pilot' their perspective like the Nous or Fuli could, Ruan Mei probably would have already experienced an Aeon's point of view.
--+--
Everything proceeded smoothly.
As time passed, perhaps out of boredom, Ruan Mei—for some reason—started tossing all sorts of questions at 'Cyrene.'
From the origin of life, to lifeforms of diverse shapes, to the Aeons…
Every kind of question imaginable.
Having inherited some of Ruan Mei's talents, 'Cyrene' relied on her current mind to keep pace with Ruan Mei's rhythm.
Even the task of cultivating Aeon prototypes turned into collaborative work between the two of them.
Outside the Simulated Universe, Herta—who was maintaining the system's stability—seeing this, couldn't resist joining in with questions of her own.
Unsurprisingly, the aptitudes from Hertatomb and Herta character cards also allowed 'Cyrene's thinking to align with Herta's.
Not only that, 'Cyrene' could even swiftly integrate and connect the completely different questions from both women, turning them into nourishment for the Simulated Universe.
This left Screwllum, watching nearby, utterly astonished.
Keeping up with a genius's thoughts was one thing—but achieving mental alignment and mutual understanding?
That bordered on the miraculous.
And when Screwllum also tried posing a few questions, discovering that 'Cyrene' could even follow the logical thinking of an Intellitron…Screwllum was genuinely awestruck.
As everyone knew, there was a clear, innate difference in thinking logic between natural Intellitrons and flesh-and-blood lifeforms—a congenital gap generally considered irreconcilable.
Yet 'Cyrene' had managed it.
Was it because she had role-played as Hertatomb that she understood Intellitron logic?
Screwllum couldn't help but wonder.
No wonder these two enjoyed working alongside Miss Bai Ming.
Finding someone so intellectually aligned in academic research—that truly was a cause for joy.
Faced with such temptation, Screwllum admitted he too would find it hard to resist asking Bai Ming questions.
And so...
'Cyrene' despairingly realized her workload had begun skyrocketing!
Originally, she only needed to maintain the stability of the Memoria world, wait for Ruan Mei's work to finish, then simulate Fuli's logic to drive the Simulated Universe's operation.
Now, not only did she have to handle her assigned part, she also had to interface with three other geniuses, forced into brainstorming with them, and act as the connective thread between these brilliant minds, integrating their wild ideas through various means.
Before, it was just Herta and Ruan Mei—but now, even the way Screwllum looked at her had changed.
The peculiar silicon-based logical thinking inherited from Hertatomb had somehow won Screwllum over, leading him to seek her out for chats as well—and not just about the project, but expanding into topics about Intellitrons and Screwllum's homeworld.
It was truly a bittersweet experience.
Thus, 'Cyrene' decisively dragged Divine Herta into the fray, forcing her to join this peculiar brainstorming session to share the burden.
As a being separated from Hertatomb's form, Divine Herta could also tune into the wavelengths of Herta and Screwllum—though not Ruan Mei's.
And so, almost unconsciously, the five project members entered a remarkably efficient research state.
Everything progressed smoothly.
When the preparations were ready, and 'Cyrene' began acting in the role of Fuli within this Simulated Universe, attempting to 'look back from the Finality toward the origin'—'Cyrene' skipped directly from the Finality to the Fourth Instant, then took the Fourth Instant—the birth of Irontomb—as the starting point, and began working backward.
Within the Simulated Universe, 'Cyrene,' as Fuli, worked to close the loop of the universe's causality, repeatedly anchoring the scenes of Fuli's manifestations against the flow of time, all the way back to the earliest recorded appearance of Fuli.
Of course, these were only the first batch of preliminary simulation anchors—there was still much more to do later.
--+--