Seeing Herta's mood soften, 'Cyrene' took the offered olive branch and raised her hands in surrender:
"Alright, alright, this one's on me. So, will Madam Herta let me off now?"
"Forget it. Getting angry with a fool like you really isn't worth it."
That's what Herta said.
But her hands continued to freely pinch and play with 'Cyrene's' cheeks without restraint.
Only after she had thoroughly amused herself did she finally let go.
"Fine. Your plan will be the absolute last resort. For now, let's call a meeting. See if we can find a way to solve this before the deadline."
Now in a better mood, Herta no longer intended to sit here alone, stewing in her own thoughts.
Besides, she'd already racked her brains for quite a while and truly couldn't come up with any reasonable solution.
It wasn't that she lacked ideas to fix things, but there seemed to be no way to resolve it before Bai Ming's image change.
Given how things stood, Herta felt that continuing to sit here wouldn't produce any results.
That idiot Bai Ming had completely broken her train of thought.
Better to call a meeting with Ruan Mei and the others to brainstorm.
--+--
At Herta's summons, several geniuses gathered once more.
All to tackle the current problem.
Divine Herta looked curiously at her other self.
She had thought that by their next meeting, this version would have already pulled out a ready-made solution, or perhaps announced a decision like downgrading the Simulated Universe.
After all, the look in Herta's eyes earlier had suggested just that.
So, Divine Herta had prepared herself to wait several days.
She hadn't expected to be called back so soon.
"You've got an idea?"
"No. Thanks to someone making a special trip here to annoy me, my train of thought is completely derailed."
Herta shot 'Cyrene' an annoyed glare before continuing,
"Let's discuss how to solve this. Although Bai Ming provided a fallback plan, I think it's best not to use it."
Divine Herta glanced at 'Cyrene'.
She didn't ask what the fallback plan was.
If her other self judged it better not to use, her own choice would likely be the same.
Then, Divine Herta's lips curled into a smirk. She tossed her long hair, radiating confidence—ten parts, even twelve.
"Just as well. This adds some real challenge. Everything was going too smoothly before; I was almost embarrassed to say I was working on a new project."
Because she had provided the Simulated Universe's source code, the others might still find developing it somewhat novel, but for Divine Herta, it was purely old wine in a new bottle.
Now, finally encountering a problem that could make her brain work at full capacity, Divine Herta was clearly eager.
As for Evernight…
She had originally intended to leave.
In her view, this Simulated Universe cooked up by these geniuses was like a bomb waiting to go off at any moment.
Who knew what bizarre thing might crawl out of it someday?
Even putting that aside, just its current state and functions were enough to guarantee the attention of the Garden of Recollection.
Unfortunately, 'Cyrene' hauled her right back.
"Hey, Evernight, don't go. You're the expert on memories. Help me out here."
"...I never should have replied to your message."
Evernight was helplessly conscripted.
And then she discovered, to her despair, that regardless of how dangerous the project itself was, she simply couldn't understand what these people were talking about.
It was the first time she learned that the Synesthesia Beacon had limits in translation.
No, that wasn't quite right.
Evernight understood every individual word, but when strung together, she had no clue what they meant.
Fortunately, 'Cyrene' split her attention to explain things to Evernight, using terms she could roughly grasp to help her understand the situation.
That, at least, kept Evernight from fainting on the spot.
However, even with Evernight's assistance, and even though the clash of minds did spark many ideas, they still couldn't arrive at a reasonable plan to perfectly resolve their current predicament.
No one said it aloud, but 'Cyrene' felt that solving this problem wouldn't happen in a short time.
At least, it seemed unlikely before her current character card expired.
After all, it involved mechanisms related to Aeons.
Fundamentally, what they wanted was to enjoy the benefits of those mechanisms while avoiding their side effects.
The difficulty of that was clearly a bit over the top.
Was it possible for them to achieve it?
'Cyrene' believed it was.
Given enough time and resources, she felt Herta could solve these technical challenges.
But to crack it within the deadline?
That might be a bit too difficult.
So, for insurance, 'Cyrene' made a special trip back to Herta City.
She went to have a chat with Noa.
As expected, she received an affirmative answer.
--+--
Meanwhile, just as the Simulated Universe project was paused, Diamond received the action report from Jade.
First, the investment project on Amphoreus.
The essence of Amphoreus's Memetic World, the fragmented remains of the Emperor's Scepter, and that unique world and lifeform that blurred the lines between reality and virtuality.
Jade's assessment was: extremely valuable.
Worth the Corporation's investment, both economically and for research.
So, even though Sparkle had ended up playfully offering Amphoreus a rather favorable contract, from Diamond's perspective, as long as those Scepter fragments were brought into the Corporation, it was a win.
After all, internally, the Corporation had already prepared for the possibility of failure.
Managing to secure a deal was already a positive outcome.
Additionally, the Amphoreans, who had originally been quite resistant to the Corporation, had softened their stance due to some… personal connections of Deputy Director Sparkle.
This left Oswaldo, who had intended to use this opportunity to set Sparkle up for a fall, no choice but to watch helplessly as she claimed the credit for Amphoreus.
Then came the matter of the brand-new project, the 'Simulated Universe,' jointly developed by several geniuses, which Sparkle had deliberately yielded for Jade to sign off on.
This series of developments even drew a slight smile from Diamond.
Oswaldo's rising influence was checked, the Strategic Investment Department made a hefty profit, and, surprisingly, Sparkle actually had such solid connections—something even Oswaldo hadn't anticipated.
Connections that could reach geniuses were something even Diamond wouldn't turn down.
However…
"Did that woman Sparkle plan all of this from the start? Was yielding the credit to Jade intentional or accidental?"
On this point, Diamond couldn't quite be sure.
Because with this one move, Sparkle, who previously had no notable achievements, had not only closed the major Amphoreus deal, but by yielding this benefit, she had also effectively secured Jade's support.
With this single mission, Sparkle had firmly established her footing within the Strategic Investment Department.
If it was intentional, then Sparkle's methods were somewhat terrifying.
"I've managed to give myself a sense of crisis."
Diamond chuckled self-deprecatingly, set down the report in hand, and sank into thought.
--+--