Inside the Simulated Universe space station, Divine Herta looked helplessly at Herta, who had single-handedly taken on almost all the work.
In Herta's mind—
If that guy Bai Ming didn't trust her, then she was determined to solve this problem herself.
To make Bai Ming eat his words.
So he'd cling to her leg, weeping and regretting everything he'd done.
It had reached the point where even Divine Herta—the genius born precisely because of Bai Ming—was, under Herta's firm insistence, pushed aside from the main workload.
"…Was I ever this headstrong?"
Divine Herta wasn't unaware that she could be plenty willful.
But going to such lengths over one little action from Bai Ming…
Still struck Divine Herta as rather extraordinary.
"After all, Bai Ming is the person Herta has known the longest and the one she truly respects."
Ruan Mei had joined the meeting via projection.
However, there wasn't much Ruan Mei could contribute to Herta's specific plan.
So she had some free time to chat with Divine Herta.
"Sigh~"
Truth be told, Divine Herta could understand where Herta was coming from.
She was just a little annoyed at being sidelined, and that Herta had come up with the solution first.
"Herta chose to leverage Bai Ming's own unique traits to solve this problem precisely because both she and I have studied him relatively deeply."
Ruan Mei seemed to have sensed Divine Herta's thoughts.
And so she offered a gentle remark.
"No, a loss is a loss."
For Divine Herta, accumulated knowledge was inherently part of the contest.
For someone as fiercely competitive as Herta, using that as an excuse was clearly unacceptable.
Ruan Mei pressed her lips together in a faint smile.
She didn't say anything more.
Compared to others, Herta and Ruan Mei understood Bai Ming's situation better.
Those swapped bodies weren't truly merging with Bai Ming to become one being.
Rather, they were being 'controlled' by him through special means.
But while it was controlled, there was none of the theoretical sense of detachment one might expect.
What Herta wanted to do was mimic this 'control' logic.
To create a 'virtual consciousness' that Bai Ming could directly manipulate.
This would ensure the Simulated Universe could close its causal loops according to their will, while a segment of virtual consciousness would be inserted to fill the gap—rather than forcing Bai Ming's own consciousness to plug it.
The idea might sound simple.
But it was like stuffing an elephant into a refrigerator—easy in theory only.
Put simply:
The logic of a consciousness controlling a body was straightforward.
But using one consciousness to control another consciousness… that just felt odd.
If it were mere control, that would be one thing.
But Herta also wanted it to nest seamlessly without affecting consciousness integration.
That made it all seem rather bizarre.
Of course, if Herta dared propose it, she already had a theoretical approach in mind.
The biggest risk was that the body Bai Ming was currently using might get pulled in along with it.
After all, fundamentally, this whole scheme relied on that body's identity as a Pure Child of Anāsrava to work.
So Herta could only guarantee that after this nesting, Bai Ming's consciousness could detach—but not that the body would come out unscathed.
If not for the fact that Bai Ming kept switching bodies anyway, Herta wouldn't have even considered this plan.
In short, she, Herta, was willfully determined to have her cake and eat it too!
--+--
In any case.
Several days passed in a blink.
'Cyrene' looked at her panel:
--+--
[Role-Playing System]
[Name: Bai Ming (Cyrene)]
[Lifespan: 600 years (paused) + 1 day (role-playing)]
[Available Transformations: Big Herta (Available), Acheron (Available), Celenova (Available), Jingliu (Available), Ruan Mei (Charge: 78.2%), Sparkle (Charge: 67.5%), Hertatomb (Charge: 29.4%), Cyrene (Active)]
[Available Draws: 1 (48.5%)]
--+--
Today was the final day of this role's duration.
As for emotional value gains—
Since she'd been staying with Acheron these past few days, lazing around and sticking close to her, and hadn't seen much of Demiurge and the others, the efficiency in recent days had dropped a bit.
But the draw opportunity had already been obtained earlier when she met little Cyrene and Demiurge.
Plus, with all those available character cards, 'Cyrene' hadn't lingered around them constantly.
As for this draw chance—
It could wait until after the Simulated Universe was sorted out.
Just as she was thinking this, Acheron's gentle voice sounded in her ear:
"Is it about time?"
She tilted her head slightly—their faces were almost touching at this distance—and met Acheron's gaze up close.
"Mhm, last day for this identity. To avoid interfering with her, I've even hidden out at the edge of Nothingness. I hope Herta's managed it, otherwise I'm definitely going to laugh at her mercilessly."
The corner of Acheron's mouth lifted slightly.
A trace of a smile appeared on her face.
Having spent these days together, she'd learned what happened between Bai Ming and Herta.
While marveling at how close they were, she also felt she'd glimpsed a private side of these geniuses.
And the way Bai Ming and Herta interacted… Acheron found it quite amusing.
"I'd advise you to tone it down a little. Otherwise, Madam Herta will hold a grudge for life."
"At this point, I've lost count of how many marks she's already got against me. What's one more?"
'Cyrene' tilted her chin up, putting on a brave front.
Even though internally she knew she shouldn't openly mock Herta like that, her mouth refused to yield.
After all, it was just the two of them here.
However capable Herta was, could she really get a signal through to this godforsaken place?
Acheron could easily tell she was bluffing.
But she didn't call her out, choosing to let the kid save face.
"By the way, Acheron, why not go out for a stroll? Your memories are much clearer now—wouldn't it be nice to walk around more? Amphoreus is beautiful, and there are super cute chimeras there too! All sculpted by me!"
Faced with 'Cyrene' changing the subject, Acheron felt a flicker of temptation, but she only shook her head slightly:
"Maybe another time. Unless it's urgent, I can't just leave on a whim."
Though she said that, Acheron didn't actually plan to go out anytime soon.
She figured she'd wait until the next time she was tasked with handling a Sin Thirster.
Then she could drop by on the way.
'Cyrene' couldn't read much more from Acheron's already somewhat stoic expression.
But she could roughly tell Acheron wasn't willing to set aside the duty she'd willingly taken up.
Probably the only chance to see Acheron outside would be if there was a relic that needed returning beyond these borders.
But that was fine.
"Alright then. Later, I'll make a little Amphoreus theme park and bring it in so we can play together."
Crafting pocket worlds was no big deal—'Cyrene' had made several while recounting her experiences, just for demonstration.
But making one that could last here long-term, exist independently outside her protection, and let both of them dive in to play… that posed some technical challenges.
She'd need to research it properly once she got out.
Hearing this, the smile on Acheron's face grew even softer:
"Alright. I'll look forward to it, then."
--+--