After resting for a few days at Acheron's place, 'Cyrene' happily returned to the Simulated Universe station.
Compared to when she left, nothing seemed to have changed much.
Divine Herta looked curiously at 'Cyrene', who had suddenly reappeared, and asked: "Where have you been these past few days? Why couldn't I find your location at all?"
Logically speaking, even if it was a Phase Flame teleport, careful searching should still reveal traces of the phase shift.
Besides, aside from the Phase Flame, she didn't remember 'Cyrene' having any other means of ultra-long-distance movement.
"I went to the border of Nihility to play with another friend."
"…?"
A question mark slowly appeared above Divine Herta's head.
What did she mean by "went to play at the border of Nihility"?
How could a place like that be somewhere you just go to "play"?
"You're… okay?"
"Of course I'm okay. I wouldn't have gone if I couldn't handle it."
Hearing 'Cyrene''s matter-of-fact reply, Divine Herta nodded thoughtfully, as if some new idea had just popped into her head.
But she didn't continue the topic.
Instead, she took 'Cyrene's' hand and led her toward the access point for the Simulated Universe:
"Come with me. Herta finished calibrating the equipment half a day ago, but we couldn't reach you then. I thought something had happened to you—turns out you'd run off to a place like that."
When they arrived, Herta still seemed to be checking the equipment.
It wasn't until Divine Herta tapped the control panel that Herta noticed the movement and looked up to see 'Cyrene'.
"Here already? Take a look yourself. I've got just a bit of testing left."
A few days had passed, and Herta wasn't as upset as before.
After handing a screen to 'Cyrene', she dove back into work alongside Screwllum.
'Cyrene' used that time to quickly get up to speed on Herta's whole plan.
It was eye-opening—she hadn't realized Herta had already researched her to this extent.
Some of the details even 'Cyrene' herself wasn't fully aware of.
Following Herta's logic, the method really did seem feasible.
If it could actually be done, though…
But could it really be done?
'Cyrene' felt like her own mind was getting sharper, yet she understood Herta less and less.
How could she pull off something like this?
It almost felt like aside from this gacha system of hers, everything else about her was about to be laid bare by Herta.
"Finished reading?"
"Yeah. When do we start?"
'Cyrene' lifted her gaze, meeting Herta's eyes directly.
The other girl looked a little tired, but her eyes shone brightly.
She seemed proud of having built such a system.
Especially since, after completing it, Herta realized this system could fully replace the existing intervention equipment—achieving something close to "perfect simulation."
From now on, even if something really happened in the Simulated Universe, Herta wouldn't need to panic as much as Divine Herta had.
"We can start now, if you're ready."
Herta made a "go ahead" gesture.
'Cyrene' didn't waste words either—she nodded, stepped onto the platform, and launched the Simulated Universe process once more.
If Herta said it was ready, 'Cyrene' believed she really had accomplished everything she claimed.
As hard as it was to believe, she was willing to trust Herta.
Her response made the corner of Herta's mouth curl up slightly.
She was clearly in a good mood.
"Ahem, Bai Ming, can you hear me? How does it feel?"
"Loud and clear. Feels a bit strange—like a disorienting mix of real and unreal."
"Hold on, let me adjust some parameters."
Hearing 'Cyrene''s feedback, Herta seemed to have expected it.
She quickly tweaked a few things on the console.
Before she could even speak again, 'Cyrene''s voice came through once more:
"Much better now."
"Good. Then I'm lifting the restrictions. Are you mentally prepared?"
"Ready whenever."
"Okay~"
Herta chuckled lightly in response, then completely removed the Simulated Universe's limits.
In an instant, 'Cyrene', immersed within, felt that familiar sensation again.
Fuli.
She had once again become Fuli within the Simulated Universe.
The familiar feeling washed over her, but this time it didn't leave her dazed.
It was as if a clear boundary began to form between herself and the "simulated entity."
Just like when she normally roleplayed as someone else—everything felt vivid, but she was acutely aware that she was controlling another body, not her own.
It was the same now.
'Cyrene' could clearly sense that she was controlling the body that had become Fuli, rather than having fully transformed into Fuli herself.
But just as Herta had anticipated, because this high degree of realism was achieved by borrowing the identity of a Pure Child of Anāsrava, 'Cyrene's' current body couldn't completely block out the mechanics' influence.
In fact, if they tried to isolate it, they wouldn't achieve this level of realism.
And since she already knew this, Bai Ming didn't really mind.
After all, even Aeons couldn't see through her system.
If a mere Simulated Universe could trap this character card inside, then this Simulated Universe must be something truly extraordinary.
"Phew… Even with the separation, this feeling of being Fuli is pretty interesting."
Bai Ming felt that even without the reward feedback from this roleplay, her understanding of the Path of Remembrance would probably surpass most Memokeepers already.
Just as Bai Ming was immersed in the experience of being Fuli, Herta's urging voice rang in her ear:
"Stop admiring yourself and get moving already."
"Alright, alright… sigh~ Making someone work and still rushing them."
Bai Ming replied half-heartedly, but obediently advanced the Simulated Universe process.
Inside the Simulated Universe, Fuli's gaze, from this final edge, followed the Memoria particles and cast its vision toward the beginning of the cosmos.
The cause and effect of Fuli's birth were fixed by It.
The Path of Remembrance, originally born at the end of the universe, now manifested at the universe's origin, throughout its journey.
All converged possibilities branched out once more, quickly rewinding back to the point of origin.
The logical closed loop was now established within the Simulated Universe.
A genuine Aeon of Remembrance, Fuli, truly existed within this unique little world.
And Fuli's true vessel was the character card 'Cyrene' that Bai Ming was using.
Due to the Simulated Universe's logical closure, the character card 'Cyrene', originally just a Pure Child of Anāsrava, quietly gained a suffix that stunned Bai Ming: [Cyrene · Fuli]
Even though it was bound by Fuli's mechanistic logic, this character card, which should have been locked into the logical closed loop…
Bai Ming sensed that to leave the Simulated Universe, she'd need to cancel the roleplay.
And canceling it would force the system to reclaim the character card and begin recharging the queue.
In other words—
The system's rules are above yours!
"Holy crap…"
This time, the system's mighty hand really came through!
Although limited by the Simulated Universe's scale, this Fuli had significant gaps in output and magnitude, its mechanics were more than enough to make up for the power deficit.
Just having Fuli's capabilities alone—wouldn't the Garden of Recollection be utterly outmatched?
--+--