Let's set aside the gripes about Bai Ming for now.
What kind of identity has she tacked onto herself this time?
And this weird little thing, where did she even dig that up from some alternate timeline?
The combination of Propagation and The Hunt was bizarre enough to pique Herta's curiosity.
And since she just so happened to have a perfect outlet for that curiosity right in front of her… well, predictably, she fired up another session of Simulated Universe.
As for the other geniuses on the Simulated Universe project?
Divine Herta had already shipped off to the Land of Light.
The plan was to set up a Simulated Universe platform over there, remotely linked back to the main body here. Partly for training simulations, partly for research and number-crunching.
The Simulated Universe these days wasn't just realistic because of raw processing power anymore.
It was a logical, self-consistent realism that had, in turn, cranked the computational demands of the whole thing up to some absolutely bonkers level.
Once everyone realized that, this frankly excessive computational load naturally became a resource everyone wanted a piece of.
Oh, and Demiurge tagged along to the Land of Light too.
They and Evernight had managed to cook up a variant of the Light Cone, using a coin-sized crystal insignia as a medium to store the power of memories.
It basically sidestepped the Garden of Recollection's tech, at least on the surface.
As for what would happen if they actually got caught…
Well, same as before: it'd come down to whether their fists were bigger than Bai Ming's.
Just like Herta, who currently couldn't give two figs about whether her own research into Memory Bubbles and Light Cones got leaked.
The motto now was basically "do it brazenly."
Screwllum, meanwhile, had headed back to Planet Screwllum.
He'd been out with his fleet for quite a while; he needed to check in.
And while he was at it, he planned to brainstorm some upgrade designs for the Simulated Universe space station.
Everyone agreed that, given the Simulated Universe's current level of completion, this temporary space station, thrown together by just piling on more hardware, felt a bit… lacking.
It needed a careful, optimized expansion plan to really be worthy of the Simulated Universe project team.
And as for maintenance?
Honestly, Screwllum's assessment was that there wasn't much to maintain. Shaking this stable platform was harder than keeping it running.
What Screwllum was more worried about now was that, as more and more simulations ran, and the accumulation of Memoria and data grew, their ability to regulate this world might actually weaken once it reached a certain level of development.
So that was the main focus of his current research.
As for the simulated data itself? They could just share and analyze it remotely. No need for him to hang around here forever.
So, for now, at the Simulated Universe space station?
Only Herta remained, still too engrossed in the Simulated Universe to head back to Herta Space Station just yet.
Daily maintenance and operations were being handled by a crew selected from Herta Space Station, plus a bunch of pretty sharp scholars from Amphoreus.
And Evernight had also brought over a few Memokeepers who, supposedly, didn't quite fit in with the usual cliques in the Garden and could be trusted.
These three groups were now working together to run the station.
Amphoreus might have been a bit behind initially, but the Digimon's traits meant they learned fast. As long as they didn't gobble up random data and cause conflicts, their future looked bright.
The Memokeepers were tasked with monitoring the Simulated Universe's stability. And, as a side gig, keeping tabs on the Memoria status of Amphoreus. Consider it a long-term observation project.
Over at Ruan Mei's place…
She'd also seen the video footage the IPC had broadcast.
But what caught her attention was the swarm.
Because of the time constraints, a lot of the swarm-related stuff had only been discussed theoretically. No experimental verification yet.
Based on what she saw in the video, 'Jingliu' had been developed pretty well. The data collected from this should be useful.
So Ruan Mei shot a message to 'Jingliu'.
Once 'Jingliu' got back, she wanted to do some in-depth research together.
Meanwhile, back to the real Jingliu, who had just caused a huge scene.
Shortly after returning to the Stellaron Hunters' ship, she saw her bounty had gone up, and also caught wind of the commotion Bai Ming had stirred up elsewhere.
"Mm… compared to last time, this kind of ambiguous identity leaves me even more confused. Elio, you should know what kind of script something like this would appear in, right?"
Jingliu pointed at the screen, at the image of that Propagation Lightning Lord, then turned to look at Elio, who was licking his paws.
She recognized the weapon in the Lightning Lord's hands—it was almost identical to Jing Yuan's.
Coupled with the fact that she was somehow the one controlling this bizarre Lightning Lord?
Jingliu was genuinely curious. What kind of timeline would result in a traitor like her inheriting the Lightning Lord and taking the seat of a General?
"I do know, but honestly, at this point, this script has nothing to do with you anymore. Mainly… I just can't be bothered to write anything involving that person!"
Elio flicked his tail.
His eyes were dead, like a fish.
Because of Bai Ming, the General of the Fanghu hadn't been reborn, Yueyu hadn't died, the prophecy for the Yuque's Master Diviner hadn't come true.
Feixiao's ascension to the General of the Yaoqing was pushed back. The Luofu Master Diviner had a complete change of heart. And now the real eighth Lord Ravager was about to descend.
His scripts all had to be rewritten again…
And not just a tweak here and there—a massive, ground-up overhaul.
All he wanted was to happily write his scripts. Why did he have to be tortured like this, an innocent little kitty?
Would no one speak up for him?
A cat's life matters too, you know?
Every thirty days, a complete script rewrite. And the worst part? You had to look.
If you didn't look at the future, you couldn't pick the right scripts to set things in motion.
But every script you picked would expire after a few dozen days. If you were lucky, minor edits. If you were unlucky? Scrap it and start over.
What kind of top-tier, exhausting fate was this…
If it weren't for the fact that the future was consistently heading in a good direction, Elio would have given up long ago.
As for Kafka, she sat to the side, sipping her coffee, a deep curiosity swirling within her about this person named Bai Ming. She looked forward to the day they might finally meet.
For the Aeons, though?
The commotion in the mortal world didn't really concern them.
The Hunt, after confirming Bai Ming had that weird thing under control and wasn't going wild with it, lost interest. Especially since she'd used it to give those Abundance zealots a proper beating.
Gotta admit, even if it didn't quite fit The Hunt's aesthetic, this weird thing was pretty handy.
If only THEY could just absorb Propagation into themselves… too bad THEY couldn't.
As for Nanook?
THEIR view was pretty much the same as The Hunt's.
Yeah, this little thing was a messy hybrid, sure.
But when it came to being useful? It was really useful.
That excellent proliferative ability, if it could be integrated into the Legion, would definitely allow Destruction to expand its scale even further.
Plus, Bai Ming had already spread the memetic virus everywhere.
Now that Nanook had cooked up this Lord Ravager, THEY could just pick up the ready-made product and use it.
The only problem was where to find an individual that had both Propagation and Remembrance. And on top of that, THEY'd need to find a leash strong enough to bind the power of Propagation.
Otherwise, the swarm would just instinctively chase Propagation, and it wouldn't achieve the effect THEY wanted.
Some galaxy rich in Memoria?
Maybe that could be a candidate.
But THEY'd need to observe it first. The blueprint was already there, directly modeled on the case Bai Ming had provided. But the specific individual? Nanook would have to find them THEMSELF.
If THEY really couldn't find one, THEY'd probably have to craft one from scratch, just like with Celenova.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL