Following the little Herta doll walking briskly ahead on its short legs, Ryan navigated through the massive building.
At over six feet tall, he found the sight of a doll not even reaching his waist rather novel.
As he walked, trying to understand his new environment, he discovered that his vision had changed.
Invisible electromagnetic fields flowed through the air, with vector directions and field strengths appearing as visible lines.
Like an augmented reality overlay on the real world, everything was visible at once.
“This is like having a super-sense mode from a video game,” Ryan thought, feeling like he’d suddenly put on high-tech AR glasses.
Like in movies where you could wave your hand to rotate a model.
Then, a thought sparked through his mind like restless electricity.
If he could see these magnetic field vectors…
could he also, perhaps, nudge them a bit and generate a weak induced current?
He wanted to try.
Seizing the moment when the doll slowed slightly at a corner decorated with complex gear reliefs to orient itself, Ryan quickly reached out and lightly tapped the back of the doll’s neck joint.
Zap!
A tiny current shot through.
“Wah!”
The doll jolted violently, its small body shuddering.
Its black beret tilted, and a wisp of smoke rose from it.
She spun around, her purple artificial eyes wide, her previously expressionless face now filled with indignation.
“Hey! What are you doing? Where do you think you’re putting your hands?!”
Her reaction was remarkably lifelike.
The annoyed expression and tone were like a completely different person—like a child.
Ryan struggled to suppress a laugh, his shoulders shaking slightly as he raised his hands in innocence.
“I was just testing the conductivity of your doll materials. I must say, Madam Herta’s craftsmanship is excellent—the sensor modules and simulated emotional feedback systems are remarkably responsive.”
“Naturally.” The little doll placed her hands on her hips, huffing as she straightened her beret.
“Dolls made by Madam Herta are, of course, flawless. But your reckless behavior is completely unacceptable. If you damaged any sensor node or emotion simulation circuit, could you even afford to compensate?”
She continued grumbling as she dusted off her skirt, checking for other anomalies, before turning around huffily and resuming her lead.
Watching the little Herta doll stomp away indignantly, Ryan’s satisfaction from his successful prank hadn’t faded before a new thought arose.
“That little shock just now… did it accidentally activate some kind of advanced interaction module? The tone, the expression—it’s way more lively than before.”
He pondered, his gaze involuntarily drifting back to the doll’s neatly repositioned black beret.
“If I gave her another gentle tap… would I unlock more?”
His current ability was limited to contact discharge.
Ranged discharge was still difficult and required more precise manipulation.
Waiting until the doll stopped before another metal door and raised her small hand to push it open, Ryan once again swiftly extended his finger.
Pop.
Another barely audible sound, another tiny current precisely delivered.
But this time, the little Herta doll didn’t jump up and protest loudly.
Her entire movement froze.
The small hand halfway to pushing the door hung in mid-air.
The residual trace of annoyance on her face froze completely.
Her purple eyes lost their lively spark.
The smile on Ryan’s face froze too, and his heart skipped a beat.
“No way… did I actually short-circuit her? That’s impossible. Herta’s dolls—how could the power systems and protection measures be so fragile that a tiny current like that would—”
Wait, first aid!
CPR!
CPR my ass!
She’s a doll—she doesn’t have a heart!
Just as Ryan was considering whether to look for a hidden reset button, the little Herta doll trembled.
Those empty purple eyes instantly refocused, radiating a completely different presence.
She slowly lowered her suspended hand and turned around, arms crossed.
The pose looked somewhat comical on such a small body, but the aura was suddenly commanding.
The corner of her lips curved into a half-smile that belonged to the real owner.
“I step away for just a moment, and you’re already getting handsy with my doll?”
The familiar voice spoke, but the tone belonged entirely to Madam Herta herself, now remotely connected.
“What’s wrong? Did the nuke scramble your brain, or were you simply overwhelmed by my undeniable charm—even through a doll?”
Ryan: “…”
Well, he’d really done it now.
The master herself had caught him red-handed.
Seeing Ryan’s expression, Herta raised an eyebrow.
“It seems you need to re-evaluate your position here, little one. Staying here means cooperating with my experiments—not doing whatever you want with my dolls and conducting childish conductivity tests.”
“However… the electrical discharge you just produced—the generation method and control precision—that’s somewhat interesting. If it were ordinary bioelectricity or crude energy projection, the earlier full-body scan would never have missed such refined manipulation characteristics. Explain?”
Seeing the conversation unexpectedly return to productive ground, Ryan breathed a small sigh of relief and quickly explained.
“It’s not bioelectricity, and not simple energy projection. Right now, I can… see things. Like electromagnetic field distributions—their vector directions and intensities.”
“Based on what I see, I can influence them to a certain extent. By mentally fine-tuning the electric and magnetic field vectors, I can induce localized, controllable currents.”
“Seeing and directly manipulating electromagnetic field vectors?” Herta looked thoughtful, her doll’s small finger tapping her chin.
“The principle sounds remarkably simple and direct—almost like… thinking things into existence? Though clearly at a very basic level. In that case…”
She suddenly thought of a very basic and interesting application, her lips curving with a hint of challenge.
“By that logic, you should be able to fly. Manipulating the gravitational vector acting on yourself, or using electromagnetic fields to interact with the planet’s magnetic field to generate counter-thrust… theoretically feasible. Try it?”
“Fly?”
Ryan was taken aback.
He hadn’t considered that application—he’d been too focused on discharging electricity.
Under the pressuring gaze of the Herta doll, he concentrated.
An invisible force field subtly distorted the air around him.
And his feet actually wobbled off the ground by a few centimeters, his whole body hovering unsteadily like he was drunk.
He was about to feel pleased with himself.
But such delicate manipulation—simultaneously controlling multiple vector directions and intensities—was still too much for him.
The moment his concentration wavered, the barely-maintained ordered force field collapsed into chaos, with vector directions conflicting and canceling out randomly.
The result?
Thud!
Ryan, who had just risen a few centimeters off the ground, lost all upward support and crashed onto the cold, hard floor.
Utter humiliation on full display.
Rubbing his sore arms and rear end, Ryan grimaced as he looked up—directly meeting the Herta doll’s undisguised “I knew that would happen” deadpan stare.
“Hmm…”
Herta nodded through the doll, and her voice actually carried a hint of…
something approaching approval?
“While your control is as crude as a baby learning to walk, and the stability is terrible, it at least proves your approach is correct. You’re using your understanding of electromagnetic theory to initially harness this power, rather than fumbling blindly or relying on brute force…”
She paused before delivering her final assessment—which sounded like praise but somehow came across as sarcasm.
“In simple terms: your brain wasn’t fried by the nuke, and there’s hope for you yet. My decision to take you in wasn’t wasted.”
That was…
a compliment, right?
Ryan comforted himself.
At least it proved that reading books had been worth something—his brain hadn’t grown for nothing.
If he’d been written off as a moron who could only mindlessly discharge electricity, that would’ve been truly hopeless.
He remembered he was still wearing his white coat from Aerido Star—now looking rather worse for wear after the nuclear explosion, with slight scorch marks.
He really should change.
As someone staying in a Genius Society member’s laboratory, he needed to look presentable.
Otherwise, if she got fed up with his appearance one day, he might actually get thrown out.
“Um… Madam Herta?” He looked up, his tone carrying a hint of expectation.
“Do you have any spare clothes?”
The Herta-controlled doll glanced at him, seeming to communicate silently through some internal channel.
Soon, another small Herta doll—wearing the same black beret but with a stiffer expression—clattered over, carrying a neatly folded outfit.
“Here. Your lab coat,” Herta said.
Ryan accepted it gratefully and unfolded it with anticipation—only to freeze, as if struck by another micro-current.
This…
this was almost identical to what Herta and her dolls were wearing!
The classic white base, fitted cut, exquisite craftsmanship…
The only difference was an extra trim of…
purple lace at the cuffs and collar?
He held up this distinctly styled new garment, looked at the doll, then back at the lab coat in his hands, his expression complicated, wanting to speak but hesitating.
“What’s wrong?” Herta’s voice came through the doll, carrying an air of obviousness.
“In my laboratory, everyone wears the standard lab coat. Is there a problem? This is a newly developed composite protective fabric.”
“As for the lace…” She paused, seeming to consider, then announced in the tone of one declaring a scientific conclusion: “Consider it a way to distinguish formal researchers from… temporary research subjects. For management purposes.”
Ryan: “…”
He didn’t understand the advanced features, but they sounded impressive.
What could he say?
When under someone else’s roof, you lower your head.
Fine, he’d wear it.
At least the fabric looked comfortable, and…
purple was actually kind of stylish, right?