“A diamond this big is for you!”
The Void Ranger in the corridor froze mid-stride, its featureless helmet tilting back instinctively toward the source of the sound.
At some point, a petite Herta puppet had launched herself into the air with impossible agility.
She brandished a mechanical hammer whose exaggerated design made it look larger and heavier than her own small frame.
Even more absurdly, she executed a flawless, picture-perfect 360-degree windmill spin in mid-air, a maneuver of terrifying and baffling power.
Her delicate skirt billowed out as strands of long brown hair whipped around her face.
The entire spectacle was a bizarre fusion of raw violence and… inexplicable cuteness.
“Take this—!”
With a shout that sounded intentionally fierce, she put the full momentum of her spin into the attack.
The mechanical hammer descended with the force of a thunderclap.
Along its devastating arc, shimmering particles of Imaginary Energy converged, crystallizing at a frantic pace.
A massive, sharply-faceted diamond of brilliant, ice-blue light materialized from thin air, bright enough to momentarily blind anyone watching.
It formed in an instant and crashed down in perfect sync with the hammer’s blow.
CRACK!
There was no technique, no finesse—just the pure, unadulterated shock of brute force.
The diamond slammed squarely into the Void Ranger’s helmet, not just shattering it but flattening the creature’s entire upper torso into the metallic floor.
The force of the blow gouged a shallow crater into the deck plating, and the diamond itself exploded into a shower of crystalline fragments that pulsed with a faint, residual glow.
An instant kill.
So clean and efficient it left the corridor in dead silence.
March 7th was still frozen in his bow-drawing stance, his mouth slightly agape.
“…Huh?”
Dan Heng, ever the stoic, silently retracted his spear, the tip vanishing with a soft hiss.
He glanced from the pile of glittering shards to the Herta puppet, who had landed lightly and was now dashingly tossing her hair back.
The corner of his mouth couldn’t help but twitch.
Qiong clutched her bat, her gaze shifting from the spot where the enemy had vanished to Chen, who now stood with his hands on his hips.
Her golden eyes were wide with a pure, unfiltered confusion that seemed to ask: Where’s the enemy?
Where did that huge enemy go?
“I-It’s over?” March 7th finally found his voice.
He stowed his bow and skipped over to the edge of the crater.
He nudged one of the still-glowing fragments with the toe of his boot, then whipped his head around to stare at Chen.
“Wait…
Did that just work?!
You can just summon a giant diamond to drop on people?” he exclaimed.
“Are all of Madam Herta’s puppets this…
this over-the-top?!”
As he spoke, a look of dawning, mischievous discovery spread across his face.
He began to circle Chen, his eyes fixed on the exquisite doll-like face and the complex little dress.
Suddenly thinking of something, he leaned in close, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
“Hey, Miss Puppet~ That move was incredible, seriously, but…” He blinked, finally asking the question that had been bugging him.
“Why are you…
a girl?
Aren’t the Herta puppets supposed to be, you know, guys?”
“Huh?
What’s wrong with being a girl?” Chen, still in Herta’s form, planted his hands on his hips, jutted out his chin, and retorted with unimpeachable righteousness.
“Girls are adorable!”
He made a grand gesture towards his own petite form, his tone taking on an almost reverent, deeply appreciative quality.
“Especially this model!
Look at this face!
The craftsmanship on this dress!”
“This perfect scale-down…
That Herta person, her aesthetic is actually on point sometimes!” he mused.
“Tsk, exquisite.
As he spoke, he suddenly paused, a look of realization dawning on his face.
“…Wait.”
“Wow, I was so busy negotiating and fighting, I didn’t even get a chance to see what I look like right now!”
Before the words had even finished echoing, he raised a small hand.
A full-length mirror, spun from shimmering ice crystals, materialized out of thin air and planted itself firmly on the floor before him.
“Let me have a good look…”
Chen-as-Herta immediately leaned toward the ice mirror, first inspecting his profile from the left, then the right, admiring the impeccable contours of the doll in the reflection.
Then, he did something that left the other three completely dumbfounded.
He reached out with two small hands and, with a complete lack of ceremony, pinched his own slightly chubby cheeks.
“Mmm…
the texture is good.
Soft, yet springy.”
He pinched and then gave them a little tug, distorting the perfect doll-like face in the mirror into a comical grimace.
He delivered his commentary with a deadpan expression, as if he were a technician evaluating a high-end product.
And that wasn’t all.
After pinching his face, he looked down and lifted the exquisite, complex hem of his skirt, revealing the slender, perfectly sculpted calves beneath.
Then, he bent over and reached out to gently pinch his own calf.
“Hmm…
the leg lines are smooth, joint articulation is excellent, and the material simulation is incredibly realistic…
though these shoes are a bit stiff.
Herta really needs to work on the user comfort aspect of her designs.”
He delivered his user experience feedback with the utmost seriousness, completely lost in the joy of exploring his new skin.
March 7th: “…”
Dan Heng silently turned his head away, pretending to inspect the corridor wall.
Qiong clutched her bat, her gaze flickering between the mirror and the self-examining Chen.
She seemed utterly incapable of processing what the person in front of her was doing.
“Hey…
Hey!” March 7th finally snapped out of his stupor, pointing a trembling finger at Chen.
“You, you-you-you…
what are you doing?!”
“Who does that?!
Who pinches themselves and then gives a review?!”
“Are you sure you’re not some kind of pervert?!”
Only then did Chen seem to awaken from his immersive experience.
He let go of his calf, dropped the hem of his skirt, and nonchalantly brushed non-existent dust from his hands.
Crossing his arms, he slipped back into his cool, detached persona.
“Hmph.
Making a fuss over nothing.” He shot a sideways glance at March 7th.
“Conducting a thorough assessment of one’s own form is the foundation for ensuring combat effectiveness.
Don’t you even understand something so basic?”
“That’s not a ‘foundation for assessment’ at all!” March 7th was on the verge of a meltdown.
“You’re clearly just being narcissistic!
You definitely are!”
“Can something involving data collection be called narcissism?” Chen-as-Herta retorted, raising his small face with righteous indignation.
With a wave of his hand, the ice mirror quietly shattered and dissipated into the air.
“Let’s go.
Next area.
Don’t delay me from collecting more combat data.”
Just as Chen struck a cool pose and prepared to lead the way, a quiet voice broke the chaos.
“…You.”
It was Qiong.
you can transform?” she asked, her words slow and deliberate.
Everyone froze.
“Then…
can you transform…
into me?”
As soon as the words were spoken, not only Chen, but even the frantic March 7th and the pretending-to-be-calm Dan Heng turned to look at her.
No one had expected Qiong, who had seemed so detached and lost in her own world, to suddenly ask such a…
precise yet bizarre question.
Chen stopped in his tracks.
He hadn’t anticipated Qiong speaking up, let alone asking that.
For a moment, his guard dropped.
“Uh…
Stel—”
The familiar syllable died on his lips before he could choke it back.
He quickly corrected himself.
“—Sister Qiong…
of course I can.”
‘Ah, crap,’ he thought, the moment the words left his mouth.
Sure enough, March 7th’s ears perked up instantly.
“‘Of course I can’?!
Hey, hey, you can actually turn into other people?
Not just Madam Herta’s puppets?”
“Hmph.” Chen-as-Herta forced himself to remain calm.
“The essence of my ability is the simulation and reconstruction of specific bio-energetic signatures.”
“Theoretically, as long as the data model is sufficient, simulating the basic form of other living beings is not impossible.”
“However…” He paused, his gaze sweeping over Qiong’s youthful figure—so different from his current one—as well as the watchful March 7th and Dan Heng.
He decided to throw out a restriction to head off any terrible ideas they might get.
“There are fundamental rules to this kind of simulation.
Due to my own…
ah, unique nature, the resulting simulated form’s gender will invariably be the opposite of the original target’s.”
“Opposite?!” March 7th immediately seized on the key word, his eyes widening.
His gaze darted back and forth between Qiong and “Herta.” “Wait!
You mean…
if you turned into Sister Qiong right now, you’d be a…
a male Sister Qiong?!”
He took a sudden, dramatic step back, pointing a trembling finger at Chen.
His voice shot up several octaves.
“You really are a pervert!
You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you!”
“This whole ‘ability restriction’ thing…
it’s just your own twisted sense of humor!
You just want to see our faces when you turn into a boy version of Qiong or a boy version of Dan Heng!
You’re trying to satisfy some weird collection hobby, aren’t you?!
Admit it!”
Dan Heng’s only response was a long, slow blink.
Qiong, meanwhile, showed little reaction to the accusation.
She simply tilted her head, a thoughtful expression on her face, as if she were genuinely and seriously contemplating what a “male version of herself” might look like.
After a moment, she let out a soft, “Oh.” It was impossible to tell if she understood the implications or simply didn’t care.
Chen, still trapped in Herta’s tiny body, felt a massive headache blooming behind his eyes, brought on entirely by March 7th’s relentless barrage of accusations.
[Elysian’s Note:
Having a good time with the story?
Every single bit helps immensely: