The attempt to jump-start Qiong’s connection to the Path of Destruction had been declared a temporary failure.
Chen could only set aside the headache-inducing problem for now, following Dan Heng and Qiong back to the Master Control Zone.
The area was no longer in the chaotic state they had left it in.
Under Young Master Asta’s direction, the station’s staff were carrying out repairs in an orderly fashion.
Damaged equipment was being carted away on grav-sleds, and the shattered observation dome was now temporarily sealed by glowing, hexagonal emergency barriers.
Uncle Himeko and Ms.
Welt were standing before a console that had remained relatively intact.
They were conversing in low voices with Asta, seemingly conducting the final handover.
Seeing the three of them return, Himeko offered a reassuring smile and a nod.
“Good work.
The residual threats to the space station have been dealt with, and Young Master Asta has confirmed he can handle the rest.
It’s about time we prepared to set off.”
Ms.
Welt’s gaze swept gently over the trio, her eyes lingering for a moment on Chen.
Seeing that he had returned to his normal form and seemed unharmed, she subtly relaxed and looked away.
Just then, Qiong seemed to remember something.
She tilted her head, her gaze drifting toward the far end of the Master Control Zone.
There, the previously deactivated, boyish Herta puppet still stood silently in its corner.
“…Herta.”
Qiong murmured the name, clutching her bat as she began to walk toward it.
“Eh?
Qiong, what are you doing?” March 7th, who had just returned and was busy drying his hair with a towel, called out in confusion.
“I’m going to find Herta,” Qiong replied, her logic simple and direct.
“So my bat doesn’t get taken away.”
She still remembered that before the Herta puppet had gone offline, it had told her to visit the research lab once things had settled down.
A spark of interest ignited in Chen’s mind.
‘Herta’s research lab?
The headquarters of that eccentric genius?’
Perhaps he could find clues or inspiration there regarding Stellarons and the awakening of Paths.
Even if he didn’t, more contact with Herta would undoubtedly be beneficial for understanding this strange, gender-bent world and for mining the potential of his own unique ability.
“I’ll go with you,” Chen said immediately, quickening his pace to catch up with Qiong.
The two of them walked up to the exquisite yet lifeless puppet.
Qiong reached out a hand, as if to touch it and wake it up.
Suddenly, a spark of intelligence flashed in the puppet’s glass-like eyes.
It whirred to life.
The boyish Herta’s gaze first fell on Qiong, his expression a familiar mix of scrutiny and impatience.
“Oh, it’s you.
Your timing is adequate.
Follow me, the lab is over there.
The process will be quick.”
He turned, ready to lead the way.
But in the next instant, his gaze swept over to Chen, who was standing beside Qiong.
He saw a young man with black hair, dressed in ill-fitting casual clothes provided by the station.
On the Herta puppet’s delicate, doll-like face, what little stylized expression it had visibly soured.
He stopped, spun around, and crossed his arms, staring up at Chen with undisguised disdain.
“You…
Chen blinked.
“…Uh, yeah.
The battle is over, and maintaining that form consumes quite a bit of energy…”
“Who asked you about that?” the Herta puppet interrupted, its brow furrowed with irritation.
“Ugly.
Inefficient.
It lacks aesthetic consistency.”
Chen could only stare.
“???”
‘What in the world is he talking about?’
“I said,” the puppet enunciated each word with deliberate, cutting precision, its tone that of someone stating a universal truth, “change back.
Change to how you were just now.
The Herta form.
I have no interest in speaking with this primitive morphology, which is utterly devoid of any research aesthetic.”
Chen was completely bewildered.
What was this situation?
Was Herta…
addicted to seeing a female version of himself?
“No…
Herta, aren’t we going to talk about business?
Like this…” Chen tried to protest.
“Business?” the puppet sneered.
“Your current appearance is seriously interfering with my research mood and the flow of my thoughts.
This visual dissonance will cause my data analysis efficiency to drop by at least 12.7 percent.
Immediately.
Right now.
Change back.”
It paused, letting the threat hang in the air.
“Otherwise, the follow-up cooperation assessment regarding your abilities, including the priority of data records related to Qiong, will all be downgraded.”
The threat was simple, crude, and brutally effective.
The corner of Chen’s mouth twitched.
He glanced at Qiong, who wore an expression that clearly said, ‘I don’t understand, but it sounds serious.’ He thought about it.
Whether for Qiong’s sake or his own, he did indeed need Herta’s help.
With a deep, internal sigh, he conceded.
“…Fine.”
His silhouette wavered, then rapidly shrank and shifted.
The plain space station casuals dissolved, replaced by a complex, exquisitely detailed dress.
With a cascade of brown hair falling over his shoulders, the petite and elegant form of Herta was back online.
“Hmph.
That’s more like it.” The boyish Herta puppet looked at the far more pleasing variant form before him, and the disdainful cast of his features softened ever so slightly.
His chin, however, remained tilted upward in a posture of innate superiority.
“Although the decorations are still redundant, it at least reaches the basic visual threshold for research comfort.
Let’s go.
Don’t waste time.”
He turned and, with small, brisk steps, walked toward a dedicated passageway on the side of the Master Control Zone.
Meanwhile, Young Master Asta had just finished his conversation with Uncle Himeko and Ms.
Welt.
Holding a datapad, he was turning to leave when his gaze inadvertently swept over to where Chen and the others were.
His eyes first passed over Qiong, then… they froze.
They landed on Chen, who had, in the span of a few seconds, transformed into the female Herta puppet.
The expression on Asta’s face instantly solidified.
The datapad in his hand slipped from his grasp, clattering to the floor with a sharp echo that cut through the relative quiet of the Master Control Zone.
He was completely oblivious to it, his eyes wide with shock.
He looked as if he’d seen a ghost—no, worse.
He had the look of someone who had just witnessed ‘Madam Herta create another new work that exceeds the very scope of human understanding.’
What did he just see?
That black-haired youth who, just a few minutes ago, was wearing spare station clothes and calling himself Chen… had, at this very moment, actually… actually turned into a female Herta puppet!
“Ma… Madam Herta?
This… this is…” Asta’s voice was stuck in his throat.
He subconsciously rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was hallucinating from overwork.
Could it be… that this “Chen” wasn’t some independent traveler at all?
Was he a new type of super-puppet that Madam Herta had been secretly developing?
One with more advanced performance, higher human-like fidelity, and even… a tunable gender module?
Everything that had just happened—the interaction with the Astral Express crew, the bizarre family recognition with Ms.
Welt—it was all just a grand field test!
The raw shock on his face was gradually replaced by a look of dawning, horrified realization, followed by the complex expression of a man thinking, ‘Madam, your experiments are truly becoming more and more deep.’As for Chen, he hadn’t walked very far before he felt a distinct chill run down his back, pricked by that burning gaze.
He turned his head and met Young Master Asta’s eyes, which were now filled with a look that screamed,’I understand, Madam!
I completely understand!’
Their eyes met.
Chen, in his Herta form, was speechless.
“…”
He had no choice but to pointedly ignore Asta’s intense stare and follow the small puppet through several sealed doors that required high-level authorization.
They finally entered a room filled with a dizzying array of complex instruments and floating holographic screens.
This was clearly one of Herta’s exclusive research labs on the space station.
“You, stand on that platform over there,” the boyish puppet directed Qiong.
He himself hopped onto an obviously heightened control chair, his small hands flying across a light screen with practiced speed.
Qiong obediently stepped onto the designated platform.
A soft beam of light descended from above, enveloping her as complex strings of data began to scroll rapidly across the nearby monitors.
The Herta puppet watched the data streams intently, occasionally making notes on a separate panel.
Taking advantage of this moment, and without even turning his head, he spoke to Chen, who was standing aside and curiously examining the various novel pieces of equipment in the lab.
“What are you standing there dazed for?” the puppet continued, his eyes still glued to the screen.
“Go and fine-tune the second silver knob on the left seven degrees counter-clockwise.
Gray-hair, keep your breathing steady; don’t interfere with the vital signs baseline.”
Chen, who had been pondering a strangely shaped device on the wall that looked like a cross between an ancient star map and a quantum computer, heard the command and subconsciously responded.
“Oh, okay.”
He trotted over to the left side of the control console, his gaze sweeping over rows of precision knobs, levers, and touch-sensitive panels.
The second silver knob on the left… found it.
[Elysian’s Note:
Having a good time with the story?
Every single bit helps immensely: