Just as the heat of embarrassment began to settle on Chen’s cheeks, a flicker of movement in his peripheral vision drew his attention.
Qiong.
She was still standing motionless on the testing platform.
The soft, humming beam of the scanner still enveloped her form.
The young woman clutched her baseball bat, having remained in that exact position for what felt like an eternity, not daring to even shift her weight.
In an instant, Chen’s own awkwardness evaporated, replaced by a surge of protective indignation.
He whipped his head around to face Herta.
“Hey!
You’re so busy poking and prodding me, but what about Qiong?
She’s still over there!
Isn’t her scan finished yet?”
Herta was hunched over a data slate, his fingers flying across its surface.
He didn’t even bother to look up, merely letting out a dismissive snort.
“It’s been finished for a long time.”
“The Stellaron Host’s vital signs are stable, energy fluctuations are nominal, and all relevant data has been archived.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?!” Chen’s voice cracked with frustration.
He stomped his foot, and the exquisite little leather shoes he wore made a sharp, crisp clack against the polished floor.
“You just let her stand there like a statue?
Don’t you feel the least bit bad about it?”
Herta finally graced him with a glance, his youthful, doll-like face pinching into an expression of pure, unadulterated disdain.
He looked at Chen as if he were a particularly stubborn piece of lint.
Tossing the slate onto a nearby console, he crossed his arms.
“What’s the rush?
I was collecting control data.”
“The longer she remains stationary, the more effectively we can exclude external interference when comparing her baseline to the fluctuations in your previous transformation.
It’s a standard part of the experimental process.”
“Experimental process?
You call this a process?
You’re just messing with people on purpose!”
Chen rolled his eyes so hard it was a miracle they stayed in his head.
He turned and waved frantically at the platform.
“Qiong!
Come on down, the scan’s over!”
As if on cue, the scanning beam extinguished.
Qiong blinked, looking momentarily stunned by the sudden silence, before hopping nimbly off the platform, bat still held securely in her grasp.
She walked over to Chen’s side, her gaze drifting from his still-flushed cheeks to the self-righteous Herta, and then back again.
Out of the blue, she asked, “What were you two doing just now?”
The color, which had just begun to recede, flooded back into Chen’s face.
He stammered, “N-Nothing!
Nothing at all!
It was just Herta doing some… weird research!”
But Herta, ever the opportunist, beat him to the punch.
He took a few small, deliberate steps toward Qiong, tilting his head back to look up at her.
“I was verifying the integrity of the Form Simulation,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“As for you,” he added, his tone turning critical, “your reaction time as a Stellaron Host is far too slow.
Had you possessed the initiative to simply leave the platform, you wouldn’t have been standing there for so long.”
Qiong blinked, the accusation seeming to fly right over her head.
“I thought… I had to wait.”
“See!” Chen jabbed a finger at Herta, his voice thick with exasperation.
“She thought the test was still running!
And you—you didn’t even bother to say a word when it was done.
Is a genius’s brain missing a common courtesy screw or something?”
The accusation rolled off Herta like water off a duck’s back.
He simply turned, hopped back onto his high-backed control chair, and resumed his work, completely absorbed.
Seeing him vanish back into his world of data streams left Chen with a knot of frustration in his chest and nowhere to direct it.
He could only rub his forehead in defeat.
“Hey, Herta,” he tried again, consciously softening his tone.
He took Qiong’s hand, pulling her a few steps closer to the engrossed researcher.
“I’m asking you seriously.
When can I see your original body?
I can’t just keep talking to this puppet of yours forever, can I?”
Herta didn’t look up.
“The original body is performing calculations on the Azure Star.
There’s no time to visit the Space Station.”
Chen’s brow furrowed.
He opened his mouth to press further, but Herta cut him off with a wave of impatience.
“Don’t be noisy.
I’m improving the Form Comparison Model.”
“Fine, fine,” Chen sighed.
He knew pushing the issue now would be a waste of breath.
He started pulling Qiong toward the exit, calling back over his shoulder as they walked.
“Then at least give me a straight answer!
When, exactly, can we meet?”
Herta’s fingers paused their frantic dance for a fraction of a second before resuming their rapid-fire rhythm.
He tossed a single, casual remark into the air.
“Wait until the next time you cooperate with me to complete a Deep Form Compatibility Test.”
“After that, I’ll send an application to my original body and arrange for you to meet on the Azure Star.”
Chen’s footsteps screeched to a halt.
He spun around, glaring at the back of Herta’s head.
“Another test?”
This time, Herta turned to face him fully.
“Otherwise?
It’s not so easy to meet my original body, you know.”
Hearing this, Chen felt a vein begin to throb at his temple.
He shot a helpless look at Qiong, who was still clutching her bat with a slightly dazed expression, and decided to change tactics.
“Fine, a test it is.
But while I’m at it, let me ask you something else—do you know how to awaken the Path of Destruction?”
Herta’s fingers froze on the light screen.
He looked up, the condescension on his face replaced by genuine, clear confusion.
He tilted his head, his gaze flicking from Chen to Qiong and back again.
“The Path of Destruction?
Why are you asking about that?” he asked, his tone laced with bewilderment.
“Path awakening is a natural phenomenon, a result of an individual connecting with a specific Path.
The success rate of forced intervention is less than 3.7%.”
“It’s certainly not for you; you can already synchronize with the power of the Path of Erudition.
So… it’s for this gray-haired one?”
As he spoke, a dangerous spark lit up his eyes.
He kicked his short legs and hopped down from the control chair, beginning to circle Qiong like a predator sizing up its prey.
He tapped his chin, muttering to himself.
“A Stellaron Host spontaneously awakening the Path of Destruction… now that is a research topic with potential.
Far more interesting than just staring at your transformation data…”
He grew more animated with each word, already reaching for the data slate he carried.
He mumbled, “I could design a gradient energy stimulation experiment… or perhaps introduce an Imaginary Environment to induce resonance…”
A cold dread washed over Chen, making his scalp prickle.
Herta’s words, a cascade of clinical terms, landed like a death sentence.
Oh no.
Oh, hell no.
This research maniac had just found his shiny new lab rat, and her name was Qiong.
He wasn’t about to gamble on whether Herta would imprison Qiong on the space station for weeks of repeated, invasive testing just to satisfy his academic curiosity.
In that moment, all his earlier embarrassment was forgotten.
He grabbed Qiong’s wrist, his voice a harsh whisper.
“Let’s go.”
He practically dragged her toward the lab door.
Qiong stumbled, caught completely off guard.
The baseball bat in her arms nearly clattered to the floor.
“Eh?
Chen, what’s wrong?”
“Don’t ask!
Any later and we’ll both be kept here for experiments!” Chen didn’t dare look back.
Herta’s train of thought was shattered by their sudden flight.
He looked up, bewildered, as they scrambled for the exit.
“Hey!
Why are you running?!
We haven’t even set a time for the deep compatibility test yet!” he shouted after them.
“And this gray-haired one’s experimental plan—I haven’t discussed it with you!”
“Discuss my foot!
I’ll contact you for the next test!” Chen yelled back at the top of his lungs.
He yanked open the heavy lab door, pulled Qiong through, and slammed it shut behind them with a resounding BANG.
They didn’t stop running until they were a good distance down the corridor and had rounded a corner, finally confirming that no footsteps were chasing them.
Only then did Chen let out a shuddering sigh of relief.
He released Qiong’s wrist and bent over, hands on his knees, panting heavily.
Qiong stood beside him, clutching her baseball bat, her expression still lost in a fog of confusion.
She took in his flushed cheeks and the messy hem of his skirt.
“Chen, why… why did we run just now?”
Chen wiped a bead of sweat from his brow and shot her an exasperated look.
“Why else?
Didn’t you hear him?
He wants to use you as a test subject to study how to awaken the Path of Destruction!”
“I wasn’t about to let you stay there,” he huffed.
“Heaven only knows what kind of bizarre, twisted experiments that maniac would come up with to mess with you.”
[Elysian’s Note:
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