What do civilizations exchange first when they encounter one another?
Games and profanity!
Of course, it might also be artillery fire and missiles.
No, wait, that’s beside the point.
In short, Little Herta felt as though countless dazzling civilizations were displaying their worth to her.
Could anyone understand the sheer salvation an otaku gamer who had played almost everything felt upon discovering countless games she’d never tried and all manner of ACG masterpieces?!
After getting a phone, Little Herta finally understood Welt Yang, the Sovereign of Anti-Entropy.
No wonder he hadn’t seemed particularly eager to return home while aboard the train.
Who could resist the games and anime of the entire cosmos?
The big robot was right!
After some deliberation, Little Herta chose a highly ranked PvP game from a famous mecha franchise as her first game.
Her clumsy hands had always left her on the receiving end of head pats, but today, she had come for revenge with top-tier hardware—a mechanical body built by Herta!
Username: Little Herta.
Confirm!
[This username is already in use.]
Tiny Little Herta?
[This username is already in use.]
Herta Puppet 4423?
[This username is already in use.]
‘Seriously, is that even your username?
What gives you the right to use it?!’
Before she’d even started playing, Little Herta had already experienced the malice of the game’s player base—and learned just how famous Herta was across the universe.
The player base was so large that virtually every username related to Herta had already been taken.
“Tch. Why didn’t the developers allow duplicate names?”
Little Herta clicked her tongue in displeasure and finally gave up on choosing a username related to Herta.
Then her difficulty with naming things struck.
After mulling it over for quite some time, she finally entered another username related to a game character she’d liked in her previous life—
—Intellitron Princess, Deconstructor of All Truths.
After completing the tutorial and getting somewhat familiar with the gameplay, she selected ranked matchmaking.
[An evenly matched opponent has been found for you—Solo Leveling 2.]
“Oh?”
Little Herta’s eyes lit up.
Then…
“What a sore loser! This player is definitely cheating! Even a military-grade intellitron couldn’t react that fast!”
Sitting cross-legged on the sofa, Silver Wolf stared at the scarlet “K.O.!” on the screen and shouted in frustration, rolling from one end of the sofa to Firefly’s side before rolling back again.
“What’s wrong with her?”
As Kafka passed by, she pointed at Silver Wolf, who was shouting and rolling around, and asked Firefly.
“She lost to me, so she switched to an alt account to bully new players. But even after turning on assists, she’s lost several matches in a row.”
Firefly told her the truth.
So she’d gone fishing for noobs, only to get caught and fried herself.
She hadn’t even won with cheats.
“The other player is cheating too! That reaction speed isn’t human. I’ll hack in right now and prove it to you—”
To prove herself, Silver Wolf immediately hacked into the system.
However, halfway through her sentence, she suddenly fell silent like a Big Goose being strangled.
“Sweetie? What is it this time?”
Kafka asked.
Silver Wolf turned ashen and collapsed onto the sofa.
“She… wasn’t cheating…”
“Why do I keep getting matched with her? This is boring.”
Meanwhile, Little Herta, who had upgraded her specs twice, muttered to herself.
It was a good game, but for some reason, she kept getting matched against someone with a knockoff Silver Wolf username.
Not only did that player imitate Silver Wolf’s skills, but she even activated cheats after getting desperate.
Her own controls then conflicted with the cheat commands, allowing Little Herta to seize the opportunity and cut her down.
Since she kept getting matched against the same player, Little Herta had no intention of continuing.
She turned and swept her gaze around the room.
Asta was handling official business, while Arlan, who had delivered the phone earlier, had already left.
‘Maybe I should explore the space station?’
With that thought, Little Herta jumped down from her chair.
Before her feet could touch the floor, however, she felt herself being lifted by the collar.
“Madam Herta!”
Asta, who had been handling official business nearby, hurriedly stood up.
Little Herta turned around and saw that the person holding her aloft was Herta herself, who had just teleported over.
“What are you doing?”
Little Herta asked in confusion.
“It’s time to study your ability.”
After giving Little Herta a brief explanation, Herta turned to Asta.
“That’s how it is. I’m taking this little one with me.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Little Herta’s vision blurred.
When it cleared, she was back in the familiar Herta research lab, where Herta set her down.
“You’ve already finished studying Nous’s algorithms?”
As soon as her feet touched the floor, Little Herta put away her phone and questioned Herta.
‘Surely she couldn’t have finished studying Nous’s algorithms already?’
“I’ve deciphered some of them. I’ve handed the rest over to colleagues who specialize in that field.”
Herta took out a bag of KitKats and handed it to Little Herta, then pointed at the circular platform in the center of a nearby machine.
“Go stand in the middle of the instrument.”
Little Herta accepted the KitKats, skillfully tore open the bag, and started eating as she asked Herta.
“Aren’t you curious about the limits of your ability or the source of this power?”
Herta countered.
“Not curious.”
Little Herta shook her head.
She only wanted to live without worries.
She had no desire to uncover the mysteries of the universe.
Knowing too much wouldn’t do her any good and would only waste her time.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re curious. Stand over there. We’ll start by testing the upper limit of your ability.”
As soon as Herta finished speaking, Little Herta’s legs began moving.
It wasn’t voluntary—Herta had taken control of her body and made her walk over.
“Begin.”
Once Little Herta reached the designated spot, Herta waved her hand, and a large pile of KitKats appeared beside her.
“…”
Faced with the mountain of KitKats, Little Herta glanced at Herta.
Unable to resist her tyranny, Little Herta could only eat while chanting:
“Upgrade my specs, upgrade my specs…”
200%→250%→300%…
Just like that, Little Herta could clearly feel her specs growing stronger and stronger.
Until—
“…Upgrade my specs, up—huh? Upgrade my specs?”
9950%→9999%→9999%
Little Herta discovered that her enhancement stopped at 9999%.
“Have you reached the limit?”
Keeping a close eye on the stats displayed by the instrument, Herta noticed Little Herta’s strange expression and asked.
“It stopped at 9999%, but when I was fighting that bug, my final enhancement reached 10000%. Upgrade my specs!”
9999%→9999%
Little Herta shouted again, but it still didn’t exceed 9999%.
“There’s an energy reaction. Your ability did activate, but the energy spilled out from inside your body. It may be because you changed bodies.”
“Because I changed bodies?”
Little Herta looked puzzled.
“The base strength of your current body is higher than your previous one, so the same percentage boost produces a greater increase each time.”
“Your ability has a hard physical ceiling, so you can only reach 9999% now.”
“Of course, that’s only a theory. It’s also possible that machine-head placed a restriction on your ability. We’ll need further testing to determine the truth.”
“Still, this works out well. It’ll make it easier for me to collect this special Imaginary energy later.”
★ ★ ★
T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me!