“The objective is to test the stability of the Simulated Universe.”
Herta first answered Little Herta’s question, then continued with her instructions:
“Walk forward. You’ll see the entrance to the next zone. I’ve designated it as a combat zone.”
“Oh.”
Following her instructions, Little Herta walked forward.
Soon, she saw a spatial rift in the middle of the street, its diamond-shaped exterior trembling around a black-and-red vortex.
It looked just like the entrances to the initial Simulated Universe zones in the game, except it didn’t have an icon indicating the zone type.
“By the way, what kind of enemy will appear on the other side?”
Little Herta asked as she stared at the entrance to the next zone.
It hadn’t seemed like much in the game, but now that it was right in front of her, the entrance looked rather dangerous, giving her the illusion that stepping inside might tear her apart.
“The generation is randomized based on the database, but it will be biased toward creatures you personally regard as enemies or find repulsive. What appears depends on you, not me. However, I’ve placed restrictions on the number and strength this time, so only one relatively weak target will be generated.”
In other words, just one small fry?
Reassured by Herta’s explanation, Little Herta took the standard Herta Puppet weapon—the “big hammer”—from her storage device and stepped straight through.
And then…
“You call this one?!”
In a setting resembling the space station, Little Herta leaped and scrambled around with her hammer raised.
Behind her came entire groups of Lesser Stings, buzzing furiously!
“Who told you to stand there striking poses and give it time to split? Stop running and hurry up and eliminate them. If you keep this up, they’ll fill the entire zone.”
Only one had indeed been generated, but the creature was a Lesser Sting capable of splitting and multiplying.
One could split into two, and two could split into four.
Still, as long as she acted quickly enough, Little Herta at 9,999% could have dealt with it in a second or two.
But when the little brat saw the Lesser Sting, instead of attacking immediately, she excitedly began striking poses.
She spouted things like, “I have surpassed my former self!” “Feel the pain and face my vengeance!” “Vile insect, now you are the challenger!” and “Try to entertain me! Kuhahaha!”
Then she was surrounded by the exponentially multiplying Lesser Stings.
She had brought it entirely upon herself.
“Easy for you to say! This isn’t Whac-A-Mole!”
Little Herta retorted at the empty air.
She abruptly pivoted, slammed on the brakes, then turned and swung her hammer with all her might.
“Bang! Bang!”
With two strikes, the four Lesser Stings closest to Little Herta shattered into pieces.
“Huh? They’re this fragile?”
Maybe it really was that easy.
Little Herta’s eyes lit up.
Based on her memories of fighting Lesser Stings before, she had assumed that even if these insects couldn’t compare to those in Ruan Mei’s laboratory, they wouldn’t be far behind. Read this novel at NovelPing for the best experience.
Now, she felt that treating them like moles to whack wasn’t out of the question.
“I’m terrifyingly strong now!”
Once she realized just how terrifyingly strong she was, Little Herta puffed up again.
She stopped running, tightened her grip on her hammer, and leaped straight into the swarm of Lesser Stings, shouting:
“Behold my Flying Hammer, Cat Landing, Flying Crane Catches Shrimp, Elephant Kick, and Meteor Fall!”
Her massive hammer whipped through the air with fearsome force.
Relying on her immense speed and strength, Little Herta began an unstoppable rampage through the swarm.
The number of Lesser Stings plummeted.
As time passed, the swarm seemingly realized that numbers alone couldn’t secure victory, and large numbers of self-destructing Lesser Stings with red patterns began to appear.
“Hmph. Mere suicide bugs. I’m already sick of such boring tricks.”
As far as Little Herta was concerned, she had seen through this tactic back when she smashed the Starcrusher Swarm King.
Given these insects’ strength, they could do little more than scratch her paint.
Thus, instead of evading the self-destructing Lesser Stings, she raised her hammer and actively approached them.
“Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—!”
“Ow, ow, ow—!”
After a string of explosions, Little Herta rolled and scrambled out of the smoke, shouting in a perfectly vigorous voice:
“Mom! Hurry up and turn off my pain perception module!”
Herta: “…”
How embarrassing!
Outside the Simulated Universe, Herta watched the scene inside and speechlessly covered her forehead with one hand.
She wondered if the brat was part pufferfish.
Somehow, she had completed an entire cycle of puffing up, fleeing, puffing up again, and fleeing again.
The instant she got smug, reality slapped her hard in the face.
And as the brat’s creator…
Herta glanced at Screwllum beside her.
“She’s very lively,” Screwllum said softly, noticing Herta’s gaze.
Perhaps it was just Herta’s imagination, but she felt as though the corners of Screwllum’s mechanical mouth, which shouldn’t have been capable of rising, had curved upward considerably.
“Stop fooling around. It’s just a little chipped paint. Fight back! If you keep dawdling, I’ll double your pain sensitivity!”
“You devil!”
Hearing Herta’s threat, Little Herta stopped running once more.
She studied the overwhelming tide of self-destructing Lesser Stings, thought briefly, then tightened her grip on her hammer and stepped forward with her right foot.
Using her right foot as a pivot, she unleashed the Herta Puppet’s signature move:
“Time to twirl!”
Since getting blown up hurt, she would simply start spinning.
With her body’s powerful specifications, the spinning Little Herta whipped up an enormous tornado, and violent winds instantly swept through the entire zone.
A moment later, every Lesser Sting had been torn apart and shredded by the gale.
“I really am a genius!”
Looking at the devastated surroundings, Little Herta rested her hammer on her shoulder with a satisfied expression.
‘It took you that long.
You’re a real genius, all right!’
“Stop dawdling and head to the next zone. Your test isn’t over yet,” Herta urged.
Although they had wasted a great deal of time, the result had provided a rather effective test and allowed her to collect plenty of useful data.
“What’s in the next zone? Don’t tell me I’ll be fighting Lesser Stings again.”
Little Herta reached the entrance to the next zone and stared at the same kind of red rift as before.
“The next one is still a combat zone, but I haven’t set any additional parameters this time. The species and number of monsters are both uncertain. As for Lesser Stings… I’ll remove them.”
Although the previous zone had yielded decent data, monsters that wasted vast amounts of time once they started splitting were troublesome.
After a brief hesitation, Herta decided to ban them for now.
“Then I’m relieved.”
Hearing Herta’s words, Little Herta carried her hammer inside.
“Where is this? Pathspace?”
The instant she stepped inside, Little Herta found herself in Pathspace, just as when she had met Fuli before.
This time, however, Fuli wasn’t before her.
Instead, she saw an enormous mechanical head with a red light glowing atop it.
It was Nous!
“A machine head?! Why did They appear to meet you too? Never mind. Little one, hurry and ask Them a question.”
Since this was already the second appearance of one of the Aeons, Herta didn’t lose her composure as badly as before.
Instead, she urged Little Herta to question Nous.
“Even if you tell me to ask, I don’t have anything I want to—”
Halfway through her sentence, Little Herta suddenly felt a terrible premonition, just like when Big Herta had been standing behind her on the spaceship.
It was the dangerous feeling of being locked onto!
Come to think of it, what kind of zone was this supposed to be?
As Little Herta pondered the question, the red light atop Nous’s head grew brighter and brighter!
“Gwah! Let me out! This is a hostile entity!”
“Nous, stay away from me!”
★ ★ ★
T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me!