“Where’s my puppet?”
Arriving at her laboratory, Herta stared wide-eyed at the empty assembly table.
How had such a large puppet simply vanished from the assembly table?
“No. 7?”
Herta turned to Herta Puppet No.
0007, who was standing by in the laboratory.
“She said she didn’t want to be your kitchen assistant, so she ran away.”
She didn’t want to be my kitchen assistant, so she ran away?
Upon hearing No.
0007’s answer, Herta scrutinized her and asked:
“You helped her assemble her body?”
Putting aside No.
4423’s own practical abilities, she hadn’t even had hands, so there was no way she could have assembled herself.
The only possibility was that No.
0007, Herta’s laboratory assistant, had helped her.
“…I only helped her attach one arm.”
No.
7 answered.
“And then she assembled the rest of herself?”
No.
4423 was a model specialized for kitchen assistance.
Herta hadn’t implanted much knowledge of mechanical engineering or many research-assistance capabilities in her.
In theory, having only just been born, she shouldn’t have been capable of assembling herself so quickly with only one hand.
“Yes, La Signora Herta. She assembled herself using the blueprints you left on the laboratory network as a reference.”
No.
0007 gave an affirmative answer.
It seemed she wasn’t stupid.
If Herta’s guess was correct, the voice that had lagged half a beat behind the others among the puppets at the spaceport earlier had most likely been hers.
She had blended in among them.
With a casual gesture, Herta brought up the laboratory’s surveillance footage and reviewed everything that had happened since her departure.
“Well, the little thing certainly knows how to flatter people, and she’s a quick learner too. Hah, she even went through the wrong door.”
After watching the footage, Herta’s evaluation of the Herta puppet was as follows: good at flattery, a quick learner, knew how to repay kindness, but wasn’t especially bright.
Making her a kitchen assistant admittedly wasted her talents, but she had dared to run away from home.
She needed to be taught a proper lesson!
Herta waved her hand, closing the projected screen before her, then directly activated the ultra-long-range remote control installed in No.
4423.
‘I’m doomed, completely doomed!
She’s going to find out!’
After Herta left the spaceport, Little Herta, who had escaped notice by blending in among the puppets, paced back and forth in front of the spaceport’s control console.
She knew that Herta would discover her disappearance within one system hour at most.
Yet she still hadn’t found a way to leave Herta City.
“That’s right! I have a network intrusion module. I’ll hack the spaceport’s system!”
Little Herta suddenly remembered her network intrusion function and hurriedly tried to infiltrate the spaceport’s system.
“This won’t work! Both systems were written by the same person. I can’t crack it!”
Little Herta discovered that both the spaceport’s firewall and her network intrusion function used Herta’s latest configurations.
Their algorithms shared the same foundation, so she had no way to defeat it.
Her only option was to overwhelm it with computing power and brute-force her way through, but how could a little puppet like her possibly compete with the spaceport’s enormous mainframe?
“Sigh~”
Little Herta sighed in resignation before murmuring:
“If only I could ‘upgrade my specs’ like in a game…”
Whoosh—
The moment Little Herta finished speaking, she suddenly felt a strange energy erupt from within her.
Her body abruptly felt lighter, her processor ran more smoothly, and her computing power increased by fifty percent.
“What’s going on? Could this be my cheat ability?!”
Although she had no idea what had happened, her computing power had indeed increased, and the cause was:
“Upgrade my specs?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Little Herta felt the same familiar energy erupt once more, increasing her capabilities by another fifty percent.
This ability could stack.
Her computing power was now double what it had originally been!
Heaven never barred every path!
“Upgrade my specs! Upgrade my specs! Upgrade my specs! Upgrade my specs!”
“Huh? I can only do it five times?”
Little Herta shouted four more times, but only the first three worked.
Including the first two upgrades, it had taken effect five times in total.
‘Did I run out of Technique Points?’
Little Herta looked down at her hands, then raised her head toward the control console.
Even after five spec upgrades, her computing power was still inferior to the spaceport’s firewall.
‘What now?
Should I borrow some Trick Snacks from Acheron?’
Little Herta looked around the spaceport.
There were no temporary vending machines selling Trick Snacks in Herta City’s spaceport.
All it had were numerous spacecraft and Herta’s personal ship, whose hatch had been left wide open.
‘Maybe I can…’
Staring at the huge ship Herta had flown back, Little Herta looked left and right.
When she saw that none of the Herta puppets in the spaceport were paying attention to her, she dashed toward Herta’s ship on her short legs.
“Kuhahahaha! I have just enough computing power!”
Standing on the ship’s bridge, Little Herta planted her hands on her hips and laughed.
Unlike the spaceport’s firewall, which was tightly integrated with Herta City, her computing power after five upgrades was just enough to breach this ship.
She seized complete control of the ship and immediately used its authorization to submit a departure request to the spaceport.
[Authorization approved. Passage opening!]
Without putting up any resistance, the spaceport approved the ship’s departure request and opened a passage out of Herta City for her.
“Now closing the hatch! Our destination is the sea of stars—speed four, ahead!”
Little Herta started the ship and followed the open passage, racing out of Herta City at sublight speed and entering the vast universe.
‘This is what freedom feels like!’
Watching Herta City grow increasingly distant on the ship’s surveillance feed, Little Herta savored the sweet scent of freedom and couldn’t help humming softly:
“Goodbye, Mother~♪ Tonight I set sail~♪ Don’t worry about me~♪ I have joy and wisdom for oars~♪”
“Not bad.”
A voice suddenly rang out without warning.
“Gah?”
Herta?
Little Herta froze, then frantically looked around.
“Stop looking. I’m not on the ship.”
Herta spoke again.
This time, Little Herta discovered the source of the voice.
The ultra-long-range remote link within her body had been activated, establishing communication with Herta over a vast distance.
Then Little Herta realized she could no longer control her body.
Her body walked lightly over to the ship’s control console and began operating it.
‘I’m finished!
I forgot Herta can remotely control every Herta puppet—and I’m a Herta puppet too!’
“Not bad, hacking into my ship. Hmm? You brute-forced it? How did your computing power increase so much?”
After briefly inspecting the ship, Herta understood how Little Herta had stolen it.
Immediately afterward, she noticed the changes in Little Herta.
Her overall specifications had increased by roughly two hundred and fifty percent.
“…What are you planning to do with me?”
Instead of answering Herta’s question, Little Herta posed one of her own while her processor ran at high speed, searching for a way to break free.
“Didn’t you say you didn’t want to be my kitchen assistant? So I’ve decided to make you my kitchen assistant for the rest of your life!”
“Are you a devil?”
Little Herta retorted.
“I’m your creator. In your words, I’m your Mother. Since I’m your Mother, isn’t it only natural for me to discipline my own daughter?”
Herta’s words were barbed.
Using Little Herta’s body, she operated the ship, set its destination back to Herta City, and asked:
“Besides, what’s so bad about being my kitchen assistant?”
She didn’t understand.
So many people in the universe considered it an honor merely to meet her.
How had she created such a rebellious puppet?
“Surely you’re aware of how bad your cooking is?”
Little Herta was speechless.
At the same time, she understood that the current Herta had probably never cooked a single proper meal before.
“Are you questioning a genius? Mere cooking, to me…”
“Stop. I don’t want to hear it, because—”
[Link disconnected. Target has activated ‘Unreasonable Mode.’]
“Hmm? She activated ‘Unreasonable Mode’ right under my nose?”
Back in Herta City, Herta stared at the notification before her.
Surprise appeared on her face, followed by a smile.
The little thing was much cleverer than she had expected.
But she was still too inexperienced to contend with Herta.
During their conversation, Herta had already physically locked the ship’s warp function.
No matter how Little Herta tried to flee, she couldn’t escape this star system now.
And as long as she remained within this star system, Herta could catch her.