Once Pei Guang was gone, Screwllum decided to give the Cat Food a try.
Unlike Ruan Mei, being mechanical, he could eat as much food as the chef provided without any issues.
Furthermore, his mechanical body had a human-like taste perception system, allowing him to enjoy the various flavors in the world.
Screwllum was quite looking forward to the meal, but when he saw the large meat set meal made by the Cat Cakes, even he felt a bit overwhelmed.
"From an energy perspective, this meal is enough to keep my body active for half a month."
Screwllum started to enjoy the cat food.
It wasn't so bad at first, but after consuming the entire meal, Screwllum felt that his robotic brain was starting to shut down. While eating the previous food, he could tell that apart from experiencing the deliciousness, his body was simply gaining more energy.
However, when he finished the last bite, he noticed a dramatic change in his body. His lifespan had been strengthened, and his processing speed and computational power had increased by a significant percentage.
"Interesting, I didn't expect that even a steel body could experience such a unique 'attribute.' Aside from what Ruan Mei mentioned, I feel like I've realized something. In game terms, this dish can enhance inspiration and comprehension: truly remarkable."
Screwllum was aware of some of Pei Guang's settings, and for these inexplicable effects, he was more than happy to use Pei Guang's usual terminology.
Herta: "Really useful? Looks like I need to come over and try this myself..."
Normally, Herta didn't like using her real body for space station research.
On one hand, the research could easily be handled by an automaton. On the other, she had far too many tasks to deal with, and unless necessary, she didn't want to move from her current location.
But this meal was so… amazing?
Increasing IQ and enhancing comprehension? If someone else had said such things, she would've thought they were just boasting. If IQ was so easy to boost, the world would be full of genius society members.
But if Pei Guang was the one behind it, Herta believed in its existence. She'd at least try it for the pure IQ boost.
Laughable: this world had something that could give geniuses in the Genius Society an IQ boost? If others found out, they'd probably go crazy trying to get their hands on it.
Screwllum: "My judgment was correct. This dish, both in terms of flavor and function, is worth you coming over to try it yourself."
Herta: "Alright, alright~ I get it. I'll come over. Let me finish up what I'm doing, and I'll come try it. But there's so much food, I can't eat it all. Can you make it a little less?"
Herta turned her gaze toward Ruan Mei. With Pei Guang gone, it seemed Ruan Mei had been working with him for quite some time, so asking her was probably a good idea.
Ruan Mei recalled, "No, you have to eat it all at once, and it has to be freshly made. That's what he mentioned as the rule. I can confirm that you need to finish it all, but as for whether it has to be freshly made… you could give it a try."
Herta: "Forget it, too troublesome. It's just food, not like I can't eat it."
The portion size of the cat food was large, but Herta had her own special methods.
Besides, she was a genius of the Genius Society: there's no way she could be defeated by food, right?
Just as the three of them were preparing to study the miraculous cat food from the player, Dingdang Cake bounced over to them.
"Meow~~"
Dingdang Cake delivered some bad news to the group. Although Asta had sent a batch of ingredients, they were running low on supplies! There was only enough left to make one high-end set meal or two regular meals.
Herta wasn't happy: "What? The ingredients are running out? What are we missing?"
Herta furrowed her brows: just when she was feeling interested in these dishes she was suddenly told that the ingredients were insufficient—how could the experiment continue now?
Dingdang Cake: "Meow~~"
Herta: "Hm? Asta has the required ingredients?"
Herta quickly contacted Asta, who was currently helping Pei Guang buy ingredients.
Since Pei Guang didn't need them urgently, she ordered a batch and planned to gather everything before delivering it to the space station.
However, while she was doing this, she saw a message from Herta.
"Pei Guang asked you to collect a batch of ingredients? Hurry up, I'm very interested in what he's going to make."
"Oh, and when you're done, let me know. I'll come to the space station to check it out."
"If anyone's not cooperating, tell me. I'll have a word with them."
"Remember, be quick!"
Herta's four messages left Asta stunned.
What was going on today? Herta was asking her to collect ingredients for Pei Guang? And quickly? And Herta herself was coming to the space station?!
At that moment, Asta's heart raced, and her blood flowed faster. She was suddenly excited.
Herta usually handled things with puppets and rarely showed up in person. But now she was coming in person? And she needed these ingredients?
This was going to be easier to gather because Asta had been collecting them under her personal name. Some of the materials, like dragon meat, were rare and hard to come by.
Plus, it had to be fresh, which made things even harder.
Rare ingredients like these could be bought with money, but to get them fresh really required some connections. However, if Herta was involved, it was different. If she wanted something, the company could provide it within its capabilities.
Of course, they didn't know what Herta was planning, but if they did, the ingredient list for Pei Guang would probably fill the entire space station, with the freshest ingredients arriving every day.
At that moment, Asta sped up her actions. Making both Pei Guang and Herta happy was giving her great motivation. She began imagining how happy Pei Guang would be when all the ingredients were gathered.
When the ingredients were finally collected, Asta happily sent a message to Pei Guang.
Asta: "Are you around? With Lady Herta's help, all the ingredients have been collected~"
Pei Guang: "Herta? Looks like she wants to try this cat food, huh?"
Asta: "Are you planning to come by?"
Normally, Pei Guang would definitely come to check out the effects of the cat food, but coincidentally, he had run into something else. The Luofu ship had found another runaway Heliobus, and he was preparing to deal with it to earn some points.
So Pei Guang declined the invitation to come to the space station: "Not for now~ I've got something else going on. You can handle the cat food stuff. We'll contact you if we need anything~"
Upon reading Pei Guang's reply, Asta felt a sudden, unnoticed sense of disappointment.
Asta: "Alright~ Let me know when you come over~ Cough, cough, with Lady Herta's help, I secretly hid some of the ingredients you need~"
Even though Pei Guang wasn't coming over, the production and experimentation with the cat food continued. The cat food had successfully piqued the interest of the three genius club members.
Screwllum was fine, since he was a machine and didn't have much of a reaction, but Herta and Ruan Mei had a rough time~
Though both had special methods to digest the food, the food still caused some changes in their bodies.
These changes were noticed by Herta's "fans" when she was preparing to rest, and one fan immediately spread the information across all networks.
"Herta's exclusive fast news, now breaking a special announcement."
"Recently, the great Genius Society member #83, Herta, and #81, Ruan Mei, both appeared at the space station with noticeably larger bellies."
"As of now, no one has taken responsibility for the two's enlarged bellies. Rumors suggest that the person responsible for this outrageous act is..."
The news footage showed Ruan Mei and Herta walking down the space station corridor, both with noticeable bulging bellies.
In the photos, they looked very happy, even somewhat blissful???
Yes, this was after they had eaten the cat food, which sparked a creative burst and made them eager to take action regarding matters related to the Aeons.
The two were happily discussing it. Normally, no one could have captured this scene, but somehow, someone had managed to take a picture and turn it into a gossip piece.
Gossip from Genius Society members was always a hot topic in the universe, and anyone with a bit of common sense could tell this was likely someone deliberately stirring things up, especially since the bulges were clearly in the upper part of their bodies.
Upon further inspection of the source… a front-line reporter from Epsilon? Well, that settled it.
Since the true identity of the reporter was revealed, people lost interest in the gossip, but while the fake news was being spread, some more specific details were also circulating across the universe.
"Do you want to taste the most delicious food in the universe? Go! Go to Herta's space station! There, you'll find the only food in the entire universe, a cuisine that will make geniuses linger and never want to leave. Go! Snatch the food back from the geniuses and break the monopoly of the Genius Society!"
"Shock! Lady Herta has discovered food that can increase IQ. Does this mean Lady Herta's IQ has dropped and needs a boost?"
The spread of various messages caused ripples in the otherwise peaceful network world. Anyone with a bit of common sense could tell this was someone stirring trouble, or a fool creating rumors about geniuses.
Making rumors was one thing, but the most malicious part was that some of the information, in a certain light, was actually true.