Aha left.
After popping out to show off a bit of fabricated history about Zandar messing with Nous's backside, and greeting Caelus, It rolled off into the distance chattering away, like a prankster who bolts the moment the fireworks go off.
"Tch!"
Herta's purple dumpling rippled, simulating a complex expression of eyebrows shooting up in fury then being forcibly smoothed flat:
"Is this guy part dog or something? Nose that sharp? How did It come sniffing over the very moment you touched down?"
She couldn't figure it out no matter how she pondered.
By the flow of past tests, even without loading the Akivili template Caelus still drew Aha's attention—but It had come far too quickly this time.
Caelus lazily glanced at the puffed-up Herta dumpling, then turned to the Stelle-Asta fusion beside him with great solemnity and accused earnestly:
"She called you a piece of crap."
The Stelle-Asta fusion lifted her head, especially displeased, and glared at the purple-black dumpling. To amplify the intimidation, she proudly straightened her back, arms drawing elegantly inward.
This thrust the pair of frontal armaments—at least two sizes grander than Herta's own body—into even greater prominence, like two strategic-grade shells primed to fire, forming a "downward-gazing muzzle Lock-On" posture over the Herta dumpling from an absolute altitude advantage, her eyes brimming with silent contempt.
Herta dumpling: "..."
You little—!
The display screen on the dumpling's face flickered violently, flashing code that signified disarray.
The silent purple dumpling seemed to sprout a physical anger bar, surging from blue to orange and toward a dangerous crimson at a visible speed, about to hit boiling-point meltdown.
Only then did Caelus speak up in timely fashion, steering the topic back on track:
"It's obvious."
Caelus spread his hands, looking utterly matter-of-fact.
"Haven't you always stressed that the Simulated Universe is a 'real data universe'? Then even when we testers aren't inside, these data Aeons still follow the driving force of their Paths, active throughout the universe."
"A reasonable conjecture."
The silver-gray Screwllum dumpling, topped with a bowtie, nodded elegantly, his gaze cast toward the sky-blotting swarm flying in from afar:
"Aha was very likely already active near the Verminstar System region. It didn't 'come following the scent'—It simply 'happened to be here at the right moment.'"
"The birth of Tayzzyronth... could there be the meddling of [Elation] behind it?"
Ruan Mei's pastry-like dumpling gave off a cool, faint glow, her crisp voice carrying inquiry.
"Tch, Aha—then isn't this thing a fake?"
The Stelle-Asta fusion looked dejectedly at the quest item dropped from the swarm in her hand—an important manuscript belonging to a Genius Society member. She sighed in disappointment, flicked her little hand, and sent the manuscript flying.
"No, I think this piece of unofficial history might be real."
Caelus said seriously.
"Hm?"
The Stelle-Asta fusion's icy jade eyes lit up again. Her figure moved ghost-quick; a high-speed dash and she steadily caught the manuscript still drifting midair, before it hit the ground.
Her glittering eyes fixed intently on Caelus, brimming with a light of thirsting curiosity:
Little bro, quick!
Elaborate on your brilliant insight!
"It could be, but it's not very likely."
Herta's expression was wooden, the corner of her mouth twitching.
No matter how you looked at it, it was just bait Aha cooked up to fish with!
And they were the fish.
That damned God of Games!
And this Gray-haired baboon playing along with Its act!
The Stelle-Asta fusion held the manuscript, flipping it over and over, her little face full of conflict—toss it? Or trust the Caelus-cub's nonsense?
Just as she wavered, the fusion warrior caught an almost imperceptible humming sensation. The Stelle-Asta fusion raised her head, willow brows and bright eyes.
"Caelus-cub, look over there! 'Our army' is about to make landfall!"
The girl waggled her thumb toward the cosmic firmament in the distance.
Following where she pointed, the massive star fleet hovering in orbit had its bottom hatches wide open, landing pods trailing long tails of flame, plunging fiercely toward Verminstar's surface.
"Come, let's slip into the village quiet-like."
Caelus lowered his voice and gestured to the Stelle-Asta fusion.
"No shootin', ya hear."
The Stelle-Asta fusion caught on instantly, responding with perfect rapport.
Watching the two hunch over in a "professional infiltration" pose and skulk stealthily toward the target zone, the three geniuses exchanged a glance. No one spoke.
Like three silent ghosts, they drifted elegantly along, quietly tailing behind.
Incidentally, upon entering the Simulated Universe, Herta had granted Caelus partial authority to adjust the flow-rate of time.
Since the core objective of this Simulated Universe test was to study the Aeon Tayzzyronth, its key temporal nodes had been anchored in advance.
When Caelus approached these anchored key temporal nodes, the time-flow adjustment authority would fail; even if he had been in a high-speed time flow, it would automatically revert to normal flow as he neared the anchor point.
Additionally, regarding the Stelle-Asta fusion's duration of existence, per the earring fusion's detailed specifications, Clause 53.
After fusion, the body remains in its ordinary state within normal time flow; when the fusion body enters a multiplied time-flow region, the disintegration mechanism is dual-triggered.
Base time limit: no matter how long the consciousness experiences, the fusion body's physical form can maintain the fused state for at most 1 hour (bodily-sensed time); once the time is up, disintegration is certain.
Mental load: under multiplied time flow, the consciousness may experience far more than 1 hour (several hours or even days); when the time experienced by the consciousness accumulates to the load limit the mind cannot bear, disintegration is likewise triggered.
In this case, only 5 to 10 minutes may pass in the outside world before the fusion body disintegrates from mental load, far earlier than the 1-hour physical limit.
...
"Hold on—they're just gonna start wiping the whole place clean right off the bat?"
Caelus sniffed; a bizarre scent mingled in the wind bored into his nostrils.
It was a deadly mixture of the strange aroma of charred protein and a rust-iron reek of blood too thick to dissolve. He narrowed his eyes, his vision catching tiny shell fragments drifting high in the air and the ashen dust of scorched biomass, like a fall of black snow.
"What about the research vessels' preliminary exploration?"
Caelus's brows knotted into a lump:
"Where are the mining ships? Did anyone scan the resource nodes?"
"What about the colonization plan? Not even a contingency drawn up?"
The Stelle-Asta fusion's purple eyes glittered with a capitalist's meticulous calculation:
"What if there are intelligent lifeforms down there? Just blowing them up is such a waste! Wouldn't capturing them as slaves be so much sweeter?"
"Even if they can't be slaves, turning them into canned filling to stuff protein blocks is still resource recovery!"
"At the very least you'd do a round of conscription first, right? What if you got lucky and scooped up a rare talent like a 'Psionic Theorist' or an 'Immortal Leader'?"
The Stelle-Asta fusion tapped her temple.
"Do they have to fight this crudely and simply? Is their manpower maxed out? Or is the map just ugly?"
"Right, right!"
The Stelle-Asta fusion put her hands on her hips, her tone full of exasperated disappointment:
"If you're going to do a racial cleansing, can't you use some professional, efficient weapons?"
"Just deploy Neutron Annihilation! Fast and clean, leaving you the corpses and buildings intact—in a few decades it's another batch of premium canned material and a colonizable sphere! Or at worst, just lock them up with the Euthanasia Angel and keep them as a zoo! Waste! Such a waste!"
The two batted remarks back and forth, debating the pros and cons of the fleet's direct assault on this planet, extending slightly into schemes for the efficient extermination and resource extraction of a possibly-existing intelligent species.
The coldness of the content, the efficiency of the logic, the professionalism of the wording made the nearby floating Herta and Screwllum turn faintly green.
These two Gray-hairs... no, one Gray-hair and one purple-hair now—how were these Trailblazers?
Set loose in the Galaxy, these were Class-A war criminals at minimum!
Even Ruan Mei stared blankly at the two of them debating.
She felt the two of them were being a touch extreme.
"How can you let her call you a Class-A war criminal? Did you lose a war? Where's your fleet? Where's your Colossus? Where's your army? Where's your Meteoric Starfall, your Sky-Burning Divine Weapon? Where's your Taixu Engine? You've got nothing—if you're not a war criminal, who is?"
Caelus glanced at the ranting Herta and, with bitter heartache, lectured the Stelle-Asta fusion.
"Ohh—!"
The Stelle-Asta fusion drew out the tone as if suddenly enlightened.
She immediately spun around and walked with clear purpose up to the even-greener-faced Herta, an expression mixing innocence and righteous confidence on her face, extending a fair little hand.
"Herta."
Her voice was crisp and earnest, as if requesting lab equipment:
"You say I'm a war criminal? Present your evidence!"
"Now, right now, this instant! Spawn me some fleets to prove my innocence!"
"If that won't do... a Taixu Engine to start with will work too! My demands aren't high—just something that can blow up a star system to prove my identity!"
"..."
The Herta dumpling's facial expression module crashed completely.
Now she was a little worried—Stelle's way of thinking wouldn't rub off on her station manager, would it?
She was still counting on Asta to do her work!
Machine-head bless, Asta must never get led astray by Stelle's mental circuitry!
"There's none, scram!"
the Herta dumpling replied amiably.
"Tch, stingy."
The Stelle-Asta fusion pouted.
Screwllum & Ruan Mei: "..."
"Let's go, we'll find a way to blend in."
Caelus shot the Stelle-Asta fusion a look, and the two reined in the professional posture they'd shown while discussing efficient extermination, re-disguising themselves as frightened navigators.
Thanks to the identity template Herta had preloaded, Caelus needed only to exercise a tiny bit of his Masked Fool prowess for a fitting amount of lingering fright and professional rigor to surface naturally on his face.
Slipping into this army mid-cleansing and coaxing out some intel was no hard feat for him.
He soon learned from the escorting soldiers: this was the Sieglaidien Spirit army, Sieglin for short.
The commander was named Mitri Volkov.
Caelus rapidly searched his memory through all sorts of fan-made videos and unofficial anecdotes, confirming he had no impression of this name at all—apparently not anyone famous.
Under the soldiers' protection, Caelus and the Stelle-Asta fusion were brought back inside the army's enormous starship.
The bridge command room's door slid open, and a man in a crisp military uniform turned around.
"Welcome back, navigators."
A smile hung on Mitri's handsome face, his features deep and three-dimensional, his facial lines sharply defined—yet Director Caelus could see emptiness in his eyes.
"I hope those stupid, lowly bounty hunters didn't disturb you. My warriors are efficiently clearing away those pesky little bugs; this planet will soon be brought into my domain."
"When it's all over, I look forward to hearing the new poem you've composed, Caelus."
"It always brings a touch of singular solace on this journey of conquest."
The corner of Caelus's eye twitched almost imperceptibly, and he instinctively glanced at the Herta dumpling projection floating at his side—visible only to him and the Stelle-Asta fusion—his gaze signaling:
This template comes with a setting like this?
"Your character data is a navigator who writes poems in his off-hours; perhaps that's the very thing he appreciates."
Herta's words could only be heard by Caelus and the Stelle-Asta fusion.
"The Simulated Universe has its own logic; fabricating a persona from nothing causes too much interference. Replacing existing data is the scheme with minimal disturbance to the calculation."
Mitri didn't notice this silent exchange. He turned elegantly to face the enormous viewing window.
Beyond the window was the still-burning surface of the planet below, the flames of explosions like flowers blooming in hell.
He spread his arms wide, as if embracing this masterpiece he had crafted with his own hands:
"This is the necessary path for civilization to climb to a higher rung, the magnificent movement composed by the conqueror!"
Mitri's gaze locked onto Caelus again, carrying an expectation that brooked no doubt:
"I hope—your poem will eternally engrave my great deed of this day!"
"No problem."
Caelus placed one hand over his chest.
Then I'll start reciting my poem.
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