The Beautiful Girl Masquerade System is at your service.
Host: Mu Heng
Current Identities: Robin, Firefly, Sparkle, Elysia, Lingsha
Current Objectives: Songstress (Completed), Iron Cavalry (Completed), Elation (Completed), True Self (Completed), Healer (Completed)
Current objectives achieved. Draw a new identity?
Yes/No
Drawing in progress... Please wait...
About half an hour later, she felt a new perspective materialize within her consciousness.
Opening her eyes, she was greeted by an empty street. Her first thought was, "Is this the European Union?"
After all, only the EU possessed the technology to predict dimensional rifts, allowing them to issue early warnings and evacuate civilians in advance. But then she noticed the shop signs were in English, not German or French. Moreover, the shops appeared abandoned, their shelves empty and tables and chairs covered in dust, as if they hadn't been cleaned in ages.
That immediately ruled out the possibility of being in the European Union. In fact, she began to suspect she might have stumbled into another dimensional rift. Was this even Earth anymore?
She turned to look at a clothing store on her left. Through the glass door, she faintly saw the reflection of a purple-haired girl wearing a wide-brimmed witch's hat.
Without a doubt, she instantly recognized her current identity: Herta, or rather, The Herta herself—not a puppet, but her true form.
She glanced down at her hands. Her small, slender fingers were pale and delicate, like works of art. Each of her neatly manicured nails was painted with purple nail polish, accentuating her elegance.
Aside from her hands, she noticed something else for the first time when looking down at herself: an unusually wide field of vision, allowing her to see her legs and shoes in a single glance.
In other words, to put it plainly... her chest was flat. Before, she had never been able to see anything below her neckline.
Well, it wasn't that flat. She visually estimated it to be at least an A cup, but compared to her other identities, especially Firefly and Elysia, the difference was staggering.
She could clearly feel the lightness in her chest and the unexpected ease in her shoulders, even finding it a little unfamiliar.
She thought, "If Sparkle were sitting at this table... No, if Sparkle were anywhere else at this exact moment, she'd probably glance down at her own chest too. I, as Herta, can't even compare to Sparkle now."
However, she was simply making a rational comparison. She didn't personally care whether her breasts were large or small. In fact, when she first transmigrated, she would have preferred them to be smaller. Now, it didn't matter.
Shaking her head to dismiss these pointless thoughts, she mentally summoned the System:
Beautiful Girl Masquerade System at your service.
Host: Mu Heng
Current Identities: Robin, Firefly, Sparkle, Elysia, Lingsha, Herta
Current Objectives: Songstress (Completed), Iron Cavalry (Completed), Elation (Completed), True Self (Completed), Healer (Completed), Genius (0.01%)
Good news: the new identity is a genuine Emanator!
Bad news: it's an Erudition Emanator.
Emanators of Destruction, the Hunt, and Abundance are directly granted immense power by their respective Aeons. While the System-extracted identities lack the corresponding memories and skills, summoning someone like Feixiao or Acheron would instantly grant her formidable power. Even without the knowledge, brute force alone would suffice!
But Erudition Emanators are different. Ninety percent of their power resides in their prodigious intellect. Without the corresponding memories, their strength would be drastically diminished.
Conversely, if the extracted identity came with its memories—given Herta's unfathomably long lifespan and millennia of accumulated knowledge, compared to her own mere three decades—her own life might barely make a ripple in the grand scheme of things.
Would she even still be herself at that point?
Therefore, from any perspective, the lack of memories in these identities is a blessing. She had never pondered this deeply before, but now it struck her: could this be the System's way of safeguarding her very sense of self?
But without the corresponding memories, is an Erudition Emanator still an Emanator? Is a genius still a genius?
The answer to the first question didn't matter much. The answer to the second, however, remained uncertain.
It was like in school: some students diligently attended every class and burned the midnight oil studying, only to get dismal grades. Others barely paid attention in class, spent their afternoons playing video games, yet consistently topped the class.
People truly were different. Some were simply born with exceptional intelligence. As Einstein famously said, "Genius is ninety-nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration." But he added a crucial follow-up: "Yet that one percent of inspiration is more important than all the perspiration."
Now that she possessed Herta's identity, did that mean she had also inherited Herta's innate talent?
Just as Robin possessed a natural gift for singing and Lingsha an exceptional sense of smell, could genius itself be classified as a kind of innate talent?
Verifying this would be simple: she could grab an Advanced Mathematics textbook and see if she could solve the problems.
However, the current situation didn't allow her to act just yet. Herta looked up ahead and saw a rectangular blue portal—a Magic Gate—materialize out of thin air on the previously empty street.
Five individuals in red uniforms emerged from the gate one after another, forming a semi-circle as they cautiously eyed Herta.
Witnessing this, Herta immediately understood her surroundings. This was undoubtedly Great Britain, or more precisely, the British Isles, the very core of the once-sun-never-sets Empire.
Robin had studied intelligence reports about this place at the Bureau of Anomalous Investigations. A colossal barrier enveloped the British Isles, creating an Inner World where everyone lived. Meanwhile, the Outer World had transformed into a natural barrier against Dimensional Rifts.
As for the five figures who had just appeared, they were clearly official personnel from Great Britain.