Among the members of the Genius Society, most had peculiar temperaments. Normal individuals like Screwllum were few and far between.
Someone like Herta, who was merely straightforward and sharp-tongued in personality, could actually be considered quite normal by comparison.
As a genius in the field of life sciences, Ruan Mei appeared very gentle on the surface and wasn't as verbally cutting as Herta. However, in reality, her personality was the most insane.
Even among all members of the Genius Society, Ruan Mei's ambition was the greatest.
She had not only set her research sights on the Aeons, but even harbored the idea of becoming an Aeon herself.
However, she kept her wish hidden deep—even Herta and the others didn't know about it.
At this moment, hearing Ryuga suddenly mention creating an Aeon, Ruan Mei naturally couldn't contain her shock.
She was shocked not only that Ryuga shared the same idea as her, but also that he seemed to have truly found a feasible path.
By comparison, her current research had long hit a bottleneck. Regarding how to become an Aeon, aside from continuing to delve deeper into the life sciences field, she had no other leads.
"You—"
Before Ruan Mei could speak after her shock, Herta had already let out a similar cry of surprise.
"What did you just say?"
The purple-haired girl stared at Ryuga as if looking at some indescribable monster, or perhaps an unprecedented madman, her gaze filled with shock.
"Create... an Aeon?"
After repeating what Ryuga had just said, the doll-like girl's gaze toward him no longer held just admiration—it now contained awe.
She had been wrong before. This wasn't someone as bold as herself—with her level of audacity, she wasn't even qualified to be mentioned in the same breath as this madman.
Compared to her, a "peace-loving" person who occasionally challenged the Interastral Peace Corporation, Ryuga with his excessively ambitious goals was the real ruthless one, the real madman.
"That's correct."
Compared to Herta's surprise, Ryuga's expression remained as calm as ever.
"According to my previous theory, Aeons still belong to the category of deities, but they've transcended the barriers of believers, mythology, planets, and culture. They've escaped the scope of planetary native gods and become star-level civilization gods embodying philosophical concepts. If that's the case, the method to create an Aeon should be the same as creating a deity—there's no fundamental difference."
"Since the oppression of ancient beasts in the past allowed civilizations to birth wishes for Preservation and Communication, ultimately forming corresponding Paths and birthing corresponding Aeons, there's no reason we can't follow this method to create more Aeons."
In the field of mythology, Ryuga's accumulated knowledge crushed anyone in the Star Rail world.
Therefore, on this point, he had complete confidence.
"You, you, you—I actually can't refute that."
Faced with such common-sense-shattering words, Herta thought for several seconds, then shook her head, unable to find any problems.
According to Ryuga's theoretical foundation, creating an Aeon wasn't impossible.
At this moment, Herta's gaze toward Ryuga changed once again, her recognition increasing significantly.
Her previous assessment hadn't been wrong—Ryuga before her was indeed a true ruthless person, a true madman.
At the same time, he was also a true genius!
"Originally, I wanted to invite you to join the Simulated Universe project, but now it seems you probably won't even care about such small-scale endeavors."
After shaking her head, Herta let out a rare sigh.
This was the first time since her birth that she felt completely outmatched by someone.
Previously, she had planned to test Ryuga's abilities, believing that only if his performance gained her approval would she grant him qualification to participate in the Simulated Universe.
Now it seemed her test had succeeded, but the problem was it had succeeded too well.
Ryuga's research scale was far grander than she had imagined. She was merely playing with a simulated universe, but judging from Ryuga's intent, he seemed to have already planned to use the real world as a simulation device for experimentation.
Moreover, Ryuga's goal wasn't some small-minded experiment like exploring the secrets of Aeons—it was a grand blueprint on the level of directly creating Aeons.
Under these circumstances, Ryuga's level was already too high—so high that she felt embarrassed to extend an invitation to the Simulated Universe.
Compared to his research, her own seemed utterly shameful.
Hearing Herta's words, Ryuga smiled and shook his head.
"There's no need for excessive modesty. In terms of exploring the general direction of civilization evolution, the Simulated Universe is an excellent verification device—it's not bad at all."
—The Simulated Universe, not bad.
If these words were heard by others, they would definitely be mocked or scorned.
As a project jointly created by four geniuses, the Simulated Universe's importance ranked among the top in the entire universe. Its level and conceptual height, even looking across all of history, belonged to the strongest experimental sequences.
To evaluate such a special experiment in civilization history as merely "not bad"—the person making such an evaluation either didn't understand science or had no brain.
This was like saying general relativity was "not bad" in an era before quantum mechanics was born. Aside from the Aeons themselves, probably no one had the qualifications to make such an evaluation.
However, at this moment, as the main person in charge and primary creator of the Simulated Universe project, hearing Ryuga's evaluation, Herta showed no signs of dissatisfaction. She even felt somewhat happy about Ryuga's recognition.
Clearly, to her, Ryuga was qualified to make such an evaluation.
Not only that, she even felt that Ryuga's evaluation, while fair, was even slightly complimentary.
"You mean you're willing to join the Simulated Universe project?"
Herta asked with sparkling eyes.
Previously, she had been testing Ryuga's qualifications. Now the positions had reversed—it had become Ryuga examining whether the Simulated Universe project was worthy of him joining.
"Of course."
Ryuga didn't hesitate at all.
"Whether it's exploring the secrets of Aeons or deducing the changes in civilizations, the Simulated Universe can play a significant role."
"If we interfere with interstellar civilizations at will without simulation, the final outcome may not be what we want."
Even though he was very familiar with the field of mythology, interstellar civilizations still represented a huge leap from planetary civilizations.
Therefore, on this point, even Ryuga maintained an extremely cautious attitude.
At least before mastering power that could rival the Aeons, he couldn't cause too many unnecessary variables.
"Excellent!"
Hearing this, Herta became completely happy.
"I'll give you Simulated Universe permissions right away. Oh, and also some permissions for the space station. From today onwards, treat this place as your own territory! If you need anything, just find Asta!"
For Ryuga's joining, Herta was extremely generous with her compensation.
The space station was her private property. Forget sharing it with Ryuga—even if she packaged it up and gave it all to him, she wouldn't bat an eye.
The reason she didn't do so was first because the existing projects couldn't be easily separated, and second because keeping Ryuga bound here would allow for better future cooperation.
As for how Ryuga might mess around with this space station after gaining permissions—that had nothing to do with her.
After all, the one responsible for cleaning up the mess would always be Asta. It wouldn't cause her any trouble.
"Thank you."
Ryuga didn't refuse Herta's gift.
Having an additional experimental base was a good thing, and with Herta's personality, after cooperating with her, many classified materials about interstellar civilizations could be obtained from her hands.
Considering just this point alone made it very profitable.
After reaching an agreement with Herta on cooperation matters, Ryuga turned his gaze to Ruan Mei, who had been restless since earlier.
"Miss Ruan Mei, would you like to cooperate?"
He proactively extended an invitation.
Hearing this, Herta tilted her head, finding it somewhat strange.
"Ruan Mei? She's also one of the collaborators on the Simulated Universe. Since you're willing to join the Simulated Universe project, doesn't that mean you're already cooperating with her?"
"No."
Ryuga shook his head, looking directly into Ruan Mei's eyes.
"I mean a deeper personal cooperation."
Saying this, his tone became complex, as if implying something.
"I want to invite Miss Ruan Mei to become my familiar, and I will promise to fulfill your wish... What do you think?"
Hearing this invitation, Ruan Mei's eyes suddenly widened.
"My... wish?"
She looked at Ryuga with trembling eyes, not expecting him to understand her to this degree.
Even Herta didn't know about her most secret wish.
"That's right."
Ryuga nodded with certainty.
"Although it's not yet perfect, you should know I'm not lying."
"..."
Ruan Mei fell silent.
She knew Ryuga was indeed telling the truth.
If there was truly anyone in this world who could create an Aeon, aside from Zandar, the creator of Nous the Erudition, the one most likely to achieve this goal would be Ryuga.
"Hey! What riddles are you two speaking in?"
Seeing Ryuga and Ruan Mei talking in code, Herta frowned, looking back and forth between the two suspiciously.
"I won't ask about Ruan Mei's wish—that's personal stuff, so chat however you want... But the price of cooperation you mentioned, isn't it a bit too exaggerated?"
She wasn't the type to meddle in others' business, but hearing Ryuga's conditions, which also involved her friend, she still couldn't help but speak up.
"Asta told me about your identity as the One True God. I've researched what divine familiars are—they're existences that completely belong to the other party."
"In other words, the cooperation price you're proposing is for Ruan Mei to hand over complete ownership of herself to you. What kind of wish could have a price this steep?"
Interstellar society hadn't abolished slavery, and Herta didn't care about that, having no opinion on it.
But having her friend Ruan Mei directly become someone else's subordinate was different.
Even if a familiar wasn't a slave and had much better treatment, the fact remained that they were someone else's property.
Given Ryuga's previous performance, none of his requests had been excessive. Why would he suddenly propose such conditions?
Facing Herta's interrogation, Ryuga simply spread his hands.
"Don't you think the fact that she hasn't immediately refused already means my proposal has corresponding, or even exceeds her own value?"
"Hiss—"
Seeing Ruan Mei's moved expression, Herta drew a sharp breath.
Right! Fair trade, not forced buying or selling.
Ruan Mei wasn't an idiot. If Ryuga proposed such excessive conditions and she still didn't refuse, didn't that mean her wish absolutely exceeded the value she herself possessed, to the point where she had to rely on Ryuga to achieve it?
What kind of wish could be so grand that it would make Ruan Mei willing to offer everything she had to achieve it?
Geniuses each had their own quirks. Even Herta, who was fairly familiar with Ruan Mei, couldn't guess what her wish might be.
Facing Ryuga's proposal, after hesitating for a long while, Ruan Mei finally raised her head.
"Ryuga, could you come with me to a place... I still have some questions about your proposal that I want to confirm."
Ruan Mei's tone carried a hint of anticipation. Though she had a gentle, water-like appearance, her personality was somewhat childishly cautious and innocent.
Though both belonged to types not good at socializing, unlike Herta who disdained social interaction, Ruan Mei truly rarely dealt with people—she was a genuine shut-in.
In her past research, she often wandered the universe alone, enlightening and cultivating various life forms.
From her previous reticence, one could tell that in terms of speech, she was unexpectedly clumsy. Aside from matters involving her professional field, she could basically be described as having a mature woman's body but a young girl's heart.
At this moment, as soon as she spoke, anyone could see she had already been completely moved by Ryuga's invitation. If Ryuga added any more conditions at this point, she probably wouldn't hesitate and would immediately agree.
"What? You actually—?!"
Not expecting Ruan Mei to truly have such intentions, Herta was momentarily stunned.
Hearing her exclamation, Ruan Mei finally seemed to remember something and immediately looked at Herta.
"Herta, I want to take Ryuga to my laboratory, just the two of us."
Like Herta, Ruan Mei had been given ownership of some cabin sections of the space station to use as a laboratory. What she was referring to now was her laboratory inside the space station.
Hearing her emphasize this point, Herta's mouth twitched.
"Don't worry, I know it's your laboratory. I won't follow along!"
Even without Ruan Mei saying so, Herta hadn't planned to explore what she was doing in her laboratory—both out of respect for privacy and because she wasn't interested in life sciences research.
However, Ruan Mei's guarded tone made her feel somewhat strange.
Clearly she had been here first—whether becoming friends with Ruan Mei or with Ryuga, she had played the key role in the middle.
How did these two suddenly have some little secret and exclude her instead?
After mentally complaining, Herta didn't particularly care.
After shaking her head, she checked her phone and spoke up.
"Screwllum still needs some time to arrive. You two can go wherever you want!"
"But don't delay too long. Ryuga, didn't you say earlier you had something you wanted to ask us?"
Carefree as she was, she didn't intend to pry into their secrets, just offering a small reminder.
It had to be said, though she appeared sharp-tongued on the surface, Herta was actually quite easy to get along with.
"No problem."
Ryuga nodded, glancing at Ruan Mei.
He had already guessed what Ruan Mei wanted to show him and had quite a few speculations about her thoughts in mind.
"We'll be back soon, so see you later!"
"See you later. Just don't cause too much trouble. Even if you do cause problems, wait until after Asta finishes her current tasks."
Herta waved her hand, adding another reminder.
Even though Asta was already very skilled at damage control, they still needed to consider sustainable development. They couldn't wear out this perfectly good tool person.
If Asta heard this, who knows whether she'd be touched by Herta's concern or feel bitter about her capitalist behavior.
"Understood."
Ryuga waved his hand. After exchanging glances with Ruan Mei, they both stood up and left together.
Seeing this, Fanlu wobbled down from her chair, wanting to follow Ryuga, but was left behind by him.
Only then did Herta remember this other genius who hadn't spoken for quite a while, and curiously struck up a conversation with Fanlu.
At this moment, Ryuga and Ruan Mei had already arrived at the restricted cabin section that only Ruan Mei's permissions could access, under the reverent gazes of the crowd.
Restricted Cabin Section, Lower Level
On the vast plaza, a massive and ferocious-looking insect hovered in the sky. The insect's wings bore several pairs of eerie glowing compound eyes, its fearsome dual mandibles were as sharp as enormous guillotines, and its entire body radiated an extremely unsettling energy.
Even for Ryuga, the creature before his eyes could be counted among the monsters with the most vigorous life force he had ever seen.
Ordinary divine beasts, even the Doomsday Beast he had seen before, were far inferior in terms of ferociousness to the monster before him.
If Ryuga's perception wasn't mistaken, the monster before his eyes had even surpassed almost all deities in the Campione world, directly reaching Tier 5 level.
"The Emanator of Propagation, Skaracabaz the Swarm King..."
Ryuga spoke the name of this giant beast.
As an Emanator of the already fallen Aeon of Propagation, this existence was one of the most terrifying nightmares across all realms during the Swarm Disaster that affected the entire universe.
Setting aside everything else, just looking at the title of Emanator was enough to indicate its power level.
In the Star Rail world, this was an existence second only to the Aeons.
When Aeons didn't appear, Emanators were the highest combat power.
"What's before us is a replica of Skaracabaz the Swarm King."
Hearing Ryuga recognize the existence before them, Ruan Mei supplemented from the side.
"Through research on Tayzzyronth the Propagation and its Emanators, I've reproduced a portion of Skaracabaz's power. Although it's not at full strength, it basically has about half of its power."
If these words were spoken publicly, they would probably shock and astound the entire universe.
Creating a replica of an Emanator-level existence through human hands—if this got out, the Interastral Peace Corporation would definitely be willing to pay any price to exchange for this technology from Ruan Mei.
This wasn't an exaggeration. What Ruan Mei had accomplished truly had that level of value.
The greatest advantage of scientific research was that once the principles were understood, mass production became possible.
All along, Emanator-level combat power had been the strongest pillar of top-tier forces. When Aeons didn't intervene, an Emanator's existence was like a final weapon that could put countless minds at ease.
If Ruan Mei's research could achieve mass production of Emanators, even if these mass-produced versions only had less than half the power, even if they wouldn't obey commands, even with countless flaws—it would still be enough for the Corporation to invest everything.
Without exaggeration, this was technology capable of changing the power structure at the universe's top level.
Of course, currently speaking, this technology still couldn't be fully put into use.
Not because it was stuck at mass production, but because it was stuck at another problem.
"Fifty-six seconds."
Looking at the Swarm King replica frozen above like it was hibernating, Ruan Mei turned back to look at Ryuga.
"According to my calculations, once awakened, this replica can only maintain its power for fifty-six seconds before it can't withstand the Emanator-level energy within its body and completely disintegrates."
"I want to ask you, Ryuga, do you know why this is?"
Finally, her eyes were filled with pure inquiry, as if wanting Ryuga to help answer this question.
"You're saying the question you wanted to confirm is this?"
Ryuga didn't immediately answer, instead asking back.
"Yes."
Ruan Mei nodded, her attitude remarkably obedient.
"I've tried many times, wanting to first create an Emanator, then use the Emanator's power to deduce an Aeon's power backwards, finally achieving the goal of creating—or rather, becoming an Aeon."
Facing Ryuga who had already spoken about creating Aeons, Ruan Mei had no intention of hiding anything, nor did she plan to use truth serum on Ryuga.
With Ryuga's strength, he absolutely wouldn't give her that opportunity.
"But I don't know why, I've always been stuck at the stage of creating an Emanator."
Ruan Mei stated the biggest problem currently troubling her.
"I've clearly thoroughly researched Skaracabaz's physical structure. Yet the individuals I cultivate still can't bear the power of the Propagation Path. Even a complete one-to-one replica can't last past three seconds..."
"Later, I tried to rewrite Skaracabaz's life factors, strengthening it considerably to get the replica before us. But even loading its biological structure to maximum strength, it still can't withstand Emanator-level power."
"I want to figure out exactly where the problem lies."
By the end, Ruan Mei's expression was filled entirely with thirst for knowledge.
What she possessed wasn't just the ambition to become an Aeon, but also terrifyingly powerful talent.
Unlike Herta, who spread across numerous fields and could establish constructive achievements in any area that interested her, Ruan Mei had always been devoted solely to the life sciences field. Having no desire for wealth or fame, she also had no intention of making her achievements public.
Even within the Genius Society, she belonged to the quite reclusive and mysterious type.
Facing Ryuga's invitation, she was naturally extremely moved.
Trading ownership of herself to someone else in exchange for the opportunity to ascend to Aeonhood—if this matter were made public, those willing to accept would probably circle the galaxy.
Perhaps many would care about losing their freedom, but for Ruan Mei, she was actually indifferent to such things.
With her relatively cold emotions, forget being a familiar—even if Ryuga directly said he wanted her to be a bed-warming maid, she wouldn't necessarily have much resistance.
Compared to such trivial matters of worldly desire, the mysterious experience of ascending from human to Aeon was far more worthy of attention.
However, despite being as emotionally indifferent as a child and having no resistance to Ryuga's conditions, she still hadn't immediately accepted his invitation.
This wasn't because she wanted to haggle, but because she truly still had some hesitation.
Regarding how to become an Aeon, she had her own set of plans.
Delving deep into the life sciences field, mastering various life factors throughout the universe.
Step one: First create planet-level life forms. Step two: Create Emanators. Step three: Create, or even ascend herself to become an Aeon.
What simple and clear steps, what simple and feasible plans.
The reason she hadn't immediately accepted Ryuga's invitation was precisely this.
Although she had been stuck at step two for a long time, being stuck didn't mean this path was definitely impassable.
If she couldn't confirm that the path before her was a dead end, then no matter how tempting Ryuga's conditions were, as a researcher, she would inevitably feel unwilling.
She didn't care about submitting to Ryuga's price—she simply didn't want to give up.
If she persisted a bit more, might she break through this barrier and achieve Aeonhood without relying on anyone else's plan?
Facing such purely simple doubt, Ryuga asked back.
"If I can answer your question, will you agree to sign the contract?"
"Yes!"
Ruan Mei immediately nodded.
"No matter what method I use to become an Aeon, as long as you can answer this question, I'm willing to become your property."
She truly wasn't here to freeload answers.
If Ryuga could truly give an answer, even if it proved her plan was feasible and she could achieve Aeonhood through her own route, Ruan Mei would still honor the contract and become Ryuga's familiar.
As a researcher, Ruan Mei understood very well that if even Ryuga couldn't give an answer, she might very well be stuck at this barrier for life.
"Your attitude is quite sincere."
Ryuga nodded with satisfaction.
Researchers were still easy to deal with—not understanding social niceties made them more straightforward instead.
"You mean... you've already found the answer?"
Seeing Ryuga's expression, Ruan Mei suddenly felt shocked.
She hadn't even had time to show him all her experimental data yet!
How could he find her problem just by glancing at Skaracabaz?
No matter how one looked at it, this seemed impossible. Yet considering Ryuga's previous performance, Ruan Mei didn't think he was bluffing.
So his mind had already reached this level?!
Facing the young woman's shocked gaze, Ryuga had no intention of keeping her in suspense, speaking straightforwardly.
"Your plan has problems—it's almost impossible to succeed."
Hearing this answer, Ruan Mei wasn't particularly surprised. Being stuck at this step already indicated the experimental design most likely had errors.
She just didn't understand where the problem lay.
"Which part of the process has issues?"
"There are problems from the very beginning!"
Ryuga gave a decisive and certain answer.
"From the start, your direction was completely wrong."
"It's not that you create Emanators first before creating Aeons. Rather, you create Aeons first, then create Emanators."
"As I said before, Emanators and Aeons aren't in a progressive relationship. From the beginning, you got the most crucial order wrong, which is why your plan kept failing."
To be continued...
P/S: Fanlu seems to be a Fanon character inserted into the story by the author