"It's fine, it's fine. I choked just now, but the fall actually cleared it."
In an instant, black lines appeared across both March 7th's and Stelle's foreheads.
They had thought something serious had happened. So that was all it was.
Ding-dong!
The terminal chimed again, and Liuge looked down.
A new message from Asta had arrived.
"To be honest, Liuge, that outfit of yours looks really good. Not only does it show off your handsome muscles, it also..."
With a smack, Liuge covered his face. He knew his image had completely fallen apart in Asta's eyes.
Though Asta had not finished speaking, Liuge was already dead—dead in every sense of the word.
At that moment, Asta put away the faintly mischievous smile on her face and walked over to Liuge and Stelle.
"Oh, right, I forgot to tell you two. Herta will be coming back later, and she specifically asked to meet you and Stelle. So I wanted to ask whether the two of you would be interested in seeing her?"
"Herta?"
Stelle was still eating, so her words came out a little unclear.
Liuge, meanwhile, thought of that damaged Herta puppet. Though he had long known that Herta would question him, he had not expected it to happen so soon.
"I don't really mind."
Stelle swallowed the food in her mouth, looking utterly indifferent.
Ever since learning that she was the vessel for the Stellaron, Stelle had known that Herta of the Genius Society would definitely be interested in her.
"I don't have any objections either."
Kamen Rider Chronicle (Funny.JPG)
Inside Herta's office in the Main Control Cabin.
Though it was called Herta's office, it was actually the laboratory for the Simulated Universe.
It was just that Herta had always operated and debugged the Simulated Universe here, so over time, this place had come to be regarded as her office.
At that moment, Liuge watched Herta's puppet examine Stelle, his eyelids twitching wildly.
After all, Stelle was a vessel perfectly compatible with a Stellaron. As someone on the Path of Erudition, Herta naturally would not pass up such extremely rare experimental material.
So before researching Stelle thoroughly, Herta truly did not want to let her go.
But Stelle was an intelligent life-form with Self-Awareness. Herta knew she could not simply do whatever she wanted.
She had to respect Stelle's wishes, so she merely carried out some basic equipment calibration and research.
Just like that, more than three hours passed.
By the time Liuge, who was standing to the side, was getting sleepy, the preliminary examination of Stelle had finally concluded.
Only then did Herta notice the other person she had summoned.
That interesting existence she had encountered when she had accidentally connected to the damaged puppet.
He could clearly operate Aether Edit, yet he bore no trace of having entered any Path. Even so, he still possessed the ability to use Aether Edit to kill Voidrangers.
If she called him an ordinary person, he could use Aether Edit to kill enemies. If she called him a Pathstrider, his physical constitution was undeniably that of an ordinary human. Yet if she called him an ordinary human, he had the strength to kill a Voidranger with one punch.
It left her utterly baffled.
"Kid, you came too."
Herta walked up to Liuge and looked at him as she spoke.
"Heh, weren't you the one who had Asta call me over?"
"But you could have chosen not to come. Compared to you, I'm more interested in the person beside you."
Herta was blunt, making Liuge feel a little exasperated.
You should've said so earlier. If you had, I wouldn't have come.
"Still, since you're here, there's something I want to ask you."
"What?"
"Are you... interested in joining the Herta Space Station?"
"Huh?!"
The sudden invitation left Liuge completely stunned.
Herta personally invited me to join the Space Station?
What kind of crazy plot development is this?
Wait, no!
Suddenly thinking of something, Liuge stared directly into Herta's eyes.
"You want to study me, don't you?!"
"Tch!"
"Hey, you clicked your tongue! I knew I guessed right!"
As though he had discovered something, Liuge wore an odd expression.
"Forget it if you won't join!"
Herta turned around, preparing to go study Stelle's data and experimental report.
But since Liuge was already here, he was not about to leave empty-handed. He immediately stopped Herta.
"Kind Herta, may I ask you to do something for me?"
"Hm?"
Herta did not agree immediately. She merely gave Liuge a calm glance and waited for him to continue, intending to decide whether to help based on what he said next.
Herta was very easy to talk to!
"It's like this. I'd like to commission you, Herta, to make a game for me."
"I refuse!"
The moment Liuge finished speaking, Herta directly rejected him.
She had thought it would be some kind of request. Instead, it was only making a game.
Such a trivial matter actually required the great Herta's help? What a waste of time.
"No, Herta, could you at least let me finish?"
At once, even Liuge's form of address became more respectful.
"Go on..."
Herta turned back, looking at Liuge to hear what he had to say.
"As for this game, it'll be a large-scale virtual reality battle game..."
As he spoke, Liuge explained the game's concept to Herta. He also made it clear that he could handle the character designs and the designs for all the various items himself. All Herta needed to do was construct the game world and battle maps, then import those game designs and character models.
"A virtual reality battle game?"
Herta murmured to herself, then looked at Liuge after a long while.
"The greatest benefit of this game is that it can train players' close-quarters combat abilities. You can think of it as a simulated training device."
As he spoke, Liuge continued voicing the ideas in his head.
Liuge had not initially had any thoughts about making this game. But after his battle appointment with Silver Wolf while transformed into Hack Rabbit, the idea had come to him.
There just so happened to be a technological genius at the Space Station, so why not ask her for help?
Once the game was made, he could transform into Hack Rabbit and utterly crush Silver Wolf in it.
"Your game is kind of interesting. But I don't think you'll have the time to operate it. Are you sure about this?"
"Then what do you mean?"
"You can try letting the company manage the game for you!"
"Alright!"
As one large hand and one small hand clasped together, Liuge smiled. To him, this game existed purely so that he could crush Silver Wolf. It did not matter who managed it.
"Then you must have an idea for the game's name, right?"
"Yeah! It'll be called Kamen Rider Chronicle..."
After leaving Herta's office, Liuge and Stelle naturally headed toward the platform.
Kamen Rider Chronicle was not actually like the game from that old tokusatsu show. Liuge had added every Kamen Rider, as well as all kinds of monsters and villains, into its foundation. It could be understood as a massive Rider brawl. In short, it was meant to be fun—though the requirements for using particularly outrageous characters would naturally be much higher.
As for the name, it was really just borrowed branding.
He was going to utterly crush Silver Wolf in the game and show her what a true Hack Rabbit gaming master was.
The moment Liuge and Stelle arrived at the platform, they saw March 7th and Himeko waiting for them.
"Liuge, you're back!"
March 7th walked up to them and carefully examined the two for a while. Only then did she relax and smile.
"I thought they took you away to do some kind of experiment! Looks like I was overthinking it!"
"Ahem, March. Herta knows her limits. She wouldn't do what you're imagining."
Himeko gave a helpless smile from the side, then looked toward Stelle.
"Stelle, the Astral Express will soon depart for its next destination to continue its Trailblazing journey. As for you, are you planning to remain at the Herta Space Station, or become a Nameless and join us in witnessing the path of Trailblaze?"
"I..."
"Don't rush to answer. Think it over carefully!"
Himeko interrupted Stelle before she could immediately respond, signaling for her to consider it properly.
"If you remain at the Herta Space Station, Asta will definitely take good care of you. But if you come with us, the road ahead will be filled with thorns."
That was what Himeko said.
She respected everyone's choices and gave them every right to choose.
"I want to join the Astral Express. I want to travel with March 7th, with Liuge, with Dan Heng, with all of you, and witness everything along the way..."
Stat-Stick [Luck]
Compared to Liuge and Stelle, who had already decided to begin traveling with the Astral Express crew, things were rather quiet on the Stellaron Hunters' side.
Leaning lazily against the sofa, Kafka looked through coats on the terminal, seemingly selecting one that caught her fancy.
Though she already had plenty of coats, they were still a fine choice for her collection.
"Hey, Kafka. When we ran into that country bumpkin girl earlier, why did you stop me? Otherwise, I definitely would've let her taste the methods of the universe's greatest hacker."
"Hm? You mean that little girl?"
Kafka put down her terminal and looked meaningfully at Silver Wolf.
"Who else could I mean?"
Silver Wolf asked in return.
"Sweetie, do you remember why we went to the Herta Space Station this time?"
Rather than answer Silver Wolf's question, Kafka asked one of her own.
"Wasn't it to follow Elio's guidance, go to the Space Station, put that Stellaron into Stelle's body, and wake her up?"
Silver Wolf stared at Kafka, somewhat puzzled.
Wasn't that the objective?
Before you continue