Is This Examination Really Legitimate?

Herta was still sitting on his lap, her gaze lingering on his reddened lips as though checking the mark she had just left.

Bai Luoming opened his mouth. "Ms. Herta, shouldn't the examination be done in modera—"

Before he could finish, Herta gripped the back of his neck and pressed down again, cutting off the rest of his sentence.

Their breaths mingled. This exchange was slower than the last, but it lasted longer.

At first, Bai Luoming had been on the receiving end, but he gradually regained the initiative. He raised his hands, wrapped them around her slender waist, and pulled her closer.

Herta felt the pressure around her waist and tightened her fingers around his neck. Her nails brushed through his hair, sending a tingling sensation through him.

Bai Luoming's breathing fell completely out of rhythm, and his chest rose and fell faster.

Only when they were nearly out of air did they rest their foreheads together. In the confined space, only their mingled panting remained, and even the temperature seemed to rise.

Herta studied Bai Luoming's dazed expression for several seconds. She was very pleased with his reaction.

Then she got off his lap, stood up straight, and smoothed out the slightly wrinkled skirt of her white strapless dress.

Herta returned to the table, picked up her bone china teacup, and took a small sip of the slightly bitter tea. "Thank you for the meal."

Bai Luoming fell somewhat silent at that. He leaned back in the chair to catch his breath, then finally managed, "Ms. Herta, aren't you even going to pay for that meal?"

Herta glanced at him and tapped the tabletop with her index finger. "This office, the cashmere carpet under your feet, and the refreshments on the table all belong to me. If we're being precise, even you, having appeared on the space station, are my property."

Bai Luoming immediately backed down. "I'm sorry, Ms. Herta. I shouldn't have said anything."

Herta didn't respond. She turned and walked over to the examination platform at the side, swiping her fingers through the air twice. "Enough chit-chat. I called you here for something important."

?

Bai Luoming had thought Herta had called him over for that so-called meal. He hadn't expected there to be more.

A translucent floating screen unfolded in the air, projecting a photograph between them.

In the picture, Bai Luoming stood at the train's parcel pickup point, his swollen, sausage-like lips especially conspicuous. It was the photo taken when he had used the health check last night.

Bai Luoming nearly slid out of the high-backed chair. He sat up straight and pointed at the screen. "Wait, why do you even have a photo like that? I never sent it to you."

Herta tapped the edge of the console. "I'm a genius. What I see depends on whether I'm interested enough to open it. Is that so hard to understand?" She enlarged the photo, focusing on the redness and swelling. "Explain what happened last night."

As someone who had personally produced a similar result, Herta could tell at a glance that this was no ordinary bump or bruise.

"You'd better think carefully before you answer, little guy."

Bai Luoming spread his hands. He carefully recalled what had happened last night and explained:

"After I finished gaming last night, I got sleepy, so I lay down on some cardboard and went to sleep. By the time the delivery notification woke me up, my lips were already like this. I don't remember it happening at all."

He touched his lips, which had now returned to normal. "Anyway, the swelling's gone down, so it's no big deal."

Herta snorted. "Someone gnawed on you until you looked like that, and you slept right through it. You're less alert than a space station puppet in standby mode."

Bai Luoming protested, "Not necessarily. Maybe I just bumped them somewhere and they swelled up."

Herta couldn't be bothered with his twisted reasoning. She pointed at the examination platform. "Stand on it. Take off your jacket and shirt. They'll get in the way."

Bai Luoming held his collar shut. He looked at the sealed alloy door, then at Herta. "Is this a legitimate physical examination, or a continuation of what we were doing just now?"

Herta raised a hand and summoned several precision scanning panels. The equipment started up with a high-pitched hum. "Have you ever seen anyone use a full set of top-of-the-line equipment to act like a pervert?"

Bai Luoming muttered, "The equipment's legitimate, but I can't say the same for the operator."

Herta promptly raised the scanner's power by one level, and a blue beam swept across Bai Luoming's face. "Go on, keep talking."

Bai Luoming wisely shut his mouth. He took off his white casual jacket, then pulled off his shirt, leaving only his underwear on.

The changes brought by the power of the Path were visible to the naked eye. His shoulders were broad, his muscles well-defined, and his waist and abdomen toned.

Herta walked around him, her gaze sweeping over the contours of his muscles as she compared them with the data continually refreshing in the system.

Muscle density, bone strength, and recovery speed were all continuing to increase. Compared with the records from his last Simulated Universe test, they had risen slightly again.

She stopped in front of Bai Luoming and placed her palm against his abdomen. Her slightly cool knuckles pressed downward along the contours of his muscles, checking the flow of energy through his body.

She casually gave one of Bai Luoming's abs a squeeze. "Nice physique."

"Oh? Really?"

Herta lifted her eyes to look at him. "No," she said irritably. "Happy?"

The examination moved on to his back. Herta told Bai Luoming to turn around.

She recorded the data on his spine and nerve responses. Her hand moved down along his spine, and without warning, she gave his butt a hard squeeze.

Bai Luoming sprang half a step away and turned to stare at Herta in disbelief. "Is that part of the standard procedure too?"

Herta tapped on the screen without even looking up. "Muscle response is normal. What, are you questioning a genius's research methods?"

Bai Luoming swallowed his anger. "Is this really an examination? Or did you make it all up to satisfy your own desires?"

Herta answered offhandedly, "A localized muscle group stress response test. And of course, I have the final say on the academic explanation."

Once the joking was over, a piercing red light suddenly flashed on the floating panel.

Extremely faint traces of Memoria appeared at the side of Bai Luoming's neck, the back of his head, and the region representing mental activity. Ordinary material scans couldn't detect them at all; only the deep-scan module for memory and consciousness had registered a fluctuation.

The casual look vanished from Herta's face. She told Bai Luoming to remain standing and rapidly tapped away at the console.

She ran several cross-check scans.

The results were identical every time.

Trace amounts of Memoria remained in Bai Luoming's mental region.

That meant that last night, a being skilled in manipulating memories or dreams had bypassed the space station's defenses and come into contact with Bai Luoming. Not only had the intruder entered his consciousness, but they had also erased the relevant memories afterward.

After hearing Herta's deduction, Bai Luoming touched his lips. He finally realized that his sausage lips weren't the result of some supposed allergy—someone really had ulterior motives.

He pressed his temples, trying to trace his memories back to when he had fallen asleep last night. There was nothing in his mind but a smooth blank. The deeper he tried to dig, the less he could grasp any specific image.

Herta noticed something was wrong and immediately interrupted him. "Stop. Don't force yourself to remember."

She packaged and sealed the residual data separately. "If they can erase memories, they may have left a contingency deep in your consciousness. Forcing yourself to trace it back might cause other problems."

Herta quickly sifted through suspects in her mind. Naturally, the first person who came to mind was March 7th.

As a Pure Child of Anāsrava, March 7th herself had an extremely complicated connection to "Remembrance." Besides, she was the person who had spent the most time with Bai Luoming last night.

However, thinking back on how March 7th usually behaved, Herta felt she was nothing like a mastermind capable of doing such a thing, nor did she seem like someone who had returned after being reborn.

Thus, Herta's wariness toward March 7th largely subsided. She merely placed her name on a watch list for the time being, rather than declaring her guilty outright.

The examination came to an end. Bai Luoming put on his shirt and jacket.

As for the mysterious Memokeeper, Bai Luoming didn't know who they were, but judging by the result, they clearly meant no harm. In that case, he might as well think about what to eat later.

With that thought, Bai Luoming strode back to the round table, pulled out a chair, and sat down. He grabbed a pastry from the plate and stuffed it straight into his mouth.

He had slept from last night until noon today without eating anything in between, and had completely missed lunch on the train.

His stomach was churning with acid, and he was too hungry to care about the cloying sweetness of the pastries. He washed them down with tea, shoveling them into his mouth in large bites.

Watching him wolf down the food, Herta felt her anger rising.

This guy had unknowingly had his dreams invaded and had even been taken advantage of, yet all he could think about now was filling his stomach?

Herta strode over, grabbed Bai Luoming by the ear, and lifted him and the chair off the floor. "You're still eating? Someone took that much advantage of you, and you're thinking about food?"

Bai Luoming tilted his head, shielding the plate of pastries with both hands. Chewing as he spoke, he protested indistinctly, "Even if an Aeon showed up, I'd still need something to eat, right? I'm starving to death."

Watching him struggle to swallow the pastry, Herta finally loosened her grip.

She returned to the console and continued organizing the Memoria scan results. "Eat faster."

Bai Luoming had just polished off half the plate of pastries when the terminal he had left at the corner of the table lit up. A group chat message popped up.

[One big loving family] Pom-Pom: The navigation data is ready. All Nameless, please return to the train as soon as possible and prepare for the warp, pom!