Character side story: Herta (4K words)

(Given the recent overwhelming strength of Herta, I've decided to write some short stories about the Herta region.)

The piercing alarm shattered the space station's usual tranquility, and blinding red light filled the entire station. Antimatter Legion surged into the passageways like a tidal wave, and researchers screamed and scattered in all directions. The normally disciplined and orderly space station was now in complete chaos.

However, the disturbance did not last long, because at that moment, the space station's owner Herta, arrived. She looked around, her purple eyes reflecting not a trace of panic, but only pure displeasure at having her research interrupted.

"It's really in the way."

She said calmly, raising one hand and waving it gently.

Imaginary Energy condensed into dozens of sharp beams behind her, piercing through swarms of Voidranger without a sound. The distorted creations didn't even have time to react before being firmly pinned to the alloy wall.

With the arrival of the Herta, the battle waged by the Antimatter Legion ended within minutes.

Just then, a heavy roar came from the direction of the Master Control Zone. The massive body of the Doomsday Beast descended upon the Master Control Zone, and the shockwave it generated caused nearby equipment to tilt and sway.

The figure of the Herta Puppet appeared in front of the main control cabin. She raised her hand, and countless chains appeared out of thin air, intertwining into a huge imaginary cage, trapping the roaring Doomsday Beast in mid-air.

After the Herta effortlessly wiped out the Doomsday Beast, a hurried voice came from behind.

"Ms. Herta! Please wait a moment!"

Asta arrived hurriedly with several medical personnel. Her breathing was unsteady, and her hair was disheveled and stuck to her forehead. On the stretcher carried by the medical personnel lay an unconscious, dark-haired man.

"He... he was hit by the Doomsday Beast while trying to save me." Asta pointed at Bai Luoming on the stretcher, her voice filled with anxiety.

Herta glanced at the man—an unfamiliar face, without any space station crew insignia. She frowned slightly, her gaze returning to the trapped Doomsday Beast, her tone cold. "Anyone of unknown identity can be sent directly to the medical bay."

"But..." Asta, unusually, did not back down. She stepped forward, her eyes exceptionally sincere. "Ms. Herta, he saved my life. I hope... I hope I can keep him on the space station."

Herta fell silent. She glanced at Asta, then at the man on the stretcher. Finally, she nodded gently.

"... Can."

After saying that, Herta accessed all the surveillance records inside and outside the space station, but the result made her usually calm brow furrow.

The man before them seemed to have appeared out of thin air at the space station. There was no record of his arrival, and all the surveillance footage showed only his sudden appearance. Even in the interstellar citizen database across the entire universe, no information related to him could be found.

Herta stared at Bai Luoming on the stretcher, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Interesting," she murmured to herself. "Is there anyone in this world I can't find?"

On the third day, the alarm in the medical ward sounded again.

The Herta doll appeared outside the medical pod almost simultaneously. Through the reinforced glass, she saw that Bai Luoming had already sat up. A strong aura of Destruction surged around his body.

Clearly, Bai Luoming has embarked on Path of Destruction, becoming Pathstrider.

Without the slightest hesitation, Herta opened the door to the medical pod.

"Come with me to the office, now."

Before Bai Luoming could figure out what was going on, Herta grabbed him by the collar and half-dragged him away from the medical pod.

In Herta's office, Bai Luoming stood shirtless in the center of a complex array of scanning equipment. Pale blue beams of light swept back and forth over him, while various data scrolled rapidly on the virtual screen in front of Herta.

Herta's brow furrowed deeper and deeper.

"That's it?" She looked at the unremarkable numbers on the screen, her tone filled with undisguised disappointment. "Just the level of an ordinary Pathstrider, even a bit low."

She casually turned off the scanner, intending to hand the "sample" to Asta for processing, but then she remembered Bai Luoming's sudden appearance. She paused, turning to look at the bewildered Bai Luoming.

"Let's test the Simulated Universe." Her curiosity finally overcame her impatience. "I want to see what's so special about you."

The Simulated Universe will soon begin.

When Bai Luoming stepped into that virtual space made up of data, Herta was leaning against the control panel, bored, preparing to record yet another set of failed data.

However, the next second, all the alarm lights in the entire control room turned on!

"Warning! Imaginary Energy index has surged abnormally!"

"Warning! The frequency of the Path Echoes is severely exceeded!"

"Warning! Multiple observation signals detected!"

Herta suddenly straightened up, staring intently at the main monitoring screen. The data on the screen refreshed rapidly, with various parameters successively exceeding the threshold.

What she couldn't understand the most was that after Bai Luoming entered the Simulated Universe, he attracted the attention of several Aeon.

She muttered to herself, "This kid really has something special about him; he's managed to attract so many Aeon..."

The image on the screen finally stabilized. In the virtual space, Bai Luoming's figure appeared somewhat small. But around him, Destruction, Preservation, Erudition, the Hunt... one after another, blurry yet majestic phantoms of Aeon appeared simultaneously, like stars surrounding the moon, silently watching him.

After the test, Herta stood in front of the control panel for a long time without saying a word. The only sound in the entire office was the low hum of the equipment running.

Finally, she turned to Bai Luoming, who was equally bewildered, and said in an unyielding tone, "Be my Simulated Universe tester."

Bai Luoming scratched his head. "Uh... is there a salary?"

Herta gave him a cold glance. "Top-tier space station treatment, drive it as you please."

"Deal!" Bai Luoming immediately agreed.

Standing beside her, Asta smiled and stepped forward, patting Bai Luoming on the shoulder. "To thank you for saving my life, I've transferred a large sum of Credits to your personal account as an advance payment."

Upon receiving the large sum of money, Bai Luoming's first action was to buy a small starship. He then bid farewell to Asta and the Herta, expressing his desire to travel around.

When Herta heard the news, she was debugging a new set of Simulated Universe plugins. She didn't seem to care, casually replying, "Whatever. Just come back and test it once per cycle."

Asta was somewhat reluctant, but Bai Luoming clearly felt he couldn't stay on the space station any longer. He didn't have any research talent, and he couldn't conduct Simulated Universe every day, so he simply bought a starship and went traveling around.

For a period of time afterward, Bai Luoming became a frequent visitor to the space station, yet also seemed like a passerby.

He always returned on time before the end of a cycle, diligently completing all the tests arranged by the Herta. Sometimes, he would bring down some strange and unusual things from the starship.

Sometimes they are strange objects found on some nameless planet.

Sometimes it is a crystallization of imaginary numbers containing pure energy.

On one occasion, he even brought back a piece of spaceship wreckage inscribed with ancient script.

At first, Herta simply accepted these "local specialties" casually and tossed them to her researchers for analysis. However, sometimes the things Bai Luoming brought were quite interesting to her, expanding her collection of curiosities.

So, Herta took the initiative to ask him, "What did you bring this time?"

Anything Bai Luoming brought, if Herta found it interesting, she would directly offer to buy it.

Later, this almost became a routine. No matter what Bai Luoming brought back, Herta would accept it all. She even set aside a warehouse in the Containment Zone specifically to store the things Bai Luoming brought back.

Once, when Asta passed by, she saw the mountain of "junk" piled up in the warehouse and couldn't help but tease her, "Ms. Herta, were you bribed by him with these things? I've never seen you be so generous to any researcher before."

Herta retorted expressionlessly, "It's just that his perspective happens to align with my research area."

This relatively stable "transactional" relationship was disrupted after one test.

On that day, Bai Luoming not only brought back some relics from the Glamoth Republic, but also a girl.

A shy girl with long silver hair.

"Let me introduce you," Bai Luoming said with a smile, pulling the girl out from behind him, "This is the last of the Glamoth Iron Cavalry we met on this trip, the Firefly. You could say she's... a local specialty?"

The girl named Firefly blushed quickly when everyone was watching her, and instinctively hid behind Bai Luoming.

Herta's gaze fell on Firefly, trying to discern her background. A few seconds later, she shifted her gaze to Bai Luoming, her tone several degrees colder than usual.

"You're even bringing people back as souvenirs now? And aren't the Glamoth Iron Cavalry supposed to suffer from Entropy Loss Syndrome?"

Before Bai Luoming could explain, the Herta retrieved information about "Entropy Loss Syndrome" and transmitted it to Bai Luoming's terminal.

This rare condition constantly strips away the patient's existence, ultimately causing them to vanish without a trace.

"Ms. Herta is truly knowledgeable, but I've noticed that as long as Firefly is by my side, she doesn't suffer from Entropy Loss Syndrome."

"Ha?"

Herta was somewhat speechless. After all, Bai Luoming wasn't a member of the Glamoth Iron Cavalry, nor had he embarked on the Path Propagation. Yet he was able to suppress the backlash of the Path Propagation, which piqued her research interest.

Herta stood in his laboratory, staring at the analysis report on Entropy Loss Syndrome in Fireflies on the screen, and remained silent for a long time.

Data shows that as long as Firefly gets close to Bai Luoming at a certain distance, the symptoms she has called Entropy Loss Syndrome will completely disappear, and she will be just like a normal person.

And this is just the beginning.

Since then, Bai Luoming seemed to have found a new source of amusement, and he went even further.

He later brought back a pink-haired girl who had been trapped inside the Six-Phased Ice. He and Herta went to great lengths to rescue her, and he enthusiastically named her "March 7th".

Although Herta didn't know why Bai Luoming chose the name March 7th, since the calendar didn't actually show March 7th that day, Bai Luoming let him have his way since he liked it; she wasn't one to care about such things.

Later, he brought back the legendary former Sword Champion Jingliu from the Xianzhou Luofu, reasoning that "this is a living Xianzhou specialty, extremely rare."

Even after the Penacony incident, he brought the world-famous singer Robin to the space station, ostensibly as "Penacony's top-notch artistic specialty, brought back to enhance the cultural atmosphere of the space station."

Outside Herta's office, things gradually became lively. She could often see the girls chattering and circling around Bai Luoming through the one-way glass.

As Herta gazed at the scene, the color of his purple eyes deepened.

One late night, the space station was completely silent.

Herta sat alone in his office. On the virtual screen in front of him, instead of displaying any research data, a list was projected.

The list is titled: [Specialties of Bai Luoming].

Below is a list of names: Firefly, March 7th, Jingliu, Robin...

Her gaze swept over the names, a slight smile playing on her lips, and she let out a soft chuckle.

"If only I hadn't agreed to let him bring people back in the first place..."

But she herself couldn't explain where this unease and displeasure lingering in her heart came from. Was it an offense against her "ownership" of the research materials? Or something else entirely?

She discovered for the first time that some emotions cannot be analyzed solely through reason and logic.

Time flows between the star trails.

Later, the Herta was taken by a memory Memokeeper to a place called Amphoreus.

According to the Herta's investigation, this is the experimental site of a mad genius who used the Scepter of the Emperor to construct a digital world and attempted to incubate a Lord Ravager who specializes in Erudition attacks.

With her abilities, getting out of here wouldn't be difficult.

However, once this Lord Ravager is hatched, the entire universe will face a catastrophe.

Herta stood in the starry sky, silent for a long time. She could have left immediately, ignoring this mess. That would have been the most logical and rational choice.

But she didn't make a move for a long time.

She raised her head and looked at Amphoreus in the distance. Without warning, Bai Luoming's face appeared in her mind.

The man who always brought her all sorts of troublesome "specialties" with a smile.

The man who meticulously completed every instruction during each Simulated Universe test, and then asked her if she had any new toys.

The man who would occasionally awkwardly remind her that she needed to take a break.

"If this is my Finality..." she whispered, her voice carried away by the wind, "It's not too bad."

Imaginary Energy surged around her, and a torrent of data surged into the sky. She decided to stay, sacrificing herself to mitigate this potential global catastrophe as much as possible.

She brought up her personal terminal, skillfully opened her contacts, and hovered her finger over that familiar name.

Bai Luoming.

She could connect by simply pressing this button. She could tell him she was in trouble. Knowing that man's personality, he'd probably rush over in his wrecked boat the moment he saw her.

His finger hovered above the communication key, not falling for a long time.

In the end, she withdrew her hand and closed the terminal.

"Pity..."

She murmured to herself, her voice so soft that only she could hear it.

"I can't see him again."

At that moment, a soft light, never before seen in her eyes, which were always filled with rationality and logic, flashed.

That was the Herta's... vulnerability.