Ruan Mei Leads the Testing

The Main Control Zone's cold white lights left no corner in shadow. Herta propped the canvas beside the console, where tiny, seven-colored bubbles shimmered among the clouds in the painting.

Herta studied it carefully for a long while, but still couldn't make anything of it.

When she'd looked at the painting through her puppet's eyes on Azure Star, she'd found it somewhat interesting. But now that she was here in person, she found that she still couldn't immediately analyze its inner workings.

She simply channeled a little Imaginary Energy into the canvas. It suddenly plunged downward, dragging her wrist down with it.

Herta quickly withdrew her energy, and the painting immediately became light again. She tried several more times, and the canvas's weight changed accordingly.

"Never mind the second feature he mentioned. If I could figure out this first one and add it to the puppets' weapons..." Herta murmured to herself.

The mechanism itself wasn't worth much. Plenty of curios could increase their own weight, and she even had a stone statue in her collection that, when filled with energy, could crash through a whole deck. But without energy poured into it, this was just a painting, far lighter than a stone statue. So if she introduced this mechanism into the Herta Puppets' hammers...

Herta pictured the puppets swinging their hammers with a mighty rush of wind, and the corners of her mouth rose.

Of course, the painting's more important feature was still the second one.

The incident report Asta had just submitted was still sitting in her terminal. A staff member who had recently joined the space station had tried to write an analysis of the painting, only for the equipment to explode while they were using it.

The poor soul was still lying in the medical bay.

The fact that equipment made using the power of Erudition had been destroyed by a counterattack matched the young painter's description, but Herta wanted to know whether that counterattack was strong enough to block an Emanator's power.

That was also why she had "flashed" over to the space station in person from the edge of the galaxy. She had sent the Herta Puppets out to keep anyone who might disturb her away from the office, and now Herta herself was still in the office.

She intended to interact with the painting personally. If it could withstand her analysis, that would prove its operating mechanism could handle an Emanator.

"If it passes the test... the next time I touch the knowledge singularity, I won't have to worry about that mysterious Emanator interfering."

Herta stood before the painting and glanced at herself in the reflection beside her. How many years had it been? Ever since she'd successfully returned to youth and attained immortality, she'd rarely been this excited.

But just as she took out her treasured "staff" and prepared to release her Path energy, the office door opened.

Ruan Mei stood outside and blinked.

"Herta," she said. "You came here in person. Has there been progress with the Metaverse?"

But though she was asking Herta a question, Ruan Mei's gaze soon shifted to the painting. "What a striking landscape... Jingxing painted it, didn't he?"

"Couldn't it be this genius's work?" Herta raised an eyebrow.

"..." Ruan Mei was silent for quite a while before she spoke again. "I don't recall you having a talent for learning art."

"Heh, fine. It's his new work." Herta walked over to the canvas and turned sideways. "You came at just the right time. Help me run a test. Try touching it with your Path energy."

Herta mischievously neglected to warn Ruan Mei to protect herself. She wanted to see what would happen when the painting's counterattack struck another genius.

Ruan Mei stepped forward and reached out. Following her usual approach to analyzing life structures, she began trying to analyze the painting before her, which had already been elevated to a curio.

A moment later, she frowned and took a step back, her face turning pale for an instant.

"Although I know you have a terrible personality, still..." Ruan Mei sounded a little exasperated. "You added a countermeasure against the power of Erudition to it, didn't you?"

"Didn't you say I didn't have the talent?" Herta, who held grudges, curled her lip. "As a curio, this painting counterattacks the power of Erudition. Someone on the space station has already been injured while analyzing it."

"No wonder." Ruan Mei's expression remained as composed as ever, but inwardly she was glad that she had been wary when Herta invited her to test it. Instead of using her full strength, she had only probed it briefly.

Still, giving up on analyzing something so interesting just because it would counterattack was not a genius's style.

Ruan Mei reached out again. This time, she put protective measures in place before trying to analyze the painting. But the next second, her hand froze in midair, and her usual composure cracked.

Ruan Mei knitted her brows, then withdrew her hand.

"...It was devoured." She waited a few seconds before speaking, giving her second assessment. "Its method of dealing with the power of Erudition isn't reflection... It's 'devouring,' isn't it?"

"Oh?" Herta's eyes lit up. "Why do you say that?"

Ruan Mei raised a hand and pressed it between her brows. "I remember arriving at some conclusions, but they were all wiped away in an instant. Only a few traces remained."

"If it's devouring, wouldn't that be the power of the Path of Voracity?" Herta said thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, he seems to be the orphan of Interastral Peace Corporation employees, so it wouldn't be strange for him to have taken that Path?"

"Would the Interastral Peace Corporation let a Voracity Pathstrider roam around freely?" Ruan Mei felt that Herta was playing dumb on purpose. "'Devouring,' or assimilation, isn't an ability exclusive to the Path of Voracity. Elation, Harmony, and Beauty can all do similar things."

Herta didn't reply. She studied Ruan Mei's furrowed brow, and her eyes lit up.

Even Ruan Mei, a fellow genius, couldn't handle the painting. Herta felt that Jingxing might not have been exaggerating after all.

"Heh, you can go now," she said. "Tell Asta what materials you need. I'll have her help you."

Ruan Mei's eyelashes fluttered. "What if I want him?"

"That won't do."

"All right." Ruan Mei didn't press the matter and simply retreated to the wall. She didn't choose to leave, and Herta knew she wouldn't leave now—she had suffered herself, so she surely wanted to see Herta run into it and make a fool of herself too.

Herta stood before the painting, took a deep breath, and concentrated the Imaginary Energy under her control at her fingertips. Confident in herself, she didn't probe it as Ruan Mei had. Instead, she pressed her whole hand directly against the center of the canvas, as though she meant to seize the entire mountain in the painting.

Her analytical energy spread out, and the painting, as a curio, awakened once more. The seven-colored bubbles among the clouds lit up at the same time. Her Path energy crashed into it and was swiftly assimilated, like ink falling into water.

Then came the counterattack. A burst of noise that belonged to no Path flowed back along her Imaginary Energy and slammed deep into Herta's consciousness.