I Transmigrated into a Cat Cake!!

[This book will forever and ever remain faithful to Ms. Herta]

[The great Ms. Herta's beauty and wisdom are unmatched under heaven]

"Data linking in progress..."

"Data link complete!"

Lin Feng's consciousness floated in the darkness. The last things he remembered were the piercing screech of brakes and a violent impact.

When he "woke up" again, the pain he expected never came. Instead, his body felt light and soft.

Several emotionless electronic female voices followed.

He instinctively tried to rub his eyes, but his hands found nothing.

"Huh? Where are my fingers?"

He looked down and saw not a human body, but a blob of... mochi? One with a tail?

He struggled to wriggle, and a soft, catlike tail swished behind him.

"Where are my feet!?"

"Where are my hands!?"

"How did I turn into a caterpillar... wait, this tail?!"

His muddled mind cleared in an instant, and he looked around—

This was a laboratory full of futuristic technology, and he was lying in a tray lined with soft cloth.

Above his head were three enormous transparent screens, with strings of unfamiliar numerical code drifting up and down across them.

"Awake?" a cool female voice asked, tinged with impatience.

Lin Feng looked toward the voice and saw an elegant woman with short blue hair standing beside a puppet that looked like a middle schooler and had her arms folded.

Fragments of memory flashed through his mind, and he jolted in shock.

That's Ruan Mei! And... Herta's puppet!

Oh my god! I'm not dreaming, am I?!

This is the Herta Space Station!

And the form I'm in...

An absurd, horrifying name popped into his head—a Cat Cake!?

He, Lin Feng, had transmigrated into a Cat Cake from Honkai: Star Rail after a car accident!

Before he could process that terrifying fact, the Herta Puppet's distinctive, largely uninflected voice reached his ears:

"Ruan Mei, your new creation doesn't look very intelligent.

Since you've finished observing it, dispose of it. Slice it up and make specimens; the data will be clearer."

Slice... slice me up!? Specimens!?

All the "Cat Cake" fur on Lin Feng's body stood on end—if he had any!

He instinctively tried to scream, but all that came out was a faint, pitiful:

"...Meow... ow?"

Help!

Am I going to be sliced up in a lab right after transmigrating?

This has to be the most miserable transmigrator in history!

Ruan Mei frowned slightly. Her tone was gentle, but what she said was just as alarming:

"It's highly active, and its conscious responses are quite unique.

It would indeed be a shame to slice it up right away, but... for the sake of research, there's no other choice."

Overwhelming fear gripped Lin Feng.

No!

He had to do something!

Just as Herta's puppet picked up a precision dissection tool gleaming coldly nearby and slowly walked toward him—

[Ding! The host's strong will to survive has been detected. The "Aeon Evolution" system has been activated!]

A translucent blue screen appeared abruptly before Lin Feng's consciousness.

[This system will assist you in starting at the very bottom of life—in Cat Cake form—devouring, evolving, and ultimately embarking on the path to becoming an Aeon!]

A system! Sure enough, it's standard equipment for a transmigrator!

Lin Feng was overjoyed, and the hope of survival in a desperate situation instantly calmed him down considerably.

By now, the Herta Puppet had walked up to him with the precision dissection tool gleaming coldly in her hand and was looking down at him.

The puppet's face wore its usual lack of expression, but her mechanical eyes glinted with pure researcher curiosity and a detachment that bordered on indifference to life.

"Little one," Herta's voice came through the puppet, carrying the cool quality peculiar to an electronic voice.

"Although you're just a failure... hmm, or rather, an interesting failure."

The scalpel spun deftly in her hand, reflecting the cold light of the laboratory's overhead lamps and making Lin Feng's heart tremble.

"Answer three questions for me. If your answers make me think you have some research value, perhaps I'll let you live a few more days."

[Ding! Novice crisis mission triggered!]

[Mission objective: Pass Herta's "interest test" and avoid being sliced up.]

[Mission reward: Unlock the evolution sequence and obtain the initial skill "Data Devouring".]

The blue system screen appeared in Lin Feng's consciousness.

[Question analysis module activated... calculating answers based on Herta's personality...]

"Listen carefully. First question."

The Herta Puppet spoke. "There are countless 'Hertas' in this room. Tell me, why is 'this me' walking toward you special?"

Lin Feng's heart tightened.

Sure enough, it's not a simple question!

He thought hard as data and chains of logic flashed rapidly across the system interface.

He couldn't speak, so he could only answer through action.

He wriggled with all his might and lifted his head with difficulty, looking past the puppet in front of him and directing his gaze precisely at the inconspicuous surveillance camera in the corner of the room.

"Oh?"

A barely perceptible trace of surprise crept into Herta's voice.

"Interesting. Then the second question: how can you, a creation I can dismantle on a whim, prove that you possess a 'self' rather than being a complex preset program?"

A soul-searching question!

Lin Feng knew that any logical proof of self could be dismissed as a program simulation.

A system prompt flashed: [Recommend performance art that is irrational and unpredictable by a program].

He was silent for a moment, then did something that made even Ruan Mei, watching from the side, widen her eyes slightly—

He wriggled forward and gently nuzzled the Herta Puppet's hand holding the scalpel with his soft, seemingly incomparably fragile body.

Then he rolled over, exposing his seemingly undefended belly, let out a faint purr full of trust, and closed his eyes.

Placing life and death at the mercy of another's whim was in itself the most extreme interpretation of "self" and "trust".

A brief silence fell over the laboratory.

Even Herta seemed to pause.

However, just as Lin Feng thought the crisis was about to pass, the Herta Puppet before him suddenly froze. The spark in her eyes vanished in an instant, leaving them as vacant as glass beads.

Then the puppet's mouth opened and closed. Although the voice she produced sounded similar, it had lost that unique liveliness and emotion, becoming stiff and mechanical:

"Basic conscious response test passed. Proceeding with final value assessment."

The puppet brought out a small, screen-like board from behind her back with her other hand and held it up in front of Lin Feng. A fill-in-the-blank question was clearly displayed on it:

Ms. Herta []!

Ms. Herta []!

Ms. Herta []!

"Please use the sensory area of your tail to select the correct words from the word bank below and fill in the blanks to complete this test. Time limit: ten seconds."

Below was a constantly flashing word bank that appeared to be scrolling randomly.