Speedrunning Through Worlds Starting with Firefly — Part 35

He merely shifted his gaze to the assistant beside him.

"Samas, go investigate it personally."

The assistant before him had followed him for several centuries. She had already been by his side since Japan's Warring States period, so Niram trusted her greatly.

"Yes."

Samas nodded as she accepted the order.

But the instant she lowered her head, something flickered in her eyes.

Then, under Tsumuri's bewildered gaze, Samas gave her a meaningful look before leaving the room.

Clearly, she was not as simple as she appeared.

"You may leave as well."

After Samas departed, Niram waved Tsumuri away too.

"Yes, Lord Niram."

Tsumuri withdrew at his words.

Only after everyone around him had left did Niram furrow his brow.

Clearly, he still took this matter very seriously. Although he usually did not interfere much with the Desire Grand Prix, even as he pursued the truth, he had never forgotten to keep watch from the shadows.

Otherwise, he would not have held this position for so many years.

Niram did not care in the slightest whether Girori was dead or alive. Desire Grand Prix Operations had plenty of personnel who could take over.

But the Vision Driver on him was another matter.

Without the Vision Driver, wishes could not be granted. That meant the Desire Grand Prix could not continue, and the DGP program would be suspended.

More importantly, if the Vision Driver fell into someone else's hands, they could even use it to set the rules of the game in reverse.

What a headache.

As a producer specifically created for the Desire Grand Prix, he had held his first Grand Prix as early as Japan's Warring States period. This was the first time he had encountered such a situation.

If the Vision Driver had truly fallen into the hands of that Stellaron Hunter, Sam, then it had to be taken back no matter what.

But without wish fulfillment as a reward, would those Riders still participate in the mission to retrieve the Driver?

Most likely not.

"Stellaron Hunter Sam..."

At that moment, the Vision Driver that Desire Grand Prix Operations had been so preoccupied with was casually tossed onto a table by Firefly.

This thing required a fingerprint to unlock, but that was not much of a challenge.

Forget the technology of the Star Rail world—even in modern society, fingerprint technology was hardly anything advanced for a nation.

Firefly took out a device containing Girori's fingerprints, began storing them, and then overlaid them onto her own finger.

"Let's test its effects first!"

Watching the fingerprint on her right thumb be overlaid, Firefly looked at the Driver on the table, somewhat eager for the experiment to come.

She remembered that Beroba had also unlocked this Driver by copying the fingerprints of the next game administrator, Chirami.

This Driver held every record from the Desire Grand Prix over thousands of years, including even the origins of the Goddess of Creation.

In the beginning, the DGP had never possessed any so-called God of Desire.

It was only because of the transformation of Ukiyo Ace's mother, Mitsume—the guide of the Desire Grand Prix in ancient times—that the DGP evolved into what it was today.

She fell in love with the God of Desire from one of the tournaments, but contestants and game guides were not allowed to fall in love. Thus, that God of Desire was imprisoned.

Mitsume began to pray because of this, eventually awakening the power of miracles and giving birth to the Child of Miracles, Ukiyo Ace.

Because of that, Suel, the original founder of the DGP, turned her into the stone statue of the Goddess of Creation, making her a tool for the DGP to grant wishes.

A God of Creation could not possess a will of her own.

It was also then that the Desire Grand Prix's reward changed from gold coins to wish fulfillment.

Firefly picked up the Driver from the table and fastened it around her waist.

[Vision Driver]

At that moment, the Rider sound effect rang out from the belt. It automatically adjusted to Firefly's waist, fitting her perfectly.

Only then did Firefly press her thumb against a specific spot on the Driver.

[Unlocked]

[Login Successful]

As the Driver changed, the Vision Driver completely unlocked its contents for Firefly, though transforming into a Kamen Rider still required a Providence Card.

There was no rush for that.

Manipulating the Vision Driver, Firefly began browsing through its functions. As the core of the Desire Grand Prix, it possessed an exceptionally wide range of functions.

It did not merely contain power far surpassing that of the Desire Driver.

It also possessed a high degree of scalability. By reading the card-type special memory device known as the "Providence Card," it could carry out high-dimensional customization according to the user's permissions, making transformations with all manner of characteristics possible.

It could also use various upgrade buckles at the same time.

Furthermore, it could extract dark matter from a simulated black hole maintained in equilibrium at an extremely small scale and convert it into clean energy.

This was the administrator's privilege!

After reviewing the Vision Driver's functions, Firefly found it increasingly more formidable than she had imagined. No wonder Girori had been able to use it to withstand that kind of power.

But the Vision Driver's power alone, even if it could indirectly harness some of the Goddess's power of creation, still fell short of Sam's strength.

After Firefly retrieved footage of past Desire Grand Prix events recorded by the Driver, she removed it directly.

Some things she had not understood before now had answers.

Dealing with Desire Grand Prix Operations alone might not be enough. She also needed to make plans regarding Tsumuri and Geats.

Both of them could potentially become Gods of Creation, and both were heirs to the Goddess of Creation.

Under normal circumstances, only one God of Creation could exist. If one of them became the new God of Creation or Goddess of Creation, the other would no longer inherit that fate.

Becoming a Goddess of Creation or a God of Creation was not necessarily entirely a good thing.

Becoming a god normally came at a price.

But the protagonist was an exception; they could always break free from fate!

Firefly took out another card. It was the card-type special memory device she had obtained from Girori earlier—the Providence Card.

However, Firefly could not use this one directly. Its data needed to be modified, or it had to be remade.

It was a little troublesome, but there should not be any real problem.

At its core, it was just a memory card—a USB drive.

Though it was a far more powerful super storage card!

Besides, she already had a sample in hand. Could she not make a knockoff and piece one together?

"Can you make it, Herta?"

Inside the room, the Herta puppet repeatedly examined the Providence Card, wearing a thoughtful expression.

Seeing the Herta puppet like this, Firefly felt there was great hope. After all, the difficulty should not have been that high. And who was the original Herta?

She was a top-tier genius renowned throughout the universe.

In her youth, she solved the Kubo Algorithm problem and the Spark Model Conjecture.

In her prime, she discovered the conversion method for Sigma baryons.

In middle age, she proposed the Herta Sequence and published a paper on rejuvenation; in old age, she rejuvenated herself, once again unraveled the mysteries of Imaginary leakage phenomena, captured a Stellaron from beyond the heavens, and sealed it away.

She had saved the planet she was on from the brink of destruction nineteen times and paid audience to Aeons twice.

A genius like that, even if this was merely a puppet made by her original body, surely possessed exceptional scientific research capabilities.

Firefly admitted that Geats's future-human technology had some impressive aspects, but before Herta, it was child's play.

"Can't do it."

However, upon hearing that, Herta looked at Firefly and slapped the Providence Card onto the table, answering with complete confidence.

"Why? It's only a storage card, and we even have a sample. You can't make something this simple?"

Hearing the Herta puppet refuse, Firefly was highly skeptical. Even if she was not the real Herta, surely she was not that incapable!

"Simple?"

"You want something the size of a card to have 3 ZB of storage capacity, specialized data settings, perfect compatibility with the Vision Driver, and an ultra-high data transfer speed of 0.03 seconds."

"How is that simple? I already told you, I'm not the real Madam Herta. I only have basic artificial intelligence."

"And setting all that aside, just look at the demands you're making."

Hearing Firefly's words, the Herta puppet truly wanted to smack her with a hammer. Did Firefly really think a puppet could not get angry?!

She could even make colorful black, but the data specifications Firefly had requested were genuinely beyond her.

Even the appearance requirements alone were absurdly exacting!

Did Firefly really think she could just copy the sample and make something similar with a different outer shell?

It was simply impossible.

She was not one of Madam Herta's puppets meant to assist with research. She was merely one of over a hundred puppets, a body convenient for Madam Herta to control remotely.