Herta Wants to Buy My Avatar? Sugar Mommy, Please Show Some Restraint

The last words from the communications screen still hung in the air.

Overhead, the alloy ceiling gave a dull mechanical scrape.

A concealed panel slid open.

Thud.

A puppet in a purple-and-white dress dropped straight down.

It slammed into the VIP Lounge's velvet carpet.

Without pausing, the puppet planted both hands on the floor. Gears in her joints clicked rapidly into place.

She sprang up.

She darted around the coffee table, her short legs a blur, and charged straight at Su Chen on the edge of the sofa.

Her shoes made a rapid series of muffled thumps across the carpet.

Half a meter from Su Chen's knees, she stopped.

The Herta puppet slammed on the brakes.

The sight of those three puppets losing their heads was still fresh in her mind. She didn't dare reach out and touch him.

The puppet tipped her head back.

Her exquisite mechanical eyes gleamed with undisguised greed.

She looked like a gambler who hadn't eaten in three days and had just spotted a mountain of solid gold.

"Sell me the logic behind that reverse-intrusion code."

Herta's voice came from the puppet's mouth, the words firing out like a machine gun.

Su Chen ignored her.

He looked down, his golden eyes fixed on the little hat atop the puppet's head.

Inside his boot, his right toes quietly clenched around the insole.

The numbness in his leg had barely faded, and now the arch of his foot was cramping.

"Ten million Credits? No, a hundred million."

When he said nothing, Herta raised her offer.

"The Interastral Peace Corporation's highest-tier anonymous Black Card. I'll have Asta bring it to you right now."

Su Chen stopped breathing for half a second.

A hundred million.

Just yesterday, he'd spent three minutes debating whether to add a marinated egg to his instant noodles.

Now a hundred million in cash had been dropped in his lap.

His Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily.

"Not enough?"

Herta planted her hands on her hips and leaned her puppet body forward.

"Fair enough. Putting a price on technology that can crush the Stellaron Hunters is rather vulgar."

She bit the joint of her thumb.

Her mechanical fingers clacked sharply.

"Then let's make a different deal."

Herta's eyes shone with alarming intensity as she leaned close enough to nearly touch Su Chen's face.

"I want a drop of your blood."

"No, a small piece of skin would do. I only need a tiny biological sample!"

A cold sweat broke out on Welt as he listened.

He planted his cane another half inch forward.

A god's blood?

That was no different from slapping an Aeon across the face.

Herta couldn't have cared less about anyone else's safety. The unknown energy was all she could think about.

"Just say yes."

"Half the shares in Herta Space Station are yours."

"Patent royalties, research funding, even the station's interstellar tax exemptions—I'll give you half!"

Only the crackle of burning logs in the holographic fireplace filled the VIP Lounge.

Inside his sleeves, Su Chen clenched his fists tight.

His nails dug into his palms, leaving several pale crescent marks.

Half a space station.

A universe-class research center, no less.

With a single nod, he could own enough wealth to buy several planets.

He could lie on a bed made of solid gold and count money until his hands cramped.

Say yes.

Hurry up and say yes!

Su Chen screamed inwardly.

All he had to do was hold out a finger for a needle prick, and he'd never have to worry about money in this life or the next two.

But reason poured over his head like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing the frenzy in his mind.

I can't sell it.

If someone got a biological sample from an avatar of the Myriad Worlds Role-Playing System and analyzed it, who knew what might go wrong?

More importantly, he was the Fourth Seat of the Imaginary Divine Court.

He was a supreme being who treated Aeons as subjects to be contained.

Would a leader of the Divine Court sell his blood for half a lousy space station?

If his persona fell apart, everything he'd done to look impressive would become a joke.

If the Astral Express Crew and Herta saw through him and discovered he was an empty shell, he wouldn't get any shares. He wouldn't even make it out of the VIP Lounge.

Su Chen released his fists.

His chest rose and fell slowly.

He looked away from Herta and stared straight ahead at the gray-white wall.

The weighty divinity of Rex Lapis took hold of his body once more.

"How could mortal possessions measure the body of a god?"

A cool, mature woman's voice rang through the room.

There was no anger in it, and no mockery.

Only a calm so absolute it inspired despair.

Su Chen lifted his chin slightly.

Two words left his lips, heavy as a mountain.

"Step back."

With those words, dense Geo energy surged from beneath his robes.

It did not form a Jade Shield.

It was pure pressure, unleashed.

The air instantly felt heavier than mercury.

A few specks of dust drifting through the VIP Lounge were dragged straight down to the carpet by the force.

The Copper Kettle on the coffee table gave a faint, strained whine.

The Herta puppet took the full brunt of it.

She saw no movement from the woman before her. It felt as though an invisible metal wall had slammed into her chest.

The miniature gyroscope inside the puppet blared an alarm.

Gears spun wildly without catching.

"Ah!"

Herta cried out.

The puppet's feet slid backward across the carpet beyond her control.

They plowed two deep furrows through the soft pile.

She slid back a full two meters.

Only when her back struck the edge of the solid-wood coffee table did she finally stop.

The white porcelain teacup on the table rocked twice and nearly fell.

The pressure vanished as quickly as it had come.

Su Chen withdrew the Geo energy.

He didn't dare keep it up for long. He might crush this rich woman's puppet again.

She had offered him a hundred million, after all. He couldn't take it, but he still wanted to stay on her good side.

Herta steadied herself.

The puppet's mechanical neck turned with two sharp clicks.

She stared at the woman on the sofa, whose posture hadn't changed at all. Her mechanical eyes brimmed with frustration.

In that brief instant, her scanner hadn't caught so much as a spike of energy.

Such absolute power made her curiosity feel ready to burst.

But she knew the woman really would kill.

The Doomsday Beast's corpse in outer space wasn't even cold yet.

"Stingy."

The Herta puppet crossed her arms and turned her head away in a huff.

"If you won't sell, just say so. No need to act so mysterious."

She lifted a round-toed shoe and kicked the wooden leg of the coffee table hard.

Thump.

The sound stood out in the quiet room.

The awkwardness was almost unbearable.

Welt watched from the side, his blood pressure rising.

The station's owner was used to throwing her weight around in the Genius Society. How could she fail to read the situation this badly?

If the Fourth Seat decided to kill them, all of them together couldn't withstand a single blow from her.

Welt's fingers tightened around his cane.

He wondered how many fractions of a second Eden's Star Mimic could buy them if the Fourth Seat attacked.

The answer was zero.

The atmosphere turned icy.

Himeko glanced at Welt's whitening knuckles.

She took a soft breath and let go of her portable cutting gun.

Her red heels clicked against the hardwood floor.

She walked straight to the coffee table.

She placed herself between the Herta puppet and Su Chen.

"Lady Herta, please show our honored guest some courtesy."

Himeko's voice was gentle, but it carried a firmness that left no room for argument.

She turned around.

With her back to Herta, she faced Su Chen on the sofa.

An elegant, gracious smile replaced the tension on her face.

She bent slightly and picked up the copper-colored temperature-controlled kettle with both hands.

Her movements were gentle, as though no confrontation had taken place.

Himeko met the female lord's still, golden eyes.

"My lady, would you care to try some coffee I brewed myself?"