"Even the Erudition Aeon Nous probably couldn't do it, right…?"
"Undeniably, when it comes to understanding certain aspects of Aeons, I don't have much of a lead over you."
Even with Herta's knowledge, after thinking about the question Stelle raised, she still felt a chill.
She did not deny this possibility, even though the probability was extremely, extremely low.
Stelle's phone rang.
"Hello, Leon, what's up?"
Seeing the caller, Stelle answered without hesitation.
"I wanted to know if Herta was abusing you. From your tone, it seems not."
"No no no, Dr. Leon, I'm being abused by Herta. She's making me test the Simulated Universe day and night…"
Herta: "???"
This little brat…
She eats well and sleeps well, yet she dares to say she's being abused.
Leon couldn't help but smile.
With such overflowing vitality, it was naturally impossible for her to be abused by Herta. Moreover, the latter would not do such a thing to Stelle.
"On to business. Bei… Oh? Himeko is back. Let her talk to you."
Leon turned on speakerphone, and Himeko's voice came through.
"It's like this. We plan to stay in the Xianzhou Luofu star region for one more system month before heading to the next destination. If nothing unexpected happens, the timing will be just right."
"Staying one more month means we'll leave in February. That's quite a long time."
"Hehe… Originally after Jarilo-VI, we planned to travel all the way… but now because of some… never mind."
Himeko's voice suddenly stopped.
"What, what? Don't stop halfway."
"Sigh… Himeko, you did that on purpose, didn't you?" Leon smiled helplessly.
Himeko did not deny it.
"You always like to keep serious matters bottled up in your heart. If something happens, it will make the children worry even more."
Stelle keenly sensed something was off and guessed:
"Could it be that something big happened again on the Luofu?"
Himeko: "Didn't you catch it? It's not the Luofu, it's Leon."
"Huh?"
"Simply put, there's something wrong with my memories. I need to deal with those things that shouldn't continue to exist…"
Leon's tone was calm, as if it wasn't anything serious.
"Since it involves memories, and we are not Pathstriders of the Remembrance path, one careless move could easily cause big problems."
"So I need a period of quiet time to focus on handling this matter properly."
Stelle frowned slightly: "Is it a problem caused by me?"
After all, in Leon's past memories, she definitely had not completely followed the historical direction.
"It's not. Don't overthink it."
"How serious is it?"
"Not serious. I just didn't expect that after waking up one day, my strength would regress a lot. Damn it, it must be a setup by capital. I have to solve the root of the problem."
"Ah… How much did you regress?"
"Hmm, I might not be able to beat Sushang…?"
Upon hearing this, Stelle's eyes widened.
It could be said that no one on the entire Express crew understood Leon's combat power better than her.
It was true that the Sky Haven Clan itself was not good at offense.
But Leon was different. She didn't know why—perhaps due to acquired learning, or maybe something else.
The giant dragon grand array he used against Phantylia back then, thinking about it now, was definitely not a power of the Sky Haven Clan…
Anyway, the reason wasn't important for now.
Just taking the experience in Izumo as an example, Leon possessed combat power on the same level as Raiden Bosenmori Mei.
She didn't have a clear concept of that level of power, but she could find a comparable unit.
In his oni form during the final battle against Raiden Bosenmori Mei, that state should not have fallen into much disadvantage against the double Path power form of the Destruction Emanator Phantylia.
Stelle knew her own weight. To put it nicely, she was a multi-Path strider.
To put it unpleasantly, several of her Paths were still in the starting stage and hadn't gone far, after all—
The length of time since her birth was right there.
Her greatest progress was all learned and integrated from Leon's past memories, with some concept of stealing techniques.
But now Leon was saying he might not even be able to win against Sushang.
Sushang was young; her cultivation definitely couldn't be that high.
A ten-thousand-year-old senior… losing to a junior? Wasn't this serious?
However, Stelle didn't voice what she knew in her heart.
"Since we're staying longer, then I'll have plenty of time to mess around. After finishing things at the space station, I might even go back to Belobog to take a look, hehe…"
"Going back to Belobog? Bring me along then!"
March 7th became interested and suddenly interjected.
Stelle narrowed her eyes and smiled: "Definitely!"
"That sounds great, but… I can't use the domain anchor for such a long distance, and it's not suitable to use it that way…"
"It's no big deal. Herta is good at long-distance retrieval anyway. Just let her help."
???
Several black lines appeared on Herta's face as she couldn't help but glare at Stelle.
She, the great Lady Herta, Emanator of Erudition, a genius with a resounding reputation, was being treated as a galactic shuttle driver?
If word got out, what would people think!
Stelle knew exactly what Herta's look meant and pointed at the Simulated Universe device.
Herta rolled her eyes.
"Picking someone up is just a flick of the finger for me."
What a nasty and mischievous little brat!
She really wanted to open up her chest cavity and take out the Stellaron to give it a good disciplining.
March 7th didn't catch the restrained tone in Herta's voice and couldn't help cheering.
"Yay!"
"Let's leave it here for now. I have to continue working for Herta."
"Alright then."
"Wait, I have something to say to you!" Herta spoke up in time, preventing anyone from hanging up the call.
Everyone was surprised but tactfully did not ask.
"Stelle, give the phone to Herta."
"Okay."
Grabbing Stelle's phone, Herta waved her hand and activated something unknown, completely isolating her voice.
...
Leon: "Feel free to speak."
"Then I'll be direct. Tell me, what is divinity?"
"…Why do all you people walking the Erudition path like to ask this."
"Who else asked you?" Herta's gaze sharpened.
"Polka Kakamond."
"..."
Leon knew that members of the Genius Club could almost all learn of his existence if they wanted to.
Therefore, he had never hidden the fact that his actual total age was terrifying.
"I still can't figure out why she wanted to attack you. Doesn't she only kill geniuses?"
"Then do you understand why Kakamond attacks geniuses?"
"I don't."
Herta told the truth, not feeling the slightest shame in answering this way as a genius.
Leon: "Because of variables."
"Oh?"
"Picking the simplest reason and the most common way to describe it: Kakamond has the ability to come through the network cable and kill people."
Leon explained patiently.
"The rigorous version is: the network cable equals the chain of causality."
"And my existence can distort the chain of causality, thereby destroying her domain and nullifying her abilities."
"In other words, Kakamond is nothing but fish on the chopping board in front of me. I am her natural enemy, an uncontrollable variable."
"However, Kakamond still made a move against me once."
"Personally, I guess that my existence might affect the path she is walking, which is why she wanted to kill me."
Herta asked doubtfully: "If that's the case, why didn't you kill her? You don't look like someone who would show great mercy."
"Hmm, you really know how to read people. I only spared her life after considering one possibility."
Leon chuckled softly and threw the question back with a meaningful tone.
"Who knows, maybe her behavior of killing geniuses is something Nous tacitly approves of, or even—instigates…"
...
...
The real 1.3 version main storyline ended and they were supposed to go to Penacony, but there were still 3 more versions after that.
Putting this timeline into a novel, it was really hard to round it off.
Since things had come to this, he might as well bully big black Herta a bit.