"Oh, right! Mr. Su Ran— you requested another batch of materials for space station construction. Are you planning to expand your own station again?"
Thinking about how Jade would soon be arriving with a shipment of materials, Asta couldn't help but ask what Su Ran was planning this time.
It wasn't that she lacked money—
But constantly supplying materials like this was starting to stretch her limits.
Asta was wealthy, but not wealthy enough to casually purchase a full batch of space-station-grade materials every single month.
It wasn't that she couldn't afford it—
The problem was that all these materials were Herta's personal requests, which meant Asta had to pay out of her own pocket.
Thankfully, there was no requirement for her to participate in construction itself, otherwise labor costs alone would've been another astronomical expense.
She could afford to buy a planet-destroying battleship, sure—
But she couldn't sustain monthly bulk purchases of massive construction materials.
On the surface, it looked like Su Ran was spending Herta's money.
In reality?
He was burning through Asta's allowance.
Without realizing it, she had become Su Ran's sugar mommy.
Sure, as a top-tier CP sponsor, spending money to support her ship was perfectly normal—
But this was asking for way too much.
If this kept up, she'd be forced to return home and inherit the family business.
Otherwise, she simply wouldn't be able to keep up.
"Oh, no. I'm not expanding my space station," Su Ran replied.
"I'm planning to build a Stargate."
"…But don't you already have that teleportation device?"
"Wouldn't this be redundant?"
Asta didn't understand why he'd do something so seemingly pointless.
A Stargate—no matter how useful
Couldn't even transport a star.
More importantly, building a Stargate required an entire space station's worth of materials.
Yet Su Ran could build his teleportation device using scraps found inside a space station.
The cost-performance difference was absurd.
From her perspective, this was pure waste.
Asta couldn't stand this kind of extravagant spending—
Especially when it was her money being wasted.
And after seeing Su Ran casually build better devices by scavenging trash—
She felt even more like a complete sucker.
"No, no. The teleportation device is private," Su Ran explained.
"I don't plan to open it to the public. Right now, only Herta and I can use it."
"If I started distributing access rights, I'd be the one losing out."
Even though Su Ran wasn't a ruler or a merchant, he understood one thing very clearly—
Advanced technology should always stay in your own hands.
That level of tech was absolutely not something outsiders should use.
Herta was the sole exception, because she had helped him immensely—and he trusted her.
But others?
No.
Even Asta.
Not because she was untrustworthy, but because behind her stood the Interastral Peace Corporation.
Giving her access wouldn't be a gift—
It would be a poisoned chalice.
The IPC would stop at nothing to squeeze information out of her.
Asta simply couldn't withstand that kind of pressure.
"She's not Herta."
"The Stargate is lower-tier technology," Su Ran continued.
"I can allow broader access. As long as they pay, they can use it."
Asta understood the words—
But not the logic.
"Then why does inferior technology cost more?"
Shouldn't advanced technology be more expensive?
Why was Su Ran doing everything in reverse?
Was he taking advantage of her lack of technical knowledge?
"Because Stargates are larger," Su Ran said matter-of-factly.
"So they consume more materials. What's wrong with that?"
He looked genuinely confused by her question.
Wasn't this basic common sense?
"…."
That completely natural response made Asta even more speechless.
At this moment, she suddenly felt that Lady Herta was incredibly normal.
Because who on earth judged the cost of technology by physical size?
Bigger = more expensive?
Smaller = cheaper?
The technological gap between Stargates and teleportation devices was astronomical.
If the IPC had the chance, they'd happily pay billions of Stargates' worth of money just to acquire Su Ran's teleportation device.
That gap wasn't thousands of times—
It was incalculable.
Transporting stars alone was a technology that had never existed in the universe.
It was something people only speculated about.
No one believed it could be achieved in this era.
Yet someone had done it.
And the device itself was smaller than many supercomputers.
"Mr. Su Ran… may I ask you something?"
"Does your ability to invent… have no ceiling?"
Asta seriously suspected that Su Ran's technological level was tens of millions of years ahead of the current universe.
That was the only explanation for why his understanding of technology was so fundamentally different from everyone else's.
"Probably," Su Ran nodded.
"I feel like even a miniature universe is doable—if I have enough time."
He openly agreed with her suspicion.
He didn't even know where his upper limit was.
If he ever got his hands on a living Aeon, mass production might not even be out of the question.
"I understand now!"
Asta took a deep breath.
She was unusually calm.
Maybe it was resignation.
Maybe acceptance.
But she finally understood how terrifying the man before her truly was.
He seemed more approachable than Lady Herta—
Yet in reality, he was far more distant from ordinary beings.
Is this what a genius among geniuses looks like?
Even after hearing the story of Cecilia, Asta had never felt someone so absurd.
This felt like witnessing in real life.
Geniuses shattered expectations with miracles.
deus ex machinaSu Ran shattered worldviews with divine intervention.
No wonder Lady Herta openly admitted inferiority.
"But Stargates would need to be deployed across the entire universe, wouldn't they?"
"I can't possibly fund that. Even the IPC couldn't."
How many civilizations existed in the universe?
No one could count them.
And Stargates couldn't be few in number.
The universe was vast.
Sentient beings were minuscule.
Even traveling one-billionth of the distance between stars was an impossible journey for most species.
To be practical, Stargates would have to be everywhere—
To the point where even the IPC couldn't afford the construction cost.
For a moment, Asta even thought—
If Su Ran truly connected the universe through Stargates, he'd become the next Aeon of Trailblaze.
But was that even possible?
Even with the technology, who could pay the cost?
"No need to worry," Su Ran said calmly.
"One Stargate's worth of materials is enough."
"Do you know the law of conservation of energy?"
"I do… but when you say it, I suddenly don't feel like I do anymore."
If there was anyone capable of breaking the law of conservation of energy—
Asta would nominate Su Ran without hesitation.
He'd been breaking common sense nonstop.
"Then you understand equivalent exchange, right?"
"That, I understand."
"Good."
"If there exists a machine capable of performing equivalent exchange, then by investing a fixed cost, I can convert it into whatever I need."
Asta could only sigh at his naivety.
"But such a machine doesn't exist."
The theory aligned with conservation laws
But reality didn't.
"How do you know it can't be built if you don't try?"
Su Ran smiled mysteriously.
"…."
Asta:
I truly cannot understand why the universe allows someone like Mr. Su Ran to exist.
—------------------------------
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