A month slipped by unnoticed.
For Bai Luan, this month was a 'don't get flustered' challenge.
During this month, Herta didn't give up on the idea of making Bai Luan reveal another side of himself.
She started interacting with Bai Luan more frequently, unlike before when their interactions were strictly professional, related to his assistant duties.
A sudden closeness, an ambiguous tease, an 'accidental' physical touch...
This was a bit much for Bai Luan, who had been single since birth, so he was frequently caught off guard by Herta.
He often faltered, blushing, stammering, and his gaze darted away; all his defenses crumbled under her amused stare.
But the problem was, it wasn't time for a confession. While Herta was interested in him for the first time, these interactions were merely because she found his unusual demeanor interesting when she first met him.
This was the first step of liking someone, but not true love. It was a crush, far from the point of a confession.
Herta was, after all, one of only eighty-odd geniuses in the universe. To truly 'capture' her, one would at least need to be a genius on par with her.
Logically, the Herta in the Little Black Room should have been the same, but the issue was that Bai Luan had spent too much time with her.
It was true that Bai Luan had been 'marinated' by the Herta in the Little Black Room, but the process was mutual; Herta had also been 'marinated' by Bai Luan.
Anyway, the Herta in the Little Black Room now couldn't tolerate Bai Luan being with any other woman.
If that happened, she would immediately lose her cool.
After confronting his own feelings, Bai Luan's affection for Herta was naturally full.
So what Bai Luan needed to do now was to stay by Herta's side as usual, waiting for their affection to slowly grow.
From having a crush to liking someone,
and then from liking someone...
to something more than just liking.
The real-world Herta was currently still in the stage where she found teasing Bai Luan incredibly amusing.
Initially, Bai Luan's weaknesses were easy to exploit.
But as time went on, he developed some Herta-resistance, no longer so easily flustered by her.
Herta naturally quickly noticed Bai Luan's resistance increasing, and then...
she chose to accept the challenge and intensify her efforts.
This was like fighting a BOSS.
As the difficulty increased, so did the sense of accomplishment upon success. For Herta, this was also a kind of challenge.
In this way, it didn't seem like Bai Luan was trying to 'conquer' Herta; instead, it was Herta trying to 'conquer' Bai Luan.
It was very strange.
There was an absurd feeling, like he was thinking about how to defeat a BOSS, but then realized the BOSS was enthusiastically figuring out how to defeat him.
Bai Luan had also asked the Herta in the Little Black Room if this script was reversed, shouldn't he be the one doing something?
But the Herta in the Little Black Room said, "No, this is exactly how it should be."
"This is how the real-world me should slowly discover the perfect qualities of the perfect partner I created."
Why did it feel like the real-world Herta was being set up by the Herta in the Little Black Room?
The most outrageous part was that she was being set up by herself.
What could he do?
Who told him he liked Herta?
He was completely at her mercy.
Bai Luan smiled helplessly, and self-evaluated:
Poor Bai Luan is being played by Ms. Herta.
What he needed to do now was to stay with Herta, quietly waiting for her to have the same thoughts as the Herta in the Little Black Room.
As for the adjustments after becoming partners...
"What kind of adjustments do you need after being molded by the Herta in the Little Black Room?"
...
Although what you said is true, why does it feel strange?
Never mind.
Today, Herta was preparing to leave the Space Station. After a month of research, she had roughly explored everything there was to research in the simulated universe.
Any major breakthroughs after this would probably have to wait for the arrival of the Stellaron.
Herta's departure from the Space Station this time was also because she saw the report of Ruan Mei's failed life research in the newspaper.
The moment she saw the news, she prepared to bake a cake and then take it to congratulate Ruan Mei.
When it came to cooking, Herta naturally brought Bai Luan along, but she didn't give him much chance to help.
The end result was frequent explosions in Herta's Home kitchen.
Bai Luan...
wore a mech suit and accompanied her while she cooked.
Then he watched the kitchen explode repeatedly.
Bai Luan tried to salvage things, but it proved that the speed of the explosions was faster than his rescue efforts.
So, later, Bai Luan simply gave up.
Let it explode, I'll clean it up later.
Finally, Herta set off with a somewhat unappealing cake, leaving Bai Luan with a devastated kitchen to clean up.
Well, that was also part of an assistant's job.
After spending a little time restoring the kitchen to its original state, Bai Luan officially entered his 'slacking off' period, just as he had hoped a month ago.
No need to think about the simulated universe, no need to think about assisting geniuses; just decide whether to rest or pursue what he wanted to do next.
After a brief thought, Bai Luan decided to go out and play with the Anywhere Door again, since there was nothing else to do anyway.
However, before leaving, he still needed to make preparations, as both he and Herta would be absent from the Space Station after he left.
Although the Defense Department had been strengthened by him, and it was uncertain who would win if the Antimatter Legion attacked, he still had to consider the possibility of a sudden Antimatter Legion attack in his absence.
Hmm...
Or rather, the Antimatter Legion would only attack when he was absent, right?
After all, in Elio's script, this was an important scene for the Astral Express's debut.
If either he or Herta were on Herta Space Station, the Space Station's defense net would never be breached.
If he were Elio, he would definitely choose a time when both Herta and he were absent to create the Stellaron.
Considering the many Pathstriders in this world, without the Astral Express, the world's ending might lead to collapse.
So, he should go out and give the Stellaron Hunters a chance to act.
Otherwise, if a world-level mess occurred without a Stellaron, he would have to clean it up himself, which would be too much trouble.
However... before going out, he still needed to leave a safeguard.
Bai Luan found the Inspiration Shroom and upgraded its protective shield device again, ensuring that the Inspiration Shroom was absolutely safe under the protection of this shield.
Afterward, Bai Luan found Asta and gave her his first oddity.
"I'm going out for a while. You take this. If Herta Space Station encounters any trouble, just silently think 'I want to compete with Chizuru' and throw out the paper airplane."
Bai Luan glanced at Chizuru beside him. Bai Luan brought it with him on this trip, partly to protect it from the Antimatter Legion, and partly to keep it by his side to trigger the paper airplane's oddity effect.
Asta took the paper airplane and looked at it curiously. From her perspective, it was just a beautifully folded paper airplane, nothing special about it.
"This paper airplane... is it an Curio you created, Station Master?"
"Yes, and it's the first Curio I ever created."
To her surprise, upon hearing this, Asta's delicate brows furrowed, and her tone carried a hint of disapproval:
"That doesn't seem right, Station Master? Shouldn't you... give such a commemorative item to Ms. Herta?"
Bai Luan was stunned, then awkwardly scratched the bridge of his nose, saying:
"...Don't worry about my business with her."
Asta's face instantly bloomed into a bright, sparkling smile, as if she had caught onto excellent gossip:
"Heh, so there's something going on. Station Master, tell me, how far have you and Ms. Herta gotten?"
You sly Asta, you tricked me!
So Bai Luan shook his head and said:
"It's not convenient for me to reveal that, dear."
"Station Master, I can tell even if you don't say anything~ Ms. Herta just left, and you're leaving right after. It's clear you're both on the Space Station because the other is here."
"Yes."
Bai Luan didn't deny it, nodding.
"So when I'm gone, I'll entrust you with protecting this Space Station."
As soon as Bai Luan said this, Asta's expression instantly changed.
Her smile vanished, replaced by an extremely serious, earnest, and even sacred sense of mission.
It was as if she had received the highest directive to defend universal peace - or more accurately, to protect the smooth maturation of the love fruit of the couple she shipped.
"Leave it to me, Station Master!"
It was clear that those who wanted to win would not have smiles on their faces.
The Anywhere Door appeared silently behind Bai Luan. Bai Luan smiled and waved at Asta, then turned, opened the Anywhere Door, and stepped inside.
The Anywhere Door vanished.
Asta looked at the paper airplane in her hand.
Since the Station Master said this paper airplane could contact him, then it would definitely be able to contact him.
The Curio created by the Station Master were truly amazing.