It is well known that Bai Luan is a master in the art of ""ushing oneself to the brink."
This "honor" is mainly due to the devilish study sessions he constantly held in the Little Black Room.
Over time, this precise grasp of his own limits spawned a skill:
He can now discern a person's capabilities with just a few glances and "thoughtfully" tailor a workload that is just at their breaking point—one more bit would collapse them, one less would not be extreme enough.
The extreme warrior challenges the extreme.
However, though Bai Luan possessed this unique skill, he did not use it lightly, for he knew the pain of overtime.
Why should one beast of burden make it difficult for another?
Unless it was a special circumstance, Bai Luan would not make others work overtime.
But Lars was an exception.
Although Lars subjectively had no intention of dragging Bai Luan into the abyss of overtime, objectively, Bai Luan's overtime was indeed caused by him.
Bai Luan could not sleep until he put that kid in the same situation as himself.
When Lars left with a pained expression, Bai Luan felt refreshed and at ease.
Although the difficulty of the projects they faced was vastly different, they could experience the same feelings.
"You little brat, now you can truly experience what kind of life I usually lead."
"Everyone has their own prison to sit in, and everyone has a 'beautiful' future. How nice."
After feeling refreshed, Bai Luan began to ponder subsequent countermeasures.
Previously, in order to free himself up quickly to search for the so-called "mastermind", he had inevitably pushed himself to the limit when creating the simulated universe dlc.
Presumably, Ruan Mei and Screwllum's evaluation of him had improved again.
Alas, who would have thought that in the end there was no conspiracy at all; everything that had happened was truly just a series of absurd coincidences.
The biggest culprit was still himself; he had single-handedly promoted Lars's continuous growth, enabling him to discover his curio.
What kind of situation is this… If he had known the outcome would be like this, he wouldn't have worked so hard on the simulated universe dlc.
Now he should think about how to lower the evaluation that had been raised by his desperate efforts on the simulated universe dlc.
It's decided!
From now on, the brand new strategy for dealing with these geniuses will be officially implemented—do nothing at all.
Commonly known as slacking off.
This was truly out of helplessness; adopting a slacking attitude to lower the geniuses overly high expectations of him was a last resort after exhausting all other options.
There was no other way; all other tricks had been tried, and not only were they ineffective, but they always turned into boomerangs.
If I do nothing, a boomerang can't just appear out of nowhere, right?
Although Bai Luan began to try the slacking strategy, he honestly didn't have much faith in it.
Could the simplest act of slacking off achieve what so many elaborate schemes had failed to accomplish?
Now Bai Luan no longer hoped that slacking off would lower the geniuses evaluation of him; maintaining the status quo would be good enough.
After finalizing the "stability maintenance" strategy, Bai Luan set off to return and report back to Herta.
Herta was not in her office, but in a laboratory.
She probably had another flash of inspiration, caught an interesting idea, and couldn't wait to implement it.
Bai Luan opened the laboratory door and walked in.
The hatch behind him silently slid shut, and he cast his gaze towards the center of the laboratory—Herta stood alone in front of the control panel.
Hmm… Screwllum and Ruan Mei seemed to be absent; only Herta was here alone.
It seemed she chose not to share this sudden inspiration with her allies.
Bai Luan stepped forward, and suddenly, a faint sense of unease flickered through his mind.
Now, in this sealed laboratory, there were only him and Herta.
It had been some time since he returned from Penacony, and during this period, he had almost entirely devoted himself to accelerating the production of the simulated universe dlc, hoping to free himself up quickly to catch the "mastermind".
This also meant… that during this time, he had almost no opportunity to be alone with Herta.
In other words, Herta had not found a suitable time to question him about why he had secretly developed the simulated universe dlc behind her back.
If he considered it this way… then this sudden private moment alone wouldn't be very bad, would it?
Bai Luan started to sweat profusely.
Is it still too late to leave the laboratory now?
Thinking this, he shook his head vigorously again.
No!
What's with this subtle feeling of being caught in the act?
I just secretly made a simulated universe dlc, why am I feeling this way?
『One simply has to marvel at the superb training methods of the one in the Little Black Room』
…Don't make it sound like I was playing some weird game with Herta in the Little Black Room, okay?
『Was't it? (Strokes chin thoughtfully)』
『I always thought I was part of your play』
What the hell!
Always so unserious!
"Ah, yes, yes, yes."
"A cosmic scoundrel criticizing a system that works hard writing papers every day for being unserious."
I thought you seemed quite amused when I was messing around?
Thanks to the system's banter, Bai Luan felt that subtle sense of guilt dissipate considerably.
He composed himself, walked over to Herta, and with a perfectly calibrated hint of curiosity, he spoke:
"Ms. Herta, do you have another new idea?"
"Nothing much, just a small study on 'teleportation'."
Hmm… a faint alarm bell rang in Bai Luan's mind.
From his understanding of Herta, her "small study"/" was definitely not as simple as it sounded.
It would be best not to inquire further; he felt that if he asked one more question, tons of "practical work" would be dumped on him the next second.
Fortunately, Herta also had no interest in continuing the topic and did not discuss it further.
"What were you doing just now?"
At the mention of this, Bai Luan almost couldn't hold back.
Presumably, Lars was frantically scratching his head trying to figure out how to complete the assignment he had left him, right?
"I found a very interesting person, and then did something very interesting."
Bai Luan said with a smile, his tone carrying a hint of mischievous pleasure at having succeeded.
Herta heard this, shifted her gaze from the data stream, and glanced at him.
"Male or female?"
That light question instantly made Bai Luan break out in a sweat again.
"Ms. Herta, it's Lars."
"Who is Lars?"
"He's the Staff Member who was present when Station Master Asta reported discovering my curio to you."
"Ah… that little fellow."
Herta seemed to recall him.
"Speaking of which, if it weren't for him, your little secret might not have been discovered."
The topic subtly veered towards a dangerous direction again, and Bai Luan decided to try to shift the focus once more:
"I find Lars quite interesting, so I decided to give him some training."
"Oh, is that so."
Herta nodded, then her all-seeing eyes refocused on him, and the question came as expected:
"Why did you hide the simulated universe from This Genius?"
Bai Luan smiled at that:
"Can we change the subject?"
Herta said nothing, merely crossed her arms with an air of composure, giving him a faint look that said, "What do you think?"
"The reason… I've told you before, Ms. Herta, it's because I felt that the simulated universe dlc I made wasn't mature enough."
"It seems you"ve missed the point; This Genius isn't asking about that."
Herta corrected him.
"The point isn't that you secretly went to make the simulated universe, but—why did you hide it from This Genius?"
"I am very sorry, Ms. Herta, it won't happen again."
"Considering how 'hard' you worked for the simulated universe this time…"
Herta's tone carried a hint of playfulness.
"I'll let it slide this time."
Bai Luan breathed a sigh of relief, not expecting that his hard work on the simulated universe could save him here.
"However."
Herta's voice sounded again.
"If there's a next time, then This Genius will have to consider how to 'control' you."
A strong sense of foreboding rose in his heart, and Bai Luan, with utmost caution, tentatively spoke:
"Th-that… could you disclose what specific method that would be?"
"For example…"
Herta smiled, intentionally drawing out her words.
"Giving you su~per~ many~ work assignments."
『This is Ms. Herta giving you overtime. Do you dare to meet her gaze?』
Bai Luan: Scared to tears.
It seems he can never do this again in this lifetime.
Enjoying Bai Luan's undisguised expression of fear, Herta's lips curved into a pleased arc, deciding to add fuel to the fire.
"Of course, This Genius has more than one way to 'control' you."
She took a step forward, subtly closing the distance, her voice carrying a faint, elusive hint of temptation.
"If you behave well… perhaps, This Genius will 'control' you in another way."
She leaned in slightly, her lowered voice like a whisper, her warm breath caressing him:
"For example… using that 'thing' you mentioned you really wanted, from the reward opportunity you used before."
Bai Luan looked at Herta, who was so close, her exquisitely beautiful face and eyes with a teasing smile were incredibly impactful…
If you use this trick on me, What can I do but obey?