"If you learn magic from me, I can help you get with Chen Li," Herta tempted her with a completely straight face.
"Are you misunderstanding something? I'm not interested in Chen Li," Sirin denied coolly.
"Oh... If you're not interested in him, then I guess I'll make a move on him."
"Fine, go ahead."
"Hmm?" Herta looked at Sirin suspiciously. This woman wasn't playing by the rules.
"What do you mean by that? Let's be open about it." Herta didn't know Sirin, so she didn't understand the meaning behind her words. But she was certain Sirin had ulterior motives regarding Chen Li.
If she doesn't have ulterior motives, I, Herta, will log into my main body and do 30,000 spins in Chen Li's bedroom!
"If you can manage to win him over with that puppet body of yours, then it means I can too. So go ahead," Sirin explained.
Since Chen Li wasn't present, Sirin didn't bother putting on an act.
"What do you mean, 'if I can, then you can too'? Who are you looking down on? Besides, if I really do manage to sweep him off his feet, aren't you going to be in tears?"
"Not a problem. I have this." A small pair of scissors appeared in Sirin's hand.
"Is that? The [Myriad Phenomena Severance] from Chen Li's Miracle Cards?" Having watched all of Chen Li's Miracle Cards out of curiosity, Herta recognized the scissors.
"That's right. So even if you do manage to snatch Chen Li, I'm not worried. I just need to snip the line of romantic fate between you and him, and then tie it to myself, right?" Sirin said smugly.
Simple, convenient, and fast! I, Sirin, am a genius.
The only problem now was that Sirin couldn't see the lines of romantic fate.
"There's something wrong with your view on love, isn't there?" Although Herta had never been in love, she felt that the young woman before her had a rather unconventional perspective on romance.
Normally, shouldn't a young woman in love do everything to ensure her beloved isn't stolen away by anyone else? What was this business of waiting for someone else to succeed and then snatching the prize from their hands? Was that what you call freeloading?
"I just want to obtain something. How I obtain it is not important. Besides, he was willing to create a parallel world for me. I'm in his heart!" Sirin's expression remained calm.
"..." Once again, Herta was witnessing the sheer diversity of organic life. Oh, my dear, this is so weird.
"But what if I were to give this conversation to Chen Li?" Herta mused for a moment, then produced a recording pen.
"???"
"Herta, you're despicable!" Sirin's eyes widened, and she quickly reached a hand into a newly opened portal beside her.
Her hand instantly appeared next to the recording pen in Herta's hand, but the pen suddenly vanished.
"I learned it from Chen Li," Herta said, having used the Friends Circle terminal to transport the recording pen to her main body. "And you don't need to be so wary of me. Don't worry, I won't fight you for a man. Besides, since you mentioned Chen Li created a parallel world for you, have you thought about how to repay that gift and stand on equal footing with him? A relationship between equals is the foundation of love," Herta continued.
"You sound like you know a lot about love."
"But of course," Herta said proudly.
What was love, anyway? You kiss me, I kiss you, then you get a marriage certificate. Too easy! To make it a bit more complicated, isn't it just that whoever confesses first, loses? Love is nothing more than another form of mind games. And since it's a battle of wits, there must be formulas. And as long as something has a formula, Herta, the genius, was confident she could crack it!
"Really?"
"I'm a genius. How could a genius possibly lie? A genius can do anything!"
"Then... let me ask you."
...
"What, did your talk break down?"
When Chen Li came back downstairs, he saw a perfectly calm Sirin and a listless Herta, curled up in a corner of the sofa, hugging her knees with her chin resting on them, seemingly in a bad state.
Ten minutes ago, Herta had asked Chen Li to go upstairs for a while to give her and Sirin some space alone, and he had agreed. But when he came back down, he found the situation was completely different from what he had imagined.
"Chen Li, tell me, am I useless?" Herta asked, hugging her legs on the sofa and turning to look at Chen Li as he walked over.
"Why would you think that? You're a member of the Genius Society, the pinnacle of human intellect on the azure planet, the famous Lady Herta," Chen Li said, a bit confused, but still giving his honest opinion.
"Then why can't I do anything?" Herta stared blankly at the coffee table in front of her.
"What's wrong with you?" Chen Li patted the Herta puppet's head, extremely curious.
"..."
"Sirin, what did you do to her?" Chen Li turned and asked in a low voice.
"Nothing. She said that as a genius, she could do anything, so I just asked her a few questions," Sirin said with an air of innocence.
"What questions?"
"First, I asked her if she could create a true parallel world and modify its fundamental laws. She said no."
"..."
"Then I asked her if she could travel through time to the past or future, severing time and manipulating its fate at will. She said no."
"..."
"Finally, I asked her, since she can't do anything, why did she say a genius can do anything? And then she became like this," Sirin said, pointing at the still-dazed Herta.
"..." Sirin, my dear, while having an anti-scam awareness is a good thing—you've already surpassed the famously gullible Innate Sacred Body of Being Scammed, the Herrscher of Sentience, by a huge margin!—but if you hit people where it hurts like that, you're not going to have any friends.
"Sirin, you can't compare her like that. The Curio Forger profession is special, so I can do things that even geniuses can't..."
"Ngh!" Halfway through his sentence, Chen Li heard what sounded like the Herta puppet taking another critical hit.
"Sorry, Herta, I'm not saying you're bad, I just mean... In short, Herta is amazing. In my opinion, all the Herrschers in the Honkai world need to study physics diligently, because the upper limits of your abilities are all very high," Chen Li said.
At the same time, Chen Li felt that Sirin didn't really need to learn all sorts of complex formulas as Herta suggested... In the world of A Certain Magical Index, science-side espers were divided into two types. One type developed their abilities through the Power Curriculum Program, by taking drugs or receiving electric shocks that severed their connection to normal reality, thus developing a reality unique to themselves. The other type were "Gemstones," born with their powers, true talents.
Aside from Gemstones, other espers needed to study to raise their ability levels, because they needed to perform precise calculations to release their powers.
Chen Li felt that Sirin, with the authority of the Herrscher of the Void, was more akin to a "Gemstone." She just needed to learn how to use her powers more easily. Of course, Chen Li was also worried that Sirin wouldn't be able to learn overly complex calculations at all.
Considering the science grades of Kiana, who was Sirin's "other half"... it was best not to be too harsh on the child. No, that wasn't right either, because Kiana's humanities grades weren't good either. But Kiana really did learn things quickly... The one and only designated speedrunner of the Sword of Taixu! That wasn't just a matter of being fast, was it?
"You're right, Chen Li. That's why I've already agreed to learn magic and how to use my abilities more accurately from the Herta puppet. According to Herta, for teaching this simple, her main body isn't needed. I just have to go to the space station tomorrow for an ability test, and she can quickly formulate a training plan for me to follow step-by-step," Sirin said.
"So you're saying Herta is like this purely because her ego was crushed?"
"Mhm," Sirin nodded.
"Ermm... Herta, you really are useless. So just sign the space station over to me. I'll take care of you," Chen Li said after a moment of thought.
Herta didn't speak. She just punched Chen Li in the head.
"Forget it, I've thought it through. I never should have compared myself to a cheater like you in the first place. It's like the Curios I collect and the Curios you forge are on completely different dimensional planes. Coming to our dimension to stomp on noobs... That's despicable, Chen Li!"
"You're right. But what if I were to forge a cheat for you?"
"Benefactor! If anyone dares to call you despicable, I'll be the first to fight them!" Herta immediately grasped Chen Li's hands.
"I preferred your defiant attitude from a moment ago," Chen Li deadpanned.
"So what kind of Curio are you going to forge for me? Is it free?" Herta asked.
"Alright, stop acting. Trying to get something for nothing by playing the sympathy card is impossible," Chen Li said with a smile, patting Herta's head. Herta, you're the despicable one right now!
"Was my performance that obvious?" Herta stroked her chin, seeming a bit reluctant to give up.
"How could the great Herta of the Genius Society be so easily defeated? Herta, I have more faith in you than I do in myself."
"Alas, perhaps it's as the ancient Xianzhou saying goes: 'Natural beauty is hard to forsake.' A woman like me is truly one of a kind," Herta subconsciously touched her own face.
"Alright, stop being so narcissistic. Herta, you should log off. I need to use this Herta puppet now."
"Use?" Herta turned to look at Chen Li, her gaze full of scrutiny.
"To spin in circles. I'm going to put three Herta puppets in my room and make them spin, from morning till night."
"Are you insane?"
"In any case, you should log off."
"Wait a moment, let me finish installing the [Act Cute and Beg for Curios Module] on this puppet. It's almost done, just 15% left," Herta said.
"What the hell kind of module is that?"
"Why do you think I was willing to give you three Herta puppets? To get my hands on your Curios, obviously. You didn't think I was after your body, did you?"
"I seem to recall you lost these three Herta puppets to me in a bet," Chen Li tilted his head.
"Don't worry about the details."
"Are you using your [Unreasonable Module] right now?"
"You don't need to worry about that either."
"Fine. I'm curious to see just how much this 'acting cute' module can actually accomplish."
Honestly, Chen Li was really looking forward to it.
---o---