"…How come you didn't change?" Seeing that Chen Li hadn't turned into a Yingying after the pink light faded, the Great Herta was quite disappointed.
"…" by Chen Li.
"I'm a Curio Forger, and I currently hold the usage rights to this Curio. Isn't it normal for me to be immune? What exactly were you hoping for?"
"Because I thought a Little Chen Li would probably be very cute. And I feel like you're under a lot of stress and need to let it out," the Great Herta said.
"Even if I needed to let it out, it wouldn't be here. Don't I, a Genius Society Member and Curio Forger, have a reputation to maintain?"
"Doesn't your Curio make people around you habitually ignore the user? I really think you're under a lot of stress," the Great Herta said, putting on an expression of deep concern for his well-being.
"I'll believe you when pigs fly."
"Emmm… how about this. You let me see what Little Chen Li looks like, and you can pick any Curio you want from the Herta Space Station. How about it?"
"That's not a good idea…"
"…" Ruan Mei, standing to the side, wanted to say something but held her tongue. She had a feeling this conversation was not quite right, but she couldn't put her finger on why.
"Just one look. Whatever Curio you want, I'll give it to you."
"But you already owe me a lot of Curios."
"A few more debts won't hurt. At worst, I'll just give you the Herta Space Station later."
"No thanks. I don't have a useful subordinate like Asta to manage the space station's operations," Chen Li shook his head.
"Then I'll make you the Crown Prince of the Herta Space Station."
"But isn't the Crown Prince Little Herta?"
"Speaking of Little Herta… will she also turn into a Yingying?" The Great Herta suddenly thought of this question.
"Little Herta was just born not long ago. What kind of psychological stress could she have? No, wait, that's not necessarily true… bearing the body of Nihility might put a considerable strain on her."
"Yīng yīng yīng!" Just as Chen Li and the Great Herta were pondering this, a familiar sound echoed.
Little Little Herta rushed into the cabin and ran up to Chen Li, the Great Herta, and Ruan Mei, pulling snacks out of her basket.
"I knew something was missing. Wait, why is the portion of snacks she gave to them about the same as the portion she gave me?" The Great Herta fell into deep thought as she looked at the snacks, which had been divided equally into three portions.
Has this Little Little Herta already learned to divide her love equally among three people at such a young age? She's destined for greatness!
"What are you thinking about now?" After giving up on her train of thought, the Great Herta turned to find Chen Li also lost in thought and asked.
"I'm thinking, does Little Little Herta count as a kind of Vita?"
"Who is Vita?"
"Oh, that's the name of my memo pad."
Speaking of which, Chen Li glanced at his memo pad.
Vita still hadn't replied to him. She was probably still sleeping. Chen Li was genuinely worried Vita would sleep straight through to the grand finale.
And that Aqua hadn't replied either. Heaven knows what those two were up to.
Putting aside whether he would forge a Curio to help Aqua return to the celestial realm, Chen Li was genuinely interested in the skill system of that world. He really wanted to combine the profession system of KonoSuba with his home world's system; it might turn out to be very interesting.
"Chen Li, it is the destiny of us geniuses to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of experimenting with Curios. Look, both Ruan Mei and I have made our sacrifice. Isn't it only appropriate for you to make one too?" After watching Little Little Herta run off with her basket, the Great Herta, guessing she was probably going to find Asta, turned her attention back to Chen Li.
"It's very appropriate. Perfectly appropriate. What is there to experiment on? If you don't understand something, you can just ask." Chen Li took out the [Then I Ask You] Miracle Card.
"A result obtained like that would have no soul…"
"Then go find the Aeon of Erudition tomorrow. Don't use my Miracle Card."
"But then again…"
"I still prefer your rebellious attitude from before. If you really want to see Little Chen Li, it's not like I can't satisfy you, but…"
"But what?"
"I want to see you personally perform the spinning."
"What kind of ridiculous request is that? Can't you ask for something more serious?"
"What do you mean, 'a serious request'?"
"Like power, wealth, that sort of thing."
"If I wanted those things, couldn't I just ask the Xianzhou Alliance directly?" Chen Li said with a shrug.
"That's true. Or you could just ask the Interastral Peace Corporation," the Great Herta nodded.
"…" Ruan Mei, standing silently to the side, felt like Chen Li and Herta were treating the Xianzhou Alliance and the IPC like their personal ATMs. The crucial part was that these two organizations, arguably the largest powers in the Star Rail world, were actually willing to provide the funding.
"So, how about it?"
"Deal," the Great Herta nodded.
Chen Li glanced up at the Entry he was currently extracting.
[Spinning] Entry extraction in progress…
Progress: 2/3 (Having different models of Herta perform the spinning in front of you can increase progress)
The Herta puppets had spun. Little Herta had spun. All that was left was the Great Herta.
After securing the Great Herta's promise, Chen Li directly tossed the [Mengyin Shen] to her.
"Yīng yīng yīng," the Great Herta chose to activate the Curio immediately.
The heart-shaped pendant once again bloomed with a pink light, but this time, its range only covered a ten-meter radius.
As the light gradually faded, under the Great Herta's expectant gaze, Chen Li's Yingying form successfully materialized!
"…See, I told you Chen Li needed to release some stress. His Yingying form is almost 1.2 meters tall," the Great Herta said with an "I knew it" expression.
"Perhaps. For him, forging each Curio is probably a gamble. It seems he's testing the limits of the world's endurance while also considering the potential side effects each Curio might bring," Ruan Mei nodded.
The Revival Games Curio was a prime example. If Chen Li had truly lifted the viewing and approval restrictions…
Day 1: Everyone is watching ads.
Day 2: All the dead Aeons are resurrected.
Day 3: The Aeons with grudges start seeking revenge… and the passionate free-for-all begins!
Day 4: The Star Rail world is no more.
And when forging the Mara-Struck Curio for the Xianzhou, Chen Li also had to consider whether the followers of Abundance would take the opportunity to attack if all the Xianzhou people turned into Yingyings, or if having the entire population release their stress on the same day would paralyze the Xianzhou's social order, and so on…
Wanting to create miracles while being afraid of destroying the world—it would be strange if he wasn't stressed.
"Little Chen Li is still the cutest. So well-behaved, so soft and squishy. Let me have a feel…" The Great Herta reached out for Chen Li. He tried to dodge, but failed.
"He tried to dodge but couldn't. That means your relationship is pretty good. Ruan Mei, want to have a feel? He's soft and springy, very comfortable to hug," the Great Herta said after picking Chen Li up like a doll.
"…" Ruan Mei was indeed curious, as she had never touched a Yingying before.
And when Ruan Mei tentatively reached out, Chen Li tried to dodge again, but failed.
"I suddenly have a great idea…" Just as Chen Li gave up resisting and took some gold coin chocolates from his basket to offer to the two of them, a flash of inspiration struck the Great Herta.
"What are you planning to do?" Ruan Mei, who had just unwrapped a gold coin chocolate and put it in her mouth, was not very reassured by the Great Herta's "great idea."
"Do you know Sirin?"
"Mhm, I do. I saw her complaining in the group chat about the training plan you made for her, saying she felt it was impossible to complete," Ruan Mei nodded.
"I just built a cabin for Sirin that blocks spatial teleportation and had her practice teleporting items to fixed points on a schedule. If Chen Li ditches her in the future, she can still use this skill to deliver takeout…"
"???"
"…I was joking. You could tell, right?"
"…"
The Great Herta felt she needed to stop being so absurd with the surreal members of the Curio group chat. It was ruining her image and character!
"And the final test I set for Sirin is for her to break out of that cabin by successfully teleporting. I just checked her progress. Sirin is very talented when it comes to spatial teleportation, but she still hasn't been able to break the cabin's seal. So, I'm planning to give her a little push," the Great Herta said.
However, the cabin that the Great Herta had spent a fortune on couldn't block the Friends Circle's spatial teleportation at all. This made her quite disheartened.
"A push? How so?"
"Behold." The Great Herta held up the Little Chen Li she was hugging.
---o---
"Isn't he cute?"
"He is."
"Want to hold him?"
"I do."
"Let me tell you, this is Little Chen Li, transformed from the real Chen Li. He'll show different levels of intimacy to different people based on his relationships. Don't you want to know what your status is in Chen Li's heart?"
"I do." On the other side of the transparent glass, Sirin's eyes were glued to the Little Chen Li being held by the Great Herta.
"But you can't hold him. Such a cute Little Chen Li was born to be eaten by his big sister, you know. Aren't you going to come out, Sirin? If you don't come out soon, I'm going to eat him all up." The Great Herta hugged Little Chen Li, resting her chin on his head, showing off.
"!!!"
"Oh my, it seems Little Chen Li is still a bit resistant to me. He must be shy. But that's okay. A forced melon may not be sweet, but it quenches the thirst."
"!!!" Sirin clenched her fists.
"Chen Li feels so nice to the touch. Next, I'm going to have a taste of Little Chen Li." The Great Herta held Chen Li up high, then took a bite of his cheek.
Because Yingyings have a pseudo-invincible attribute and their bodies are extremely malleable, Sirin, who was pressed against the glass, could clearly see Chen Li's cheek deforming slightly under the Great Herta's teeth…
Then, the Great Herta carried Chen Li right up to Sirin, separated only by a wall of glass. Little Chen Li reached into his basket and offered a handful of snacks to Sirin on the other side.
"Chen Li said that the more important a person is in the heart of a Mengyin Shen patient, the more snacks they are given… It's a pity you can't take them. So let me hold on to them for you." The Great Herta picked up a gold coin chocolate from Chen Li's hand, unwrapped it with one hand, and popped it into her mouth.
And to rub salt in the wound, the Great Herta performed every action with excruciating slowness.
The dark chocolate being chewed in the Great Herta's mouth, Little Chen Li still persistently offering his snacks to Sirin…
Watching the Great Herta's demonic hand reach for the second snack that should have been a gift from Chen Li to her, Sirin… snapped!
BANG! Sirin's fist slammed hard against the spatial partition glass.
"It's useless, it's useless. Brute force alone can't break this glass," the Great Herta said, shaking her head.
To prevent Sirin from cheating by breaking the glass with brute force, the Great Herta had made this spatial partition glass extremely bulletproof—or rather, a little too good. She had even mixed in a bit of an Emanator of Erudition's power. Not much, but enough.
With the strength of this glass, even a Doomsday Beast would have to shake its head in defeat.
"I… can't do anything!"
Password accepted!
The light in Sirin's golden, cross-shaped pupils flared, as if her entire eyes were "cracking." The Herrscher of the Void core within her body began to spin at high speed.
The Star Rail world had no Honkai Energy, and Sirin only had half a World Bubble's worth of Honkai Energy reserves left.
What to do when you don't have enough energy?
No problem!
Honkai Energy is a type of Imaginary Energy, and Imaginary Energy is omnipresent.
Therefore, as the only complete Herrscher with the ability to control internal Imaginary Energy and transform Imaginary Space, the Herrscher of the Void, Sirin, decided to borrow some Imaginary Energy from the Imaginary Tree!
CRASH! A fist, shining with a golden light, directly pierced through the spatial partition glass. The terrifying force of the punch grazed the corner of the Great Herta's clothes, making her hair sway and her sleeves flutter.
In front of the Great Herta, the spatial partition glass shattered.
Behind her, a corner of the space station lay in ruins.
As an Emanator of Erudition, the Great Herta was completely unharmed, merely a speck of dust on the corner of her clothes.
But as she looked at the fist that could shatter glass capable of blocking spatial teleportation and imbued with the power of an Emanator of Erudition, the Great Herta fell into deep thought.
It seemed she had found the correct teaching method for Sirin…