The sound of mechanical movement rang by her ears, and right after that, a beam of light shone into her field of vision.
Having already gone through many Simulated Universe exploration activities, Stelle knew that she had completed this exploration and returned to Herta's office.
This adventure in the Swarm Disaster was honestly a bit overwhelming, especially at the very end. The scene of the divine war was truly dazzling.
During the brief moment she spent recalling this Simulated Universe exploration, Stelle's consciousness slowly settled, her thoughts gradually smoothing out.
The influence she had experienced inside the Simulated Universe was fading away bit by bit from her mind.
Stelle opened her eyes and saw the ceiling and the lights. Then she sat up from inside the machine.
This trip through the Simulated Universe was satisfying, but the difficulty seemed a bit too high. Just as she was thinking about whether she should talk to Herta about lowering it a bit, she suddenly realized something.
Herta, who should have been monitoring and guiding her first exploration, had somehow disappeared at some point.
No matter how she called out, there was no response. It made the latter half of her journey extremely difficult.
Just as she was wondering what Herta had gone off to do, Stelle heard Nero's voice, "You're done too? How was it? Did you think it was fun?"
Stelle turned her head toward the voice and saw Nero.
This kid seemed to have finished his Simulated Universe exploration long ago. Right now he was sitting in a chair not far away, eating some kind of dried meat snack he had gotten from who knows where.
As for the Herta puppet that had been here earlier, it had returned to its standby position. From the cold expression and dull gaze, it looked like Herta had already cut off her connection to this model.
After a short silence, Stelle nodded and answered Nero's question, "Yeah. Why did you come out so early?"
The white-haired boy looked at Stelle with an innocent expression, blinked twice, and said, "I guess I just had good luck... Anyway, mine ended pretty fast."
"This thing probably combines not just historical fragments but also our memories. I ran into a whole bunch of Knights of Beauty in there, and the Xianzhou too! Then I just rode on a Knight of Beauty's ship and fought my way through."
Looking at the happy smile on Nero's face, Stelle knew that this kid must have had a great time on this trip.
But what he was describing made her frown, and she started recalling her own Simulated Universe exploration.
Rolling around in caves, struggling down cliffs, fighting enemies, searching for treasure chests and gathering cosmic fragments, carefully avoiding attacks from the swarm, and trying her best to stay rational in front of those massive figures during the divine war...
It was as tough as it could possibly be.
So why did it sound so easy when it came to Nero?
She couldn't help but look at the boy again. That bright, sun-like smile spread across her vision.
Nero stopped smiling and looked at Stelle with confusion, feeling like his friend's expression seemed a bit... off.
The Simulated Universe was fun, sure, but if you weren't careful it could still harm your body. And Stelle had taken much longer than him to finish this run. The subtle expression on her face right now made him start to worry.
Nero asked with concern, "Are you okay? Do you feel unwell?"
Stelle, "..."
Nero's concern made her feel warm, but the huge gap in their experiences left the Stellaron girl unable to smile for the moment.
"No, it's nothing." Stelle shook her head.
She felt like she shouldn't keep talking about this, so she changed the subject to something else she was curious about. "Where's Herta?"
"Don't know." Nero shook his head.
"After I came out, Herta was in a rush, kind of frantic even. She told me how to read the machine's data and what to do to pull you out if the readings looked off, though none of that ended up being needed.
"After explaining all that, she logged off in a hurry. I think she probably went to have a meeting with the other geniuses.
"Screwllum, who was guiding me here, told me right after I finished that he had discovered something really important and needed to discuss it with the others."
Stelle listened to Nero in silence, suddenly not sure what to say.
But she really was curious about whatever those geniuses had discovered.
Yes, very curious.
If even that group of geniuses had been drawn in, what kind of existence could it be?
Just as Stelle's thoughts started to wander, she heard Nero speak again, sounding a bit nostalgic, "But yeah, it was really great."
"The Simulated Universe is really fun! Especially the final boss fight, going up against the Propagation Aeon Tayzzyronth."
"That was awesome, the feel was amazing! Too bad Black Cutter is with Argenti right now. If it could come play the Simulated Universe with me, that'd be even better."
Stelle froze in place, her brain falling into sluggish thought.
Even though what they encountered at the end really was a divine war, there shouldn't have been a fight with Tayzzyronth, right?
'Wasn't the final fight against the True Sting Insect?'
'Wasn't it Qlipoth who killed Tayzzyronth?'
'Since when did Tayzzyronth become the final boss?'
'Is it really okay to directly fight an Aeon of Propagation?'
'And why do you think the "feel" was amazing?'
'What exactly did you do to the Propagation Aeon?'
'What exactly did you do inside the Simulated Universe?'
'Were you even playing the same Simulated Universe?'
'Did the two of us really take part in the same test?'
In that brief moment of shock, a flood of questions rushed into Stelle's mind. The gray-haired girl stood there, the light slowly fading from her eyes.
She stiffly turned her head to look at Nero. "Huh?"
Nero also noticed something off about Stelle. He blinked and showed a puzzled expression.
From his sincere and pure gaze, it was clear that he had no idea what he had just said, nor what those words meant to others.
As a boy who followed the mindset of "fighting is fun," Nero's existence was a devastating blow to the Simulated Universe's information simulation.
And completely unaware of that, Nero looked at Stelle. "Hm?"
Just like that, the little raccoon and the little honey badger stared at each other for a long time.
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 40 advance chapter through P@treon.