Asta's finger, which she had just used to poke the object, instantly froze in place.
It was that very touch that allowed her to feel the exaggerated mass of this little hammer—a weight that defied its outward appearance.
Her finger felt as if it had brushed against the body of Qlipoth the Amber Lord THEMSELF; mere skin contact was enough for her consciousness to perceive the immense, grounding heaviness of Preservation.
This sensation served as the perfect evidence for 'Calypso's' claim.
This thing was actually real?!
Asta nearly failed to suppress a curse. That was the Amber Lord's hammer! Why on earth was it sitting in front of her, turned into a mere charm on a bracelet??
It couldn't have been stolen, right?
Asta immediately dismissed that thought. It wasn't as if the Amber Lord didn't know how to fight back; if someone truly tried to snatch THEIR hammer, THEY wouldn't have been so calm about it.
So, was it a gift from the Amber Lord?
But why? There didn't seem to be any connection between them at all. And besides, if the Amber Lord didn't have THEIR hammer, what were THEY using to strike the Subspace Barrier right now? Did the IPC notice the hammer was missing? How would they react?
If they knew this hammer was in 'Calypso's' hands, the Corporation would probably be scared to death.
Asta fell into a whirlwind of frantic thoughts.
Celenova's gaze also landed on 'Calypso's' wrist. It was an unremarkable hand-woven cord; at first glance, it looked no different from any ordinary handmade trinket.
But the moment Celenova tried to use Harmony to probe it—!
An amber giant swung a colossal hammer down toward her; a fully drawn bow aimed a bolt of light at her heart; unfathomable, mysterious shifting light swirled around, and a chaotic, dizzying flood of information attempted to invade her consciousness.
Those four terrifying, dormant powers instantly broke Celenova into a cold sweat.
If she had been even a fraction more aggressive just now, the mere residual pressure from those four forces would have cost her her life!
Even so, the fleeting glimpse left a deep impression on Celenova's heart.
Specifically, the images of Preservation swinging the hammer and Hunt drawing the bow against her—coupled with the mental wash of Enigmata and Erudition—left Celenova feeling as though her mind was currently filled with nothing but hammers and light-arrows.
'Calypso' looked at Celenova's dazed, lost expression with a strange look.
This girl isn't going to be "reformed" into a good person by the clash of those two wills, is she?
She reached out and gently closed Asta's hanging jaw. 'Calypso' then ushered the still-contemplating young girl and Celenova out of the room, telling them to get back to work.
As for herself, she would, of course, continue researching the simplification of the equations.
With Asta joining the team, work efficiency improved significantly, and the entire iteration process was being pushed forward with incredible speed.
Naturally, this also included the assistance of the power of Harmony from Celenova.
In any case, it made 'Calypso' realize why Divine Herta—even after starting a new life—insisted on "kidnapping" Asta back to her side.
While this girl might not quite reach the level of a Genius, she was a respectable talent in research and possessed truly outstanding management skills.
If she'd known Asta was this useful, she wouldn't have let Divine Herta have her; she would have gladly kept her for herself.
Alas, in her youth, she didn't realize how good it was to have a "rich woman" around.
If only she could trade Celenova for Asta. Aside from being easy on the eyes, Celenova's working ability couldn't hold a candle to Asta's.
'Calypso' felt a secret pang of regret. She even considered finding a way to lure Asta home.
However, Divine Herta was sharp-eyed; before 'Calypso' could even act, Divine Herta had already guessed her intentions, causing the idea to fall through.
Putting the matter of Asta aside, 'Calypso' began to wonder who else she could drag in as "coolie" labor.
Suddenly, a spark of inspiration hit her, and she remembered a young genius she had almost forgotten.
In the original Genius Society, #84 was an incredibly young boy. Of course, currently, #84 was already Divine Herta, so Stephen could only be #85 in the future.
However, he hadn't been "glanced at" by Nous yet, which meant Stephen might actually be an underage kid right now.
He probably wasn't suitable for forced labor. Even during the main storyline, Stephen was still looking after his relatives' fruit shop, so he was likely just a brat.
Now, with at least several years to go before the main story began, he was probably even younger.
Out of caution, 'Calypso' found Divine Herta to ask about Stephen.
"You're asking about Stephen? That brat is probably still in school learning calculus," Divine Herta remarked, recalling the Stephen from her memories.
Though it wasn't perfectly accurate, calculating the time based on her impressions, the current Stephen was eighty percent likely to still be a schoolboy.
"You want him to help? I have no interest in teaching him. Besides, that kid doesn't even like leaving his house. How could he possibly come here to help? You'd better wait until he's recognized by the Droidhead first."
"Is it really impossible?"
"Do you want to babysit?"
"...Never mind then."
'Calypso' thought about it; it was hard to say if Stephen had even hit ten years old yet.
While Stephen definitely wasn't a "problem child," she certainly wasn't cut out for babysitting. She couldn't exactly hand him over to Celenova, either—she might accidentally kill the kid.
Seeing her expression, Divine Herta let out a frustrated huff. "Honestly, if you were going to do this, why did you let my other self go? That's one less person for no reason."
On this point, 'Calypso' admitted it was indeed her fault. "I didn't think that far ahead back then, and I promised Herta quite early on."
Divine Herta shook her head repeatedly. Launching such a massive project without telling Herta would only result in Herta blaming her when she returned. And now, with Herta gone and a shortage of people... this girl was just a glutton for punishment.
In short, there was no luck in finding more help for the time being. 'Calypso' gave up on the idea of slacking off and went back to studying the equations.
Under constant optimization, after more than half of her roleplay time had passed, the first successfully running simplified equation was finally hammered out.
The data sent by Zandar had been a huge help. It didn't just contain the original code; it included all the information from Zandar's very first slice. Calling it a "massive investment" would be an understatement.
Although by now, compared to the body and code of Nous, it had surely iterated to the point where its own mother wouldn't recognize it, it was still unexpectedly useful for referencing the underlying logic to aid in understanding the Erudition Equation—especially for simplifying them.
It successfully began running within the Simulated Universe.
The impact of the simplified equation on the Simulated Universe was glaringly obvious.
The powerful computational logic made the output results far more detailed. More information was calculated; even for the same output content, the sheer volume of data far exceeded the past.
Consequently, the requirements for hardware facilities also skyrocketed. Luckily, Screwllum had chosen to develop new storage technology, or the Space Station would have become much more bloated.
As the system began to run again, the next step was to see when this Simulated Universe would give birth to a self.
Zandar had hidden in a corner, looping Amphoreus for who knows how many years before a Demiurge finally emerged.
Theoretically, by using the simplified content of the Erudition Equation and the reference of Nous's initial code, it shouldn't be that difficult for a machine as vast as the Simulated Universe to birth a self-awareness. At the very least, it shouldn't require waiting as many years as Zandar did.
However...
For the sake of purity, 'Calypso' didn't intend to intervene with her own power.
If the Simulated Universe was left to evolve on its own, there was no telling how long it would take or what would happen once that consciousness was born.
If that self-awareness wandered into the Simulated Universe, thought of itself as a certain lifeform within it, and became so immersed that it forgot the world outside... that wasn't entirely impossible.
At that point, finding a needle in a haystack would be easier than fishing out a self-awareness from that thing.
'Calypso' glanced at her roleplay time:
--+--
[Roleplay System]
[Name: Bai Ming (Calypso)]
[Lifespan: ∞+4 Days (Roleplay)]
[Transformable Characters: Big Herta, Celenova, Jingliu, Ruan Mei, Sparkle, Hertatomb, Lord Ravager - Jingliu, Young Herta, Robin, Artoria, Cipher, Georios, General of the Yuque - Qingque, Huohuo, Silver Wolf, Hysilens, Cyrene - Fuli (Charge: 46.3%), Acheron (Charge: 18.8%), Calypso (In Progress)]
[Draw Count: 21 (64.7%)]
--+--
Only about four days of roleplay time remained.
While she wasn't short on emotion points now, if the Simulated Universe didn't "stand up" within the roleplay period, the character reward settlement would have to rely on additional rewards to hit the pity.
But with only four days left, she assumed she'd have to settle for the pity again and wait a while longer.
Just as 'Calypso' thought this roleplay session would likely end this way, suddenly—
A cold ripple of Imaginary Energy arrived in an instant from the depths of the void. A flickering red glow reflected the dimly visible, massive mechanical head.
Once the Simulated Universe began to run stably, Nous finally cast THEIR gaze upon it.
THEY first looked at 'Calypso', seemingly wanting to gauge her attitude.
Seeing that 'Calypso' had absolutely no reaction, THEY then let THEIR gaze penetrate the shell of the Simulated Universe, reaching deep into that smooth-running world permeated by Memoria.
The simplified equations had already iterated themselves to perfectly adapt to this world.
Although the Simulated Universe was isolated from direct interference with simulated Erudition, it still indirectly influenced the state of the simulated Aeon of Erudition's original body within.
And because of that...
The tiny spark of life birthed by the Simulated Universe itself happened to land right upon that simulated original body of Erudition.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL