"...Strange. It definitely wasn’t here yesterday."

Standing on the Herta Space Station platform, Stelle stared in confusion at a massive ring-shaped structure floating nearby.

A colossal ring, hundreds of kilometers in diameter, had appeared not far from the station—overnight.

"Right?! Right?! It’s super amazing! It wasn’t there yesterday, and now it just suddenly popped up!"

March 7th stood beside her, equally astonished.

A structure of that scale didn’t look like something that could be built in a single night.

She had followed the Astral Express on several trailblazing journeys and seen plenty of incredible things—but something like this was a first.

"Well, since it appeared near the Blue Star, it’s probably related to Herta or Su Ran, right?"

Stelle quickly connected the dots.

Only those two could possibly pull off something this outrageous overnight.

Anyone else? Not likely.

"How can you be so sure?"

March 7th didn’t quite understand how Stelle could jump to that conclusion so confidently.

Their names weren’t written on it or anything.

"Because no one else could make something like this. And definitely not overnight."

There was no way an ordinary person could pull this off.

So it had to be them.

"Even if they’re amazing, they’re not that amazing, right? How would they even move something this huge here?"

March 7th didn’t deny what she had said last night.

But believing that geniuses could create something like this overnight?

That was still a stretch.

She knew more about the universe than Stelle did.

And the more you knew, the more grounded your expectations became.

Geniuses were impressive—sure.

But this impressive?

"Then why were you saying last night how incredible Su Ran is? That he could even draw the attention of an Aeon?"

Stelle didn’t quite get why March was suddenly doubting it.

"Well, he’s amazing—but not that amazing, okay? This thing is huge! How would they even transport it?"

March 7th still found it hard to accept.

"Then... should we ask Herta?"

Stelle pulled out her phone and tapped on Herta’s contact.

"...Wait—you have Herta’s contact info? You guys are that close already?!"

March 7th was genuinely shocked.

"Is it hard to get her contact?"

Herta had given it to her herself, so Stelle didn’t see the issue.

She had to run Simulated Universe tests every day anyway.

Having contact seemed normal.

March 7th could only stare in envy at Stelle’s innocent logic.

Herta’s contact wasn’t something just anyone could get.

She was one of the most famous geniuses in the entire universe!

"I thought you were just a lab rat."

Apparently not.

Stelle seemed to hold a pretty high status with Herta.

"But my hair is gray. Shouldn’t that make me a gray rat?"

"...I have no words."

March 7th was speechless.

Did that even matter?

Gray rat, white rat—what was the difference?

Aren’t they both experimental subjects anyway?!

"What do you want?"

A nearby inactive Herta puppet suddenly came online.

"Ah!"

March 7th jumped and hid behind Stelle.

That terrifying "mad scientist" impression from last time was still fresh in her mind.

"Look how scared you are. You’d think I was still interested in your brain, Pinky."

Herta scoffed.

"It’s just a puppet. Not like it carries much of my power. What’s there to be afraid of?"

"Y-you’re not interested in my brain anymore?"

March 7th peeked out cautiously.

Herta looked at her with blatant disdain.

"What’s there to be interested in? I might lower my IQ if I look at it too long."

"...Hey!"

March 7th was instantly offended.

What was that supposed to mean?!

"Besides, no matter how special your brain is, can it compare to Su Ran’s?"

He had literally drawn the attention of the Aeon of Remembrance.

Herta even suspected that Fuli didn’t appear because of March 7th—

But because Su Ran entered her memories.

Maybe Fuli wasn’t protecting her at all.

Maybe it just noticed him.

"...Probably not?"

After all, Su Ran had openly summoned Fuli at the station.

She even had blurry photos on her phone.

"Drop the ’probably.’"

Herta had no patience to argue further.

"What do you want? I’m busy."

"What’s that?" Stelle pointed at the massive ring.

"A stargate."

"My... gate?"

Stelle looked at herself, then back at the ring.

"...Has nothing to do with you. It’s just a transport gate. A portal. Right now it only connects a few points."

There hadn’t been enough time to set up many nodes overnight.

Su Ran used the swarm as exchange material to create the stargates.

Efficient, yes—but the universe was vast.

Full deployment would take time.

"How many points?"

March 7th couldn’t help asking.

"About... a hundred thousand or so."

"...Huh?!" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

That’s "a few"?!

That’s over a hundred thousand!

How much would something like this even cost to build?!

"Look at you two, getting shocked over that. The first phase is planned for five billion units. This is nothing."

If they were already stunned now—

What would they do later, when every star system had one?

"...."

March 7th was completely dumbfounded.

Even Stelle was visibly shaken.

"...This must be insanely expensive, right?"

"No idea about the cost. But it’ll probably make a lot of money."

After all, the "cost" was just breeding swarm creatures.

And Herta didn’t think those were worth much at all.

—------------------------------

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