Yelena looked toward the source of the voice and saw a Herta Puppet leading Asta toward them, a smile involuntarily appearing on her face.
"Hello, Ms. Herta. I am Topaz, one of the Ten Stonehearts from the Interstellar Peace Corporation's Strategic Investment Department."
The Ten Stonehearts each have their own Cornerstone codename; Yelena's is Topaz, for debt retrieval.
After greeting Herta, Yelena turned her gaze toward Asta.
"Long time no see, Miss Asta."
"Miss Topaz, why didn't you tell me you were coming to the Space Station? If I hadn't happened to check the platform docking logs, I wouldn't have known about this," Asta said helplessly.
She truly was helpless...
Perhaps the vast majority of staff members in the Space Station didn't know who Qi Zhimu was, but she did!
Ms. Herta is a genius, that's true, but she is also a woman.
...That sentence just now didn't sound overtly jealous, but as for being 'friendly'—well, one can only dream.
Asta could hear it, and of course, Qi Zhimu could too.
He hadn't expected this day to come so soon. Since he had promised Herta not to interfere, he could only shrug his shoulders.
Hopefully, little Yelena would remain unyielding in the face of power...
"I have a somewhat vague impression of the previous holder of the Topaz stone. I didn't expect the new one to be so young. Your name is Yelena, right? You seem to be doing well enough."
Herta crossed her arms and sat down next to Qi Zhimu.
"...?"
Yelena was stunned, a flash of undisguisable surprise crossing her eyes.
Herta sat down next to Qi Zhimu, almost touching him?
This...
Even if it was just a puppet, it was still shocking news.
"Ms. Herta, you flatter me. Compared to you, the Ten Stonehearts hold no weight at all."
While responding politely, Yelena's inquisitive gaze couldn't help but drift between the two of them.
Herta allowed the other woman to observe and speculate. On the surface, she maintained her usual aloof and arrogant expression; what she was thinking in her heart, only she and Qi Zhimu knew.
She had to admit, this little girl Yelena did have some looks, though she was far from matching her.
But setting herself aside, the former was indeed a rare beauty.
Especially her figure.
Thankfully she had asked Ruan Mei for help, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to win across all categories.
Ah... I really am perfect... Herta was completely lost in self-intoxication.
She could choose not to interfere with the bonds Qi Zhimu had established before their reunion, but if anyone wanted to cut in now, hmph...
They'd better see if they have enough weight first.
The atmosphere became a bit subtle for a moment.
Yelena discovered that there seemed to be an unusual relationship between Qi Zhimu and Herta.
Qi Zhimu knew this perfectly well, but he was restricted by their agreement.
As for Herta, there was no need to say more; she hadn't even tried to hide her thoughts, it was just that others didn't dare to think in that direction because of her status.
Since the beginning of the Amber Era and the birth of Nous, only 84 geniuses have ever appeared.
Each Amber Era ranges from 76 to 240 years. In the hundreds of thousands of years across the scale of galactic civilization, there have only been 84 people; one can see their worth.
This also led many people to apply their own stereotypical labels to geniuses, believing them to be people whose logic outweighed their emotions and who possessed paranoid personalities.
Except for three specific geniuses among the top ten who had plenty of romantic gossip, it was impossible for most to imagine the others having private feelings.
Yelena was exactly like this; she had thought of many possibilities, but she simply didn't dare to confirm the relationship between Qi Zhimu and Herta.
When the atmosphere stayed awkward for too long, Asta cast a pleading look toward Qi Zhimu for help, but received a response indicating he couldn't do anything, causing her to wilt.
Fine... a world where only she, the little station master, gets hurt has been achieved.
In that case, she would break the silence first.
"Miss Topaz, your sudden visit to the Space Station—I assume there is important business?"
Speaking of official business, Yelena pushed aside her stray thoughts. With a swipe of her hand, she pulled up a billing record that could only be described as terrifying.
"Ms. Herta's Credit Points account has been frozen. This is your recent bill."
Qi Zhimu looked at the large screen that had been pulled up, and his gaze froze instantly.
He couldn't count how many zeros were in that string of numbers for a moment.
By the time he finished counting, only one thought remained in his mind—
...This amount of money was enough to buy back his planet that had been razed by the Antimatter Legion. Oh right, he almost forgot the quantity: over a million of them!
Herta glanced at it and couldn't help but curl her lip.
"It's just a bit of pocket change. Asta, I'll leave it to you."
Asta: "..."
Could she say that even she couldn't help but feel shocked when she saw that string of numbers?
It was lucky she had recovered her private key card not long ago, otherwise the debt would have had to be delayed for a long time.
"...Miss Topaz, please swipe the card..."
Asta pinched the bridge of her nose and handed over two black cards.
This action drew Qi Zhimu's attention. It was a look that said, 'I clearly suspected it long ago, but I didn't expect to have actually stumbled into the home of royalty.'
Qi Zhimu thought to himself: What terrifyingly rich people.
He had felt before that Asta had left her family for the sake of freedom, coming here to help Herta manage the Space Station.
Her family background was certainly not bad, but now it seemed he had vastly underestimated it.
Could it be... the head of Asta's family holds one of the highest ranks in the Corporation?
Recalling the polite tone Yelena used when calling her 'Miss,' Qi Zhimu understood in his heart and couldn't help but look at Herta.
Herta raised the corners of her mouth proudly, as if to say: See, this is the value and charm of a genius. As long as I speak, financial problems simply do not exist.
Even if she didn't speak, just tossing out some research results would bring in heaps of patent fees.
Qi Zhimu smiled secretly to himself; that wasn't actually what he meant.
He understood perfectly well what the value of a genius was.
He was just curious about what she had done for Asta to make the latter willing to pay out of her own pocket for the Space Station's construction and even her research funding.
Yelena was accustomed to Asta helping with the repayments. She briskly cleared the debt and returned the original cards.
"With the debt recovery complete, next, Ms. Herta, I have a letter here. Please take a look."
The smile on Yelena's face quickly vanished, and she seriously took out a letter.
In this era, sending a handwritten letter via a messenger often represents the utmost sincerity.
Seeing the small P49 symbol on the envelope, even Herta showed a faint look of surprise.
The Interstellar Peace Corporation's reach extends across the universe. The highest rank is P50, held by only one: the Aeon of Preservation.
However, Qlipoth ignores humans entirely and has never responded to the Corporation's unilateral followers.
Therefore, P49 is effectively equal to the ruler of the Corporation, holding the wealth of the entire universe.
"Interesting."
Herta casually took the letter and opened it. She didn't avoid Qi Zhimu, reading it right in front of him.
Unfortunately, Qi Zhimu couldn't read it.
It wasn't that he was uneducated, but that the paper was completely blank; there was nothing there.
But looking at Herta's expression, there was clearly something written on it that was restricted to her or required special means to read.
A moment later, Herta put down the letter and tapped her finger on the table in thought.
No one spoke to disturb her.
After about half a minute, Herta looked up and said lazily, "Kid, you should know your mission, right?"
"Yes, Ms. Herta," Yelena nodded.
"Take the message back. Tell them I agree."
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