Acheron felt a lingering curiosity regarding Madam Herta's reaction, as mentioned by Bai Ming.
In Acheron's view, someone like Herta possessed an incredibly high spirit; she wouldn't show much deference even toward an Aeon. Acheron, clearly, did not share that same brand of haughty pride.
Thus, Acheron could voice such ambiguous remarks quite naturally.
On one hand, she had suddenly let her guard down in a moment of relaxation.
On the other, her fondness for Bai Ming had truly reached a significant height.
To Acheron, Bai Ming was special. However, the fact that Madam Herta could trust Bai Ming to such an extent meant that in the Madam's heart, Bai Ming was a singular existence as well.
Come to think of it, Acheron mused, Bai Ming really does know a lot of women.
And given Bai Ming's personality, if even someone as prickly as Madam Herta could trust her this much, then most others would likely fall for her even faster.
Acheron's mind drifted back to Bai Ming's earlier promise to "take responsibility" for her. Looking at it objectively... Bai Ming probably said things like that to everyone she helped.
After all, Bai Ming was putting her heart and soul into resolving the troublesome shadow of IX that clung to Acheron. She would surely do the same for whatever problems others were facing.
If Acheron herself could develop such blurred, perhaps even biased, romantic feelings for Bai Ming, then it stood to reason that others could too.
Then again, in theory, would anyone actually confess such feelings so bluntly to an Aeon?
Acheron's thoughts began to wander. Would anyone truly confess to an Aeon? Would she, one day?
After all, she was about to leave the horizon of IX and live a long-term life in the normal world. With nowhere else to go, Acheron naturally wanted to stay by Bai Ming's side for the foreseeable future.
Given the current turbulence in her heart, if she stayed by her side long enough, those feelings would inevitably... ferment.
Moreover, truth be told, Acheron couldn't imagine feeling a spark for anyone else. Getting flustered or red-faced, perhaps—but nothing more.
Compared to Herta's casual, free-spirited nature, Acheron's background was different.
Once the past interference from Nihility was stripped away, the family and nation she was born into actually existed within a relatively traditional cultural atmosphere.
Basically... Acheron would find herself imagining a definitive, intimate title for the relationship between the two of them.
But then the thought returned: would anyone really want to confess to an Aeon with the genuine goal of having them say yes?
Acheron looked at Bai Ming.
This girl was far too approachable. If you didn't know better, who would ever guess she was an Aeon?
People like this were the most "wicked."
They approach you as an ordinary person at first, and then, once they've maxed out your affection, they suddenly transform into a being so elevated it's almost incomprehensible.
Then, that affection starts to waver because of the massive gap in status—it might even be snuffed out by the owner of those feelings themselves.
At that thought, Acheron couldn't help but let out a soft sigh.
Yet, if she were to sever this lingering obsession, what else would she have left to serve as her anchor in this mortal world?
Strictly speaking, it wasn't just Pathstriders.
In a world where gods existed, many ordinary believers treated Aeons as their faith and their personal anchors. From a perspective of common logic, such behavior was perfectly normal.
But this "normal" situation felt decidedly abnormal when applied to Acheron and Bai Ming.
Acheron's troubles and worries were all being solved by Bai Ming.
For a life that had suddenly lost its purpose, subconsciously placing one's anchor on the person who saved them was a natural progression. Furthermore, Acheron had been tainted by Nihility; if her own will weren't firm, it would be a lethal matter.
Add to that Bai Ming's penchant for saying strange things—insisting so earnestly on "taking responsibility"—and it was more than anyone could withstand.
It was only logical for Acheron's anchor to drop squarely onto Bai Ming.
The problem was that Bai Ming was too down-to-earth.
It caused the feelings that should have been converted into religious piety to instead morph into a complex blend of possessiveness and affection through their shared experiences.
And Acheron had no choice but to maintain this feeling until Bai Ming completely resolved the issue of the Self-Annihilators. At the very least, for Acheron, there wasn't a second existence in this universe that could make her anchor so stable.
Perhaps Acheron believed her feelings hadn't reached "that" point yet. But as she persisted, there was no telling what this complex emotion would eventually brew into.
Meanwhile, Bai Ming was entirely oblivious to Acheron's inner turmoil.
She was currently busy observing Herta and Kakamond. The two of them were, so far, getting along "peacefully." Well, on the surface, perhaps—but in the shadows, they had already begun a fierce psychological tug-of-war.
Herta had revealed her knowledge of this world, prompting Kakamond to try and dig information out of Herta's mind. But Herta was no pushover; she not only counter-attacked but even tried to pry into Kakamond's own head to investigate a few things.
In this place, Kakamond's "Knowable Domain" couldn't cover everything, mostly because she had no idea what this place even was.
While Kakamond remained a powerful being even without her domain, Madam Herta's growth—after working on all those chaotic projects with Bai Ming—was not to be underestimated. With one's power waning and the other's waxing, it was impossible to see who had the upper hand for now.
Consequently, they soon called a temporary truce. There was no point in a stalemate. Kakamond's goal was still to figure out what was happening here; tangling with Herta hadn't been part of the plan.
As for Herta... she actually wanted to keep going, but she really couldn't take Kakamond down in a short amount of time.
She decided to use the time while Kakamond was investigating to set up some arrangements, turning this away game into a home-field advantage.
With Bai Ming watching from outside, Herta didn't want to just fail like this.
Watching Kakamond disappear at the end of the street, Herta turned and began to walk away. As she moved through the bustling crowd, she suddenly frowned and spoke to the empty air:
"Bai Ming, come out. I need you."
"What's up? You're not planning to ask for outside help, are you? That doesn't sound like you."
Bai Ming's figure appeared out of thin air, though she didn't attract the attention of the surrounding people—they were all just NPCs, after all.
Herta rolled her eyes and gestured toward the crowd with her chin.
"Don't you think these human-looking shells are a bit too monotonous? This place is supposed to be for the relief of the dead, so stop making the streets feel so lifeless. All this hustle and bustle and not a single living soul... you really think this is fine?"
Hearing Herta's blunt complaint, Bai Ming scratched her head.
The intelligence level of these NPCs wasn't actually that different from living people. Of course, compared to true life, they were missing a certain "spark."
"I know it's a bit lacking," Bai Ming admitted.
But the issue was that this world had to exist long-term under the shadow of Nihility.
Though rare, it wasn't impossible for Nihility to leak in and randomly infect some cities or people. To bring the whole world to life under those conditions felt a bit too heartless for a creator.
"This is under the shadow of IX, after all... I can't just make all the NPCs 'real' and then trap them in here forever."
At Bai Ming's answer, Herta wore an expression that said, Yup, she's the idiot I know.
"And that's why you're a dummy. Does your 'Super Wisdom' only tell you how to use your 'Super Power'?" Herta mocked her mercilessly.
After enjoying Bai Ming's defeated expression for a moment, she slowly raised a finger and pointed at herself.
"Since you can let me log in remotely like this, why don't you use that Originium system you've spread across the universe to pull other people in too?"
"Sss..."
Bai Ming sucked in a breath. That... actually might work.
Because of the diverse experiences of Pathstriders, the different regions partitioned in this world contained all sorts of bizarre scenarios.
They could be used as explorable areas, letting players choose the role-playing world they wanted.
The whole project could be turned into a high-freedom exploration game, something like The Sims. As for the "Sin Thirsters" that needed to be put to rest, they could be designed as high-reward hidden quests, using the players to help guide them.
As for the "abstract" or unpredictable behavior of gamers, she could simply establish rules as constraints—or just write the goal of helping spirits into the game's intro.
There were plenty of ways to control player behavior. Bai Ming could come up with a plan with just a little thought and then leave the execution to the Simulated Aha.
"That actually seems feasible. And the Originium system is already laid out across the cosmos; it's a ready-made platform. Though, if I do that, the scale of the world will have to keep expanding..."
"Sigh, you really make me worry. If you ever get plotted against by other Aeons in the future, what will you do? You don't have anyone to think for you."
"Then you better work harder and try to catch up to me sooner."
"Tch!"
The more Bai Ming thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.
Shaking off Herta's ridicule and firing back a retort, she began to wonder: was she really so used to her Super Power that her Super Wisdom only defaulted to using brute force?
While solving problems directly with god-like power was definitely satisfying, it really wasn't good to let her brain go idle.
Mainly because it gave Herta the chance to laugh at her. And she really didn't like that.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL