In the Simulated Universe.

As usual, Herta was helping Stelle to get prepared for the next run, as well as making slight adjustments to observe the values and results, while doing so, she couldn't help but to see that the goofy raccoon is doing something weird this time, Stelle is reading the lore, interestingly, she is not skipping through anything or reading it faster than a machine, but it is like she is actually paying attention to every detail.

"What are you up to now?" - Herta asked, a slight curiosity and annoyance in her voice as she approached Stelle in the Index. "Strange, you never strike me as the type to be paying attention to these. Considering how our encounter with Polka is one of the rare times you slowed down to read everything."

Stelle doesn't exactly answer the genius's question right away, she just stopped reading and then looked at Herta.

"Well... I just want to learn some new things."

This surprised Herta, the probability of something like this happening is very small in her calculations, yet it has become a reality in front of her now, her lip curled up into a smile.

"Heh? Any particular reason why?" - Herta asked.

Path Space

"Absolutely not."

Akivili rejected Stelle's proposal.

"My child, I think I failed to make it clear to you, so let me get this straight with you. My presence in the Path Space is unknown to all, including Fuli and Nous. Even the god damn Aha don't! I did all of this for a reason, and that is why I cannot allow you to bring any of your friends over."

Akivili poured coffee for Stelle and invited her for some snacks as THEY sat down again, in their usual position for gossip.

"Let alone that Herta, the friend of yours, is a Genius, from the Genius Society, right?" - Akivili asked. "And not just any Genius, but one of the few Emanators of Erudition! And you say she can summon Nous if she wishes to, right?"

"Well, at the cost of-"

"Still, that is still an impressive feat. Not many mortals can be given the same privilege, even back in my day. So no, I cannot risk my privacy here, NordVPN can't protect me if anyone other than you learned of my presence here." (sponsor me please anyone i need to eat)

"Fair enough then..."

"Anyways, since we are at the topic of the Geniuses, aside from Herta, you mentioned you are acquainted with several of them as well right? Do tell me about them, I think I lost count after 20 or something, with the tin can Rubert being one of some exceptions."

"Well we have... Screwllum. He is a cool mechanical aristocrat, also a ruler of the planet named Screwllum."

"So we got Screwllum the ruler of Screwllum. What other thing to make him slightly more memorable?"

"Well he's been an NPC for a really long time now and I don't know when is he going to be playable... Some said he was coming in 1.6... Then somewhere after 2.0... and then 3.0... yeahhh"

"So someone with the NPC curse, got it. Anyone else?"

"Stephen Lloyd."

"..."

"..."

"... Anything about..."

"Oh right, he's a kid."

"..."

"He kinda is the reason why the Simulated Universe is fun and all... Let's just say he has a passion for games, but generally he is very... VERY shy."

"So an introverted nerd kid being appointed by Nous, got it."

"And next up we got Ruan Mei... Well..."

"Don't be shy, tell me what's up."

"She could have killed me. Twice."

"... How come."

"She drugged me. And then asked me to help her doing some investigation at the abandoned part of the space station where she nurtured a big space bug that I believe was a clone of an Emanator of Propagation which almost killed me if it wasn't for the bug literally extinguished itself after nearly a minute of existence."

"Damn. My child, I must say, you really are a simp. If any woman drugs me, I would have-"

"Also here is her picture."

"Smash." - Akivili immediately folded without giving it any further thought.

"..."

"Anyways. You were saying? She somehow nurtured a space bug, worse still, not just any space bug, but the space bug that is an Emanator of Propagation? Which one exactly?"

"Uhhh what do you mean which one-"

"Back in the days, the Express has this nerdy scientist from the IPC as a refugee who recorded the data of the bugs on his communication network that he refused to share with anyone. Good thing that Fuli was around that time so we were able to sneakingly read them."

"I'm not sure if that-"

"Anyways, in terms of Propagation's Emanators, there were quite a whole lot of them back then actually. One that acted as a strategist for an entire galaxy's range of network communication between every single individual bug, that thing was even smarter than their own Aeon. I heard one of the Family's strike force sent to assist there was annihilated."

"How come this is never archived..."

"They also have this duo back then, which was the Express's main enemies, one that can give birth to a [Trailblaze profanity] amount of bugs every few seconds, it receives signal from another Emanator accompanying it which is always at the frontline, it itself is devastating, it can also adapt to any kind of environment or weapons used against it. The Express only survived because we all agreed on the deployment of the Astral Express Mk.1."

"Wait... Doesn't that mean one at the front constantly adapting to everything being thrown against it... While it sends data back to the one at the back to give birth to..."

"Yup. Giving birth to bugs that have already adapted against what we threw against the one at the front. Terrifying still, those two were not the most powerful Emanators around. I heard there was one capable of eating stars and using their hollow shells as incubators. Imagine one random day your Sun just got dimmer and when you thought it was cold, you found the bugs tearing apart the Sun from the inside like some chicken hatching."

"Ohh... That was terrifying indeed... Wait, I think that Ruan Mei raised that one..."

"... I will add contacting Qlipoth about this into my things to do list once I come back."

"Hmm..."

"Do you have a question on your mind, my child?"

"Well I was just wondering about what is this Astral Express Mk.1 thing you have mentioned twice before... Is it some sort of special defense mechanism?"

"Sort of... Yeah. The Express is capable of detaching different cars, to be used as drop pods during landing missions where the traditional railway wouldn't work."

"Oh yeah that I know..."

"Good. Then it saves me some explanation. Anyways, I was the one who came up with that idea with some other Nameless, and then I gave it a thought. "Hey, when we are at it, why don't we make it like the Express can transform itself into this one huge mecha?" and everyone was like great idea, and we worked tirelessly."

Stelle cannot believe what she just heard.

First it's the Express railing Sunday. Next is one of the Express' Cars used as a drop pod on Amphoreus, and now Akivili gave her the info that the Express is also a transformer??? That is some cool sht, she wonders why Pom-Pom never mentioned anything about this before.

"The thing is, Astral Express Mk.1 needs a stupidly huge amount of Trailblaze Energy to be activated, and the amount we used back then to fight the Swarm and scaring Tayzzyronth was supposed to be enough for us to travel from one end of the Cosmos to the other end about 35 times."

"..."

Now maybe she understands why. The Express is, after all, facing a fuel crisis.

Somewhere in the Asdana System.

Several IPC ships have been patrolling around lately, mostly because of the recent involvement with the Family's affairs on the Penacony, which has now been taken back to their milking system, the other reason being the two wanted Galaxy Rangers managed to get on the Planet of Festivities.

"Sergeant Kyle. Report on your most recent usage of the Scope of Observation."

"Nothing to be reported, Lord Captain of the Ship. Everything is as calm."

"So that was a waste of use of the Scope then, -5% of your paycheck this month!"

"Yes, Lord Captain."

"Now use it again. I have to check the cleaning crew, making sure they have finished cleaning so I can deem their efforts useless and further deduct their salary as well."

The Captain walked away, leaving the Sergeant taking another look at the starry skies again, this time, he found something unexpected, a vessel traveling through the empty void, seemed to be heading directly towards Penacony.

Immediately, all the other nearby ships were alerted of the vessel's unannounced appearance as well, as such a sensitive time, data scans show that the crew on the ship is barely enough to run it, wondering how can the ship be functioning properly, they suspected the ship was damaged initially, but after seeing some of the guns that was fixed on both sides and the bottom, alongside with its hull in pristine condition, they quickly ruled out that possibility.

"Announce yourself, or be shot down as a threat to the Interastral Peace Corporation!"

One of the ships' Captains contacted them through comms. But they received no answer in return. In response, the IPC ships' received an order to raise all of their guns, prepare for another engagement...

It is reported that thanks to their valiant sacrifice, the mysterious vessel changed its objective and headed away from the Planet of Festivities... Leaving a lot of people in confusion about the whole event...