10 Herta's Space Station

"..Hoo..Hoo…"

In the middle of a room surrounded by dense cold air, a person was breathing steadily while lifting his sword.

Cold mist came out of Yuuto's mouth as he took in deep breaths to allow his body to get in a relaxed pace to extinguish his tired body.

Lowering down his sword, a sense of accomplishment began to rush inside him as Yuuto felt like his own foundation of Jingliu's sword began to settle into his body.

"This should be more than enough to help myself in the upcoming invasion."

Thinking about what will happen at his next destination, Yuuto did his best to use all the time he had to quickly grow his skills in order to protect himself.

"The minions of the Antimatter Legion shouldn't be too difficult but that Doomsday Beast is going to be a problem."

Recalling that large winged creature, Yuuto had thought of a few solutions but he needed to decide which one to use depending on the situation.

Pushing his thoughts to the back of his head, Yuuto dissolved the white sword he had and picked up a brown looking liquid.

This blended concoction was a drink he had asked Pom-Pom to make, deriving of mainly protein and other nutrients for his body after working out.

His current [Heal] can only do so much so he still needed nutrients to help supplement his body.

"Yeah this tastes disgusting…"

Yuuto felt like spitting out the drink after feeling the texture but still persevered after imbuing a memory of a sweet milkshake he had before making it just bearable for him.

*Knock Knock

"Yuuto~ are you there? Himeko said that we're going to board Herta's Space Station soon."

"I'll be out in a bit."

After hearing March's voice on the other side of the door, Yuuto downed the remaining contents of his drink.

With a slight wave of his hand, the cold mist that created various crystals around his room began to dissolve and the interior returned back to its normal condition.

As he followed March into the parlor cabin he began to see the image of a large station floating above a bright blue planet.

Herta's Space Station— a station that is founded by Herta who is one of the Genius Society's members.

A place where researchers that come from different planets come together to conduct research ranging from its vast collection of Curios or ancient relics from across the universe.

'I don't see any signs of the station being attacked yet.'

After admiring the view for a while, Yuuto's gaze lingered on the outside perimeter as he tried to find any sort of action that was out of place.

"Are we allowed to wander around the station?"

"Yes. We have some history with the master of the station so walking around is fine unless we bring some sort of harm to the station."

Dan Heng who was beside Yuuto replied to his question.

Hearing his word of confirmation Yuuto began to visualize the general map of the space station.

'I should probably go to the area where the trailblazer would be at.'

Rather than staying back during the moment of the attack, the intincing offer of seeing a powerful Stellaron up close was more appealing to him.

It was definitely not because of him wanting the chance of meeting two interesting people on the way there.

Definitely not.

"We'll stay at this station for a while since we need to wait for Madam Herta to log into the system."

Opening the door of the cabin, Himeko led the group out of the Express and onto the platform where a few researchers welcomed them.

"Miss Himeko welcome once again."

"I already told you previously that we didn't need this sort of welcome." Himeko flashed a wry smile after seeing their greeting.

"It's alright! You have brought us a plethora of research materials whenever you come visit so this is the least we can do."

One of the researchers excitedly said as Himeko tried her best to calm them down.

Dan Heng and March stood by the side as they watched this interaction before they noticed that the space beside them suddenly turned empty.

"Hmm? Where did Yuuto go?"

"He said he needed to go to the bathroom so he had one of the researchers lead him to one."

Dan Heng calmly replied to March's question before turning his attention back onto the book while he deeply thought about the last words Yuuto said to him before he left.

***

"Haven't I said to cease your research on this item already?"

"B-But I found some valuable material while doing experiments!"

"Is that so?"

The man with glasses took a deep gulp as he tried his best to bear the frosty glare his team leader was giving him.

The woman looked at the research papers she had in her hands and her brows began to twitch even further.

"What 'valuable material' could you possibly get from researching this…toilet-shaped Curio…."

"...W-Well it is said that if you place your head in the toilet, you will be transported to a new world!"

"....."

"So I tried it… and well it looks like I needed to flush it while doing so… b-but I was a bit hesitant so that is all I got…"

The woman rubbed the center of her head after hearing his outrageous words and felt a huge headache coming in. 

"So what I'm getting from this is that you stuck your head in a toilet for research?"

"..."

"Hand in a reflective paper in 3 days."

"Yes ma'am."

The man began to walk away as the woman tried her best to forget the conversation she just had.

"Young people and their frivolous attitude to do whatever they want…"

Grumbling to herself, the woman packed up her papers as she walked out of the base zone and into the hallway.

With her head lowered and still grumbling to herself, she was unable to see the figure of a person in front of her.

"Ouf!."

"Oops, that was a close one."

Catching the bundles of papers that almost flew out of her hands, a man with dark purple hair picked up an ID that fell on the ground.

The woman took the ID being passed to her and saw how the man gave her a wry smile.

"I'm sorry for bumping into you."

"No.. it was my fault for not looking."

"I see… you look a bit tired so I hope you're not overworking yourself."

The woman saw how he suddenly passed an energy drink towards her.

"Take care of your health since that is more important than any sort of research."

Flashing a kind smile, the man left the woman in a daze as she watched him walk past her.

"Hmm…"

Looking at the energy drink and the kind greetings she received in just a few seconds, she opened up the drink and began to drink its contents.

"Well it looks like there are at least some young people who are redeemable..."

Letting out a slight cough the woman felt her sour mood turn better after receiving the kind act of a handsome fellow.

***

"Elizabeth Watson, a level 4 Geopolitics Researcher. Her card access should be enough to open most of the doors here."

Yuuto smiled as he pulled a fragment from his hand and held it above his palm.

In this fragment was a memory of Elizabeth's access card which he quickly got through the use of [Archive] when he picked up her ID.

Taking his access card that says 'Yuuto, Lv.1 Researcher', he slowly pressed the fragment into the card and watched it dissolve.

'This should work here…'

Swiping his card onto a door, a faint smile started to appear on his lips seeing the door open despite his card only having access to the bathrooms.

*RUMBLE RUMBLE

"W-What was that?"

"Maybe it was some sort of turbulence…"

Various whispers erupting from the researchers in the base zone began to spread as the station suddenly began to shake.

Normally they wouldn't mind but this one was a bit larger than what they have experienced before which startled them.

'So it began huh.'

Yuuto narrowed his eyes as he looked at his surroundings to find any disruptions in the air before finally seeing the space in the middle of the zone start to distort.

Out of thin air, humanoid creatures with bladed arms began to appear scaring the researchers in their place.

–SWING

However, before they could scream, they noticed that the creature's torso and limbs began to fall apart as a man holding a pale white sword began to fight them.

"Everyone!! Head to the Master Control Room! Lead Researcher Asta is issuing an evacuation due to an attack from the Antimatter Legion."

–CHING

Flicking his wrist to parry a slash from one of the Voidrangers, Yuuto yelled out as he swiftly stabbed the being in front of him which eventually caused it to limply fall down.

"R-Run!!"

"Hurry! It's the Antimatter Legion!"

Hearing Yuuto's voice, the researchers began to flood towards the entrance leading to the Master Control room, leaving Yuuto behind. 

"Dan Heng and March should be there to assist Arlan during the evacuation…"

Remembering the words he left with Dan Heng, Yuuto trusted that they would have arrived early to help Arlan with the evacuation.

Leaving these thoughts behind, a horizontal spear began to manifest in front of Yuuto and twisting his entire body backwards.

Yuuto kicked the base of the spear with heel and propelled it towards a Voidranger that suddenly appeared a few meters away from him. 

BOOOOM

The thin spear suddenly punctured the Voidranger's chest and dragged him towards the wall where its body hung lifelessly.

Seeing that he punctured the wall, Yuuto paused for a bit as he saw the damage he created.

"Ahem… It suddenly appeared before me so I had no choice… yup."

Convincing himself that he wasn't at fault for the damage, Yuuto began to run towards the room where a tricky barrier hid a very special object.

While right behind him, two distinct people began to follow in his steps a couple of minutes after he left.