24 Hidden Items

"How…"

"Hmm? Did you say something?"

"This doesn't make any sense!? I gave you these books just 5 minutes ago and you were already able to answer these questions?? 5 books!?"

Yuuto watched as Herta's bloodshot eyes scanned through the piece of paper that she had given him just to see if he was able to back up what he said.

Originally she had seen him open the book a few times before closing them and turning to the next ones.

Closing his eyes between each one.

In her head she scoffed at this scene and wondered if the person she had met was someone who was just wasting her time.

Well considering the task he had to do was already something she thought was impossible and a waste of time itself.

'Can we just get this over with.'

But this thought changed when she handed him a piece of paper filled with mock questions about the topic and saw how he was able to answer them perfectly as if he knew the textbooks from front to back.

"I just have a good memory, that's all."

Herta's brows twitched when she saw the modest smile Yuuto was giving her but deep inside she was able to feel his gloating energy radiating off him.

The ones she gave were basic and advanced in theory when it came to the topic but each chapter carried a hefty amount of content that would usually require more than a year's worth of lessons, considering the average person. 

"What factors influence the intricate formations of crystallographic ice structures?"

Still not wanting to back down, Herta asked him a question as she felt suspicious about how he answered all those questions.

"The primary influencers are the elemental composition of the frozen medium, ambient temperature fluctuations, and the unique energy signatures present during the freezing process."

"How does certain crystallographic ice react to the presence of Curios, and can it enhance or alter their properties?"

"Certain crystallographic ice has a symbiotic relationship with certain Curios. When in close proximity, the crystal can enhance the Curios inherent properties, but is unable to actually alter them."

"What the heck…"

The quick and instantaneous answers she received baffled her and in the end needed a moment for her to rub her head so that she could rearrange her thoughts.

"Is he a mechanical life form like Screwllum hidden as a human..? No, even with his abnormal speed of processing information I still notice vitals of a normal human being…"

Herta churned her head to think of possibilities and rationals to answer her questions for the situation she had just witnessed.

"Ruan Mei would probably have some answers but it's going to be a hassle trying to get that information out of her…"

Unknown to him, this hesitation from Herta had saved Yuuto from catching the eyes of a certain sociopathic scientist.

For now. 

As Herta was mumbling to herself like a madman, Yuuto stood off to the side and felt amused to see her act this way.

–DRIP DRIP

"I guess stuffing 5 books of heavy theoretical topics into my head was a bit too much…"

Yuuto said to himself as he used his hand to try and conceal the red liquid coming out of his nose.

The influx of information he received each time he used [Archive] on the textbooks surprised him each time as countless theories on a multitude of different topics forced him to take a small break between each book.

Considering this was his first time having any sort of background information on this topic, it forced him to use energy from the [Memory of the World] to help sooth his mind.

Glancing at his reflection in a glass frame near him, Yuuto hid the stained sleeve he had and approached Herta who was still mumbling to herself.

"Herta~"

"What."

"I answered the questions correctly right?"

"....Yes…you did.."

"Do you mind telling me again about the B-E-T we made beforehand~"

"....."

Herta's face scowled thinking about the betting conditions she made prior and felt irritated seeing the clueless look he had in his face.

"Bad guy!" 

Yuuto ignored the noises from his surroundings and focused his attention on Herta in front of him.

"Fine! Fine! I will admit defeat this time, you win." Herta huffed as she crossed her arms and cursed under her breath.

"Wow, I thought you would evade the answer but I guess I was wrong."

"Next time! You just got lucky this time around."

"Oh? There's a next time? I will also make sure to let you know what I'll want the next time it happens."

Yuuto slammed his fist onto his palm as if he understood what Herta was aiming at.

'I need to stop replying to him or else I'll start to get some nasty wrinkles…'

Herta ignored Yuuto's obvious ploys at aiming jabs at her and took out her cell phone from her pocket.

"A gangster intimidating a hopeless child!"

"The peanut gallery sure is loud today."

Stelle turned her head away and whistled when she noticed Yuuto's eyes landing on her.

[Madam Herta? It's unusual for you to call.]

"Asta, I need something."

Yuuto heard a familiar voice come out from Herta's phone and noticed that it was Asta on the other line.

"I need you to send some credits to a person."

[For what reason?]

"I lost a be– I mean… I had an AGREEMENT with someone and need to do my portion of the deal."

[I understand. Who is the person you are sending the credits to?]

Herta took the phone off her ear and looked at Yuuto as if asking for his name. He felt a bit baffled seeing that she already forgot but gave it one more.

"It's Yuuto."

[Ah! It must be Yuuto from the Astral Express from what I'm guessing.]

"Yeah that's the one."

A brief moment of silence came from the other side of the phone call before it was broken by Asta's confirmation.

[How much would you like to send?]

"Hmm… just send the same amount as the ones we send when the IPC comes to bother us about something."

[I understand I will send the amount shortly.]

After hearing confirmation from Asta, Herta turned her phone off and looked at Yuuto in front of her.

"You should get a notification from Asta soon. That's just half of the compensation I agreed to give so just tell me what the other half is when you feel like it. But remember within limits."

–DING

As if right on cue, Yuuto's phone notified him of a text and he took it out to see the amount Herta sent him.

She never really specified the compensation she offered to give first so he wonder the amount of credits he would receive judging from the conversation he heard just moments before.

'Maybe a few thousands?'

Yuuto scrolled through his phone and checked his account and noticed the amount of zeros it had.

'One, two, three? Four, five…'

As he counted, Yuuto narrowed his eyes and even rubbed it to see if he was hallucinating at the amount he saw.

'Eight zeros… there's no way right?'

However the harder he stared at it, the harder it was to deny the amount.

"Did you get it?" Herta who watched his reaction, walked towards him and looked at the balance.

[+100,000,000]

[+50,000,000]

"Ah, it seemed like Asta added an extra bit to the total."

"She did and this is considered a little bit?"

"Of course. Considering her background this is just chump change." 

Herta gestured with her fingers and smiled a little bit as she said it.

Yuuto was still baffled but he tried to calm himself thinking that he had become a millionaire in under a few seconds.

'If I had this amount at home…'

He rubbed his forehead forming this thought but immediately swatted it away thinking that a gacha addiction would surely form if he did somehow have this amount back home.

"Anyways since you got that, are you available to start now?"

"Actually I'm pretty motivated seeing the amount so I'm ready to go if you want."

"Perfect! Money sure does make the world go round."

Herta snickered hearing Yuuto's response and asked him to form a few crystals for her.

Following her request, he passed five medium sized ones that looked a bit cleaner than the one Herta had with her before.

She admired the crystals for a bit before she placed them in a container that scanned them multiple times.

"I use a lab inside the Simulated Universe so just enter the light when you're ready to go in."

Herta walked a few steps before her body flashed and gradually disappeared into white specks of light.

"How about you Stelle, are you coming along?"

Yuuto spoke to Stelle who stood off to the side checking out some portraits to keep her busy.

"Nope, I had my fill of the Simulated Universe and well…"

A pause came at the end of her sentence.

"I'm going to see Himeko to tell her about my decision on the offer she gave me."

'It must be about either boarding the Express or staying on the space station.' 

After hearing this, Yuuto nodded his head on the inside and just gave her a reassuring smile.

"Alright, I'll see you later then."

"Hmm."

Stelle gave him a smile back and she watched him disappear into the Simulated Universe to follow Herta.

***

"It certainly doesn't feel like I'm in some sort of virtual reality…"

Yuuto looked at his surroundings and noticed the arrays of metal and lights that told him that he was in a place that was similar to the space station he was previously at.

He walked around for a bit and took in the air and really smelled the scent of metal and disinfectant. 

[You're here. Hurry up and come follow me.]

Suddenly appearing through the space in front of him, a small purple bird shaped object floated at eye level. On its left side was a familiar looking purple flower that made the creature look pretty cute in his eyes. 

[Did you have your fill of staring?]

"Not really. You look very cute in that form."

[Cute? Beh, I would rather hear beautiful or attractive if you want to describe me.]

"Yeah, yeah whatever."

Yuuto followed the floating bird to a metal door that was near the end of the hallway he was at.

Inside were countless holographic screens that had different data and bars that each had values corresponding to a different element based on the crystal that was given to Herta.

"You can just sit down and do whatever for now. I'm waiting for the scan on the outside to be finished so I can have a perfect replica of its data for us to use."

Herta who was now in her regular form, waved her hand around and sat down with her eyes closed and Yuuto followed.

Seeing that a computer was in front of him, he looked into it as he wanted to see if she had already begun to look into his crystal despite only having it for a few hours.

'Composition has similar properties to diamonds but some elements are enhanced [Needs more data]… thermal conductivity is high on the scale [Some evidence]…'

As he looked more into the reports, it made him let out an awe of admiration at the list of data Herta already made.

The list continued but some of them stated that they needed more data so he skimmed past them.

'Is there other documents?'

Yuuto scrolled through the computer and saw that some theories were available which made him curious.

There he saw some topics that were in the textbooks he had used [Archive] on before and also skimmed past them.

"What's this [ERROR] folder…"

This specific folder caught his interest as he also had some special 'folders' himself so seeing this made him wonder just what was inside. 

[OOS**&))&&}

[WHTS&&^$##@^}

{S(*!OLR())NI]

"Is this just a folder of corrupted files…"

"Ah, those are just documents that were tampered with by some people."

As if there to answer his question, Herta appeared as she looked over his shoulder.

"What type of people?"

"I think they were called History Fictionologists. An annoying bunch to be honest, they would sometimes affect some data used for the implementation of some worlds in the Simulated Universe."

An annoyed voice came out of Herta as she spoke of this certain group of people.

'Mythus is even influencing here.'

Yuuto's eyes turned to the list of documents that Herta had said were background data for some worlds needed to replicate the present world as closely as she could.

She looked for and paid for these data but soon found out that during the transmission some of them turned out like that.

Even with Screwllum's help it was difficult to decipher and find out the root of the issue and revert its state from before.

Herta continued to rant but stopped as she already got over it and continued to wait for the scan to finish.

Seeing that Herta had left him on his own once again, Yuuto sat for a bit before he thought of something and asked Herta for permission.

"You want to download these documents? Sure whatever suits your boat. They're useless to me now that I have implemented the worlds they were supposed to be based on years ago."

Seeing that he got permission, Yuuto transferred the data onto his phone before he conjured a prismatic white light in both his eyes and palm as he guided this energy towards one of the files.

"[Clarity]"

As he stared at the documents, he was able to see a deep dark mist engraved on each of the letters as if it tried to hide the information behind itself.

The light formed into thin threads as it pulsed, trying to dig itself into the engravings of dark mist appearing on the letters.

Compared to before where he only used [Clarity] on one word, he was now doing it on a full item which caused him to put more attention and effort into it.

With each pulse, a chip of black mist flashed and disappeared into the air as if it was trying to chip off a chuck of muddy exterior material.

Gradually the jumbled layers of text and symbols shifted until one final pulse appeared and a wave of prismatic light spread past Yuuto's face.

[PLIGHT OF A MOTHER THAT BROUGHT UPON A DEVASTATING HEAT]