*Chapter 23: Herta, Is This Silver Wolf Brain-Damaged?*

Stellaron Hunters.

They weren't gathered for pure destruction or profit, but acted across the universe for mysterious, goal-oriented purposes unknown to others. An extremely dangerous organization.

This wasn't some model group registered with the Interastral Peace Corporation, collecting official subsidies, and clocking in on time. They were more like a bunch of troublemakers who thrived on chaos, likely tagged as 'wanted criminals' or a 'terrorist organization.'

Because their actions often caused chaos and directly interfered with the development of various worlds, the Stellaron Hunters were regarded as extremely dangerous terrorists or criminal groups by multiple interstellar powers, including the IPC, who had issued high bounties for them.

Herta had little interaction with this organization, at least no significant connection. Screwllum, who developed the Simulated Universe with her, however, had crossed paths with them. He once clashed with a hacker from the group named Silver Wolf.

That hacker was also the creator of the graffiti right in front of her.

The main image was a chibi-style figure: short, silver-grey hair, wearing a pair of pixel-style sunglasses that looked expensive but had questionable taste, blowing an out-of-proportion pink bubblegum bubble, and holding something resembling a handheld game console.

The figure sat on a purple glow that looked like both an explosion effect and data corruption, surrounded by scattered small colorful blocks. More eye-catching were several large, shiny, sharp-edged numbers floating above the image, like a high score or achievement marker from some game.

Inside a speech bubble were three simple dots: "..."

"...Is that so."

For a moment, Herta hallucinated. She saw the graffiti figure give her a thumbs-up and say this exact phrase with a smile.

This person has brain problems. Definitely don't go to the hospital for it.

Herta activated the puppet's visual sensors, zooming in on the image again and again, analyzing and comparing it with the behavioral patterns – if one could call them that – and preferences of the Stellaron Hunters in her database. The conclusion was generated almost instantly.

Correct. The person who sprayed this graffiti was Silver Wolf herself.

The conclusion was cold, objective, yet carried an absurdity that made Herta's temples throb.

"Stellaron Hunter..."

Herta forced the name out through the puppet's synthetic vocal cords. Her voice was steady, betraying no emotion, but only she knew the turmoil churning within. It wasn't simple anger; it was more a complex conglomerate of emotions: 'My Simulated Universe has been contaminated,' 'Using such a low-tech method,' 'This person's brain really is damaged,' and 'Why provoke me?'

Her blood pressure was about to skyrocket.

This was nothing short of provocation.

A stupid, technically inept provocation ! Using graffiti in my Simulated Universe? Game graffiti? Where did she think this was? The outer wall of some abandoned IPC warehouse? Or her own room, rumored to be stuffed with various gaming peripherals?

"What does she take the Simulated Universe for? A graffiti board? !"
"Does she think this is funny? !"
It feels less funny than getting beaten crying by Screwllum.

The usually rational Herta...
She couldn't even find a suitable word to describe this drawing.
Garbage? An insult? A blasphemy against art? Mockery towards herself?
No, none of these were accurate enough. It was more like a desecration, its very existence a challenge to logic and aesthetics.

The moment she saw it, it felt as if the folds of her cerebral cortex were instantly smoothed out, stretched flat. There was a moment of relaxation, like strolling through a forest, soaring over the Pacific Ocean. She felt like a nimble butterfly sipping the first dewdrop after rain, sitting on a prairie gazing at the horizon, her entire being melting into a pool of water, slowly flowing away, gradually calming down... NOT !

Anger surged through her thoughts, but the instincts of a genius quickly brought her back to composure.

First, find Stelle. Then, mobilize available resources and get the Genius Society to put out a bounty on this...

Holding it back for a long time, Herta finally spat out a word she wasn't sure counted as an insult or a medical term: "...brain-damaged idiot !"

"Pretty much," Jiang Liang agreed beside Stelle.

Almost as Jiang Liang's voice fell, the entire space of the Simulated Universe began to tremble violently. The scene before them rippled like a lake surface disturbed by a thrown stone.

Immediately after, streams of meaningless characters and garbled code poured down from the sky like waterfalls, completely obscuring the previously clear view.

Walls, floor, even Jiang Liang's figure became blurry, submerged by the wildly dancing data streams. Static crackled in their ears, like the sound of a bad signal on an old TV, making one feel rather irritable.

"Tsk, this guy really knows how to make a commotion," Stelle pouted. Staring at the chaotic data streams made her eyes feel strained, and the sense of discomfort intensified. She expertly unlocked her game console and tapped the icon of a pixelated bird. The familiar, relaxing music immediately played, slightly dispelling the unpleasant static from before.

She absentmindedly tapped the screen, controlling the clumsy bird dodging pipes, but couldn't help glancing sideways at Jiang Liang and his troublemaking sword. The garbled code seemed alive, swirling around the pitch-black blade. Some tiny data streams even began to twine around Jiang Liang's arm, but he seemed completely unaffected.

Jiang Liang seemed quite satisfied with this. He gazed at the tachi plunged into the ground. The dark aura around it had subsided considerably compared to before. He reached out, grasped the hilt, and the sword lifted silently from the ground as if it had never existed, leaving not even a scratch on the virtual floor.

Splat. The bird in the game crashed into a pipe. The words "GAME OVER" popped up on the screen.

Stelle sighed. As expected, you can't play anything well when your mind isn't calm. Just as she was about to restart the game, the surrounding chaotic data streams and harsh static suddenly ceased.

It was as if someone had pressed the pause button. The cascading gibberish vanished instantly, and the view became clear again.

The space before them still looked like the same empty waiting room, but somehow, something felt different.

"Alright, the garbled code won't appear again for now. Everything's back to normal," Jiang Liang announced. "Then, under these normal conditions, the Simulated Universe will slowly become something I can use."

Stelle felt that Jiang Liang's words sounded like the victory speech of an NTR antagonist from a melodrama, delivered right in front of the cuckolded protagonist's friend.

The Simulated Universe, previously filled with corrupted data, returned to the state it was in when they first entered. The garbled code vanished as if erased, and everything looked normal again.

While Stelle was still wondering if it was all over, Jiang Liang spoke again.

"Are you sure only you entered the Simulated Universe?"

"Why do you ask?" Stelle tilted her head, noticing Jiang Liang stroking his chin thoughtfully, looking ahead.

"Because there's a second person here."

She looked forward and saw that, at some point, a crack had suddenly opened up in front of them. A girl with silver ponytails was furtively spraying something on the wall.

Stelle felt the person looked vaguely familiar, then realized – she had seen this person's wanted poster.