As he nodded, the puppet hanging from his claw continued to swing, making Herta a little uneasy.
"Fine, I'll just say it—I'm willing to cooperate with you if you cooperate with me on the actual operation."
"Hey, what are you saying?"
Hearing this, Seele gave her a hostile glare, gripping her scythe tightly. If Herta made even one wrong move, she'd charge forward and cut her down immediately.
No matter what fancy title she had—Genius Society or not—if she dared offend Godzilla, she was done for!
"Herta..." Himeko sighed and rubbed her temples.
Herta was brilliant, but when it came to social skills... not so much....
-------------------------------
Godzilla stared motionlessly at the endlessly chattering Herta.
"I helped you fend off one of the Lord Ravagers, and it was that annoying Phantylia too. You don't know—Phantylia loves using her psychic manipulation to plunge worlds into chaos. Just this little dump called Jarilo-VI? She could wipe it out with a flick of her finger."
"Don't worry, I've got a great reputation. Ask Himeko or that little gray-haired girl over there—she even did a research project on me. My experiments are totally safe. At most, I'd just draw a little blood. I mean, you're so huge anyway…"
Boom!
Just as Herta mentioned wanting Godzilla's cells and Himeko was about to speak, a sudden gust of wind blew through. A familiar figure dashed past her, followed by a thunderous crash.
She turned to see Herta embedded in the wall. The shattered floor marked where she had just been.
Looking again, Godzilla's tail—now near her head—slowly retracted and swayed gently.
No need for anyone else—Herta pulled herself out of the wall, picked up her hammer, and stormed back in a huff, glaring at Godzilla.
"Ahem, Herta, let it go," Himeko said, holding back laughter as she stepped forward to restrain her.
"No way! I've never suffered such a loss! Today, I have to show this big guy what genius means! Of course, if he's willing to cooperate with my research, I can let it slide…"
Hearing the latter part, Himeko instantly saw through Herta's ploy.
"Herta, that's not how you ask someone for help," Himeko said helplessly.
Herta thought for a moment, then tossed aside the hammer, pressed her palms together, and pouted her lips.
"Pretty please~ Just help me this once, okay?"
Eugh— Godzilla was inwardly disgusted by this behavior.
"Is she always like this?" Serval whispered to Himeko, keeping her voice low.
"Herta's usually rational, but when she gets passionate about a project, she turns into a total research maniac," Himeko said, rubbing her forehead.
Just like when she was obsessed with Stelle back on the space station.
Serval gave a slight nod, understanding dawning in her eyes.
Could Herta have become an Emanator of Erudition because of her reckless dedication to research?
"Hey, seriously now—don't be like this. If you're rejected, just let it go. Don't you understand such a simple principle?" Seele crossed her arms and scolded with a frown.
Herta paused, glanced back at her, confirmed with a look—yup, a bumpkin who doesn't understand science. She wasn't worth responding to.
"Alright, Herta. Godzilla's situation is very special. I can't go into details, but trust me," Himeko said.
Himeko had a good track record with Herta, and Herta was willing to trust her.
But…
Having such a valuable research subject right in front of her and being told not to touch it? That was enough to have her crying under the moon at midnight!
"Please~"
'No.' Godzilla pressed his tail to Herta's forehead, firmly refusing to let her move forward.
"Please~"
'No.' The tail flicked out.
Boom! Another dent appeared in the wall.
...
Finally, with peace restored, Godzilla could once again enjoy tranquility. At that moment, he was reflecting on what Herta had said.
"So that guy was Phantylia, huh? If I recall, her true form is an energy being?"
With his mind wandering, Godzilla felt a twinge of regret.
If only Phantylia had come to Jarilo.
Right now, he could absorb energy even from halfway across Jarilo—if she were closer…
"Oh well, Phantylia is a Lord Ravager. Since Jarilo's marked, she'll return sooner or later." With that thought, Godzilla felt more balanced.
The tip of his tail hooked Tingyun's collar and gently lifted the bystander onto his back.
Under the soothing massage, Godzilla slowly closed his eyes.
...
Normally, Godzilla was careful not to let his cells spread.
Godzilla's cells had terrifying evolutionary potential—if left unchecked, they could create another powerful monster.
And due to their dominant nature, that monster would harbor deep hostility toward the original Godzilla, even seeing him as food and launching a brutal battle.
Godzilla didn't want to be peacefully napping at home, only for another Godzilla-lookalike to blast an atomic breath from 500 miles away.
So he completely ignored Herta's request, despite her scientist's obsession.
After her sneaky "injection attempt" ended with a tail smack, Herta had to retreat.
A powerful being like this, if unwilling to cooperate, would make any forced experiment go terribly wrong.
Herta decided to change tactics.
"Himeko, we've been friends for so long—you won't even help me with this tiny thing?" Herta even put a couple of eyedrops in to fake tears, her cute expression giving off a sense of tragic beauty.
Himeko remained unmoved.
"No!"
"You traitor! If you won't help me, I'll figure it out myself!" Herta huffed.
Hearing that, Himeko just shook her head helplessly.
"If he's not cooperating, what can you do? Are you really that impatient?"
"Do you even know what you're talking about?" Herta rolled her eyes and began listing the differences of Godzilla.
"A creature that can alter the ecosystem on its own, a creature with a completely well developed nuclear reactor inside its body—do you understand what that even means? This thing completely shatters the current biological system. If it were a genetically modified organism, I'd at most be curious who would make such a thing—but it's not! I didn't see a single trace of modification on it, it's pure through and through! Do you know what that means!?"
Herta got more and more agitated as she spoke, itching to knock Godzilla out with a hammer and extract some biological data from it for planetary ecology research.
Seeing Herta's excitement, Himeko stayed silent for a moment. She knew that without giving Herta something, there was no way to calm her down.
So she called Welt.
...
After a brief explanation, Welt conveyed to Herta the essential situation from the analysis conducted at the base.
Upon hearing about the tyrannical cells the creature possessed, the light in Herta's eyes grew brighter.
But she wasn't the type to ignore all life just for the sake of research, even if she was blunt.
"So that means I just need to be careful, right? And we can call in Ruan Mei—she's the best at this kind of research."
Seeing that Herta still hadn't given up, Welt raised his hand and gently tapped the ground with his cane, pulling her back from her scientific daydream.
"Miss Herta, I must tell you—Godzilla is an extremely abnormal creature. His existence affects the entire planet. If his cells leak out, the consequences will be catastrophic."
Welt was very clear about the destructive nature of Godzilla's cells.
Space Godzilla was proof.
If those cells combined with any form of advanced technology, Welt didn't even want to imagine the hellish scene that would result.
"Don't worry, I'll be very careful."
Clearly, Miss Herta didn't take his warning to heart and was still excitedly calculating ways to extract Godzilla's cells.
...
Herta Space Station.
Asta crouched low, carefully moving through the cluttered space and occasionally calling out softly.
"Pepe~ Pepe~, I have your favorite snack right here. If you don't come out, I'm going to eat it all myself."
Still no movement. Asta stood up, helplessly scratching her head.
She hadn't expected Pepe to get so worked up after seeing the photos March and the others had sent.
Even her favorite snacks couldn't lure it out now.
"Should I try another bait?" she wondered, when suddenly the phone in her hand lit up, followed by a familiar voice.
"Hey hey hey, is Asta there?"
"Miss Herta, I'm here. What's going on?"
"Help me buy some energy-rich minerals and ship them to Jarilo-VI, the more the better."
"Huh? Miss Herta, did you run into some trouble?"
"It's not trouble exactly, just hurry."
Before Asta could reply, Herta abruptly cut the call.
Staring at the now black screen, Asta tilted her head, face full of confusion.