Pei Guang grabbed onto Stelle's and March 7th's clothes and activated the teleport. In an instant, the three of them arrived at the Herta Space Station. Pei Guang checked his data—he had one teleportation remaining.
Remembering Pei Guang's instructions, Stelle spoke first. "Teleportation count remains unchanged."
March 7th: "Same here~ Looks like each of us has two uses, and we can bring others along. We just don't know how many people at once..."
Pei Guang: "Not a problem, we can test it later."
March 7th commented with a bit of amazement: "But this teleportation is so cool! We blinked, and suddenly we're back at the Herta Space Station? How does it even work?"
Pei Guang: "Players getting teleportation abilities is pretty standard, right? After all, once I officially got the Trailblazer class, I unlocked these skills. Maybe this is just a basic Trailblazer ability?"
March 7th continued her playful complaint: "I've been a Trailblazer for this long, and it's the first time I've heard of this kind of thing..."
Stelle: "It's no big deal. If it works, we should just use it. But I do have one little question. Ah Guang… how do you think we should go about collecting that treasure up ahead?"
Following Stelle's gaze, Pei Guang and March 7th saw a puppet in the room.
The puppet was quite detailed, wearing a beret with a purple flower attached to it. Her purple eyes stared blankly in their direction, but she was in standby mode, her gaze just part of the basic responses Herta had programmed into the body.
When Pei Guang and the group suddenly appeared, the puppet tried to connect to Herta's main system, but since she was temporarily out of contact, the connection failed. So, the puppet just stared at them without taking any action.
Pei Guang watched as Stelle and March 7th approached the puppet.
March 7th whispered: "So this is the treasure you were talking about, Stelle? Packing this thing up and taking it with us… doesn't seem right, does it?"
Stelle responded confidently: "She said if I helped with the experiment, she'd give me a reward. She hasn't given me that reward yet, so it's not unreasonable for me to just take the puppet with me, right?"
Pei Guang pondered: "Taking an NPC along with us… I've never done that before."
March 7th looked at Pei Guang: "Never? Didn't we pack Bronya up and take her with us? Also, taking someone else's stuff might lower their favorability toward you, Ah Guang."
After March 7th's reminder, Pei Guang remembered that he had, in fact, packed up Bronya using coffee and brought her to the Underworld. He had just forgotten after spending so much time with her.
As for favorability, Stelle had already prepared for that. She pulled out her phone and showed the chat log between her and Herta, from before the Astral Express left.
Stelle: "Look! She said if I wanted a reward, I could take the puppet. She dared me to do it, saying she wouldn't mind!"
Further down the chat were Stelle's daily reminders to Herta, asking for her reward, but since the signal had been disrupted while they were in Belobog, none of those messages had gone through recently.
Stelle: "See? She gave me permission to take the puppet. She said if I had the guts, I should take it, and now I've got the guts."
March 7th looked at Stelle's phone: "Huh? She really did say that... So, should we pack it up?"
Pei Guang shook his head: "No, we can't. It still counts as owned, and we can't store it."
Stelle: "So what now?"
Pei Guang: "The usual method—take it apart."
Stelle: "But we don't have the blueprint, so we can't dismantle it properly."
Pei Guang patted Stelle's shoulder: "Stelle, you're still too young. I've played games for years, and I've never seen something in an open-world game that can't be taken apart."
Pei Guang pulled out a wooden sword. Stelle suddenly understood, realizing she was still too inexperienced compared to Pei Guang. Of course! If they couldn't take it whole, they could break it into pieces and carry it away, then reassemble it later!
Watching the two of them pull out their weapons, the Herta puppet remained silent: "..."
Stelle already had her bat in hand and started hitting the puppet. "Where should we start?"
Pei Guang: "The clothes! They look pretty good. Even if we ruin the puppet, we can still sell the clothes."
Stelle: "Ah Guang, you're a genius!"
March 7th chimed in: "What can I do?"
"I'll grab the head, Stelle, you take the arms, and March, you handle the legs. It's a puppet, so let's see if this technique works. If not, we'll hack away at it."
The Herta puppet felt Pei Guang's hands gripping her head. Although she wasn't directly controlled, as a puppet, she did possess a certain level of intelligence and analytical ability.
She analyzed the situation, certain that Pei Guang and his group wouldn't be able to pull off her head or limbs by brute force. That wooden sword could cut off her limbs, but if they used that special weapon, the puppet's internal self-destruction mechanism would activate to prevent information leaks. In the end, all they'd get would be scrap metal.
Though she couldn't connect with Herta directly, she still retained some of the main system's characteristics. She found it amusing. What would these people—Pei Guang, who had mysteriously arrived at the space station, and Stelle, who had sealed the Stellaron—try next?
Destroy her? No worries. Though a damaged puppet would cause some minor issues, the data she could collect from Pei Guang made it worth it.
Moreover, she was curious—what kind of expressions would Pei Guang and his friends make when they ended up with a broken puppet?
Having gathered enough data on Pei Guang, the puppet decided to focus on memorizing the group's amusing expressions, knowing the main system would be thrilled to see them.
So, the Herta puppet didn't resist, only recording the situation through her eyes.
"Go ahead, pull harder. See? It's not budging? Try again! Did you guys skip breakfast?"
Meanwhile, the puppet synced all the amusing data from this scenario with the other puppets across the space station. She was fully prepared to be destroyed, but she still wanted to make sure these entertaining details got shared.
At that moment, Pei Guang, Stelle, and March 7th were giving it their all, trying to yank the puppet apart. But despite their best efforts, not a single scratch appeared on her body.
While struggling to pull the puppet, Pei Guang noticed something.
Pei Guang: "Did you guys notice?"
March 7th nodded: "Yeah, this skin... it's so soft, just like a real little girl."
Pei Guang nodded too: "I also pinched the face a bit. I've never touched a girl's face in real life, but this is pretty much what I imagined."
March 7th couldn't help but burst out laughing: "Pfft! What kind of description is that? But the material is definitely high-end. Maybe destroying it isn't the best idea. Ah Guang, do you have any other options besides smashing it?"
"You're right. It would be a waste to destroy it outright. With skin this good, maybe..." Pei Guang paused, then had an idea.