【Madam Herta tilted her chin up proudly: "I am Herta herself, an Emanator of Erudition, and a genuine genius—controlling costs? Such a thing is far too vulgar."】

【The Fourth Mirror's flattery was laid on thick: "Exactly right, Madam Herta! For a genius like you, the IPC should unconditionally provide all resources and let you squander them as you please on any topic that interests you!"】

【"In that case, Herta herself, Emanator of Erudition, genuine genius... what do you plan to do now?"】

【Herta said as if it were obvious: "What else can be done? Naturally, I'll find the fault in the Audience System and then resolve it."】

【"Uh... if I may be so bold, Madam Herta, you are indeed skilled in many fields. But are you sure 'hands-on ability' is still one of your strengths? If it were me, I would suggest you contact Stephen..."】

【"Contact him, and tell him I spent a fortune just to stuff a single sentence into the The Machine's brain, and ended up messing everything up?" Herta seemed somewhat annoyed.】

【The Fourth Mirror immediately read its master's mood: "Right, right, right, I understand..."】

【"As long as you understand." Herta cast her gaze toward a nearby terminal. "Come, follow me to check it out."】

【The Fourth Mirror sized up the familiar terminal before it and curled its lip, saying: "Hmm... this is the Audience System? It doesn't look any different from the Simulated Universe."】

【"You're right. The two use the same underlying logic; essentially, they are the same thing."】

【"Oh, I see, so this is what they call 'effective borrowing,' huh? Hehe..."】

【Herta rested her hand on the Fourth Mirror's frame, her voice cold: "If you keep being cheeky, I guarantee my assistant's name will become the Fifth Mirror."】

【"Back to business. I've divided the Audience System into three sectors: the Energy Sector, the Computing Sector, and the Communication Sector. Each sector is independent and only connects through the Path of Erudition when the system starts up," Herta explained calmly. "It's not easy to have a word with the The Machine. Such a sophisticated system is difficult to test or maintain regularly; it's normal for small problems to occur."】

【"I see. Then Madam Herta, based on your professional judgment—which sector has malfunctioned?"】

【Herta flipped her hair nonchalantly: "Simple. Naturally, all three of them have problems."】

【"...Eh??"】

【"It's no big deal, it just requires a little technical adjustment."】

—

Jujutsu Kaisen.

"This is Madam Herta's true self? Rather than a world-renowned scientist, she looks more like a... uh, magical girl?"

Itadori struggled to search his limited vocabulary; he didn't know how to describe this lady who was almost excessively beautiful. Although he had briefly seen her true face on the Celestial Screen before, it had only been a few seconds of footage—gone in the blink of an eye.

Looking at her now... she seemed more like a mage?

In short, it was hard for him to associate this beautiful lady, who lacked any air of an Emanator, with one of the only two current Emanators of Erudition. However, that arrogance carved into the bones of a genius did indeed leave a deep impression on him.

"Oh?" Shoko raised an eyebrow, stubbing out her cigarette in the ashtray as she looked at Itadori with interest. "Itadori, do you not like Madam Herta's true self?"

"No, not really, I just find it a bit... counter-intuitive." Itadori scratched his head. "I never thought someone could unify the two distinct powers of 'magic' and'science,' like someone wearing a lab coat while releasing Cursed Energy or a technique formula. How should I put it... it's a very novel feeling."

"I even feel that if Madam Herta came to Earth, she would probably quickly use'scientific' means to deconstruct the Cursed Energy we use and then create her own technique formula."

Atsuya Kusakabe curled his lip and said, "People like her wouldn't be that idle. Since she possesses lethal weapons like Imaginary Pulse Weapons that can instantly detonate an entire galaxy, she simply disdains using power at our level... She'll probably just toss it aside once her curiosity is satisfied."

—

【Herta first brought the mirror to the Energy Sector. As soon as they entered, the mirror began to shiver with cold.】

【"Ch-ch-ch-chatter... this Energy Sector... why is it so cold? My mirror surface is about to frost over!"】

【Herta looked around at the world of ice and snow: "What did you expect? I've converted all the energy of the Herta Space Station into an Imaginary state and stored it in this sector. If I didn't set up an ultra-low temperature environment, the Herta Space Station would have been blown into the sky long ago."】

【The mirror trembled: "Ch-ch-chatter... but... aren't we... already in the sky?"】

【"...As a mirror, is your sense of humor a bit excessive?" Herta looked toward the distance; Fragmentum monsters had actually appeared at the boundary of the Energy Sector.】

【"Where did those guys come from? Corrupted data? Activated system rust? That shouldn't be... it can't be that the Legion is attacking, right?"】

【Herta stretched and tapped lightly into the void with her key; the group of monsters vanished instantly, turning into a string of useless data.】

【After cleaning up, Herta immediately set off for the next sector. Unlike the monsters in the Energy Sector, this sector was teeming with various disgusting insects.】

【"What... what is this?! Where did all these disgusting bugs come from?"】

【Herta was already used to it: "To see the The Machine, your computing power must at least match up. If you can't reach tens of thousands of sextillion floating-point operations per second, He won't even feel your existence. But high computing power has its downsides, which is attracting these 'Computing Stingbugs'—a branch of the offspring of The Propagation. I don't know how they evolved."】

【"Life is quite miraculous, isn't it? Though still not as much as a talking mirror, ha." The mirror changed the subject. "By the way, Madam Herta—since you have such a powerful supercomputer, what exactly does it... uh... calculate usually?"】

【Herta shrugged: "Does it matter? I just need to keep it running so it can get the The Machine's attention."】

【"Sigh... if you have time, you should really talk to Miss Asta."】

【Herta cleared the bugs along the way, but as she was sweeping, a crystal-clear... bubble suddenly appeared nearby?】

【"There's a Memory Bubble here too..." the mirror reminded her.】

【"Why do you care so much about it?"】

【"Fine," the mirror said dejectedly. "I just think it's a bit... eerie?"】