Genshin Impact: Joining the Genius Society-Chapter 237: Jade: “It’s Just Me Here.”
"Hey! Whose side are you even on?!"
First, Su Ran had secrets, and Asta helped him hide them from her.
Now Asta had secrets, and Su Ran was helping her hide them too.
Just how unwanted was she, really?!
This place was called the Herta Space Station, right?
Asta was the station’s director, right?
So why did it feel like she was the outsider who’d come from far away?!
"Of course I’m on... neither side."
As an outsider, how could Asta dare interfere in the CP she was shipping?
Wasn’t it better to let them handle it themselves?
"..."
Was that even human language?
Neither side?
From Herta’s point of view, Asta was clearly Su Ran’s most loyal lackey!
Where was the neutrality in that?!
Asta guiltily avoided Herta’s gaze.
To be fair, her recent actions had looked like she was siding with Su Ran against Herta.
But she had her reasons!
How could she possibly explain the truth to Herta directly?
Last time, it could’ve led to physical death.
This time, it could lead to social death.
Asta already felt miserable enough.
"Fine, don’t tell me..."
Herta gave up on pressing the issue.
There were more important things to deal with.
Judging from the calculation formulas Su Ran had provided, the probability of successfully building a Stargate was very high.
But the problem was—
This was a gate.
Not a simple teleporter.
To reach another location, there had to be another gate on the other end.
A single gate alone was useless.
So Herta was waiting for the other thing Su Ran had mentioned—
That so-called Equivalent Exchange Device.
A concept that completely defied common sense.
She really wanted to see it for herself.
"When do you plan to open the Stargates to the various civilizations of the universe?" Herta asked.
"At least a year," Su Ran replied.
Even though he was confident he could use special methods to obtain enough Stargates, he still needed to consider the universe’s economic conditions carefully.
He didn’t want excessive preparation, nor did he want his technology to become a tool for the Interastral Peace Corporation to exploit others.
This wasn’t because Su Ran was particularly kind.
He just didn’t like other people using his stuff to exploit others.
If he did the exploiting, that was fine.
"A year? You’re sure?"
Even Herta thought Su Ran was being naïve.
The universe was vast.
Producing enough Stargates was one thing.
Deploying them everywhere was another.
What about maintenance? Repairs?
Was he planning to handle all of that alone?
Even Herta felt that completely cutting off the IPC was far more difficult than Su Ran imagined.
In the entire universe, how many forces could truly break free from the Corporation?
Finishing everything in just one year felt far too optimistic.
Even believing in Su Ran’s strength, she didn’t think he could solve all of that so quickly.
"At least not in the short term."
"We’ll see when we get there. I’m not in a hurry," Su Ran said casually.
"In the past, your research never took more than a week.
This time you’re saying one year. That’s strange."
Thinking back on all the miraculous things Su Ran had shown her recently, and then comparing it to this new timeline—the gap felt huge.
"Research and infrastructure deployment are two different things," Su Ran replied.
He rubbed the top of Herta’s head, then pinched her cheek.
"Terrible feel. One-star review."
It didn’t even compare to the combat puppet he’d made for Raiden Ei.
"Sorry for ruining your experience and your mood," Herta snapped, "but I’m not changing it!"
Her puppets were for her own use.
She never intended them to be treated like toys for teasing.
If Su Ran thought the experience was bad—well, he wasn’t the target user anyway!
Seeing that Su Ran seemed free now, Raiden Makoto decided to bring up Jade’s matter.
"Su Ran, there’s a woman who wants to meet you."
Makoto didn’t know Jade well, but she could tell the woman wasn’t ordinary.
Su Ran might need someone like her in the future.
So Makoto felt it was better to at least inform him, in case something important was missed.
"Ah, her..."
Su Ran sighed regretfully.
"I thought it was the ranking-buyer lady again."
This time it wasn’t Topaz, but Jade instead.
Honestly, he felt a bit disappointed.
Topaz was straightforward and fun to mess with.
Jade, on the other hand—too much scheming. Too tiring to talk to.
Far less entertaining than Topaz.
"Then I’ll go meet this... Mr. Welt."
Even so, she was one of the Ten Stonehearts.
Even if she wasn’t as easy to bully as Topaz, he was still curious to see this loan-shark Jade for himself.
"Mr. Welt?" Asta blinked.
"There’s no Mr. Welt on Herta Space Station...
Did you mean Miss Jade, Mr. Su Ran?"
That sudden mention of "Welt" confused her.
Was there such a person here?
"In my heart, Jade and Welt are equivalent," Su Ran replied.
"If I keep explaining, it’ll just get sad."
The three people in the office were completely baffled. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶
Calling a lady a gentleman—
no one could understand what was going on in Su Ran’s head.
"Who’s this Welt?" Herta asked Asta.
Herta didn’t actually know everyone on the station.
Everything here was managed by Asta anyway.
Though it bore her name, the station was basically just named after her.
Unless Su Ran was around, she rarely stayed here at all.
So it was normal that she didn’t know everyone.
"I’ve heard of a man named Welt on the Astral Express," Asta said,
"but he shouldn’t have anything to do with Miss Jade."
Aside from that Welt, she couldn’t think of any other.
She’d certainly never heard of an IPC executive named Welt.
"Miss, are you alone?"
While Jade was standing at a bar, thinking about how to reach her target, she heard a voice from behind.
She frowned slightly, ready to brush the person off—but when she saw his face, she paused.
Then she smiled brightly.
"Yes," she replied, "it’s just me."
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