Chapter 8

After obtaining the group owner’s data, she decisively parted ways with the newly met Akashia.

Then.

Walking the world, perhaps by fate’s design, she took in Yi Long, Ci Lang, and San Hu one by one.

She resolved to nurture these three children properly.

These children will all possess abilities capable of altering the world’s balance!

Floze was a woman with boundless compassion; she had traveled the earth, watching countless people die from war, famine, illness…

Most of them were children unable to fend for themselves!

How heart-wrenching it must have been to see these children die before her eyes?

Therefore, she would regard these three children as family.

Then.

She would impart all she knew, shape their values, and strive to transform this war-torn era into her ideal culinary paradise!

Yet this was something she alone could not accomplish.

It was not that her strength was insufficient.

After joining the dimensional chat group, she was confident her power would far surpass its former height.

But not every problem in this world can be solved by raw strength alone.

Yet these three children she adopted possessed the potential to change the age!

Thus, she was deeply grateful to the group owner for sharing this vital information with her.

As for her original doomed future?

Compared to the fate of the entire world, it weighed nothing in her heart!

The Wisdom of the Pioneer: “Excellent cuisine. I’ve calculated its ingredients—substitutes exist across the cosmos.”

The Wisdom of the Pioneer: “But data shows that even a perfect one-to-one replication still falls drastically short of Floze’s [Seven-Colored Rainbow Brew]. No wonder she’s a culinary deity capable of ushering in a new era!”

The Great Female Protagonist of All Worlds: “…”

Truly a genius—even across worlds, she can find substitute ingredients. She’s impossibly powerful.

Watching the group still revolve around Floze’s cuisine, Hermes took another subtle sip, then stored it in the starship’s special collection chamber.

This chamber, modified by unique technology, features time-stasis effects—whatever is placed inside remains unchanged upon retrieval, with zero concern for spoilage…

Then she closed the chat group and began studying Devil Fruits.

She brought the Devil Fruit to a remote laboratory aboard the starship.

Though she specialized in energy studies, that did not mean she was ignorant in other fields.

Thus, when designing this starship, she had also casually set up a biotechnology laboratory.

Inside the circular lab, holographic projections decomposed the Devil Fruit’s 3D structure into flowing data streams.

Watching Alpha’s calculations, Hermes frowned and sighed: “I’ll need to design a more advanced computer—current high-level AI can no longer fully meet my research demands!”

Celestial computer?

Quantum computer?

Or biological computer?

Hermes was uncertain.

To be honest, all three are excellent.

First, the celestial computer—even the Omniscient One ascended to divinity via a celestial computer; its computational power is self-evident.

Then the quantum computer—this world’s essence is a realm of imaginary numbers and quantum phenomena; quantum computing’s potential is obvious.

Lastly, the biological computer—Ruan Mei had already shown Hermes its possibilities.

In prior exchanges, Ruan Mei had said she personally activated nine planets and, drawing from the insectoid network, constructed a biological computer composed of the planetary souls of those nine activated worlds!

That computational power even stunned Screwgum!

Now, Hermes must also consider building his own exclusive supercomputer—this is an inevitable step for every genius.

After all, though every genius possesses supercomputational ability, only with a perfectly tailored, dedicated computer can one truly become the complete embodiment of a genius!

As Hermes swiftly weighed options, his hands moved without pause: “Alpha, retrieve gene sample from Storage Vault No. 3, codename [Phoenix], and begin crafting a new Devil Fruit!”

“Experimental material extracted. Initiating energy infusion.”

Inside a growth chamber, Alpha placed the [Phoenix] gene, then filled it with pale blue nutrient fluid.

Soon, a spiral-patterned fruit’s phantom slowly took shape.

After meticulous calculations, energy infusion completed, and the fruit’s phantom finally solidified.

Devil Fruit—Phoenix Form—emerged!

Success on the first attempt did not surprise Hermes; it was inevitable.

He and Alpha swiftly reverse-engineered the entire experiment, preparing to fully comprehend its underlying principles.

With this, he could construct a Devil Fruit production line and achieve Devil Fruit freedom.

Future Devil Fruit creation would no longer require such laborious effort.

Of course, for now, limited to Animal-Type only.

So far, he still didn’t understand how to transform natural phenomena—thunder, light, lava, even abstract concepts—into a single tiny fruit.

That was not his area of expertise.

“Still, that’s fine—difficulty brings reward!”

Hermes smiled faintly, concluding his experiment: “Animal-Type merely adds to my knowledge of biological structure. But if I unravel Natural-Type and Paramecia-Type, I sense great gains await!”

At that moment.

Hermes suddenly felt something, his gaze turning toward the distant unknown.

“This feeling…”

Uncontrollable joy spread across his face, enhancing his already flawless beauty with an unexpected warmth.

“Pam has awakened from slumber?”

“Then, Jizi will soon become the Star Rail’s navigator, leading the Pioneer faction to once again expand into the stars!”

As a self-crowned former Pioneer, his authority on the Pioneer Path, save for the fallen Pioneer Star God Akivili, ranked among the very highest.

“Calculate their current location—Pam has awakened; I must offer some aid to this new generation of Pioneers!”

Though he had disembarked, he had once spent eons aboard the Star Rail.

Those were days he still cherished.

After all, exploring the stars had been the romantic pursuit that defined both his lives.