I really don't want to date a girl addicted to the internet!

Asuna Nagasaki served the oxtail in a casserole dish, Cheng Fei took the initiative to serve rice with bowls and chopsticks, and Shen Xi sat to the side, frowning and thinking about something.

The three of them had a hot pot dinner made with braised oxtail bones, with Nagasaki Asuna preparing a sumptuous meal.

It was already dark by then. The three of them sat on opposite sides of the dining table. As the casserole simmered on the portable gas stove, the rising steam met the carefully arranged warm light overhead, creating a Tyndall effect light path and an indescribable atmosphere.

"Teacher Shen, you've been looking serious since just now. What exactly are you going to announce?" Cheng Fei sat up straight and gnawed on a oxtail bone.

Nagasaki Asuna held her bowl and chopsticks, her gaze fixed on Shen Xi's indifferent face.

Under their gazes, Shen Xi stared at the casserole dish and said, "Let's begin today's meeting."

"Um, do I not need to leave?" Nagasaki Asuna blinked.

"No need, today's meeting is related to you." Shen Xi didn't look at her, and her tone was emotionless.

"Okay?" Nagasaki Asuna blinked, biting her chopsticks.

"Wait a moment, Teacher Shen, I have a question." Cheng Fei said with a serious expression.

"speak."

"If you start the regular meeting now, won't I have no reason to stay overnight?"

Shen Xi gave a heavy, cold laugh, "If you don't want to stay, you certainly don't have to. It's better for me to be alone, and you can go out and fool around wherever you want..."

"Teacher Shen, I was wrong, I'm sorry. Please, no matter what, take in this coward who's afraid to walk home alone at night." The boy clasped his hands together and spoke rapidly.

Shen Xi remained silent for a moment before letting out a cold snort, "I don't want to waste time talking to you. Let's get down to business."

"Okay, please go ahead." The boy breathed a slight sigh of relief.

“I have decided to temporarily accept this vixen as my new apostle,” Shen Xi said calmly.

"what?"

"Huh?"

"It's so fast! I thought you'd drag this out forever." Cheng Fei was surprised.

“If I had planned to drag this out for the rest of my life, I would never have agreed to let her move in in the first place.” Shen Xi glared at the boy. “I said I just needed time to judge. It seems you never believed me from the beginning. You really are the narrow-minded, lying, and self-righteous Cheng Feiyu.”

"Don't mention it, Teacher Shen. I was just exaggerating. My trust in you has never wavered."

"Um, excuse me for interrupting you two, but could you please explain what you're talking about, Apostles?" Nagasaki Asuna tilted her head.

"Nana, you don't know about the Apostles? They're unidentified life forms, enemies of humanity, and also other possible forms of human existence. Ten years ago, it was the Third Apostle that attacked the Third New Tokyo City..." Cheng Fei said seriously.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Shen Xi kicked him under the table.

"So it's Neon Genesis Evangelion?" Asuna Nagasaki thought about it seriously.

"Sorry, that's not related to that. I was just rambling. Now, let's get serious." Cheng Fei coughed lightly. "Nana, actually, Shen Xi and I already figured out the truth about the corridor when we went out to sea."

"So what happened?" Nagasaki Asuna stared at the boy's face.

"Teacher Shen, is it okay to show her the tablet?" the boy asked, looking to the other side.

"In the study." Shen Xi lowered her eyes.

Cheng Fei immediately went to get the tablet, turned it on, and placed it on the side of the dining table where no one was.

The screen lights up, revealing the dilapidated courtyard as before. A young girl with short white hair, dressed in a blue sailor uniform, is fast asleep on the only intact table.

“Little Yi,” Cheng Fei began.

no response.

"Isena," Cheng Fei called again.

Still no response.

"Tsk." The boy tapped the screen twice forcefully.

"Hmm... The Queen has consuls?!" Isena exclaimed in surprise, then leaned closer to the screen to observe, her eyes shining. "This is... food for humans on Earth!"

Nagasaki Asuna's eyes widened. "She is... Shirausa?"

“That’s right, her name is Isena, or you can call her Little Isena.” Cheng Fei nodded.

How did she get here?

"It's a long story, let me first introduce the background setting." Cheng Fei said seriously, "In the multiverse, oh no, the multidimensional universe, there exists a powerful civilization called the Protoss. The highest ruler of the Protoss is called the Queen, and there are 633 of them. Each Queen commands a cluster of billions of apostles."

"?" Nagasaki Asuna looked troubled.

"The Corridor is a species repository built by one of the queens. Long ago, when the Protoss rebelled, the Corridor jumped to Earth for refuge, and Xiao Yi is the managing apostle of the Corridor." Cheng Fei introduced to the tablet, "Although the Corridor has been taken over by others, she can't do anything at the moment."

"Your Majesty, can you eat one of those big bones for me to see?" At the same time, the apostle in charge of the corridor was drooling with his sleeve while leaning over the screen.

Shen Xi frowned slightly, picked up a piece of oxtail bone, and took a small bite to satisfy her apostle's desire to watch.

Nagasaki Asuna, who had been observing this scene, paused for a moment, then turned to him and asked, "Cheng Fei, are you really not joking this time?"

"I'm not kidding, Xiao Yi is a cyber alien, although she doesn't seem very reliable." Cheng Fei couldn't help but sigh.

“But she looks like a…desktop pet?” Nagasaki Asuna carefully chose her words.

"Human, I am a high-performance management apostle!" Isena was very sensitive and immediately turned her head to protest, her little expression both cute and fierce.

Asuna Nagasaki shrank her neck.

“I also think she’s a desktop wallpaper, but that’s not important.” Cheng Fei cleared his throat. “By the way, the creator of the corridor, one of the Protoss Queens, is actually sitting right in front of us.”

"Huh?" Nagasaki Asuna asked in confusion for what felt like the umpteenth time today.

She glanced at Shen Xi, then at Cheng Fei.

"That's right, it's her. Little Yi's certified alien. Don't be fooled by her appearance. She is actually a Protoss Queen who rules over countless dimensions and billions of apostles with cruel tyranny."

As soon as she finished speaking, Shen Xi, who was doing a mukbang for Isena, narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth, kicking the boy under the table.

“Look, even though she has lost her power and memories and has become no different from a weak human girl, her ferocious nature is still etched in her bones. If she were at her peak, I would probably have been reduced to ashes along with all the matter within a cone-shaped area dozens of kilometers behind me.” The boy gestured with his hands, as if the balcony directly in front of him had been blown open by the aftershocks of Shen Xi’s attack.

"Cheng Fei, if you keep adding fuel to the fire and spouting more unnecessary nonsense, I really won't be able to resist asking you to leave." Shen Xi put down her chopsticks, looking disgusted.

"Your Majesty, please calm your anger. I was wrong." Cheng Fei quickly lowered his head.

Nagasaki Asuna pondered for a moment, "So, Cheng Fei is also Shen Xi's... apostle?"

……

289. Nagasaki Asuna attains rank

Cheng Fei nodded, "That's right. I currently serve as an Apostle Governor under her command, which, by the way, is second only to the Empress in authority."

“Okay.” Nagasaki Asuna nodded slowly.

"Is there a problem, Nana?"

"To be honest, I find it a little hard to accept. Is there any evidence to prove these things? It feels like Cheng Fei made it up to amuse me, with things like multiverse and alien civilizations. It doesn't feel real at all."

"You think so too, right? Actually, I've always thought so."

"Cheng Fei." Shen Xi's tone was unreadable.

The boy's expression hardened. "Ahem, these things were told to us by Xiao Yi. Since we haven't gained control of the corridor yet, we don't have any physical objects like spaceships to show you. However, we do have some circumstantial evidence."

"What is it?" Nagasaki Asuna placed her hands on the table, like an obedient elementary school student.

"You remember when I wasn't doing well with quantitative investing before?" Cheng Fei took out his phone.

Nagasaki Asuna nodded.

“Last month, Shen Xi and I pooled together 1.5 million yuan as principal. This is the result of Xiao Yi’s investment. You can take a look.” The young man placed his phone in front of her.

Asuna Nagasaki stared at the screen, then suddenly her eyes widened. "Eight million four hundred thousand...that means you earned nearly seven million in a month?"

“That’s right. Xiao Yi’s return rate exceeded 400% in 20 trading days. Only aliens could explain this ability,” Cheng Fei said.

"This is amazing." Nagasaki Asuna muttered to herself as she stared at the tablet.

"Of course, I'm high-performance!" The young girl on the screen puffed out her flat chest.

Nagasaki Asuna tilted her head thoughtfully, "So Cheng Fei's 130 million is also... ugh..."

The boy quickly covered her mouth before she could finish speaking, then quickly let go of her mouth again.

Nagasaki Asuna realized she had said the wrong thing, and lowered her head and shut her mouth like a primary school student who had made a mistake.

Cheng Fei looked at Shen Xi with a calm demeanor masking his fear.

The aloof girl, who was eating and showing it to Isena, caught a glimpse of their interaction out of the corner of her eye and slowly raised her head.

A chilling gust of air swept over, dispelling the warmth from the table.

"Teacher Shen, it was an accident, please forgive me." The boy immediately raised his hands in surrender.

Shen Xi frowned, her pure, dark eyes becoming empty and scrutinizing. "Cheng Fei, please tell me, what's the deal with 130 million?"

The air at the dining table seemed to freeze for a moment.

"It's because Nana's Chinese isn't good and she got the units wrong. There's no such thing as 130 million, right, Nana?" The boy immediately turned his head.

"Yes, yes, I misspoke." Nagasaki Asuna nodded her head.

"So now you're going to team up and put on an act in front of me?" Shen Xi sneered, her sharp gaze sweeping back and forth between the two of them, as if a volcano was about to erupt.

Cheng Fei and Nagasaki Asuna made eye contact briefly before quickly looking away.

Dead silence.

Shen Xi stared at the two of them, took a deep breath, lowered her eyes, and her tone suddenly became calm, "Cheng Fei, I want to hear your explanation tonight."

The boy looked at her in surprise, then breathed a sigh of relief, "Yes, Your Highness."

Asuna Nagasaki's cheeks puffed out almost imperceptibly.

The chill at the dining table came and went quickly. Shen Xi put a small ball of rice in her mouth, chewed it, stared at the bowl, and said coldly, "In short, given your performance this week, I've decided to temporarily accept you as the new apostle. Of course, you can refuse, which would be even better. Anyway, I didn't want to share these secrets with you in the first place." After she finished speaking, her gaze, which revealed neither joy nor anger, turned to Nagasaki Asuna.

Nagasaki Asuna glanced at Cheng Fei.

“Of course Nana is willing,” the boy said quickly, pointing at Nagasaki Asuna. “Little I, I command you to also make her an Apostle Governor.”

"Consul, your rank can only exist in one unit at a time, unless you die in battle or are executed by the Queen," Isena whispered.

"Never mind then, is there anything else?" The boy's eyelids twitched.

“Give her the lowest rank,” Shen Xi interrupted him.

"The lowest ranks are Echo Commander, Forge Worker, and Servant Executor. Empress, which one would you like to bestow?" Isena asked immediately.

"What do all these mean?" Shen Xi frowned.

"The Echo Commander is the lowest-ranking combat apostle with a specific title, responsible for commanding the short-lived Echo Soldiers in frontline combat."

"The forge laborers are a rank specifically created to maintain the superdimensional forge. Their bodies need to be specialized for the job, and in principle, they have to spend their entire lives in the forge."

“Servant-executors are those who are deprived of the ability to think independently and whose sole purpose is to deliver trivial administrative orders.”

Shen Xi thought for less than a second, "Then give it to her..."

"Wait, wait," Cheng Fei quickly interrupted.

"Governor, what's your question?" Shen Xi raised her chin.

"Teacher Shen, isn't it going too far to talk about hard labor like this?"

"You think I'm going too far?" Shen Xi's eyes narrowed.

"It's not that it's excessive, it's just inappropriate. It's not good to bully Nana too much, Teacher Shen, is it?" The boy said sincerely.

"Then what do you want?" The girl turned her face away.

"Little Yi, besides the Apostle Governor, what is the highest rank in terms of authority?" the boy asked, turning his head.

"Report, this is the Apostle Overseer. This rank is the backup for the Consul. In the event of the current Consul's dereliction of duty, they have the authority to request the Queen to execute the current Consul." The young girl saluted.

The boy was silent for a moment, then said, "This one won't do. Let's try something else."

"This is the one. Grant her the rank of Apostle Inspector," Shen Xi suddenly said in an unquestionable tone.

“Received. Assign object rank: Apostle Inspector. Write local instructions. Use hyperdimensional broadcast to synchronize instructions to the Apostle cluster…” Isena’s face was full of loyalty.