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

The boy and she stared at each other for a moment, then he lowered his head and pursed his lips cautiously. "So this thing really exists? I thought it was just something Her Majesty the Empress made up to scare me."

If I remember correctly, Shen Xi had made more than one statement before, such as throwing him into the superdimensional forge.

In response, the aloof girl let out a cold laugh that was hard to decipher.

"Eh, the forge that Shen Xi told me to be a forge laborer at the beginning?" Nagasaki Asuna tilted her head.

"You have a really good memory. Sure enough, you've been holding a grudge against me all along." The aloof girl narrowed her eyes.

"I wouldn't say I'm holding a grudge, it's just a normal memory," Nagasaki Asuna said casually.

"Ah, I hope so."

"Gentlemen, let's not talk about the jokes from before." Cheng Fei raised his hand to interrupt the two at the right time, and coughed lightly. "Professor Shen, I still want to ask you whether what you said is true or false. It's really hard to imagine what you can do with a black hole. Are you making up a story?"

“If you dare to question it again, I’ll really throw this Cheng Feiyu in.” Shen Xi was a little annoyed and quickly kicked him. “I’ve said it before, the superdimensional forge is a machine for melting virtual energy to produce super-materials. The first step in melting virtual energy is to use the tidal force generated by the gravity near the black hole to tear apart microscopic particles. That’s why the superdimensional forge needs to be built around the black hole.”

"I see, that's really impressive." The boy smacked his lips, then looked again at the strange sun rising on the horizon, trying to glimpse the magnificent structure she had described, but failed.

“In that case, there’s still one more question.” Nagasaki Asuna pondered for a moment, then raised her hand slightly.

"What?" Shen Xi glanced at her, her face indifferent.

"So this is the center of the Protoss civilization, or does the Protoss have more than one hyperdimensional forge?" The sweet girl blinked.

“So you didn’t understand the situation. Let me explain again. The Protoss have hundreds of queens, and each queen has her own group of apostles. This is just the homeworld of one of the queens. The Protoss have long mastered the technology of building superdimensional forges, and this forge is naturally just one of them,” Shen Xi said with a condescending air.

“Understood. The one you’re referring to is Her Majesty the Empress herself. How modest you are.” The young man beside him nodded respectfully.

Unsurprisingly, they were then subjected to a silent and covert attack.

"Enough with the nonsense. Take advantage of the daylight to quickly determine the direction, and then explore the city over there," Shen Xi ordered coldly.

"Yes." The boy nodded again. Although he wanted to suggest that they give up for the time being, he knew he would be scolded, so he gave up.

Despite its unusual appearance, the sun in this world emitted light that was not much different from that of an ordinary star—soft and warm. After the sun had fully risen, the three of them suddenly saw a bright and clear view.

They arrived at a town ruin, the buildings badly damaged, seemingly not abandoned naturally but destroyed by war or something similar, with a dilapidated church standing among them.

On the horizon ahead of them, a new city rises from the ground, with Gothic clock towers and towering factory chimneys, from which thick smoke billows, shrouding the entire city in a hazy filter. The pungent smells in the air emanate from the city.

Upon closer inspection, some black dots can be seen floating above the city, which look like airships or something similar, but they are too far away to see clearly.

"Teacher Shen, it seems your hometown has completely fallen into ruin, it has actually regressed to the era of the Industrial Revolution." Cheng Fei said as he walked, shading his eyes with his hand and looking out.

"Who knows what this place was like originally? Maybe it was already quite backward." Shen Xi also looked at this scene, her delicate eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"You built a colossal structure in the black hole in the sky, but the surface of your home planet is still like this. The gap between the rich and the poor is too big?" The boy looked at her and spread his hands.

"I don't know what's going on. The fact that this is our home planet is just a notification from the research station." The girl's face showed impatience.

"Okay." The boy simply nodded.

After some time, they arrived near the city. On both sides of the flat road were endless farmlands, where they could see a large number of people dressed in tattered clothes planting crops.

The people who passed by simply stood at a distance and looked at them without reacting much.

"Teacher Shen, these look like slaves; they have something around their necks," Cheng Fei said in a low voice after observing them.

Shen Xi narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything.

"They seem a little strange?" Nagasaki Asuna pondered for a moment, placing her hand on her chest, as if sensing something.

"What's wrong?" The boy glanced at her sideways.

"There's a special feeling about it, I can't quite put my finger on it, maybe I'll have to get closer and look more closely." The sweet young girl frowned slightly as she walked and observed the people working.

"Let's leave it for now, we'll see later." The boy patted her small hand gently.

"Mm." Nagasaki Asuna nodded.

The three continued forward, just before entering the city. Several male soldiers in dark uniforms, looking somewhat disheveled, stood guard at the intersection, seemingly chatting and laughing.

"That sorceress dared to fight back, which conveniently allowed me to use my doctrines to deal with her, so you can't blame me for that..."

"You pervert, what happened after that..."

"Of course they'd send them to the tribunal; they'd probably be treated as heretics..."

Asuna Nagasaki frowned, shifting her gaze from the soldier, a hint of disgust in her eyes.

Shen Xi frowned slightly, glancing at Cheng Fei out of the corner of her eye, "Will they not let us through?"

"Let's try it and see." The boy glanced at the soldiers' weapons, speaking softly and discreetly.

As the three of them casually passed by the roadside, the soldiers suddenly stopped talking and their gazes all turned to the three of them.

"Halt! There was a witch riot in the parish a few days ago. This is a routine check. Show me your passes!" one of the men shouted.

Cheng Fei looked around calmly, then asked, "What's a pass?"

"You don't even know what a pass is? Nameplates or collars are fine, but if you're coming from another parish, you need a guidebook." The man held out his hand, his tone impatient.

"What do I do if I have nothing?" The boy showed his empty hands.

"Nothing at all?" The man frowned, his expression suddenly changing. He exchanged a glance with his companion behind him and then surrounded them.

"Where are you from? Are you witches?" The man gripped his crudely made gun and walked up to the boy.

"A witch?" the boy asked in confusion, exchanging a glance with the two girls behind him.

"Show me your hands, roll up your sleeves!" the man raised his voice, offering no explanation whatsoever.

The boy did as instructed, rolling up his sleeves and spreading his hands.

“I meant the back of the hand!” The man frowned as he watched his gesture.

The boy then turned his hand over.

The man squinted as if searching for something, then looked up and stared intently at the boy's face.

"What's wrong?" The boy blinked.

"Open your eyes wide and don't move!" The man's tone was ruthless as he continued to scrutinize the boy's pupils with a searching gaze.

After a few seconds, he nodded to his companion behind him, "No."

"And you two too." The remaining soldiers exchanged glances, then turned their attention to the two girls behind them.

Nagasaki Asuna and Shen Xi followed suit, silently extending their hands with the backs of their hands facing up.

"Raise your heads and open your eyes wide, or you might accidentally be mistaken for witches and then cry foul."

When the two girls raised their chins, revealing their distinctly different faces, the soldiers were all stunned for a moment, then looked at each other in surprise.

"It shouldn't be..."

"Wait, let me take a closer look." The soldier who had laughed the loudest during their earlier chatter now had a sinister look on his face. He slung his weapon to his side, looked around, and reached out his hand to Nagasaki Asuna.

Another hand quietly reached out and intercepted his wrist with a seemingly effortless yet irresistible force.

"They're not witches, isn't that enough?" Cheng Fei said expressionlessly, looking directly into his eyes.

The soldier blinked hard, seemingly unable to understand how the boy had moved in front of him. After a couple of seconds, he came to his senses, his expression turning annoyed. "Is it up to you to decide? I'm warning you, kid, disobeying an identity check is a serious crime. Once you're sent to court, no one can save you!"

The boy didn't say anything, but he tightened his grip.

The soldier's expression instantly turned to pain. He gasped and shouted, "You dare disobey an inspection?!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the remaining soldiers immediately raised their crude weapons. "Let him go, don't move!"

The young man sighed softly, first releasing the soldier's wrists, then raising his hands in a gesture of surrender.

Seeing this, the soldiers loosened their fingers from the triggers.

Just as the boy squinted and turned on Zero, the rhythmic sound of wheels and hooves suddenly grew closer.

Cheng Fei turned around without moving and saw an exquisite carriage speeding towards them from the road the three of them had come from.

The carriage was driven by a young girl with chestnut hair tied in a neat bun. She wore a heavy black coat with the front open, revealing an exquisitely patterned dark red vest with double-breasted brass buttons that gleamed. She wore charcoal gray hunting breeches with metal braces on her joints. Judging from the insignia on her chest and shoulder straps, she belonged to the same organization as these soldiers, but her status was clearly different.

The young woman drove the carriage, noticing the situation and keeping it in sight. As they drew nearer, she slowly brought the carriage to a stop, sat high above them, and surveyed the tense standoff with an expressionless face and a commanding tone, asking, "What's going on?"

The soldiers' expressions changed instantly. They stood up straight, saluted the girl, and shouted, "Reporting to Sir Isabella, there are three unregistered individuals here. We are conducting a routine check!"

The young woman, referred to as Sir Isabella, nodded slightly, then glanced at the three people who had been stopped, her expression unchanged. "What were the results of the examination?"

"Report, this man is an ordinary person. We're still unsure about the other two women. I was just about to check them carefully when he blocked my way." The soldier who had tried to reach out earlier immediately responded, pointing at the boy in front of him.

Cheng Fei raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

The girl, Isabella, released the reins, picked up a much more advanced gun from the car, slung it over her shoulder, and leaped down from a height of more than a meter, landing easily in front of Nagasaki Asuna and Shen Xi. Her sharp gaze swept over the eyes and backs of their hands.

“She doesn’t look like a witch,” she said, turning around.

“Report, it doesn’t look like it, but the cult’s recent notice has instructed us to strengthen our checks to avoid missing any undetected individuals,” the soldier said, bowing his head quickly.

Isabella stroked her chin thoughtfully for a moment, then nodded. "That's right. Just to be on the safe side, we should give them an overtone test."

"Yes!"

Upon receiving the order, the soldiers carefully took out an unusual-looking instrument from a box.

An inverted glass cover was installed on the instrument base. Inside the glass cover were complex wires and coils, with a blue chip of unknown material placed in the center. Next to the glass cover was a pointer with scales.

Isabella slung her weapon over her back, took the instrument herself, and approached the three of them. She said in a serious tone, "This is an overtone tester. Passing the test will prove that you are not witches."

Cheng Fei nodded tentatively, "How exactly do we conduct the test?"

"It's very simple, just talk to the testing device." She held the device up to the boy.

"What are you talking about?" Cheng Fei observed its structure and guessed its purpose.

"Start it, just say start it." The other person stared at him, their expression unreadable.

"Start it?" the boy asked suspiciously.

Isabella immediately checked the instrument's pointer, saw that it wasn't moving at all, nodded, and then turned to Nagasaki Asuna.

The sweet young girl understood immediately, and looking at the testing device, she softly asked, "Start it?"

Nothing has changed.

Isabella nodded again and placed the testing device in front of Shen Xi.

The aloof young woman remained expressionless, her voice cold and unwavering, "Activate."

After he finished speaking, the air was silent for a second.

Isabella glanced at the motionless pointer and was about to put the item away when a crack suddenly appeared in the crystal inside the glass dome, followed by a crisp sound as it shattered.

1048. Shen Xi became Cheng Fei's slave.

As the chip in the instrument shattered with Shen Xi's words, for a fleeting moment, Cheng Fei activated Time Zero, ready to fight.

Although he didn't want to cause trouble before he even understood the situation, if Shen Xi was mistaken for a so-called witch, he would have no choice but to take action.

After a moment of frozen air, several soldiers blinked blankly and looked at the girl holding the instrument.

The young woman, known as Sir Isabella, frowned as she stared at the instrument, seemingly puzzled.

No one spoke for a moment.

"What's going on?" Cheng Fei coughed and took the initiative to speak.

Isabella didn't respond. After a moment of silence, she seemed to be deep in thought. She turned to look at the soldiers and said, "The testing device is broken. Leave these three to me. You don't need to worry about them."

After speaking, she returned the items to the soldier, looked at the three men again, and scrutinized them with the same expression. "You're from the countryside?"

"More or less?" Cheng Fei said calmly.

“Then come with me. To strengthen management, everyone inside and outside the parish must now register their identity.” She scanned the three of them, her tone leaving no room for argument.

"Register?" the boy asked suspiciously.

“That’s right. Those who aren’t witches will be given nameplates, and witches will wear neck rings. Understand?” Isabella said, casting a subtle glance at Shen Xi.

The aloof young woman took a half step back, her face expressionless.

"What would happen if I wore a neck ring?" Cheng Fei thought of the people in the fields who looked like slaves, and they had similar things around their necks.

"Not really. It's registered under whoever's name it originally belonged to. If no one claims it, it's under the unified management of the diocese. In short, everything is based on dogma." Isabella said in a businesslike tone.