Chihaya Aine is a member of the team Zero

"Well, I see."

After feeling the warmth coming from Toyokawa Shoko's palm, Wakaba Mutsu also broke away from the state of being about to become emo.

After the current situation was resolved, Chihaya Aine wiped off a non-existent cold sweat and continued to look at the layout of the box.

The entire east wall is composed of a single slab of Brazilian emerald rock, its natural cracks infused with luminescent resin to create a breathtaking landscape. The west wall conceals 360 rotating crocodile leather panels, each printed with vineyard weather data from a different year. With a flick of a button by the sommelier, the panels instantly flip to display the corresponding vintage's wine cellar.

"Crocodile leather panels...it seems the owner of this hotel really likes this kind of thing."

Chihaya Aine also complained silently in her heart.

The twelve-person round dining table is crafted from a single piece of bluefin tuna fossil bone, its edges inlaid with touch-sensitive silver threads that ripple with the touch of a finger. When a holographic menu appears in the center of the turntable, the edge of the corresponding bone china plate illuminates with biosensor light strips, adjusting the intensity of the warm light based on the guest's heart rate. The chair backs are covered in a blend of Mongolian lambskin and conductive fibers, which delivers a microcurrent massage that mimics the force of a hug.

"The perfect combination of biological bone fossils and technology, and this humanized massage chair..."

Just from these points, Chihaya Aine could feel that the box she was in was definitely the best one in this hotel.

The seemingly ordinary plaster wall behind the guest of honor seat did not escape Chihaya Aine's eyes.

Chihaya Aine stood up from her seat and slowly walked to the gray wall.

“There’s something wrong with this wall, Aine…”

In the space of consciousness, Ultraman Zero also discovered the strangeness of this gray wall.

"Well, the previous things were fine, but the technology used in this wall is definitely not something that can be found on Earth today."

Chihaya Aine gently touched the gray wall in front of her, and saw that the wall suddenly liquefied and reorganized into a glass wine cabinet. Inside was a variety of rare and fine wines. The glowing vines wrapped around the bottles did not look like the native plants on Earth.

“What’s this, Aine?!”

Shoko Toyokawa and Mutsu Wakaba naturally saw this magical scene and thought of something, so they immediately stood up from their seats.

"Well, the technology used in this wall should be something from outer space, which means the owner of this hotel is very likely an alien."

Chihaya Aine nodded and gave the answer that Toyokawa Shoko and Wakaba Mutsu already had in their minds.

"But this shop has been around for a long time... our family used to bring Xiang and me here when we were little."

Wakaba Mu lowered her head and whispered that if she had not just been comforted by Chihaya Aine and Toyokawa Shoko, she would probably find a corner to be emo.

"Emm, so the hotel owner or the alien who provided the technology for this wall came to Earth a long time ago?"

Ever since the last Zarab hunting incident, Shoko Toyokawa was no longer surprised that aliens had been lurking on Earth for a long time.

"Well, I can't be sure about that. After all, we can't rule out the possibility that the alien visitor has only recently arrived on Earth in some form of bending over."

Chihaya Aine, who had too many cases in her mind, was not in a hurry to draw a conclusion on the matter.

"Anyway, let's just wait and see what happens."

After discovering the specialness of this wall, Chihaya Aine released her Ultra Telekinesis to explore it. At this time, the hotel manager was coming with a waiter carrying appetizers.

Following Chihaya Aine's signal, the three of them sat back in their seats. Not long after, the intelligent system in the box began to broadcast.

After agreeing to let people outside come in and serve the dishes, Chihaya Aine also asked Ultraman Zero to help scan the dishes to see if there were any problems.

After the waiter served the dishes, the hotel manager bowed and then silently led his guests out of the box.

Seven amber crystals lay within the glass cup, representing the prawn sashimi, whose sweetness had been instantly locked in with liquid nitrogen at -50°C. The shrimp fibers contracted in the cold, forming a honeycomb-like crystal structure. When light filtered through it, it refracted an iridescent halo, as if the entire Coral Sea had been condensed into a three-inch porcelain plate with cracks in the ice.

"I just asked Zero to help scan it with Ultra Telekinesis. The food on the table is safe to eat."

After saying this, Chihaya Aine took a piece of the prawn sashimi first. The moment the prawn sashimi touched the tip of her tongue, the crystals of cherry blossom salt burst out with a crisp sound.

Believe in Thousands

Shoko Toyokawa, who loved music early, also picked up her chopsticks. As a half-body who believed in Shoko Toyokawa unconditionally, Mutsushi Wakaba naturally followed suit.

The thin slices, cut by the blade, stood trembling on the tip of the obsidian chopsticks, their translucent texture imbued with veins of minerals from the deep North Atlantic. When dipped into wasabi sorbet prepared with white truffle oil, the shrimp suddenly curled into a crescent shape—a beautiful spasm of living nerve bundles, deliberately preserved by the chef, upon encountering salt.

As the tip of the tooth pierces the cool surface, the first thing to burst is the edible diamond ice coating that envelops the shrimp. The crisp salty taste awakens the dormant taste buds. Then comes the burst of fleshy, sweet ocean waves, like a wave soaked in moonlight. The secret hidden within the texture is finally revealed: the rouge crimson of the shrimp's belly is the result of low-temperature molecularized lobster brain matter injected by the chef, which, catalyzed by body temperature, spreads a deep, oceanic sweetness.

What lingers after swallowing isn't a fishy smell, but rather a microcosmic universe released as the white wine vinegar jelly melts on the tongue. The sakura shrimp roe, suspended in the vinegar jelly, begin to burst one after another, each tiny explosion painting a three-dimensional umami flavor map in the mouth. At this moment, the waiter serves a mist of -5°C sake. The cool air carries the lingering sweetness of the shrimp meat, forming a Möbius strip of flavor in the throat.

The most exquisite thing was the drop of sauce disguised as dew on the edge of the plate—it looked like ordinary citrus vinegar, but it was actually an amber-colored essence simmered for three years in shrimp shells. When I finally dipped the shrimp tail into my mouth, I felt the surge of the salty, fresh energy of the ocean before a storm, and I almost heard the ancient echo of a fishing net breaking through the black waves.

"Yeah, 25 points!"

Volume 1: Chapter 174 Xiangzi, was that when you met Aine?

After carefully tasting the food in her mouth, Chihaya Aine opened her mouth and gave her own evaluation.

"Hey, such delicious food can only get 25 points? Maybe it doesn't suit your taste, Aine."

Shoko Toyokawa, who was still savoring the delicious food in her mouth, suddenly asked. Ever since leaving the Toyokawa family and unlocking the forms of newspaper deliveryman Xiaoxiang and customer service representative Xiaoxiang, Shoko Toyokawa had not eaten food of this quality for a long time. It was already a good thing to have a cheap bento that had passed its best-case scenario after get off work every day.

This dish of botan shrimp sashimi scored very high even by the standards used by Toyokawa Shoko's former eldest daughter.

"Sorry, sorry, this is just my habit. 25 points is actually considered delicious for me."

Chihaya Aine also realized that her previous scoring may have caused unnecessary misunderstandings to Toyokawa Shoko, and she quickly explained.

Ruoye Mu didn't express any opinion on this, but just kept putting food into his mouth.

After the three of them put all the prawn sashimi on the table into their mouths, the hotel manager, as if he had calculated the time, knocked on the door of the private room with the waiter.

After obtaining permission from the guests in the box, the hotel manager entered with several waiters carrying dishes.

As if they had rehearsed it countless times, the waiters placed the dishes on the table almost simultaneously, bowed, and left the box with the hotel manager.

"Let me see what level the next dish is."

Chihaya Aine unveiled the food before her, only to see the beef dancing its death dance on a 600°C basalt slab. Blue flames, ignited by brandy, licked the juicy, tender cutlet. As dripping fat mingled with the pool of special sauce, shaved truffles frozen in liquid nitrogen exploded like black diamonds, creating a breathtaking spectacle on the plate.

The appearance alone made Chihaya Aine impatient. The moment the blade cut into the texture, the beef fibers emitted a low resonance like a cello - the three-layer matured meat core presented a lava color spectrum, the outermost layer was a smoky sandalwood armor, the middle was a silk layer soaked in Bordeaux red wine, and the inner core was a trembling runny texture. When pressed lightly with the tip of the tongue, amber magma refined from beef bone marrow would ooze out.

The potatoes served with the meal are not ordinary potatoes. The mashed potatoes extracted by a vacuum centrifuge are encapsulated in an edible mint-flavored thin shell. The moment the fork tip pierces the shell, the -196℃ liquid nitrogen cream and 120℃ lava secret sauce inside create a miniature nuclear explosion in the mouth.

“Molecular gastronomy.”

These four big words emerged in Chihaya Aine's mind.

Molecular gastronomy, also known as molecular gastronomy, is a culinary art that uses scientific methods to explain all cooking techniques and results, and precisely controls them with digital technology. The theory of molecular gastronomy studies the relationship between temperature fluctuations and cooking time during the cooking process. It then adds different substances to produce various physical and chemical changes in food. Once these changes are fully understood, they are then deconstructed, reorganized, and applied to create cooking methods that revolutionize both traditional cooking techniques and the presentation of food.

For example, in an animation that Chihaya Aine had previously watched with Ultraman Zero, there was a molecular cuisine master named Alice Nakiri.

Alice Nakiri is adept at using all kinds of the most advanced technical instruments to cook as if she were doing a chemical experiment. The appearance of the finished product is often beyond the imagination of ordinary people, giving diners a visual shock.

In addition to being able to create food with stunning appearances, the greatest advantage of molecular cuisine is its control over the concept of taste. It can make potatoes appear foamy and turn lychees into caviar, with the texture of caviar and the taste of lychee.

Before returning to China, Chihaya Aine also did some research on molecular cuisine.

It had been so long since she had eaten good food and the exhaustion from the continuous fighting had left Toyokawa Shoko completely unable to speak. She was stuffing meat into her mouth at a speed that would not let her elegant and reserved demeanor collapse.

When the last piece of beef disappeared, glowing meridians suddenly appeared on the blood-stained bone china plate, and the remaining fat began to flow, slowly forming the words "Enjoy your meal", which shows the chef's control over this dish.

"45 o'clock!"

After Chihaya Aine gave her rating, she looked at another dish.

The Hungarian paprika the chef had ground before serving fell like volcanic ash, cascading into the pools of hot and cold sauces at the edge of the plate. On the left, three-year-old balsamic vinegar aged at zero degrees Celsius, condensed with the acidity of the Tuscan sun; on the right, a scalding foam of foie gras, bubbling with the rich aroma of Burgundy's cellars. As the knife and fork rose and fell, the hot and cold sauces collided on the surface of the meat, creating a lightning-fast taste sensation.

The fulcrum used to serve as the plating support is actually a piece of real deer antler fragment, which is smoked with pine smoke and soaked in the essence of meat juice.

There is a lake of cream between the horn lines. It is a layer of crystals mixed with bone marrow and wild honey. Under the temperature of the antlers, it melts into a primitive sweetness with a scent of moss, as if touching the morning mist in the northern forest in late autumn.

Beneath the truffle shavings lies a hand-kneaded rye bread ball, its crust toasted with birch honey to a glazed crisp, while the interior is filled with wild rice and chanterelles, tenderized in venison bone broth. The moment you bite into it, the scalding mushroom juice, mingling with crushed juniper berries, bursts forth, like treading through a pile of decaying pine cones in the forest. The intense heat sears the deer blood and sauce onto the copper plate, creating a timeless silhouette.

After Chihaya Aine finished tasting the second dish, she wiped her mouth.

She could tell the two dishes were made by the same person, and that the second venison dish didn't use the same molecules as the beef in the first.

cooking techniques, but instead adopted traditional cooking methods.

After comparing the two dishes, Chihaya Aine has learned that the chef of this hotel is a chef who specializes in molecular cuisine.

"35 o'clock."

Although Chihaya Aine only gave a review of 35 points in the end, this definitely does not mean that the chef of this hotel has poor cooking skills. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

Chihaya Aine just cut a few slices and tasted them, then began waiting for the next dish to arrive.

Then the next dish he was waiting for did not arrive, but in the perception of Ultraman's telekinesis, a figure with a body and long brown hair had already hurried to the door of the box.

The visitor was probably too worried about a certain big pink-haired guy who loved to giggle, and his usual orderly image was completely forgotten. He pushed the door of the box and walked in.

Since Shoko Toyokawa was concentrating on the venison in front of her, she did not use Ultraman Telekinesis to scan who was coming. She thought it was the hotel manager and the waiter coming to serve the dishes again.

Ruoye Mu, who was sitting in the main seat, saw who the visitor was at a glance. She opened her mouth but did not speak in the end.

Nagasaki Suyo rushed over and the first thing she saw when she entered the door was Toyokawa Shoko's pair of blue twin ponytails. Although a sense of familiarity emerged in her eyes, Nagasaki Suyo's heart was all on a big pink-haired dog at the moment, so she didn't think much about it.

"Aine, are you okay?"

As Nagasaki Motoyo spoke, she quickly walked up to Chihaya Aine. Hearing the familiar voice, Toyokawa Shoko's muscles suddenly stiffened.

"It's okay, it's okay. What could possibly happen to me? You might as well ask those half-ape soldiers Digon and half-fish soldiers Digon if they are okay."

As Chihaya Aine said this, she made a gesture to show Nagasaki Motoyo how muscular her arms were.

“Aine, you really are… why didn’t you inform me and everyone else immediately about this?!”

When Nagasaki Motoyo saw that Chihaya Aine still had the leisure to joke, the big stone that had been hanging in her heart on the way here finally fell to the ground.

However, just because the big rock in her heart had just fallen to the ground, it did not mean that Nagasaki Motoyo did not intend to punish Chihaya Aine for her behavior of leaving without saying hello.

"Hehehe, I see it's too late, and I'm worried that you, Soyorin, might get hurt by the enemy."

"This time, the enemy will release a fog that interferes with your perception, and there will be too many of them. I really didn't mean to not inform you."

Chihaya Aine touched the back of her head, her cute little fangs showing as she smiled innocently.

"Okay, okay, okay, I can't argue with you! You're always right no matter what."

Although Nagasaki Motoyo knew in her heart that she was being unreasonable, ever since that day, she could not help but feel like acting like a spoiled child towards Chihaya Aine.

"Sorry, sorry, I won't do it again next time, soyorin!"

Chihaya Aine clasped her hands together and apologized, occasionally secretly opening her gray eyes to glance at Nagasaki Motoyo's expression at the moment.

"And next time?"

Nagasaki Suyo's beautiful blue eyes narrowed slightly, sending a dangerous signal straight to Chihaya Aine.

Seeing Chihaya Aine's silly look, Nagasaki Motoyo sighed and then remembered that there were other people in the box. She was so distracted that she didn't pay attention to it at all, and she felt a little sorry.

At this moment, Nagasaki Motoyo thought that since the other party had solved the problem together with Chihaya Aion, it meant that the other people in the box at least possessed power beyond the earth's technology. There was even a high possibility that there were Ultra Warriors living in their bodies like Chihaya Aion and Goto Ichiri.

As for the blue-haired young lady with twin ponytails who was eating voraciously just now, after hearing Chihaya Aine call "soyorin", she had already lowered her head and buried her face. Her legs now had their own ideas and she was eager to rush out of the door.

"Sorry, I was so anxious that I forgot to say hello to everyone. I am..."

When Nagasaki Suyo raised her head and looked at the other people in the box, she was about to explain herself.

What appeared before her eyes was Wakaba Mu's beautiful face that looked like an exquisite doll, which caused Nagasaki Suyo to be stuck in her next words.

"Xiao Mu?!"

Nagasaki Suyo was surprised at first when she saw Wakaba Mu's familiar face, but then she thought of something and immediately turned her head to look at the owner of the familiar pair of blue twintails she saw when she entered the door.

"Xiao Xiang? Is it Xiao Xiang?!"

Even though Toyokawa Shoko was about to bury her head in her chest, Nagasaki Motoyo, who had regained her sanity, saw through her.

"Su Shi, I..."

After the Black Knife Night, Shoko Toyokawa felt quite sorry for the other members of "CRYCHIC". Before, she could still force herself to let the other party go, but after experiencing the dark forest and the ruins, she couldn't open her mouth no matter what.

Nagasaki Suyo looked up at Wakaba Mutsu opposite her again. She opened her mouth several times and then closed it again. If it were her old self, she would definitely say something hurtful to Mutsu at this time, "You obviously don't want to tell me about Xiangzi's situation, but you are secretly eating here with Xiangzi and Aine."

Nagasaki Suyo couldn't help but think this in her heart, and then she remembered how she had treated Wakaba Mutsu in the past, but she didn't know what to say to the fairy-like girl.

Wakaba Muyi lowered her little head. Ever since the night of the black knife, she was perhaps the one who was under the most pressure, sandwiched between Toyokawa Shoko and Nagasaki Suyo.

"Oh, so Soyorin and Xiangzi knew each other?"

Chihaya Aine blinked her eyes, her face full of confusion.

"It's over..."

Ultraman Zero, who originally wanted to stop Chihaya Aine from speaking in this weird atmosphere, could only cover his face in his consciousness space to prevent himself from seeing the next scene.

"Xiangzi?"