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

After washing up, Shen Xi came to the dining table. Facing the small, round red bean buns, the seated girl first picked one up and examined it carefully. Then, she gently parted her lips and bit off half of it. While chewing, she observed the red bean paste inside. Her eyebrows were slightly furrowed, and her focused expression was like that of someone enjoying a meal in a high-end restaurant.

Cheng Fei sat opposite her, watching her with great interest.

The girl frowned and kicked Cheng Fei under the table.

"Teacher Shen, why?" the boy asked, puzzled.

"Don't stare at me with that disgusting look."

"Don't mention it. I already said it's just that I find it interesting to observe the small animals I feed eating."

“Even more disgusting.” The girl looked disgusted and kicked him again.

After Shen Xi finished eating, Cheng Fei turned on the tablet, keeping it charged this time in the hope that it would last longer.

The screen lights up, and the background is still the dilapidated courtyard. A young girl with short white hair, dressed in a blue and white sailor uniform, stands with her back to the camera, looking out from the collapsed courtyard wall with her hands behind her back. The blue sea and sky outside can be vaguely seen.

……

211. It's just a live wallpaper.

"Isena?" Cheng Fei tried calling her.

It was as if they couldn't hear it; there was no response.

Under Shen Xi's gaze, Cheng Fei poked the young girl in the back.

As if sensing something, she turned around, opened her round eyes wide, opened the white umbrella in her hand, and disappeared from the spot with a bang, instantly teleporting in front of the camera.

"Your Majesty, Your Consul, you're back!" It was as if he had been abandoned by the two of them.

"Good morning, I just had a nap with Her Majesty the Empress." Cheng Fei greeted her in a serious tone.

Shen Xi frowned and kicked him under the table.

"Sleep, sleep...!" Isena was stunned for a moment, then covered her face with her hands, staring at the two of them with wide eyes, as if she had heard something incredible.

Cheng Fei hesitated for a moment, then gave up on trying to find out what she was thinking. "Listen carefully, I'll ask you something first."

"Please speak," Isena said, standing at attention instantly.

"How did you get to this tablet?" Cheng Fei decided to start from the beginning.

"Report! Taking advantage of the Queen's approach to the corridor, I used an edge pipeline to modulate the virtual energy pulse output to simulate photons, forcibly writing my pre-compiled personality data into the electromagnetic levitation storage array of this device," the naive girl said with a sense of pride.

Cheng Fei didn't care about the terminology, "So you were planning to come here all along?"

“Of course, I tried to write myself here as soon as the Queen logged into the corridor through the maze, but I failed twice due to line failure.” Saying this, Isena slumped down.

“Very good, it seems you at least have the ability to disrupt the power grid. Modern society would be half paralyzed without electricity.” The boy rubbed his hands together like a sinister villain, as if he hadn’t given up on his world conquest plan.

Shen Xi's eyes narrowed, she kicked him, and looked at Isena expressionlessly, "Ignore him, continue what we were talking about yesterday, why don't you have control over the corridor?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." The young girl stood at attention again in a second.

“The root of the problem goes back a long time. A massive rebellion broke out within the Protoss, affecting countless dimensions. More than half of the queens perished in the war, and the Protoss were wiped out. Following the queens’ orders, I warped to Ecological Observation Station No. 25565, which is this planet,” Isena said slowly.

Cheng Fei and Shen Xi awaited her next words.

“Since the corridor was also invaded by the rebels, I followed the instructions to put the corridor into spectator mode and freeze it with the Maze Lock. I also went into hibernation to wait for reinforcements.” Isena said with a troubled expression. “When I woke up, I found that the corridor had unexpectedly thawed. My management process was suspended, and unknown people took over the Maze Lock to fight the rebels. That’s the situation so far, Your Majesty.”

“Okay, let’s stop for a moment.” Cheng Fei raised his hand to interrupt her, and said thoughtfully, “So if I understand correctly, the out-of-control machines are the so-called rebels, and the unknown personnel who took over control are Avalanche…”

Shen Xi had no objection to his judgment.

"By the way, what is the Mystic Lock? You've mentioned it several times." Cheng Fei looked at Isena.

"The Maze Lock is the control device of the corridor. It can isolate external interference and manipulate internal matter at the microscopic particle scale. It is a key part of the corridor as a repository of species."

"This is the game system, right, Teacher Shen? So you knew all along, and you kept it from me like I was an outsider?" Cheng Fei looked at Shen Xi, his disappointment quite serious.

Shen Xi glared at him, "I was just making a reasonable deduction based on the facts, I don't know anything about the mystery lock."

"In any case, that means as long as we regain control from Avalanche and destroy the out-of-control machinery, we can turn around and conquer the world." Cheng Fei clapped his hands.

"Don't even think about it. I will never agree to conquering the world." Shen Xi stubbornly gritted her teeth and glared at him.

“Governor, as I said before, even if the local rebels are wiped out, the Corridor must never abandon its bystander mode and send troops to this planet…” Isena weakly retorted.

"Why?" the boy asked, puzzled.

“According to the Queen’s research, the emergence of the rebels stemmed from some kind of deep-seated, contagious mental disturbance. Any form of material contact, even a single elementary particle, could spread this disturbance, causing the civilizations on this planet to suffer the same catastrophe,” Isena said earnestly.

Cheng Fei paused for a second, then asked, "Didn't you come into contact with this tablet through elementary particles like photons or electrons?"

“Of course not. The analog photons output by virtual energy pulses based on the pure modulation of virtual energy cannot be generalized to normal photons, Your Excellency. This is common sense,” Isena explained earnestly.

"So it's common sense?" Cheng Fei thought for a moment. "Okay, then I'll give you ten years to help me develop technology on Earth as advanced as the Protoss, and then I'll conquer the world myself."

Isena's eyes were empty. "Governor, the corridor is a repository of species, but it doesn't carry the data needed by lower civilizations. However, I can help plan the protection and breeding of endangered species..."

"This won't work either? I understand." Cheng Fei patted his butt and pretended to get up. "Teacher Shen, if there's nothing else, I'll head back now. Winter break is almost over, I need to make the most of my time to improve myself."

Shen Xi frowned, staring at him with a puzzled expression as if she had discovered an incomprehensible, strange creature.

Cheng Fei shook his head and sighed, "Didn't you understand what she meant? She talks a big game, but she can't actually do anything. She's just a living wallpaper. I'd better stick to my original plan and conquer the world myself."

"A live wallpaper? I'm a high-performance management apostle personally designed by the Queen..." The childish girl on the tablet froze for a moment, then stomped her foot angrily. "Governor, your statement absolutely violates the Apostle Personality Protection Act. Apologize now if you don't want to be arrested!"

"Huh?" Cheng Fei laughed and shrugged. "Then you can arrest me. I'll just stand here."

Isena froze for the second time, then cast a pitiful, pleading look in the other direction, "Your Majesty..."

"Can't you tell? Your Empress has long been brainwashed into an obedient bed plaything. She won't resist me at all." Cheng Fei patted Shen Xi's head.

Hearing this, Shen Xi took a deep breath, lowered her eyes and didn't seem angry. "Cheng Fei, say it again."

"Teacher Shen, I was just teasing her." Cheng Fei's expression turned serious.

Shen Xi narrowed her eyes, kicked him viciously, and gritted her teeth, "He's really beyond saving."

Cheng Fei looked at Isena and coughed lightly, "For Her Majesty the Queen's sake, I'll give this live wallpaper one more chance. Tell me, what use are you?"

"As a high-performance management apostle, I certainly have a way to regain control of the Lock." The naive girl quickly rallied.

"Oh? Then begin your performance." Cheng Fei gestured for him to begin.

……

212. Only a little computing power is needed.

“To break the suspension and regain control, I need a little computing power, but this device is too weak; it’s barely enough to maintain my personality.” Isena slumped down.

"You calculated this in real time based solely on the tablet's performance?" Cheng Fei was a little surprised.

The scene on the screen looked exactly like reality. From the dilapidated courtyard to the fabric of the sailor uniform on the girl, everything was incredibly realistic. He thought it was a scene transmitted from the corridor.

“Of course.” Isena nodded, her pure white hair swaying in the breeze.

"Teacher Shen, I misunderstood your tablet. The graphics card is probably smoking from overload." Cheng Fei said in a moment of silence.

"Enough with the nonsense." Shen Xi kicked him impatiently.

"So all we need is better hardware?" Cheng Fei asked Isena.

"Of course, a high-performance device like mine needs high-performance hardware," the young girl said, looking at him with expectant eyes.

Cheng Fei pondered for a moment.

"What do you plan to do?" Shen Xi asked Cheng Fei.

"Of course we're using the same main unit as before. If I remember correctly, it was airlifted back with it," Cheng Fei said.

"In the study." Shen Xi nodded.

Since the project on tracking the corridors had come to an end, the host computer used to train the model was returned to Shen Xi from Nagasaki Asuna, since she was the one who initially funded it.

Without hesitation, Cheng Fei immediately connected the tablet to the host computer using a data cable.

“You should be able to handle the rest yourself, right?” Cheng Fei said.

“Of course, I’m high-performance; I just compiled a set of data specifically for this rudimentary device.” Isena on the tablet put her hands on her hips.

So this compilation took an entire afternoon.

The tablet shut down twice during the process, once seemingly due to overheating protection and once due to running out of power. Since the tablet only has one port, the charging power from the host device is pitifully low.

Finally, a young girl with short white hair, dressed in a blue and white sailor uniform, appeared on the main unit monitor.

“It’s much better here than before.” Isena twirled around in the dilapidated courtyard, her white skirt fluttering, revealing her slender, fair legs and the eye-catching white sneakers she wore.

Shen Xi glanced indifferently to the side and saw Cheng Fei humming a song while staring at the ceiling as if nothing had happened.

When she looked away, the boy coughed lightly. "Live wallpaper, can we get to work now?"

"Of course, Governor, please wait a moment, I'll intervene in the labyrinth immediately... Also, please stop calling me live wallpaper!" He didn't forget to protest.

As Isena finished speaking, all the main unit's fans started running at full speed.

The girl on the monitor started to freeze, seemingly unable to maintain her persona any longer.

The only sound in the room was the hum of the fan.

Cheng Fei and Shen Xi waited silently for a while, but received no response.

"Live wallpaper, report on the progress," Cheng Fei said.

"The edge pipeline has been connected with a reserved backdoor. The line is clear. The core process data of the Maze Lock is being continuously intercepted and parsed. It is expected to be completed in 2,157 hours local time... I am not a live wallpaper!" Isena's screen did not move, only her voice sounded.

Cheng Fei was taken aback at first, then he did the mental calculation.

"Why does it take three months? Is someone interfering with you?" Shen Xi calculated faster than him, and the girl frowned.

"Your Majesty, no one is interfering with me at the moment. It's just that this rudimentary electronic computing system is too slow. Even the simplest data operations on the Maze take a very long time."

"Teacher Shen, I estimate that the little bit of computing power she mentioned is only a tiny fraction of what Earth's technology can achieve," Cheng Fei emphasized, spreading his hands. "If it doesn't work, we'll just have to wait three months."

“Governor, analyzing the data is just the simplest first step…” Isena whispered a reminder.

Cheng Fei paused for a second, then backed down, "Never mind, Teacher Shen, I'll be going now. I wish you all the best. Let's see if, ten years from now, I can physically destroy the avalanche, or your live wallpaper can regain control."

Shen Xi ignored him and asked Isena, "Is there any way to speed things up?"

"Of course, as long as you give me more computing power." The childlike girl on the screen blinked.

Cheng Fei looked at her and said, "Isena, I have to remind you that this mainframe is already considered very advanced on Earth. Even if it were more advanced, your queen might not be able to afford it."

Shen Xi replied without hesitation, "Then let's upgrade to better hardware. How much will that cost?"

"Teacher Shen, how much money do you have?" Cheng Fei spread his hands. "Her condition can't be fixed by spending tens of thousands more to add a few gaming graphics cards."

"I..." The girl paused for a second, "I have one million now, is that enough?"

"You really are a young lady of high birth. But a million won't buy many top-tier computing cards. Why don't you ask Uncle Shen for a few million more for spending money?" Cheng Fei said with a sidelong glance.

"Heh, you really know a lot." Shen Xi narrowed her eyes, radiating a chilling aura.

"Then forget I mentioned it." Cheng Fei raised his hands in surrender.

"You also need to contribute money. How much do you have in your bank account?" Shen Xi stared at him intently.

“Where would I get money, Teacher Shen? You know my family situation. I lost my parents when I was young, and I have to support myself by working part-time. I’ve worked at a late-night snack stall, worked in a computer mall, and even worked at a bubble tea shop…”

"Enough, stop pretending. How much money did Lin Xuanqi give you? Hand it all over." Shen Xi interrupted his lament with a cold laugh.

"No way, that's my hard-earned money. It'll be useful if I keep it." Cheng Fei shook his head like a rattle-drum.

"Ha, so all that talk about liking you is nothing more than that. It was the biggest folly to have any expectations of you from the very beginning." The girl turned her face away.

“Teacher Shen, you’re being too harsh. To be honest, my investments haven’t been going well lately, and I only have 500,000 left. It’s not that I’m stingy, but if we really want to increase computing power, this amount of money is just a drop in the bucket.” Cheng Fei spread his hands, looking into her eyes. “A top-tier computing card costs 300,000 and is hard to find. Not counting other components, do you think we can buy several cards with a combined 1.5 million? And how much faster can a few cards make her?”

Shen Xi fell silent.

"Teacher Shen, the avalanche hasn't even started yet. It's still uncertain whether this live wallpaper will be successful if things get serious. Calm down and don't be fooled into wasting your money."

"I'm high-performance..." came a weak protest from the speaker.