Because the kitchen was a total disaster, Lu Chen and Raiden Ei ended up ordering takeout for dinner.
As always, he catered to Ei's tastes: egg tarts, cheesecake, and milk tea.
Sweets as a main course.
Forget how cloyingly sweet it was—Lu Chen seriously wondered if he'd develop diabetes in his old age at this rate.
Yeah... he really needed to do something about her taste in food.
Tomorrow, he'd make her a proper, authentic Chongqing hot pot.
After they'd eaten their fill, the two of them curled up on the couch watching TV. Lu Chen started telling her about what had happened at school that day.
He thought reliving student life was kind of fun, but Ei probably found it boring. So, to spice things up, he gestured animatedly, trying to make the most mundane classroom stories sound exciting.
After all, part of his challenge was to get her enrolled—he had to make the whole idea appealing.
He also took the opportunity to comment on her habit of never leaving the house.
"Staying cooped up all the time isn't good for you. Back in Inazuma, you were holed up in the Plane of Euthymia for five hundred years already…"
As he spoke, he saw her fair little hands pick up the remote and, with practiced ease, change the channel.
Looked like a new sci-fi blockbuster was playing.
Lu Chen sighed and put on a stern, fatherly tone.
"Ever since you got here, all you do is stay inside and watch TV. Can't you at least go out for a walk?"
"I already did."
Raiden Ei's eyes widened slightly. Her violet gaze was so clear and innocent that Lu Chen almost didn't want to believe she was lying.
"Hmm?" But he still crossed his arms, suspicious.
With how glued she was to that remote all day, who'd believe she actually went outside? What, to buy batteries for the remote?
But what she said next genuinely stunned him.
"I really went out. I even visited your school—Haizhou Academy."
"Huh?" Lu Chen blinked in disbelief. "When did that happen? How come I didn't notice?"
"I followed you when you left for school," she said calmly, blinking. "I saw you walk into the building. So I really have gone out."
Lu Chen stood there, mouth hanging open—not because she went out, but because she followed him.
And he hadn't noticed at all?
He, the former top master of Inazuma, had been tailed the whole way without detecting a single thing?
"Ei... why did you follow me to school?"
"I was curious," she said, her violet eyes sparkling with clarity. "I wanted to see what kind of place teaches you every day."
"Hmm—?" Lu Chen drew out the sound suspiciously.
She didn't actually think the number one fighter of Inazuma graduated from Haizhou Academy, did she?
Was she mistaking a second-tier school for some kind of legendary institution?
What did she think it was, a factory for mass-producing otherworld travelers?
"The mechanical arts in this world are really advanced," she said, watching the sci-fi film on TV. "You told me once that anyone can learn knowledge in school—and that this knowledge forms the foundation of your society. So I'm very curious about schools like that."
Lu Chen gave a slight nod. What she called "mechanical arts" was just this world's technology. And yeah, real-world tech definitely started with basic theory.
Ei was, deep down, a total tech nerd. Inazuma's resident techie. The puppet Shogun that was indistinguishable from a god was proof enough of that.
Honestly, the "black tech" she had command over was probably more outrageous than anything in this world. Real-world robots still moved like they were underwater.
"If you're interested in learning, even better!" Lu Chen made up his mind: starting tomorrow, he'd tutor her. Given their completely different worldviews, she'd probably have to start from elementary school.
Ei was smart. She always claimed to be "dumb," but Lu Chen had seen what she was truly capable of.
Once she set her mind to something, she never gave up.
Call it stubborn or even obsessive—but when that persistence was aimed in the right direction, it could unleash incredible potential.
That was true for martial arts.
And it would be true for academics, too.
"Once you've got the basics down, I can get you into school. Oh right, I met a classmate today—his dad is on the school board…"
Raiden Ei's gaze drifted back to the TV. She nodded along as if she were listening, but it felt a bit perfunctory.
Lu Chen couldn't help but get a little jealous. What kind of movie had her this captivated?
So he turned to look as well.
Above the city skyline, the protagonist's spaceship was struggling to weave through a dense swarm of alien fighters. Explosions lit the screen. The whole thing was visually stunning—a climactic battle for humanity's survival.
"Pretty solid special effects," Lu Chen commented.
Then, at the film's peak moment, the baby-faced lead actor, with all the emotional depth of someone constipated, dramatically yelled at the command deck:
"Shoot me!"
"..."
Lu Chen quietly took the remote out of Ei's hand.
He switched Inside Man over to the science and education channel.
Raiden Ei was still pondering the war scenes.
"So your world's mechanical arts—no, your technology—has advanced to that level?"
"You should watch this instead. Movies are fake," Lu Chen said, pointing to the documentary now playing.
Bad films could be so misleading. He really needed to explain that all movies were scripted, that they were just dramatizations.
As Lu Chen patiently explained, he didn't notice the faint smile tugging at Ei's lips.
Their conversation shifted from tailing people to movies, and the matter of her "following" him was subtly brushed aside.
Yes, she genuinely wanted to learn, and yes, she really had gone to see the school.
But it was also true that she'd been tailing him.
Raiden Ei wanted to see him—wanted to know what he was doing, whether he was lying to her, and deep down... she wanted him to always stay at the center of her world.
She couldn't lose him again.
The system was mysterious and unpredictable. This new world was strange and ever-changing. It all made her deeply uneasy—maybe even more than the Heavenly Principles ever had.
He wanted to grow stronger.
And she... did too.
Becoming a god among mortals was only the beginning...
...
Lu Chen didn't notice all this—or maybe he just chose to ignore it.
His Ei would never betray him.
He trusted her.
So, still rambling on, Lu Chen had already steered the conversation back to the school challenge.
"We'll need to find a way to go through Zhang Zikai and get you enrolled. Since his dad's on the board of directors…"
"What's a board director?" Raiden Ei asked.
"Uh... kind of like a school leader."
"Like the Three Commissions in Inazuma?"
Lu Chen thought of the Kamisato siblings who ran the Yashiro Commission, but the analogy wasn't quite right.
"The board is made up of Haizhou Academy's stakeholders. They basically control the school."
Whereas the Three Commissions were technically subordinates under Raiden Shogun—Ei could dismiss them anytime she wanted.
"I see..." Raiden Ei rubbed her smooth chin in thought.
After a moment of contemplation, she made a slicing motion with her hand.
"Then let's kidnap Director Zhang and bring him here."