"Xing Chen, where is your refrigerator's Originium Arts unit? Why can't I sense its Originium circuit?"
Theresa stood in front of the refrigerator, observing this familiar yet strange household appliance. Not many people in Kazdel could afford a refrigerator, but as the Demon King, she had access to them.
"We don't use Originium Arts," Xing Chen rummaged through his closet, looking for a new outfit for Theresa. Women's clothing was out of the question; he didn't have that hobby. But after searching several times, he couldn't find a single neutral item.
Thinking about it, maybe not changing clothes was fine. After all, the stranger something was, the less people paid attention to it, like hide-and-seek. Besides, even if she changed clothes, the horns on her head couldn't be hidden. He couldn't saw them off, could he?
"You can still refrigerate without Originium Arts?" Theresa said, shocked. "Are you using charcoal as energy? But how does the temperature drop?"
"Charcoal is also a type of energy; it's all converted into electricity for daily life. As for cooling, have you heard of refrigerants?"
Theresa shook her head. On Terra, if you wanted to produce a physical effect, you just used Originium Arts. There was generally no need for particularly complex chemical or physical processes.
"You don't use Originium as energy? Then what do you use your Originium for? I don't seem to see any other Originium products, like staves..."
"Miss Theresa, there's no Originium on our planet at all."
Upon hearing this, Theresa was completely stunned.
She knew that besides Terra, there were other different planets. But for a race deeply altered by Originium, she found it hard to imagine how a planet without Originium could develop civilization. She had also heard that the Aegir in the deep sea were a highly developed civilization that didn't rely on Originium, but she had never seen it with her own eyes.
And with the living example of human civilization right here, she couldn't deny it.
"Do you have Mobile Cities?" "No."
"Landships?" "No, but we have aircraft carriers."
"Then..." Theresa took a deep breath, asking the question she cared about most, "Do you have Oripathy?"
The answer was still no.
No Oripathy—this must be a wonderful world.
Theresa suddenly had the urge to go out and see it, to see what Babel's ideal would look like after it was realized.
"Xing Chen, can you take me out for a walk?"
"Yes," Xing Chen glanced at the clock on the wall; it was almost lunchtime. "But I hope you can hide your true identity. We don't have people with horns on their heads here. Plus, you don't have an ID card."
"I understand that," Theresa nodded... After a quick tidy-up, the two walked out of the rental apartment together.
The sky was a bit hazy. The city of X, where Xing Chen was studying, was an important industrial city, so a little pollution was always inevitable, but it was much better than a few years ago.
"The air here is really good," Theresa took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled, forming a white mist in the winter outdoor air. "I really can't smell any Originium particles."
"Actually, today's air quality is already quite poor." Xing Chen had glanced at the air pollution index, which was only 'good,' before leaving. He thought that perhaps for Sarkaz people who had lived in Kazdel for a long time, being able to breathe air free of Originium particles was something to be very happy about.
"Oh! Xing Chen, found a girlfriend! The young lady is quite pretty."
"Auntie Li, don't scare me," Xing Chen was startled by the voice behind him; it was Auntie Li, who was out buying groceries. "We're just ordinary friends."
"I understand, I understand. You two have fun. I'm going to buy groceries now. If you don't want takeout tonight, you can come to my place."
After saying that, Auntie Li left.
Theresa pressed her hat down hard, covering her face, and quietly asked Xing Chen.
"Xing Chen, are the people here all that enthusiastic?"
The Sarkaz often had scarce supplies, sometimes fighting over a few potatoes. Theresa rarely saw anyone enthusiastically invite others to their home for dinner. This indicated that the material supply here was very abundant.
"Don't pay too much attention to it; Auntie Li was just joking." Xing Chen turned to look at Theresa. "If I remember correctly, you should be over two hundred years old. In all that time, surely someone has joked with you like that."
"Mm." Theresa pulled the brim of her hat even lower; she didn't want Xing Chen to see her blushing.
After bidding farewell to Auntie Li, Auntie Li's reaction showed that no one cared about Theresa's unusual appearance, and the two could freely go to more crowded places.
As the winter break neared its end, with students returning to school, the community where Xing Chen lived gradually became livelier. Various small shops that specifically targeted students also opened one after another, making shopping much more convenient.
The downside was that with more people, the incidence of various accidents also increased. Petty theft was uncommon in this city, but electric bikes darting around and old people's mobility scooters driving wherever they pleased could easily cause trouble.
As a local, Xing Chen was already used to many things in this city. But since Theresa was new, he had to hold her hand. This was both to protect Theresa and, more importantly, to prevent her from applying her experience dealing with Kazdel's Sarkaz to City X. Who knew if one of her elbow strikes would knock someone down.
Theresa walked with her head down, following Xing Chen. Passersby pointed and whispered, clearly mistaking them for a bickering couple.
"Alright, we're at the bus stop." Xing Chen released Theresa's hand, took out his phone, and started looking through it. "Theresa, what do you want to eat?"
"Just potatoes."
"Are you sure you only want potatoes?"
Theresa nodded.
Xing Chen planned their route and boarded the bus heading to the mall.
Theresa rested her arm on the window, propping her head up, and looked outside. The gleaming tall buildings, the vibrant pedestrians, the various shops, and the dazzling array of goods all came into her view.
"This place looks like Yan Country," Theresa said to Xing Chen.
"Have you been to Yan Country?" Xing Chen didn't comment on "the father resembling the son" but was curious about Theresa's life outside of the story.
"No, I heard some Yan Country operators talk about it," Theresa shook her head.
So Theresa hadn't been to Yan Country, Xing Chen thought.
"Then you can consider this Yan Country, but my country is a thousand, ten thousand times better than that so-called Yan Country," Xing Chen said proudly.
Theresa nodded, then turned her head back to the window. Xing Chen also accompanied her, looking at the scenery outside. From time to time, Theresa would ask him questions, such as "What do these characters mean?" "Are the goods inside expensive?" "Do the shopkeepers serve Sarkaz?" Xing Chen would sometimes answer seriously, and sometimes just give an unanswerable smile.