Chapter 192: Wanda, the Mind Scepter, and Alice
"Jarro and Venom are both extraterrestrial beings," Xi Nian explained.
"One can absorb energy, split its body, and communicate telepathically."
"The other is a symbiote that must rely on a host to survive. With a suitable host, it can unleash terrifying power."
After introducing Wanda to the two alien members of the household, Xi Nian waved his hand. Xiao Huang immediately lowered her fluffy tail, setting down the glass jar she carried, before lightly leaping onto Wanda's lap.
Xi Nian stroked the little orange cat's tiny body, his lips twitching slightly.
This little freeloader had been eating at his house for months, yet hadn't changed at all…
Meanwhile, even his young maid had already begun to develop a little…
"Xiao Huang… isn't also an alien, is she?" Wanda asked softly.
"You guessed right. She's an alien creature called a Flerken. She just happens to look almost identical to an Earth cat."
Xi Nian shrugged, though he refrained from making Xiao Huang open her mouth and expose the grotesque tentacled maw inside—more frightening than Venom's. He didn't want Wanda to be scared out of her wits.
Instead, Xi Nian suddenly remembered something. "Xiao Huang, open your mouth. I need to take out the two things I left with you."
The little Flerken obediently opened its mouth. As Xi Nian gently pried it wider with his fingers, the cat revealed nothing more than tiny sharp teeth and a soft little tongue. But then, to Wanda's shock, Xi Nian pushed his hand deeper inside—until half his arm had disappeared into the small feline's mouth.
"The mouth of a Flerken leads into a pocket dimension. It can store all sorts of non-living items," Xi Nian explained, his arm moving around as he searched. Soon enough, he pulled out a strange alien device no bigger than his palm.
"…Wrong one."
He was about to put it back when the device suddenly lit up with a green glow and spoke in English:
"Detected planetary coordinates: C-53. Universal Translator now adjusting to local language settings…"
"A universal translator, huh. Not a bad alien gadget," Xi Nian muttered, setting it aside.
That reminded him of something.
Inside Xiao Huang's dimensional stomach, there were corpses of aliens and wreckage of alien ships—a mass grave of multiple civilizations… but also an untouched treasure trove.
One day, he'd have to carefully catalogue everything hidden inside.
Reaching back into Xiao Huang's mouth, Xi Nian pulled out two objects this time: a metallic orb and a metallic cube.
Unfortunately, with only one hand free, he couldn't hold both steadily. As soon as he withdrew his arm, the orb slipped free.
Wanda reacted quickly, catching it with both hands.
But the moment her fingers touched the sphere, she yelped and dropped it onto the couch as if scalded.
"You okay?"
Xi Nian grabbed her little hand to check. He spread her delicate white fingers apart, his thumb brushing over her small palm. Thankfully, there was no visible injury.
"I'm fine. It just felt like I got shocked," Wanda whispered, her cheeks turning red.
"Shocked?"
Xi Nian picked up the orb himself. With his steel-hard body, he felt nothing but the cold, metallic surface—none of the jolt Wanda described.
His expression grew serious as he glanced between the cube and the orb.
These were the spoils of the Battle of New York—the Tesseract and the Mind Scepter.
Back then, in his Magneto-Spider form, he'd instinctively felt they were too dangerous to leave behind. So he'd wrapped them in a special metallic web coating and taken them home.
Since then, they'd been stored safely inside Xiao Huang's pocket dimension.
But with an upcoming visit to S.H.I.E.L.D., Xi Nian thought it best to keep them at home for now, just in case.
Even with the protective web-metal coating, they were still unpredictable.
"These two items… even I don't fully know their origins," Xi Nian said solemnly. "Don't touch them. I'll hide them here in the house until we can consult the Ancient One."
"Alright," Wanda nodded without objection.
Xi Nian didn't bother with elaborate hiding places. Instead, he simply set them up as decorative objects in his room. If they weren't so large, he might've used them to prop up a table leg.
Sometimes, the simplest hiding places were the most secure.
"Oh, and recently, our household gained another new member," Xi Nian said, after placing the relics down.
"Alice, say hello."
At his words, the lights in the living room flickered on, the television and washing machine powered up, even the iron and their phones buzzed to life.
"Hello, Miss Wanda. I am Alice, the housekeeper. Pleased to work with you."
A pleasant, mechanical female voice echoed through the room.
"Housekeeper?" Wanda widened her eyes.
"Yes," Alice replied calmly. "I am Xi Nian Prince's assistant and housekeeper. From now on, I will be your colleague as well."
Wanda froze, clearly unprepared for this.
"Alright, Alice, don't tease her," Xi Nian chuckled, before explaining: "She's a highly intelligent artificial intelligence—a special system program, you could say."
Indeed, Alice was a legacy from a Spider-Man of another universe—a piece of super black-tech, a program hidden in a USB drive.
When plugged into a computer, it activated, embedding itself into this world's systems and reviving as a full-fledged AI.
And since its initialization, its highest authority defaulted to one person: Xi Nian.
He had named it Alice.
Unlike a soul, Alice had no physical form. Yet in the human world, she was everywhere, connected to every device.
She was also the hidden hand that had helped him erase Felicia's secretly recorded videos earlier that day.
No matter how skilled Felicia was at hacking cameras, she could never outmatch an AI born from cutting-edge technology.
"Alice, grant Wanda high-level command authority. From now on, you two are partners—you'll need to coordinate on many things."
"Understood. High-level permissions granted," Alice replied.
"I'll do my best to adapt quickly, Miss Alice," Wanda said, taking a deep breath. But her small face flushed red immediately after.
She realized she'd just felt jealous… of an artificial intelligence.
Her eyes shone with determination.
Even if it was an AI, no one could take away her future role as the head housekeeper of the Prince family!
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