"Oh my god! Could it be true? Did we really lose the battle at the front lines?" The woman's voice on the phone suddenly became shrill. Then, as if remembering something, she lowered it again, "I knew the shadows in the sky were ominous. Could it be that aliens have landed?"

Fu Luo was stunned.

She immediately exchanged a startled and uncertain look with Yesi.

"Hello? Hello?" Perhaps not hearing Fu Luo's response, the woman asked in a slightly uncertain tone, raising her voice, "Are you still there? The girl from just now?"

Yesi grabbed Fu Luo, waved his hand at her, and said to the woman on the phone in a deep voice, "Ma'am, can you do us a favor?"

The woman hesitated for a moment, somewhat wary: "A favor? What kind?"

Then, she hastily added, "But how do I know you are our own people and not alien scammers?"

Fu Luo: "Do you have an anti-fraud system at home?"

The anti-fraud system was a civilian security system developed in the mid-22nd century. It came about because as magicians' tricks became more sophisticated, so did the skills of high-tech scammers. They often impersonated some national public officials to commit fraud, with the public security, procuratorate, courts and military being the hardest hit areas for the counterfeiters - especially the space forces that were out of reach for ordinary people.

The Security Bureau developed a convenient database for this purpose, which, like an access control system, would be updated in real time when connected to the network, and could query historical data even when disconnected.

Hearing an affirmative response from the woman on the phone, Fu Luo said, "My number is cst22429083b, and my name is Fu Luo."

The woman seemed to have gone to verify it. After a moment, although she tried hard to hide it, the woman's voice on the phone inevitably took on a choked quality: "Is it really... really our own people? Where are you all? Why didn't you stop these aliens?"

Fu Luo's face turned pale.

Woman: "What can I do?"

"Ma'am, I must warn you," Yesi interjected, "the enemy's ability to control the communication system is far greater than ours. If you contact us privately, you are very likely to be discovered."

The distinct sound of someone blowing their nose came from the other end of the phone. The woman said quickly and in a low voice, "Then I need to send my son away. Wait for me."

"Okay," Yesi said, "I'll tell you what to do."

The civilian network on Earth had long been changed to the SA model, with fast speeds and low dependence on physical devices. It was one of the products of the information explosion of the Third Industrial Revolution.

However, a series of protocols under the oldest OSI seven-layer network model architecture were preserved in an inexplicable "nostalgic spirit".

As the TCP/IP protocol was phased out, a large number of address hiding techniques sprang up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. Retaining the old model network was originally the government's idea. They wanted the military and government to use the old architecture network system to carry out secret missions, separate from the civilian network. Unfortunately, they later found that there were too many civilian experts shuttling through it. In the end, for confidentiality reasons, the authorities had to withdraw from it.

Later, this old network was retained in the fire alarm auto-reporting system of home IoT systems. It ensured physical connections when communication lines were congested to prevent security risks, making every home IoT terminal theoretically able to connect to the old network system.

The old architecture network system gradually developed into a special niche ecosystem.

Yesi was quite familiar with the old network system on Earth - he was probably very familiar with all things illegal and disorderly. It took him twenty minutes to instruct the woman on the phone to convert her home IoT terminal into a virtual port for the old network system, using her cell phone as the host to connect to it.

"The car I booked is here." The woman said softly, a little nervously, "After I send my son away, I'll come back to help you with other things."

"What should I call you?" Fu Luo asked.

The woman said, "My name is Chen Xi."

Chen Xi - morning sunshine, a good name.

Footsteps accompanied by the boy's questioning gradually faded away. With a "click", it seemed the door had closed.

"Great, let's call this terminal 'Dawn No. 1'," Yesi said, gesticulating excitedly, heavily knocking the back of Fu Luo's head, "Don't space out. There will be many well-informed people in the old network system. We don't have much time. I'm going to build a firewall, and you collect information, the more the better... Can you do it?"

The model citizen Fu Luo couldn't help but pause for a moment.

Yesi: "..."

After a while, he turned his head and looked at Fu Luo with those greenish wolf eyes, saying, "Let me teach you another lesson, kid. Whether it's illegal or prohibited, when you are facing a higher goal, you must first learn to live like a mangy dog, understand?"

Fu Luo: "I understand. What should I do?"

The old network system, whether it was the application model or the various small loopholes, was enough to make her head spin. Yesi didn't have time to explain the principles to her in detail, so he gave her an address.

"Use an 'a' at the start of the username to request login," Yesi said. "The accounts that were decommissioned by the military in the early years all started with 'a'."

To Fu Luo, a network with a speed of only a few hundred bits per second was stunningly slow. She felt it took quite a while before she logged into the address Yesi gave her. It was a platform resembling an old-style forum, with a very simple design and only basic messaging and private link transfer functions.

Before Fu Luo had a chance to look closely, an invitation message requesting a link popped up.

The other party's account also started with an 'a'!

Fu Luo's heart raced uncontrollably. She couldn't help glancing at Yesi, "What if it's phishing? Can you guarantee they won't be able to track down Chen Xi?"

"Yes," Yesi replied without hesitation. "Running away is my specialty."

It's great to have a reliable partner.

Fu Luo immediately accepted, and then the image on the screen flickered slightly. Her vision brightened, and she found herself looking at an image of a... conference room?

"Camera," Fu Luo said softly to Yesi. "It seems the other party has hacked into a camera somewhere on Earth and is sharing the feed with us."

Yesi leaned over and tried to adjust it. The camera's view slowly moved, gradually settling on a wall to the side.

"See that emblem under the United Nations globe logo?" Yesi said quietly. "Yeah, that bald eagle wearing a loincloth."

Fu Luo: "U.S. military?"

"It should be a U.S. military command center."