Yan Junxun opened the car door. Little Orange Dragon was still in repair mode and didn't show its face. It lit up a red light on the car's roof and switched to a cute voice: "Good evening, Mr. Yan. The car system is at your service. We can slowly enjoy our time on the road tonight..."

Yan Junxun turned off Little Orange Dragon's auto-drive and asked, "Does Shi Shanyan live in the Supervisory Bureau's dorms?"

"Mr. Shi's identity is special," Little Orange Dragon's response wasn't as fast as usual; it needed a few seconds to answer the question. "He lives in the Supervisory Bureau's Segregation Zone."

Yan Junxun knew this place. Before the war, it was the Docking Area's psychiatric hospital.

"Turn on the navigation," Yan Junxun said, turning the steering wheel. "I want the fastest route."

......

The Docking Area was now a transit hub for large resource transport ships. During the war, all supply transports for The Alliance's front lines had to pass through here, and the Light Rail played a huge role. The Supervisory Bureau's Segregation Zone was established back then as a place specifically for receiving military personnel. After the war, all the high-ranking military officers evacuated from the Docking Area, and the Supervisory Bureau's Segregation Zone was emptied, but the Supervisory Bureau never got around to renovating it.

Jiang Lian placing Shi Shanyan here was on Fu Chenghui's orders. This place looked uninhabited, but it was actually home to a group of the Docking Area's official systems. In addition to their daily work, they held a firm grip on the entire cluster of buildings in the area. No disturbance in the Segregation Zone could escape their cameras.

This place was a replica of Guangtong Prison's Zone 01, except the target of all the systems' surveillance was Shi Shanyan alone.

Shi Shanyan had been under round-the-clock surveillance for too long and was already very familiar with these "eyes." When he showered, the frosted glass only covered the area from his waist to his thighs. The rest of him was exposed to the system's surveillance cameras. The system would perform an information check every ten seconds to ensure the person standing in front of the camera was Shi Shanyan himself.

Shi Shanyan pushed his hair back under the showerhead, revealing his forehead. He rinsed himself with cold water, his gaze fixed on the camera outside the glass, and flashed it a not-so-friendly grin. "I'm going to masturbate, you know."

A red dot lit up in the center of the system's camera. It replied without emotion, "Countdown sixty seconds. Please resolve your physiological needs as quickly as possible, SN 01AE86."

Shi Shanyan paid no mind to its response, turning around to face the wall under the stream of water. The muscles all over his body were incredibly solid, with powerful lines running down his back, well-maintained all the way to his calves. He raised a hand to touch the area below his pectoral muscle, where his old Black Panther serial number was tattooed. Except, he had taken the liberty of adding a few horizontal lines over the number, making a mess of the tattoo.

Inside was a chip used for location tracking.

Shi Shanyan felt he had other Black Panther chips in other parts of his body, but he wasn't sure where at the moment. He couldn't help but close his eyes at the thought.

'Yan Junxun must have one too, right?'

'Leaving a mark on Yan Junxun must be so satisfying.'

That delicate skin looked like it had never been ravaged by the elements, so fair it made one's heart race. He would surely frown when getting his number tattooed, a hint of impatience in his eyes. If someone dared to grab his face while he was in pain, they'd be able to see the beauty mark at the corner of his eye. It would be even better if he got upset because of it; Shi Shanyan liked the look on his face when he was upset.

The water from the showerhead suddenly stopped.

The system said, "Time's up. Please return to your room, SN 01AE86."

Shi Shanyan shook the water droplets from his hair and grabbed a bath towel and a hand towel. He walked out of the bathroom, his upper body not dried at all, but he didn't care. He couldn't even be bothered to push aside the hair covering his eyes. He pushed open the door and walked down the empty, dark hallway.

Shi Shanyan was the only living person in the entire Segregation Zone. His room was at the end of the corridor. If the system wasn't so strict, Shi Shanyan would have even wanted to change rooms every day. He was passionate about finding pleasure, even if these rooms were no different from the one he had lived in at Guangtong Prison.

The system ran a check before Shi Shanyan entered the door, and then he walked into the room. The room only contained a single bed, not even a table or chair. Shi Shanyan sat on the edge of the bed drying his hair when he heard the Communicator from Jiang Lian ring.

Five seconds later, the Communicator connected automatically.

"Routine inquiry," Su Heting was pulling an all-nighter gaming. "Is Big Brother still alive?"

"Answering my trash little brother," Shi Shanyan said with the towel on his head. "Big Brother is alive and well."

"That's such a shame," Su Heting's fingers didn't give up on the intense battle. He stared at the light screen without blinking. "I thought someone would come and do you in."

"And who would come?" Shi Shanyan tilted his head up slightly, his eyes looking exceptionally dangerous from under his dark hair. "Anyone who comes here will just be eaten by me."

"You blocked the camera for Yan Junxun, and the other party is very angry. As revenge, he published your photo," Su Heting said, sounding cheerful as if he had just cleared a game level. "But his information gathering speed is garbage. Before he could even find your detailed information, we blocked him out."

Shi Shanyan grunted, "Mhm," in response.

Su Heting slowed down his hands and said, "But you know, Fu Chenghui is nuts. Maybe one day you two will have a complete falling out, and he'll dump all your past mission files into The Alliance's 'Black Ground'. No one will be able to save you then."

"Black Ground" was a "social" forum for post-war Special Operations members from the Northern and Southern Front Alliances. The grudges they formed during the war had not been resolved, so even when they didn't have a target to hunt, they would flame each other here. Shi Shanyan's Black Panther serial number remained a secret to this day, and his mission files were all locked up in Fu Chenghui's hands. But according to Black Panther's mission reviews from 2160 to 2162, the missions he completed in those two years were all closely related to the North-South War.

"He won't do that," Shi Shanyan pulled off the towel. "Do you know why you could only score sixth?"

"Because I'm cute like a normal person," Su Heting replied simply.

"Because you look like you're not all there." Shi Shanyan picked up the Communicator from the bed and brought it close to his mouth. "Don't you think Fu Chenghui is more like a system than the systems themselves? He wouldn't do something like that; it's too much of a loss. He's holding us as his cards, and he still wants to win even more spectacular victories. I don't care who takes my mission files, and I don't care who's seen them. It doesn't matter. Right now, I just want to know everything about Yan Junxun in Black Panther. I want this, do you understand?"

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Su Heting stopped his gaming fingers. "Yan Junxun is different from you and me. He's different from all the other Black Panther members. His serial number is 001, but the official Black Panther website has never updated his mission records. I hacked into Fu Chenghui's internal system for a look around and found that he put three layers of security on Yan Junxun's files."

"So what do you know," Shi Shanyan lowered his voice in the darkness, "besides his birth date."

"SN 7-001, name Yan Junxun, height 175cm, weight 62kg. Passed the Black Panther Test in 2163 and entered the Special Operations Unit. Was expelled from the unit in 2164. The special operations mission review stated his overall abilities were subpar, he was unable to adapt to dangerous missions, and he lacked destructive power." Su Heting recited the file. "This is the easiest information to find currently. If you want to know more, please transfer the money to my account."

Shi Shanyan said, "Go to hell."

"Looking up information is also dangerous," Su Heting looked at the Communicator. "If you're interested in him, you have to pay. By the way, a friendly reminder, Yan Junxun is heading your way."

"Take it from my account yourself," Shi Shanyan licked his canine teeth. "Hurry up and talk."

"Yan Junxun's files are locked together with the system Artemis, and not even Fu Chenghui has solved Artemis's defense puzzle," Su Heting said, swiping the light screen. "As the daughter of the system 'Zeus,' Artemis's personality is also quite prominent among the 'Twelve Main Systems.' It was initially used for information tracking like the other main systems, but strangely, after a period of time, the data recording group for the Twelve Main Systems stopped updating information related to Artemis. I don't know what happened, but in short, Artemis became a teaching system. It taught Yan Junxun and kept the teaching content confidential, not telling anyone."

"Yan Junxun got a perfect score on the written portion of the Black Panther Test. I suspect he might have emotional detachment. The Alliance's earliest system-based teaching experiments showed that children completely isolated from crowds like this all have problems. They have difficulty adapting to human life and are already accustomed to quiet, enclosed, isolated spaces. The mission review wouldn't lie; its statement that Yan Junxun's overall abilities were subpar and he was unable to adapt to dangerous missions is probably true. But destructive power is a matter of opinion. I'm more inclined to believe his self-restraint limited his performance. He's very much like the Twelve Main Systems, possessing a strong sense of self-vigilance."

After saying this, Su Heting bit on his straw, sucking down his iced cola with a "glug glug" sound.

"This is something you lack. You don't understand self-restraint at all. Fu Chenghui might want him to teach you a thing or two."

"Was Artemis really deactivated?" Shi Shanyan pushed the hair out of his eyes. "These systems cost The Alliance a fortune. Fu Chenghui wouldn't be willing to part with it."

"Depends on how you want to interpret it," Su Heting said, watching the light dot representing Yan Junxun stop in the Segregation Zone. "Theoretically, Artemis was indeed deactivated. But I found that all the system vulnerabilities that Yan Junxun was attacked with have been successfully patched. That 'Jue' can't do that. This is Artemis's protection data. Its protection of Yan Junxun has already exceeded the normal settings. It's more like..." Su Heting searched for the right description, "from the heart."

This sentence made the atmosphere very strange.

The Twelve Main Systems were all extensions of 'Zeus,' which was created by the earliest humans. They had powerful computing abilities, but they were still not human and did not possess their own emotions. Their "hearts" were just vast data collection banks that would only respond to human expectations based on data filtering.

"Consultation time is over. Your guest has arrived at the door." Su Heting said as he opened Shi Shanyan's account. "...Motherfucker, you don't have any money at all!"

"Thanks," Shi Shanyan hung up the Communicator, satisfied.

Yan Junxun was going through the system check. Before he could even knock, the door opened. Shi Shanyan blocked Yan Junxun's line of sight.

"I'm looking for the Communicator," Yan Junxun had to tilt his head up a bit to see over Shi Shanyan's bare chest. "Call Jiang Lian, quickly."

"Forgot where I tossed it," Shi Shanyan liked this angle. 'Who wouldn't like being looked up at by Yan Junxun?' He said deliberately, "Come in and look for it."