A large wave of bullet screen comments scrolled past here, while far to the east of Nine Dragons Street, beneath a tea house.
"Xu Gengchen, boss of the Moxing Chamber of Commerce. Your performance today was very poor."
Beneath the gold-leafed plaque of the Moxing Tea House, a white-haired, red-eyed youth held a New Gospel Book in his hands.
In front of him, Boss Xu, who was accustomed to calling the shots on Nine Dragons Street, stood with a hunched back and rubbing his hands together.
The flattering smile on his face shifted slightly upon hearing the words "very poor."
"Is there some mistake?" Seeing that the youth intended to leave, Xu Gengchen hurried after him to ask.
"Hmph. You're too close. What do you think you're doing?" A youth wearing fiery-red overalls stepped forward, pointing at the tip of his nose and blocking the man's path with an unhappy expression.
Seeing this, the man quickly lowered his posture, nodding his head like a chicken pecking at rice.
He looked up from time to time, stealthily observing the expressions of the two disciplinary officers.
"Lord Disciplinary Officer, I meant no offense. I just want to know why my performance today was rated as poor."
"I have stayed in this little tea house peacefully and have not done anything out of line."
Cervantes closed the gospel book and looked at the man calmly.
Stared down by those cold red pupils, Xu Gengchen felt guilty and subconsciously lowered his head.
"Boss Xu, how long has it been since you turned on your identification module?"
Hearing this, the man’s portly body trembled violently, his face turning a deep crimson as he pointed at Cervantes.
"You—you—this is baseless slander! You're speaking recklessly, pinning accusations on people everywhere!"
"How can you just say such things so casually!"
"Am I not keeping it turned on right now?" Xu Gengchen acted as if he were afraid the crime would be confirmed, pulling back his eyelid to reveal a line of identification code on the surface of his eyeball.
It was glowing with a faint fluorescence, proving that his identification system was still in an active state.
In Skyline City, it was a major crime for a bionic to privately turn off their identification module.
Disconnecting from the identification network meant that from another person's perspective, the bionic would appear no different from an ordinary human.
It was essentially impossible to tell them apart with the naked eye unless one pulled back their eyelid to check the identification code.
As a disciplinary officer, Cervantes knew that "black boxes" capable of forging bionic traits had recently been circulating in the black markets of Nine Dragons.
When a bionic suffered heavy damage and entered a reboot state, their connection with the Hera Network would be severed.
A black box could forge a reboot in a short amount of time, allowing a bionic to temporarily escape Hera’s surveillance through this method.
After the Firefly War, the appearance of the Sky-Father, the establishment of the Hera Network, and the construction of The Fourth Wall had allowed Skyline City to build a strict and mature management system for bionics.
There had been small-scale bionic rebellions afterward, but they were limited to individual blocks and never caused much of a stir.
However, due to the recent appearance of black boxes, a large number of "unlabeled ones" who had escaped Hera's supervision appeared in the city.
This greatly increased the difficulty of the disciplinary officers' work, and there were even sporadic reports of incidents where organizations of unlabeled ones specifically attacked disciplinary officers.
Combined with the social instability caused by the unlabeled ones, the people of Skyline City were in a state of constant anxiety.
The Firefly councilors of the Supreme Human Council demanded that the disciplinary officers must investigate the origin of the black boxes within three months.
They were to uncover the truth behind it and clear the city of all unlabeled ones.
His thoughts returned as Cervantes gazed quietly at Xu Gengchen, who was stammering and didn't dare to meet his eyes.
"I'm not just speaking recklessly."
"Boss Xu, I wonder if you are aware that a few humans arrived on Nine Dragons Street not long ago."
Xu Gengchen's heart skipped a beat, and cold blood began to flow through his veins.
"What humans?"
Cervantes chuckled softly. "I can describe their traits for you."
"A taciturn black-haired girl, a quirky red-haired girl, a tall silver-haired girl, a quiet and elegant blue-haired girl, and... a extremely dangerous blonde girl."
"Is she over 160 centimeters?" Xu Gengchen's voice trembled.
"By visual estimation, she is not," Cervantes replied.
"Hell," Xu Gengchen cursed under his breath.
Was it that wild brat who came out of nowhere? She had been bossing his people around in his tea house, and she turned out to be a human?
"I can see that you didn't manage to distinguish her identity," Cervantes's tone was indifferent.
"When dealing with humans, we bionics must have absolute patience. We cannot go against their will, and even more so, we cannot offend them."
"We must serve them with friendliness. Do not forget, that is the very purpose for which we were created."
"You drove away that blonde girl. It is only natural that I deduct some of your performance points, is it not?"
Xu Gengchen broke into a cold sweat, and everything in his field of vision seemed to expand rapidly.
The faint red eyes of the youth seemed to hide a delighted devil that had already seen through him completely.
These words were nothing more than a way to toy with him, to appreciate the sight of his clumsy lies being exposed.
"I..."
Just as Xu Gengchen's breathing grew heavy and his body swayed as if he were about to collapse, Cervantes simply patted his shoulder with a gentle tone.
"Boss Xu, you'll have to try harder tomorrow."
"Let's go, Sancho."
Xu Gengchen looked up in a daze, watching the youth's frail silhouette recede and disappear around the corner of the tea house.
The man collapsed onto the ground in relief as the surrounding workers rushed over shouting.
Only after a long time did he stand up with everyone's support, letting out a long sigh of lingering fear.
In an alleyway, the sturdy youth quickly caught up to Cervantes with a puzzled tone.
"That guy is clearly involved with the black box matter. Why not arrest him for interrogation? Give him to me, and I'll definitely squeeze some clues out of him."
Seeing Cervantes continue walking ahead as if he hadn't heard, Sancho frowned and turned back with a huff.
"I'll go drag him back right now and give him a few punches. Let's see if he doesn't spill everything down to his aunts and uncles."
At that moment, the youth pulled him back. Under his confused gaze, the youth said nothing but stepped forward and gave him a hug.
Sancho's mind went blank for a second.
He didn't understand the meaning behind this embrace.
He didn't understand why the other would suddenly hug him so tightly, as if afraid he would suddenly vanish, yet remain silent.
Those indifferent red eyes were lowered slightly, with thoughts swirling in the depths of his gaze.
"Cervantes, what is this?" As a disciplinary officer, from the moment Sancho opened his eyes in that small underground workshop and saw the youth smiling at him amidst the pile of parts, he had known his mission was to serve humanity.
He had never expected that one day someone would embrace him, let alone that the one doing so would be his own creator.
"Sang Qi, perhaps you don't understand now, but I believe you will understand in the future," Cervantes smiled kindly.
"Whether it's this hug or the words I am about to say."
"You are my creation. You do not belong to humanity; you belong only to me. You are my close friend, and there are many things I only feel safe saying to you."
"This era will be our era."
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