Mary's family lived in an upscale apartment building, which was far from the poor people's apartments and close to the business district and the inner city.

Although Mary's family lives on the ninth floor, there is a landing port on the balcony that allows aircraft to dock there and drop off passengers directly at their doorsteps. As a result, the corridors and stairwells of the apartment building are basically unused and are only noticed as emergency exits in the event of an unexpected power outage.

While Yin Zhu was tutoring Mary with her homework inside the house, she suddenly heard someone ringing the doorbell.

"Sister, it seems someone is coming."

Mary has sharp ears and immediately heard the familiar doorbell sound. She jumped off the stool to open the door.

Remembering Mary's parents' advice, Yin Zhu pulled Mary into her arms and said, "Don't you know you shouldn't open the door to strangers?"

"The person outside the door isn't a stranger."

Mary raised her chubby little arm and tapped something, and a semi-transparent blue display screen appeared in front of Yin Zhu.

At this moment, the surveillance image of the doorway appeared on the screen. It showed a woman with wavy hair, wearing heavy makeup, stubbornly knocking on the door.

Her arms were as if they were connected by some kind of screw, and her movements were very stiff. Each time she repeated the action, it was exactly the same as the last time she knocked on the door.

"Mary, do you know her?"

Yin Zhu was already considering whether to take the little girl with her and hide in the master bedroom.

3. Do not open the door to anyone. We have our own house key. You do not need to go out either.

The door is sturdy; there's no need to worry about it being broken into. If the door is breached, immediately take Mary and climb out through the master bedroom window. The alarm will automatically sound if the door is broken; you just need to hold out with Mary until the police arrive.

“She’s Aunt Cai who lives downstairs. She often comes over to bring us food she’s made.”

Mary was completely unaware of any danger, and innocently explained, even gesturing with her hands: "Her cooking is so delicious, even better than what you get in restaurants! Mom said Aunt Cai is from a dependent family and was demoted to the outer city because she made a mistake."

“But your mother also said that she can’t open the door for anyone.” Yin Zhu poked her forehead. “So let’s thank Aunt Cai and let her go back.”

Mary was a little disappointed, but she was obedient and tapped the door twice more. Then the Good Spirit Officer's voice came: "...Mary? Mary? Isn't she home? That shouldn't be the case. Auntie's arms are tired from knocking. Little Mary, please open the door."

"I'm sorry, Aunt Cai, my mom said I can't open the door for the next few days."

Mary told the woman outside the door in a childish voice.

The woman stopped knocking and said in a rather disappointed tone, "Okay, little Mary, I've left the things at the door. Remember to come and get them if you want some." Then she squatted down, placed the bag she was holding at the door, and turned to go downstairs.

Yin Zhu stared at Mary's screen for a while, then nodded: "I'll ask your mom to get one of these for me too, so it'll be convenient if someone comes to knock on the door."

What if outsiders knew that there was only one little girl at home, and they had some bad intentions?

"Speaking of which, didn't Aunt Cai have some kind of surgery?"

Recalling the strange knocking posture just now, Yin Zhu was certain that there was nothing wrong with any other part of her body when she turned to leave: "She must have had a prosthetic leg installed, right? Are people with prosthetic legs so stiff?"

Mary blinked in confusion, then used the Good Spirit Officer to retrieve the video of Aunt Cai's last visit. The two screens played simultaneously, and the difference in their movements became quite obvious.

“It’s different… Aunt Cai might have been injured recently and had surgery.” Mary didn’t think much of it, after all, she was just a child.

In the city of Vina, replacing an arm or leg, or even a heart, is a piece of cake. As long as you don't get a brain transplant, it's not a big problem.

Yin Zhu, who had been staring at the benevolent spirit in Mary's hand, suddenly sighed:

Wow, you have so many features!

“Because my benevolent spirit is connected to the home's smart security system,” Mary said, waving her arm proudly. “And Dad said that once I move into the inner city, there will be even more functions, making life even more convenient!”

Yin Zhu nodded. It's like a portable smartphone, she understands.

On Earth, mobile phones can now double as wallets, transit cards, remote controls, newspapers, computers, and televisions. The phone function has become less important, with many people relying on WeChat and QQ for calls. Countless functions have been compressed into a small mobile phone.

In comparison, the city of Vena simply went a step further, compressing all of this into a chip embedded in the human body.

“Mom said the Good Spirit Officer is even more powerful in the inner city. He doesn’t even need to operate it manually anymore; he can use it just by looking at him.” Mary’s eyes sparkled, as if there were stars in them, showing how much she longed for the inner city.

"Do your classmates also want to go to the inner city?"

Instead of asking Mary directly, Yin Zhu approached the conversation by starting with her friends, thus indirectly inferring the indigenous people's attitude.

8. Don't ask Mary about the inner city; it's not good for her as she's about to take her exams.

This wasn't about inquiring about things in the inner city; it was just about finding out her classmate's opinion. Yin Zhu didn't think she was playing word games, since the two things had completely different meanings.

Mary nodded emphatically, clenching her small fist as she replied, "Our teacher told us a lot about the gods. He also said that only the most outstanding children can enter the inner city. Once inside, we'll never have to worry about being attacked by rebel villains again; it's the most beautiful place on the only star."

"An attack by bad guys?"

Yin Zhu roughly guessed how the benevolent spirit official of the worms had been obtained.

“That’s right, there are some wicked people who betray the gods. They secretly attack other citizens and steal their Good Spirits. Because the outer city is not as heavily guarded as the inner city, many people have their Good Spirits stolen without being discovered,” Mary said indignantly. “These wicked people who steal other people’s identities are despicable!”

"Indeed, it's outrageous." Yin Zhu nodded in agreement. "Why didn't the people who were robbed report it to the police?"

This question truly stunned Mary. She had never thought about it before, and her mind went blank for several seconds before she answered uncertainly, "Um... the teacher said that the Inspectorate would arrest people who didn't exist, regardless of whether they were citizens before. So the teacher told us that we must protect our good spirits."

"Are the supervisory bureau members bad people too?" Yin Zhu seemed to have thought of something and tried to guide Mary's thinking.

“The Supervisory Bureau is definitely not a bad person! Mom said she did it for justice! She is a warrior who protects Vena City!” Mary shouted, refuting Yin Zhu’s statement.

That's right.

Yin Zhu nodded, confirming her guess.

No wonder I felt something was off before; now I understand. Combined with Mary's attitude, many of the doubts Yin Zhu had previously had now become clear.