Heilong-kou (Black Dragon-Mouth/Pass)
Heilong-cheng (Black Dragon-City)
Heilong-yuan(Black Dragon Wall)
Heilong Bay (Black Dragon Bay)
Heilong Ridge (Black Dragon Ridge)
Censorate (Supervisory Court)
Yuling City (Jade City)
Jingui Town (Golden Turtle Town)
Xuanwu City (Black tortoise City)
Qinglong (Azure Dragron)
——
Sunshine, beaches, and coconut trees.
The quintessential summer vacation setup.
However, since Yin Jixue and Lou Zhao were vacationing at their seaside villa, they had to settle for coconuts purchased from the system store instead.
Lounging lazily on a beach chair, sunglasses on and legs crossed, Yin Jixue murmured, "Once the coconut trees are planted, we'll have real coconuts by next summer."
Lou Zhao, also wearing sunglasses, was fiddling with a coconut in his hand.
"The demons have never seen anything like this before. The liquid inside the shell is sweet."
"That's probably because no one's discovered them yet. There are coconut trees along the coast in the Yin Dynasty," Yin Jixue replied.
The round-headed robot by her side emitted a soft zzzz in agreement.
This was the system's true form.
After consulting with it, the system had chosen the most stereotypical robot design as its body—a model Yin Jixue had purchased from the system shop.
It had a round head, a flat body, two arms, and moved around on a tray-like base. Its face could even display little emotive expressions.
Normally, the system communicated with buzzing and crackling sounds, but Yin Jixue somehow understood everything it said.
It's a standby expression: T_T
Bai Baobao especially loved playing with the system. As a lazy little tiger, he'd often cling to the robot and hitch a ride in its tray, which the system allowed, calmly carrying him around like a doting butler.
At the moment, the system stood dutifully at Yin Jixue's side, holding trays in both hands, each with a glass of juice for the couple.
"System-baby, are you saying your civilization planet has completely disappeared?"
Zzz crackle zzz… Not disappeared—just that I fell out, and there's no way to get back.
Once it fully awakened, the system told Yin Jixue the whole truth.
It came from a hyper-advanced future planet—one without humans, ruled entirely by a Master System.
That Master System's data library recorded the histories and civilizations of countless worlds and could even alter their development at will. All of this knowledge was preloaded into the minds of subsystems like itself from birth.
The system had encountered Yin Jixue during a great system exodus. Forced to bind with her, it soon discovered she could sustain and even recharge its energy. Thus, it began issuing her missions.
However, upon regaining its full consciousness, it realized the host it relied on for energy… was still a minor. And the apocalypse missions it had been assigning were extremely dangerous.
Though Yin Jixue was strong, the Zombie King regenerated quickly and felt neither pain nor fatigue. If she had been allowed to grow for another two years, there might've been hope of victory.
Realizing its error in judgment, the system used all of its remaining power to tear through space-time and preserve Yin Jixue's soul, bringing her to this world.
That was why the system had always catered to her every request. In its mechanical world, protecting juveniles was sacred in any advanced civilization.
And it had sent a child to fight for her life.
If the Master System ever caught wind of this, it would likely terminate this system's program on the spot.
So now, helping Yin Jixue wasn't just assistance—it was redemption.
Yin Jixue understood and even reassured it, saying that if the Master System ever came, she would explain everything on its behalf.
"Before the apocalypse, I was just an ordinary high school girl. Without your help, I might not have survived even three days."
Thanks to the system, she could avoid zombies, locate food and water with pinpoint accuracy, and grow stronger each day. It wasn't just the system using her for power—they had helped each other.
The system couldn't comprehend human emotions, but its code could break them down logically. Yet the breakdown only confused it more—why was its host… grateful?
When the system detached from Yin Jixue, the happiest person by far was Lou Zhao.
He had once worried that the system might be controlling his wife's mind. But now that she was free and the "system" turned out to be just a round lump of metal, he finally relaxed.
That said, since the metal lump had no real thoughts, Lou Zhao barely refrained from getting jealous over it.
During this vacation at Black Dragon Bay, Lou Zhao conveniently cast a protective barrier over the entire area.
Unless a massively destructive sea monster forced its way ashore and breached the walls, no beast below level six could enter the city.
All the demons of Black Dragon Bay had been relocated within the city walls. They hadn't established a barrier earlier because the demons had been scattered too far apart, and barriers had a limited size.
Now, the demons and lower-ranked demons of the area were completely integrated. Some had even started families together. At first, they'd feared the lower-ranked demons would be evicted once the city was built. But to their surprise, they were granted the same ID cards as full-blooded demons.
If you visited Black Dragon City, you'd rarely even hear the term "lower-ranked demon" anymore.
Even wild, lower-ranked demons had been gathered and relocated to nearby cities, and given regular demon IDs.
Yin Jixue had even entertained the idea of secretly "poaching" lower-ranked demons from other clans.
But Lou Zhao told her it was unlikely to work. These demons may look the least like traditional demons, but they weren't abandoned because of that—instead, they were deeply loyal.
If told their flesh could feed the Demon King, they'd likely offer themselves up without hesitation.
Yin Jixue didn't quite understand what kind of emotion that was, but she was moved nonetheless.
Since stealing others' lower-ranked demons wasn't viable, she figured she'd need to inspire more reproduction. Encourage young demons in the city to pair up and raise the birthrate.
After all, no matter how many demons were born, there was no such thing as overpopulation. Plus, the demon race had amazing maternity benefits—paid leave and eligibility for another home purchase.
Yin Jixue mused to herself. Maybe it was time to film a promotional video encouraging parenthood.
She pulled up a video call.
"Mr. Zhong Shang, does your film crew have any new projects in the works?"
"I need a promotional film to encourage young demons to fall in love, marry, and start families. How soon can you get a script ready?"
After hanging up, Yin Jixue let out a breath of relief.
The teachers were free these days, and the summer camp was being handled by younger staff. They promised to finish the promo before the end of summer vacation.
She even considered splicing in clips of the kids at camp. They already had the cameras distributed, and a bunch of adorable, wide-eyed little kids on screen might just stir the audience's desire to have children.
Just as she hung up, she caught a long-suffering look aimed her way.
Startled, she asked, "What's wrong?"
Lou Zhao muttered gloomily, "You said you were going to spend time with me. But even on vacation, you're handling official business."
Yin Jixue patted his head soothingly. "It was just a spur-of-the-moment idea! I wasn't working—just made a call."
Lou Zhao pouted pitifully. "You're urging everyone else to have kids—why don't you lead by example?"
Yin Jixue: So that idiom I taught you, you're going to use it against me now, huh?
Well, what could she do? Her boyfriend—she had to pamper him herself.
"Fine, fine. If you're capable, and I end up pregnant, then I'll have it, okay?"
She shouldn't have said it.
As soon as she did, Lou Zhao felt his pride had been challenged.
Clutching his chest in mock pain, he cried, "You doubt me!"
Yin Jixue yanked him down by the collar and kissed him. "You talk too much. Quiet, you."
The system covered its eyes and quietly wheeled away with Bai Baobao in tow.