"Slow down, don't fall." Seeing their daughter trotting down the mountain path, Yu Zhenzhen's parents reminded her, "Did you run into your classmates?"

"Yeah, just Tan Xiao. I showed you his videos and photos before." As soon as Yu Zhenzhen said this, her parents remembered. Her dad even had a sudden realization, "Right, your classmate, the drummer in that rock band. Is he still doing the band thing?"

Yu Zhenzhen: "..."

Her dad only remembered Tan Xiao's band performance.

"What nonsense, he was doing a folk performance. He just gave me a talisman." Yu Zhenzhen took out the talisman.

"Talisman? What talisman? You can't just carry that around." Older folks are more particular about these things. Mrs. Yu took it to examine but couldn't tell what it was for.

"He said it's for warding off evil." Yu Zhenzhen snatched it back. "What could happen? He wears a whole bunch himself and has pretty good grades."

As soon as Yu Zhenzhen mentioned his good grades, no one objected anymore.

They stayed up until late on New Year's Eve. The next few days were filled with visiting relatives, collecting red envelopes, and taking tons of photos. During this time, there was no need to think about homework, just have fun.

On the evening of the fifth day, while transferring photos using her camera's app, Yu Zhenzhen noticed a new firmware update available. She felt a tinge of doubt - why update firmware before the holiday is over, are the big companies working overtime during New Year's? But it didn't concern her, so she downloaded the update.

After updating and transferring the photos, she put the camera in its bag by the bedside and went to sleep.

Nanchu winters are cold, damp and chilly. Yu Zhenzhen's home had floor heating installed, so it was very warm inside. She curled up under the covers and fell into a deep sleep, dreaming of running laps in P.E. class after school started.

Lap after lap, a taste of blood rose in her throat. Her body felt scorching hot, as if being roasted over a fire. The burning sensation made Yu Zhenzhen kick off the covers. Half-asleep, she reached out for her phone.

Why was it so hot?

Vaguely, Yu Zhenzhen saw several flames outside the window, along with a few barks. Her first thought was that someone forgot to extinguish their grave lanterns again.

But very quickly, Yu Zhenzhen realized something was off. Wait, her home was on the 13th floor, how could she see grave lanterns? How could there be such distinct wild dog sounds?

Sleep vanished in an instant. Yu Zhenzhen sat up abruptly, staring at the flames outside the window, trying to see if it was just her imagination. But after a few seconds, there really were flames flowing in the night...

The camera lens in the bag on the nightstand made motor sounds, extending and retracting non-stop as if trembling. But Yu Zhenzhen had clearly turned it off after updating it before bed.

Her sleep-deprived mind felt muddled. Before Yu Zhenzhen could think carefully, the flames suddenly lunged towards the window like a sky-covering sunset. Yu Zhenzhen instinctively raised her hands and closed her eyes, crying out: "Ah!"

A pale golden light emanated from Yu Zhenzhen's jacket pocket, enveloping the entire room. Then it disappeared along with the flames.

The burning sensation seemed to vanish. Yu Zhenzhen slowly opened her eyes, only to see her mother's concerned face in front of her.

Mrs. Yu bent over and felt Yu Zhenzhen's face. "What's wrong, did you have a nightmare?"

"What?" Yu Zhenzhen felt drenched in sweat. She was dazed and shocked. Was that vivid feeling just an illusion?

"I heard you groaning." Mrs. Yu gently wiped her sweat and asked if she wanted some water.

Yu Zhenzhen felt her throat was dry, as if scorched by fire. "Okay..."

Mrs. Yu brought warm water and watched her finish drinking. Her gaze fell on the camera bag on the nightstand. "I'll take this away. Keeping it by the bed exposes you to radiation."

"What radiation...!" Yu Zhenzhen didn't know whether to laugh or cry. How could all electronic devices emit radiation? But she had no energy to argue. "Alright, alright."

She watched her mom pick up the camera bag. She originally wanted to check it. Half-asleep earlier, she seemed to have heard the camera's motor. On second thought, she said: "Mom, I always feel like this camera has focusing issues after I got it. Could you talk to the store owner and have him exchange it for me?"

As a student, Yu Zhenzhen felt her mom was more articulate than her.

"Sure." Mom quietly closed the bedroom door.

......

On the sixth day of the New Year, at Laomei Temple in the early morning, the sky was still dim. Young monks had already opened the doors.

On such a cold day, a young girl wearing a summer school uniform, with a single-strap camera bag on her shoulder, walked with her head down to the front of Laomei Temple. She stood at the entrance looking inside but didn't dare enter.

An orange cat walked across the roof ridge, licked its paws, and tilted its head to look at this unfamiliar visitor.

The few passersby who saw the girl gave her strange looks.

Finally, a young monk came out holding a broom. Meeting the girl's eyes, he was quite shocked: "Classmate, aren't you cold?"

He glanced and saw she was even wearing a student ID that read 'Yu Zhenzhen'.

"It's... it's okay. Is this the Bureau 404?" The girl asked pitifully. "Can I go in and file a report?"

Young monk: "Ah... wait a moment!"

About five minutes later, after inquiring, the young monk came out again. "You can come in now, follow me."

He brought the girl to the Bureau 404's work area. Currently there were only two staff members on Spring Festival duty. They stretched in the duty room. Seeing the girl, they also exclaimed: "Girl, you really aren't cold?"

"You... aren't human, right?" Based on experience, the staff could tell she probably wasn't human, and maybe had just taken human form not long ago. "Don't you know humans can't withstand cold like this?"

And who knows where she got a set of Nanchu No. 1 Middle School's summer uniform to wear.

"Uh, wait, let me change clothes." The girl finally realized how conspicuous she looked. She got up and went to the side break room to change.

The two staff members chatted a bit. "You think the clothes are stolen, or she really attends Nanchu No. 1 Middle? Monsters also try for key high schools?"

"No way, did you forget who's at Nanchu No. 1 Middle? She goes to the same school as the little shaman, she can't be that clueless."

After a few words, the break room door opened. A young monk walked out scratching his head: "Changed, is this okay?"

The two staff members nearly spat out their tea. They stood up alertly: "A skin-walker?!"

Skin-walkers paint human faces to change appearance. They are infamous evil spirits in the mortal world, even inspiring many artistic creations. Calling out its background upon seeing this form was quite normal.

"No, no," the "changed clothes" complainant was quite humble, not daring to try to pretend with the legendary senior, but still stood up straight and said, "I am a full-frame mirrorless camera, with 45 million pixels, providing you with stunning color and texture restoration!"

The two of them: "............"

This advertising slogan almost made them dizzy. After a while, they realized, oh... it's a camera, right!

Well, the restoration is high...

Wait, speaking of cameras, someone remembered something and opened the internal operating system on the computer. "There seems to be a verbally assigned case on New Year's Eve, related to cameras. Let me see, it's you, right?"

That verbally assigned case was sent by Tan Xiao, saying that a camera with spiritual intelligence was discovered, and asking the Bureau 404 to check if it was entered into the system, and if not, they could pay attention to it.

Although it was during the Spring Festival, after verifying that the camera was not registered, they still found a way to communicate, which was through firmware upgrades.

Since the descent of the Emperor's Essence, various new and strange monsters have descended, and the Bureau 404 headquarters has also conducted targeted research on various solutions, including various information packages encompassing the laws of the human world, which can be imported into the bodies of monsters such as Ah Jin.

The effect of several practices was good, so this time the Bureau 404 directly applied for a data package for the camera in the background, and the camera user did indeed honestly download and update it.

"That's me, my name is Aperture." The camera blinked, emitting a slight motor sound. This was the name it gave itself. "...Is it okay for me to come here?"

It couldn't even hide its motor sound, but as a monster that had only recently gained spiritual intelligence, it was able to freely transform into various human forms, unlike Ah Jin, whose head hasn't grown out yet.

This was its racial specialty. Because it had been used to photograph people for a long time, it had a considerable understanding of the human body, so naturally its transformation was fast.

"It's fine, but what exactly is the matter?" The person on duty looked at it, and it didn't seem like a big deal.

This information package was still not perfect. Some newly transformed monsters may not be clear about the boundaries of reporting cases. Before, there was a rice cooker that ran over crying, saying that the porridge was overcooked and that it must have been sabotaged.

There are still patches to be made.

"I was attacked." Aperture said with certainty, "A fire-breathing dog attacked me, and fortunately I was protected by a talisman given to me by a shaman. I originally wanted to find that shaman, but unfortunately I don't know where he lives, so I had to come here."

"Oh?" The person on duty was alarmed and quickly pulled up the surveillance to check if the fight was still in custody, while asking, "What kind of dog? And is the shaman you mentioned a student?"

There are only a few well-known shamans in Nanchu. Seeing that Aperture was wearing a school uniform before, he naturally guessed it was Tan Xiao first.

The other person on duty hurriedly picked up the desk phone and called Director Mu.

"How do you know?" Aperture hadn't even described it yet, but the other party already knew it was a student, the classmate of his temporary user. "I didn't see clearly either, I only know it was a black dog."

Black dog...

The person on duty had already called Mu Fei, and someone quickly picked up on the other end. "Hello, Director Mu."

Mu Fei was dazed: "Huh? Hmm..."

There was a vague male voice on the side: "Who's calling you so early?"

Then there was the sound of Mu Fei turning over.

The person on duty sweated a little. "It's just that we have a camera spirit here now..."

Mu Fei's voice instantly became sober, and she howled, almost piercing through the phone screen: "What! Keep it there for me! See clearly if it's a DSLR or mirrorless, what lens! How many pixels! If it has 20 million pixels, ask if it's willing to work for us, I'll cover for it!!"

The person on duty: "......"