Chapter 3: The Inconceivable Matter That Affected the Whole World
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
On the 26th of July, 2018, something inconceivable happened at pre-dawn, and it affected the whole world.
All the people, regardless of their nationality, race, age, and gender, received a silver metallic disc on their temples.
The disc did not seem to be unique based on its appearance alone. Later, through medical tests, it was discovered that the internal structure of the disc was directly connected to the person’s brain. With the world’s current technological standards, it was practically impossible for anyone to completely extract the disc without harming the person’s cranial nerves.
Soon, everyone discovered that the discs brought them many amazing changes. Those who were afflicted with short-sightedness no longer had problems seeing things in the distance even when they took of their glasses; those who were deaf could now hear; and two people who had no common language could now communicate without a problem.
In fact, some people even discovered that they could now think much quicker. Their reaction time had also become much faster.
Some people remarked that the discs were like supercomputers in many sci-fi movies, and they even had optical modules and audio components as add-ons.
This matter happened at midnight (UTC +8:00). Most of the people in China had been sleeping at that time and had only noticed this matter when they were awoken by phone calls from friends.
People in other countries who were awake at that time did not notice anything abnormal when the disc appeared on them straight away either. After all, it was not very eye-catching, and it seemed to have just suddenly manifested on everyone.
Some people claimed that they witnessed the appearance of the silver discs. At one moment, their friends’ temple were as they were before, and the next second, a silver disc was already there. There was no time required for the process.
Fortunately, no one died from this incident. Around a hundred traffic accidents occurred across the globe, but all those involved only suffered light injuries.
After all, when the disc appeared, it did not cause any sort of disturbance in people’s sight, hearing, or thought processes. Everything just went on as usual.
Those who were involved in the traffic accidents had panicked for a moment when a voice suddenly began speaking in their heads, which was why their cars crashed into others.
Public opinions diverged in regards to what the discs were.
But with the current technology, forget researching the discs, it was impossible to even safely extract them from humans.
Some people believed that this was the work of aliens, and they wanted to use these discs to gather all sorts of data from earth. Others claimed that this was the manifestation of God, and that the discs symbolized God’s judgment. They even said that from then on, every single action was under God’s eye, so all those who went against His will be punished.
However, most of these claims were baseless assumptions. There was no concrete proof to back them up. Some frightening claims were even made with the aim of exaggerating things to terrify people and then using their fear to make profit.
Most of the people, however, believed in the claims made by the discs themselves, even if they were incomprehensible and caused great confusion.
Ever since everyone gained the discs at their temples, a voice began to speak in their heads, and they could communicate with it through their thoughts.
The voices were electronic and did not contain any emotion. They sounded like Artificial Intelligence (AI). Moreover, the voice in every person’s mind was different. There were some who even showed different personalities.
Some were reticent, some were chatterboxes, and some even had the habit of cracking very lame jokes.
These voices, too, referred to themselves as AIs. Based on their words, they were each player’s ‘mobile AI system’.
When people tried to ask them the causes and effects of the discs, the voices in their brains seemed to be ignorant of what was going on as well.
They only repeated one thing nonstop.
“From now on, everyone is a player. Finish the game, and we will evolve together with you.”
It was clear that the ‘we’ the AIs referred to was the person it was attached to, and the AI itself.
In a short while, there was more and more people who were inclined to refer to the voices as ‘mobile AIs’, because they gave off the feeling that they were the higher forms of AIs. They had thoughts, feelings, and could communicate with humans without problems. At the same time, they possessed a huge data storage space and had great processing and analytical abilities.
Furthermore, based on the AIs’ claims, they could evolve, and they were to do it together with the players.
…
Qin Guan tossed his cellphone to the side before he turned over in his bed and sat up.
“This is WAY too weird. But… why can’t my AI talk to me?”
Qin Guan did not lose consciousness for a long period of time when he collapsed on the floor. He woke up in approximately three seconds. It was so quick that when Su Xiaoyu heard the thump of the fall and rushed over from the living room to help him up, he had already woken up.
Qin Guan felt a little nauseous and suffered from palpitations when he woke up. Hence, he went to lie down and decided to pick up his phone to continue reading the discussions online.
This made him happy and sad at the same time.
He was happy that he finally had a disc as well, since that meant he was no longer an abnormality. Besides, it also cured him of his short-sightedness.
However, he was sad because his AI could not talk to him.
According to what the netizens said, the AIs installed in their minds answered whenever their hosts asked them questions, but even after Qin Guan called out to his own AI a thousand times, no voice answered him.
But some unique information did appear in his field of vision.
The two lines of words at the bottom left corner of his sight were still around. They were usually hidden, but if Qin Guan looked at them intentionally, they would reappear.
At that moment, another line of words appeared below the previous two lines.
[Developer’s Module is installed. Vulnerability has been repaired.]
That was not all. Qin Guan even saw a description box appear above Su Xiaoyu’s head.
[Su Xiaoyu (lvl 1)]
Below it was an HP bar, and it was green, showing that Su Xiaoyu was at full health.
Right after, when Qin Guan focused his attention and observed the Xiaomi phone in his hands, a description also appeared above it.
[Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus]
[Type: Basic smart device]
[Quality: Old]
[Description: Extremely low screen-to-body ratio. Terrible lifespan. Practically non-existent storage space. Among smart devices, it can only be considered to be a product that is even more primitive than steam engines. Yet even so, many people are obsessed with it. It is truly inconceivable.]
Similar description boxes popped up for everything else if Qin Guan focused on them, including his computer, TV, air-conditioner, and even his bed.
And the evaluation of most of the items was about the same as his phone—they were all described as worthless. The only thing that had a somewhat nicer evaluation was Su Xiaoyu’s oil painting hanging on the wall.
[Description: An oil painting of some value. It seems like the painter has a certain degree of artistic accomplishment.]
Qin Guan spent a long time online while searching about this, but he discovered that no one else seemed to have the same condition. Everyone else’s AI answered all their questions, but no one mentioned that they saw description boxes in their field of vision.
Qin Guan did not tell Su Xiaoyu about this, and neither did he foolishly post it online, because he had a constant, nagging feeling that this was something of a conundrum: his mobile AI system seemed to be different from the ones the others had.
The others’ mobile AI systems had appeared at midnight, right on the dot, but his appeared at around three in the morning.
The others’ mobile AI systems did not cause their hosts to display any abnormalities when they appeared, but Qin Guan had felt as if he was shot by a bullet. He had even been rendered unconscious on the floor for a few seconds.
The others’ mobile AI systems answered their hosts’ questions, while Qin Guan’s AI displayed description boxes for him…
Being different from the others was a very dangerous matter. How could Qin Guan be certain that he would not be captured and dissected for research if he told others about it?
But it was not because he did not believe in Su Xiaoyu that he did not tell his little sister. Instead, he had a feeling that once he told her about this, the girl would be worried for him, and there was simply no need for that.
In truth, even if Qin Guan told someone about this, no one would pay any attention to it for the time being, since there was only one question in everyone’s hearts right then.
Just what is this “finish the game, and we will evolve together with you”?