Forget it, no point in thinking about it anymore. William Carter casually picked up the sensor, feeling utterly disappointed with those spells, though he was still a bit unwilling to give up. Could it be that he had recited them incorrectly?

  “Jili gulu, pili pala…”

  A string of incantations that no one could understand— not even himself, nor did he know their meaning or principle— were silently chanted from his lips, while his mental fluctuations rose and fell in sync with the spells.

  No mistake…

  William Carter could tell himself with absolute certainty that he hadn’t mispronounced a single word.

  Yet, there was still no corpse appearing before him. Suddenly stunned, he shook his head in frustration. He hadn’t even directed the spell at any corpse just now, so how could a miracle possibly occur?

  However, in the next moment, William Carter’s smile suddenly froze on his face. He glanced sideways at the sensor in his hand, and in his mind, he seemed to sense a strange fluctuation— a spiritual entity born from his consciousness yet completely independent. This mysterious spiritual entity gave him a very special feeling, blending seamlessly with his own consciousness, forming a close and inseparable connection.

  This energy fluctuation was transmitted from the sensor in his hand. His eyes widened as he suddenly remembered that the incantation he had just recited was directed at the sensor.

  What was going on? He stared intently at the sensor, suddenly getting a strange feeling, as if this thing had become his personal belonging, to do with as he pleased. He even felt that he could… make it self-destruct.

  Sitting down quietly, William Carter was overcome by a strange sensation. Could it be that the spell couldn’t summon corpses at all, but could instead summon an electronic consciousness?

  After pondering for a moment, William Carter still put on the sensor. In the next instant, he appeared once again in his private space.

  What should he do? With a thought, he tried issuing his first command to the void: “Write me an observation report on the ancient artifacts unearthed on the planet Karim.”

  “Ta ta… ta ta ta…”

  Countless bright dots flashed continuously on the screen, and in no time, a near-perfect observation report had appeared.

  “Oh my god…” William Carter could no longer contain himself and exclaimed in a low voice, “Could it really have become intelligent?”

  Although human technology was highly advanced, so far, no one had invented a supercomputer capable of replacing human existence.

  No matter how good a computer was, no matter how advanced its self-operating system, it could never replace the human brain.

  The facts proved that humans were not the creators.

  But then, what did all this before him mean? William Carter knew very well that the sensor in his hand was just an outdated product, without any top-tier features like automatic writing. The only explanation was that this sensor had evolved on its own.

  He closed his eyes slightly, focusing all his senses on the mysterious consciousness in his mind. He could clearly sense its existence, but to his frustration, he could only sense it— he couldn’t communicate with it in any way.

  He issued a few random commands, and his private space immediately changed. At this point, William Carter was completely certain that this thing was the consciousness formed by the sensor.

  “Doo doo…” A red light lit up beside the table, accompanied by a buzzing sound.

  William Carter immediately exited the sensor. He already knew he had to go to school.

  He left his room, got into the hover car, and set it to autopilot. With a “whoosh,” the hover car sped away.

  When flying within the planet, you could hand over control of the car to the planetary network computer. Through various forms of supercomputing, as long as no one deliberately sabotaged it, accidents would not occur. Moreover, the hover car had the safest protective measures— even in the event of an accident, your life wouldn’t be in danger.

  Therefore, the vast majority of people chose autopilot when boarding a hover car.

  It was half an hour’s journey from home to school. Normally, he would close his eyes to rest or watch a short film to pass the time. But now, he had plenty of things to do…

Chapter Five: Excellence

  Half an hour later, William Carter finally gained some understanding of the weak consciousness in his mind.

  This thing was indeed a faint consciousness generated by the sensor, but it was still a far cry from true self-awareness.

  It could only be said that this thing had acquired some characteristics of human intelligence, possessing a certain degree of logical judgment.

  Of course, it was much better than a computer, which could only judge strictly according to programmed commands.

  To William Carter, this thing was still a person— a living being with independent thought— but this being was incomplete, merely a puppet without thoughts of its own, only knowing how to follow orders.

  It was like a marvelous combination of some features of a computer and some judgment abilities of a human.

  With this deduction, William Carter was completely satisfied.

  The reason computers could not replace the human brain was because they lacked two things compared to humans.