Chapter 1: The Mysterious Ring Appears

"William Carter William Carter, open the door, open up!"

A series of urgent knocks came from outside. William Carter opened his sleepy eyes and glanced at his phone: 3:30 a.m.

William Carter groggily rolled out of bed, not bothering to fix his wrinkled pajamas, opened the bedroom door, and said irritably, "Grace Bennett, do you even know what time it is?"

Grace Bennett wasn't wearing any makeup—she rarely did—but her beauty was so striking that her face still drew all the attention.

Moreover, sixteen-year-old Grace Bennett had already grown up. If it weren't for spending so many years together, William Carter might not have been able to restrain himself.

Grace Bennett was also in pajamas, with a hint of fear on her face, clearly startled awake from a dream.

William Carter asked in confusion, "Did you have a nightmare or something?"

After years of living together, William Carter knew his little sister, three years younger than him, all too well. No matter how he thought about it, being scared awake by a nightmare and coming to knock on his door was just not something Grace Bennett would ever do.

Because Grace Bennett had always been that "model child" everyone talked about.

This year, nineteen-year-old William Carter was a sophomore in college, while sixteen-year-old Grace Bennett was already a junior.

Yes, it's as harsh as it sounds—Grace Bennett had skipped grades throughout her nine years of compulsory education and naturally became William Carter's senior. Whenever they argued, Grace Bennett never missed a chance to rub this in.

Every time someone asked, "Xiaoyu, you both had nine years of compulsory education, so why are you so outstanding? Did you secretly take extra classes?"

Grace Bennett would always answer confidently, "No, of course it's because I skipped grades!"

And the most infuriating part was, Grace Bennett didn't just crush him in academics—she excelled in everything else, too.

In other people's eyes, William Carter was probably the type who scored high but lacked practical skills. He was good at studying—otherwise, he wouldn't have gotten into the same university as Grace Bennett.

But in every other aspect, it was just awkward.

Simply put, at home, William Carter could only handle the simplest chores, like sweeping the floor or washing dishes. Everything else—cooking, tidying up, shopping for clothes—was all taken care of by Grace Bennett.

It wasn't that William Carter was lazy; it was mainly that he didn't want to make things harder for Grace Bennett.

In other words, aside from being moderately outperformed in academics, William Carter was completely and utterly outclassed by Grace Bennett in every other way.

Maybe the only thing he could brag about was being better at video games than Grace Bennett, but the problem was, that didn't count in any traditional evaluation.

What family ever praises their kid for being great at video games? It's always: good grades, well-behaved, talented. Who would ever say their child is amazing at gaming?

Unless you win second place in a world esports championship and get featured on C-site, right?

Clearly, these two siblings—who weren't related by blood—had a complete genetic and intellectual gap.

So, for as long as he could remember, only Grace Bennett ever looked down on William Carter, never the other way around.

Grace Bennett often acted like the senior, always calm and collected, but this time, she was acting completely out of character, knocking on his door in the middle of the night.

This just didn't make sense.

Grace Bennett was still visibly shaken, and it was clear she was trying hard to calm herself down. "William Carter, there's someone talking in my head."

The light in William Carter's bedroom was off, but the living room light was on.

By the light from the living room, William Carter suddenly noticed a small ring on Grace Bennett's right temple.

The ring was about the size of a coin, hollow in the middle, with a metallic sheen. It looked like a decorative accessory—very pretty and not out of place, but still quite noticeable.

William Carter clearly remembered that at dinner, there was nothing on Grace Bennett's temple. She would never randomly put something like that on as an accessory.

William Carter was instantly wide awake. He turned on the bedroom light, then led Grace Bennett to the living room and poured her a glass of water.

"Calm down first. Tell me what happened."

Under the living room light, William Carter could see even more clearly. This silver, metallic ring was definitely not just an accessory—it looked like it was fused with her skin.

William Carter even had a feeling that this thing was probably the culprit behind the "someone talking in my head" situation, maybe even connected to her brain. There was no way he could risk trying to remove it.

Grace Bennett took a couple of sips of water and gradually regained her composure. She gathered her thoughts and said, "I was sleeping, and suddenly I heard a voice, then I woke up. At first, I thought I was dreaming, but it felt like this person kept talking to me."

"Wait, you said this voice kept talking to you?" William Carter asked. "Is it still talking now?"

Grace Bennett shook her head. "Not now, because just now I was thinking for it to stop, and then the voice disappeared."

William Carter: "What kind of voice was it?"

Grace Bennett thought for a moment. "It was an emotionless electronic voice, and it said a lot of things I couldn't understand. It felt like it was explaining something."