William Carter frowned, thought for a moment, and said, “How about you try asking it what exactly is going on?”

William Carter was no longer sleepy.

No matter how you looked at it, this whole thing was beyond his comprehension, and there was absolutely no way to explain it scientifically.

William Carter took a can of soda from the fridge, then turned on his computer and tried searching for related information online.

Although this sounded pretty far-fetched, maybe someone online had experienced something similar.

But as soon as he searched, William Carter was dumbfounded.

It turned out that Grace Bennett wasn’t the only one who had a mysterious ring appear on their temple—people all over the world had this thing on their temples.

It was the middle of the night, and all kinds of posts discussing this incident were exploding online. Whether it was Weibo, Tieba, forums, chat groups, or even Moments, it seemed like everyone was talking about it.

Maybe someone had tried to block the news, but the problem was, if everyone in the world already knew about it, what was the point of blocking it?

Of course, whether literally everyone in the world had a ring on their temple couldn’t be confirmed yet, but at least from the online discussions, no one could find a single person without a ring on their temple.

William Carter had an ominous feeling.

Why did it seem like I was the only one in the world without this thing?

He even felt a little left out, because according to Grace Bennett and what people were saying online, although the ring was scary, it wasn’t actually a bad thing—in fact, it had many incredible uses.

And yet he’d been left out—damn, this was just—

As William Carter was muttering to himself, he suddenly saw two lines of text appear in the lower left corner of his vision.

System vulnerability detected, generating repair plan

Unknown error occurred, invoking developer components

Before William Carter could react, he felt a sudden jolt at his right temple, as if he’d been shot by a bullet. His whole body lurched to the left, and he fell straight out of his computer chair onto the floor with a thud.

“Damn it—”

Before William Carter could even complain, he was already lying on the ground, unconscious.

Chapter 2: The Unfathomable Global Event

In the early hours of July 26, 2018, an unfathomable global event occurred.

Every person in the world, regardless of nationality, race, age, or gender, had a metallic silver ring appear on their right temple.

From the outside, the ring didn’t look special, but medical examinations showed that its internal structure was directly connected to the brain’s nerves. With current technology, it was almost impossible to remove it completely without damaging the brain.

Soon, people discovered that the ring brought many incredible changes, such as:

Nearsighted people could take off their glasses and were no longer nearsighted.

Those with hearing loss found they could hear sounds again.

Two people who didn’t speak the same language could suddenly communicate without barriers.

Some even found their thinking speed had noticeably increased, and their brains reacted more quickly.

Some said this thing was like the “smart brains” in many sci-fi movies, and it even came with optical and audio components.

The exact time of the event was midnight in the East 8 time zone. Many people in the country were already asleep, and only found out when they were woken by phone calls from friends.

People in other countries, or those who were still awake at the time, didn’t notice anything unusual when the ring appeared, because it wasn’t particularly eye-catching and seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Some claimed to have witnessed the silver ring’s appearance: one moment, the other person’s temple was normal, and the next, the silver ring was just there—there was no process at all.

Fortunately, the event didn’t cause any deaths. There were only a few hundred traffic accidents worldwide, and those involved only suffered minor injuries.

That’s because the ring’s appearance didn’t cause any visual, auditory, or cognitive disturbance—everything was normal before and after.

The people who got into accidents did so because a voice suddenly sounded in their minds, startling them and causing the collisions.

As for what exactly the ring was, there were many theories.

In fact, with current technology, not only could it not be studied, it couldn’t even be safely removed.

Some speculated it was the work of aliens, who wanted to use it to collect data from Earth; others said it was a sign from the gods, symbolizing divine judgment, and that from now on, everyone’s actions would be under divine surveillance, with punishment for violating divine will.

But most of these were baseless guesses, with no real evidence, and some were just fearmongering or trying to profit from the situation.

Most people still believed the explanation given by the ring itself, even though it was vague and confusing.

Ever since the ring appeared on everyone’s temple, a voice had appeared in their minds, and they could communicate with it through their thoughts.