This voice was an emotionless electronic sound, which sounded like artificial intelligence, and the voice in each person’s mind was different—even their personalities varied.

Some were terse, some were quite talkative, and some even told cold jokes.

They did indeed refer to themselves as artificial intelligence. In their words, they were each player’s “personal intelligent system.”

People tried to ask about the causes and consequences of all this, but the voice in their minds always claimed ignorance.

They simply repeated one thing to everyone.

“From now on, everyone is a player. If we complete the game, we will evolve together.”

Obviously, the “we” here referred to each person and the artificial intelligence in their mind.

Yes, more and more people tended to call this voice their “personal intelligence,” because it felt like an advanced form of AI—thoughtful, emotional, able to communicate with humans seamlessly, and equipped with powerful data storage, processing, and analysis capabilities.

Moreover, according to these AIs themselves, they could evolve.

And they would evolve “together” with the player.

William Carter tossed his phone aside and sat up on the bed.

“This is too weird.”

“But why can’t the AI in my head talk?”

After William Carter fell, he didn’t stay unconscious for long—he woke up in about three seconds.

So when Grace Bennett in the living room heard the sound of William Carter hitting the floor and rushed in to help him, William Carter was already awake.

After the fall, William Carter felt a bit dizzy and anxious, so he lay on the bed for a while, and took out his phone to continue checking the discussions online.

The result was both happy and sad.

He was happy because he finally had a ring too—he wasn’t an outlier anymore, and this thing had actually cured his nearsightedness.

He was sad because—why couldn’t his AI talk?

According to what people said online, the AI in their minds would answer any question, but even after William Carter called out to it ten thousand times in his mind, there was no response.

Instead, some special information appeared in his field of vision.

The two lines of text in the lower left corner of his vision were still there. Normally, they were hidden, but if William Carter deliberately looked for them, the two lines would appear.

Oh, and now there was an extra line.

Developer component installation complete, vulnerabilities fixed.

Not only that, William Carter also saw a panel above Grace Bennett’s head.

Grace Bennett v1.

Below was a health bar, full and green.

Even the LeHui phone in William Carter’s hand would display an information panel if he focused on it.

LeHui 5s Smart Phone

Type: Basic Smart Device

Quality: Old

Description: Extremely low screen-to-body ratio, terrible battery life, almost nonexistent storage space—among smart devices, it’s practically more primitive than a steam engine. Yet even so, many people are obsessed with it. Truly unbelievable.

Other things, like the computer, TV, air conditioner, or even the bed—so long as William Carter focused on them, similar information panels would pop up.

And most of the evaluations were about the same as the phone’s—basically worthless. The only thing with a decent evaluation was the oil painting of Grace Bennett on the wall.

Description: An oil painting of certain value. It seems the artist has some artistic talent.

William Carter searched online for a long time, but it seemed no one else had this situation. Other people’s AIs answered all questions, and no one mentioned information panels appearing in their vision.

William Carter didn’t tell Grace Bennett about this, nor did he foolishly post about it online, because he always felt there was something strange about it—his personal AI system seemed different from everyone else’s.

Other people’s personal AI systems appeared right at midnight, but his appeared after 3 a.m.

Other people’s personal AI systems appeared without any abnormality, but he felt like he’d been shot, even fainted for a few seconds.

Other people’s personal AI systems answered with voice, but his AI displayed panels.

Being different from everyone else was, in itself, a very dangerous thing. How could William Carter know if he’d be taken away and dissected for research if he told anyone?

He didn’t tell Grace Bennett not because he didn’t trust her, but because he thought if he told her, the girl would just worry about him, which was unnecessary.

Actually, even if William Carter did tell someone, no one would pay attention to it in the short term.

Because right now, everyone only cared about one question: What exactly did “complete the game, evolve together” mean?

Chapter 3: The Artifact for Answering Questions

That night, many people were sleepless.

But William Carter was quite carefree. After comforting Grace Bennett a bit, he went right back to sleep, and didn’t wake up until after 9 a.m., when Grace Bennett called him.

After breakfast, William Carter checked the time—it was already 9:40, and he had class at 10.

He and Grace Bennett attended the same university but had different majors. William Carter studied Chinese, while Grace Bennett studied journalism.

Many people were quite puzzled—after all, William Carter had been something of an academic star in high school, so why did he choose such a major?