“This is definitely a huge conspiracy, including that ever-deceptive personal AI. We must resist this kind of temptation.”

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch. This is very likely a brain-in-a-vat experiment. Don’t let the masterminds behind the scenes get what they want.”

Conspiracy theories have always had a market. In the past, even some completely baseless rumors could find a wide audience, let alone now, when bizarre events are happening to everyone. It’s simply impossible to expect most people to remain absolutely rational.

Many people are loudly calling for vigilance against this personal AI system and the trials that allow immersion into the world of consciousness. Among them are not only many internet influencers and opinion leaders, but also plenty of experts and scholars.

Obviously, these completely illogical and inexplicable problems are already beyond the experts’ scope.

However, even with so many people raising their voices, the effect is minimal.

Because at most, these people’s voices can influence tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, but the personal AI system exists in everyone’s mind, constantly coming up with new ways to “brainwash” everyone at every moment.

When some people see these conspiracy theories online, their personal AI system will use that absolutely objective, emotionless voice to refute the absurdity of these theories from every angle, with tight logic and clear reasoning, making it impossible to argue back.

Of course, the personal AI system still can’t explain why it appeared in the first place, but when it comes to refuting these conspiracy theories, it still has plenty to say.

In this state of indecision, most people quietly went to try out the trial, and some even simply treated it as a brand new form of entertainment.

Waiting for the bus, waiting for the subway, sitting on a plane, lunch break—

As long as there’s any free time, people can let their consciousness immerse in the trial, jumping back and forth between platforms.

Honestly, it’s actually pretty fun, and it’s a great way to kill time.

There’s even a group of people who have already started sharing all kinds of tips and experiences online, including opening choices, techniques for jumping between platforms, ways to exert force, and so on.

Obviously, some athletes—especially long jumpers—have a natural head start in this area.

So far, no one has cleared any difficulty level, not even the beginner level.

Because even the beginner level gets extremely complex in the later stages. According to what’s been posted online, the furthest anyone has gotten is over the seventieth platform, but it’s clear there’s still a long way to go before clearing the trial.

However, considering it’s only been just over an hour since the trial started, that’s already pretty fast progress.

Thinking about his own current record—only the fourth platform—William Carter felt a wave of despair inside.

Back home, everything was just as it was when he left in the morning. Grace Bennett had to go to her internship in the afternoon and probably wouldn’t be back until eight or nine at night, so dinner was something William Carter would have to handle himself.

After all, these days, the “sudden death combo” of dinner, overtime, and reimbursed taxi rides is becoming more and more common at companies. William Carter seriously doubted whether the so-called “nine-to-five” office worker even still existed in big cities like the capital or Shanghai.

He washed the bowl that had been soaking since morning, tidied up the apartment a bit, stuffed yesterday’s empty drink bottle into the trash bag and threw it out, then took a shower after coming back in.

Once everything was done, William Carter found a comfortable position on the sofa, ready to continue the trial.

This was a good habit William Carter had developed in his gaming career: before playing any game, he always made sure to tidy up his surroundings, wash his hands and face in advance, even shower and change clothes, to ensure both his body and mind were in the best possible state.

Of course, there was another important reason: he hoped his hands would look a bit paler, to pretend to be a “European” (lucky) player.

The dorm environment before wasn’t exactly noisy, but his roommates would check in on each other’s progress every ten minutes or so, which was pretty distracting. Now, with no one to disturb him, William Carter could finally show his true skills.

“So what if it’s hard? Right now, I’m going to prove that some people are always number one, no matter what game they play.”

Entering the trial scene, William Carter once again became a useless person, wearing nothing but a pair of tattered shorts.

The difficulty of the next platform dropped slightly, and William Carter made it across after just two tries.

However, the sixth platform’s difficulty suddenly spiked again. This time, from the side, it was a trapezoidal platform. The side facing William Carter had a slope, smooth as a mirror, with a green horizontal strip on the slope that looked like a material you could step on.

“Hiss—so that means I have to jump far enough, and my foot has to land on that green strip at the right angle and with the right force, then jump onto the platform from there.”

William Carter sucked in a breath of cold air. This challenge was getting more and more insane.

It was impossible to jump directly to the top of the next platform, because the useless person’s jumping ability wasn’t enough; you could jump to the slope, but if you landed on the mirror surface, you’d definitely slide down; if your posture was wrong when stepping on the green strip and you couldn’t use it to push off again at that moment, you’d still slide down.

“The conditions are really harsh.”

William Carter didn’t think for long. Once he understood the principle, he took a short run-up and leapt into the air—

Leapt into the air