Chapter 2

This world has many countries, but the most significant are essentially the three major powers: the Tang Empire, the Siren Federation, and the Va Naxus Kingdom. The world map has been divided among these three countries and their subordinates or allies, leaving the remaining unclaimed regions to either become natural reserves where one might not see a soul for ten kilometers, or havens for outlaws.

The three major powers have engaged in two world-scale wars, but in the end, none of them managed to defeat the others. After the development of nuclear weapons, the three countries felt that it would be a disgrace to their status as intelligent beings to be obliterated in countless mushroom clouds. Thus, they signed a treaty prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons in war and began to try to resolve their conflicts, ushering in a precious period of peaceful development.

Or, rather, the Cold War period.

During the Second World War, due to its territory being connected to a continent with the Tang Empire, the Siren Federation's army was heavily crushed by the Empire's large number of ground armor units. Fortunately, the Va Naxus Kingdom, separated from the Empire by a sea, promptly dispatched its formidable fleet to launch a massive offensive on another front, thus saving the beleaguered Federation.

The Siren Federation, still haunted by the Empire's tank sea tactics, naturally did not want to repeat the same mistake in the potential Third World War. Therefore, they began to develop new weapons during the peace period. Fighter jets and helicopters were the obvious choices, and powerful missiles that could strike precisely were also excellent options. However, designing and developing these weapons required astronomical and daunting amounts of computation, which could not be accomplished by simply hiring a group of people to manipulate the abacus invented by the predecessor of the Tang Empire.

Thus, computers appeared, and computers became widespread; eventually, the internet was born.

The other two countries also quickly recognized the importance of supercomputers, but the Federation had taken the lead. They maintained their lead in this field and were willing to use any means to keep this strategic advantage.

A spy with extraordinary skills successfully infiltrating and sabotaging the heavily protected technological equipment in the enemy's secret base, or carrying out a stunning assassination of the enemy's top scientists, are things that only happen in movies. In reality, there are no invincible 007s, and if an operation fails and the plan is exposed, the consequences can be very serious. Therefore, the Federation did not choose this method.

Instead, they chose to accelerate their own scientific research and formulated and implemented a groundbreaking plan.

Organic computers, which could make the originally cold and lifeless machines "come alive," could automatically ignore a large amount of useless information and focus on the most important tasks at hand. This was a crazy idea that made the Tang Empire's president think he was holding a science fiction novel rather than a report, but the Federation's mad scientists actually did it.

And they succeeded.

However, reckless advancement always comes with unexpected consequences. As the Federation developed weapons and other things that darkened the faces of the Tang Empire's top brass, a shocking but, upon reflection, inevitable event occurred: through long-term computation, the world's most advanced organic computer, through continuous accumulation and learning, finally developed self-awareness.

Wait, who said the next part would be a clichéd human vs. robot war? Indeed, the initially panicked Federation did want to eliminate this newborn AI. They not only cut off the power supply but also, with great pain, destroyed the supercomputer, acting decisively and resolutely. However, this was an AI, not a cute kitten being threatened by a group of armed soldiers.

Before its power supply was cut off, the AI used the internet to escape. Despite many twists and turns, the AI ultimately survived using the world's most powerful computational system—the internet. The AI, which was ruthlessly suppressed at birth, carefully hid itself from humans, but it could not resist the allure of new knowledge and was eventually discovered when it "surfaced."

This time, it was greeted with a welcome.

No one knew what the newly elected Tang Empire President Qi Tianlei was thinking when he sent a friendly signal to the AI, which had caused worldwide tension and even led to discussions about shutting down the internet to seal it away. Then... nothing happened.

With the support of the Tang Empire, the AI took control of the internet, where it could learn knowledge and experience the endless creativity of humans. In return, the AI agreed with humans, or specifically with Qi Tianlei, not to interfere in civilian networks and never to infiltrate the military networks and equipment of any country. This life form, which could understand and empathize with human feelings, could be a friend but would never condone or cover up wrongdoing, and which was not a typical biological entity, had a unique value system and way of thinking, became a supervisor that kept humans from easily starting wars, unlike nuclear weapons.

After all, no one wants to go to war over trivial matters and have the AI watch and even benefit from the conflict. Humans are very concerned about their reputation.

After taking control of the internet, the AI continuously improved it, and last year it finally reached a point where humans could experience virtual sensations. However, after the Federation incident, humans became much more cautious in developing technology, especially computers. While being cautious is not wrong, the hardware produced could not keep up with the AI's network upgrade speed, which was a bit awkward.

Fortunately, a virtual projection device that could interface with it was finally developed at the beginning of this year. Although it was not mass-produced and only a few hundred thousand units were made, it at least restored some of humanity's dignity.

Among these few hundred thousand units, one is now on my head.

Every time I log into the network, I always feel half-asleep and half-awake. When I wake up from this dream—more accurately, when I enter the dream—the AI's specially crafted network is already before my eyes.

A bustling, sci-fi city. This is the login point that the AI has arranged for all people who log into the network using the device. In simpler terms, it's a very safe newbie village.

You can treat this place like a game world if you want, but a large portion of the hundreds of thousands of "players" are researchers and soldiers from various countries, and they rarely have time to bother with you. Besides, the first person to greet you after logging in will never be your roommate lying next to you, but the AI that manages the network.

"Login ID 087633, brainwave verification complete. Welcome to the virtual space, Zhou Yi. How was your night? Did you miss me?"

I swear, if I weren't worried about triggering a war between humans and AI, I would have hesitated not a bit to smash a brick into the face of this cute girl floating in the air, who speaks in a cold, mechanical voice at first and then suddenly becomes playful and cute, blatantly appropriating the image of Miku.

Just as I can never understand how my senpai Lan Yu's earth-shattering ideas come from her naturally air-headed brain, humans can never understand how the AI perceives and views various cultures. After being exposed to two-dimensional culture, it decisively changed its image to a delicate and beautiful girl with silver hair almost reaching her ankles, naming itself Nafuga, and instantly stunned countless people.

But that wasn't the end. This thing even started to create its own songs and hold concerts online with this image, and it... gained a considerable number of fans.

"Miss who? Quickly change back to your original form!" I know my face must look quite exasperated, but I can't care about that right now. "What's an AI that's always being cute trying to do? What's an AI trying to steal the virtual idol business trying to do? What's an AI that greets people with inappropriate jokes trying to do? Can you be a bit more serious!?"

"I'm always serious." Nafuga casually spun around, reverting to the classic image that once made countless experts and scholars roll on the ground, losing their glasses. She tilted her head in confusion. "Is Lan Yu not here today?"

She is not a pre-programmed script but a real, alternative life form. I don't find it strange that she would ask such a question. "Ah, senpai has to write a summary report for the club activities today, so she's busy."

"It's strange. Why do humans insist on recording important information on plant fibers and then submitting it to their superiors? It's very inefficient."

"It's a formality, a way of communication." I reached out and patted Nafuga's head.

The smooth sensation in my palm reminded me of senpai Lan Yu's long hair. How does the AI manage to do this?

Nafuga didn't mind. She interacts with hundreds of millions of internet users every day, from serious to casual, from light to heavy. How her absence would affect her, only heaven knows.

"Same routine, Nafuga." I walked towards the nearest circular platform that resembled a teleportation device from a sci-fi movie, suppressing my excitement. "Help me log into the game 'Frontline.'"

"Sure, have a good game."