Surveillance

The next day.

Amidst the faint calls from outside the door, Chen Fan struggled to open his groggy eyes.

The first thing he saw was the portrait of the goddess illuminated by the morning sun. The deity in the sunlight exuded a faint sense of holiness.

But there wasn't much reverence in Chen Fan's eyes.

On the contrary, thinking about his fate a month from now, the resentment in his eyes was so thick it was almost dripping!

It seems this world is still in an era of worshipping gods.

A soft electronic synthesized voice suddenly sounded in his mind: This is quite rare. In the Human Alliance's records, few civilizations still believe in the existence of gods after initially mastering electricity-related technology.

The sudden electronic synthesized voice startled Chen Fan, completely dispelling the last vestiges of sleepiness in his eyes.

He abruptly sat up from the bed. It wasn't until he saw the half of a mechanical arm lying on the cement floor that he suddenly came back to his senses, remembering the series of events that had happened last night, which were beyond normal human understanding.

"One?"

Chen Fan tentatively called out in a low voice.

If he remembered correctly, that was the name of the intelligent terminal.

To be precise, it was the name of the artificial intelligence inside the intelligent terminal.

Stop calling. It was this unit speaking in your mind just now. Those things last night weren't your hallucination.

Chen Fan subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. He pulled his right hand out from under the covers and placed it in the sunlight, examining it carefully.

Just by looking with the naked eye, his right hand was the same as usual, with slightly raised blue veins on the faintly blood-colored bronze skin under the sunlight.

But this was just the surface.

As Chen Fan's thoughts shifted slightly, a thin layer of silver-white, metal-like substance quickly appeared on the surface of his hand.

This was the intelligent terminal's main body: a glove.

This glove-shaped intelligent wearable device, made of unknown material, while ensuring comfort and realistic touch, also possessed extremely high material strength, capable of easily resisting physical attacks in the conventional sense—at least, that's what One said.

On the palm and back of the glove, a gem-like substance was embedded on each side.

According to One, these two gem-like substances were the core components of the intelligent terminal and also the strongest components.

Not to mention conventional physical attacks, even if it were thrown onto the surface of a neutron star, it could guarantee the integrity of its structure!

Although Chen Fan still held reservations about the above claims, no matter what, this glove-like intelligent terminal was definitely the most high-end intelligent wearable device he had ever worn in his life, bar none.

Chen Fan shook his head, dispelling the jumbled thoughts in his mind, and focused on the information One had just mentioned.

"One, you just said believing in gods..."

"You mean, there are no real gods in this world?"

One did not answer Chen Fan's words but instead asked a question: What do you think a god is?

Hearing this question, Chen Fan was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to answer.

After much hesitation, he replied in an uncertain tone, "A life form with powerful strength?"

The soft electronic synthesized voice sounded in his mind again: A minimum-sized Human Alliance fleet can easily destroy a normal-sized galaxy.

Even weaker individual weapons are enough to turn a planet into endless cosmic dust.

By your standard, the Human Alliance should be the gods you speak of.

The corner of Chen Fan's eye twitched slightly.

After a moment of silence, he spoke again, "Then... gods should be beings who have mastered the rules of the universe, for example..."

Genesis.

The Human Alliance's strongest rule weapon, capable of annihilating an entire universe when energy is sufficient, and can also rewrite the underlying physical and mathematical laws of the universe, thereby creating a brand new universe.

Chen Fan was speechless.

The Human Alliance has developed to this day, with countless universes of varying sizes under its jurisdiction, but has not yet discovered any so-called gods.

Of course, this does not mean that civilizations cannot believe in gods.

Within the Human Alliance, many advanced civilizations have their own beliefs, even though they themselves possess power far exceeding that of gods.

Chen Fan nodded thoughtfully.

Inspired by One's words, a chilling conjecture vaguely surfaced in his mind:

If the gods of this world were real, would they just be a civilization that had mastered more advanced technology?

"Knock, knock, knock."

His mother's urging voice came from outside the door again: "Xiao Fan?"

"Coming!"

Chen Fan composed himself. After putting away the baseless conjecture in his heart, he got up and walked towards the door.

As he got up, the silver-white intelligent terminal on his right hand also disappeared.

More than ten minutes later.

Under his mother's guidance, Chen Fan meticulously completed his daily "check-in" prayer in front of the God Statue.

"Mom."

Just as his mother was about to stand up from the prayer mat, Chen Fan spoke up, "There's something I want to ask you."

His mother knelt back down on the prayer mat, turning her head to look at Chen Fan with a surprised expression.

Chen Fan carefully considered his words, then said in a low voice, "Last night you told me... I'm going to the church to study today?"

Seeing his mother nod in affirmation as if it were the most natural thing, Chen Fan displayed just the right amount of confusion on his face:

"But I remember... wasn't that tomorrow?"

His mother was stunned for a moment, then subconsciously retorted, "How could that be?"

"I remember very clearly, it's today."

"A few days ago you told me..."

"At 12 o'clock this noon, the Church Deacon will pick you up to study at the church."

He got the information!

But the next second, the hint of joy that had just appeared in Chen Fan's eyes completely froze in an instant.

For no other reason.

That sentence just now was not spoken by his mother!

Chen Fan stiffly raised his head and looked at the God Statue high above. That extremely stiff electronic synthesized voice seemed to still echo in his ears.

Without him actively asking, the God Statue spoke again!

Beside him, just like last night, his mother was already prostrate on the ground, muttering words of thanks to the God.

At this moment, a sentence his mother said last night suddenly appeared in his mind:

'You are chosen by God, and God will always watch over you.'

At first, he subconsciously thought this sentence was just a common religious saying.

Only now did he truly understand that this sentence was a true depiction!

Chen Fan once again personally felt the bone-chilling coldness from last night.

The coldness was so thick that even the morning sun shining on him through the living room window couldn't dispel it!

He is watching him!!

This thought grew rapidly in Chen Fan's mind, like a pair of strong hands, tightly gripping his throat!

With his heart pounding violently, Chen Fan's breathing also began to quicken!

Chen Fan, calm down!

A soft electronic synthesized voice sounded in his mind, interrupting Chen Fan's thoughts that were almost running wild:

This unit suggests you don't think too much. It's just a God Statue created by a low-level civilization, it's no big deal.

"Xiao Fan?"

Beside him, his mother also noticed Chen Fan's abnormality and cast a confused look at him:

"What's wrong?"