Surveillance

The next day.

Amid faint calls from outside the door, Chen Fan struggled to open his bleary eyes.

The first thing he saw was the portrait of the Goddess, illuminated by the morning sun. Beneath the sunlight, the deity seemed to possess a faint sense of sanctity.

But there was little reverence in Chen Fan's eyes.

On the contrary, when he thought of his fate a month from now, the resentment in his gaze was so intense it seemed ready to drip out!

It appeared that this world was still in an age of worshipping deities.

A gentle Electronic Synthesized Voice suddenly sounded in his mind: This is indeed quite rare. According to Human Alliance records, few civilizations still superstitiously believe in deities after initially mastering technologies related to electricity.

The sudden Electronic Synthesized Voice gave Chen Fan a fright, thoroughly driving away what little drowsiness remained in his eyes.

He abruptly sat up in bed. Only when he saw the half Mechanical Arm lying on the concrete floor did he suddenly come back to his senses and recall the series of events from last night that had surpassed ordinary comprehension.

"Yi?"

Chen Fan called out softly in a probing tone.

If he remembered correctly, that was the name of the Intelligent Terminal.

More precisely, it was the name of the artificial intelligence inside the Intelligent Terminal.

Stop calling. I was the one speaking in your mind just now, and what happened last night was not an illusion.

Chen Fan instinctively let out a breath of relief. Pulling his right hand from beneath the blanket, he placed it in the sunlight and examined it closely.

To the naked eye, his right hand looked the same as before. Its bronze skin, faintly flushed beneath the sunlight, bore a few slightly protruding veins.

But that was only the surface.

With a slight shift of Chen Fan's thoughts, a thin layer of silver-white, metal-like substance rapidly emerged over his palm.

This was the Intelligent Terminal's true form: a glove.

This glove-shaped intelligent wearable device, forged from an unknown material, ensured comfort and a realistic tactile sensation while possessing immense material strength. It could easily withstand physical attacks in the conventional sense—at least, that was what Yi claimed.

A gem-like substance was embedded in both the palm and back of the glove.

According to Yi, these two gem-like substances were the most crucial components of the Intelligent Terminal, as well as its strongest parts.

Forget ordinary physical attacks—even if it were thrown onto the surface of a Neutron Star, it could still preserve the integrity of its structure!

Although Chen Fan still had reservations about those claims, no matter what, this glove-like Intelligent Terminal was undoubtedly the most advanced intelligent wearable device he had ever worn. Nothing else even came close.

Chen Fan shook his head, clearing the chaotic thoughts from his mind and focusing on the information Yi had just mentioned.

"Yi, you just said believing in gods is superstition..."

"Do you mean there are no real deities in this world?"

Yi did not answer Chen Fan's question. Instead, it asked one: What do you think a god is?

Hearing that question, Chen Fan froze for a moment, unable to think of an answer.

After hesitating for a long while, he replied uncertainly, "A life-form with immense power?"

The gentle Electronic Synthesized Voice sounded in his mind once more: A Human Alliance Fleet of the smallest scale can effortlessly destroy a galaxy of ordinary size.

Even relatively weak 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.

Chen Fan's eye twitched slightly.

After a moment of silence, he spoke again. "Then... a god should be a being that has mastered the laws of the universe, like..."

Genesis.

The Human Alliance's most powerful Law Weapon. Given sufficient energy, it could annihilate an entire universe, or rewrite the fundamental physical and mathematical laws of a universe, thereby creating an entirely new one.

Chen Fan was speechless.

By now, the Human Alliance governed countless universes of varying scales, yet it had never discovered any so-called gods.

Of course, that did not mean civilizations could not believe in gods.

Within Human Alliance territory, many advanced civilizations possessed their own faiths, even though they themselves wielded power far beyond that of gods.

Chen Fan nodded thoughtfully.

Enlightened by Yi's words, a horrifying possibility gradually surfaced in his mind:

If the gods of this world truly existed, could they merely 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?"

"I'm coming!"

Chen Fan composed himself, tucked away that baseless speculation, and rose to walk toward the door.

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

More than ten minutes later.

Led by his mother, Chen Fan meticulously completed his daily "check-in" prayer before the idol.

"Mom."

Just as his mother was about to rise from the Prayer Mat, Chen Fan called out, "There's something I'd like to ask you."

His mother sat back down on the Prayer Mat and turned toward Chen Fan with a puzzled expression.

Chen Fan considered his words carefully before lowering his voice. "Last night, you told me... that I was going to the church to study today?"

When his mother nodded as though it were only natural, Chen Fan allowed a trace of confusion to appear on his face at just the right moment.

"But I remember... isn't that supposed to be tomorrow?"

His mother paused, then instinctively refuted him. "How could that be?"

"I remember it clearly. It's today."

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

"At noon today, the Church Deacon will come pick you up to study at the church."

He had gotten the information out of her!

But in the next instant, the faint delight that had just appeared in Chen Fan's eyes froze completely.

The reason was simple.

That last sentence had not come from his mother!

Chen Fan stiffly raised his head and looked at the lofty idol. That utterly rigid Electronic Synthesized Voice seemed to still echo in his ears.

Without him taking the initiative to ask a question, the idol had spoken again!

Beside him, just as she had last night, his mother was already prostrated on the ground, muttering words of gratitude to the Goddess.

At that moment, something his mother had said last night suddenly surfaced in his mind:

You are The God Chosen One. The Goddess will always be watching you.

At first, he had instinctively assumed those words were merely the kind of rhetoric religion often used.

Only now did he truly understand that they were an exact reflection of reality!

Chen Fan once again personally felt that bone-chilling cold from last night.

The chill was so intense that even the morning sunlight streaming through the living room window and shining on him could not dispel it!

She was watching him!!

The thought rapidly took root in Chen Fan's mind, like a pair of strong hands clamping tightly around his throat!

As his heart pounded violently, Chen Fan's breathing began to quicken!

Chen Fan, calm down!

The gentle Electronic Synthesized Voice rang out in his mind, interrupting Chen Fan's thoughts before they could completely run wild: I advise you not to overthink this. It is merely an idol made by a low-level civilization. It is nothing serious.

"Xiao Fan?"

His mother also noticed that something was wrong with Chen Fan. She looked at him in confusion.

"What's wrong with you?"