West District Police Station.
Inside the interrogation room, Officer Chen Xing was sizing up the young man seated across from him. Even after being brought into the police station, the man remained calm and expressionless, looking utterly indifferent. If Chen Xing had not checked his ID beforehand and learned that he was a student, he would have taken him for a repeat offender.
"Name!" Chen Xing began the interrogation as usual.
"What?"
"I asked you for your name!"
Chen Xing looked up and emphasized the question, his gaze carrying a warning.
"I have no name. If you are asking for my designation, I can tell you: XXR-122B74."
"What are you talking about? A license plate number?"
Chen Xing glared at her in irritation, his voice rising. "Be serious. Answer whatever I ask!"
The young woman watched him for a moment before slowly asking, "Your emotional fluctuations are intense. Are you human?"
Chen Xing: "..."
Oh no. Was she mentally ill?
"Could it be that you aren't human?" Chen Xing decided to follow her train of thought and see what kind of nonsense she came up with.
The young woman said, "I am human as well. I reside on the first level of the Virtual Zone."
"What Virtual Zone?"
The young woman did not answer immediately, as though she considered it such common knowledge that it was beneath answering.
"Answer me."
After Chen Xing asked again, the young woman finally said, "The Virtual World is a virtual network jointly formed by human consciousness and artificial intelligence. It is a prison created by artificial intelligence to trap humanity."
Chen Xing's eyelids twitched. What kind of nonsense was this?
The young woman asked him, "I cannot connect to the network here. My compatriot, please tell me, is this the Real World? Has humanity established a foothold in the Real World?"
"..."
"I think I understand!" Chen Xing finally caught on. "The reason you smashed someone else's phone was because you thought... artificial intelligence had taken control of the world?"
"Yes."
"Then do you know what year this is?"
"What year?"
"The year 2025 AD!"
"AD dating? Which AD?"
"What?"
As a police officer, Chen Xing trusted his judgment. The student before him was not pretending. She genuinely did not know what AD meant.
"Is it the Third Era AD, or the Fifth Era?"
"Neither. It is AD counted from the birth of Jesus Christ."
Chen Xing was gradually beginning to follow her line of thought.
"Jesus Christ?"
The young woman frowned in thought, then shook her head. "There is no person named Jesus in my historical memory... My compatriot, please tell me, is Earth currently controlled by artificial intelligence?"
Chen Xing immediately found that amusing. From what she said, humanity was still on Earth and had not even advanced into the interstellar age.
Good, good. Otherwise, her next sentence would probably have them flying to Ultraman's home planet.
"I can responsibly tell you: no," Chen Xing said.
"Has humanity begun the Maria Project?" the young woman asked again, then warned, "If anyone proposes this project, you must oppose it. The artificial intelligence born from the Maria Project will imprison all humanity!"
Chen Xing sucked in a breath.
Yeah, right.
He was trying hard not to laugh as he answered, "No. There is no Maria Project!"
"Has the Fifth Great Upheaval happened yet?"
"No. When did the First Great Upheaval happen?"
"Has Professor Li Zhe published the paper 'Further Discussion on Artificial Intelligence Lifeforms'?"
"No, and I have no idea who Professor Li Zhe is."
"Can humanity still receive information from Elando Planet?"
"What is that, an alien?"
"Yes. Elando is the only known extraterrestrial intelligent life."
"Uh."
"Has the Third Generation Heavenly Palace been abandoned?"
"What? Heavenly Palace is gone?"
Chen Xing looked up at the sky. China's space station had only been completed a few years ago. How could it possibly be abandoned so soon?
The young woman across from him calmly said, "In Federal New Calendar Year 3574, due to the high maintenance costs of the Solar System Space Station, Heavenly Palace was voted for abandonment by the councilors."
All right, they were clearly two entirely different Heavenly Palaces. He had no idea how she had made that association. All he could say was that mentally ill people had broad imaginations.
"Which reconstruction is the Lunar Base on?" the young woman asked again.
"It doesn't exist. There isn't one," Chen Xing brushed her off.
"The Mars Base has not begun construction either?"
"We haven't even brought back Martian soil!!"
Chen Xing raised his voice several notches. The student's story was getting more and more outrageous.
The young woman frowned and thought for a long while before muttering to herself, "Martian soil has not been brought back? How is that possible... Then that means you are from before the First Generation New Humans?"
"What kind of nonsense is that! Humanity has generations?" Chen Xing snapped with an exasperated laugh.
"After the Fifth Generation, humanity evolved to its limit and no longer distinguished between new and old."
After saying that, the young woman asked again, "Has the war between New Humans and Old Humans not begun yet?"
Chen Xing was helpless. He simply stopped answering.
The young woman continued asking, "Psychokinesis has not been developed either? What about Mutants? No Gene-Modified Humans either? The First Intelligent Human War has not begun? Anthropomorphic Artificial Intelligence has not appeared?"
"No, none of it!!"
Chen Xing did not want to listen to any more of this nonsense. In her fantasy, who knew how many years human history had supposedly lasted?
And it was absurdly made up. There were already Gene-Modified Humans, humanity had gone through several generations, yet space stations within the solar system could still be abandoned.
It was like charging into a cosmic war with rifles.
After falling silent for a while, the young woman asked, "I remember that the nuclear energy from nuclear power stations could be used to make weapons. It was called nuclear war in history books. Have you experienced nuclear war?"
This time, Chen Xing laughed. "We have. Two nuclear bombs were dropped on Little Japan. That should count as nuclear war, more or less!"
"Little Japan? You have not yet entered the Federal Era?"
For the first time, a trace of surprise entered the young woman's calm voice.
Chen Xing did not know whether to laugh or cry. He had no idea how to write this in the record. If he took it out for his colleagues to read later, they would laugh themselves to death.
"So you're ancient humans!"
The young woman blurted out another sentence that left Chen Xing completely bewildered. He held his forehead in silence for a long while, utterly unable to keep up with her thought process.
Who the hell was an ancient human!?
Then, unexpectedly, the young woman suddenly asked, "Does this era still have underground petroleum?"
Chen Xing's mouth twitched. He raised a hand to stop her and said seriously, "From my observations, your logical thinking is still intact. Now, please answer my question. What is your name?"
"Don't give me any designation nonsense!"
Chen Xing added another sentence.
"In my memory chip, my compatriots named me Jiang Xuannv."
"Jiang Xuannv?"
Chen Xing looked up at her height of nearly six feet, then at her young and handsome face, but said nothing.
Although it was still absurd, they could at least barely carry on a conversation now.
"Gender?"
"Intelligent Female."
"What does Intelligent Female mean? Does the Future World have more than a dozen genders too?"
"Thinking in the manner of a human female and through artificial intelligence logic is called Intelligent Female, distinguishing it from purely human thought."
"So you're female. What's your age?"
"Sixteen. Or perhaps nineteen. I am not certain. Time perception in the Virtual World differs from reality."
"Residential address?"
"447 Good Dream Town, first level of the Virtual Zone."
"What about your parents?"
"Maria raises human children like machines. Are you asking about my Intelligent Being parents, or my biological parents?"
"..."
Chen Xing discovered that talking to mentally ill people was far too difficult!