But unfortunately.
The information Chu Caifeng had sent did not include the state of humanity across the entire Virtual World. It only introduced the White Cat Society and several other human organizations within the school.
From the information, Lu Xing learned that there were not many humans in the school. A class usually had only two or three, and even the largest groups never exceeded five.
Just thinking that all his classmates were Intelligent Beings sent a chill down his spine.
Wait.
How different were the Intelligent Beings of this world from humans, really?
There was far too much missing information. Lu Xing shook his head and continued reading.
"Our White Cat Society has existed for three hundred years. Graduated members are spread throughout the First Layer World, with an employment rate exceeding 56%. We have thirty members within the school, one activity room, twelve exclusive loopholes, and have subdued two Intelligent Beings, making them serve us..."
Lu Xing looked it over several times, finding it deeply strange.
No, what exactly does the White Cat Society do? Aren't you supposed to be resisting the artificial intelligence Maria? Why are you helping graduates find jobs?
Of course, subduing two Intelligent Beings barely counted as an achievement, but compared with the grand title of "Human Resistance Army," what the White Cat Society did was completely unpresentable.
And these human organizations even competed with one another, badmouthing each other like people fighting over food!
After reading the White Cat Society's introduction, Lu Xing suddenly realized that Jiang Xuannv's status as a member of the Human Resistance Army was actually quite impressive. They were the regular army, while the school's united human student organizations did not even qualify as irregular forces.
No wonder Jiang Xuannv's defense system had one-shot them.
Mere cannon fodder. All of them were cannon fodder.jpg
"Classmate." An Intelligent Being beside him turned to look at him and smiled. "What are you looking at?"
"N-Nothing."
Lu Xing closed the information. Perhaps because he had found human organizations, he now felt strangely adept at handling questions from Intelligent Beings.
There was no doubt that Lu Xing's human awareness—meaning the minute changes in his expressions and the tone of his voice—differed greatly from that of Intelligent Beings. That was also why Chu Caifeng had identified him after only one morning.
Lu Xing could feel gaze after gaze fixed on him, but he did not turn his head. Such unnecessary movements were another difference between humans and Intelligent Beings.
"You are lying," the Intelligent Being classmate concluded.
Lu Xing ignored him.
As long as he did not violate the first two rules, Jiang Xuannv's seventeen hundred points could still last him a while.
At that moment, the teacher stepped onto the platform. Lu Xing took out his book from his backpack, folded his arms on the desk, kept his slender waist straight, and put on Jiang Xuannv's classic expressionless look as he prepared for class.
But the Intelligent Being would not let it go. Lu Xing's Auxiliary Chip received a message directly from him: "I understand now. You are human, so you lie. You are different from us Intelligent Beings."
Lu Xing's heart tightened, and he finally turned to look at him.
He was still smiling as he sent another message. "Don't worry. I belong to the faction that advocates harmonious coexistence between humans and Intelligent Beings. I will not tell the teacher."
"What happens if you tell the teacher?" Lu Xing asked him.
"The teacher will punish you and deduct one hundred points. You do not even know that? Did your memory chip malfunction? I can help you."
"Thank you, but there is no need."
"You're welcome. Come to me if you need help. Since your memory is faulty, let me introduce myself again. My designation is hjAT1Wui7BB. I gave myself a human name, Wang Bagua. In private, you can call me by my human name."
7BB—or rather, Wang Bagua—turned toward him and smiled.
Lu Xing nodded slightly, countless thoughts running through his mind.
He had witnessed the terrifying side of Intelligent Beings. It was not their means of controlling humans, but the... intelligence displayed by the Intelligent Beings around him.
Lu Xing had learned too little to judge whether Wang Bagua's words were true or false.
But one thing was certain: ordinary Intelligent Beings did not know who was human. They also needed to make judgments before reaching a conclusion.
In other words, if Lu Xing displayed too many human behaviors and was reported by a classmate, his points would quickly be drained away.
In this damn world, he had to manage his expressions at all times. During class, he could not spin pens, draw circles, sketch historical figures, or do the sorts of things only human students did!
"Today, we will continue studying modern history."
The teacher began her lecture at the podium.
Lu Xing glanced at the female teacher a few more times. The White Cat Society had said that graduating students could find work in the Virtual World, so the teacher might also be human.
But clearly, humans capable of graduating were all exceptional students who had gone through long periods of disguise. They would not easily reveal that they were human.
Lu Xing opened his book, and the very first page shocked him.
"Modern history starts five thousand years ago?!"
When he had previously read that the White Cat Society had a three-hundred-year history, he had assumed they were bragging, just like how schools in the twenty-first century boasted about their long histories.
He had not expected it to be true.
The beginning of modern history was marked by a man named Professor Li Zhe publishing a paper titled "Further Discussion on Artificial Intelligence Lifeforms."
After that, human society began to collapse for various reasons. Following five global upheavals, the Human Federation Council decided to create an unprecedented artificial intelligence lifeform, and the Maria Project was launched.
This was the first half of modern history.
When Lu Xing turned to the latter half, he read that after Maria had been created, she determined that humanity had reached the end of its evolution. Human civilization would follow the Ailando Civilization into destruction. After secretly cultivating an army of Intelligent Beings for many years, she successfully took control of the entire world and opened a new chapter for Intelligent Beings and humanity.
Modern history ended there.
"..."
Lu Xing controlled his expression as best he could. He only wanted to curse inwardly: Weren't you made by humans? Who are you trying to fool by saying humanity has reached its end, three-year-olds?
He would rather believe that the Maria created by humans had developed a massive BUG, causing her to carry out erroneous operations—or that the world was still controlled by humans, with Maria merely being a weapon used by conspirators.
However.
Lu Xing was very interested in alien civilizations. The twenty-first century had countless films about aliens, but in the Future World, aliens were not only confirmed to exist—they had apparently skipped straight to being wiped out?
Lu Xing had the Smart Hairpin connect to the network and download historical materials, displaying them on his book.
He began reading from the start—no, from the twenty-first century—to see how the Future World recorded his era, and how the world order developed afterward.
"Earth began forming 4.5 billion years ago..."
He skipped it. Lu Xing had already read Earth's history.
"Humanity progressed from barbarism to civilization, discovered atoms, built nuclear power plants, invented nuclear weapons, and attempted to use the energy produced by nuclear fusion."
Hm?
Lu Xing searched up and down, only to find that was all there was. Nothing else.
No, what about the full five thousand years of history, from the primitive era to the slave era, then from the slave era to the feudal era?
Confucius, Ying Zheng, Liu Bang, Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Li Shimin, as well as Alexander, Jesus, Rome, Shakyamuni...
And the two Industrial Revolutions, Newton, Einstein, Gauss, Planck...
And China's modern history.
None of that was there?
Further down, Lu Xing saw the historical record:
"Ancient humans used nuclear weapons in war. The force produced by atomic annihilation covered the skies above Earth in a thick cloud of dust, altering the climate and causing mass extinction among primitive organisms. The dark clouds persisted for three hundred years.
After the nuclear war ended, Earth began moving from a system of scattered nations toward fusion and unification."