Source

He refocused his attention on himself.

Five seconds later, the virtual panel appeared again.

General Name: Human (expandable)

Composition: Carbon-based cells (expandable)

Structure: Multicellular carbon-based organism (expandable)

Status: Bone age 26 solar years; human Maturity Stage; mild fatigue; mild fatty liver; mild nearsightedness; adrenaline elevated; rapid fluctuations in brain neural activity... (expandable)

Uses: Consumer in Earth's biological chain; one of the foundations of human civilization; vessel of self-will; vessel of a Special Spacetime Dimension Fragment (expandable)

Jiang Miao focused his attention on the entry "vessel of a Special Spacetime Dimension Fragment."

Five seconds later, the information panel refreshed again.

General Name: Vessel of a Special Spacetime Dimension Fragment

Composition: Carbon-based organism, Special Spacetime Dimension Fragment, Immortal Cultivation Game Appraisal Skill information module... (expandable)

More than ten minutes later, after repeatedly appraising and expanding the data, Jiang Miao had a preliminary understanding of the origin of the Appraisal Panel.

Three days ago, through a bizarre coincidence, the signal from his phone had attracted a Ball Lightning overhead. As it approached directly above him, a dense stream of neutrinos generated by a Solar Flare happened to sweep through the Ball Lightning.

The neutrinos activated one Micro Black Hole after another. These Micro Black Holes interacted with the Ball Lightning, causing spacetime to undergo a slight collapse in the instant of a billionth of a second.

At that very moment, a Dimension Fragment broke free and happened to fall onto Jiang Miao, absorbing the residual energy of the Ball Lightning.

Combined with the effects of vast numbers of neutrinos, the Micro Black Holes were fixed onto the Dimension Fragment, allowing it to continuously absorb surrounding Vacuum Zero-Point Energy through the Micro Black Holes and maintain its stability.

For the Dimension Fragment to remain stable over the long term, it needed to contain a certain amount of information.

By coincidence, Jiang Miao had been playing a game and had used an Appraisal Skill at the exact moment the Dimension Fragment fell.

The Dimension Fragment instinctively absorbed the data from that Appraisal Skill and fused with Jiang Miao's body.

Over the past three days, the Appraisal System formed by the Dimension Fragment had been continuously receiving information from its surroundings.

Modern society's advanced wireless communication networks, electromagnetic signals constantly rippling through the air, and light signals all carried an extraordinarily vast amount of information.

This unique environment caused the Appraisal System's database to grow explosively.

Although Jiang Miao now knew the panel's origin, he also understood that his success was merely an exceptional case.

At the current level of technology, it would be difficult to replicate a second successful case.

His success required all six conditions to align perfectly: a Solar Flare eruption, a Solar Storm reaching Earth's atmosphere, neutrinos passing through, Ball Lightning approaching, a phone being used to play a game, and the timing being exactly right. Not one of them could be absent.

Timing in particular was crucial. If Jiang Miao had not been using his phone at the time, the Ball Lightning would not have been drawn in by its signal. If the Ball Lightning had arrived even slightly earlier or later, the outcome would have been different.

Of course, Jiang Miao still recorded the details of the incident.

This was how he wrote it in his diary.

March 13, 2024, evening.

Thinking back on what happened three days ago still frightened me. I was just one step away from dying. A difference of mere seconds may be the distance between life and death. I must be careful during thunderstorms from now on.

After leaving the hospital today, I passed through the city streets. The Camphor Trees by the roadside smelled absolutely awful and made me dizzy. The evening sun was incredibly glaring. Perhaps it had something to do with the Solar Flare three days ago?

The evening was too boring. I played with a Rubik's Cube for a while, but still couldn't sleep. I took out the copy of "Three-Body" I had bought years ago and read up to Wang Miao's part. Only then did I finally begin to feel sleepy.

Brushed my teeth, washed my face, drank a cup of warm milk. Good night.

Cautious as always, Jiang Miao did not write about it directly. Instead, he hid the information in his diary using coded phrases and keywords.

He wrote in his diary every few days, so even if someone got hold of it, they would not notice anything unusual.

As for why he was so cautious, it had to do with his personality.

Jiang Miao had always been this kind of person, exceedingly careful and cautious in everything he did.

He had no intention of telling anyone about this. Secrets succeeded only when kept secret. As long as one other person knew his secret, exposure would only be a matter of time.

Human nature was selfish to begin with. He had no intention of gambling with his own safety to test someone else's character.

Jiang Miao intended to keep obtaining the Appraisal System a secret forever, preferably taking it with him to the grave.

As for turning it over to the authorities, perhaps his twenty-year-old self might have considered it.

Unfortunately, he was already twenty-six. In a few years, he would be pushing thirty. He had long since passed the age of hot-blooded idealism and naivety.

Many things had taught him the same lesson again and again, while reality had stabbed him again and again.

In this age overflowing with material desires.

In this age where people's hearts were no longer what they once were.

In this age of demons dancing in chaos.

Nobility was the epitaph of the noble.

Meanness was the pass of the mean.

Jiang Miao's bottom line was to look after himself and be a selfish person.

Lying in bed, he felt no sleepiness at all.

Countless tangled thoughts filled his mind.

The Appraisal Panel looked like a very ordinary thing, but in the hands of someone who knew how to use it, it could produce unimaginable results.

Jiang Miao knew that he was about to make it big.

Still, he repeatedly warned himself in his heart: Stay steady! Don't get reckless!

First, he needed to legally obtain a large sum of money as startup capital for his business. At minimum, one million; ideally, around ten million.

And to legally obtain ten million in a short time.

There was only one answer left: gambling!

Lottery tickets, jade gambling, Macau.

All three fast tracks involved gambling, but Jiang Miao could use the Appraisal Panel to quickly complete his initial accumulation of capital, and all of them were legal routes.

Though this method made money quickly, he could not keep doing it for long. It was basically a one-shot deal.

After all, if he relied on this method to make money over the long term, people would easily notice something was wrong.

Therefore, Jiang Miao only planned to use these three paths to complete his initial accumulation of capital.

Using the Appraisal Panel to gamble was merely a crooked, minor application.

Although Jiang Miao was not a good person and did not reject the idea of profiting through gambling, this method was ultimately not a long-term solution.

The Appraisal Panel's true field of application was scientific research. Only by developing real industry could he stand firm without falling.

As long as he stared at something for five seconds, he could obtain all kinds of information about it. It was practically the same as gaining omniscience.

In scientific research, the real bulk of a project's total spending often came from experimental costs, testing equipment, testing consumables, testing personnel, laboratories, and the like.

Especially in many drug development projects, simply verifying a drug's efficacy and side effects required four or five rounds of experimental validation, with a large portion of manpower and resources consumed by testing.

Now, Jiang Miao was a human-shaped detector. His detection accuracy was exceptionally high, his speed was extremely fast, and his analysis was comprehensive. He needed neither consumables nor electricity.

As long as Jiang Miao had startup capital, he could quickly become a "scientific research genius."

As for why he wanted to work alone, it was mainly because Jiang Miao did not want to work for other companies for nothing, nor did he want to scheme and struggle against others.

If he could be his own boss, why work for someone else?