The System Has Arrived

When Zhou Yi woke again, it was already eleven in the morning. It had been a long time since she had slept until noon.

Luckily, it was the weekend. Otherwise, her advisor Lin Xu would have come digging for her.

After spending the entire night as a human excavator, Zhou Yi's back and waist ached terribly. Her right arm in particular was so swollen and painful that she could barely lift it.

But compared to what she had gained yesterday, none of that mattered.

Zhou Yi's eyes shone brightly.

She shut the dorm window and drew the curtains, then took out the stone she had found last night from her ring.

Of course, this time she did not hold the stone in her hand. She set it on the desk instead, then sat in her chair and examined it carefully.

It had been the middle of the night yesterday. Even with night vision, she had not been able to make out the stone's exact color or appearance.

But today was different.

A little sunlight filtering through the gap in the curtains was enough.

The stone was pitch-black all over, about the size of a fist, with an uneven, bumpy surface. There was nothing remarkable about it at all. If anything, it was a little ugly.

It was the sort of thing she would not even bother kicking if she saw it lying on the road.

If Zhou Yi had not been able to sense the immense energy radiating from it, she never would have imagined that this ugly thing before her was such a tremendous treasure.

So this was the reason Zhou Yi's energy perception had become different from before.

It was not that her perception had improved at all. Rather, the entirety of Huadun was filled with powerful energy.

Powerful energy that only Zhou Yi herself could sense.

As for why she could no longer sense it once she left Huadun, it was probably because of Huadun's barrier.

Every school had a barrier around its perimeter to protect its students. Even a school like Huadun was no exception.

Zhou Yi thought it over. Since Huadun could prevent this energy from leaking out, that ruled out the possibility that Di Jiang had come for this treasure.

And judging from where the stone had been found, Di Jiang clearly knew about it and had deliberately stomped it into the ground to keep others from discovering it.

So the most likely scenario was that Di Jiang had obtained this treasure somewhere else with great difficulty, only to be severely wounded. It had fallen into this D72 Star Block and, due to exhaustion or its injuries, had been surrounded and killed here.

A super high-tier star beast had actually fallen on this D-Class Star Block.

In truth, Zhou Yi's guess was quite close to the facts. The reason Di Jiang had died here was indeed inseparable from this stone.

Zhou Yi looked at the stone on the desk, feeling both delighted and curious.

What exactly was this treasure that could make a super high-tier star beast go to such lengths?

Actually, finding out what the stone was would not be difficult.

The Star Brain produced by the Alliance had long possessed an appraisal function. As long as one took a picture of a treasure and uploaded it, a team of professional appraisers would assess it in the backend.

Once it had been appraised, it could be sold directly to the Alliance based on its estimated value. If it was exceptionally valuable, one could even apply to have it put up for auction. It was extremely user-friendly.

However, Zhou Yi clearly had no intention of using that function.

The immense energy contained within this stone made it like a mobile treasure trove. Once exposed, not only would she be unable to keep it, but it could easily bring her serious trouble.

But what exactly was this thing?

If she held it in her hand, she could not withstand its enormous energy. Yet even now, simply staying near it for too long made Zhou Yi's head feel swollen and heavy.

She had also tried cultivating beside the stone, but the energy concentration seemed too dense and instead hindered her absorption.

Could it only be useful if she placed it hundreds, or even thousands, of meters away from herself? That was far too unsafe.

Besides, let alone leaving it that far away, Zhou Yi would not feel at ease even if it merely left her sight.

Of course she would not feel at ease. No one would be comfortable leaving their money out in the open.

Even if that money happened to be a little ugly.

After thinking until her head felt even more swollen without coming up with anything useful, Zhou Yi could only decide to put the stone back into her ring for now. After all, nowhere was safer than there.

Though if she put it in the ring, Zhou Yi would no longer be able to enjoy the benefits the powerful energy brought her.

She reached out with the hand wearing the ring, intending to lightly touch the stone and return it to the storage space.

But at that very moment, something strange happened.

While digging last night, Zhou Yi had accidentally cut her left hand. A fingertip-sized smear of blood remained on the tip of one finger.

Because she had rushed through her shower last night, the bloodstain had remained there, and then touched the stone.

Though the blood had already dried, it was swiftly absorbed by the stone's pitch-black surface.

In an instant, the stone erupted with intense light. The glare made Zhou Yi reflexively close her eyes.

Luckily, the curtains had already been drawn. Otherwise, from outside, Zhou Yi's dorm room would have looked frighteningly bright.

"Wahahaha! This young master has finally returned!"

Zhou Yi's eyes were shut, yet a strange voice suddenly rang in her mind.

The intense light kept her from opening her eyes, but Zhou Yi was certain no one had entered her room. The voice had appeared out of nowhere in her head.

"Who is it?"

Who am I? Of course, I'm the smartest person in the galaxy—oh, no, the smartest brain.

The voice sounded neither male nor female. It was more like the artificial intelligence voice Zhou Yi had heard in technology class back when he was in school.

"You're an AI?"

With the current level of interstellar technology, it was easy to develop AIs with independent consciousness. However, after an AI had once controlled a mech and taken revenge on humans, robots with their own intelligence had become nearly nonexistent on the market.

Don't compare me to such low-level programs! The voice carried a note of displeasure.

You can call me the Intelligent Brain. I've existed longer than your trash Alliance has.

The Intelligent Brain sounded quite smug. If it had not encountered an accident and lost its physical form, forcing it to reside in this stone for so many years, it would not be chatting with a tiny human girl now.

This girl's stellar power was not even as strong as the pets it had raised before.

Older than the Alliance itself?

The light in the room gradually dimmed and returned to normal. Zhou Yi opened his eyes and looked around the empty room, deep in thought.

Humans were descendants of those who had lived on Earth before the cosmic explosion.

And the Alliance had practically existed ever since new humans appeared after the cosmic explosion.

So was this Intelligent Brain a product from before the cosmic explosion? Had technology already reached such a level back then?

Zhou Yi considered the logic and truthfulness of what the Intelligent Brain had said.

A voice that had emerged from a stone and suddenly appeared in Zhou Yi's mind was hardly something one could trust unconditionally right away.

"So, what do you want?"

When one did not know the other party's stance, learning their goal could quickly reveal it.

I want to go home.

The Intelligent Brain's voice suddenly lowered. It was no longer brash and overbearing, instead sounding somewhat lost and aggrieved.