Prologue

August 2029, Rocket City, Bright Country

After nearly six years of flight, the Lingguang probe was about to reach Lingshen Star. Among the 500,000 asteroids, Lingshen Star was the most unusual. It was made primarily of metals such as iron and nickel, and its uneven surface was riddled with honeycomb-like holes.

According to Professor Braun, it had most likely come from the core of an ancient planet.

The Lingguang's solar panels unfolded to the size of a tennis court, supplying power to its new propulsion system. Electrons reacted with the xenon ions energized by the propulsion system, trailing a dreamlike blue-green plume through the desolate reaches of space.

In the Bright Country Space Administration's control room, Dr. Daphne Braun, a member of the Lingguang probe project team, stared intently at the large monitor.

Perhaps because she was nervous, she leaned unconsciously toward Michael Max beside her. The two had been passionately in love for more than six months.

Michael Max was the world's richest man, a legendary hero.

In 2023, his company's exclusive Hunter-5 Rocket had launched the Bright Country Space Administration's Lingguang probe into space. Michael and his company had consequently become partners in the Lingshen Star exploration project.

Acebe Space Technology Company had worked with the Space Administration before. Once the rocket had sent the Lingguang into orbit, its mission was complete. In the years after the launch, Michael had shown little interest in the Lingguang.

Starting last year, he had suddenly developed a keen interest in Lingshen Star. On the surface, it seemed to be because he had fallen for Daphne, who had joined the project team straight after graduation. In reality, it was because he had discovered what made Lingshen Star so unusual.

Scientists had studied Lingshen Star from Earth and, through spectral analysis, confirmed that it contained iron and nickel. They also strongly suspected that its composition included a large amount of gold.

Gold attracted far more attention from the media and public than asteroid research did. Some busybodies had even calculated that the metallic world was worth more than a trillion dollars.

Michael Max wasn't interested in money. He was an "adventurer" who could always turn his wild ideas into reality. Being the world's richest man wasn't his goal, just a by-product of his willingness to lead the way.

His interest in Lingshen Star had nothing to do with money.

"The Lingguang has entered orbit successfully. Imaging system online," Daphne announced excitedly. This was her first time taking part in such an important project, and delight lit up her face. After nearly a year of waiting since joining the team, all her anxiety had finally lifted.

"Are the images being transmitted live or compressed and sent in batches?" Michael asked.

"Live. Lingshen Star is about 1.7 astronomical units from Earth right now. We'll receive the first high-resolution image in fifteen minutes," Daphne replied.

After entering orbit, the Lingguang drew closer and closer to Lingshen Star. One by one, its instruments came online: the imaging system, spectrometer, mass spectrometer, high-resolution radar, and more. Signals from the probe's various electrical devices overlapped across the asteroid's surface.

At last, the lonely, slowly spinning asteroid received a visit from humanity, bathed in the flickering of countless optical and electrical signals.

Suddenly, Lingshen Star seemed to come alive. It emitted extremely low-frequency radio waves, invisible and imperceptible, chaotic at first but growing stronger. The resulting harmonics and resonance instantly destroyed all of the Lingguang's electrical equipment.

Fifteen minutes later, the decompressed images of Lingshen Star appeared in crisp detail on the control room's large monitor.

Daphne exclaimed, "Wow, the cross-sections of the cavities are all regular hexagons. Why do they look artificial?"

Michael wasn't surprised. "Nature's power is astonishing. Anything is possible."

Daphne adjusted the signal amplifier for the high-resolution radar and watched the radar reflections from Lingshen Star on the screen. The signals fluctuated and jumped across a continuous range of frequencies, as if they were taking an electroencephalogram of the asteroid.

Abnormalities began appearing in the extremely low-frequency range. The amplitude grew larger and larger, with frequencies from 0.5 to 30 hertz slamming against the top and bottom edges of the display.

In an instant, the images and radar signals from the Lingguang cut out completely.

The air in the control room seemed to freeze. The team tried desperately to adjust the equipment and reboot the system. After repeated attempts failed, they could only accept the cold reality: the Lingshen Star exploration mission had been forced to end almost as soon as it began.

That night, at Michael's home—a prefabricated house where the unconventional world's richest man lived—Daphne entered the unclassified Lingshen Star data into Michael's supercomputer.

Michael settled into a custom device resembling an aircraft seat, put on a sensor helmet, lowered the visor, and began meditating with the Brain-Computer Fusion system.

Starting in 2018, Michael Max had assembled a laboratory and recruited top experts in biology and computational science to work on the Brain-Computer Fusion Project.

In 2019, they completed a prototype of the first-generation device. It could connect to human brain waves through non-contact magnetic sensors, assisting the brain with memory searches, mind mapping, and route planning. It greatly improved the testers' thinking efficiency and helped them produce deeper, more comprehensive results.

At the time, a landmark building had just been completed in Nidu. It had been designed by a British architect inspired by India's ancient stepwells.

The building seemed to have no practical function. It consisted of enormous metal structures forming interconnected steps that rose upward, seemingly without end.

The stepwells of India descended in stages, but the steps of this building rose layer upon layer. It had a nickname: the "Sky Ladder."

Michael loved the idea behind the building, so he named the brain-assistance device he used after its official name: VESSEL.

Michael's imagination always ran wilder than most people's. As logic-driven AI flourished, he began researching Brain-Computer Fusion, drilling holes in people's skulls and implanting chips—turning "having a brainwave" from a figure of speech into a physical act.

When GPU display technology and computing merged, upgrading AI from logic-driven to scenario-driven systems and winning widespread acclaim, Michael had already replaced the hardwired connections that required opening the skull with non-contact, sensor-based Brain-Computer Fusion.

Michael had always believed the human brain was the most complete and energy-efficient neural network. Computers should assist the brain in its thinking, not the other way around.

Daphne sat by the window, quietly waiting for the answers Michael would get from VESSEL. A summer breeze slipped through the open window and gently brushed her golden hair.

Daphne had already analyzed the data, but she still hoped Michael and VESSEL, her "superbrain," could provide a more precise analysis. After all, her own conclusions were simply too hard to believe.

Michael tapped the power button on the right armrest, pushed up the visor, and removed the helmet. He blinked, seeming to still be thinking.

"Did you get anything? What do you think happened?" Daphne asked.

"Yeah. I analyzed four extremely low-frequency bands and their corresponding amplitudes." As he spoke, Michael stood and went to the blackboard, writing quickly as if afraid he might forget:

Frequency: 14–30 hertz; 5–20 microvolts.

Frequency: 8–13 hertz; 20–100 microvolts.

Frequency: 4–7 hertz; 100–150 microvolts.

Frequency: 0.5–3 hertz; 20–200 microvolts.

"They correspond to human Beta Waves, Alpha Waves, Theta Waves, and Delta Waves," Daphne said, stating the same conclusion she had reached and waiting for Michael to confirm it.

"That's right, Daphne. My conclusion is that the Lingguang received electromagnetic waves similar to those produced by the human brain."

"Lingshen Star is only a giant lump of metal, about 250 kilometers in diameter. How could it possibly emit electromagnetic waves like those of a human brain?" Daphne grabbed Michael's arm and shook it as she murmured,

"How is that possible?"

Poem assembled from lines:

Songs and music eased along; weary of greeting and farewell, Song, Liu Zai

Dawn drums hurried the court through the last brief watch. Ming, Li Xing

A thousand thoughts fill two sheets of writing, Tang, Bai Juyi

In the ninefold palace, waking and dreaming, I remember the loyal and true. Song, Chen Liang