Even with the signal restored, Dan Heng did not think it would last long.
Most likely, they would exchange a few words, confirm that everyone else was safe, and then suddenly lose contact. He had to seize this opportunity to tell Himeko everything he knew.
Dan Heng: [Compiled intelligence on Los Angeles]
Himeko opened the file. It contained detailed records of everything Dan Heng had uncovered over the past several days.
At first, Dan Heng had thought the people of Los Angeles had developed Intelligent Chips for convenience, allowing them to forgo most complex thinking once the chips were inserted into their Brain-Computer Interfaces.
But after investigating further, Dan Heng could confirm that the corporation was using the Intelligent Chips to secretly mine with citizens' brains while they slept. Their brains' lack of adequate rest directly impaired their ability to think, making them even more dependent on the Intelligent Chips.
Once an Intelligent Chip was inserted, there was no privacy or secrecy left to speak of. The Intelligent Chip could access the memories in the user's brain at any time to learn from them.
The more users depended on their Intelligent Chips, the faster the chips learned. Dan Heng had even found citizens of Los Angeles whose Intelligent Chips had learned so thoroughly that they ultimately hijacked their users' consciousnesses and completely took over their bodies.
Although these were only isolated cases, Intelligent Chips hijacking bodies would certainly become more frequent as time passed.
After all, the chips were connected to the network, and learning was what AI did best.
This was also why Dan Heng had gone to the corporation in the first place. Once there, he discovered similar phenomena even within its IT department.
He continued investigating without giving anything away. He infiltrated the server room and found