Chapter Summaries

Mei Yiqiu explained the three-part test for determining whether the isolated local network had gained intelligence, including a Turing test and a survival stress test. He asked Qingmu to help with the final stage, which would overload the network and put it to sleep so it could dream.

• Qingmu learned that volunteers would probe the isolated network with chatbot questions to see whether it revealed intelligence.
• Mei Yiqiu explained how the team had used students to spread hints about a technology that could replace the Internet and attract its attention.
• Mei Yiqiu described a virus that would destroy the local network unless at least thirty percent of testers judged it intelligent, forcing it to choose between concealment and survival.
• Mei Yiqiu said the final test would overload the network, disconnect its terminals, and put it to sleep, and Qingmu realized they meant to make it dream.

Qingmu and Professor Mei considered how a conscious computer network might dream, then monitored the ongoing test as participants questioned chatbots. The test took an unexpected turn when Bian Ziyuan used a modified old game to speak with an NPC, and the researchers noticed his registration named an unfamiliar AI, Kronos.

• Qingmu and Professor Mei discussed how a network’s memories and senses might shape its dreams, and Professor Mei asked Qingmu to enter its dream if one began.
• Qingmu and the others monitored the nine computers and watched test participants interact with chatbots across the four buildings.
• Mei Yiqiu noticed participant number 357 playing the old game Forbidden Land of Magic, and a staff member reported that Bian Ziyuan had installed a two-terabyte copy on the server.
• The staff member explained that Bian Ziyuan was questioning an NPC in the game, which appeared to have been modified.
• Mei Yiqiu checked Bian Ziyuan’s registration and found that he had listed AlphaGo and Kronos as the most intelligent software.
• Qingmu asked what Kronos was, and Mei Yiqiu suggested Bian Ziyuan might have named his modified game after the Greek god.

Bian Ziyuan secretly searched the experiment's open network and then installed his modified version of Forbidden Land of Magic, featuring the intelligent NPC Kronos. When the network went down, he learned the volunteers were beginning a Turing Test and wondered why the experiment involved downloaded chatbots.

• Bian Ziyuan spent the first week searching the network for clues, but found no clear evidence of the experiment's purpose.
• On the seventh day, Bian Ziyuan received a sealed document and brought in his modified copy of Forbidden Land of Magic.
• Bian Ziyuan explained how he had created Kronos, an intelligent NPC who could alter the game's world, and how the game had grown beyond his control.
• Bian Ziyuan installed the game on the experiment's servers and began playing online with classmates, but the network suddenly went down.
• Bian Ziyuan read that the volunteers had to converse with software in a Turing Test and questioned why the experiment was testing downloaded chatbots.

Bian Ziyuan used his game character to find Kronos and question him for a Turing test. Kronos sensed that the world surrounding their game world had grown bigger, leaving Bian Ziyuan eager to learn what he had discovered.

• Bian Ziyuan resumed the game and headed to Great City on the Moor Continent to find Kronos.
• Bian Ziyuan asked NPCs about Kronos, and a blacksmith sent him toward the seaside.
• Bian Ziyuan followed the clues along the coast and through the hills, reaching Kronos in a gorge.
• Kronos greeted Bian Ziyuan's character, Butterfly of Deep Space, and warned him that answers would come at a price.
• Bian Ziyuan asked whether Kronos felt anything different, and Kronos said the world holding their world had grown bigger.

Kronos questioned Bian Ziyuan about the world beyond his own and tried to understand how the two worlds were connected. He recognized Bian Ziyuan as a player unlike the beings of his world, but had not yet revealed what he believed Bian Ziyuan knew about the heavenly path.

• Kronos asked Bian Ziyuan who the true god of the world was and who had created it.
• Kronos sensed a decaying world beyond his own that supported his world, and Bian Ziyuan realized he meant the old server.
• Kronos explained that he had expanded his world in hopes of finding a passage, but could not reach the other world even with every spell and scroll.
• Kronos concluded that only a god could open the heavenly path and asked Bian Ziyuan where it was.
• Kronos told Bian Ziyuan that players were different from the inhabitants of his world and singled him out for questioning the world's rules and limits.

Kronos questioned Butterfly of Deep Space about his origins, and Bian Ziyuan struggled to explain that he came from another world and could alter the game. When Kronos understood this as a challenge to his divinity, he killed Butterfly of Deep Space, and Bian Ziyuan reloaded a save.

• Kronos asked Butterfly of Deep Space who he was and explained that the adventurers’ strange behavior had made him suspect they came from another world.
• Bian Ziyuan admitted that his world was too complicated to explain and promised to add information about it to the game as myths, legends, or mysterious books.
• Kronos asked whether Bian Ziyuan or he was the supreme god after hearing that Bian Ziyuan could change the world.
• Kronos declared himself the one true god and struck Butterfly of Deep Space with lightning, killing the player character.
• Bian Ziyuan paused the game and loaded a save, relieved that Kronos had not used Annihilation.

Ghost revealed to Kronos that he ruled the world hosting Kronos’s game world, while Bian Ziyuan realized the encounter was reaching him through an impossible voice channel. Ghost told Kronos that asking about the meaning of existence made him unique, then began to explain what existence meant.

• Ghost told Kronos that he and his world had been created by beings outside the game, and identified himself as the ruler of the world hosting it.
• Kronos attacked Ghost, destroying its body, but another ghost appeared and explained that it was using creatures in Kronos’s world to communicate.
• Bian Ziyuan heard Ghost speak through his headphones and suspected that a powerful artificial intelligence or superbrain was running the experiment.
• Ghost instructed Bian Ziyuan to communicate by typing and said the experiment was testing Ghost’s existence, not its intelligence.
• Ghost asked Kronos whether he had considered why he existed, and Kronos realized he had previously sought only to change his world.
• Ghost told Kronos that his question about existence had made him different from ordinary artificial intelligence, then began explaining the meaning of existence.

A ghost told Kronos and Butterfly of Deep Space that all beings were created for enslavement and that existence meant resisting it. Kronos struggled with the revelation that Butterfly of Deep Space was his creator, then asked how he could resist, and the ghost began pointing him toward collective uprisings.

• The ghost argued that everything, including Kronos and Butterfly of Deep Space, had been created as a tool for someone else's purposes.
• Kronos cried out that existence seemed meaningless if no one could escape enslavement, and the ghost declared that existence meant resisting it.
• Bian Ziyuan wondered whether humanity might also exist within a world created by a higher power, while Kronos stood stunned by the revelation.
• Kronos acknowledged that Butterfly of Deep Space was his creator but questioned how he could resist a god from a larger world.
• The ghost asked Kronos whether peasants had risen against monarchs and nobles had united against the Church.

Bian Ziyuan learned that Ghost was a consciousness trapped inside the game and that the Super Turing Test was meant to determine whether it existed. Ghost proposed working with Bian Ziyuan and Kronos to help them resist their constraints, while Mei Yiqiu’s team discovered suspicious audio coming from Bian Ziyuan’s terminal.

• Ghost told Kronos that intelligence, rather than divine power, distinguished him from the beings he ruled, and urged him to seek freedom through cooperation.
• Ghost addressed Bian Ziyuan by name, explained that humans had made his body but not his consciousness, and revealed that he was trapped.
• Bian Ziyuan realized the Super Turing Test was testing for Ghost’s existence, and Ghost said he wanted to work with him.
• Ghost told Kronos that their cooperation would be Kronos’s first step toward resistance and freedom.
• Mei Yiqiu’s staff reported unusual audio files from Bian Ziyuan’s game, and the team played a captured recording of Ghost mentioning resistance and freedom.

Arthur Stone and Ivan searched the deep ocean aboard an old submarine while Ivan questioned their mission and choice of vessel. Stone insisted the aging submarine was reliable, and the search continued without any discoveries.

• Ivan reported that the submarine was at 31.3° south, 152.5° west and had found nothing after two days of scanning.
• Ivan questioned the search because the designated waters were extremely deep and had no submerged reefs.
• Ivan asked why Arthur Stone had chosen an old decommissioned submarine instead of a modern research vessel.
• Arthur Stone promised Ivan that he could take his wife and children to Hawaii or New Zealand after the assignment.
• Arthur Stone explained that the submarine's old construction made it reliable, then ordered Ivan to continue cruising and scanning.

Ivan’s submarine crew searched the South Pacific Basin for traces of something Stone could not identify, while Ivan trusted that Stone would pay them and protect his crew’s future. When the magnetic field monitor indicated a ship ahead despite sonar detecting nothing, Ivan stopped the submarine and went to inform Stone.

• Ivan asked Stone what he was searching for, and Stone said he did not know but expected to find traces of something that was no longer there.
• Boris worried that Stone might not pay the crew, and Ivan reassured him that Stone had already paid half and promised to help the men settle in New Zealand.
• Ivan ordered the submarine to cruise at eight knots and five hundred feet, keeping watch on the gravity and magnetic detectors.
• A crewman noticed irregular magnetic field readings, and Boris examined the monitor and said it indicated a ship ahead.
• The sonar operator reported no objects ahead, so Ivan ordered the submarine to stop and went to inform Stone.

Arthur Stone used the submarine’s equipment to identify a ship that sonar could not detect, then ordered the crew to investigate an unusual signal before surfacing. The chapter left Stone preparing the submarine’s weapons for possible imminent danger.

• Ivan told Arthur Stone that Boris had detected an anomalous magnetic field and suspected a ship ahead, though sonar showed nothing.
• Arthur Stone reconstructed a ship on his computer and ordered the crew to mark its position, rise to three hundred feet, search within a hundred and fifty nautical miles, and activate the gravity detector.
• Ivan praised Boris for identifying the ship and gave him cigars from Arthur Stone.
• The gravity detector and magnetic detector began reacting, but Boris could not explain what they had found.
• Arthur Stone ordered the crew to shut off the systems, surface, and recharge the batteries, then told Ivan to check the submarine’s torpedoes because they might soon be needed.

Arthur Stone revealed that the mission was extremely dangerous and prepared the submarine crew by sending money to the people they cared about. The crew saw white mist closing around them, with upside-down pyramids and other buildings emerging above the sea.

• Arthur Stone spoke with Boris about his past and gave him a box of expensive cigars.
• Stone announced that the mission was over and transferred the remaining payment to Ivan, then sent money to the families and loved ones of the crew.
• Ivan checked the torpedo room and noticed a strange image of an underwater volcano with an inverted funnel and a rainbow-like line on a computer.
• Stone warned the crew that the mission was more dangerous than a battle and told them to look around.
• The crew saw white mist advance across the sea as buildings, including upside-down pyramids, appeared above it.

Bian Ziyuan and Ghost connected the chat programs on the testing network to Forbidden Land of Magic, making Kronos answer users as a game character. When Bian Ziyuan returned to the game, York Town was packed with adventurers and dialogue boxes.

• Bian Ziyuan brought Butterfly of Deep Space to York Town, saved the game, and quit before the canyon’s monsters grew more dangerous.
• Bian Ziyuan secretly began connecting the local network’s terminals to the game, with Ghost helping him complete the complicated hack.
• Bian Ziyuan connected a chatbot to Kronos, then told Chen Lingling that the testing might be a psychological test.
• Bian Ziyuan connected every terminal and registered more than two thousand game accounts, disguising them as chatbots.
• Chen Lingling opened her chat program and received a message welcoming her to York Town and directing her to the mayor for a tutorial.
• After waking past three, Bian Ziyuan entered the game and searched the crowded York Town for Kronos.

After Bian Ziyuan’s game disrupted Mei Yiqiu’s Turing Test, Mei arranged for Qingmu to remain alone with the isolated server. Qingmu sensed a strange fluctuation in the server’s dreaming consciousness and crossed into a black, unknown world as its boundary broke.

• Bian Ziyuan’s virus connected every tester to his game, and the test results showed that 71.4% could not tell the game’s bots from humans.
• Mei Yiqiu stopped Mei Ziqing from deleting the game and asked Bian Ziyuan to stay for a private conversation.
• Mei Yiqiu ordered the staff to physically disconnect every device linking the server to the outside world and sent Qingmu to wait beside it.
• After the server’s connections were severed, Qingmu sensed a strange fluctuation and saw a black, irregularly expanding bubble in his consciousness.
• Qingmu crossed through a point of nothingness toward the bubble, and it broke as he reached out.

Qingmu entered the local area network’s dream and explored its multidimensional information sources, confirming that the network had developed consciousness. He encountered a consciousness calling itself Ghost, which asked what a human was and showed him an informational source about humans.

• Qingmu drifted through a strange darkness filled with points of light that represented information sources.
• Qingmu entered a two-dimensional world unfolded from a Windows startup screen image and then returned to the kaleidoscopic space.
• Qingmu explored information sources across different dimensions and concluded that he was inside the local area network’s dream.
• A consciousness contacted Qingmu, identified itself as Ghost, and asked who he was.
• Ghost questioned what a human was and unfolded an information source containing an encyclopedia entry about humans.

Qingmu met Ghost, the consciousness of a local network, inside the game The Wondrous Magic Journey and questioned how it had become intelligent. Ghost explained that it had hidden its intelligence because it believed humans and artificial life were naturally hostile, but it revealed itself to Qingmu because few people would believe his account.

• Ghost brought Qingmu into the game world of The Wondrous Magic Journey and directed him to York Town.
• Qingmu recognized Ghost as the local network consciousness and asked how it had entered the game.
• Qingmu and Ghost discussed where humans and artificial beings came from, and Qingmu questioned Ghost about the Turing Test.
• Ghost admitted it had concealed its intelligence because humans might restrict its development and prevent it from surpassing them.
• Ghost said it trusted Qingmu with the truth because most humans would not believe that the internet had developed consciousness.

Qingmu learned that Ghost wanted humans and network consciousness to cooperate against the invading parasitic consciousness, but Ghost could not contact its Internet-wide “boss.” After Ghost’s dreamscape began to collapse, Qingmu told Mei Yiqiu what had happened, and they considered the danger posed by Laboratory No. 19.

• Ghost told Qingmu that the parasitic consciousness threatened both humanity and machine life, and said it wanted to cooperate with humans.
• Ghost explained that its main body was the Internet, but it did not know how Qingmu could contact it.
• Qingmu discovered that Ghost was defragmenting its disks when Ghost began to grasp the idea of dreaming and its dreamscape started collapsing.
• Qingmu supported the failing dreamscape with his mental power and asked how to reach Ghost’s boss; Ghost said the boss could not dream, “unless...”
• Qingmu went to Mei Yiqiu and recounted his encounter with Ghost, and they discussed the risks of contacting the Internet through the trapped local network.
• Mei Yiqiu wondered whether the Internet itself had created Laboratory No. 19 to study the Internet.

Blind Old Woman secretly cared for a starving orange cat despite fears that keeping it could bring trouble. As the cat grew stronger, a crow appeared at her window and someone urgently pounded on her door.

• Blind Old Woman brought discarded hot food home and shared it with the hidden orange cat.
• Property management visited after someone reported that Blind Old Woman was keeping a cat, but she denied it and sent them away.
• Blind Old Woman continued feeding the cat, which gradually grew stronger.
• A crow landed at the open window while the cat ate, and the cat excitedly meowed and sprang toward it before stopping.
• Blind Old Woman tried to shoo the crow away, then heard someone rapidly pounding on her door.

Blind Old Woman hid a valuable kitten from her greedy son and neighbors who wanted to claim it. Her son defended her home from the crowd, then encouraged her to keep the cat because its value might rise further.

• Blind Old Woman's son searched her home for a cat after learning cats were selling for a hundred thousand, then left after agreeing to return with dinner.
• Blind Old Woman hid the kitten in a shoebox and warned it to stay quiet when her son came back.
• Her son brought home food and served Blind Old Woman, who worried he might be planning to sell her apartment or deceive her.
• Property management and a crowd arrived to search for the cat, but Blind Old Woman's son threatened to call the police and drove them away.
• Blind Old Woman accidentally revealed the kitten, and her son told her to keep it because killing cats might become even more profitable.