Chapter 2: Alpha Ji

"This... this is just too strange. Your name is Ye Chao, right? What kind of organization are you people, exactly?" The pretty young woman weaved her way through the crowd, her eyes dazzled by the students dressed in every bizarre and outlandish fashion imaginable.

She had thought these people were spies, but the spies in movies always appeared dapper and gentlemanly, while real spies were said to be completely unremarkable and difficult to distinguish from ordinary folk. And these people? Some wore iron armor, some leather, others sported tie-dyed clothes of all colors and styles, each more eccentric than the last. But the strangest part was what they held in their hands: fluorescent light tubes, immersion heaters, electric toothbrushes—an odd assortment that made the gathering look like a chaotic, theme-less cosplay gone awry.

There were also flags stuck haphazardly into the cave walls: "Senior Year 2, Class 2," "Senior Year 2, Class 4," "Senior Year 2, Class 5"… In her mind, only one kind of organization would fly such banners—a school.

But what kind of school taught people how to rob graves and dig up earth? Where students debated the best way to use a Luoyang shovel? Where they were told what a 'zongzi' corpse was, and learned how to light lamps and calculate directions?

She looked around as she walked, failing to make heads or tails of any of it. It was as if two—no, several—completely different worlds had been violently mashed together. Her mind flickered like a child's toy switch, flashing on and off, unable to stop.

"If you want me to answer your question, you have to answer mine first. Who are you? Ladies first."

"That's not how 'ladies first' works," she protested.

Ye Chao simply gazed at her in silence.

[Affection -66]

"Besides, who told you I'm a lady? I'm so cute, of course I'm a blue boy..."

Still, Ye Chao just looked at her, saying nothing.

[Affection -23]

"..."

"......"

[Affection -10]

"..."

"......"

[Affection -10]

At this impasse, Ye Chao was carried into the medical station.

Several medics hurried over and began examining him. Blood pressure, blood oxygen, blood sugar, mental strength index—everything was low, classic signs of complete exhaustion. Without delay, they set to work: acupuncture for calming the mind, injections to expel evil energies, intravenous fluids to replenish his vital force—each medic using their own methods, and soon Ye Chao was bristling with needles and lines.

Today’s practicum had gone smoothly so far, with no incidents until now; Ye Chao was the first case, and the medics were almost bored from lack of things to do.

"Why are you sterilizing with a hairdryer? And that person—how can he shoot fire from his hand? I get acupuncture for calming, but what on earth is 'injecting to drive out evil'?"

The actions and words of those around her made the young woman's mind continue to flicker, but Ye Chao still watched her in silence.

"Goddammit... how did I run into such a blockhead as you!" She couldn't help letting loose, "A blockhead like you should be a code monkey or a grad student, not a tomb raider!"

[Affection -10]

Ye Chao remained... silent.

"Alright, alright, I'll talk. I'll go first." The young woman finally surrendered, raising her hand. "Listen carefully, my name is Alpha Ji, and...," she patted her almost nonexistent chest, "I am the most advanced third-generation bioneural network supercomputer... emotion, er, emotional intelligence support program. In the whole institute, I'm at the top—there isn't a single coder or researcher who doesn't do exactly as I say."

Ye Chao surfaced from his meditation and breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it was just exhaustion—his core remained intact. The power from the acupuncture, injections, and fluids quickly seeped into his nearly parched body and mind; once he recovered, he might even find his abilities enhanced.

Though his power was mediocre, it was still better than having none at all.

Since the chaos era began, research had shown that everyone had the potential to awaken special talents. Those without abilities fell to the very bottom of the discrimination chain, and even though the law recognized academic achievement as a form of ability, public opinion remained unchanged.

With his repair ability, Ye Chao was at least second from the bottom; if he lost even that, he would truly hit rock bottom.

Yet, it seemed his repair ability might... have hidden potential?

He couldn't help glancing up at the floating young woman—no, Alpha Ji. That name sounded familiar, as if he'd read it in some old book...

Alpha Ji: [Affection -66]

Her impassioned self-introduction had been met with none of the reaction she expected, leaving Alpha Ji frustrated.

So she really was a program, Ye Chao mused, not at all surprised.

This era had its own hierarchy of discrimination: combat types looked down on support types, support types on repair types, and repair types on those with no abilities at all. Even among repair specialists, there were further hierarchies.

Those who could mend and soothe the mind were the most valued—even more sought after than many combat types, since the latter depended on them for healing when their core was injured.

Next were those who could heal living bodies—though they couldn't restore abilities, they could save lives.

Third were those who could only repair non-living things.

And Ye Chao, his ability extended only to repairing data and signals that depended on a physical medium, putting him at the very bottom.

Take this military-issue tablet, authenticated to be from the Five Core Era: only after someone else had restored the hardware could he repair the software. But Ye Chao had never before seen such an intelligent program—the way it conversed was indistinguishable from a real person, and it could even project itself into reality, seemingly unbound by the tablet’s limitations.

"You say you can't make sense of what you see, but the answer is simple—" Since Alpha Ji had answered him, Ye Chao honored their deal and spoke each word clearly: "The current year is 2054!"

"What! That's impos..." Alpha Ji shrieked, "Im...im...im...im..." and then lapsed into a daze.

Her whole body suddenly pixelated, sparks flying, the effect distinctly indecent.

Just as I thought, Ye Chao sighed.

He'd rarely encountered this, but his teachers often mentioned it: programs restored from ancient artifacts were obsessed with time, and often crashed or malfunctioned when confronted with such inconsistencies. There was only one solution—he pressed the tablet’s power button.

Alpha Ji remained pixelated and unresponsive, nor did she vanish.

Maybe a rapid double-tap?

No.

A secret four-second long press?

Still no.

Pressing both the power and side volume keys together?

Again, no...

Ye Chao tried every method he knew and didn't know; the military tablet was started and shut down, then restarted several times, but Alpha Ji remained completely inert.

It seemed he would have to borrow the "Comprehensive Guide to Ancient Tablet Forms" from his teacher for further study, Ye Chao sighed.

As he pondered, Alpha Ji suddenly sprang to life, startling him. "2054? That's impossible! Impossible! Impossible! Impossible..." She instantly fell into another infinite loop.

"Then tell me, Alpha Ji, what year is it now?"

"It must be 2024! Not only is the institute's supercomputer a key national security project, making data loss impossible, but even on an ordinary terminal, the motherboard battery keeps time even if there's no power. And if the battery fails, there's still the network... Wait a moment, where's the network?"

2024? Ye Chao fell silent for a moment, out of respect.