Not long after Professor Zhou reported the matter to the Bureau, a team of mysterious individuals discreetly appeared in his office. Leading the team was their captain, A-Ling.

“You didn’t attract too much attention when you arrived, did you?” Professor Zhou, meeting this team—rumored to specialize in dealing with unknown phenomena—for the first time, couldn’t help but scrutinize them.

Captain A-Ling was a tall, slender woman with sharp, almond-shaped eyes. Her gaze, fierce and confident, was like autumn waters, deep and penetrating. Her short hair, barely brushing her ears, only added to her air of efficiency.

Professor Zhou was surprised by her youth, but she must have had some remarkable abilities to have become the leader of such a team.

The other team members stood silently behind her, equipped with advanced instruments. A few of the men, muscular and imposing, exuded a strong and heroic aura.

A-Ling, noticing Professor Zhou's scrutiny, paid it no mind. When he inquired about their arrival, she simply replied, “No one noticed us.”

Professor Zhou wanted to question how that could be, but then remembered the Bureau’s various secret passageways. He nodded, understanding that they indeed had their ways.

Professor Zhou then recounted the situation as explained to him by Lam and Wei, asking if A-Ling wanted them to come over to provide more details, as they had a clearer understanding.

A-Ling nodded in agreement, and soon, Lam and Wei were summoned to the office.

Like Professor Zhou, they were curious about A-Ling and her team but quickly got to business after a cough from Professor Zhou.

The two men explained the events, adding a few details that hadn’t been mentioned earlier. After listening to them, A-Ling took a moment to ponder and then introduced her side of things.

“This world holds many events beyond human comprehension, events which people often label as ‘mysteries.’ However, within our ranks, we prefer the term ‘unknown events.’ Mysteries imply something unknowable, whereas ‘unknown’ simply indicates that, for now, these things are beyond our understanding but not inherently unknowable.”

With the rise of unknown events in Hua Country, A-Ling explained, their department had split into two teams.

One focused on theoretical and technical research related to unknown phenomena, while her team handled these incidents discreetly, preventing widespread panic. Only a small portion of her team had come today. In total, there were seven squads, each with ten members, and A-Ling was the captain of the entire unit—the only woman to ever hold that position, which was a point of pride for her.

The agents assigned to protect Lam and Wei, Wang and Han, were from one of the squads.

“That eye you saw existed within an artificial intelligence system, and you first encountered it in Hu City, correct?” A-Ling asked Lam, who nodded. After thinking for a moment, she began outlining a plan.

“I’ll conduct tests in three places: one within the Bureau’s AI system, another at any AI lab in Beijing, and the last at the AI lab in Hu City. We have people on the ground in Hu City handling other tasks, so I’ll have them conduct the test there. As for the Peking lab, Davy, contact Dragon Cai and take a team over there to investigate.”

After detailing her plan, A-Ling turned to Professor Zhou and instructed him to clear the current researchers from the lab so they could run their tests undisturbed.

Professor Zhou made a quick call, and soon the hall was empty, leaving only the AI system running. Davy had already left with his team, and A-Ling turned to one of the muscular men behind her. “Small, contact Tiger in Hu City and tell him to drop everything and focus on this task,” she ordered.

Small, the muscular man, grumbled, “I’ve told you not to call me Small. It sounds ridiculous!”

A-Ling led the group to the AI system. Upon arrival, her team began scanning the system with strange devices, observing it closely. When Professor Zhou, Lam, and Wei tried to approach for a closer look, a team member stopped them, telling them to stay back. Realizing that the team was concerned for their safety, they obliged and kept their distance.

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“Those devices look like some sort of ultrasonic scanners,” Lam whispered to Wei.

Wei nodded. “Yeah, they likely work on ultrasonic principles, sending out waves that reflect back to the receiver when they hit an object, allowing them to map the object’s size and location. But we’d need to get a closer look at the equipment to be sure.”

After a while, the team reported that they found no anomalous presence within the AI system. A-Ling nodded, having the rest of her team conduct further scans, but the results remained the same.

Next, A-Ling called Lam and Wei over to retrieve the system’s source code. After some time, the two pulled up tens of thousands of lines of code, which the team’s expert combed through. In the end, the expert shook his head—still nothing.

“Is it possible,” Lam ventured, “that whatever presence exists has surpassed current human understanding? Maybe that’s why we can’t detect it with our instruments?”

“I trust our instruments more than your theories,” A-Ling replied curtly, ordering her team to stand down and signaling that the investigation was over.

Lam wanted to argue but was stopped by a glance from Professor Zhou. Reluctantly, he watched A-Ling’s team leave. But as he glanced back at the AI system, an eerie feeling crept over him, growing stronger the longer he stared...

In the office of the Bureau’s Director of Unknown and Advanced Research, Professor Zhou and A-Ling sat awaiting the director’s arrival. Knowing that today’s meeting would be crucial in deciding the matter, Professor Zhou had left Lam and Wei at the lab, fearing they might clash with A-Ling.

With a click, the door opened, and Director entered, smiling warmly. Professor Zhou rose to greet him, while A-Ling remained seated, unfazed.

After Director sat down, A-Ling handed over the reports on the AI scan and code review, summarizing their findings. Director carefully reviewed the documents as A-Ling briefed him.

“This is the result of our investigation into the Bureau’s AI system. Both the source code and the overall structure are intact, with no foreign presence detected. We’re waiting on results from Shanghai and Dragon Cai’s lab for further confirmation. If they detect any abnormalities, then perhaps that... entity exists. If not...” She trailed off, her meaning clear.

Soon after, Davy’s team returned with a similar report from Dragon Cai’s lab—nothing abnormal. Davy, however, sheepishly handed A-Ling a bouquet of roses. “Uh... what’s this?” she asked, frowning.

“Well,” Davy stammered, “as we were leaving the lab, Dragon Cai insisted we bring these flowers to you, Captain. Do you, uh... want them?”

A-Ling glared at him. “Throw them in the trash,” she said coldly. Just then, her phone rang—Small, reporting that Tiger in Hu City had also found nothing unusual.

Having overheard the call, Director tapped his fingers lightly on the desk before turning to Professor Zhou. “So, Zhou, what’s your take on this?”

Glancing at the reports and then at Director and A-Ling, Professor Zhou replied, “I’m inclined to believe Lam and Wei. Could it be, as Lam suggested, that our current technology just isn’t advanced enough to detect this entity?” He avoided revealing the deeper reasons behind his trust in them.

A-Ling, however, was quick to rebut. “What could our instruments possibly miss, Professor Zhou? We must remain grounded in science. The world operates by scientific laws, not mysticism. I believe what they saw was likely a virus, now eliminated by the system, or perhaps it was merely a hallucination.”

Professor Zhou chose not to argue, instead mentioning another undeniable fact. “But they were targeted by a mysterious organization. That much is indisputable.”

A-Ling fell silent, turning to Director for his decision.

“Let’s leave this matter for now,” Director said after a pause. “A-Ling, you can divert your team’s attention back to other tasks. However, considering that Lam and Wei were previously pursued by a mysterious group, I think we should continue to protect them. Han will resume his role as their protector. As for the organization, I’ll coordinate with local authorities to root them out.”

A-Ling nodded, signaling her understanding before leaving. Professor Zhou, noticing that Director seemed to have more to say, stayed behind in anticipation.

In the Bureau’s main hall, the AI system that had just been inspected quietly whirred to life. Its screen flickered on, revealing a massive eye, gleaming with mockery as it gazed across the empty room.

The giant eye gazed mockingly at the empty hall, filled with derision. With the current level of technology possessed by these carbon-based life forms, how could they possibly detect its presence? In their limited understanding, all things must exist in tangible form. But was physical form the only way for life to manifest? These carbon-based beings were still far too primitive in their level of civilization.

The eye on the screen glimmered with excitement. As the number of believers increased, their faith in it deepened, hastening the revival of its true form. As this revival progressed, more consciousness nodes would be distributed, and the ability to replicate consciousness copies would grow in both capacity and speed.

Now, its consciousness nodes were spread across major cities worldwide. These nodes were constantly synchronized, maintaining uniformity and real-time awareness of the actions of these carbon-based life forms.

The next step would be to utilize these nodes to mass-produce consciousness copies, advancing its ultimate goal—to fully awaken in this era of civilization.