That dog squatting there was AlphaGo.

The other figures, the kindergarteners, represented today’s more popular intelligent programs.

These so-called artificial intelligences were mostly based on big data and cloud computing, performing optimized interactions after aggregating massive amounts of data. They were still highly immature, a long way from achieving self-awareness.

Of course, in this manifested reality, it looked like Shen Feng was just placating children. In truth, he and Jingwei had hijacked the core data of these AI programs, leaving only weakened copies behind.

At that moment, Shen Feng truly felt how incredibly difficult it was to create a self-aware artificial intelligence.

The man and the bird swiftly bound these rudimentary AI programs and began using the internet’s vast number of terminals to build their own cloud network.

Shen Feng’s plan was simple: to develop his own online game, send out player invitations to qualified people, and through their reactions, screen for trustworthy individuals.

It was called an online game, but it was really more of a virtual reality experience.

In *Three-Body*, the members of the Earth Three-Body Organization (ETO) who betrayed humanity created the Three-Body game, which simulated the environment of the Three-Body Star System. They used it to attract high-IQ elites from around the world to join the ETO, or to find a solution to the Three-Body problem.

What Shen Feng wanted to do was the opposite. He would create an apocalyptic game and use it to select people with enough wisdom, courage, and loyalty to save the world!

And if they wanted to hide their tracks, they couldn’t store the game data on a single server. The best way was to distribute it among the vast number of terminals throughout the entire network.

In other words, cloud technology.

"This is basically hijacking every terminal in the entire network. Are you sure that’s okay?" Jingwei asked, still a bit worried.

Shen Feng waved his hand dismissively. "People who achieve great things don’t get bogged down in trifles. We’re doing this for the sake of humanity, so anything goes."

Jingwei was speechless. "I think you’re the one who sounds like a villainous AI. Why don’t we switch places? You can get in the cage."

At Shen Feng’s request, Jingwei and the host of rudimentary AIs began constructing and developing the game.

Meanwhile, Shen Feng infiltrated the network of Eagle Country’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by himself.

Most such institutions had separate internal and external networks, with many internal devices being physically air-gapped. For the current Shen Feng, however, that wasn’t much of an obstacle.

Over the past few days, he had learned a few tricks from Jingwei, including how to use nearby devices to create signal interference, allowing him to steal information from others.

Like a Ghost, Shen Feng drifted through the CDC’s network, searching for information. He quickly located the source of the outbreak.

Providence Alaska Medical Center Hospital in Anchorage, Alaska.

The place had been temporarily locked down. The newly discovered infectious virus was designated a Level 3 pathogen, the same as SARS.

It had been named Self-Limiting Acute Hemorrhagic-like Syndrome.

Self-limiting acute hemorrhagic syndrome is what’s commonly known as purpura, a type of skin condition where patients develop large patches of red or purple spots.

But Shen Feng knew the gap between the Petrification Disease and purpura wasn’t even in the same league.

Clearly, the people here had yet to grasp the true horror of the Petrification Disease.

This was one of the hallmarks of the Petrification Disease: it had a long, deep incubation period with no severe early symptoms, only to erupt violently at a specific tipping point in its final stage.

During the previous Stone Statue Apocalypse, after an initial wave of people were infected and became the first to turn to stone, the virus mutated. Later, after everyone had been infected, all instances of the Petrification Disease erupted violently at the exact same moment.

In Jingwei’s words, it behaved less like a biological virus and more like a computer virus program.

Patients were isolated in individual rooms, but the ventilation system hadn’t been shut down and was still circulating air.

At present, the patients didn’t seem too out of the ordinary. They merely walked a bit slowly or had skin that was losing its elasticity. Some were even chatting and laughing with the medical staff.

Shen Feng quickly found the intensive care unit. It housed the first people to be infected with the Petrification Disease.

Their conditions were more severe. There were twenty-three people in total.

The skin of the most severe case was already more than halfway petrified. He lay in bed like a puppet, able to move only his eyes and tongue.

Shen Feng looked up his information in the hospital’s system.

Jason, captain of the Oceanus expedition team from Eagle Country’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

All the patients in the unit belonged to the Oceanus expedition team.

The Oceanus was an undersea expedition team.

Shen Feng instantly understood what had happened.

After he sent the warning to the Ice Dragon Expedition Team to halt their exploration of the Arctic Ruins, the Eagle Country People had evidently snuck into the Arctic and secretly excavated the site themselves.

Shen Feng’s consciousness suddenly sank, following the hospital’s internal surveillance lines to the heavily guarded second basement level.

It was a massive warehouse, guarded by several soldiers in hazmat suits, armed to the teeth.

Shen Feng’s consciousness followed the wiring directly into the cold storage unit, accessing the real-time feed from the security camera.

The worst-case scenario he could have imagined appeared before his eyes:

Inside the massive warehouse, stone statues from beneath the Arctic Ice Sheet stood in neat rows. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of them, like a silent army from hundreds of thousands of years ago...

Having left their ultra-low temperature environment, residual viruses on their bodies were gradually being awakened by the warmth of the room. They formed aerosols that spread through the ventilation system, first throughout the hospital, and then out into the whole of Anchorage...

Once these statues thawed, the Petrification Disease virus on their surfaces would spontaneously awaken and spread!

Shen Feng’s heart sank. He quickly left the Providence Alaska Medical Center Hospital’s network node and headed for the network of Eagle Country’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

He soon found the mission orders for the Oceanus expedition team. The authorization came directly from the highest levels of government.

Clearly, this was a state-sanctioned operation.

’This must be the cause of the Petrification Disease outbreak.’

The major world powers were all competitors. When the Ice Dragon Expedition Team announced they were halting their exploration of the Arctic Ruins—no, it must have been as soon as they announced the *discovery* of the ruins—the higher-ups in Eagle Country must have been chomping at the bit.

They probably thought they were making a monumental discovery when they salvaged so many prehistoric stone statues, never imagining they were actually hauling back the death knell of the apocalypse.

Having figured out the cause and effect and seen the current situation, Shen Feng withdrew his consciousness and opened his eyes.

Although his consciousness had already traveled to North America via the internet, his body was still in the classroom.

The first afternoon class had just begun. The teacher was in the middle of a lecture, but Shen Feng’s mind was racing.

’What I really don’t get is, what are the Arctic Ruins actually like?’

’Was the Stone Statue Apocalypse I experienced really the world from 500,000 years ago?’

’If so, where did modern humans come from? Could modern Homo sapiens be descendants of the ancient Brain Apes?’

’But if that were true, there would be countless prehistoric ruins and fossils left in the geological strata.’

’The geological record doesn’t lie.’

’From ancient times to the present, no such large-scale geological discoveries have ever been made, which refutes that theory.’

’When I brought Ji Jiuyun’s statue back to this world, the "True Apocalypse Game" performed a dimensional-spatial disinfection. There shouldn’t be any problems from that.’

’The Ice Dragon Expedition Team also brought back one statue, I think. The one that looked so familiar to me. The virus might be starting to spread from that one, too.’

’Thankfully, the Petrification Disease takes about a full month to incubate and erupt. The vaccine I have is confirmed to be effective. All I need to do now is wait.’

’Wait for the right moment to release the information about the vaccine...’

The day passed quickly. When school let out in the evening, Jingwei sent a message:

The game’s basic framework is complete. It’s barely functional, but it works.