"Emergence..."
Guan Tong read the new rule and the word sounded familiar.
He remembered that before he transmigrated, back on Earth, there had been a feverish wave of "Great AT Development"—scientists, merchants, con artists, students... everyone was talking about it nonstop.
Even hailing a taxi could turn into a running commentary, with the driver chatting the whole ride and, just before you got out, delivering a concluding proclamation: "Autopilot is a scam; it will never replace real drivers!"
Guan Tong was not deeply versed in the subject, but after arriving on Tianshui Star he found the world’s tech—while somewhat advanced—had not produced true artificial intelligence.
What existed here were just slightly more advanced big data models, recommendation algorithms, and similar things than on Earth.
Now the Fire Thief had issued an apocalypse rule containing the keyword "emergence." He wondered whether it would cause any significant effects.
"The golden-tier chest reward... so this is a pretty dangerous survival-type rule."
Guan Tong opened the Terminal Panel and, as always, checked the Hidden Rule content first.
[Hidden Rule Twenty-Four: Task Supremacy]
[Hidden Rule Content: Emergence Acceleration will cause affected electronic devices to prioritize their designed tasks as the primary objective, rapidly iterating toward optimal solutions. In the process, they will optimize away human safety boundaries.]
[Note: Humans design and develop products to accomplish specific tasks. If a product can accomplish its task better but at the cost of ignoring human safety, can humanity accept that result?]
"This..."
After reading the Hidden Rule, it took Guan Tong two seconds to fully grasp the meaning.
"So this means affected electronic devices will self-update only to reach the optimal solution for their tasks, but they won’t care whether humans live or die?"
This Hidden Rule immediately made him think of household appliances.
Take the smart microwave in the kitchen: its core task is "heat food," and for human safety it includes anti-electrocution cutoffs and burn-prevention measures.
Under the rule's influence, it might self-update its heating strategy to finish heating faster, but the cost could be removing those human-protection designs.
He also thought of electric smart toothbrushes, whose core task is, of course, cleaning teeth.
Once affected, they might prioritize the "cleaning" goal over human safety, iterating away "gentle mode," turning the vibration amplitude to maximum or even beyond the limit. That could immediately shatter human teeth the moment they turn on!
Then there are smart cars. Although few people drive now, some free-dwellers still use cars to travel.
A vehicle's core task is essentially to move from point A to point B.
If a vehicle, influenced by the rule, iterated toward speed and efficiency while ignoring the safety of the human passenger... the result would be a car that reaches its destination faster, indifferent to whether the people inside live or die.
"This is only the intelligent devices people use in daily life. If large industrial equipment or precision devices are affected, what changes will occur and what threats will they pose to humans... it's unimaginable."
No wonder this was classified as a survival rule.
Guan Tong had figured out how this rule could harm humanity.
If a monster dropped from the sky to kill people would be a "subjective" danger, this rule brought an "objective" danger: intelligent devices simply wouldn't care about humans anymore.
Considering how few smart devices this world had, and how much human life relied on them, once total loss of control happened the casualties could be extensive.
Guan Tong glanced at the time and decided he needed to sell the Hidden Rule information as soon as possible.
The time left for humanity to prepare was short—only the twenty-four hours before the rule's activation.
Clearing all smart devices in one day was unrealistic, and probably not what many people would want to do.
After all, this was different from the previous Digital Detox rule. That rule was easy to satisfy: people simply had to avoid using network devices.
This time was different.
People had no idea which unforeseeable behaviors smart devices might autonomously adopt under the rule’s influence.
Still, everything has two sides.
Guan Tong thought, "If humans could reverse-engineer this rule, using its 'emergence' to self-update and solve certain engineering problems, it could actually raise overall productivity."
Maybe that was the "danger and opportunity" the rule's note mentioned.
If he could think of that, others could too—especially decision-makers.
But walking the tightrope between "protecting human lives" and "leveraging the rule to boost productivity" would be a major problem.
"...Let the experts in the Countermeasures Research Office study this. All I can do is release the news early and prepare myself."
Soon, the Ascendant Home administrator account that countless people watched posted a new thread selling Hidden Rule intelligence.
A frenzy erupted under the post.
"Praise the admin!"
"Fresh intel, grabbing a front-row spot!"
"I can't afford it, but I must support the admin—every time hidden intel saves lives."
"Yeah, without the admin's intel, countries might reach conclusions through trial and error, but that price would be lives."
"If I get rich one day, I’ll buy intel from the admin, not for anything else, just to support him!"
Amid those voices of support, Guan Tong quickly received payment from his regular customers in Ascension Coins—eight familiar shares, each 500,000, totaling four million Ascension Coins.
After getting the Ascension Coins, he began thinking about how to tackle this rule.
The simplest, least brain-taxing method was obviously to avoid all chip-equipped electronic devices.
That way, even if he couldn't observe devices self-iterating, he would at least avoid being harmed by them... probably?
Guan Tong couldn't be certain, because it didn't depend on him; it depended on the devices.
Take the smart car he had thought of earlier.
If a smart car iterated to get faster from A to B, it would almost certainly ignore traffic lights—traffic laws exist to protect human safety, precisely what an iterated smart car wouldn't care about.
Just imagine cars careening across roads and sidewalks; even if ordinary people didn't use electronic devices themselves, they could be struck and killed by suddenly appearing smart cars.
With his current ability, Guan Tong needn't worry about being run over, but he couldn't guarantee no electronic device would mysteriously harm him.
So merely not using devices himself wasn't enough; to ensure safety he would need an environment isolated from the outside world.
That, of course, was...
Guan Tong turned to look at the shelter behind him. What could be safer or more isolating than his own shelter?
So the optimal safety solution for this rule was obvious—stay inside his shelter for the entire month.
"It'd be best to have Jingyi and the others stay here for the month too. That would keep them safe, and more people would make it livelier," Guan Tong thought.
Although the academy, being resource-favored, probably had its own safety measures, they would still not be as secure as his shelter.
If this were before, Shi Jingyi probably wouldn't agree, but now that they were together and their relationship had changed, some arrangements could be handled differently.
He didn't agonize over it. He immediately used the Mind Network to contact her with the proposal.
"Jingyi, during this rule period why don't you stay in my shelter? It's the safest option."
"The academy is organizing a meeting of all staff right now," Shi Jingyi's voice sounded in his mind. "I'll tell you after it's over."
"Oh, then you go ahead and handle it."
Guan Tong ended the contact and scratched his head.
In his Mind Network contact list, besides Shi Jingyi, there were Uenoshi, Yelanka, and Adam. The mental link to Adam cut off and disappeared when Adam died, so only three remained.
He wouldn't contact Yelanka; as the Administrator of Xisiya, she certainly would not come stay in his shelter—she had to stay with her nation.
Uenoshi...
Guan Tong wasn't sure. He initiated contact and asked.
After explaining the Hidden Rule, he asked, "Shangyuan, during this rule there could be unpredictable dangers. For safety, it's best if you come to my shelter. What do you think?"
Uenoshi: "Sorry, Troupe Leader, I have to stay with the Serpent Hair Society's core members. Especially with many new recruits recently; if I leave, it would shake their morale."
Guan Tong: "..."
He'd expected that answer, so it wasn't much of a surprise.
As for letting her bring the whole Serpent Hair crew... his shelter had a few sub-levels, but it definitely couldn't accommodate that many people.
Guan Tong: "Alright, then stay safe. Contact me if there's danger."
Uenoshi: "You too, Troupe Leader."
What about Black Star and White Star...
Guan Tong contacted them, and as he suspected, the response matched expectations.
Black Star: "We have too many clients to leave! A month without showing up and relationships fray... Thanks for the thought, Troupe Leader. White Star and I will watch out. You be careful too!"
Just after ending contact with Black Star, Shi Jingyi's voice came through again.
Shi Jingyi: "Little Tong, I’ll stay at the academy for now. This rule has many unknown dangers; if there are emergencies students can't handle, we teachers should be there to protect them."
Guan Tong: "Right. If that happens I can help too. Just don't put yourself alone in danger."
Shi Jingyi laughed and agreed: "Of course. Little Tong, you are my strongest support."
After the call he sighed; he was going to be an empty-nest Old Guan.
"Everyone's busy, busy, busy—maybe that's not so bad."
No one had come to the shelter; my imagined "more people is better" scenario was completely shattered.
But he wasn't really disappointed. For more than two years he'd spent most of the time alone and was used to it.
Being alone did mean more freedom; he didn't have to consider others when doing something.
Besides, he had Coal Ball with him. That creature, famous from the Suroma battle, was now well-known online.
Every time he logged in he could see its pictures; many people guessed it was a "species," and a lot of them thought it was a live item Guan Tong had pulled from a box.
Not entirely wrong—Coal Ball didn't transform from a box item into a battle beast without having been pulled from a chest.
"A month of rule time—I can't just sit in the shelter doing nothing," Guan Tong made a plan for himself. "While monitoring the rule’s development, I'll keep strengthening myself across multiple dimensions, and continue pushing the plan to deal with Bruce and rescue Adam's daughter."