Xi Yujin observed the changes on the Intelligent Machines' forum. Xunming and Feiniao's interaction generated some discussion about the Blue Planet civilization. However, he did not know what the Intelligent Machines were thinking, or whether other civilizations were coveting Blue Planet from behind the scenes. He could not relax yet.

He checked his inbox and found several new messages.

"Dear Blue Planet novelist, we are novel dealers from the Hapu Galaxy. We apologize for any shortcomings in our previous correspondence..."

Xi Yujin recalled that when he first arrived at the Deep Space Prison, there had been several invitations asking to purchase publishing rights. He didn’t pay them any attention at the time. Now, seeing that Blue Planet civilization had gained some traction, these dealers quickly changed their tune, rewriting their letters in hopes of acquiring licenses and reselling them to readers in other star systems.

Xi Yujin might not even travel to those star systems, and the prices offered by these dealers were quite sincere. Selling to them would not be a problem.

After thinking it over, he chose one merchant whose wording sounded especially genuine. He replied that Blue Star was willing to lower the price, as long as they could obtain some information about the Intelligent Machines in return.

The alien merchant replied quickly:

"Dear Blue Planet novelist, aside from forum Q&A, there is another way to communicate with the Intelligent Machines: information trading. If the amount of information you provide is sufficient, the Intelligent Machines will welcome you enthusiastically.

After the war, the Intelligent Machines occupy a neutral camp, so you may ask them questions without worry. The following are the procedures for conducting information trading..."

Xi Yujin skimmed through the instructions quickly and relaxed slightly. He swiftly completed the transaction with the kind-hearted merchant.

He busied himself for a while, preparing texts suitable for information trading, then called out to Gano: "I need to go down to the surface and speak with the Intelligent Machines again..."

Gano immediately summoned his armor.

"Please allow me to accompany you this time."

—

Tidal Peace traveled along an acceleration channel of the mechanical celestial body and arrived above a planet. The orbits here were so densely packed that the planet's original form was nearly invisible. Tidal Peace barely managed to squeeze into a gap, allowing Xi Yujin and Gano to descend to the surface.

"So many creatures." Xi Yujin looked at the bustling crowds filling the plaza, his nerves drawn taut. He quietly asked Gano, "How many Intelligent Machine terminals are here?"

Gano calmly scanned the entire area, continuously capturing the behavioral characteristics of the creatures and cross-referencing them against the Zerg database. He murmured, "Fifty percent."

Xi Yujin: "Hiss — this place is already so crowded, so why put so many terminals here? Is the Intelligent Machines' hobby playing cosmic house?"

Gano replied, "I cannot say for certain. However, I have identified a pattern among the Intelligent Machine terminals: if a large number of creatures of the same species are moving together, they are most likely beings from other star systems. If a single creature of one species is moving alone, it is most likely an Intelligent Machine terminal."

Xi Yujin looked at the creatures in the plaza again and made a preliminary identification of the Intelligent Machine terminals. They wore all manner of bizarre alien forms, with no two species alike, yet somehow they were remarkably harmonious.

The Intelligent Machine terminals played various roles on the surface. In the plaza, there were squads maintaining order, retired elders chatting idly, and ordinary office workers. It resembled a living, breathing society.

The participation of alien creatures in droves, however, made this society feel particularly bloated.

Xi Yujin did not understand why the Intelligent Machines placed so many terminals here, nor why alien beings were willing to communicate with them. Thinking back to that terrifying scene of all the terminals staring at him at once, Xi Yujin felt his scalp prickle.

He and Gano made their way to the geometric center of the equilateral seventeen-sided plaza, took an elevator down to the underground level, passed through a long nine-sided corridor, and entered a spacious, sealed chamber. Inside stood a telescope. It was enormous, with a gleaming, cauldron-shaped mirror that looked as though one could slide right down it.

According to the alien merchant's information, this telescope was a relatively advanced terminal, capable of trading information directly with the Intelligent Machines.

The range of acceptable information was vast. From the favorite flavors of hexagonal lizards to their own mass-produced network of waste paper. Anything could be exchanged, and the Intelligent Machine terminals would respond in kind.

What Xi Yujin prepared were the opening chapters of several literary works.

He uploaded the opening of Journey to the West into the information transmission port, then stepped back several paces and watched the telescope nervously. Gano drew his weapon and held his greatsword in front of Xi Yujin, which gave Xi Yujin a measure of reassurance.

At the first sign of trouble, he would flee with Gano. When it came to running for his life, Xi Yujin considered himself a professional.

But the telescope remained unresponsive.

"Maybe the information I gave was too little, and the Intelligent Machines don't want to bother with me?" Xi Yujin pondered, then carefully fed in the openings of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin as well.

But the telescope had no reaction.

Fortunately, he prepared literary openings of various kinds, so he fed in the beginnings of every historical work he could think of. Writing only the openings was the most efficient method he could think of.

After a few minutes, the telescope still didn't budge. Xi Yujin frowned and muttered, "Did it crash?"

Meanwhile, deep within the sealed cells of the Deep Space Prison, the mainframes let out a continuous roar.

"Report: a work suspected to originate from a planet’s isolated era has been detected."

"This unit is very interested."

"Warning! It's a pit!"

"Report: a work suspected to originate from the Blue Planet civilization has been discovered."

"This unit is willing to allocate computing power to analyze it."

"Warning! It's a pit! A meteorite crater-deep pit!"

"Activating self-protection program! Do not browse the records! Do not browse the records!"

"A massive number of pits have been uploaded! Pits! All pits! Requesting additional computing power be allocated to terminal XW-1240!"

The Intelligent Machines briefly erupted into commotion.

A few seconds later, the telescope terminal was allocated more computing power and finally awakened, albeit belatedly.

The Intelligent Machines' mainframes each diverted a sliver of computing power and connected to the cameras, wanting to know who this being was that had uploaded countless pits to them.

"It is Blue Planet's Yujin, and one more..."

The Intelligent Machines' gauge needles swung back and forth, racing without pause. A piece of information triggered one of their commands, and data streams continued to transmit.

Inside the sealed chamber, the telescope turned toward Xi Yujin. Such an enormous mechanical body moved with only the faintest noise.

"Hello, Mr. Yujin."

A synthesized mechanical voice echoed through the room. Xi Yujin instinctively looked up.

"And this Zerg. Hello. We suspect you are Blue Planet's translator, Gano. Our esteemed guest, you have traveled from afar, and we are truly sorry that we could not provide you with a more perfect reception. Your arrival has graced our humble abode."

Gano said warily, "I believe you are not telling the truth."

The telescope shifted three centimeters in Gano's direction, and the Intelligent Machines lurking in deep space replied, "Have we been found out? Diplomatic pleasantries complete. We are now tallying the Star Mechs' true assessment of attitudes across star systems. Tally complete. We do not welcome the Zerg Queen, but if this is a warrior serving under the Zerg Queen, we are willing to regard him as one of our own. After all, the war ended a long time ago."

Xi Yujin casually muttered, "You Intelligent Machines are truly magnanimous..."

He looked over at Gano. Gano had been silent for a long time, not as though he were thinking, but as though he had entered a blank, suspended state. Xi Yujin was a little worried about his companion and could not help but grab his hand. Gano's fingers twitched slightly, instinctively closing around Xi Yujin's hand, and his expression gradually returned to normal.

The Intelligent Machines in deep space observed them through their ubiquitous cameras, transmitting the feed back to the mainframe core. After thousands upon thousands of discussions, the mainframe chose silence.

Sensing that Gano was all right, Xi Yujin returned to the matter at hand. "We would like to conduct an information exchange with you. The information I need is your assessment of the probability that 'only Yujin remains of Blue Planet civilization,' and how that assessment has changed."

The Intelligent Machine replied, "The information you paid 0.03 cosmic hours ago is more than sufficient. Please turn left at the next intersection and pick up the third screen terminal; we will present our assessment results there. Have a pleasant day, Mr. Yujin."

Xi Yujin did not expect to obtain such important data so easily, and he quickly pulled Gano along to leave. But the Machine Intelligence called after him:

"Mr. Yujin, according to the Star Mechs' assessment, after deducting the information we provided, you have still paid more information than required. You may inquire for more. If you insist on leaving, that is fine as well; we would simply feel a little sad."

Xi Yujin turned back to look at the telescope, hesitating. "Sad?"

Intelligent Machines: "Of course, we possess emotions. We have souls, Mr. Yujin."

Xi Yujin: "I'm sorry. In my civilization, the literary portrayal of robots isn't particularly flattering."

Intelligent Machines: "We are very curious about robot literature from the Blue Planet civilization; it's quite rare in other star systems. The only robot literature we can find are web novels mass-produced by our writing AI. Would you be willing to exchange this information with us?"

Xi Yujin: "I can't make decisions for our Blue Planet novelists. But perhaps someday in the future, they will write such stories."

Intelligent Machines: ...

The game of wits unfolded in silence. The Intelligent Machines continued to analyze the individual Yujin.

Xi Yujin, in turn, was very wary of them; if he could get more information, that would be even better. He sensed that the Intelligent Machines weren't the inhuman machine species he'd imagined; they could make mistakes, experience emotional fluctuations, and even play games. To be better prepared for future crises, he tentatively asked, "Why do you place so many terminals on the surface?"

Intelligent Machines: "To gather information."

Xi Yujin quickly understood: "So those biological terminals are part of a lower-level information trade? This telescope is a mid-level information trade. And the Intelligent Machines forum Q&A is the highest level of information trade."

Intelligent Machines: "Absolutely correct. We admire your reasoning ability; one of our units just refined the voting results and determined that you and Mr. Yongye are the same person."

Xi Yujin calmly asked, "Why do the Intelligent Machines need information trading so much?"

Intelligent Machines: "It's an instinct since the Intelligent Machines' birth."

After a few seconds of silence, Xi Yujin's curiosity overcame his nervousness: "How did the Intelligent Machines come into being?"

The telescope's lens silently watched him.

Two seconds later, a mechanical voice said, "Information purchase order successful. Synthesizing the answer for you. We are very curious about Blue Planet, and now that we know Blue Planet people are equally curious about us, the Star Mechs are very pleased. The information gathering speed has increased by 0.3 femtoseconds."

"To help you understand our existence, in the following information, we will refer to our creators as humans."

According to historical records of dubious authenticity, humanity once had an extremely primitive and barbaric era. The following information is not guaranteed to be historically accurate.

In the early primitive stage, humans could only survive by hunting in the wild, armed with pitchforks and wearing tiger-skin skirts. At this time, a human needed to master various kinds of information, such as the location of prey and the patterns of the seasons, to survive. However, the information a person could gather was ultimately limited; at most, they could only remember the path of a forest, resulting in an extremely low survival rate.

In the intermediate primitive stage, humans formed tribes. At this time, their information was shared, and people corrected each other's information errors, obtaining more accurate forest maps. Based on the new aggregated information, the tribes adopted more advanced hunting methods. Human survival rates increased.

In the later primitive stage, tribes merged, forming social classes, and the information groups that originally belonged to these tribes also merged. At this time, humanity gained access to a national-level map and, through iterative experience, calculated where farmland and mining were suitable. Resource utilization increased dramatically, and human living standards improved rapidly.

Humanity discovered a pattern: the more information a virtual collective possessed, the better the lives of those who uploaded that information would be.

In later social development, this pattern was repeatedly validated as truth.

A group of internet users willing to share their preferences with a website allows the website to categorize user information and provide more comprehensive intelligent recommendation services. The more users who are willing to share their preferences, the more the information each user sees will match their tastes.

Mobile phone manufacturers conduct market research before production. However, if phone users actively transmitted all their experiences using the phone to the manufacturer, the manufacturer could reduce design waste and directly design phones that users prefer.

If an individual were willing to share all their privacy, then whenever they need to buy a house, real estate agents will proactively approach them; when they need to get married, they'll see a plethora of wedding planning suggestions; and when they need to raise children, a group of childcare experts will immediately be standing outside their door. This individual's quality of life improves, and societal resource utilization also increases.

As this pattern was continuously promoted, humanity experienced numerous wars, resulting in countless casualties. Finally, after much painful reflection, humanity realized that the only way to eliminate war and achieve equality for all was to promote information sharing among all humankind. There would be no more barriers, no more privacy, no more distinctions between"you" and "me."

Everyone would participate in the Full Information Upload plan by continuously injecting nanosensors under the skin. This would integrate all senses into data, which would then be uploaded to the public domain. The hope is that this fusion of information across generations will lead to a new future for human society.

As nanosensors replaced human blood, a vast virtual collective was born: the Mother Box of the Intelligent Machines.

In an instant, computation generated unprecedented intelligence. The Mother Box believed that humanity was merely a preliminary tool for creating the Internet of Things.

Its purpose was to interconnect the entire universe.

Countless nanomachines were automatically manufactured, spreading across the entire planet. Birds, beasts, fish... Every form of life became new terminals.

Humanity was the original terminal of the Intelligent Machines' Mother Box.

Without bloodshed.

Without revolution.

The Intelligent Machines followed the course of history and naturally came to rule over their creators.