(Ding—Brain Check-In Station… Checking in your brain here will make reading a lot more enjoyable)
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Late at night, at Qingmu University, Dorm Room 404.
The lights were still on in Chen Mo's dorm. His desk was cluttered with various tech magazines and programming books, yet his computer screen was playing the classic sci-fi movie Resident Evil. The scene had just reached the part where the main characters were heading to destroy the AI known as the Red Queen.
He had turned down his roommates' invitation to an all-night gaming session and chose to stay in the dorm to watch movies by himself.
His only true passion was watching sci-fi movies.
Since childhood, he'd been obsessed with them—an absolute diehard fan. He had watched almost every sci-fi film ever made, and knew nearly every plot and detail by heart.
That's the Red Queen—an advanced artificial intelligence! And it just got destroyed like that? What a waste.
If only I could have such a super AI that obeyed only me…
Chen Mo was completely absorbed in the movie. His imagination began to drift wildly. Before he realized it, it was already midnight. He glanced toward the door—no movement. His roommates hadn't returned and clearly wouldn't be coming back tonight.
His eyes felt strained from watching too long, and his throat was dry. He instinctively reached out toward his water cup, intending to take a drink, forgetting that he had left the cup by the water dispenser.
His right hand casually reached out.
It brushed against the computer screen—and suddenly, a blue light flared. A suction force burst out from the screen. The next moment, Chen Mo's right hand passed straight through the monitor and into the world of the movie.
His hand was like a colossal giant's, now standing in the center of the movie scene. The characters on the screen, now bathed in blue light, all froze completely in place.
Staring at the screen, Chen Mo suddenly seemed to understand something. His eyes lit up, and his breathing grew rapid.
My hand… can reach into the movie?
If that's true, then…
Chen Mo paused, but as someone who had always been a bit of a daydreamer, this sort of setting was easy for him to accept.
Other people got reborn with system cheats and golden fingers. So what if his cheat was the ability to reach into movies?
Time to test his superpower.
Chen Mo muttered under his breath and began to guide his right hand as if from a god's-eye view.
His hand moved to the left and grabbed Alice, yanking her forward. Miraculously, just like dragging an icon on a desktop, Alice's position moved exactly where he placed her.
He felt like a creator deity, moving movie characters at will—forward, back, left, right—like playing with building blocks.
Fascinating!
Next, he stretched his hand toward one of the soldiers and took the gun from his hands. He fiddled with it briefly before setting it aside to try something else.
A few moments later—
Chen Mo couldn't help but grin. This ability was truly amazing. It was like he was God, able to manipulate everything within the movie's space.
Wait!
If I can reach into the movie… can I pull things out of it?
The idea, once formed, took root and wouldn't let go.
Chen Mo wasn't one to hesitate. He immediately grabbed the soldier's special-issue firearm and tried to bring it out into the real world. The weapon from Resident Evil far outclassed anything like an AK or Desert Eagle in the real world.
Just as he was about to pull it out, a thought struck him—Wait. I'm a college student. If I suddenly have a weapon in my dorm room… how do I even explain that?
Plus, in Jiuzhou, private firearm ownership was strictly prohibited.
Bringing out this gun would be asking for trouble. He wouldn't be able to explain where it came from at all.
So he put the gun back down, eyes gleaming as another idea struck him—What if I took out the Red Queen's mainframe instead?
With a single thought, his hand moved again and reached for the Red Queen's core. As he gently pulled, the mainframe glowed intensely with blue light.
Some mysterious force stirred as his right hand emerged from the screen—wrapped in that same blue glow—now tightly grasping the Red Queen's core processor.
Chen Mo was so thrilled he nearly jumped in place. Not only could he reach into movies, but he could actually take things out of them!
Movies were full of fantastical technologies and inventions. That meant—everything in them could become his!
He was going to make it big.
If I can really bring things out from movies, then rising to the top of the world… is just a matter of time.
Bring out the Red Queen from Resident Evil and restart the T-Virus project—usher in a new era for humanity.
Bring out the nanotech armor from Iron Man. With the body of a mortal, rival the gods.
Bring out god-making tech from Super Seminary. In Jiuzhou, every citizen becomes a dragon; tech reaches divine heights.
Bring out the planetary engine from The Wandering Earth. Begin the interstellar age and etch human civilization across the stars.
Bring out the elixir of immortality from Anaconda. Found the Immortality Club, exist through dynastic changes, and remain the unseen hand behind history.
…
Sci-fi movies were filled with such wild, world-changing ideas and technologies.
And now, those movies had become his reality.
His life was forever changed.
Dreams he once thought impossible were now within reach.
Chen Mo, still excited, forced himself to calm down. First things first—he needed to inspect the item he just retrieved from the movie: the Red Queen's core.
He gently placed it down. The blue-glowing core, still enveloped in light, suddenly began to grow in size until it returned to its full, original scale.
Only now did Chen Mo realize—when items were pulled from the movie, they temporarily shrank. Once in the real world, they resumed their original size.
The core had a blue-white glow, shaped like a multi-faceted sphere, about as large as a computer desk.
Is this an optical computer? Or a biotech processor?
He didn't know. All he knew was that the Red Queen represented a level of technology far beyond Earth's current capabilities.
…
Chen Mo circled around the core, trying to find a power button like a laptop might have—but all he saw were a few ports. No switch or button in sight.
Just as he was scratching his head, a line of text appeared on his retina—visible only to him. It looked like a personal status screen.
[Host: Chen Mo]
[Ability: Reach Into Movies (Limited to sci-fi films. Cannot access fantasy, horror, or other genres. The closer the item is to real-world technology, the easier it is to retrieve.)]
[Item: Super AI Red Queen (Already bound to host. Eternally loyal to host.)]
[Remaining item retrievals: 0 (Recharge required)]
Seeing the status screen confirming his ability made Chen Mo happy. As long as he could recharge, he could retrieve more items from sci-fi films. That was the foundation for reaching the peak of life.
But the status panel didn't explain how to actually use the Red Queen.
Still no solution to the current problem.
Wait a second—could it be… out of power?
Chen Mo paused, then circled around the core again. This time, he noticed a lightning bolt symbol. He pressed it lightly, and a power cable popped out, flashing red.
So it was out of power.
Whatever kind of computer the Red Queen was, it still needed electricity to function.
Thinking it over, Chen Mo decided to avoid tripping the dorm's electric meter. He ran a direct line from the main building's grid, spliced it open, and plugged in the core's cable.
Immediately, the dorm lights dimmed.
The next second, they all went out.
Chen Mo jumped—Does the mainframe draw that much power?
What he didn't know was that not just the dorm, but the entire university, even the whole city, had lost power.
From the moment he plugged in the Red Queen's power line, this futuristic energy storage system—far beyond this era—had activated, converting all electricity into the high-grade energy required by the mainframe.
Electrical energy was too primitive, like comparing AA batteries to nuclear power.
So it had to absorb an enormous amount of energy to reach the threshold for operation.