Chapter 1: The Elementary Student Learning Device

PS: (Don’t ask, just know it’s one meter shorter)

“Brother, when will you be home?”
“I’m almost there,” came the reply amid the noisy sounds of cars.
The girl’s voice brightened with delight, “That’s wonderful! I’ll come home this week during my break.”
“Brother, I want to eat your braised pork.”
“Alright.”

…

After hanging up, Li Ping’an sat on the dilapidated bus heading from the county to the township, his thoughts drifting away.

Three years ago, the results of the college entrance exam were announced. With an outstanding score as the province’s second-highest in science, he chose to major in Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University. It should have been a time of celebration for the whole family, but fate had other plans. His parents, returning after a trip on a rainy night, were caught in a car accident; both car and passengers plunged off a cliff. By the time passing vehicles discovered them, it was too late.

From then on, only Li Ping’an and his younger sister Li Ya, six years his junior, remained. Since then, his sister, still in middle school, had no choice but to board at school, only occasionally returning home. Li Ping’an understood well: it wasn’t that she didn’t want to come home, but that she feared facing the cold, empty house alone.

He wasn’t sure whether to feel happy or sad; with his achievement as the top science student in the county, both the county and school awarded him scholarships. Combined with their parents’ savings, he and his sister did not have to worry about abandoning their studies for financial reasons.

The battered bus jolted and stopped frequently. Li Ping’an closed his eyes to rest, hugging his backpack tightly for a sense of security.

“Hey, hey, young man, Li Family Bay is here.” The driver’s voice boomed, not bothering to look back.

Li Ping’an opened his eyes abruptly at the driver’s call, hurriedly stood up, grabbed his backpack, and walked quickly to the door, quietly waiting for the bus to stop.

Walking along the familiar concrete road, each step felt like treading upon memories. Strangely, Li Ping’an felt his exhaustion melt away, replaced by a lightness in his heart.

“Well now, the college student’s home for the holidays!”
Second Grandpa, sitting at the door basking in the sun, grinned widely, his missing teeth glaring in the sunlight.

Seeing Second Grandpa, Li Ping’an’s lips curved into a warm smile, “Second Grandpa.”

“Good to have you back. Come over for dinner tonight, it’s just a matter of an extra bowl and pair of chopsticks,” Second Grandpa called out enthusiastically.

Li Ping’an had intended to refuse, but thinking of how seldom his sister returned, the house must be thick with dust and in need of a thorough cleaning, and likely nothing ready to eat, he responded cheerfully,

“Alright.”

Walking less than a hundred meters past Second Grandpa’s house brought Li Ping’an to his own. It was a two-story villa, which, perhaps from being uninhabited for so long, now seemed shrouded in a misty veil, exuding a sense of desolation.

Li Ping’an took out the key from his backpack, inserted it in the lock, and turned gently. With a creak, the door opened, and dust, like startled spirits, danced up to greet him.

“Pfui, pfui—” Li Ping’an frowned, waving his arms in an attempt to drive away the haze before him.

Suddenly.

“Huh?” A trace of puzzlement flashed in Li Ping’an’s eyes as he looked at the floor in the living room.

There, on the floor, lay a small handheld game console with buttons, the kind he’d played with as a child.

Dust covered its surface, proving it had been there for quite some time.

Li Ping’an thought little of it, assuming his sister had unearthed this “antique” from some corner, found it broken, and left it lying there.

He bent down to pick it up. The instant his fingers touched the console, something extraordinary happened.

The dust-laden game console seemed to liquefy, merging into his brain in a way Li Ping’an could not comprehend.

“Empire Publishing Elementary Student Learning Device bound successfully.”
“Connecting to Empire Network to update latest data…”
“Network connection failed, no network…”
“Detected unknown electromagnetic communication network, decrypting.”
“Decryption successful, network accessed.”
“Updating language…”

In the living room, Li Ping’an stood frozen, rigid in place.

The text flickering on the screen clearly belonged to no language he knew, yet its meaning poured into his mind like a crystal stream—he understood it perfectly.

“Language update successful. Welcome to the Elementary Student Learning Device.”

With the notice of language update, the mysterious transparent panel in his mind transformed its contents into the language he knew best.

Li Ping’an ignored the swirling dust around him and dropped onto the sofa.

His mind was reeling from the incredible scene he had just witnessed. As a top science student at Tsinghua University, such an illogical event shattered his boundaries of understanding. He desperately needed to calm himself.

One thing was certain: this learning device did not belong to human civilization.

Neither the strange script he had never seen, nor the material that could miraculously liquefy and merge with the human body, nor the bizarre manner by which it fused directly with his brain—none of it was of this world.

Everything logically told Li Ping’an that this was an artifact from beyond human civilization.

Once calm, Li Ping’an tried to control the transparent panel in his mind by thought.

In the next moment, icon after icon appeared on the panel, all gray except one, which was illuminated.

“What in the world?” Li Ping’an muttered in astonishment.

“How to handcraft a holographic projection device?”
“How to handcraft a small controllable nuclear fusion reactor?”
…
“How to DIY a spaceship.”

Staring at the contents displayed on the gray icons, Li Ping’an was utterly stunned.

“Wait, are elementary students in alien civilizations really this wild?”

His face was full of disbelief. These were all cutting-edge technologies that humanity had yet to conquer, and here they were listed as elementary-level study topics.

“So, a college student from Tsinghua is no better than a kindergarten kid from an alien planet?” Li Ping’an laughed bitterly.

He tried clicking the gray icons, but the system prompted that they needed to be unlocked.

When he focused his attention on the sole lit icon—“A Step-by-Step Guide to Developing Artificial Intelligence”—he was instantly brought to the relevant page.

Looking at the detailed information and code on the transparent panel, Li Ping’an’s heartbeat quickened.

Regardless of how this alien learning device ended up in his living room, or whether it was some cosmic prank, its arrival was enough to transform his and his sister’s lives.

Though his bank account still held over three hundred thousand, Li Ping’an knew his sister would enter high school next year, a period demanding much more money. He couldn’t afford to sit idle.

Even graduates from Tsinghua sometimes struggle to find good jobs in society.

Yet the appearance of this learning device could change their fate.

Even if the other technical materials were temporarily locked, the artificial intelligence resources alone were enough to benefit him for a lifetime!

Li Ping’an was curious about the complete—

Slowly, Li Ping’an raised his head, gazing at his parents’ portraits on the living room table, and whispered, “Bless me, Mom and Dad.”