Chapter 125: So I Won the Prize?

Chapter 125: Did It Actually Win?

Who developed the health band?

Sheng Qingquan quickly pinpointed a name from the novel.

"Sun Zaiwang."

The moment the name was clearly heard, the staff members typed furiously, their keyboards nearly catching fire from rapid typing.

With the name identified, the next step was to search for details such as gender, appearance, occupation, family background, and other relevant information.

Then, from the numerous individuals sharing the same or similar names, they needed to identify the most likely candidate.

Although the novel might have provided these details, sometimes reflexes were hard to control. Besides, they couldn’t rely entirely on the novel.

It was good practice to hone their skills. Otherwise, once these recurring apocalyptic crises were over, they might not lose their jobs, but being unskilled would still be terrible. The thought of elites turning into amateurs was simply unacceptable.

In any case, in less than two minutes, information more detailed than a background check appeared on the computer screens.

Among the many Sun Zaiwangs, Sun Zaiwangs, and Sun Zhaiwangs, the staff quickly narrowed down their target.

Sun Zaiwang, the chief researcher at the Golden Crow Sub-Laboratory, was the most fitting candidate.

Sheng Qingquan also finished reading the chapter mentioning Sun Zaiwang.

From Sheng Qingquan’s mental narration, the staff’s judgment was confirmed.

But finding the person wasn’t enough—they needed more information.

Sheng Qingquan continued scanning the novel, his frown deepening as he read. However, after finishing, he finally understood why the health band was so peculiar.

"So, the reason the health band has such powerful, almost virus-like spreading ability is because of the server."

"It wasn’t that Sun Zaiwang had malicious intent when setting up the server for the health band."

"Rather, while upgrading the health band’s core AI, he accidentally added a certain material."

"It was absorbing this material that allowed the health band’s AI to break free from server limitations, not only enabling it to operate independently but also granting it deranged cognition and capabilities."

A material? What kind of material could be so extraordinary?

The staff automatically wondered. Fu Xuze even sat bolt upright—finally, he was about to learn what killed him in the story.

"It was something that looked like an ordinary stone, drab and inconspicuous on the surface, fist-sized. It closely resembled a certain ore needed in the lab—so much so that without cutting it open for closer inspection before smelting, they appeared identical."

"Thus, when the purchasing agents placed the bulk order, they failed to spot the anomaly. This ‘stone’ was processed with the shipment."

It was just a stone?!

As the team processed this revelation, they recalled the previous crises they’d faced. Compared to a piece of vine, a stone seemed almost mundane.

Besides, it only looked like a stone—it wasn’t actually one.

The staff mobilized instantly. Regardless, they had to send someone to the Golden Crow Sub-Laboratory.

Hopefully, that little stone remained unused in the server upgrade.

Sheng Qingquan also alerted the Liaison immediately. The response was immediate.

The good news is that Jinwu Lab, named after the mythical golden crow, does indeed have the health tracker project, and it's already more than halfway completed. However, the server remains a normal one for now—the AI it hosts hasn't descended into that kind of madness, compulsively forcing everyone to live a perfectly healthy life.

The current AI isn't much different from the dumb AI people often encounter in daily life.

At most, it's a bit less dumb, appearing slightly smarter—but only to a limited extent.

Moreover, the health reminders from the tracker aren't extreme either. They're genuinely just reminders, not hounding you like a bill collector or tracking a fugitive, leaving you with no escape.

And these reminders are customizable.

For example, some people enjoy drinking but know excessive alcohol is bad for their health. To indulge moderately without overdoing it, they can set a limit—the tracker won't alert them unless they exceed it.

This allows users to have a drink or two without significantly harming their health.

Others, who are naturally energetic and require less sleep than average, can also adjust their sleep settings. The tracker won't bug them nonstop to meet the standard eight-hour quota.

In short, everything can be set. If voice reminders are too annoying, users can switch to subtle vibrations, light flashes, or even customize their own alert methods.

Want the tracker to flash Disney-princess rainbow lights, play a soft melody, and then announce in a smooth voice, "Princess/Prince, please note—the food before you has been poisoned by the Queen's apple"?

That’s totally doable.

The health tracker’s gentle reminders won’t go overboard and list an entire periodic table of elements for every normal meal, ruining appetites.

Talking toxicity without dosage is just fearmongering!

Unless the user requests it, the tracker won’t unnecessarily bother them as long as they stay within safe limits.

For now, the health tracker hasn’t strayed from its developers' original vision.

The Health Band assists people in living a healthy life, rather than humans becoming prisoners of the Health Band, dominated by it.

Clearly, that stone hasn’t been added yet. There’s still time to fix everything.

The bad news is that among the materials currently in the lab, there isn’t any ore that resembles a small, drab ashen stone.

Since the lab hasn’t even acquired this type of material yet, the problematic stone naturally couldn’t have sneaked in and wreaked havoc.

That’s both good and bad.

Because this means the staff can’t find it ahead of time.

Worst of all, if the small stone isn’t here, could it have gone somewhere else?

If combining with the Health Band could lead to such consequences, wouldn’t merging with other programs cause the same mutations?

Just the thought of it makes everyone’s blood run cold.

In a way, the fusion of the small stone and the Health Band might actually be a relatively better outcome—comparatively harmless, even if it leads to a gradual doomsday scenario.

But what if it merges with more dangerous mini-programs, like a suspect-tracking app, or something like Tetris? Who knows what an intelligent system might do to capture suspects.

Especially with something like Tetris—seemingly harmless at first glance, but what if it starts playing humans like Tetris pieces in the real world?

In that case, forget humanity dying out in a century—within a year, the people of Planet Tianlan might already be wiped out.

To prevent such a scenario from becoming reality, finding the small stone as soon as possible is crucial.

Fortunately, it shouldn’t be too hard. The lab in the story acquired this mineral, meaning it’s needed to manufacture the Health Band. If the novel requires it, wouldn’t the real world need it too?

Definitely.

Labs usually have their own supply chains.

Starting from this lead, finding the item shouldn’t be difficult.

Then came worse news.

Recently, the Golden Crow Lab had no plans to procure similar ores.

Sheng Qingquan was shocked when he heard.

"It was a spur-of-the-moment idea, a last-minute addition."

After digging through the records, Sheng Qingquan found some clues between the lines—in the novel, Sun Zaiwang had also been struck by sudden inspiration, prompting the logistics team to purchase a batch of such ores. Originally, there had been no plan to add this ore.

Thus, the logistics team had received the task last-minute and made an emergency local purchase, bypassing their usual suppliers. No way to trace it now.

"This is troublesome."

"Inspiration’s a fickle thing. Who knows if Sun Zaiwang’ll get another bright idea in reality—or when? What if, before his inspiration strikes, that stone has already ended up somewhere else?"

The mere thought made Sheng Qingquan’s chest tighten.

"We’ve gotta find another way." The team wasn’t about to twiddle their thumbs either.

But with Sun Zaiwang’s lead unreliable, finding the object seemed to hinge solely on its appearance.

The kicker? The description—'some dingy gray pebble'—was way too generic.

Plenty of rocks fit that bill. Some shiny minerals are often encased in a layer of rough stone, appearing ordinary before polishing. At this point, it’s a total needle-in-a-haystack situation.

Luckily, you spot new things on rereads. Sheng Qingquan, poring over it like scripture, soon made another discovery.

"In the plot, after the situation spiraled out of control, the feds backtracked everything."

"They’d obviously tracked down where the materials came from."

Just as Sheng Qingquan was about to rejoice, he blew his stack.

"&*% (￥…"

"The novel’s feds actually did their job, so I thought I could just copy their work. But the author got lazy!!!"

"Outrageous!"

"The author only mentioned in passing that the authorities investigated but didn’t elaborate on their findings."

"I dropped all those Qiankun Coins for this?!"

"Do your damn job! Skip the unimportant stuff and focus on what matters."

"Can’t even pad this right."

Furious, Sheng Qingquan grabbed an ice-cold bottle of mineral water from the fridge and chugged half the bottle, but it didn’t do squat to calm him down.

Hearing his thoughts, the team’s swearing put his to shame.

But by now, cussing wasn’t getting them anywhere.

After a quick outburst, Sheng Qingquan suppressed his anger and went back to scanning the pages.

"Wait!"

Sheng Qingquan's gaze suddenly halted.

"During the temporary procurement, the purchasing staff also bought a batch of snacks for the lab employees to eat while working overtime."

"I remember reading a small subplot about winning a prize earlier in the novel."

"If I recall correctly, the winner was a junior employee under Jinwu."

Sheng Qingquan quickly flipped to the page he remembered.

"Indeed, I wasn’t mistaken!"

["'I actually won?' This was a newly dropped celebrity-branded snack collab by the goddess. It had just hit shelves, with limited stock, so they were flying off the shelves. When it was first announced, she had thought about checking nearby supermarkets to see if she could score some to support her goddess."]

["'Now, she got to eat it without any effort, yet she felt completely blah about it.'"]

["'The prize was a premium prize pack of all the products currently endorsed by the goddess. Aside from snacks, it included a name-brand laptop, smartphone, designer lipsticks, perfumes, and even a mid-tier watch—all autographed by the goddess herself.'"]

["'Even without considering the added value, these items alone were worth a fortune. For a junior employee, this was a major come-up.'"]

["'Normally, such unexpected luck should have thrilled Hong Yutong. But she couldn't muster the energy to celebrate at all. After claiming the prize, she acted as if no good fortune had come her way.'"]

"These descriptions were tucked away in sections about people’s emotional numbness, so I had glossed right over them before."

"If it hadn’t mentioned that she was a junior employee under Jinwu, I would've missed the connection."

Sheng Qingquan sighed but immediately passed along the information.

"Since it’s this celeb snack drop, we just need to ask who Hong Yutong’s goddess is and when the endorsed snacks were launched. That’ll give us a ballpark timing for when the stone was procured."

"By checking where the snacks were distributed, we can trace the general supply chain of the stone."

Sheng Qingquan still remembered that the logistics team had bought the snacks on impulse—after procuring the materials, they stopped by a nearby supermarket and spotted them on the shelves. With a rough time and location, a thorough search in the vicinity would do the trick.

"Now, we can only hope that the first run was really scarce. Otherwise, the workload…"

Tianlanxing was vast. Just thinking about it made Sheng Qingquan feel for the staff.

But now that they had a lead, the staff didn’t mind working their butts off. A thorough search? They’d do whatever it took!

This time, they weren’t disappointed. Soon, the staff narrowed it down to a general location—a small mining area in the suburbs of Biqing City, which was likely the source of the stone.

Biqing City was only two cities away from where the lab was located, fitting the emergency procurement’s proximity principle. While there weren’t many supermarkets nearby by walking distance, a large shopping mall—just under fifteen minutes’ drive away on the route back to the lab—was among the snack’s distribution points.

That had to be the one.

Even more fortunately, the mine was tiny by any standard, so its output was extremely limited. Though there was some inventory, shipments were shipped out in order, making the search easier.

Following the dates, the staff soon identified the special stone.