The rain had mostly stopped by the time Li Wei reached the main avenue.
A few taxis passed by, their headlights cutting through the damp night air. Most of the shops were already closed, leaving long stretches of quiet sidewalk between the remaining convenience stores and late-night restaurants.
Li Wei walked with an unhurried pace.
He still wasn't completely sure what had just happened in his apartment.
A voice inside his head.
A "system."
A location called a sign-in point.
If someone had told him that story yesterday, he would have assumed they were joking.
Or sleep deprived.
But the voice had sounded too clear to ignore.
Ten minutes later, the tall building of Linhai City Public Library came into view.
It stood on a wide plaza surrounded by trees. During the day the place was always crowded with students and office workers, but at this hour the entire area was empty.
The glass doors were dark.
A small security light glowed above the entrance.
Li Wei climbed the steps and stopped in front of the doors.
Nothing happened.
He waited for a few seconds.
Still nothing.
Li Wei crossed his arms.
"…Do I have to say something?"
Inside his mind he spoke quietly.
"System?"
[ONLINE]
"So I'm here," Li Wei said. "Now what?"
[HOST WITHIN SIGN-IN RANGE]
"…That's it?"
[HOST MAY INITIATE SIGN-IN]
Li Wei stared at the closed library doors.
For a moment he felt slightly ridiculous.
Standing outside a locked building at midnight talking to something in his head.
Still…
He had already come this far.
"Alright," he said quietly. "Sign in."
For a brief moment the world felt strangely quiet.
The distant traffic noise faded.
Even the wind seemed to pause.
Then the voice returned.
[SIGN-IN COMPLETE]
LOCATION: LINHAI CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY
Li Wei blinked.
"That was fast."
A new message appeared.
[REWARD GENERATED]
COGNITIVE EXPANSION — LEVEL 1
Before he could ask what that meant, a sudden pressure spread through his head.
It wasn't painful.
More like the feeling of waking up after a long nap.
His thoughts became unusually clear.
Sounds around him seemed easier to notice—the distant hum of an air conditioner, the dripping of water from the tree branches.
Li Wei took a slow breath.
"…That's new."
He walked down the steps and sat on one of the benches facing the plaza.
His mind felt strangely focused.
Not faster exactly.
Just… sharper.
He looked toward the road.
A car drove past the intersection, tires splashing lightly through the wet pavement.
Without trying, he noticed small details he normally would have ignored—the worn brake pads squeaking faintly, the uneven pattern in the headlights caused by a cracked cover.
Li Wei leaned back slightly.
"So that's what cognitive expansion means?"
He spoke again.
"System."
[ONLINE]
"What exactly did you change?"
[HOST NEURAL PROCESSING EFFICIENCY INCREASED]
"How much?"
[CURRENT IMPROVEMENT: 7%]
Li Wei whistled quietly.
"Seven percent doesn't sound like much… but it feels different."
He thought about his engineering classes.
If studying became even slightly easier, that alone would already be valuable.
After a moment he asked another question.
"So I can do this every day?"
[HOST MAY PERFORM ONE SIGN-IN PER DAY]
"And every place gives a reward?"
[REWARDS DEPEND ON INFORMATION NODE CHARACTERISTICS]
Li Wei nodded slowly.
The system's explanations were brief but clear.
Different locations.
Different results.
Which meant the world probably contained many sign-in points.
Libraries.
Museums.
Universities.
Places connected to knowledge.
At least that was his first guess.
A flashlight beam suddenly swept across the plaza.
Li Wei looked up.
A security guard was walking along the side of the building.
When the guard noticed him sitting on the bench, he walked over.
"Library's closed," the man said.
"I know," Li Wei replied.
The guard eyed him suspiciously.
"Then why are you hanging around here at this hour?"
Li Wei thought for a second.
"Couldn't sleep."
The guard sighed.
"Students these days…"
He pointed toward the street.
"If you want to stay out, go to the café down the road. Don't sit around government buildings at night."
"Got it," Li Wei said, standing up.
He started walking back toward his apartment.
The streets were quieter now.
A light breeze moved through the trees.
After a few minutes, Li Wei spoke again in his mind.
"One more question."
[ONLINE]
"Where did you come from?"
There was a pause.
Longer than before.
Then the system responded.
[SYSTEM ORIGIN: ARCHIVE OF ABSOLUTE KNOWLEDGE]
Li Wei frowned slightly.
"That sounds… dramatic."
[ARCHIVE FUNCTION: RECORD AND ANALYZE INFORMATION]
"And you're connected to it?"
[CONFIRMED]
Li Wei slipped his hands into his jacket pockets as he walked.
A giant archive of knowledge somewhere in the world.
And he had just been connected to it.
He looked up at the city skyline.
Lights from thousands of apartments glowed across the distance.
Somewhere out there, the next sign-in location was probably waiting.
Deep underground, far below the city streets, a sealed facility quietly registered the signal from the library node.
A dormant system began processing the data.
On a dark monitor, a line of text appeared.
ARCHIVE NODE ACTIVATED
After several seconds, another line followed.
HOST STATUS: UNKNOWN
Back on the street, Li Wei had no idea any of that was happening.
He simply walked home, already thinking about tomorrow.