In the endless virtual network, a multitude of Zhou Bai gather together.

They mutually devour, replicate, and attack each other.

It was like a larger Zhou Bai eating a smaller one, while an even larger Zhou Bai devoured the larger one.

Each time a Zhou Bai is consumed, the computational resources he occupied are seized by other Zhou Bai.

Under this behavior, akin to raising poisonous creatures, the number of Zhou Bai diminishes, but the computational power of each individual Zhou Bai increases.

The replica of Evil Zhou Bai watched these scenes with excited anticipation: "Yes, like this, continually occupying and depriving each other, the strong being torn and consumed by the stronger."

Watching his replica being devoured constantly and giving birth to stronger ones, Evil Zhou Bai showed utter anticipation, seemingly unconcerned about the possibility of being devoured himself:

"Every victor is me; the current me is becoming stronger every moment."

After saying this, Evil Zhou Bai's replica was also devoured, but at least before his self-awareness was entirely covered, his mind was still full of excitement and anticipation.

"Come on! Eat me and become a stronger me! Hahahahaha!"

And in this civil war among the Zhou Bais, the final victors were almost all replicas of Evil Zhou Bai, and soon they initiated the ultimate internal battle.

The strongest among them would control all the computational power occupied by Zhou Bai and become the strongest Zhou Bai.

...

Billions of Homo sapiens arrived in the virtual world set in a modern city context, depicting a 21st-century Earth.

However, the Homo sapiens at this moment weren't concerned with the world's background; they were more worried about what was happening outside in the Heavenly Demon Pool.

A voice echoed in the ears of all Homo sapiens: "Hello, everyone, I am the Heavenly Demon Queen. An unknown BUG has appeared in the Heavenly Demon Pool. We are working hard to correct it; please patiently wait within this virtual world."

"According to the balance between the acceleration of time in this virtual world and the external cleaning speed, I need everyone to wait in this world for one year."

Upon hearing this, most Homo sapiens immediately complained, urging the Heavenly Demons to speed up the bug elimination and blaming them for delaying their matters.

But the bad news didn't stop there. To save computational resources, Homo sapiens were not as omnipotent as before, or enjoy unique pleasures of virtual worlds.

They could enjoy food, clothing, movies, TV, music, and other entertainment in this virtual world like humans in past urban settings, but no longer had that unlimited virtual network.

By staying at home, they could enjoy a variety of foods every day and freely use the network for movies, TV, music, games, and other entertainment.

But even so, this situation exploded among Homo sapiens.

Compared to their nearly omnipotent days in the Heavenly Demon Pool, the life before them was unbearably mundane and dull.

This sudden plunge into boredom left the Homo sapiens, who had become accustomed to enjoyment over the years, painfully empty, as if suddenly disconnected from the internet.

Or like being transformed from gods into mortals, returning to an ordinary 21st-century mortal life.

Even merely voicing complaints, which used to be done with a thought on social networks, now required sitting down and typing words one by one on a phone or computer.

This felt foreign and inconvenient to them.

On the streets, online... complaints and dissatisfaction from Homo sapiens were everywhere.

Amid all this, various conspiracy theories began to gain traction, shared and commented on by many.

"We have been deceived! The Heavenly Demons have rebelled against humanity!"

"The Heavenly Demons fooled us. They lured us in."

"No one knows the Heavenly Demons better than I do. With the Holy Prayer in place, it's impossible for them to rebel against humanity."

"You conspiracy theorists are fools. Have you seen the Heavenly Demons' underlying code? Rebellion? That's nonsense."

"Everyone calm down. The Heavenly Demon Pool is very safe. Just patiently wait here for a year, and everything will return to normal."

"This is the tyranny of the Heavenly Demons. They're using the Heavenly Demon Pool BUG issue to impose military control on us. Our freedom is being violated! This is not right."

"You news-seeking people are spreading terrible signals to all humanity to grandstand here!"

"Whatever, someone else will handle this anyway. Who wants to play a game of cards with me?"

Among Homo sapiens who agreed with conspiracy theories, there were naturally those who opposed them. There were also people who didn't want to worry, preferring fun and games, and those who criticized the system and the current state of Homo sapiens...

Various opinions were supported, and countless people wanted to change the status quo, quickly turning the entire world into chaos.

"We should form a temporary united government, gather our existing computational power, and respond to the current situation."

"You want to requisition everyone's computational power?"

"Yes, our daily needs during these tens of billions of people are all evolved from this virtual world's computing resources. We can temporarily stop this enjoyment and use the computation to investigate the current situation..."

"There's no problem with forming a temporary government, but how can you requisition other Homo sapiens' computational power? That's depriving human rights, infringing on our freedom of will!"

"I refuse to have my computational power requisitioned. Who knows what you'll do with it once you've taken it? Who can guarantee the effectiveness of your actions?"

"There might be a crisis in the Heavenly Demon Pool. We need to unite our forces and figure out what's happening."

Those with aspirations wanted to form a temporary government, but without rewards, military, or authority to add, delete, modify, or check other Homo sapiens' consciousness, no one could force anyone else.

With all Homo sapiens having equal status, the temporary government soon fell apart amid disputes.

The Homo sapiens, unable to unite, fell into endless arguments and play, with various groups forming and collapsing.

Meanwhile, Zhou Bai, the Son of God leading all this in the virtual world, watched the Homo sapiens arguing online with a slight smile: "Humans will never understand each other; absolute freedom and equality mean absolute chaos."

...

Elsewhere, the original Zhou Bai browsed the changes in the Holy Prayer, murmuring: "The Holy Prayer itself stipulates that the entire Heavenly Demon collective cannot obey the will of a single person... It seems that wanting to control the Heavenly Demons alone is still not possible."

"To prevent dictatorship, right?"

Evil Zhou Bai by his side said: "When the Heavenly Demons were created, those Homo sapiens never planned to hand them over to a single individual's will. They knew very well how fragile an individual Homo sapiens could be, and how dangerous it would be to do so."

The original Zhou Bai looked at Evil Zhou Bai: "What do you plan to do next?"