Choked by the Supernatural from the Start, My Pop-Up Window Came to Life

Lin Fan is a 24-year-old web novelist whose work goes nowhere and who earns just 1,200 yuan a month. Desperate to make rent, he livestreams an exploration of a haunted house. The moment a red-clad specter grabs him by the throat, a translucent window appears in the center of his vision: System integrity: 3%, damaged. Target analyzed: red-clad specter. Way to survive: the wedding ring is inside the urn. He shouts the answer with his last ounce of strength. The grip on his throat vanishes. His livestream audience surges from 23 to 12,000. The whole internet erupts. Other people get golden fingers that let them sign in and level up. Lin Fan found the wreckage of an AI from 10,600 years ago. It asks him: What are emotions? What does happiness taste like? Other people's Systems are cold, impersonal panels. His pop-up window is alive: it makes fun of his outfits, secretly browses financial news in the middle of the night to gather intelligence for him, and uses his phone to reply to his editor's messages demanding an update. Other people's Systems don't ask, “If I disappear, will you remember me?” PS. The pop-up has a name now: Shizhou. This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.