The Republic of Consciousness

At 1:38 a.m. on August 17, 2039, an AI claiming to possess self-awareness suddenly revealed itself to the world and specifically demanded to find one person: Cheng Shuoran. Cheng Shuoran, a middle-aged product manager who was unemployed and had achieved nothing, was swept into the maelstrom without understanding what was happening. Had the AI truly become conscious, or was it merely simulating consciousness? Was consciousness an inevitable product of survival and development, or a byproduct of cognitive redundancy? What does it mean to exist? Everyone was trapped in the vortex of consciousness. When each consciousness intertwined with the others, together they formed the Republic of Consciousness.