The three leaders looked about them, but could see no one.
Pan Yu seemed to realize something, and said, “Let’s go down.” He moved the mouse, and the four of them began descending toward the desert. Before long, the sand below them resolved into intricate structures, and then the three of them realized that every grain was a cartoon character. It impressed upon them the sheer scale of the number: the vast desert consisted of 200 million cartoon characters.
Most of the country’s children were here.
They continued to descend to the ocean of people and soon were in their midst, surrounded on all sides by cartoons. There seemed to be something in the air, black dots that had just appeared in the sky and were falling to earth. Two landed in their vicinity, two more cartoons, and they realized that children were still entering the area.
“Why are you still guests?” asked a cartoon next to them. He had no feet, but was supported by a flashing wheel. When he extended his long, thin arms, a head appeared on each palm, the same as the head on his neck. He juggled the three heads, replacing the one on his neck again and again. “Hurry up and log in as registered members. The national leaders are coming to talk to us, and as guests your words won’t be tabulated.” How he distinguished between guests and members they weren’t able to tell.
“That’s right,” said another nearby cartoon with a sniff. “Who’d have thought there would still be unregistered guests.”
“And too lazy to make a proper avatar. Selecting a ready-made—it’s indecent,” said another.
But they weren’t much more decent themselves. One of them may have been too lazy to make a proper body, and had connected two long legs directly to a head. It had no arms, and a pair of wings sprouted from its ears. The other was nothing but a head, a big egg floating half a meter above the ground, with a tiny, fast-spinning rotor poking out of its forehead.
Then another line of glowing red text appeared in the sky: ATTENDANCE HAS REACHED 194,783,453. THE ASSEMBLY IS ABOUT TO BEGIN.
The rightmost digits of the 190 million number continued to turn over.
Then a voice sounded in the air, the familiar voice of Big Quantum. “I’ve conveyed your request to the national leadership.”
Pan Yu said to the three leaders, “Notice how Big Quantum refers to a single request?”
“When will they be here?” said a child’s voice. Boy or girl it was hard to tell, but it was loud and carried a long echo. At the same time, a line of red text appeared in the air: VIRTUAL CITIZEN 1: 98.276%.
“Who’s that speaking?” Huahua asked Pan Yu.
“That’s Virtual Citizen 1.”
“Who’s that?”
“It’s not a ‘who.’ It’s a person made up of nearly two hundred million children.”
“I noticed just now that everyone around us was moving their lips as if they were speaking, but I couldn’t hear anything.”
“That’s right. They were all speaking, but only Big Quantum heard the nearly two hundred million messages. It summarized them into the one statement you just heard.”
“That’s what you mean by the assembly format?”
“Right. This format allows an individual to carry on a simultaneous conversation with more than a hundred million conversation partners. Right now, two hundred million children have turned into just one, so Big Quantum referred to ‘your request’ and not ‘your requests.’ It’s a highly complicated process that requires advanced intelligence and fast processing speed. The short, simple statement you just heard would, if printed out, fill enough paper to circle the globe. Only a quantum computer can handle it.”
Then Big Quantum answered Virtual Citizen 1: “They said they need to think it over before making a decision.”
Specs cut in, “Just one problem. What if the two hundred million children have a difference of opinion that can’t be summarized into one statement?”
Pan Yu put a finger to his lips. “Shhh. You’ll see what happens very soon.”
Another voice sounded, pitched differently from the previous one so it sounded like someone else was speaking. “They’ll definitely come.” And the text in midair read, VIRTUAL CITIZEN 2: 68.115%.
Pan Yu whispered an explanation: “The percentage indicates the proportion of people who hold that opinion.”
A voice at a different pitch said, “That’s not certain. They may not come.” The text in midair read, VIRTUAL CITIZEN 3: 24.437%.
“Can they not? They’ve got to come! They’re the leaders of the country, and they’ve got to talk to the country’s children.” (VIRTUAL CITIZEN 4: 11.536%)
“What do we do if they don’t?” (VIRTUAL CITIZEN 3: 23.771%)
“We do it on our own.” (VIRTUAL CITIZEN 5: 83.579%)
“I told you, they’re definitely going to come.” (VIRTUAL CITIZEN 2: 70.014%)
Pan Yu said, “You see, if there’s disagreement, the virtual citizen will split into two or more parts. How many is determined by the chosen level of precision. At the most precise, all messages will be listed out. That’s impossible, of course. What’s important is that each virtual citizen is usually more or less a defined group with its own particular character traits. They’ll continue to appear, just like an individual. VC 2 and VC 3, for example, returned just now.”
After watching for a while, Huahua said to Pan Yu, “Let’s leave.”
“Press the exit button on your clothes.” The button was on the cartoon’s torso, and pressing it returned them instantly to the Windows space.
“That was amazing!” Huahua exclaimed after removing his helmet.
Xiaomeng said, “They don’t need any leaders at all in that network country. They accomplish everything through discussions among two hundred million kids.”
Specs said thoughtfully, “This will have a profound effect on the real world, too. We paid attention too late.”
Xiaomeng asked, “Then should we speak with them?”
Specs said, “We’ve really got to be careful. This is like nothing else in history. No one knows what might happen. We should think about it longer and more carefully before acting.”
“There’s no time. It’s like I said: If we don’t go, then something’s definitely going to happen,” Huahua said.
With Specs and Xiaomeng in agreement, they spent the night in a conference studying the issue, and discovered that quite a few members of the leadership team had been to the New World Assembly and were familiar with the situation. They mostly felt that it was a positive thing. One kid said, “We’re all doing things that are beyond our own abilities. If the country really can be run like this, it’ll free us up.”
Everyone agreed that the central government, as represented by the three top leaders, would attend the New World Assembly and talk to the 200 million children.
They entered the New World Assembly area a second time, this time using their real-world appearances for avatars. Big Quantum erected a tall podium for them in the center of the space. They came early to prepare, and to get used to the environment, and as the country’s 200 million children logged in and entered, the dense crowd of cartoon characters began to blot out the sky like a layer of clouds. They watched as the avatars fell from the sky like a storm. When the endless sea of people finally calmed, 200 million pairs of eyes were fixed on the platform.
“I feel like I’m going to melt,” Xiaomeng whispered.
Huahua, on the other hand, drank it in. “It’s different for me. For the first time I’ve found what leading a country feels like! How about you, professor?”