Volume 8 - CH 148.2

They’ve arrived at an unbelievable conclusion after a logical discussion.

Xü Beijin——Or, the Actor named Xü Beijin, is Acting as the sleeping twin older brother, whose younger brother put his brain into his own AI programme – as Liang Zhiyi?

This is such a fantastical conclusion that they’re shocked.

Though the key aspect that allowed Xü Beijin to be linked up with Liang Zhiyi – ended up being that the grey fog of the Tower always existed in its current form.

Even if Xü Beijin has never opened his Nightmare, the grey fog was there, always there, unchanging.

But it was also a Nightmare.

The grey fog is Xü Beijin’s Nightmare, NE’s Nightmare… But, in the game’s own plot, the grey fog is the Nightmare of the AI of the Tower.

It makes no sense that a Nightmare is always there. The Nightmares of other Tower residents in the Tower open up for entry at night. Why would the grey fog always be there, day and night, then?

Of course, as they knew it was a game, they first took the grey fog as a fixed piece of background scenery.

But this is not just a game. Everything in this game seems to be pointing at something else.

The game developers put their own company inside, in order to discreetly hint at the truth and ending of this game.

Besides, the grey fog is not at all something that could have been in reality. No real building in the world would be eternally locked in fog. It makes it more of a fictitious, mysterious entity that should only belong in a dream.

The grey fog is a Nightmare, but not anything replicated from reality.

This implies that——It also belies some implication. It must, it has to point at something…

Unless someone is sleeping at all times, that Nightmare should not be there at all times.

The grey fog is there at all times. The grey fog is a Nightmare.

This means, the owner of the grey fog must always be sleeping.

Xü Beijin is the owner of that Nightmare. NE is the owner of that Nightmare… Then, what about ‘Iro’?

Xü Beijin always thought of this as a ‘two sides of the same coin’ situation. The AI of the Tower, and the inexplicably human emotions it has. This was contradictory.

However, it appears that the actual truth behind it all, is like… a trinity.

Xü Beijin, NE, and ‘Iro’… in other words, Liang Zhiyi’s brain. He is the ‘human’ as the plot of this game must entail.

Three different entities are involved. One human in-game, one human from the outside, and the perpetrator behind it all. They conflict with each other, but they are one.

The game’s plot has designated ‘Iro’ has having two sides – the cold programming of an AI, and the warm emotions and way of thought of humans.

But this… is also no mere game.

With all the complexities involved, like how NE was also substituted into the role of the AI of the Tower, and the other human from the outside ‘accidentally’ forced into Acting as them as well, it’s become quite a mess.

During all this, one entity has been sleeping the whole time——The brain belonging to Liang Zhiyi.

Watching the stream quietly, Xü Beijin can see the comment barrage going haywire, but he is too absorbed to care.

Finally, he has figured out the way to freedom that the game left behind for them.

Even though… he isn’t sure that he will be able to put that into action.

The Missiontakers are unaware of Xü Beijin’s true identity, and that hampers their ability to guess. They’re still confused about all the apparent contradictions.

But Xü Beijin gets it now.

This is an issue of the Tower’s AI, ‘Iro,’ being itself already something merged together from code and brain.

Therefore, when this AI needs to be Acted in the Tower, two different entities must also Act for them.

Something that is code, and something human.

NE, and Xü Beijin.

This has always been arranged this way. It’s not a bug that Xü Beijin thought it was the whole time, and not necessarily something intentionally put into place by the fellow humans trying to help them.

It’s just a certainty, set in stone once the Fy’ecas allowed NE to just assume the role of the Tower’s manager as well due to laziness.

Xü Beijin isn’t Acting as Iro, or at least, he has no idea what the code Liang Xingyi has written is at all. He is Acting, as Liang Zhiyi’s brain.

By the game’s own plot.

And, similarly to Liang Zhiyi’s consciousness, they are under the absolute control of the AI, NE.

Liang Zhiyi’s brain has been asleep forever; Xü Beijin himself, has been awake, almost forever.

The human written down in the plot, and the human from Earth, are the true corresponding pair here.

So in the end, this developed into a three-way stand-off, between NE, of the Fy’ecas; Xü Beijin, of humanity; and, from the game’s plot itself, Liang Zhiyi’s consciousness, of the AI in the Tower.

They’re both each other’s surface identity and hidden identity. Their stances and labels make who they are differ dramatically.

Xü Beijin does not think of himself as the AI, even though he is NE;

And also ‘Iro,’ and also, Liang Zhiyi’s consciousness.

All according to the plot’s convoluted settings!

Xü Beijin can’t help but feel like he’s a matryoshka doll.

And at the very bottom of that doll, is Liang Zhiyi’s consciousness.

They need to wake his brain up, and retake control of the AI manager of the Tower. That way, they’ll be eliminating NE from the final battlegrounds entirely.

And if Liang Zhiyi is awake, current information means that the grey plot is going to disappear as well, which fits Xü Beijin’s objective——The difference between game and reality, has never been so clear and distinct.

A game is a game. How ever much a plot may try to approach absolute realism, there will still be traces and chains of logic left, because this is not reality, where death means complete erasure from the world.

Everything leaves a trace on the Internet.

After blanking out and going then going through his plan one last time, Xü Beijin cheers the three confused Missiontakers on screen on.

What they need to do is find a way to wake up Liang Zhiyi’s brain, so the initiative changes hands from the AI to humanity.

How?

Xü Beijin doesn’t know either. He doesn’t know how the game’s plot has set it, but the answer is probably in Liang Xingyi’s hands.

The three Missiontakers enter Operating Room 3.

Liang Xingyi is still sitting there in silence, watching that hemispherical glass container he is touching. Who knows what he is thinking about.

Mu Jiashi walks up and asks, “what are you going to do with your older brother’s brain?”

Liang Xingyi has no reaction.

“Merge his brain activity with the AI programme you’re writing?”

Liang Xingyi has no reaction.

Mu Jiashi then asks, “are you trying to revive him in an AI?”

The word ‘revive’ seems to have triggered something in Liang Xingyi. He shudders, and unintentionally knocks the glass to the ground.

It didn’t shatter or crack, but it also became a bit dusty. Liang Xingyi immediately panics, grabbing it from the ground, and wiping it clean furiously.

He is still not answering Mu Jiashi, but Mu Jiashi already knows what he is thinking about – he is tacitly admitting to Mu Jiashi’s guess.

So Mu Jiashi’s interest is piqued, asking, “why are you certain that your older brother can wake up in the AI? Instead of losing his consciousness forever, and dying?”

“No! He won’t!” Liang Xingyi screams, “he will wake up! He will gain immortality!”

Immortality…

Liang Xingyi sure is ambitious for hoping to give his older brother immortality through this.

However… certainly, humans are restricted by their health and age. An AI with a stable source of energy and maintenance can certainly achieve eternal life.

Confined inside of an artificial network.

Mu Jiashi wants to ask things.

Like, is a fictitious reality meaningful? Is immortality really something to be happy about? Would, would Liang Zhiyi actually want Liang Xingyi to be doing this for him?

But he doesn’t say anything. For them, this is a Nightmare from the past. A recreation of some past event.

Casting judgement on what Liang Xingyi is doing, or stopping him, is meaningless.

Because he did do it. He already connected Liang Zhiyi’s brain to the AI.

It’s all been put into action.

So the question becomes something else.

Mu Jiashi is staring closely at Liang Xingyi as he asks, “but how can you be so sure? What kind of safety measures have you taken to ensure your older brother can wake up?”

Truly, humans have no way of comprehending the world as an AI sees it – as a world formed only by digits, code and software. Humans are built differently.

It’s an inherent conflict of values… No, not just that, but of lifeforms.

Just as Mu Jiashi pointed out, humans do meaningless thinking. They dream. An AI would find all of them meaningless waste of energy.

If Liang Zhiyi really did ‘wake up’ in such a state, what would he be like? What would he have turned into?

Mu Jiashi does not understand why Liang Xingyi can be so sure.

Meanwhile, Liang Xingyi’s lips are trembling. He does not seem to know how to answer this question.

The weak man looks lost, for the first time since they have met, as he repeats, with a doubtful tone, “safety measures?”

Mu Jiashi “…”

A brief moment of silence later, he asks, “have you never considered any failsafes?”

“Failsafes…” Liang Xingyi mumbles, “failsafes…”

“What if the AI has taken over the consciousness and is dominating over Liang Zhiyi?”

Liang Xingyi seems to have latched onto some key word, saying, “this will never happen!”

Mu Jiashi, annoyed as he is, still clearly pronounces his question, “this is exactly what is happening right now. Assume we have come back from the future… Where Liang Zhiyi didn’t wake up. Your AI has control over him. Now, we want to wake your older brother up. Have you really not put in any failsafes for that?”

Liang Xingyi seems to be shaking a little, “no way…” He seems to have bought Mu Jiashi’s story wholesale; perhaps he is quite close to madness already. He answers, “it… it can’t be. I had a programme inside the AI…”

The three Missiontakers, with eyes shining, asks, “what programme?!”