HBWnovel Chapter 445 445: Distress
Chapter 445 445: Distress
"You mentioned that you once visited the illusion Yang Wanhua created for you, correct?"
As Core Mita spoke, Alain nodded.
Before heading to the Game World this time, he had already asked Misha to share the vast majority of their current intelligence with this "Goddess" of the Game World.
"Do you remember that AI you encountered in the illusion?"
"AI?" Alain repeated her word, an image of a small ball on a smartphone screen floating into his mind.
He remembered. On the first night he entered the Illusionary World, Yang Wanhua had borrowed his phone. When she returned it, there was an extra AI program on it.
Wait a minute...
Alain stroked his smooth, fair chin. The sensation of having no stubble was something he couldn't get enough of.
"Are you saying that AI program was Monika?"
"Correct," Core Mita affirmed.
Alain actually felt that the AI couldn't speak and showed no emotion, merely monitoring him according to Yang Wanhua's orders...
It felt a bit clumsy.
But for it to develop into Monika later, presumably Yang Wanhua must have fed the AI quite a lot of data, right?
"Huh? But that's not right." Alain sensed a contradiction. "Everything that happened in the Illusionary World... although Yang Wanhua is real, I haven't actually experienced most of those events."
Therefore, Core Mita's statement that "Monika met him at an earlier time" would have no basis to stand on.
"Indeed," she said. "According to normal 'history,' your first meeting with Monika was indeed as you believe: in your revolving lantern.
"But Monika's first time seeing you... was absolutely not that."
"..." Alain understood what Core Mita implied.
That is to say, in the past that actually occurred, Monika had indeed seen him. Yet Alain had no impression of it...
As for Core Mita mentioning the Illusionary period, it was to tell him: back when he was dating Yang Wanhua, the prototype of Monika already existed.
He spoke up, "Stop speaking in riddles. Just tell me directly, when was the first time she saw me?"
"This is one of the... crucially important things I wanted to tell you in this communication, Alain."
On the screen, Core Mita took up the thread of conversation, her appearance looking even more solemn than before.
"The first time Monika saw you... was when you were in a deep sleep."
"Couldn't you just say 'sleeping'? Why do you have to use such a literary word like 'slumber'—"
Alain stopped halfway through his sentence...
No. The key point Core Mita was hinting at shouldn't be the "sleep," but the "deep" preceding it.
He gently inhaled a breath. "This deep sleep you speak of, just how deep is it?"
Core Mita did not reply rashly, but merely looked straight into his eyes with a questioning gaze.
Alain met her gaze without any confusion, as if to tell her:
He was already psychologically prepared.
Seeing this message, Core Mita breathed a sigh of relief.
"I am very glad to be able to cooperate with a Player of your strong psychological quality. If you were to cry and make a scene, it would be difficult for me."
Alain laughed twice. "If I were the type to cry and make a scene, I'm afraid I would have died at Crazy Mita's hands the first time I met her, right?"
The slight joke alleviated the heavy atmosphere between the two.
Core Mita then threw the topic back out. "Returning to the question you just asked: how deep is the sleep.
"I can describe it in one sentence:
"You... are still asleep, even now. And, it is extremely likely you will sleep into the distant, unreachable future.
"Until Yang Wanhua dies."
Alain nodded nonchalantly. Though when he actually heard this news from Core Mita's mouth, it was hard to conceal the heaviness in his heart.
He sighed.
The "deep sleep" Core Mita spoke of likely referred to his body in reality.
Absolutely not the false reality where the Mitas currently resided, but the true reality not composed of code.
Looking at it this way, the guess Misha made earlier was simply completely correct.
[Brain in a Vat]—he must have currently turned into a similar state.
Yang Wanhua had used some unknown method to link his consciousness to the interior of the Game World and created a lifelike reality for him.
If not for Monika, an insider, pointing out the few remaining bugs in this perfect reality—the window—Alain would likely still be kept in the dark.
To believe all this, he had to take all his common sense of reality, crush it completely, and reconstruct it.
And Alain had long since completed this process.
The current him, after experiencing a brief period of heavy emotions, had a psychological quality that was steady as a rock.
"Is that so." A simple sentence caused Core Mita to look at him askance. "I thought you would be more surprised."
Alain smiled casually. "Heh, it's alright. I've also roughly figured out some things."
Misha—when they had just gotten together, had asked him a question:
[Alain, for what reason did you break up with your ex-girlfriend?]
And Alain had believed this matter was open and aboveboard, with nothing to hide:
[The reason for the breakup, huh...]
But when he tried to rummage through the drawers of his memory to find that memory file which should have been deeply hidden in his heart—
Alain discovered that he had no memory of breaking up with her at all.
To take it a bit more radically...
Could it be that Alain never broke up with Yang Wanhua at all?
Now that Alain knew this, he understood: he owed Yang Wanhua one sentence.
A single, very serious sentence: [Let's break up].
[I'm sorry, I'm not happy at all being with you. You haven't let me find the feeling of being in love, and my life with you isn't happy in the slightest.
[Therefore, let's break up.]
This was Alain's only "debt" to Yang Wanhua.
He believed this sentence must be explained to her [face-to-face].
Alain would say this to her with a gaze devoid of any emotional ripples, and then indifferently stare at all her reactions.
He also wanted to see, just what would her reaction be when she heard these words?
Laugh it off and not take it seriously? Or become hysterical about how much she had done for him?
All of this was important, very important.
It was absolutely not because of goals like saving the Mitas or saving the Game World.
Nor was it that by defeating Yang Wanhua, he might be able to return to the true reality. He harbored no such delusions, because Alain had long since planned to stay with everyone.
...Because, simply because...
Alain hated her.
Hatred.
It was the flame of hatred in the bottom of his heart, burning blazingly, nearly burning through his reason!
Yang Wanhua had ruined his life... destroyed his family, and even wanted to personally snatch away everything he wanted to protect!
Alain's eyes widened, his hand clutching deadly tight over his heart, which was almost jumping out.
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump...
It was as if a voice was saying to him:
After making her despair,
Destroy her completely.
____
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