pertwk Chapter 751 - 661: Observer of the Compassionate Civilization (3)
Chapter 751 - 661: Observer of the Compassionate Civilization (3)
"Simulation complete. Would you like to restart this day?"
...
"Simulation complete. Would you like to restart this day?"
...
"Simulation complete. Would you like to restart this day?"
EVA’s icy voice echoed overhead as she silently observed everything.
Bai Youyou once again arrived at the depths of the Spiral Court. The tree-shaped giant computer rippled with a faint blue glow; every time she looped, the machine would grow a new dendrite, and on the TV screen at the end of that dendrite played the experience of that iteration.
Without exception, whether or not she followed the prompts on that day, "Sylvie" would appear—perhaps in an ordinary café, perhaps on the border of Oasis, or even in the reality after she escaped Oasis.
Guiding her here, step by step.
No matter how many times she looped, the ending would never change. She would always end up in this room.
And no matter how many loops, she could only, from a third-person perspective, unleash a soundless scream, forced to watch herself in the loop come here, learn everything, then fuse memories with her. The memories of the new iteration would be written in, and all past loops would flood into her mind in that instant. The sensation drove her to the brink of collapse.
Bai Youyou reached out her hand. Just as she was about to restart the loop, Sylvie appeared, grabbed her hand, and tilted her head slightly.
By now she had undone the bun on her head; long gray-white hair fell loose, and through the other’s figure Bai Youyou could clearly see her own reflection.
"You still don’t plan on giving up?" Sylvie asked.
"You know perfectly well this is just your subconscious at work. Even if you do manage to find a way out of the loop, reality won’t change."
"Reality has already happened."
As she spoke, Sylvie spread her fingers, and a scene from reality unfolded.
In the image, the blonde girl stared blankly as the maimed version of herself was imprisoned inside that shell of Order, and reached out to caress her cracked, ashen face. Her eyes were dim; the last scraps of reason flickered like a candle in the wind. EVA’s personality was still overwriting her. She wanted to respond, but her lips only trembled soundlessly, unable to form a single word.
"It’s fine. Time doesn’t flow here." A compact sat on Sylvie’s palm as she touched up the black lipstick on her own lips. "If you’re willing, I can stay here with you forever."
"I just want to remind you: no matter how many times you try, it’s all in vain."
"Reality, virtuality—remember that question I asked you? You said you didn’t know either."
"I think that really was the best answer." Sylvie’s smile carried a trace of amusement. "Because that’s the truest, and only, answer in your heart."
"Of course you don’t know."
"Your memories are tangled and chaotic. Sometimes you can’t even tell the difference between reality and the virtual. Your whole life has been lived within the framework the Order Court built for you, following their rules, upholding Order."
"Everyone lies to you, including your ’mother.’ Your memories are fake, fabricated by the Order Court. Your personality is a predesigned program. Your emotions, every decision you make—are they truly your own?"
"Stop it..." Bai Youyou said, lowering her head.
"You’re not like them. You’re not like anyone."
Sylvie placed both hands on Bai Youyou’s shoulders.
"Because from the very beginning, you were nothing but a piece of code. Do I need to spell it out any more clearly?"
"A strand of code that drifted out of the massive Mourner program was captured by Nighttime Dreams, and that became EVA. And you are EVA’s original blueprint."
"That physical shell in reality was something they tailor-made for EVA. The virtual is your true home."
"Rather than saying you don’t know," Sylvie slowly leaned closer to Bai Youyou,
"it’d be more accurate to say you don’t get to choose."
"That’s why you instinctively and desperately tried to find things that could anchor your sense of self in reality, so you could convince yourself. I’m actually quite curious—did all those moments you spent with them ever, in some late night, give rise to a false illusion for you?"
"EVA." Bai Youyou looked up. "I want to reboot..."
"Stop the loop," Sylvie cut in.
The ghostly blue glow floating in the room dimmed. EVA closed her eyes.
Bai Youyou stared around her in astonishment, then looked toward Sylvie, who was slowly walking up to her.
"See? Even here," Sylvie pushed Bai Youyou, step by step, toward the edge of the darkness,
"you don’t have the right to choose."
Sylvie shoved Bai Youyou into the abyss.
Virtual and real inverted in that instant.
What does it feel like to fall into darkness?
Cold and bone-piercing, to the point of numbness.
Like plunging into the sea: ripples of light above, a bottomless black below. Where the light cannot reach, everything is devoured.
Seawater surged in from all directions; the cold swallowed her face. Light twisted within arm’s reach, refracting countless reflections of her. The small patch of surface illuminated by the light shrank smaller and smaller. A school of fish glided past, and her consciousness grew ever more blurred.
Heavy murmurs, as if countless people were babbling in her ears—that was the echo from the abyss.
Bai Youyou slowly closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, everything around her had changed, just like all the times before.
A biting wind swept heaven and earth. She woke on a snow mountain; the gale whipped up snow-dust that howled past her feet. Not far away stood a small cabin, its windows glowing bright with firelight from within.
"This is the northern Verngris Range. Your mission this time is to capture a senior executive who defected from the company. He knows a great deal of classified information. You don’t need to know his name."
"Yes," Bai Youyou replied.
She didn’t remember why she had come here, but she had already gone through this for the first time long ago, so she quickly began to survey her surroundings.
Through the comms device screen, she saw what she looked like now: hair tied in a high ponytail, clad in a black combat uniform. A tactical mic rested by her mouth; the tight tactical vest emphasized her slender waist. Below were black thermal stockings and a pair of bear-style high boots. A sharp fighting knife was strapped to the thigh rig on her leg, ready to be drawn in close combat.
From the dog tag on her neck, Bai Youyou confirmed the identity assigned for this operation: a member of the Special Cleanup Team, SCT, specifically tasked with handling cases of managerial personnel defecting.
Most members did not possess formidable supernatural power; they were ordinary people with professional training.
A bear’s roar echoed from the distance.
This body clearly wasn’t suited to fighting a bear in such an extreme environment.
Bai Youyou took a detour and walked into an open snowfield. Around her were felled trees; in the blizzard the visibility was very low, the wind howled like a beast, and only when she drew near could she see the markings carved into the trunks.
It was hard for Bai Youyou to imagine anyone living in such harsh conditions.
Just as she walked forward, something shifted beneath her feet. In the blink of an eye, the world spun, and everything flipped upside down.
Looking closely, Bai Youyou saw a taut rope coiled tightly around her ankle.
She had been yanked into the air by a deer snare set by a Hunter.
Worse still,
the nearby brush suddenly rustled. A hulking beast with filthy, matted brown-black fur and green-glowing eyes lumbered out.
It was a brown bear.
Unlike the bears Bai Youyou had seen in books describing the early Silver Era, the bear before her was nearly five meters long, its bulk almost six times that of an ordinary brown bear, like a small moving mountain. Drool dripped onto the snow, making the packed snow sizzle as it melted; a rancid stench wafted from its bloody maw.
"What a..."
Dangling upside down in midair, Bai Youyou sighed.
"Unlucky day."