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The next second, Fei’s voice comes out of the stream. She says, “about… memories. Have you never felt as if something was wrong with our memories? How did we… enter the Tower? Does nobody know?”
Xü Beijin’s mind feels as if a wet blanket has been dropped onto it, calming down practically immediately.
In fact, he has finally understood why the viewers just dropped out of the stream. Rather than the viewers having disconnected from him, it’s more like… he was disconnected from them.
In the audience’s own terms, the game he is streaming right now, is a game ‘exclusively open to hosts of streams only,’ and there are even non-disclosure agreements he allegedly had to observe.
This means that, this game truly is off-limits to the regular folk. There are special secrets within.
For example… Why there are actual humans in the Tower.
Therefore, perhaps this streaming system comes with emergency breaks installed, where if some critical point comes up in the stream, then the stream is immediately cut short, so that the viewers cannot see or hear anything sensitive.
Though Xü Beijin then recalls, that the time the viewers dropped off, was before Fei ever uttered a single word… That is strange.
Could this streaming system even detect psychological state of humans subjected to its camera? Recognise that Fei is about to utter some taboo and is able to cut the stream off with precognitive precision?
And you’re saying this is just a regular streaming system he picked up off the ground?
… No. It can only have been the Server, NE.
There’s always been that conspiracy theory, which alleges that their entry into the Tower is part of some massive, global conspiracy, and its perpetrators had NE here to monitor the humans. It is a co-conspirator.
Xü Beijin’s face is even paler as his expression turns seriously dark. His black pupils are fixed right at the video of the stream. He can still see and listen to Fei, what does this mean?
Is NE, watching them?
If NE found out about this livestream, if NE knew an Actor is attempting to sneakily inform the outside world via obscure means… What would happen?
XĂź Beijin can feel a deep chill. He shuts his eyes, and he settles his emotions back down, more depressed than before.
Fei does not know that she has brought some sizeable trouble for Xü Beijin, of course. She is continuing, “nobody seems to care about it at all, like our entry into the Tower is just some natural conclusion, expected happenstance. But nobody actually knows why we’re here. It is a fact that… we have all lost that particular memory.”
The rest of the Missiontakers are listening quietly.
Wu Jian tries to stop her, though, saying, “are you mad?! Aren’t you…” His voice quickly grows quieter as he asks, “worried, that NE might hear us?”
As the source of the conspiracies, Fei, Wu Jian, and the organisation behind them, are of course afraid of the ‘co-conspirator,’ NE.
But Fei just says, “so what?” She makes a pale smile, asking, “did you feel anything wrong? Even though we told you that you have lost your memories without you being the least bit aware, did you manage to connect the dots? You didn’t, and this is only, merely, inside of a Nightmare.
This is a game Instance controlled by the Server, NE──A Nightmare. Then, what about outside of the Nightmares? That is equally inside of this game.
In other words, as long as you remain in this game, NE is able to alter your memories, your mind, your own conscious self.
Whatever we say, whatever we do… are, in fact, in NE’s control. There are never accidental slips.”
She bitterly chuckles.
Collector finds it rather jarring to hear. He has never been interested in the conspiracies circulating the Tower, but he didn’t expect the secret Fei and Wu Jian are hiding to be related to them.
So he immediately counters, “but for an AI like NE, it must be operating on some set code, right? That we lose memories is the rule of this Nightmare, so NE arranges for that. Outside, though, why would it need to alter our memories?”
Fei, even paler, answers, “perhaps, that is also a rule?” She looks all around her, seeing solemn expressions on all of the Missiontakers’ faces, as she continues, “it could be the case, that the perpetrators do not want us to know the truth.”
Mu Jiashi states with a wooden expression, “so you think NE has changed our memories, and it could do so any time it decides to do so?” He sighs, and comments, “you could have just said so in the first place.”
Fei responds with silence.
Collector goes “oh” and then again smiles and says, “so what you are saying is that──Yes, NE can do whatever to our memories, create, read, update and delete them whenever it wants, as if we’re the poor internal storage of some sort of computer.”
The rest of the Missiontakers are furrowing their brows at this description.
“Oh my…” Collector suddenly chuckles, saying, “jeez-Louise, look at you. Even someone like me knows that humans are trapped in the Tower and we have no escape. So what if there is a rumour that someone did leave? Who knows if it’s real or fake?
Right now, NE is the omnipotent God, in control of our lives, and even our thoughts. Nothing would be unusual whatever it chooses to do, since there’s already the ‘perpetrators’ who moved us into this Tower already.
Why are you all acting like you just learned about this today?
I’ll tell you why, because you have always been running away from the possibility. You do not want to face it; you do not want to believe it. What, you think human brains are some noble, sacrosanct construct? As the dominant, the only sentient, the blessed species of our planet, we should, what, be treated with pomp and ceremony?
Man… This Nightmare really is interesting. You were saying that the amusement park had people who yelled, yelled──Right, ‘Humans are Impurities of the Earth’… How fucking apt, I say!”
Collector seems quite excited indeed. He continues blabbering on and on, even in spite of the increasingly uncomfortable looks from the other Missiontakers.
“… Enough!”
Mu Jiashi exclaims with a slight anger in his tone.
Collector rubs his chin to ask, “oh? Then would you enlighten me as to the reason, then?”
Mu Jiashi stares down at him coldly, until finally saying, “we only want to leave the Tower.”
Collector just shrugs to say, “give it up. It’s impossible.”
Mu Jiashi takes a deep breath, saying, “don’t try to force your own opinions on others,” his tone has never been this cold, “we are willing to fight, to struggle for what is effectively an impossibility. If you are not willing, then you can just go and die somewhere alone.”
Collector seems taken aback, before saying, “I can’t exactly die in the Tower, now, can I?”
“If you do not think that being succumbed in Collapsed Nightmares is a form of death… Then yes, you can’t die in the Tower.”
Collector has finally run out of steam, and has nothing more to say.
Nor does Mu Jiashi want to say anything, for that matter. He adjusts his emotions and tells Fei, “let’s just focus on this Nightmare, then. Don’t overthink things.”
Fei is looking at him.
Mu Jiashi sighs, and finally tells her what he thinks, “so what if we know that NE can do whatever it wants to our brains? There still isn’t anything we…”
Fei interrupts him to ask, “what kind of existence do you think we are in the Tower?”
Mu Jiashi’s eyes widen slightly.
In front of the stream, Xü Beijin also subconsciously straightens his sitting posture with his brows creased. He almost reflexively wants to remark on Fei’s question, but then, he just shuts his eyes in frustration.
He can still hear Fei speaking.
“Here is the scene of an apocalypse,” Fei’s voice is almost shaking, “do you think, that the Earth might have been through the same? Then… we, maybe, just maybe, we… have all, died?”