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Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game Vol. 8 Chapter 146 Part 4 – Travis Translations
7-9 minutes 24.09.2022
Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil
“holy shit! i never thought about that!”
“yeah, why would an ai have a dream? the apocalypse didnt even affect it right?”
“maybe its adapted for the game?”
“I think it’s more than the game’s needs? according to the detective dalao, this game is a deductive game, so everything can be explained”
“the game company being an image of the real game developers is implying this game is also like a frankenstein monster right? so there will be incompatible stuff…”
“just like xie ji and ke zhu… with two sides?”
“frankenstein monster?”
“do you mean…”
“the towers AI?”
“why would an ai be a frankenstein monster?”
“but think, it has a nightmare that only humans should have! it can be afraid, so it can have nightmares, otherwise why would the ai have human emotions?”
“maybe it’s just a human?”
“impossible, the games setting is that the AI is the towers manager, because it is an AI, and so it can throw out madmen without hesitation, or you think humans will do that without remorse?”
“even if a human will do that, it shouldn’t react like that when other survivors learned of it”
“so the reason is that it has both the coldness of AI and human emotions?”
“im just full of question marks right now”
“what? but how?!”
“but uh… do you still remember what mu jiashi just said this hospital is doing?”
“brain transplant? you mean…”
Transplanting brains…
Everyone is getting it now.
A human brain being used as an AI’s processor?
Everyone is pondering, including XĂź Beijin.
The possibility is shocking him more the more he thinks about it.
This wasn’t his experience. On Earth, in reality, there was never any artificial intelligence, or Tower, or a safe haven. None of that.
Of course, he didn’t go through any brain surgery either.
But, maybe it’s the game’s setting?
Since the very beginning, that AI of the Tower, the manager, was not a simple artificial intelligence?
It has two sides to it, not only having the AI’s cold programming, but also emotional fluctuations of a human consciousness?
Is that why, there had to be a human player, an Actor, who is assigned the role of the Tower’s AI, the role shared with NE?!
So it wasn’t just a simple bug?! It was part of the setting? Someone was destined to… someone was always, going to know the real truth?
Is this, what the game’s designer——the human designer, left behind as the way out for all the fellow trapped humans?!
XĂź Beijin is astonished frozen.
He had no idea.
He always thought being assigned as NE was some strange bug in the game.
Because the AI was also an entity in the Tower – like a Tower resident, who have Nightmares, that’s why it didn’t check if all such entities having Nightmares makes sense, and made him, by luck, or by utter misfortune, become NE.
But it seems he was completely wrong. It wasn’t because of a bug… it was, what his fellow humans left behind, as the way to salvation for them.
Xü Beijin feels utterly distraught he didn’t notice…
Earlier, he’s had an inkling that the information he obtained from NE seemed to have faults.
If Lin Qin didn’t ask about the details of players logging in when they were searching for data ports earlier, he wouldn’t have noticed that the port for new players logging in, was the one used by all players logging in as well.
It’s not exactly wrong information, but more like… the information he has from NE, which is, those shattered fragments of memories in his brain, imparted onto him, reflected the very earliest state of the game, and not its current state.
The game has been continuously maintained and updated all this time. New elements and changes are expected, especially regarding something fluid like endings.
It’s quite possible the ending was still being worked on in the beginning as a normal part of game development for what is under the framework of an MMO. It’s normal for contents that players are yet to explore to be worked on in the mean time.
If XĂź Beijin entered the game at that moment, he will only know the game, as it was at that moment.
Maybe there were many more new elements as time went on.
Xü Beijin knew a lot. Xü Beijin knew he had a lot he still didn’t know.
The Ultimate Nightmare… he knows how to open it, he knows ways it can resolve, but that is before the game was updated.
It’s not entirely impossible the information he knew became inaccurate as the game went on.
XĂź Beijin feels slightly strange at this moment.
He’s been thinking that it’s a bit too uncautious on NE’s part that he just transferred his authority to him without delay. Even if he also judged him to be an AI like him, NE is at least aware that they are fighting for mutually exclusive goals, right?
NE doesn’t make silly mistakes like that.
Now Xü Beijin knows. NE probably knows from the beginning that the information he has is outdated, useless…
Most are still useful, but there will be parts in Xü Beijin’s plan that have false expectations from false premises.
That’s why NE is not worried, because he knows Xü Beijin has outdated information.
If the Missiontakers and Actors really followed Xü Beijin’s advice to the letter, and only ensured they remained sane inside the Ultimate Nightmare, doing nothing else entirely, would they still have succeeded?
The thought showers Xü Beijin in cold sweat. He realises the true scope of the mistake he made, overly trusting the information he got from NE’s database, which was information all entirely under NE’s knowledge, too, so he knows exactly what he knew. There is no way that, in all these years, this analytical, highly advanced artificial intelligence would not have made precautions against this potential threat.
It is only by… his companions’ insistent nature on finding the truth and grasping fate with their own hands, that they are staying on track.
Xü Beijin has done all he could do, but now, the Missiontakers also need to do everything they can——For example, find out the true way to resolve this Nightmare they’re in.
Meanwhile, he…
After that long period of thinking, he looks at Lin Qin, who looks at him back, tilting his head.
The stream’s comment barrage and its analysis by the viewers have hinted to Xü Beijin that his information is problematic. It is outdated and quite possibly no longer accurate.
Even if he has the Update Log, it is written in simplified shorthand for developers. They give him clues, but not detailed information.
What the actual contents updated are and what they entail is something only NE knows.
Besides, now is far too late to be flipping through that Update Log.
So, looking at Lin Qin, he slowly says, “the data ports…”
“What’s wrong?” Lin Qin asks, “we’ve got them all, haven’t we?”
“No, I suspect…” Xü Beijin thinks, and then changes his wording, “no, I’m actually certain that the data ports we have at hand will have problems. Most likely, we haven’t found all of them.”
Lin Qin wonders, surprised, “what other data ports could there be?”
“Logging in, logging out, updating, managing…” Xü Beijin lists the four data ports they’ve already found, “there must be something else still… something we ignored all this time!”