This Game Is Too Realistic

Beta Universe, summer 2014.

"boom--!"

The piercing sound of gunshots echoed in his ears, suddenly awakening the boy who was unconscious due to heatstroke.

At this moment, he was in a pure white space.

However, this is not a hospital.

He subconsciously raised his index finger and touched his temple. The memory of the bullet piercing his skull was so vivid that cold sweat broke out on his back.

I really don't want to experience that feeling again.

However, he felt relieved when he thought that the clones far away in Universe A might have died over and over again.

No matter how many times Beta from the parallel universe dies, it all happens in multiple parallel universes.

Standing here, he only needs to die once more...

And at the same time, a translucent floating window appeared in front of him.

Lines of text gradually appeared from the screen.

[This system is dedicated to improving the level of aboriginal civilization. Regarding the secrets of this system, holders are asked to explore on their own...]

It's still that familiar feeling.

Looking at the nostalgic text, a faint smile curled up at the corner of his mouth, and his clear eyes held a calmness and composure that did not match his age.

As if he is not 20 years old.

But 200 years old...

"We meet again, Observer."

The text on the screen stopped, as if the show was running out of time and could no longer go on.

The being hiding behind the screen obviously didn't expect to hear his name here.

It didn't even expect to see an acquaintance here.

"...It's you? But, how is this possible... It should be 2014 now... Wait a minute -"

For a moment, it fell into confusion and panic, but that was only a moment.

There is no concept of time in the void.

Its projection can appear in any universe, even the universe it once abandoned.

And in just a moment, it had already traversed multiple universes and recollected information that it had originally regarded as having no observational significance.

And at this moment, it was completely shocked.

Unprecedented branches appeared in multiple universes.

Part of it is still the same as before. The young man in front of him received the "system" gifted by him as he expected, but he made different choices in the process of becoming a boundary breaker.

The other part of the universe was eroded by the fission consciousness from a certain universe, and the "Shelter 404-β" that could not have existed was born on the timeline, replacing his own interference!

Seeing the surprise that hit his face through the screen, the man smiled lightly and teased.

"You seem surprised?"

After waiting for a long time, the observers expressed heartfelt emotions.

"Incredible... you have actually opened up a future that I have never seen. I must admit that even in front of the massive samples I have seen, the miracles you have created are rare."

After feeling sincerely, it continued without stopping.

"Although I don't want to be sarcastic, for you in the beta universe, what you are about to do may be meaningless... According to your plan, the a universe will repeat countless experiments and fail countless times, and finally be able to match There is only one beta universe!"

"In other words, your probability of success is only one in infinite! Everything you do in this universe has an infinite probability of paving the way for a failure in universe A! Or in other words, for a failed experiment Run with me!"

"To spend more than ten years doing something that has a high probability of being meaningless...don't you think such a fate is too desperate for you?"

come back.

Back to the normal timeline.

Although the observer did not say it clearly, the man standing here did hear the persuasion behind the voice.

really.

It's not too late to turn back now.

The person standing here is not a professor, but a fission body numbered β. The setting is that he is a reborn person who returns to the period when he first obtained the system with the memories and experiences of the next 200 years.

He just needs to leave the responsibilities of the original world behind, return to the track arranged by the observer, learn lessons and act step by step, complete the task when it is time to complete it, and disappear when it is time to disappear...

Although the world that has declined cannot be saved, at least the human civilization in this universe can avoid entering the wasteland era, and he can eventually become a boundary breaker.

This may not be a good ending.

But on the other hand, Project 404 was invalidated.

So that was a choice he would never make.

And he also believed without a doubt that in the infinite beta universes, the one who pointed the gun at his own head and finally stood here at the cost of death would definitely make the same choice.

That bullet not only ended the professor's life, but also ended the possibility of countless branches!

And the observer's reaction was just right, and his guess was correct——

This guy has traveled through all the universes, but still can't find a future where he, standing here, has wavered or even made a compromising decision.

So it's anxious.

"...There is no point if you don't do it, and you will definitely not succeed if you don't do it."

"But what about the people of this world? Have you thought about the possible consequences of your interference?"

"Are you embarrassed to say this to me? Have you ever thought about this problem yourself? Isn't the Wasteland Era the result of your failure after your intervention?"

The professor chuckled, and his pointed rhetorical question left the observers speechless for a moment.

He didn't pause, but continued word by word.

"Every universe I interfere with is a universe where you choose me as a boundary breaker and interfere. My interference only replaces your interference. If I fail, I will naturally change my interference from this world. Erase it from the universe and pretend that you and I have never been here."

"At that time, their fate will be in their own hands, and there will be no and no need for an outsider to be responsible for them. I think this is not necessarily a bad outcome for humans in this world."

Observers are still unwilling to give up and are still trying to make a last ditch effort.

"Even if it means that your efforts in this universe have an infinite probability of being in vain?"

Looking at the observer who tried his best to persuade him, the man smiled faintly.

he knows.

What the observer really cares about is not him, nor humans, just like he doesn't care about the bacteria on a certain leaf, let alone whether the latter's efforts will be in vain.

All this guy really cares about is the Boundaries that sew the universe together.

It is worried that it will ruin its good deeds.

This kind of thing is indeed possible, and it can even be said that it is bound to happen.

Once it replaces its intervention, it will completely lose control of the situation. Even if it can find other consciousnesses to exert influence, that will only happen in other universes or long after its own death.

There are limits to the observer's interference. Unless there are special circumstances, it is almost impossible to establish contact with two independent consciousnesses in the same universe.

Each of its interferences corresponds to a new universe, and this was decided at the moment the original universe exploded.

It is precisely because of this that it will persist in trying to dissuade him and try to make him change his mind.

but--

What does that have to do with him?

Rather than the heat death of hundreds of millions of years, what he cared more about was the world he once lived in, where everyone he was familiar with lived. His existence would be meaningless if they could not survive.

He is different from those guys floating in the void. He is a living person living in that world, not an illusory projection!

He won't just slap his butt and say "It's all your fault for not executing well" after screwing up everything and leave!

"Since you have seen the shot I fired, you should have guessed how I will answer you. Why would you ask such a stupid question?"

"Before I came here again, I was already prepared to die."

"This game will start with my death, and my end will be a new beginning——"

"Give up, I won't look back, and there is no way out!"

The pure white space began to collapse, and the endless boundaries gradually turned into the walls of the ward.

All the noise fell silent at this moment.

It's gone.

Probably won't come back again.

But in fact, it’s hard to say, its capriciousness is not just once or twice.

He felt that there was no need to be so desperate. Since it had an unseen ending, the future was still worth looking forward to.

Moreover, its own Project 404 might inspire it to save other universes.

The man sat up from the hospital bed with the curtain hanging on it. He pulled out the needle hanging on the back of his hand as if nothing had happened. Under the strange eyes of the nurse in front of the bed, he got up, got dressed and left the ward.

The acquaintance who came to pick him up saw that he was in good health. He was surprised and wanted to say hello to him, but he met a pair of unfamiliar eyes and was stunned for a moment.

He still remembered that unfamiliar face, but after two hundred years, standing here, he could no longer match that face with the name in his memory, so he just nodded politely and passed it by.

It's 2014 now.

There are only 7 years until 2021.

During these seven years, he had to complete the preparations for Shelter 404-β and all preparations for the launch of the game server in this old world that had not yet entered the era of prosperity.

There's still a lot to do.

There is no time to waste...

…

…

a universe.

In the manager's office on floor B5 of Vault No. 404, the scene on the screen freezes at the last gunshot.

"boom--!"

Hearing the deafening sound, Chu Guang, who was standing at the door of the room, suddenly woke up and quickly walked to the side of the chair.

A rusty revolver lay on the chair, and a bullet casing lay beside it.

As for the remaining blood stains, they have long since turned into dust.

The AI ​​in this shelter recovered the professor's body and then completed its own format.

And now its number is 777...

Chu Guang stared at the pistol blankly, and finally completed the last piece of the puzzle.

He understood it all.

Everything about Project 404 and this shelter.

About your origin.

And where the players come from.

not only that.

The details that he had temporarily placed in the corner of his memory due to lack of clues gradually became clear as the last piece of the puzzle was added.

Including where the original residents of this shelter went, including how the helmets got into the hands of players.

Just as he guessed, he himself was the first generation manager, and he did it all over again 777 times in 200 years!

Sometimes it's ten or eight years.

Sometimes they are resurrected dozens or hundreds of times in a year!

The original rules of the game were what he had continuously improved and summarized over and over again...

Chu Guang's Adam's apple moved and he looked up at the screen in front of him.

"Do you have to die?"

As if he had guessed that he would ask this question, the professor standing on the screen smiled slightly and said in a gentle voice.

"Even if I hadn't died, I wouldn't be alive today unless I froze myself into a popsicle... But that doesn't really make sense, does it? There aren't many of my old friends left, and the youngest student is almost gone. , the only digital life that I can’t let go of… I’m destined to not be able to stay with it forever.”

"Instead of letting it wait for the pain that is destined to come, it is better to arrange a pretty good ending for it while I am still awake. So there is no need to regret and feel sad for me. This is not the best arrangement for myself. "

"As for my death, that is part of the plan. If I don't transmit the memory of pulling the trigger to the beta universe, the 'fission reaction' I described will not happen. Even if the observer does not intervene, no need The voice from the void confuses the other me, and the other me will not carry out my plan, not even once.”

"Why? I've never heard of the connection of morphogenetic fields being mediated by death—"

Chu Guang subconsciously asked this question, but just halfway through, the answer suddenly appeared in his mind.

really.

Death is not the prerequisite for the morphogenesis field, but it is the prerequisite for Project 404.

As for why, the reason is obvious——

Looking at Chu Guang, who had an expression of surprise on his face, the professor on the screen smiled lightly and continued in a matter-of-fact tone.

"It seems that you have realized that some things can only be done once or countless times. Can you expect others to do things that you can't do? You are repeating the experiment countless times, while the beta fission body is facing an infinite number of times. The probability of one. If he executes the plan, he will face infinite bad endings. And if he does not execute, an infinitesimal one of the molecules will not exist, and you are even less likely to be standing here today."

"It's amazing, isn't it? This is the morphogenetic field. Resonance is not spoken with words, but is reflected in actions. They must do the same thing at the same time. If I don't pull the trigger, the other one will either If he doesn't get the message from me, he won't pull the trigger even if he receives it."

Chu Guang nodded slowly.

In fact, if you think about it carefully, a similar thing happened on the Orion guided missile cruiser.

At that time, he understood the whole story from the player's post, but now he thinks that it should be a similar principle.

The only difference is that the information transmission across time was completed by extreme coincidence and was different from the carefully designed layout of Plan 404.

"So the more than 20 years I spent in reality...were actually fabricated?"

"Not entirely. Your interpersonal relationships are real. You have indeed interacted with those netizens you are familiar with. Not only have you known each other for several years, but you have also played many games together. As for your identity and background, as well as the people you have worked for There are indeed traces of forgery in the company and the rented house. After all, it is impossible for us to really create a clone in the beta universe and watch him go to school and grow up like a normal person... This is not allowed in terms of time. .”

"Actually, in the first few reincarnations, you started as me. As for the final decision to delete my memory and become 'Chu Guang', it was also a decision you made yourself in one of the early reincarnations."

When he said this, the professor standing on the screen smiled and said in a joking tone.

"Didn't you realize that? You actually don't have the contact information of those colleagues and the landlord...especially the latter, who didn't even think of asking you for rent."

Chu Guang said with a bitter smile.

"I thought they thought it was bad luck and deleted me."

After working for a long time, these people didn't exist at all, or they didn't exist in the beta universe he was matching at the moment.

It's no wonder that major institutions and organizations in that world can't find him at all.

His information wasn't even erased using any high technology, it was simply not there.

If his information can be found, it can only be said that someone took the funds for himself.

Looking at Chu Guang who was in a complicated mood, the professor standing on the screen smiled like an old father.

That smile was exactly the same as his, just like the smile he showed when he watched the alliance rising from the ruins like the morning sun——

It's like looking at your own child.

Even though the nihilistic image was blurry, standing in front of the screen, Chu Guang still felt like he was looking into a mirror.

"...Actually, you don't have to feel confused. As my assistant said, your existence is not only your memory, but also other people's memories of you. Except for those people who don't exist in the first place, you and you The experiences of everyone whose lives we have crossed paths with are incredibly real.”

"Although I was worried a long time ago that you would not be able to implement Plan 404 as you went further and further, but the result was just the opposite... It was you who were completely different from me who created the miracle that I couldn't. .”

"And I'm very happy that you can make that decision and let go of things that I can't let go of. From the moment you call yourself Chu Guang, you are no longer me, but my continuation. "

"Of course, as you said, you want to control your destiny in your own hands. And now, I plan to hand over this right of choice to you."

As he spoke, the shadow disappeared from the office screen and was replaced by an open folder.

There are files with unknown formats and mosaic icons stored in them, numbered from 0 to 776.

Chu Guang knew what it was without asking.

There is no doubt that what is preserved there is the memory generated by the 776 reopenings over the past 200 years!

As for the file numbered 0,

It was 200 years ago... and it lasted until the old era before the Era of Prosperity. It belonged to the memory of the "professor" who once created the Era of Prosperity!

"...These are the memories you have actually experienced, which happened before you woke up from the door of this shelter. You may have vaguely glanced at some fragments in your dreams, but those are just noises from the parallel world, not A complete memory.”

"After all, the morphological field does not only appear when we need it, but occasionally flashes by in front of us in the form of a sense of sight."

Thinking of the wild experiences he had seen in his dream, Chu Guang made a helpless expression.

"That was truly an unforgettable experience. I can't forget it even after I die."

"Indeed... those are really painful to watch, but they are indeed things that happened before."

The professor smiled and said in a very soft voice.

"Now I give you the right to choose, and this will be the final divergence point of your destiny."

"You can choose to remember everything in the past and become the person you want to be, even including becoming me, the 'professor' who created the prosperous era... You can be me, and I can also be Chu Guang, and we will work together. Two become one.”

"Or, you can treat it as the memory of 'another person' and only keep the current memory. I am still me, the professor who was born in the old era. And you are still you, the one who woke up in 211 of the Wasteland Era. Chu Guang, the 'manager' who led the survivors to create a new era."

The room was quiet for a long time.

Chu Guang was silent this time for longer than before.

However, the choice itself is not difficult.

"Well... although the former sounds more attractive, I still choose the latter."

No matter how much he knows about the "Gestalt Life Form" and the inside story of "Project 404", one thing will not change at all——

He is Chu Guang.

There is no doubt about this.

"Really? I also think you would choose this way...Haha, that's great."

The professor who reappeared on the screen seemed to be relieved, but obviously he was not so sure.

Chu Guang couldn't help but wonder whether he in another parallel world would have made different choices, inherited the professor's memory, and become an omniscient and omnipotent "Philosopher King" with a new identity. ”, and has since led human civilization to create prosperity for dozens of millennia across the galaxy.

But that's another world.

He didn't want to imagine the possibility that didn't exist.

Whether it is ending the wasteland era or forming an alliance, it has nothing to do with Project 404.

He has always followed his own heart and will continue to be himself in the future.

"Can I keep these things?" Chu Guang looked at the items in the folder as if he were looking at an ancient cultural relic.

The professor had a hearty smile on his face and said happily.

"Of course, they are important historical documents... Although I don't recommend you insert it in your head, I don't recommend you delete it. However, in order to avoid the void's interference with our world line, I suggest You'd better make some appropriate cuts to the content."

Chu Guang said with a smile.

"For example, delete the system part, right?"

"Yes, although you and I both know that observers cannot transmit unavailable information out of thin air, but others do not know. I don't want others to misunderstand science as fate or a gift from the void... Then I will fall into the trap The trap of nihilism, you don’t want this either, right?”

When he said this, the professor suddenly remembered something, with an embarrassed smile on his face.

"By the way, there are some personal matters... Forget it, I will take care of the things in folder 0. You can decide on folders 1 to 776. Those things have nothing to do with me."

Looking at the embarrassed expression, Chu Guang smiled knowingly and expressed his understanding.

Of course he would take care of those things.

After all, the manager knows how to poop, so he can't put the scene of him squatting in a large size into a museum.

Even if some things are to be made public, it is best to bury them in the ground for a while.

"No problem. In fact, this is what I plan to do even if you don't tell me. As for the files numbered 1~776, I will leave them to Xiaoqi to sort out. And after the sorting is completed, I will set a 100-year confidentiality period for the data. The ban will be lifted after the confidentiality period has expired.”

The professor breathed a sigh of relief, with a vague smile on his face.

"You decide this. My time is over, and the rest will be left to you. Speaking of which, is it called Xiaoqi? What a good name."

"It thinks so too," Chu Guang said with a faint smile, "Not surprisingly, this is probably the nicest name among all the names I have given."

"Haha, really? You have to treat it well, it is the child of my most capable assistant."

There was a happy smile on that blurry face.

Although Chu Guang still wanted to talk to him about something, the time for separation seemed to have come.

What remains here is not the professor himself, but an echo recorded 200 years ago.

Its only purpose of staying here is to hand over the last key to him after everything is over, and at the same time end the mission he has been carrying.

The real professor, in the previous video, had already died 200 years ago...

"I promise you that."

Chu Guang nodded solemnly, watching the ethereal echo gradually fade away and merge into the invisible void...

——

(Thanks to the leader of the book friend "Yi Shang Mi" for the reward!!!)