Chapter 141 Let's chat in the Timeline Cafe
You sit in a corner of the cafe, the sunlight shining obliquely on the wooden tabletop, outlining the traces of dried water stains.
In this secluded town, somewhere between the countryside and the city, outside the mental hospital, you, with your black hair and black eyes, are clearly out of place.
Some of the older people looked at him with relatively kind eyes, but the young men and women who clearly hadn't received a good education and had never left their hometowns looked at him with more hostility.
They seemed somewhat eager, perhaps just wanting to say hello and ask about your background, or maybe they had some other ulterior motive. However, the attention shown to you by two burly men in a corner diagonally opposite your location, whose demeanor didn't seem to fit the atmosphere of the room, dispelled their thoughts.
You were able to enjoy your coffee in peace for a while.
Once you and your companions have rested enough, you look up and ask calmly, "Xiaoyu, why did you come to the mental hospital?"
"I don't know," Xiaoyu said. She was grateful to you for saving her, so she was completely unguarded and told you almost everything she knew.
"I was in class the day before, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself in a hospital room."
"So, this is your first copy?" you ask.
Xiaoyu is very perceptive. She sensed the unspoken meaning in your words, so she looked at you, nodded hesitantly, and then seemed a little confused: "Yes, could it be that I've forgotten something?"
Will she forget anything? According to the usual practice in dungeons, once you leave a certain scene, you should have truly passed the level and the dungeon should be over.
You didn't answer; instead, you stared at her intently—yes, you were absolutely certain she was the girl from the phone.
What is her first copy is your fifth; and what is your second copy can only be something that happens later to her.
What does this tell us?
You are surprised to find that the time of the copy is not linear.
You thought you were experiencing a normal passage of time, meeting companions, saying goodbye to them, and going through a "copy" of time. But it turns out that the "copy" might even exist independently and side by side. The day you enter this "copy" today might be the future or the past for someone else entering this "copy".
So the girl in that phone will make you remember her face.
She must have remembered you deeply, and she knows that perhaps—maybe—you can help her.
“Sigh, anyway, I should have just entered these instances,” Xiaoyu continued when she saw you were silent, carefully stirring the ice cubes in her glass. “Even if I’ve lost some memories, I’ve always been like this. To be honest, if it weren’t for Xiao Ai helping me, I might have been completely turned into an idiot by fear long ago.”
“Speaking of Xiao Ai, she was really kind to me at first. She taught me to treat this place like a game, to organize my thoughts like going against the game designer’s ideas, so that I could give better answers when the doctor made rounds and reduce the number of times I was ‘tortured’ here. She also taught me how to avoid the nurses’ checks, but later…” She bit her lip, shook her head and looked out the window, filled with endless melancholy, “Later we found that the longer we spent here, the more blurred our perception became, so we decided to escape.”
“She planned for a long time, but we still failed in the end. We were taken to the ‘operating room’ together, and we watched each other being tortured like that. After that, I kept fainting. Xiao Ai was stronger than me, which may also be related to the fact that she was an experienced surgeon, and she had far fewer adverse reactions.”
Listen quietly.
"Anyway, she tried to continue taking care of me, but I guess she... felt that I had no hope left." Xiaoyu lowered her eyelashes. "If I'm not mistaken, it was after I fell asleep that day that she took away the only half of my brain that I had left. After that, all I can recall now are the images and thoughts I received through Xiao Ai's eyes." Xiaoyu paused.
"I'm sorry, this might not be what you want to hear from me, but I really couldn't help but talk about her, and... I don't hate her. Really. I was thinking, if I were in Xiao Ai's position, I might have done the same."
You looked up at her and asked, "Do you still think you are who you are now?"
She blinked.
“I’m not questioning you,” you said, “it’s just…have you noticed any changes in yourself?”
“You’ve been here longer than me, so these things have affected you more deeply…” you explained your question.
She remained silent for a long time before whispering, "I'm not sure. But I still dream about the cat my family had when I was little. It would always be lying on the windowsill, and I would sit on the floor reading... I think if I still remember my childhood and those memories that haven't been forgotten, then I can just consider the rest as memories that have been naturally lost. I should still be me."
“I mean, this is my body, this is my brain.” She pointed to her head, where the stitches were still there, seemingly unaffected by leaving the mental hospital, as if serving as a warning. “If I’m not myself, then what am I?”
You didn't say anything.
In that instant, several fragments flashed through your mind: the electronic ghost that haunted you in the Los Kingdom instance; the ghost Y-jie who tried to drag you into the mess by offering writing services during the De Kingdom instance; and Xiaoyu, who is most likely an electronic life form.
Suddenly you understood.
You took a sip of coffee, and your lips were lightly burned. The pain made you even more awake.
If human thoughts and personality are merely data structures that can be "stored" and "replaced," and if "memory" can be copied, pasted, and cut like a file—then does the question "Who am I?" still have any meaning?
It's meaningless. As long as she's alive, as long as she can still live, perhaps once she leaves this place, her consciousness will return to its true place.
Perhaps, the essence of "human beings" has never been about physical appearance.
Thinking of this, you unconsciously asked softly—yes, you know more than Xiaoyu does now, but you naturally feel that precisely because you know, you shouldn't make decisions for Xiaoyu.
So you asked, "Xiaoyu, if one day your body disappears, and only your consciousness lives on in some way... would you feel like you're still 'alive'?"
She paused for a moment, as if she didn't understand, or perhaps she was slowly thinking about it.
“If I can still dream of my cat,” she whispered, “maybe it still is.”
Listen, suddenly your heart skipped a beat.
You may still find it difficult to take sides in discussions about whether someone is still human or alive when separated from the definitions of being human and alive. Just as you don't completely approve of talking to AI or even empathizing with them, you also feel that silicon-based structures that learn and transmit information through electronic means seem to be no more noble than carbon-based organisms that learn and transmit information through brain electrical signals.
What exactly is a human being?
Whatever your choice, respect Xiaoyu and contribute to her future.
You take out your phone and retrieve the SIM card—the item you stole from Tamara in Los Kingdom.
You don't know how this tool, which allows you to control the thoughts of the person on the other side via the internet, will help Xiaoyu in the future; but it is indeed the only tool you have that reminds you of "storing consciousness" in your phone.
“I don’t know what will happen in the future, but maybe one day you will encounter some danger. You should be able to use this SIM card to preserve your consciousness even after your body is damaged or you may die,” you said, handing the card to Xiaoyu.
“I don’t know how to do it, but maybe just like how we can open each other’s skulls in this asylum, change the contents, and directly manipulate each other’s thoughts and consciousness in a direct and physical way, you will find a way to preserve your consciousness here.”
Xiaoyu took the SIM card; the overwhelming amount of information was clearly too much for her to handle.
"Then, don't you need it yourself? It sounds like something that can save your life," she asked dryly.
You shook your head: "What I'm saying isn't meant to mock you, but simply to express my own opinion. I firmly believe that what makes a person human is not merely a vessel of consciousness, but an existence where the two intertwine. Crying is because the throat tightens, the chest contracts, and hot, salty liquid rolls from the eyes, followed by a cool, stinging sensation on the cheek; love is because of the collision of hormones with the other, the fusion of senses, and finally, the interplay of personalities to achieve balance. Without the body, and only consciousness, what meaning do these things have? I... I may not be able to accept handing everything over to cold, hard data."
"Oh." Xiaoyu didn't know what to say, and after a long while she said, "Then why did you give this to me?" She had figured out the cause and effect logic in this matter, and understood that one day in the future her life would be in danger, and she could use the SIM card to store her consciousness in the phone and escape from danger.
“This is my tool. If something happens to you now, I can choose not to save you; but when I met you, things had already happened, and you strongly desire to live even in this way. I cannot bear to see a human become something that has lost its humanity in my eyes, nor can I bear the fate of someone who wants to continue living. So I am just telling you my thoughts and respecting your decision.” You said, sincerely and solemnly handing the SIM card to her.
—Your pupils suddenly dilate, and you understand why Xiaoyu on the phone so earnestly asked you to remember her face: because at this moment she sensed your disapproval of that way of life, so she wanted you to remember her face, to ponder her words repeatedly, and to empathize with her in that state, so that... you would definitely hand the SIM card to her.
"Of course, consider this wishful thinking on my part. I still hope you'll be careful and avoid experiencing that kind of future again." You shake your head, dismissing the chilling feeling this cause-and-effect relationship gives you, and simply wish her well.
"Okay, I will." Xiaoyu held your hand.
"Alright, miss, I think you've finished catching up. It's time to get on the bus. We need to check in three hours in advance." The two people sitting opposite you came over and pointed to the time. They separated you and Xiaoyu.
"Okay." You pursed your lips, but could only go along with them.
This is Forperler, here to take you back to your home in Los Angeles. You've been proven to have no mental issues, but you'll still have to live under Forperler's watchful eye for a while longer.
Alright, this matter is over for now, and you should return to your daily life as a Ruko—even if you're under surveillance.
The people from Fopollini also took Xiaoyu to the airport, where you parted ways.
Once you arrive at the gate, boarding will begin 45 minutes later.
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Author's Note: Hehe~ If I had a choice, I'd prefer electronic immortality. □□? Silicon-based? Iron Autobots? A Cthulhu with fused consciousness? What does it matter? I don't think there's a huge difference between real and fake people. This might have an interesting parallel with the [Pseudo-human] next door: I really think many stupid people in real life have brains that are more rigid and inflexible than the worst human-machine interface. These stupid people don't seem to have any complex emotions or empathy for others; all they have are instructions instilled in them by society and family, and the simplest biological instincts.
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