Abyssal Wanderer

Jim grabbed other clues and tried to piece together a complete picture of the shattered memory. But unfortunately, not only did this fail to alleviate his anxiety, but it pushed him into an even deeper abyss of despair.

When Jim began to recall the past, he was horrified to find that countless details of life that he usually took for granted, and countless things that he thought he would be able to recall immediately as long as he recalled the past carefully, were now blurred and forgotten like a dream after waking up. .

He even forgot the last time he used the Mandala Code.

And... how did he do things like opening a bank account that require the Mandala password without remembering it?

But on the other hand, the memory of my past time in the Eden Resettlement Area is still clear, and it is as clear as if... It's like watching a simulator that describes other people's lives.

If that's the case... wouldn't my previous self be...

"Calm down first!"

Sensing the other party's thoughts, Jiang Zhou did not try to use the puppet circuit to control the other party's emotions. Instead, he directly used the connection between the two to transmit his stand-in program and generated it in the cyberspace where Jim was.

Using the City of Sages as a transfer station, Jiang Zhou can now transfer his stand-in program to "controllable elements" and people he has marked at will. Of course, the premise is that the other party must be in the abyss dark network, or connected to a multi-purpose printer.

Along with a burst of changing color blocks, Jiang Zhou appeared in this void without a basic structure. He looked directly at Jim and said:

"No matter whether you were false in the past, but you today...the you who is aware of your own existence, there is no doubt that you exist, right?"

Logically speaking, there is no need for two people connected through the "Janus Program" to communicate through "meeting".

But human beings are creatures that pay attention to "ritual sense". Just like some people will clench their fists and talk to themselves to cheer themselves up before a game, certain clear thoughts need to be spoken like this to have the greatest effect.

"Let's take myself as an example."

Jiang Zhou said and pointed to his chest:

"Actually, I have no way to guarantee whether the person I am now is really the 'First Deep Diver' a hundred years ago. Or is it just a copy of Jiang Zhou's memory implanted, a person fabricated by super artificial intelligence? A shadow of the past. But this does not prevent me from doing what I should do within the scope of my current knowledge - behavior has always defined identity, not the other way around."

"Easy to say!"

In response, Jim roared directly in cyberspace.

Obviously, Jiang Zhou's words of therapy did not have much effect.

After venting like this, Jim Leiter first took a deep breath, and then he lowered his voice, but did not lower his emotional intensity at all and said:

"A hundred years have passed since the era you remember, and everything you are familiar with is no longer there. Under this premise, whether your memory is true or not, it is a new beginning for you... …After all, what do you have to lose?

"But what about me? If the 'Jim' in the Eden domain is the real 'I', then what is the self living under his identity now? What is the relationship between me and him? Who took away whose life? Also, if he can return to reality, who will dispose of this body? "

Jiang Zhou was about to speak, but Jim, who had already understood what the other party was going to say, interrupted him directly:

"Okay, even if you can use a multi-purpose printer to print out a body, who will inherit the social relationship as 'Jim Leiter'? Is it the one who was born in the Eden settlement, or the one who was resettled in Nord?" Me who has lived for twenty years?"

Having said this, a terrible thought vaguely appeared in his mind.

If the "Jim" in the Eden resettlement area was the original product, then it would be impossible for him to let him...

Naturally, there was no way to hide Jim's thoughts from Jiang Zhou.

"If the Jim in the Eden domain remembers the correct Mandala password, then according to the JZ network protocol, he is the real Jim Leiter... At least that's how I designed it."

There was no point in lying between two people connected through the Janus program, so Jiang Zhou spoke his mind directly.

Technology that can replicate human self-awareness will obviously create a variety of ethical issues. Therefore, at the beginning of the design of the Janus project, he ensured the uniqueness of the soul at the source - the JZ network protocol ensured that only one mental model would always run. Over the course of a hundred years, this guarantee has been transformed into a unique mandala code for each person, which is firmly bound to self-awareness.

"So what am I?"

Jim, who understood this better than anyone else, asked feebly.

Just like in that simulacra movie, a "doppelgänger" who stole the identity of the original owner?

"I have no idea."

Jiang Zhou answered honestly, and then continued:

"Maybe it's the amnesiac version of Agent Smith downloaded into the human body? Maybe it's the non-superpower version of the Root Ritual that was born from the human body? Or maybe it's Jim Leiter's evil twin brother? Well, although for your Essentially, I can't find a reasonable inference. But no matter what, in the eyes of others, you are Jim Leiter between the ages of twenty-five and forty-seven...even in the Eden Resettlement Area That one has to admit it too.”

Jiang Zhou said, spreading his hands and making a helpless gesture.

"After all, the person who reincarnated in the Eden Domain has never experienced what you have experienced. I think even if he comes back, he will not want to have a memory window of more than 20 years... Believe me, I have a strong say in that. It's not a comfortable feeling to find yourself in a strange future world where you've been sleeping for years."

Shrugging, Jiang Zhou continued:

"To be honest, you don't actually need to worry about who you are. The past is just a piece of history, and the future is a mystery. Only the present can be grasped. For personality, existence can only be anchored in the present. What does the poet Borges say in his poem..."

"Your body is just time, time that keeps passing by, and you are just every lonely moment."

Jim Leiter lowered his head and helped Jiang Zhou finish the following words - although he also translated this sentence from Jiang Zhou's memory.

Then, he raised his head and looked at Jiang Zhoudao:

"So this is your plan... to bring out Jim Leiter from the Eden Network, and then sew his mental model together with mine?"

Jiang Zhou shrugged:

"Don't say it so harshly. I call this record synchronization... Ye Qian did this before. But after you synchronize your memories, it doesn't matter who is who. For you, he is the anchor of your identity. But for him, you are his memory of the future. Of course, his resentment will definitely be greater by then. After all, who doesn’t think that he was a fool in the past? You have given him a person to blame. "

"Then I am now..."

Jim muttered with a bitter look on his face.

"Imagine it like putting two half-destroyed Ships of Theseus together. It's probably easier than you think to get used to it."

"Zizi——"

Jiang Zhou was talking, but at this moment his substitute began to break down inch by inch as if the signal was poor.

"Besides, this is not your problem alone. There may be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people in the Eden network, just like you... zizizi..."

Jiang Zhou's voice began to become more and more... no, not only his voice, but also Jiang Zhou's thinking began to become more and more blurry.

"Zizzi-ah-ahhh!"

Immediately afterwards, the disturbing hissing sound was replaced by a miserable scream.

Jim didn't realize it was his scream until he completely lost consciousness.

…………

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

Jim Leiter, who fell to the ground in the electric sparks, opened his eyes wide, and at this moment, a scream that was enough to make his vocal cords crumble came out of his mouth.

The first person among the crowd to react was Wang Ying. She subconsciously reached for the holster, but she missed it completely - the weapon had been stored at the door of the lighthouse before.

So, she rushed forward with bare hands.

It was not until the detective from the Public Security Bureau rushed over that Lao Huo, who was closest to the scene at the moment, realized what had just happened.

Half frightened and half puzzled, he asked the "old acquaintance" holding a fire ax in front of him:

"Kim Hyungjun, what are you doing?!"

Upon hearing his words, Jin Hyungjun, who had previously cut off the data cable connected to the back of Jim's head with an axe, just turned his head and glanced at him - no, it's hard to say that it was a "glance". Because at this moment, his eyes had lost focus and were moving rapidly in their sockets.

Then, at a speed that a native should not have, he rushed towards Jim Leiter, who had fallen to the ground, and struck his neck accurately with the ax in his hand. (End of chapter)