Players Invade Cyberpunk-Chapter 859 - 277: What’s Wrong with a World of Illusions? (Losing It)

What is [I]?

What is [The World]?

This is a philosophical question that has puzzled humanity for thousands of years.

Advocates of mechanical control theory believe that humans are actually precise machines, and so-called self-awareness is just an illusion caused by the interaction of neuronal electrical signals.

The elusive self-awareness does not exist.

However, the conclusion of mechanism leads to fatalism, because everything has already been predetermined by material reality.

Just like the sun will inevitably rise in the east and set in the west 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

The materials within you are destined to make you think and act this way. Every choice, effort, and struggle is an illusion, denying all human efforts and subjective initiative.

Buddhism considers everything in the world to be false, disturbances to the true self.

All conditioned dharmas are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows.

Only by transcending these false bubbles and reaching the true self, no longer troubled by the sufferings of the world, can one awaken great wisdom, transcend the sea of suffering, reach the other shore, and become enlightened.

Wang Yangming's mind theory believes that [The World] exists due to [My] observation.

When you haven't seen this flower, this flower and I both return to silence. When you see this flower, its colors immediately become clear.

Your heart determines the true appearance of this world.

There are countless similar philosophical questions and answers

And [Brain in a Vat] is a variant philosophical problem of mechanical control theory.

The initiator of the problem created a mechanical omnipotent god, letting it deceive a brain in a vat by simulating all real information feedback with electrical signals, making it think it's living in a real world.

The technology of 2076 is far from approaching a mechanical god, not to mention achieving the so-called brain in a vat level.

But one can use a clever method to become a god for a period of time.

That is to copy all the electrical signals and pheromone secretions a person's brain undergoes within a period, then perform conversions of visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile signals, and after a second edit, let the user personally experience this real yet false life.

It's called Mewtwo.

But there's a very serious problem, and that is the sense of immersion.

The user of Mewtwo is a human with mature self-awareness and past memories; how can they understand and experience the memories and life of a stranger? Wouldn't it cause intense dissonance and rejection?

The answer is to fill in what is missing.

Using the most primitive desires and the most enjoyable visual experience to lower the user's rejection psychology.

Your parents died in a crime-ridden alley? Causing you to lack parental love?

No problem, I'll film the most loving and happy family drama for you, even with the parents' names ready, one called Martha, the other Thomas Wayne.

As a result, the more desperate the user's life, the more they are willing to immerse themselves in Mewtwo and not wake up.

Even if they know clearly the whole world is fake, they wouldn't want to wake up.

What do you do after it's finished?

Of course, erase your memory and play it again, ensuring it's always as fresh as the first time.

Arturo's emotional modulation code for the neural regulator further enhances this effect.

After all, before your consciousness completely collapses, the production line certainly won't stop for maintenance.

Besides, there are plenty of brains in Night City voluntarily coming in to work and enjoy, they don't need you alone.

So when players and Jackal link into the Hellhound's intranet, they don't see certain control programs or ICE.

But unfortunate souls drowning in Mewtwo, repeating over and over.

The only enemy here is the cyber life form wrapping these data cores—Erebos.

[Humans, welcome to the pasture you built]

It looks like a mass of flowing red-black mist, without a fixed shape.

But its mocking gaze emanates from the mist.

Jackal and other hacker players can clearly sense that the opponent is observing them.

It's a rather troublesome BOSS, more emotionally reactive than those encountered in the old net, meaning it's more advanced.

"Pasture?"

What is all that about?

The players looked at each other in disbelief; they came to sabotage the Hellhound control system, but no one mentioned that there would be a powerful roaming AI here, where did this all intrude?

"What's with those people?"

The street rat points to the data cores wrapped in black and red data, faintly seeing a human form in a coma.

"Regular passersby kidnapped by AI?"

"I think they might be Netherworld Dog hackers, turned into meat post-its, you know, like human pastures drawn in the books."

"... Do you need tickets to go in and experience observation?"

Some asked Erebos for outside help

"Hey, BOSS over there, at least give an opening explanation."

But Erebos' data body only accelerated its circulation

[Ignorant, I have no obligation to explain to the unknowing]

With that, it launched an attack on the players; this is not the old net entrance, and players haven't established secondary virtual machines—dying means entering a three-day resurrection period.

The overwhelming data attack scared many lower-level hacker players, because the opponent is evidently much stronger than any malware they've encountered before.

Without the support of many ordinary players, they cannot possibly defeat the opponent on their own.

Buzz——

In the blink of an eye, a data firewall instantly formed in front of the players, blocking the overwhelming DDS attack.