Chapter 92: Transmigration or Brain in a Vat?
So, Asker was from the Dragon Kingdom?
Medea was incredibly curious.
She had investigated Asker. Back in Constantinople, she knew he was from the Achilles family, a family with deep ties to the distant Dragon Kingdom.
However, Medea hadn’t expected Asker to actually have memories of living in the Dragon Kingdom.
Did his family move to Constantinople later? To seek refuge with the Achilles family?
This conjecture spurred Medea to delve deeper into his mind.
Soon, she discovered a startling truth.
Asker wasn’t Asker. The original “Asker” was dead; this body was now occupied by a visitor from another world.
A consciousness that had transmigrated from a world very similar to the Dragon Kingdom.
In that world, there seemed to be records of this world as well. The people there called this world “SNF.”
Steel and Fire, a video game…
It took Medea a while to understand the concept of a video game – mainly because Asker’s memories after college were almost entirely filled with gaming, so she couldn’t avoid learning about it.
So that’s how it is.
Medea smiled, resting her chin on her hand, gazing at Asker’s face, a subtle sweetness blossoming in her heart.
Like a wife who had secretly read her husband’s diary, she felt a sense of closeness, as if the distance between them had narrowed.
Although it was a pity she couldn’t take advantage of the situation and do something to him, at least she knew his deepest secret.
And she was the only one who knew…
Lost in thought for a moment, Medea continued her exploration.
Then, she was shocked to discover that Asker hadn’t intended to keep this a secret at all. He had even told Nuo – on the night she confessed to him.
Really! How could he casually reveal such a crucial thing as being a transmigrator to someone else?
Medea was a little angry. Shouldn’t this kind of thing… only be told to the person closest to you? Like her, her!
What if Nuo was a woman with ulterior motives? Wasn’t he putting himself in danger?
What made Medea even more uncomfortable was that Asker had chosen to tell Nuo because he believed she would keep his secret and wouldn’t harm him.
And, to Medea’s irritation, based on her understanding of Nuo, she indeed wouldn’t – Nuo’s heart belonged entirely to Asker. She wouldn’t betray his secrets any more than she would betray his bed.
Damn it, why are you two so close! How many secrets have you shared?!
Medea decided to keep Nuo under close mental surveillance from now on. If this girl ever had any other intentions, Medea would silence her immediately, even if Asker scolded her for it.
I’m doing this for your own good! Do you understand? She stared at Asker’s face, silently making up her mind.
Continuing her exploration, Medea luckily found a recent memory: the scene of Asker risking his life to save her on the snowy slope.
So, what were you thinking at that time?
After carefully searching for a while, a disappointed expression appeared on Medea’s face.
It turned out that Asker hadn’t rushed down to save her out of any special feelings – the memory showed that he had simply made a quick judgment.
He judged that he could save her, so he did.
In Asker’s world, it seemed that many things could be quantified.
For example, the HP of a level 5 could be quantified. He had enough to withstand her flames for more than 10 seconds, plus the impact of the fall. He had calculated that it wouldn’t be fatal before saving her, not the “risking his life to save her” that Medea had originally thought.
But then Medea saw another thought.
“With my current physical attributes and hers, if I go to save her, at most I will be seriously injured; if I don’t, she will definitely die.”
Risking serious injury to save me? Hmph, I knew I was special to you.
Could Nuo do the same?
Medea thought with satisfaction, staring at Asker’s closed eyes, the jealousy in her heart rapidly dissipating.
You pass.
Since she had nothing else to do while waiting for Asker’s body to slowly heal itself, Medea continued to explore his memories.
From deeper memories, she saw his past, including the family tragedy he had told Nuo about.
Medea sighed. She, too, had experienced the warmth of family in her childhood, and then the pain of loss. She empathized with Asker’s past.
Then, Medea saw that after entering society, he started working at a game company.
From that time on, he began to understand the gaming industry and first encountered the full-immersion virtual reality game “Steel and Fire.”
Freed from the limitations of keyboard and mouse, “Steel and Fire” no longer tested players’ so-called APM (Actions Per Minute), but emphasized experience and awareness, which allowed him to thrive in this game, quickly climbing to the top of the player rankings.
Later, when “Steel and Fire” entered the e-sports industry, he resigned and became a professional player, not because he loved the game, but simply to earn more money to support his family.
Then he transmigrated…
This transmigration had a huge impact on Asker’s worldview. The most typical example was:
To this day, he still hadn’t figured out whether he had transmigrated or was trapped in the game, connected to a life support system.
The reason was simple. The original full-immersion VR game was already quite realistic. Players would feel pain when injured in the game (of course, their real bodies wouldn’t be injured), and they would feel hungry if they didn’t eat for a long time (even if they ate in the game, their real bodies would still be hungry).
In other words, it was entirely possible that Asker had actually been kidnapped, connected to a life support system, immersed in a nutrient solution tank, his consciousness immersed in the server world, playing the game…
Theoretically, the possibility of being connected to a life support system was even greater than transmigration, because the former could be explained, while the latter (soul transmigration + partial body transmigration) couldn’t be explained scientifically at all.
Therefore, Asker still couldn’t be sure (at least subconsciously) whether these girls around him were really humans from another world, or virtual NPCs in some full-immersion VR game.
Because of his father’s experience, Asker himself was extremely resistant to the idea of “falling in love with a virtual NPC,” so he hadn’t developed any real feelings for any of the girls around him so far.
Even though they all met, or even far exceeded, his criteria for a partner, both in appearance and personality.
Medea just wanted to laugh at this. Asker couldn’t figure it out, but couldn’t she tell whether she was a real person or a simulated program?
Wait, what if I’m just a thinking program? Medea was speechless, thinking of a possibility that even she was afraid of.
After all, this world was exactly the same as the game world in Asker’s memory! This coincidence was a bit too much!
“All programs are designed by people, and they must have some function,” Medusa said coldly in her mind. “May I ask why a programmer would design a useless program like you? Wasting resources with all your random thoughts, and you’re even dual-threaded!”
“That’s true,” Medea hurriedly agreed. “And we even argue with each other! Such a program is redundant and inefficient, it doesn’t make sense!”
Although she had barely managed to convince herself, Medea was troubled again because she found that she couldn’t convince Asker.
How could she prove that she was a living person, not a virtual program designed with super-high AI?
Or, going a step further, how could she prove to him that this world was real, not a false world built with programs and code, deceiving him through sensory input?
“There’s no way,” Medusa said angrily. “It’s like, how can you prove to someone that their thoughts originate from themselves, not ideas you implanted after brainwashing them with your psychic abilities?”
“You just gave me an idea.” Medea suddenly realized, “I definitely can’t convince him, but I can brainwash him!”
“When my Mind ability reaches level II, I’ll implant thought fragments like ‘This world is real’ and ‘The person he loves most is me,’ subtly changing his desire to go back.”
“That’s not a good idea,” Asker’s voice rang out.
Medea: …
“Ah, you’re awake.” Medea hurriedly rushed to his side, as if nothing had happened, and asked with concern, “How are you feeling? Are you okay? Are you uncomfortable anywhere?”
“What do you think?” Asker looked at her with dead fish eyes. “Why don’t you try rolling down a mountain a few hundred times while being barbecued by flames and smashing into the bottom of a valley?”
“Ah, speaking of which, I have good news for you.” Medea smiled and pressed a finger against his lips.
“Your androphobia is cured?” Asker asked in surprise.
“Not quite.” Medea said. “I’m just no longer afraid of you.”
“So you’re not going to treat me as a man anymore, is that it?” Asker was speechless.
“No, no, no.” Medea smiled. “I was just moved by your heroic act of saving me, which refreshed my impression of you. Although I’m still repulsed by those ordinary, ugly, and rude male pigs, you have been upgraded to a masculine, heroic, and charming image in my heart.”
“In other words, you are special in my heart. Aren’t you touched?”
“Stop it,” Asker looked towards the sky. “My whole body hurts.”
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