Ash had not doubted for the first time that his operators were real people rather than mere pieces of paper.
In fact, as early as when the Sword Maiden told him in prison, "You are not everything in my life, just an accident in my life. Even without you, I can still live well in places you don't know about," Ash had never seen operators as mere data streams.
But since the Sword Maiden told him right from the start that to Ash, they were merely virtual memories... there was no reason for the Sword Maiden to lie to him about this, right?
Moreover, since they had never met in reality, Ash defined operators as follows:
Though they lived in their own unique storyworlds, they shared the same Void Realm with Ash.
