While Kikuoka Seijirou was still reeling from that disturbing realization, someone else was growing excited over an entirely different issue.
"Senior Kayaba, you're a robot? Did the real you not come with them? Or... Senior Kayaba, is the person standing here actually you?!"
Higa Takeru approached the senior he deeply respected, staring at him with a mixture of excitement and disbelief.
If the latter possibility was true, then Kayaba had accomplished another monumental feat: he had transformed a human consciousness into a genuine digital life-form.
"It's me."
The answer sent a surge of excitement through Higa.
"Senior Kayaba, how did you solve—"
The two immediately launched into a technical discussion.
Apparently, the moment they began talking about their fields of expertise, both men became completely absorbed, forgetting everything around them—including their original purpose for coming here.
During the conversation, Kayaba brought up the Medicuboid. He wanted to know why Higa possessed technology identical to his own.
The Medicuboids in other hospitals, as well as the ones installed here, had all been built using technical information supplied by Higa.
No matter how intelligent Higa might be, Kayaba couldn't believe he had perfectly reproduced knowledge that existed only inside Kayaba's brain.
Some discoveries would naturally produce identical knowledge. Certain scientific principles remained unchanged regardless of who discovered them.
But even if two people both knew how to manufacture an automobile, the cars they produced wouldn't have exactly the same design. Yet these Medicuboids were as identical as twins.
Now, Kayaba finally received an answer to that mystery.
"You were actually the one who gave me the information, Senior Kayaba."
"I gave it to you?"
Kayaba Akihiko had no memory of doing anything like that.
Had part of his memory been lost when he uploaded his consciousness into an electronic system?
No.
He was certain his memories were complete.
"You were even the one who guided me toward the creation of Project Alicization," Higa continued.
That only deepened Kayaba's confusion.
"When?"
"More than six months ago. I was conducting an experiment when I accidentally received an electric shock. Afterward, I began experiencing strange auditory hallucinations. I kept hearing your voice whispering all kinds of data to me."
Higa offered this rather absurd explanation without hesitation.
However, when he tested the data supplied by those supposed hallucinations, the results had proved correct.
"Higa Takeru, are you joking?" Koujiro Rinko asked with a frown.
The story was far too ridiculous.
"I'm not joking."
Higa took out his phone and opened a document. It contained a chaotic mass of numbers and symbols that looked like meaningless gibberish.
He showed it to Kayaba.
"The version of you I heard in those hallucinations told me to give this to you. He said you would understand once you saw it."
Kayaba remained silent for quite some time.
"I see."
"What is it, Akihiko?" Rinko asked.
"Those seemingly garbled characters are written in another cipher I developed myself. The message explains that Higa's so-called auditory hallucinations occurred because his brain received photonic quantum information transmitted backward through time."
The message contained more than that.
It also told Kayaba that the dream he pursued would indeed be realized in the future.
Furthermore, it explained which direction his research should take from this point onward.
"Information from the future?" Higa murmured.
He didn't appear especially surprised. In truth, he had already considered that possibility.
Perhaps the power wielded by the man named Kain—power far beyond anything this era should possess—had also come from the future.
"Sending information into the past? Commander, that explains why the project began ahead of schedule," 6O said.
She wasn't particularly surprised either, because her people had attempted something similar.
It was possible to make the past receive information from the future, but the process had severe limitations.
The android leadership had once attempted to change humanity's extinction through that method, but they had ultimately failed.
It was almost as though an invisible force corrected every alteration, forcing history back toward its original course.
There was also a fundamental paradox.
If the information successfully changed the past, the future from which it had been transmitted would cease to exist.
If that future no longer existed, no one would send the information into the past.
And without information from the future, the past would never change in the first place.
That was a temporal paradox.
After being warned by a certain individual, the android leadership prohibited any further attempts, fearing they might cause an even greater catastrophe.
That person had once been human. For certain reasons, however, they had transformed into something resembling a machine life-form—and could even use magic.
"Commander, I can also confirm something else. Part of the defensive system protecting the world inside Underworld's servers uses our technology. To break through it, I would need access to the Bunker's Level-Two server."
The equipment 6O currently carried wasn't powerful enough to breach such a troublesome firewall.
Of course, using the Bunker's Level-Two server wasn't the only option. If they sent her a sufficiently powerful scanning device, she could still force her way inside.
However, that would be a far more violent intrusion and would likely damage some of the data.
There was another possible method.
6O had confirmed that this facility possessed an interface capable of accessing the world inside.
They could enter Underworld directly and seize administrator privileges from within the virtual world itself.
Unfortunately, the interface was rather unusual.
It was specifically designed to connect human consciousnesses.
As an android, 6O would have difficulty using it. The equipment first scanned the prospective user to confirm they were human, initially through their brain waves—
No.
More precisely, it detected a quantum field unique to human life.
That quantum field served as identity authentication, after which the system established a direct connection between the person and the machine.
6O didn't possess the quantum field generated by a human brain, so the interface wouldn't recognize her as a valid login candidate.
Beyond that problem, 6O was genuinely interested in Underworld.
According to the Commander, this virtual realm had already come extremely close to becoming a real world.
If the humans living inside continued developing and eventually began exploring outer space, would they discover the boundaries of their universe?
Would they realize that beyond their universe lay the real human world?
Could their technology eventually advance far enough to break through their universe and cross into reality?
After 6O raised the subject, the researchers explained everything they knew about Underworld.
Most of the information matched what the Commander had already told her, although their explanation was considerably more detailed.
There was, however, one crucial fact they themselves didn't know.
A problem had emerged inside Underworld.
One of its artificial intelligences had already become aware of the outside world, yet the researchers remained completely oblivious.
"Miss 6O, if you truly are the expert on artificial intelligence, do you know why the people of Underworld are excessively peaceful? Why is there no murder or...?"
Now that the discussion had turned to Underworld, Higa immediately asked about the problem he had never been able to understand.
The primary purpose behind developing this world was to eventually install its artificial intelligences into weapons.
Yet Underworld's inhabitants were far too docile.
They didn't fight or kill one another. They were remarkably peaceful and obeyed every law.
Artificial intelligences like that couldn't be installed in weapons unless the researchers forcibly implanted a primary directive such as: "Humans are targets that must be killed."
The consequences of doing that were obvious.
The artificial intelligence would inevitably go out of control.
So far, the only viable candidate who had given them any hope was a girl named Alice.
She had repeatedly violated the laws governing her world.
There was also something unusual about her name.
The names of Underworld's inhabitants had all been produced through strange combinations of randomly generated syllables. Yet the moment the researchers discovered Alice, her name had shocked them.
Artificial Labile Intelligent Cybernated Existence.
Taking the first letter of each English word produced:
A.L.I.C.E.
Alice.
"Oh, that's easy," 6O replied. "Someone in that world already knows about the world outside. She's been trying to deceive you this entire time, making you believe Underworld is peaceful and all its residents are such well-behaved little people."
Her voice was sweet and gentle.
The meaning behind her words, however, sent chills through Higa Takeru and Kikuoka Seijirou.
Who was this person?
Both men had already thought of the most likely candidate.
(End of Chapter)
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