Chapter 2001: Unknowable Truth 8

Hum

The image stopped.

Sitting opposite, Andre calmly watched Lin An, whose expression kept changing, knowing that Lin An had roughly figured out what these images were saying.

Before Lin An could suppress the shock in his heart and ask him,

Andre directly broke the silence.

"That's right, this is the second piece of information inside the Research Institute."

"Here, humans, while researching how to cure phantom limbs, inadvertently discovered an unimaginable horror."

"That is, the brainwave data they recorded deviated from reality."

Andre let out a light laugh and spoke softly:

"Lin An, do you also understand this?"

"In the experiment, human neural activity precedes mental activity, even preceding real-world commands. I think you should understand what this means."

As his words fell, Lin An looked at Andre with an icy expression; a sudden, inexplicable anger erupted wildly from his heart.

But Lin An knew he wasn't angry at what Andre said that deceived him; he was angry out of fear.

Just like humanity's self-protection mechanism.

Rarely, Lin An felt a strong panic again after a long time.

"We.."

"No free will!!"

"Pap"

Andre, with a smile, snapped his fingers rather emotionally.

Only seeing him slowly rise to his feet, he looked at Lin An's eyes with interest.

"You can't believe it, right?"

"When I saw these things back then, the shock in my heart was even stronger than yours."

"Hahaha, we actually have no free will, as ridiculous as us having no head. Phantom limb!? What is a phantom limb!? Maybe we have nothing at all!"

Andre suddenly opened his arms, his expression twisted, as if even though he had accepted all this, even now he still couldn't suppress his inner anger!

"In the experiment, these researchers likewise couldn't believe the facts they observed, so in the second round of large-scale experiments they built a massive shielding field! They imagined the data mismatch was due to external interference, not what they had guessed!"

"Too bad, they should have left themselves some room for fantasy, some retreat!"

"The neural response time of phantom limbs is faster than thought by 0.01 milliseconds! Faster than real-world commands by 0.02!"

"Lin An!"

"Tell me! What does this mean!?"

Andre took a deep breath, clenched his fists tightly, and asked himself and answered.

"Neural response shouldn't be faster than thought, faster than reality! It's like writing: before the pen touches the paper, when we don't even know what to write, how could characters appear on the paper!?"

"So, this represents two answers!"

"1, either we are merely a video tape, everything we do is a predetermined reality! The next second's future was already decided in the previous second! The future has already happened, reality cannot be changed!"

"We are like living in a video tape, merely pretending to follow a script! Poor us, still thinking we are alive!"

"2, or thought does not participate in life activities; our bodies will do what they do without needing thought to control them. We merely mistakenly think we can control our bodies, mistakenly think we are doing what we want to do!"

"Lin An, which explanation do you choose?"

Their eyes met, and Lin An only felt his heart beating like a drum, heavily striking his eardrums.

A strong sense of dazed absurdity almost consumed his spirit.

Only now did he realize why Andre didn't refute his claim that memes lack subjective initiative, yet firmly believed memes are alive just like humans.

The reason is simple.

"Because humans also don't have it. If he still thinks he's alive, then memes must be too!"

In the phantom limb experiment, the source that drove those researchers to insanity was their shocking discovery that human behavior precedes conscious activity.

Although people have long accepted that life has physiological instincts—breathing, heartbeat, and all basic life-sustaining activities that don't require consciousness—if even eating, speaking, and everything we do doesn't need consciousness, then what is consciousness? What are their thoughts, cognition, thinking, joys and sorrows?

As Andre said, there are only two answers.

"Fatalism, or..."

"We have no.. free will...!"

Lin An slowly closed his eyes; he could not accept either of these two answers.

It's too absurd, this is truly too preposterous!

"That's right, Lin An."

"So you want to accept fatalism, just like when humans first discovered quantum entanglement, realizing the existence of fate in interference experiments? Or accept... that you are a dead person?"

"Don't you think memes are dead? Then you are now just like a meme..."

".."

"In quantum entanglement, a quantum's spin changes due to human observation."

"These consciousness-less quanta seem able to foresee the future; they can change their state before you decide to look at them. If you look at them, they turn 'left'; if you don't, they turn 'right'. And whether they turn left or right actually depends on whether you will look at them in the future."

"How similar..."

"Just like the phantom limb experiment, you think you reach out to grab an apple because you want to, but in fact your hand shoots out before the thought even arises."

Lowering his arms, Andre let out a low laugh, as if lamenting the absurdity of reality.

"Eternal, unchanging fate, we who do not exist."

"How ridiculous..."

"Lin An, do you know? Actually I think we might just be a natural phenomenon."

Like wind, like water, like a kind of natural scenery.

What life, what living things. Everything is merely an illusion... an illusion of a stone.

We think we can run and jump, can change heaven and earth, can manufacture intricate precise machines, can create grand creations that envelop the stars.

However, what difference is there between these complex life activities and geological activities?

Volcanic eruptions are also very precise phenomena, planetary rotation, supernova fusion— which of these isn't harder than humans chopping trees? In geological activity, simple weathering can carve smooth stone spheres; within the crust, there exist vast numbers of extremely precise cubes.

Theoretically, as long as time is sufficient, under the random motion of atoms, one can similarly randomly assemble a spaceship in the starry sky.

And all of this does not require the participation of consciousness.

So, do you know why, in the information you found, there appears a headless yet living being?

After speaking, Andre's eyes flickered, calmly looking at Lin An.

Each word he spoke was like a heavy hammer, just as he had once felt, now destroying human will. For the stronger, the more resolute the will of a creature, mental attacks are far more terrifying than physical ones!

Especially for Awakened Ones of Fifth Stage and above, their power comes from their cognition of rules, of reality. Once it collapses, it is no less than completely destroying their source of power!

Is this what you call saving us, then?

Lin An slowly raised his head, his eyeballs filled with bloodshot.

If this information had not been hidden, then in the mission we would not have thought there were two heads, but rather that a headless being could live. If consciousness does not exist, then the head need not exist.

Yes, if it weren't for me helping you...

Without waiting for Andre to casually nod, Lin An suddenly interrupted his words:

Go on.

This isn't the final answer, is it? This is merely part of the ultimate...!

After his words fell, Andre blinked slightly, then smiled:

Lin An, you are more stubborn than I imagined...

It seems there is some secret on you that I don't know, supporting you...

Alright, the second story, I call it 【Gaze】.

After listening, perhaps you will then know...

""Why does the system dread this place.