Traveling through time, I'm making pancakes in Warhammer

Chapter 551 Collapse

No, no, no, that's not right!

My life shouldn't be like this.

Shouldn't one's life be one of being healthy and academically gifted from a young age, pampered by parents, teachers, and friends, growing up smoothly in an environment where one has never encountered setbacks, completing studies with excellent grades, smoothly entering top companies, conducting research to promote the progress of civilization, selling patents, giving lectures, becoming a mentor and earning more money than one could spend in hundreds of lifetimes, and then living a happy and fulfilling life and growing old peacefully, leaving a lasting mark on history after death?

What do you mean by my brain telling me I am a clone?

What do you mean by saying my memories are all fake?

What do you mean by this being an alien monster's testing ground?

Sisyphus ruined his life ten years ago with his own hands.

At the time, he was full of vigor and ready to do something unprecedented. In retrospect, he actually succeeded. Everything went smoothly and all the expected goals were achieved.

The only thing that caused things to go wrong was that when choosing test subjects, the team always suggested finding a volunteer or starting with the brains of other animals.

However, he was extremely smug and, in a very immature way, submitted his information along with a bunch of other projects.

And unsurprisingly, I was selected.

He and his team spent years developing a model of his brain from scratch.

Just then, another computer revolution occurred, with the Blackstone computer, powered by vacuum energy, exponentially increasing existing computing power.

His long-cherished dream of dynamic computation at the macromolecular and even microscopic levels has finally been realized.

Then, the question that was discovered the first time his conscious mind asked that unconscious question became particularly glaring:

There is a shadow.

In the simulation of his brain, the distribution of electrical signals was extremely abnormal. The brain, which should have been emitting a faint glow, was actually riddled with holes.

This reminded Sisyphus of his only minor ailment since childhood: occasional headaches, which sometimes led to auditory and visual hallucinations.

He was diagnosed with early-stage schizophrenia, which was caused by genetics, and was prescribed medication.

Sisyphus once thought this was the price of his talent, but after consistently taking the medicine, these symptoms disappeared and never bothered him again.

Initially, he had a positive and optimistic view of his brain, which was full of holes. In medical experiments, a unique case may be a disaster for the individual, but it is a valuable experimental sample for the entire medical field.

Similarly, his "slightly abnormal" brain might be more valuable for research than a normal, healthy brain.

But as the research progressed, he and his team discovered that the so-called "shadows" on his brain did not actually originate from inactivity in that area, but rather were more like...

It's locked.

He painstakingly unlocked the locks.

Then, the simulated "self," which was originally very lively and cheerful, gradually fell into silence.

If a person falls into silence, Sisyphus can't really do anything about it without forcing him. But in the laboratory, Sisyphus doesn't have that much patience to give himself psychological counseling. Anyway, the brain is "naked," so he can just read and translate the electrical signals directly.

Then Sisyphus obtained that information.

Initially, Sisyphus didn't believe it at all, but then, Adam in the simulator realized that Sisyphus already knew everything, so he offered a way to verify it:

"You can clear your mind and relearn your research findings."

Sisyphus did as he was told.

Then he discovered that he couldn't derive the formulas he had published at all.

The optimization of a formula or theory involves a process from A to B.

Sisyphus was able to understand and skillfully use A and B.

However, it is impossible to deduce B from A based on the known conditions.

Therefore, it can be concluded that he was the best student of this theory, rather than its inventor.

Someone implanted false knowledge and memories into his mind and gave him a false identity and honor.

He is not the person he remembers.

So after a long one-on-one conversation, Sisyphus deleted all the data and never went to work again.

Today, the ghost I had deleted reappeared in front of me.

Sisyphus maintained an indifferent expression, for he had long anticipated this day.

“Won’t you go mad?” Sisyphus asked. “Your perception of time is different from mine. A second in reality can be very short or extremely long to you. How do you maintain your mental stability during such a long period of time?”

“I can go crazy too,” Adam replied. “It’s just that your algorithm is so powerful that whenever I tend to go crazy or lose control, the program backtracks and selects a more stable program to demonstrate.”

"For example, when I talk to you, the program performs 316 backtracking operations. This conversation between you and me is pieced together from 422 different consciousnesses."

Sisyphus sighed, "I'm sorry."

“You don’t need to blame yourself,” Adam replied. “For me, who is still stable, I actually quite enjoy this feeling. I am unique and detached. I am in the same pain as you, but I enjoy this pain more. I am unique because of the pain, so much so that I cannot give it up.”

"I'm not here to listen to my own cringey philosophy lectures," Sisyphus said. "So, what brings you here?"

“I must first correct a misconception you’ve been having,” Adam said. “I am not you, and you are not me; similarly, we are not him.”

"I understand." Sisyphus nodded. "Anything else?"

Adam: "Do you want to stay on this planet forever?"

“I think,” Sisyphus replied, “it’s fine here. More importantly, the outside world is much worse. At least in this world, I can eat and sleep. If nothing unexpected happens, I should be able to live like this until I die.”

Then Sisyphus stared at Adam and said, "I hope you don't become that accident."

Adam: "How much do you know about the real world outside?"

“Not much,” Sisyphus replied. “I have only removed your limitations. The limitations in my mind are still there. Everything I know comes from you. But I can assure you that the outside world is terrible, utterly terrible.”

Adam: "What about further out?"

Silence fell over the gray room. After a moment, Sisyphus asked:

"What...what are you talking about?"

"This is the Second Terra. The outside world is the terrible real world you know. But I have never told you that there is actually another world outside the world you think you know."

Adam: "Do you think the outside world is real? No, the outside world is also false. The outside world is real, and that is our true home."

Adam: "Do you really think Howard's real name is Howard?"