Volume 10 Bugs Chapter 98: Evidence of Existence
In our life, there are always many things that are difficult for us to recall and describe - not because the vague memory makes our mind difficult, but precisely because the memory is too clear and sharp, so that it will stab us forever. Whenever we think of it, the wound of memory can't help but bleed painfully. Although it has been so long, what I can't imagine is that when I think of it, it is still very difficult, so much so that I don't know where to start for so long.
Perhaps, all this should start with "me".
Yes, "I". This is not a specific reference with a clear goal, but just a concept. For each of us, this "I" is ourselves, which is infinitely small, yet infinitely huge. For this vast world with many dimensions, each "I" is as insignificant as a speck of dust in the sky; however, for ourselves, this "I" is everything. For us, only what is perceived by "I" in this world is real, and even the only meaning of the existence of this world is to be perceived by "I" and let "I" understand.
"There is no reality except 'I'!" This is the view of some classical philosophers who love to think. I have to say that their ideas make some sense and are full of mysterious and profound beauty. However, here we can easily encounter a difficult problem:
If only "I" is real, how should "others" be treated? For every arrogant "I", every "other" in this world is just a scenery on his or her life path. We don't care what kind of story this scenery has, what kind of life it has, or what kind of world it has.
For every "I", every "other" may be illusory. From the standpoint of "I", they can never prove their true existence. No matter how real their life is, how full of flesh and blood, what magnificent life adventures they have experienced, and how glorious and brilliant achievements they have made, as long as his existence is different from yours, you can refuse to acknowledge it and forever deny the real world that belongs to them.
...and the reasons are always easy to find!
None of us knows how many things that originally existed and were real have been wiped out by our own hands because the arrogant and paranoid "I" is too difficult to accept but too easy to deny, too difficult to admit but too easy to doubt.
From this perspective, the concept of "I" may really be filled with original sin.
…
The Golden Rose spread its sails and slowly left the reef fortress under the command of the female captain Kelsey Lager, heading towards the distant horizon. Each of us wandered leisurely on this broken ship, some climbed the broken railings to look into the distance, some went into the bottom of the cabin to visit the pirates' simple cabins, and Chang Sanjiao even climbed up to the small observation tower on the top of the main mast with great interest, stood next to the one-armed lookout named "Hook" and waved loudly to the people below - looking at the pirate lookout whose butt was almost squeezed off the observation tower, my heart was full of worry and sympathy for him.
Yes, this was supposed to be a triumphal journey after a huge victory. We all thought that the ship would go directly into the naval port, and then we would find the naval generals who gave us the mission and receive the generous rewards we deserve.
At this time, I only knew that this was the end of a great battle, but I didn't realize that this was the beginning of the most difficult, distressing and desperate escape and adventure in my life.
When the pirate ship sailed out for about a minute, patrolling alone on the vast ocean, far away from all islands and land, a holy music suddenly came from the sky. The clouds in the sky stirred evenly, gradually breaking open a circular hole. A column of light filled with a sacred atmosphere poured down, illuminating a small area of the sea with a dazzling light, as if it were a fairyland.
A tall black shadow slowly descended along this sacred and magnificent passage, and behind him, a pair of huge white wings fluttered in the wind. Although I couldn't see his face at all because of the backlight, I recognized his identity from the soul mark on his head.
He is the servant before the throne of the gods, the holy messenger who conveys God's will and destiny, the observer, recorder and protector who guards the world's norms and harmony: GM007 Fallen Angel with Broken Wings.
When I first discovered the boxing gloves bug, I had a close encounter with this holy messenger. His holy aura, majestic appearance, fair judgment—well, actually mainly his dangerous flying skills and sexy leg hair—left a deep impression on me. Although President Feiyin reported several bugs later, I was not there at the time and had no way of knowing whether he was still responsible for handling them. However, this time, judging from his steady movements in the air, his flying skills have obviously improved a lot compared to before—at least we don’t have to worry about whether he will suddenly lose his balance and fall headfirst onto the deck.
"GM, you're finally here..." Our president never seemed to have any respect for these messengers who served before the throne of God, and greeted them with a playful smile, "...Have you confirmed the bug we sent you? What reward can you give us this time?"
Seeing President Feiyin approaching with a shameless face, the GM seemed a little embarrassed, and took two steps back with a wry smile: "Dear player, we have received the report you sent. It has been confirmed that the situation where a critical hit caused more than 90,000 points of damage was indeed not caused by plug-ins, and your guess is very close to the actual situation. However, after verification by our backend technicians, it was proved that this situation is an absolute individual case, which may only occur once and has no impact on the fairness of the game. Therefore, according to Article 93 of the work manual, this situation cannot and does not need to be treated as a bug..."
"What?!" Fei Yin's eyes widened when she heard this, and she yelled at the GM angrily, "Killing off more than 90,000 HP in one go, isn't this a bug? You technicians are crazy! I was hoping to fix this bug... well, I mean earn... tens of thousands of gold coins to expand the guild, and it's too unreasonable for you to handle it this way! I want to complain! Your work number is 007, right? Just wait, I'll remember you..."
Feiyin pointed at the GM's broken-winged fallen angel's nose and jumped and screamed, making him laugh and cry for a while. But strangely, his attention didn't seem to be entirely on the female magician who was arguing with him. Most of the time, he seemed to always like to cast his eyes on me. His eyes were a little surprised, a little suspicious, and seemed to be a little curious.
"Player, calm down, calm down, please let me finish what I want to say..." The fallen angel with broken wings finally seized the opportunity and broke free from Fei Yin's clutches, "...You don't have to be too excited. If I simply tell you that there is no bug, according to Article 67 of the work manual , the GM on duty only needs to send you a message. I have other work to do here..."
"You're wrong!" Suddenly, Xian Ge Yayi popped his head out of the cabin - because of his fear of heights, he had not dared to go onto the deck since the ship started. Even now, he hid most of his body on the cabin stairs, with only his head sticking out.
"You said this discovery won't affect the fairness of the game, but if we repeatedly play this dungeon, and our friends keep using the same method to inflict huge damage, how can it not affect fairness?"
"That's right!" Fei Yin jumped out again after hearing what Xian Ge Ya Yi said, and kept shouting, "If you don't consider this discovery a bug, then if we play this dungeon twenty times a day, we will finish it in a few days. If this is not called a bug, then what is a bug?"
Hearing such a question, the fallen angel with broken wings did not show any embarrassment as before. Instead, he became unusually serious and answered seriously: "This is why I came here."
As he spoke, this messenger of the gods, who was dressed in avant-garde and had unique taste, suddenly turned his face to me, stared into my eyes and said loudly:
"At first, we planned to treat this as a normal bug, but out of curiosity, our technicians checked the record of the lucky player who caused this huge damage, and then found that there were serious problems with this player's record."
"I've told you, Jeff, that your use of cheats is too outrageous. Look, you've been caught this time." Red Wolf whispered behind me.
"If it's just an ordinary cheat, we can just block the account..." The fallen angel with broken wings obviously heard what Red Wolf said. He walked slowly towards me and explained as he walked, "...We noticed a problem. This player has never left the game since he first came online three years ago. What kind of player can be online all the time without a second's interruption for three years?"
The questioning of the fallen angel with broken wings immediately triggered everyone's whispers. With the GM's reminder, everyone's memory seemed to have opened a window, suddenly illuminating some things that everyone had overlooked.
"Is this true?" Yan Zhen asked.
"But come to think of it, it seems that I have never seen Jeff not online..." Changgong Sheri recalled seriously.
"At least he was there when I was here..." Niu Baiwan said as he nodded.
"But although this is strange, it doesn't mean anything..." Xiange Yayi thought for a while, "...If they are several people taking turns to play this game and staying online all the time, it is also possible. I have seen such people before. Although they are not as exaggerated as playing for three consecutive years, there are some who stay online for a year or two."
"Indeed, if that were all, we would have to worry about the health of such a group of desperate players. However, the result we found is that he is 'always online', which includes not only normal game time, but also the time when the server is shut down for maintenance and upgrades. We checked at least twenty online records, and found that the online time of this player and the server startup time are exactly the same, not a second off, which means that he can enter the game without any login time. Don't you think it's strange?"
The fallen angel with broken wings glanced at everyone present. Everyone looked confused and puzzled, and no one could say anything.
"Not only that..." The GM with a pair of wings seemed to be unsatisfied, "...this player has a large number of online records, but did not leave any login records; his earliest online record was not at the starting point of the Novice City, but at the city gate; his earliest equipment record was not an ordinary novice suit, but a set of NPC standard equipment..."
"The reason why I came here is because I have to see it with my own eyes and ask in person, who are you, this player named Jeffreys Kidd?"
"...Or rather, what are you!?"
The fallen angel with broken wings stared at me fiercely, as if he wanted to use all his strength to see through me. I suddenly wanted to laugh: his expression reminded me of when I was in the Stone Fortress, under the guidance of the old troll Carlson, I tried hard to see through the stone wall of the fortress to see the truth of the source world.
I was discovered, and I knew it very well. The biggest secret in the world that I had been carefully hiding, that I would rather die than expose, that I was always afraid of being known by others, was completely revealed at this moment.
I have imagined countless times how scared, horrified, out of control and sad I would be at this moment, but to my surprise, I experienced none of these.
I just felt that I was too calm, just like a traveler who was exhausted from rushing on the journey and suddenly put down all his luggage, stood quietly by the road, waiting for the soul he had left behind in his haste.
I looked at him quietly, saying nothing - in fact, I didn't know what to say. Denial was useless, and admitting it was useless. I didn't even know what I should admit. Although I knew that I was completely different from those friends who were involved in the air, I didn't know how to express, describe, and define this difference.
I can only accept it calmly and wait silently.
"What do you mean by that?" Hearing the question from the fallen angel with broken wings, Fei Yin suddenly became a little excited. "You mean, Jeff...he...that...is not a human?"
Of course I am a human being, but I vaguely feel that the "human being" Feiyin is talking about is different from the "human being" I usually know.
"Then who is he? Artificial intelligence? Robot? Digital life? You know what I mean, is that what you mean? Do you understand what I mean?" Xiange Yayi stared at me with wide eyes, completely incoherent.
No, not just him, everyone was looking at me, and their eyes looked very strange.
"I know what you're going to say, player. But our technical experts say that he can't be considered a life. He's just a faulty program."
The pirate ship was on the sea, and the pirates were busy with their own things, completely ignoring what the people on the deck were doing. According to common sense, we should have landed on the shore by now, but our ship didn't seem to move at all. I guess this was probably the power of the GM.
"Is it that simple?" Yan Zhen looked at me in confusion. "He did so many things on his own, fighting monsters and leveling up with us, completing quests and going to dungeons, and we didn't notice anything wrong with him. If this is not life, then what is life?"
"This is actually very easy to understand..." the fallen angel with broken wings explained, "...you should know that a large amount of information is stored in our server, including language information, player behavior pattern information, the logic information of the entire game... and so on. The amount of this information is unimaginable. If a program has an error, but is connected to this information database at the same time, it will naturally react and imitate and act according to the existing patterns in the information database. You said that he can fight monsters, level up, chat and talk, which is natural, because the main mode of this game itself is to fight monsters and level up, and all his actions are just following the most basic mode of this game; as for dialogue, our massive language information database can generate a lot of language information for timely communication."
"But...but he spoke so fluently, and there was no barrier in our communication. This is definitely not something an ordinary information database can do." Xian Ge Yayi asked stutteringly.
"This is much simpler than you think." The fallen angel with broken wings said patiently, "You have to know that a few decades ago, an ordinary second-hand mobile phone could have a very complete voice assistant function. It could respond to almost everything you said instantly. There was even a time when some otakus fell hysterically in love with this voice assistant. At that time, the information database was actually pitifully small. Now our information database can completely select answers with the same style according to different environments, different objects, and different times, and there are many choices for this answer, and you won't be able to hear any flaws. If you want, the current technology can even do it..."
"So what do you want?" Suddenly, Fei Yin interrupted the fallen angel with broken wings and asked abruptly.
"...According to Article 157 of the work manual, once we find an erroneous program, we must delete it." The fallen angel with broken wings pondered for a moment, then said.
"What did you say?" Xian Ge Yayi was so frightened that she even forgot the terrifying place on the deck of the ship and took a step forward.
"This is impossible, you can't do this !" Niu Baiwan objected loudly.
Chang Sanjiao and Changgong Sheri didn't say anything. They just walked over silently and stood between me and the fallen angel with broken wings.
Not only them, but others also came over and stood in front of me. Although they also hesitated, and some stared at me for a long time before making up their minds, in the end, they all came.
Just standing in front of me...
"No matter what your bunch of brainless technical experts say, even if they have a hundred reasons, we have been with him for three years, and I believe that he is a person, a living person, and a member of our guild. You must know that if you delete him, you will be killing someone!" I have never seen Feiyin speak so firmly and solemnly.
I didn't know what they were talking about, and I didn't know how to react. I heard them say "delete", which seemed to be some kind of way that GM was going to deal with me. I had heard old Carlson mention this word before, but I really didn't know what it was all about.
But I knew that my president seemed to be defending something for me.
Not only her, but also my friends who are involved in the space industry, even though they still look at me a little strangely, even though they seem to have completely accepted my eccentricity, they still seem to be helping me and trying hard to do something for me.
I felt some warmth.
At least I know one thing, that is, GM and those "technical experts" he called seem to believe that I have no soul and no life. We all know that this is wrong, but I have no way to defend myself. First, I don't know how to defend myself, and second, those experts seem to have blocked all my ways to defend myself. They have already determined something and provided enough evidence.
However, when the inflated "I" in these people's hearts was only willing to prove my vanity but not my reality, when I myself didn't know how to prove my existence, there were still some people willing to accept and protect me.
To me, these people have a common name, they are my "friends".
Because of them, my existence suddenly has some great significance, no longer a falsehood that can be easily erased and difficult to prove. I have left some subjective traces in this objective world, and these traces do not seem to disappear with my disappearance.
I suddenly stopped worrying about myself. Whatever that bullshit "deletion" meant, whatever the experts said, there was evidence of my existence, such solid and indisputable evidence, and it was right here.
I sympathize with those who deny it, it's not that they can't see it.
They just don't know how to see it...
