This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 538.3: Countless Possibilities
"Yes, that’s it. And... didn’t you even write a little bit of it already? You just didn’t finish it. Our simulations aren’t made from thin air, they need samples."
Seeing Spielberg flushed and dumbfounded, Eberts laughed and began reciting, "'Bore is an awakener. He has all this strength, of course he can do it. No one can stop him.'"
Hearing someone else read his words made Spielberg’s ears burn. It was different from reading them himself.
He coughed loudly to interrupt Eberts. "Enough! I get it! You don’t need to read it again!"
Eberts grinned mischievously and added, "It’s a shame the machine didn’t simulate exactly how you had written it. The simulations only gave us a vague impression... Still, I’m curious what the finished story would’ve looked like. If you ever have the time, you should write it."
Spielberg replied with a flushed face, "Enough. No matter how you spin it, it’s just some trashy novel... I don’t believe it has that much influence."
Seeing disbelief in his eyes, Eberts said solemnly, "Yes, just a trashy novel. But strange, isn’t it? Even though it’s just story of Bore the Awakener to workers who had never seen anything like it, his words and actions became a sort of ideological compass."
"Most of them know nothing. They can be influenced by everything. When House said something, they believed it immediately. When they discovered he was lying, they believed that just as quickly. Simple good and evil, those are the things ordinary folks think about every day. It’s like a single-core CPU... You might not have realized it, but you’ve done something outrageous, maybe even evil. Even if it’s not your doing, people down the line will probably give you a fairly objective verdict."
"Enough! I don’t care about any of that. And why the hell did you bring me here in the first place? Whether it’s Ending A or B, none of them happened yet!" Spielberg stared sharply at the man in front of him. "You said you’d take me to see someone. Let’s get it over with. I need to get back to my friends. We’ve already delayed too long."
He suddenly felt afraid of Eberts.
Was he even human?
Or just another thing like X-16, something that only looked human. Otherwise, why could he still smile like that at a time like this?
Spielberg didn’t know what ‘The Uncanny Valley’ was, but he could feel its effect. The sense of something deeply wrong was growing stronger.
Eberts looked at Spielberg and smiled warmly. "Yes, yes. That man has been called over. Though he’s always late. That habit’s been with him a long time, there’s no need to expect punctuality."
He paused and continued, "As for why I brought you here, that was my idea. Maybe you wouldn’t understand the feeling... Anyway, after so many grim films, I got a bit tired too."
And besides, this time was different.
According to the simulations, once they entered Ending A, the Inner City gate would never reopen.
Just like a human’s emotional resilience had limits, Boulder Town’s tolerance also had a threshold.
Once exceeded, the settlement would spiral into an irreversible loop. That sort of spiral usually didn’t happen naturally. It meant an external force had broken the rules.
By logic, that person shouldn’t have intervened. Boulder Town had its own historical destiny. Fulfilling it should have been a noble thing.
All things moved from life to death and back to life again. That was the natural order. Rising and falling was all part of destiny. A golden age had to give way to an age of the wasteland.
It was only a matter of time.
But the little man, being ‘too kind’, hit the pause button at the very last second before the barrel of gunpowder exploded.
He felt that it was too lucky for those peasants.
Eberts’s lips curled into a crooked smile. Something occurred to him, and he added, "Anyway, the game has started, and they’ve already lost. You still have a big meeting ahead. I can’t stay here with you."
He glanced at his watch and casually tossed the remote to Spielberg, nodding with amusement when the latter caught it steadily. "Here. Play with it. Now that you’re here, you can watch as much as you want. Maybe you’ll find the ending you always dreamed of."
"Although in most of those endings... You and your friends aren’t the protagonists."
This screening room stored countless possible futures, calculated by the computer, each one a branching outcome based on different choices. It also stored moments from the past that had once happened.
All of it was precious material collected for its memories.
Looking at the dumbstruck Spielberg, Eberts asked with a smirk, "By the way, just curious, does a guy like you, who worked a century and a half without pay, even count as a worker?"
Spielberg froze. That was beyond his scope of understanding.
Among everyone he knew, such a widespread anomaly didn’t even exist. No one lived that long.
Wait a second... A century and a half?!
Spielberg stared at the man in shock, as if realizing something profound.
But Eberts didn’t give him time to think.
As if sure he would never find the answer, he simply laughed and disappeared from the room...
...
In Dawn City, in the administrator’s office, Cheng Yan reported the unrest in Boulder Town to Chu Guang with a solemn expression.
Clearly, the report was related to Spielberg’s arrest half a month ago. Things happened exactly as Chu Guang had expected.
The moment the fuse was lit, some itchy handed bastard would definitely light it up, regardless if they did it intentionally or not.
"That day, Spielberg returned to his room as per usual, but sounds of fighting soon came from inside. His fellow workers ran over and forced the door open, but by the time they entered, there was only a pool of blood on the ground. There was too much blood... Members of our embassy are trying to get photo evidence from the residents."
Staring at the photo on his VM, Chu Guang’s brows were knitted tightly together. Only after some time did he raise his head again to ask, "Is there no corpse?"
“Don’t mention his corpse... Boulder Town isn’t even admitting that he’s dead. Rather, they said he escaped from prison, but after some time, they changed their tune and mentioned he was transferred somewhere. They have bigger problems now and they don’t have time to deal with that. His death can only continue to ferment...” Cheng Yan sighed before he continued again, “Moreover, after hearing Spielberg’s situation, more than 90% of the workers of Boulder Town joined the union. They’re planning to force their way into the inner city to get an explanation.”
Chu Guang frowned. “What explanation are they requesting?”
Cheng Yan explained, "If Spielberg is dead, they want to see his corpse. If he’s alive, they want the inner city to hand him over.”
It was a simple demand and not at all excessive.
But the nobles of the inner city were currently frantically occupied with something else entirely, so it was no surprise they turned a deaf ear to such plain and honest requests.
"So is he actually dead or not?"
"I lean toward believing he is... I mean, with that much blood loss, even I wouldn’t believe someone could survive," Cheng Yan said cautiously.
In his view, the nobles of the inner city might be fools, but even people like them should be able to get things done cleanly.
If they really just wanted someone to disappear without a trace, they could’ve done it quietly. But instead, they acted in contradictory ways, leaving a bloodbath, then later seeming to recover from how messy it got.
In the end, their arrogance hurt everyone.
Of course, the final result wasn't up to them. And what he saw wasn’t necessarily the full picture either.
The New Alliance had no say in how far that would go. Only Spielberg’s friends, and the fellow workers of the Worker’s Union had the power to decide what they would do next.
Chu Guang closed his eyes and fell deep into thought.
He truly didn’t want that newspaper man to die. If he had, he wouldn’t have invited him to the New Alliance in the first place. The story of the Bore the Awakener may have originated in Boulder Town, but it didn’t just belong to them. All across the wasteland were survivors like him, great in spirit but crushed by circumstance, who needed encouragement.
Still, that was another matter entirely. What was happening was ultimately Boulder Town's internal affair.
Suddenly, Chu Guang’s eyes snapped open. "Actually, there’s something that has been bothering me this whole time..."
Raising his eyebrows, Cheng Yan asked, "What is it?"
"The city lord..." Chu Guang thought for a moment before he continued, "At first, I thought he simply didn’t care about us. But now... I think it’s more than that."
Cheng Yan furrowed his brow, trying to understand what the administrator meant.
Then suddenly, something clicked. His eyes widened in realization. "Wait, You’re saying... Could this whole thing have something to do with the city lord?"
Boulder Town had many nobles, but only one lord. Even the most arrogant nobles would show a bit of reverence when his name was mentioned.
In theory, that settlement should have had someone truly standing at the very top of its hierarchy.
"I don’t know," Chu Guang said, shaking his head. "But my unease is growing... Honestly, everything has been going too smoothly. So much so, I’ve had the urge to slam the brakes several times already."
In a deep voice, Cheng Yan asked, "Then... What do you think we should do now?"
Chu Guang eventually mumbled, “I feel something serious is about to happen. Let’s start by pulling our embassy personnel out. Take the clone cabins and all essential files. I’ll have the staff at the House of Refugees and a few shelter residents meet them at the gate of Boulder Town."
