Zero Time Dilemma Part #71

Part 71: Reality

Part 71: Reality

Finally, we're headed to the Quantum Computer Dome.

Is that Zero in there? In person? And two decisions?

Sure, let's see what's going on here.

Music: Anxiousness 2nd Mix

Just the one team member?

Huh...?

He's looking around in confusion.

Have we seen a timeline where they're both gone?

Hmm, the computer lady is telling us the score right at the beginning.

Wow, what happened? That's everyone but...Mira...

Wait a minute...

N-No...

Wait, does that say "X-Door Opened" there?

[Computer Lady:] Thank you for participating.

Guess Q was left behind...

Here comes some morphogenetic plot dump!

So C-Team was executed. That narrows down our location a fair bit.

And D-Team was stabbed...in the Healing Room fragment, after not pressing the button. By a cloaked figure who escaped through the X-Door....Mira?!

There's Mira stabbing Eric. This one's the Biolab fragment, after injecting ourselves with Radical-6...

Of course she stabbed the kid, too, but we seem to be fine now?

Point of order - how does he know it was C-Team and D-Team? I guess it's not like it could be anybody else, but still...

Why are you talking to yourself?

Oh, yeah, that's a good point, too.

I remember being stabbed by a scalpel...

Everything will be explained there.

So, as you might've guessed, this fragment requires quite a few things to happen to unlock it. As best as I can tell, the following scenes are required to be viewed first before this fragment becomes available:

C-Team Executed
Biolab - Inject Radical-6
Healing Room - Don't Press the Button
Biolab - Don't Inject Radical-6
Manufacturing - Run Away (from the bomb) and see the Moon End

Yes, that's both Biolab endings, and both "correct" decisions from the D-Team fragments that followed from them. And of course C-Team being executed kicks off this whole branch. So basically, see almost everything on this timeline and we'll be allowed into the Quantum Computer Dome. There's a little quirk where if the last of these five scenes that you see, was either in the Biolab or Manufacturing, you have to start any other fragment before this one will unlock. Just to throw you off, I guess.

Music: Quantum Computer Dome (Q)

The only time we've seen this room was during the initial tour of Ward Q and when Q-Team escaped after pressing the button in the Decontamination Room. Gab was chained up here...

Is Zero here in person? We haven't seen Zero in person since the coin flip.

Great, another character who has no lip motion to show.

You are welcome to kill me now if you wish.

Very well.

Holy shit, there's more of them.

...A lot more.

Wh-What is this...

My spare...?

They were prepared in order to support me and my plan. They function mainly as physical labor, plus other additional deeds.

For some reason some blocks pop out of the wall.

Oh, monitors I guess. One of them is dragging Carlos around?

No...

Guess the physical labor is putting sleeping people into the pods, and then taking them out and locking them in puzzle rooms?

Precisely. You--

The consciousness that is you does not reside in that body. Your thought center is there--

Within the quantum computer. You think, sense, and make decisions in there. You then output the results into commands that are transmitted to your body.

So, lots of people were thinking old helmet-head might be a robot. How many figured out he was the quantum computer itself? The explanation here is a lot like a scene from 999, where Lotus brings up a philosophical discussion. Basically, what if our bodies are like computer monitors, while our consciousness actually resides elsewhere like the computer hardware itself?

Indeed.

Only just now...?

Zero nods.

He struggled with an incurable disease and lost his life at the age of 10.

The same name as you.

So, we have it. The kid's name is Sean.

Have you considered humans may be the same?

Um, can I ask you something?

The world of that boy, Sean...

What? What do you mean...

There will be no more.

Right, so there are a lot of hints on this one, but some of them are obscured by the other mysteries we've since uncovered. Here's what I spotted, what else did you find?

Pod Room - there is no heartbeat when Sean has to decide how to answer Eric's question. That was a tough audio cue to disguise but make fair - I call out the heartbeats every other time but that one. The other Q-Team decisions have heartbeats from the other team members that are also part of the decision. The only one that doesn't seem to line up is the Study...
Pod Room - Sean flings Eric across the room with super strength when he's attacked at the end. I think there was one other instance of that happening, too.
Rec Room - Not so much a hint as a glaring neon sign, but some copy of Sean is enforcing the penalty on C-Team with super strength
Execution: Q - Sean can lift the Force Quit Box that's super-heavy for D-Team. Of course, we only just found out that it's the same Force Quit Box for all three teams, in the same Lounge room.
General - Any time Sean is injured, there's no blood. Like when he's shot by Eric in the Pod Room, or stabbed by Mira after the Biolab. Maybe the player would think it's just the developer not wanting to show a kid bleeding, but it's actually because he doesn't have any blood to give.

Music: Bereavement

The game's already over...

You are an exception...

Button appears out of nowhere from inside the pillar...

Your choices should be obvious: Press it, or refuse to do so.

That computer there retains all of the data that makes you uniquely you. Memory, personality, how you think and sense... All of the algorithms that determine your actions are stored inside...

If you choose to press the button, all of the data will be duplicated and transferred to a virtual space.

There is no way you'll realize it is false.

This story reminds me of another philosophical argument. If we have the capability to simulate a reality that is indistinguishable from our own, isn't it likely that we are ourselves living in such a simulated reality? What are the odds that we are in the true reality versus an infinite number of possible simulated ones?