voice; replies voice unless otherwise noted.

[payback]

[She sounds quite level.]So I've been asking around about that new game that debuted that makes people forget who they are and sticks them someplace new. You all know what I'm talking about? The horror game

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[ voice ]

[underachieves]

Creepy, isn't it.

[underachieves]

You really wanna know?

[payback]

Of course I do. If it's something that really has a chance of happening here, which it very well might, I want to know exactly what caused it.

[underachieves]

It took a long time. First we had to remember who we were to begin with - and that mostly happened by accident, and only in little pieces. But anyway, once we figured out our lives weren't what we thought, it was pretty obvious that the government was responsible for all of it.

And the more we figured out, it was like... the less control they had over everything. Like computer glitches. I can't describe it better than that. A lot like when the Core malfunctions here. Things getting messed up out of nowhere.

Anyway, government agents started hunting us all down, so there wasn't anything to do but fight back. People here are kinda content to just live with AGI and SERO running the place, but there wasn't any choice for us in that city. We had to fight or die.

I guess the end of that world was a collaborative effort. The less stable it got, the more we were sure it was all fake, and with both sides killing each other over that... society just collapsed.

[payback]

... Could no one leave that city? There wasn't anywhere else to go?

[underachieves]

It was big. A lot bigger than this city. More like a small country.

But people believed they could leave, if they wanted to. It just wasn't real. Memories of going on vacations, business trips... Fake as everything else. There was nothing out there in the world. If there had ever been, then the city had absorbed it.

[payback]

... But kind of like here, where we're isolated...

How do you mean, it broke up like computer glitches?

[underachieves]

One time, everyone froze up except a few people. Stop moving, stopped talking... Imagine like if every person in the city except Newcomers just froze in place for a day. And then afterwards, just went right back to normal like nothing happened. Didn't notice anything had happened and thought you were crazy if you mentioned it.

Stuff like that would happen. And it just kept getting worse. Other things, like the universe was coming apart slowly or colliding with other ones... One time I saw a scene from my real life play out on TV. Another time, the city was filled with outsiders. People from other worlds. Some of them from my world - although I didn't recognize them at the time.

[payback]

[... Is it strange that this is so unnerving to hear about?

Maybe not. That could be happening HERE, maybe, eventually, if they're both right. A pause.]

... But it sounds like it hit a threshold? Like... more and more people realizing over time what was wrong, or that there were things wrong...

[underachieves]

It became hard to deny the truth and hold on to our fake memories, even if we wanted to. There were just too many errors as time went on.

I don't know whether the stability of the world itself depended on us believing the illusion... or whether the Alpha and Omega themselves decided to stop focusing on making us believe in it and start focusing on exterminating us. Maybe they planned to start fresh when they were rid of us.

[payback]

What were Alpha and Omega?

[underachieves]

Alpha was the leader of the government. Omega were his special agents, in charge of things like executions, rewriting memories... and experimentation and slavery.

[payback]

... Are any of these worlds people go through pleasant?

[underachieves]

I'm hoping it's a lottery and I'll hit the jackpot eventually.

[payback]

You don't think you'll make it home someday?

[underachieves]

You really believe that stuff about "going home"?