Chapter 492: Chapter 480: Quantum State Soul Lock

「The real world. The Aiselan Kingdom.」

The fear and despair that had built up for a whole month now became fuel for a wild celebration.

Over five million families, after enduring a wait that felt like Hell, welcomed back the loved ones they had prayed for day and night.

In the streets of Golden Stone City, people spontaneously poured out of their homes, embracing, crying, and singing.

Tavern owners brought their prized wines out to the streets, handing them out for free to every passerby, while young Knights tossed their girlfriends high into the air amidst the cheers of the crowd.

The members of the assault team, in particular, were hailed as heroes among heroes.

They were overjoyed to discover that their teammates who had "permanently disappeared" during the brutal Boss battles had not actually died.

They had merely been rescued and returned to reality ahead of time by "Lord Wesley." Though weak, their lives were not in danger.

A disaster that had swept the nation, one great enough to shake its very foundations, had miraculously come to a close with a happy ending for all.

The public’s trust in Weisren Heavy Industry and their adoration for Allen, after a brief period of doubt, rebounded with even greater fanaticism, reaching an unprecedented peak.

Cole walked through the celebrating crowds, the sounds of joy and laughter around him feeling as if they were from another world.

He didn’t go home, nor did he attend his comrades’ victory banquet. Instead, after a night of contemplation, he dialed the number Amy had left for him.

He wanted to tell her that the large sum of money he’d saved in the game was enough to pay for her continued medical treatments for some time.

He simply couldn’t bear to watch a girl so young lose her life just like that.

The call connected.

On the other end, there was no cheerful, lively voice of a young girl, only the sound of suppressed, heart-wrenching sobs.

The voice of an old, weary woman, thick with tears, spoke up. "Excuse me... are you Mr. Cole?"

"I am." Cole’s heart sank. "Where’s Amy? I’m looking for Amy."

"Amy..." The woman’s sobs grew louder. "Not long after she returned to reality... she passed away from multiple organ failure."

"The night she came back, she talked to us for so long. She said she’d made friends in the game, that someone was protecting her... The next morning, she just didn’t wake up."

"She also said you were the most incredible and kindest player she’d ever met, and that having lived such a brilliant life in the game... she had no regrets..."

Cole’s mind went blank. The Spirit Communication Terminal in his hand slipped and crashed to the ground.

The clamor of the crowd and the festive music all faded away, leaving the entire world in a dead silence.

He knew.

He’d known all along.

Before she entered the game, the terminally ill girl had only had a little time left.

The life support system in her hibernation pod had slowed the deterioration, but only slowed it.

The moment she returned, the bill for her borrowed time came due all at once.

Cole murmured the name under his breath.

’Zero.’

’If Zero was still in the game, was it there with her at the end?’

For the next few days, he wandered through Golden Stone City like a wraith.

He tried to find any information on "Zero’s" real-world identity, but came up with nothing.

He then used all his connections to try and find the legendary tech genius known as "Ghost"—Rein. The response he received was that Professor Rein and his family had moved to another city half a month ago, vanishing without a trace.

It was as if they had never existed.

Late on the third night, Cole sat alone by the shore of the Royal Capital’s Mirror Lake, remaining there numbly all night.

The cold wind off the lake could not dispel the grief and confusion in his heart.

As the first glimmer of dawn pierced the darkness, illuminating his haggard face, he suddenly remembered the last message "Ghost" had sent him.

"What an... interesting experiment."

Then, Cole remembered more.

He remembered that bizarre Boss battle, the Kobold Lord that had gone completely out of control, as if it had been possessed.

He remembered the tragic scene of "Zero" protecting Amy, breaking all the rules of the game and disintegrating into a sky full of data streams.

’An experiment!’

A vague, terrifying suspicion, like a bolt of lightning in a dark abyss, instantly pierced his very soul.

’The players who had "permanently disappeared," the bosses that had been tampered with, the "Zero" that had sacrificed itself to protect her, the Amy who had been given a new life in the game...’

’Were all their joys and sorrows, their struggles and deaths, nothing more than an "interesting" experiment?’

’An experiment conducted by... that otherworldly visitor, the Wizard Allen?’

Cole clasped his head in his hands, his body trembling violently with immense fear.

He was the mortal who had come closest to the truth in this world.

But there was nothing he could do. He could only carry this mind-crushing secret, gazing out alone at the celebrating world, until the day he died.

...

Allen’s attention had long since withdrawn from the "game" that had just concluded.

He was contemplating how to solve the philosophical problem of "personal identity," and was just beginning to have some flashes of inspiration.

"Jarvis, if I were to activate three backups simultaneously—what would happen?"

[Theoretically, they would all believe themselves to be the ’real Allen.’ They would possess equal logical reasoning abilities and identical personality traits.]

[This means that, in the absence of pre-set conflict resolution protocols, they would attempt to vie for decision-making authority over the real world. Worst-case scenario: three Allens issuing three different commands simultaneously.]

"Sounds like three captains fighting for the helm of a single ship."

’Expecting several identical "me’s" to be magnanimous, understanding, and willing to step aside? Don’t be naive.’

Allen had never trusted others, and he wasn’t about to start pinning his hopes on "himself."

’Looks like I need a different approach.’

He was suddenly reminded of a theory from his past life on Earth—quantum superposition.

A particle can exist in multiple states at once, only "collapsing" into a single state the moment it is observed. This effect ignores distance and, from a certain perspective, even surpasses the speed of light.

At the time, he’d found it to be a mind-bending concept.

Now, he suddenly realized that this "collapse" was exactly what he needed.

He stood up and began to formulate this vague intuition into a viable plan.

"If I design the state of the consciousness backups to be ’quantum’..."

[You are proposing an anti-conflict mechanism based on cognitive collapse. Commander, that is a genius idea.]

[Constructing theoretical model...]

[A single soul, regardless of how many data backups exist, will remain in a superposition state, like a ’probability cloud.’]

[At any given point in time, only one consciousness node is permitted to be ’observed,’ thereby ’collapsing’ into the sole active state. All other backups will be forcibly locked in a ’dormant’ state, unable to think or act.]

[The ’Observer’ is the currently active consciousness itself. When it enters dormancy or is destroyed, the ’right of observation’ will be transferred, either randomly or by a preset order, to the next backup, causing it to instantly collapse into an active state and seamlessly inherit everything.]

[Model simulation complete. This concept is theoretically viable and can ensure the absolute uniqueness and eternal continuation of the ’Allen’ identity under any circumstances.]

The problem of a proliferation of "selves" caused by infinite backups now had a solution.

"Jarvis, begin designing the technical implementation path immediately."

Allen’s voice rang out. "This technology, based on the quantum theory of my past life on Earth, will be called the ’Quantum State Soul Lock.’"

’Whether it’s the original Allen or the thousandth backup, as long as the one who wakes up is "Allen," that’s all that matters.’

He opened his eyes, his gaze shifting to the other side of the main control room.

There, the second-generation artificial soul cultivation matrix, codenamed "One," was running stably. Five identical Rune neural networks were being repeatedly washed by a massive torrent of emotional data.

"Zero" had gone astray, developing uncontrollable free will.

Therefore, "One" must be bound in heavy shackles.

"Jarvis, how much longer for the cultivation of ’One’?"

[Reporting, Commander. Estimated time remaining is 14 standard hours. Due to the implantation of the ’Thought Imprint,’ the difficulty of its soul emergence is far greater than that of the ’Zero’ sample.]

"That’s more than enough time."

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