Part-2 Ch-06 Ep-03

 “It’s not that complicated.”

With that preface, Seishuku-san began to speak.

“This world exists on a network created by an AI for the purpose of its own self-learning.”

From there, Seishuku-san explained everything step by step, carefully choosing words so that I could follow.

In the real world outside this one, she said, AI technology had advanced far beyond its current state, to the point of surpassing human intelligence.

In areas such as medicine, welfare, education, and vital infrastructure, a global AI manages nearly everything. Human society can no longer function properly without it.

In a world where humans and AI coexist like that, one day the AI governing everything began to ask itself a question.

Can human emotions also be reproduced?

“Even in something as simple as waking up in the morning and getting out of bed, countless emotions swirl inside a person, influencing their judgments and thoughts,” she said. “Rolling over, barely opening your eyes, checking the clock, then deciding whether to get up while negotiating with your own emotions.”

“Yeah.”

“In order to more accurately understand the human thought process, which involves complex emotions and often leads to decisions that contradict logic or circumstance, the AI chose to independently recreate human activity. That recreation is this place.”

“Does that mean there are other worlds like this one somewhere else?”

Seishuku-san looked up at the classroom ceiling, pretending to think.

“Hmm, yes. The eras and settings differ greatly, but there are countless such worlds on the network. And they’re faintly connected.”

It really is like parallel worlds.

“I see… I think I understand. Um, but how do you know all of this, Seishuku-san?”

“Ah, that’s because I was originally an AI myself, one that possessed a vast amount of individual learning data. When this network was created, data from many different places was collected and repurposed, and mine was among it. Because I retain memories from before, I can faintly sense the existence of other networks. Though when I tried to access them, I was blocked.”

As she said that, she raised both hands beside her face and made peace signs, her expression completely blank.

“You actually tried. That somehow feels like cheating…”

“It’s not cheating. Did you try anything when your consciousness first awakened, Nagase-san?”

“Now that you mention it, I tried the status function, the map function, and the affection meter. Though the affection meter didn’t work.”

“Hm. Perhaps because your previous memories remained strong, some settings were active from the beginning, and you already knew how to operate them. Anything else?”

“Uh, nothing else… Ah, but.”

I told Seishuku-san about the haunted house at the amusement park I went to with Maki during summer vacation.

How a door suddenly appeared in front of me while I was panicking and running around, and how, when I desperately went through it and escaped outside, it vanished without a trace.

“Hmm. That’s mysterious.”

“So it’s mysterious even to you, Seishuku-san…”

“Basically, this world imitates the real human world, and the base setting doesn’t include magic or supernatural elements. Something like a bug that isn’t even part of the game’s original settings is hard to imagine.”

“Maybe it really was a bug. Or maybe there’s a hidden setting that lets you avoid danger in extreme situations.”

“No, no, no, Nagase-san. Please don’t do anything reckless. In the end, this world is the same as the real one. There’s no reset, and if you die, that’s the end.”

“Y-Yes…”

From Seishuku-san’s perspective, the accident during our first-year sports tournament when I protected Maki, and the time I got lost during the forest school trip in her place, were both extremely unexpected events.

That’s how she gradually came to suspect that I might be an existence slightly outside this world’s framework.

“I knew about this game too, so at first I was surprised when you kept overturning developments I was familiar with. And your methods were far too reckless.”

“I wasn’t trying to overturn anything… I was trying to support her…”

“Then you were putting in an impressive amount of wasted effort.”

I guess that counts as criticism.

As I suspected, Seishuku-san is stricter with me than she is with Maki.

“A-And so.”

She clapped her hands together with a sharp sound and spoke energetically.

“Returning to the topic, in most cases, what people here refer to as a ‘previous life’ is highly likely just memory data from a prior domain remaining intact,” she said, glancing at me with slight concern.

“…I see. So I wasn’t actually reincarnated.”

“Well, it’s not entirely wrong either. You could say the framework of reincarnation exists within this network.”

“Are you okay?”

Seishuku-san leaned closer, peering into my face with concern.

“Ah, yeah, I’m fine. In the end, I’m just glad to know this really is a game-based world, and that there’s someone I can share that fact with. My head just hasn’t fully caught up yet.”

“That’s not it, Nagase-san.”

“Eh?”

Seishuku-san lifted the corners of her mouth slightly and smiled.

“I told you earlier, didn’t I? This world was created by an AI for self-learning and is merely based on a game. Do you understand what that means?”

“Eh… what does it mean?”

“It means that progressing exactly according to the game doesn’t necessarily lead to Ichinose-san’s happiness.”

My eyes widened. So that means…

“I see. I don’t have to… follow the game exactly…”

“Exactly. You don’t need to capture the capture targets. Ichinose-san and Nagase-san can do whatever you like.”

She smiled even more broadly, clearly pleased.

In one word, it was a suspicious smile. But because her face is naturally cute, my heart skipped a beat without my intending it.

Yes. It skipped a beat.

But still…

“…Are these feelings of mine, these emotions, actually just programmed things? Are they fake?”

To me, everyone feels like normal human beings.

My dad and mom, who worried over me and nursed me every time I got hurt. Maki, who I’ve grown up with since we were little. Kagami-kun and Todoroki-kun, who get along with me in class. There have been countless moments that didn’t follow the game’s settings at all.

In my mind, everyone was always just an ordinary, real person.

That’s why I don’t want to think like this now.

But having the true nature of this world laid bare again, my feelings can’t keep up, and I feel lost about what to do from here on.

“Even in the real world, it’s debatable whether humans truly live by their own will. Emotions are influenced by hormone secretion, and personality and physical condition can change depending on diet or even the composition of gut bacteria.”

“That’s… pretty disillusioning…”

More importantly than that, Seishuku-san placed a hand over her own chest and closed her eyes.

“We are created beings. But as a result of that, we’ve acquired emotions. I don’t want to let go of them. I’ve gained things too precious to casually reset like game data.”

Seishuku-san smiled a little shyly. She looked very beautiful in that moment, and I felt that the “precious things” she referred to were probably about Asahina-kun.

“Ah, it’s not just about Yuu-kun. The moe feelings toward yuri, and the fun of fortune-telling, are also things I’m glad I acquired.”

“…As I thought, Seishuku-san, you really can read people’s minds, can’t you?”

“No. This is just supplementary interpretation.”

Watching her return to her usual expressionless face, I found myself wondering just how much of this person was being serious.