"Compared to the initial stage of treatment, your mother's condition is much better now."
After leading Jiang Zhou into the room, Bai Dong looked at Ma Wei lying on the armchair and said softly:
"The dependence on simulator movies has dropped from eighteen hours a day to ten hours. Although after disconnecting the simulator link, her brain will still suffer from cognitive dissonance... In the past few years, she has been immersed in simulator movies to the limit. , too many neural connections have been restructured.”
Speaking of this, Bai Dong sighed:
"In a sense, this is actually an organic injury. The life of the pseudosemitic star 'Audrey Bergman' became entangled in her life, causing her to develop symptoms similar to dissociative identity disorder. , unable to anchor one’s true identity.”
Liao Qi looked at his mother, who grew up in a slum in the resettlement area and did not even receive a basic general education. At this moment, she looked like a noble lady from a scholarly family. She lay on the armchair dignifiedly and elegantly, flipping through a book "Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism" in a nonchalant manner.
Of course, if she is really a noble lady, then the book she should be holding should be a paper version, or even a cultural relic from the AD era, rather than the cheap imitation book reader she has now.
Liao Qi looked at his mother and was silent for a long time, while Bai Dong continued to explain the current treatment progress:
"In addition to emotional fine-tuning and cognitive therapy, I have started a course of memory awakening therapy. Although I don't know how much of her past and your memories have not been pruned. But according to what I found In cases of Identity Anchoring Disintegration Syndrome, at least the memories of those close to me will still remain..."
At this time, Liao Qi interrupted her:
"I'm thinking now..."
He turned to look at Bai Dong, who also stopped talking very wisely.
Liao Qi looked at Bai Dong and said in a tone that he was not sure about:
"I was wondering if it was the right choice to expose her illusion of being 'Audrey Bergman' and let her face this bullshit reality.
"She doesn't seem to have any worries now, but if she recalls the things she has experienced in the past, understands her current life, and knows the current state of her son... what will she think then? Is this possible? Will she be thrown into a terrible hell?"
Anyway, no matter in the past or now, she is living in lies - the difference is nothing more than living in a poor lie weaved by herself, or a perfect lie weaved by professionals.
To this, Bai Dong replied:
"This question has been raised the most in 'Identity Anchoring Disintegration Syndrome'. But if you ask me, this question actually doesn't make much sense. After all, cyberpsychotic patients who are immersed in pseudo-sensory movies Here, it can be said that there are very few cases that can eventually be cured and return to the original life... In fact, external treatment only builds a road for patients to return to reality.
"So whether you can come back in the end depends largely on whether the patient is willing to come back."
In other words, for those patients with Identity Anchoring Disintegration Syndrome, it is self-evident which one they are willing to choose, a beautiful fictional life or a real life that needs to be escaped.
"so……"
Bai Dong stared into Liao Qi's eyes and said:
"In fact, there is no need for you to dwell on this issue. All my treatments are actually just to give your mother the power to choose. If she really comes back, it means that she is ready to face reality.
"If not, my treatment will focus on maintaining her mental index, rather than awakening memory."
Regarding Bai Dong's words, Liao Qi was silent for a long time, and finally walked into her mother's room silently.
Hearing the approaching footsteps, Liao Qi's mother, Ma Wei, raised her eyes slightly and turned her gaze from the book to him.
That look was like looking at a stranger.
Liao Qi's slightly opened mouth closed the moment he saw his mother's eyes.
"Is it the assistant that Director Steve said he would come over?"
"Audrey Bergman", a famous movie star owned by Venus Digital Media, spoke in a lazy tone.
For a moment, everything Liao Qi wanted to say to her was in vain.
He stood there, silent, until the ill-fated "actress" rolled her eyes impatiently, and then he said with some difficulty:
"Yes, ma'am."
"Oh..."
Bergman nodded thoughtfully and then said:
"Then let's make a long story short... After discussing with my agent, I decided to give up the audition for the role that Director Steve mentioned before. Of course, I know that comic book superhero movies are very popular now, but all things considered If so, the impact of superhero roles on an actor's career is too great. Before I win the Muse Award, I'm afraid I won't..."
Liao Qi didn't pay attention to what else she said after that. He just felt that he couldn't say his final farewell to this mother who was already a stranger.
Maybe this is also good...
he thought.
In this way, if he eventually died in the battle, his mother would not feel sad for him.
"...I can recommend better actors to Director Steve, so what was that superhero movie he was talking about before?"
Finally, "Bergman" asked.
Comic book superhero movie...
Liao Qi recalled his mandala - the toy that was in a mess and smashed to pieces by his mother.
"Falcon."
He opened his mouth and then continued:
"I'm very sorry for wasting your time. I have to go back... to the company first."
With that said, Liao Qi bowed deeply to her.
"We are destined to meet again in the future."
After walking out of the room, Bai Dong patted Liao Qi's back.
"do not be sad……"
Liao Qi shook his head, and then slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a stream of data flashed through his prosthetic eyes.
"I transfer ownership of the housekeeping system of this house to you."
As he spoke, he raised his hand to stop the other party from speaking, and then continued:
"I renewed the housekeeping system for twenty years in advance. In addition, I still have a sum of money in my account - it was earned by Booker and me due to some adventures before, and it was not transferred to the public account. In addition to the previous In addition to the cost of treatment, it is enough to help you buy a top-of-the-line mental index detector."
As he spoke, Liao Qi took a deep breath, then clasped his hands together and said to Bai Dong:
"Although it may be shameless to say this, you have helped me enough. But if I fail to come back... my mother will ask you to take care of her occasionally. It won't be too much trouble for you. She only needs to fine-tune her mood once a month. That’s it.”
Bai Dong didn't know how to respond to this request. In the end, he just nodded silently, and then watched the other party leave in silence.
"well……"
Bai Dong let out a long sigh and walked heavily into the room, intending to continue the previously interrupted treatment.
At this time, the middle-aged woman in front of her suddenly put down the book in her hand and looked at her as if she remembered that she forgot to turn off the hot water kettle at home.
"By the way... I forgot to ask, what was the name of the little assistant just now?"
…………
After completing the quarterly backup, Ye Qian opened his eyes, as if he had just woken up from a long dream.
But what caught his eye was no longer the scene in the Tartarus medical room before, but the scene of a city from the past.
Pedestrians on the street all had poker faces, and their walking postures were as stiff as marionettes.
He is familiar with the scenes here - the Abyss Dark Web, Depth 2, and the data snapshots of the Nord settlement area.
It was also the dark web area where he obtained the secret of Theseus, the path to promotion.
"So, am I... dead?"
He scans his digital personality store every quarter, just in case anything happens. However, now that he found that his caution had really come in handy, he couldn't even feel a little bit lucky in his heart. Instead, he fell into an inexplicable panic.
Presumably, when a person discovers that the soul and the underworld do exist after death, he will have a similar mentality to him, right?
But no matter what, the self in the "early world" is already dead. The current self is just a copy of the real self.
On the other hand, I don't know what her subordinates were thinking. As a back-up to extend her own life, she actually threw her digital personality into the "underworld" of the abyss and dark web.
"How did I die?"
Controlling himself not to think about "replicas", Ye Qian muttered to himself.
His memory still lingered on the day when he sent the prisoners of "Icarus" to the third deep dive chamber to mine. On a whim, he found a native who didn't even have a brain-computer interface, named him "Theseus", and planned to cultivate a core puppet for himself from scratch.
A funny thought appeared in my mind - I couldn't have been killed by that native brat in the past and future, right?
For a moment, Ye Qian himself was amused by himself and quickly shook his head.
Not possible.
However, there is no point in thinking about similar questions - the body in the basic reality is dead, and the digital personality has been uploaded to the abyss of the dark web, and I can only continue to wander here for the rest of my life.
Maybe the only thing I'm thankful for right now is that I'm somewhat familiar with this place...
Thinking of this, Ye Qian calmed down and turned his attention to the landmark building in the distance.
There is the storage warehouse of Theseus Freight Company. (End of chapter)
