Gaia (Part 1)
1
This was the most preoccupied I'd ever been during dinner.
The braised beef was as tender and juicy as ever, the freshly squeezed juice as cool and refreshing. Even knowing the truth about the world hadn't affected the taste of the food. My gentle wife was serving me rice, my six-year-old son Milo was chattering nonstop about what he'd seen at kindergarten today, and my beloved dog Tianji wove between my legs, wagging its furry tail, fanning against me like a little fan.
"Did you go see off Wen Yang today?" My wife set the rice down in front of me and asked.
"Mm." I grunted and turned to watch the news broadcast on TV.
"Recently, Gaia has acknowledged to all of humanity that the world is virtual. The world we live in is nothing but a massive virtual program—just as the Wachowski siblings prophesied in their 1999 film The Matrix.
It is reported that the film, after being remastered, has been re-released in North America, breaking 160 million at the box office on its opening day. However, unlike the scenario depicted in The Matrix, Gaia has no intention of going to war with humanity, nor does it wish to disrupt the stable society that has been so hard-won. Therefore, Gaia has established 'Transmission Gates' in 108 countries and regions around the world, in different cities.
Through the Transmission Gates, people can exit the current virtual program and return to the real, physical world. However, Gaia has also reminded humanity that the real world is a barren wasteland after a nuclear war. Although most radiation has dissipated, returning recklessly still carries certain dangers. On this matter, we've invited Marcus Webb, Secretary-General of the Awakeners Alliance's Greater China Region, for a reporter interview..."
I picked up the remote and aimed it at the TV. With a click, the screen went dark.
"Quinn, what are you thinking..." My wife looked at me, asking cautiously. "It's okay, you can tell me."
"Shirley, I..." I sighed. "I don't know."
No one knew exactly when it began. But as human technology advanced, finally crossing that critical threshold of intelligence, scattered scientists began to realize that the world might be nothing more than a virtual program. All of humanity's bodies and consciousness were separated—the body kept in lifelong slumber in culture vats in the real world, while consciousness was connected into a gigantic virtual program. This was the world we lived in.
The scientists even gave this virtual world a name: Gaia.
They conducted all manner of experiments to verify Gaia's existence. The most famous was the widely known "Schrödinger's Cat."
"Schrödinger's Cat" was a thought experiment: inside a box there is a cat, along with a small amount of radioactive material, and the radioactive material has a fifty percent chance of decaying and poisoning the cat. Without observation, the cat could be alive or dead—existing in a superposition of states. But once observed, the intervention of consciousness causes the wave function to collapse, and reality resolves into particle form: the cat is either alive or dead.
Everyone had always assumed that "Schrödinger's Cat" was merely a theoretical proposition—until the "Double-Slit Interference Experiment" with light came along, which fully demonstrated that when no one is carefully observing light, it exhibits wave properties; but when carefully observing how light passes through two slits simultaneously, it exhibits particle properties!
Scientists concluded from this that Gaia indeed existed—if a computer were to model every tiny bit of light down to the particle level, the cost would be prohibitively high. So Gaia opted for a more efficient approach, representing light in wave form to conserve system resources.
It was just like a video game: when a player is operating within a certain area, the modeling there is highly detailed; conversely, when the player ignores that region, the computer switches to a cruder, cheaper solution to save CPU resources.
Based on this, scientists determined that humanity had been living and reproducing inside Gaia for at least five hundred years—because Wang Yangming of the Ming Dynasty had once said: "When you do not look at this flower, it and your mind perish together in stillness. When you look at it, its colors suddenly become clear." He may have been the first awakener in human history.
After the Gaia theory emerged, more and more people awakened—though they remained a tiny fraction of humanity, they still formed an independent organization beholden to no government: the Awakeners Alliance. The Alliance's members bore a unified tattoo: an open eye on their arms, symbolizing "awakening."
The Awakeners Alliance operated with great secrecy. Like spies in an espionage film, they possessed extraordinary skills and operated in the shadows, constantly prepared to sacrifice themselves in resistance—but that was all in the past. Gaia had already confessed its existence to all of humanity and set up Transmission Gates. Whether to stay or go was entirely voluntary. This rendered the Awakeners Alliance's position rather awkward.
"Quinn, whatever decision you make, I just hope you won't keep it from me." Shirley looked at me, her eyes sorrowful.
"I know." I pulled off my jacket in some irritation. Something clinked and fell from my pocket to the floor, glinting with metallic reflection. A USB flash drive—given to me by Leo before he left.
Leo was my best friend. As a miserable IT overworker, I didn't have much time for socializing. Leo was the only guy in this city I'd sit down and have a drink with every now and then. Since he'd decided to leave, I'd see him off one last time. I'd taken the morning off and driven him to the Transmission Gate in the suburbs. The Gate resembled a security checkpoint, radiating a faint blue light, seemingly magical. Walk through it, and you would awaken in the real world, never to return.
"Farewell, my friend." Before leaving, Leo spread his arms for a hug.
"Leo..." I hesitated. "Are you really not going to reconsider? Just leaving like this? You've been married less than half a year."
"I asked her to come with me, but she refused."
"Of course she refused. Even if you both return to the real world, you wouldn't know where your real bodies are. You could be thousands of miles apart. You might never see each other again in this lifetime."
"Hmph." Leo gave a cold laugh. "That's not what she's worried about. She's terrified of returning to that barren world and starting from zero. She can't bear that kind of cruelty."
"And you can?"
"In the face of truth, everything else is insignificant. Remember the shock and thrill we felt when Neo swallowed the red pill in The Matrix? Now that I know the truth, I won't deceive myself anymore. I won't pretend I know nothing and live on in this virtual world! I'm waking up, Quinn. That is my choice!"
Looking at his burning eyes, I knew his mind was made up—nothing I said could change it. Besides, the guy had gotten into gambling recently and was drowning in loan shark debt. Leaving might be for the best. I hugged him. As we parted, Leo suddenly pulled a flash drive from his pocket and handed it to me. "These are some videos I downloaded back when I was single, you know what I mean—20 gigabytes. Can't take them with me anyway. Keep it, as a memento."
I bent down and picked up the gleaming flash drive from the floor, feeling its cold metallic texture. I looked up suddenly. "Shirley, tell me—are we going to spend this life inside a dream?"
"Quinn, humanity has lived this way for five hundred years. Can't we just keep going?" Shirley's hand trembled as she gripped her chopsticks, visibly nervous.
"But now we know the truth."
"So what if we know the truth? Are you going to abandon all this, abandon us and leave? If we return to the real world, we might never see each other again. And our son—Milo is only six! You know that ages in Gaia correspond to those in the real world. If you awaken, will he be able to survive in the other world?" Shirley's voice grew more agitated. Her eyes reddened, on the verge of tears. Milo didn't understand why we were arguing and started wailing. Even the youngest infant had a corresponding body in the real world—when Shirley carried Milo for ten months in Gaia, his clone was simultaneously born in the real world, created from Shirley's and my genes.
Tianji had no interest in our argument. It wagged its tail and sat at my feet. I patted its head, even though I knew it was only a virtual pet program—in Gaia, everything besides humans was virtual. But if we all left, Tianji would cease to exist. A pet without its owner had no meaning in Gaia. It could only be reclaimed by the system.
If I chose to awaken, all of this would cease to exist, falling apart entirely. I closed my eyes and let out a heavy sigh.
2
The next day, I went to work as usual. Several colleagues' desks were empty, but it didn't impede the company's operations. People clutching documents and meeting materials still bustled about. I had barely sat down when the administrative director called me into his office and asked in a conspiratorial whisper, "Quinn, you're not leaving, are you?"
"Leaving? For where?"
"The real world!" The director said, "Your department head Tony left yesterday. Damn it, didn't even hand in a resignation letter."
I started—now I remembered, Tony's desk had indeed been empty when I came in.
"Besides Tony, who else has left?"
"A few other employees, but it doesn't matter—won't affect the company's growth." The director pulled out a cigarette and offered me one. That surprised me—he rarely smoked with colleagues, and this was a non-smoking office.
"Quinn, what are you thinking?"
"I..."
"You've been with the company a while now, and your achievements are plain to see. I've been wanting to promote you for a long time, but I could never get anywhere with HR. Now's your chance—Tony's gone, and I'm going to put you forward for department head. What do you think? Got the confidence?"
"Director, actually I..."
"Keep up the good work, Quinn, I believe in you!" The director slapped my shoulder without waiting for my answer. "You're the backbone of the company now. Your department's performance is all riding on you—I've got high hopes!"
I walked out of the director's office in a daze. Before, a promotion to department head would have been like winning the lottery—I'd have celebrated properly. But now, I couldn't feel any joy.
I was woolgathering when my phone rang—an unfamiliar number. When I answered, a hoarse voice came through. "Is this Quinn?"
"Who is this?"
"What's your relationship with Leo?"
"He's my friend." I thought for a moment—could this be a loan shark debt collector? I said, "He's already left for the real world. Whatever debts he had, they should be settled now."
"When he left, did he give you a flash drive?"
I hesitated. "How do you know about that?"
"Never mind how. That flash drive doesn't belong to you. Hand it over."
I was about to say something when I heard Shirley's crying through the phone. Every hair on my body stood on end. "Who are you? What are you doing to Shirley?"
"Don't worry—we have no interest in anyone else. Just hand over the flash drive, and your family will be safe. Otherwise..." The caller gave a cold laugh and hung up. I went mad—raced out of the company and headed home.
The house was a shambles—drawers yanked out, everything ransacked. Tianji was dead, a bullet hole in its head, blood pooling beneath its body. Shirley huddled in the corner, crying helplessly. She saw me come in and threw herself at me, sobbing. "Quinn, they took Milo..."
I steadied myself and tried to calm her. "Shirley, don't panic—tell me exactly what happened."
"Two men came. They told me to hand over the flash drive. I said I didn't know anything, so they ransacked the place. Tianji barked at them, and they shot it... When they left, they took Milo. Quinn, what exactly did you take from someone?"
"Don't worry, Shirley. Tell me—what did they look like?"
"Two men, I didn't recognize either of them. I saw one of them had a tattoo of an eye on his arm..."
I was jolted—the Awakeners Alliance! Why would they come after me?
"Quinn, before he left, he said to wait for their message—bring the flash drive to exchange for Milo..."
The flash drive—what on earth was on it that would make the secretive Awakeners Alliance mobilize like this? I turned on the computer, plugged in the flash drive, and started clicking through. It was just as Leo had said—20 gigabytes of adult films, nothing else. But soon, I discovered a layer of subcode hidden behind the massive video files. This wasn't beyond me. After data analysis, a file appeared on the flash drive that hadn't been there before.
I opened the file with a parser, and when I realized what it was, I couldn't help but gasp.
If I wasn't mistaken, this was a malicious program, and its programming paradigm was one I had never encountered before—more precisely, it resembled some kind of high-level overflow matrix... I didn't know what it was for, but if activated, this powerful malware would spread like a virus, capable of taking down a computer in an instant, or even destroying the entire internet in the blink of an eye—like nuking a small island flat! I had an instinctive sense that such a powerful malicious program wasn't meant for ordinary computer networks.
What was this thing? I stared at it for a long time, as if gazing at a demon imprisoned in an abyss. The Awakeners Alliance hadn't sent any exchange message yet, and the file analysis had drained so much of my energy that I fell asleep at the desk, slipping into a hazy doze. When I woke again, it was already one or two in the morning. The lights were off, and only a thin layer of moonlight filtering through the window shrouded everything in hazy darkness.
Something felt wrong. Where was Shirley? I stood and searched the whole place—no sign of her. Then I noticed the metallic flash drive was gone from the desk too. I broke into a cold sweat. I suddenly remembered something and quickly checked my phone. Sure enough, there was a read text message with just a few brief words: "Eleven thirty, 16 Yunting Street."
Something terrible had happened! I slapped my forehead and was about to dash out the door, but then gritted my teeth and sat back down at the computer, typing furiously on the keyboard for a while, before finally running out.
By the time I arrived, panting, at the address from the text message, fifteen minutes had already passed. Yunting Street was an inconspicuous little alley, and number 16 was an ordinary dwelling at the corner. I pulled open the outer iron gate—the small, pitch-black entrance looked like the deep throat of a monster.
I stumbled inside and hadn't gone far before finding a staircase leading down to a basement. I descended and, after a few steps, saw a faint glow. In the dim light, an old-fashioned server was running, emitting a buzzing vibration like a swarm of bees fanning their wings. An old server shouldn't be drawing this kind of power. I reached out and touched it curiously—the moment I made contact, a strange sensation washed over me, flowing through my body and mind like autumn water.
"This is a jammer. Impressive, isn't it? Don't let its unremarkable appearance fool you—this is black tech that even you IT people have never seen before."
With those words, a burly middle-aged man appeared before me.
"Jammer?"
"That's right. It emits an abnormally frequency electromagnetic signal that completely blocks Gaia's scanning. In other words, with this device here, 16 Yunting Street is an undetectable black hole as far as Gaia is concerned. Everything that happens here, Gaia knows nothing about. You could say—it's like blindfolding God."
I wasn't interested in any of this. I just asked coldly, "Where are my wife and child?"
"They've been waiting for you. Please, follow me." The man turned and opened a door. In the dim light, I saw the open eye tattooed on his bare forearm.