James: "He's right. It's not worth it."
Me (eyes narrowing, voice rising): "We're doing this regardless. There's no way I'll let Thea…."
James (cutting me off, furious): "I knew it. It's always about her. You'd risk millions of lives for one girl? You say they're not real, but they live, they breathe. Who gave you the right to decide their fate?"
Vanzz glanced at James, relieved someone had finally said it. Joel, meanwhile, stared at me intently, waiting to see how I would respond.
Me (defensive, almost pleading): "Yes, Thea was my first reason. But look around! Don't you want to protect your loved ones too? Haven't you noticed how absurd and unpredictable everything has become? Like we're being toyed with? Shouldn't we at least fight back?"
James "Fight back how? If the architects exist, they hold all the power. We live inside their design. You can't win against the framework itself."
Me (slamming the desk, voice shaking with fury and despair): "Even so! I refuse to accept that my existence is meaningless, that I was created for someone's experiment, or worse, their entertainment. If I can't break out, then I'll shape this reality instead. I'll bend it until the truth comes out, even if I have to tear it apart first."
Joel (grinning darkly): "That's the spirit. We won't sit here and be controlled. If they made this reality, we'll carve out our own."
Vanzz looked at Joel with disdain but said nothing.
James (coldly, heading for the door): "Do what you want. But don't drag innocent people into your madness. The dead don't return, no matter how loud you scream."
Me (something snapped, my anger exploding): "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"
I lunged forward, but Joel grabbed my arm, holding me back.
Joel: "Calm down. This won't help. And remember, none of this guarantees anything. All we're doing is gambling with the unknown."
Vanzz (standing as well, shaking his head): "I'm leaving too. One last thing, Ducce: this path you're on? It won't lead to anything good."
The room fell silent. Only me and Joel remained at the table, I was trembling, my notes scattered like broken fragments of my mind.
The next day
Me and Joel dove headfirst into research, hunting for proof that the world around us wasn't what it seemed. We scoured records of "glitches" in reality: the Mandela Effect, where collective memories diverged inexplicably from documented events; people vanishing without a trace, as if erased; objects appearing out of nowhere; moments that seemed only partially rendered, like unfinished code.
We traced the unexplainable back to cosmic scales, events leading to the formation of the universe itself, the rise of subjective experience from physical matter. How could "you" exist at all, where did it all begin? How could consciousness arise from unconscious interference? We pored over thought experiments on perception: the way a color is known but impossible to fully describe, the impossibility of fully capturing subjective awareness, the way we feel this continuous feeling of "I" inside us, it doesn't make sense for us to experience things at this level from an evolutionary perspective which is only concerned with survival.
One case gripped us above all: a man arrived at a Japanese airport in 1954 with a passport from a country named Taured which he pointed out in his map, his map representing the country but it was located between France and Spain, the country does not exist in our world. He vanished overnight from a guarded hotel room without a single trace, not even a strain of hair like he never existed, leaving only rumors and disbelief in his wake. Parallel worlds, time travel, a crack in reality, whatever it was, it demanded attention.
Along with the sequence of unexplainable events that happened we were sure reality is not as consistent as it appears to be, the impossibility of surviving a crash of this impact leaving unscathed, the magical container that was no less than a dream, including reactions that were way off like the man with the deep voice walking away suddenly for no reason, the boy who just ignored us and never spoke about the incident, the crashed victims whose disappearance no one noticed.
Emboldened, Me and Joel began devising our plan. If this world was indeed a simulation or more specifically a virtual construct, as I theorized, then it could be stressed not through consciousness itself, but through the cumulative maintenance of conscious-like behaviors. Even if these beings were not truly conscious, sustaining the routines, decisions, and interactions expected of conscious agents required enormous computational resources.
By gathering enough of these simulated individuals and pushing them into complex, high-intensity activity, every act, every thought pattern performed as if aware became a vector of strain, and if amplified across hundreds of such agents, it could be enough to crack the simulation's surface, revealing its underlying structure.
We began mapping real-world levers of influence: political figures, social movements, events that could spiral into chaos. One incident caught our eye: a city-wide protest following the assassination of a controversial politician. His brother, Charles, led the demonstrations, demanding justice. I found a vantage point with a clear view of Charles and implanted a memory, urgent, life-or-death justice, into the minds of all influential participants. Following days the number of protestors rose progressively, Social media were booming with a call for justice, people from around the city and even beyond it were joining enmasses.
It was more so of a trend to the younger generation than anything meaningful, but Joel was able to amplify the tiny bit of emotions leaning towards a sense of Justice and frustration, the rest of the work was carried on by psychological phenomenon that takes place in a large group for example conformity (The act of changing your beliefs or behaviors to align with a group's standards or norms, often to fit in or be seen as "normal".) and groupthink (A specific psychological phenomenon where the desire for harmony or conformity within a group leads to poor decision-making by suppressing dissent and critical viewpoints.)