Cecilia forced herself to ignore the code. That was not the moment to enter the rabbit hole of thinking about reality and the meaning of the world. Her goal was just to try to find the 'spirit,' communicate with it, and head back while ensuring Marya's safety.
She could try to unravel the new questions later.
Still, she thought that she was on the right path. If the 'spirit' was really just the ancient algorithm, then it would make sense that the world around it retained some of the characteristics of the game.
That was her idea, at least, as she took Marya's hand in her own and headed deeper into the forest.
:::
As they progressed forward, the oddities increased so much that Marya stopped bothering to point them out. At this point, they were in an area that had several visual artifacts of poor procedural generation coding.
((It's like the old algorithm is falling apart.))
