Reality Programming Association

Chapter 10: Chapter 5: The Collider’s Restart Feast

The noodle shop by the South Gate was like a lone boat in the heavy rain. The smell of cooking oil, hot noodle soup, and rising steam mixed with the SLURP of people eating noodles all around, creating a comforting atmosphere of everyday life. Yu Xian, however, felt a tightness in his chest. He could only try his best to suppress the welling sense of unease.

Why had there been a succession of events recently that made his memory feel scrambled? Xia Li was one example, and Shi Zuozhou was another. For a moment, he even felt a fleeting sense of disorientation. Was he actually developing a mental illness? Or perhaps misremembering things was just a common occurrence? Like clearly remembering the owner of the downstairs convenience store was bald, only to realize one day that the man had always worn a hat. Or having the impression that a classmate was shorter than you, only to later discover they simply slouched.

”No, I can’t let this shake my resolve,” Yu Xian thought. ”The complete disappearance of Xia Li and misremembering a roommate’s dietary habit can’t be lumped together.”

Gathering his thoughts, he asked, ”Why do I remember that you didn’t eat cilantro before? Didn’t you even change your screen name to ’No Cilantro’ at one point?”

Shi Zuozhou looked up, his eyes showing a clear, innocent confusion. He swallowed the noodles in his mouth. ”Old Yu, why have you been acting so weird lately? The day before yesterday you told me a classmate went missing, and today you’re saying I don’t eat cilantro.”

As if struck by a sudden realization, he slapped his thigh loudly, drawing stares from the people around them. ”I know! It’s the Mandela Effect!”

”The what?”

”You know, collective false memories! Everyone remembers the lyrics as ’fifty-six ethnic groups, fifty-six flowers’, but it’s actually ’fifty-six constellations, fifty-six flowers’. Everyone remembers Pikachu having a black tip on his tail, but it’s actually always been yellow. Everyone remembers Mickey Mouse wearing suspenders, but he actually wears shorts. The one wearing suspenders is someone else! Old Yu, you must be experiencing this exact same thing!”

Shi Zuozhou grew more excited as he spoke. If one didn’t know better, they would think he had just discovered the grand unified theory of the universe.

”Stop spreading pseudoscience. When you’re out and about, don’t you dare tell people you’re from the JCU Physics Department.” A slender hand reached over and tapped Shi Zuozhou on the head with a pair of chopsticks.

”Brother Yi, what are you talking about? Aren’t we all from Class One, Year Four of the Neuroscience Major at the JCU School of Biological Sciences?” Shi Zuozhou deliberately raised his voice.

Amused by Shi Zuozhou’s antics, Yu Xian felt his mood lighten slightly. Thinking of Yang Yiyi’s major, he asked, ”Senior, from the perspective of your field, what usually causes this kind of memory confusion?”

Yang Yiyi looked at Yu Xian, her expression turning serious. ”From a neuroscience standpoint, human memory is mainly divided into three steps. The first step is the hippocampus encoding and packaging the event. The second step is storage and consolidation. The third step is bringing it out for use, which is retrieval.”

Shi Zuozhou chewed his noodles, his words muffled. ”Putting an elephant into a fridge is also mainly divided into three steps: open the fridge door, stuff the elephant in, and close the door.”

Yang Yiyi ignored him and continued, ”If your attention is divided when a memory is being encoded, the information will be incomplete from the start. Every time you recall it, your brain tries to repair and fill in the gaps of that vague memory. The more times you patch it up, the further it deviates from reality.”

Shi Zuozhou listened in a daze. ”So, it’s just like if I ask an AI to redraw an image a hundred times—the final result will be completely different. Is that the same idea?”

”Pretty much. The hippocampus has a function called ’pattern completion,’ which fills in the rest of a scene based on a few clues. If you’re under high stress or sleeping poorly, your hippocampus and prefrontal cortex can easily jumble several memories together.”

Yu Xian nodded. Yang Yiyi’s explanation could account for him misremembering Shi Zuozhou’s aversion to cilantro, but it was completely different from Xia Li’s situation.

”Are you full?” Seeing that their bowls were empty, Yang Yiyi glanced at the sky outside. The rain was still falling heavily, showing no signs of letting up.

Shi Zuozhou drank the last mouthful of his noodle soup. ”I’m stuffed. Old Yu, where are you crashing tonight? Going to your rented apartment or back to the dorms?”

”I’ll be staying... at a relative’s house for a few days,” Yu Xian answered vaguely, not wanting to say too much about Yu Zhengze.

”I’m going to the big supermarket up ahead. Delivery drivers can’t even get in during this awful weather. If it rains for a few more days, we’ll run out of food in the dorms. Do you guys want to come?” Shi Zuozhou rubbed his belly. Although he was full, it didn’t stop him from preparing for his next meal.

Yu Xian thought about it and decided to tag along. The daily necessities at his cousin’s place were also running low. Since his cousin was busy around the clock, Yu Xian figured he should help him restock. Yang Yiyi checked her watch and nodded. ”I’ll go too. I have a few things to buy anyway, so it’s on the way.”

* * *

Not far outside the university’s South Gate was a massive, interconnected commercial district. It supplied the food, drink, entertainment, and daily necessities for the teachers and students of this small city-like campus. The three walked together toward the commercial street. The rain seemed to be coming down harder, pounding against their umbrellas with a loud RAT-A-TAT.

A few hundred meters ahead stood a large supermarket that had been open for many years. Because it was located in a university town, its inventory turned over quickly, having welcomed and seen off countless young faces over the years. The supermarket’s Rotating Door was brightly lit, and cheerful promotional music played over the broadcast system.

The three split up to browse different aisles, occasionally bumping into each other at various corners.

”Are you sure you don’t want to stay in the dorm for a couple of days?” Shi Zuozhou picked up a pack of tissues and weighed it in his hand. ”I feel like you haven’t been acting like yourself lately.”