A dark, starless void. That was the scene he was faced with.
Just like the last time he had entered the Simulated Universe, Sunny experienced a split in his consciousness.
It was as if his mind had been a neutral force, neither pushing nor pulling. Then, all of a sudden, a knife cut it into two, and the split halves developed their own instincts and characteristics, no longer one and the same.
One half became fluid, choreographic, and empty of disorder. A pristine inside that reflected a pristine outside. North was South, East was West, and direction was a concept put into pot and stirred until it was all one.
Everything was perfect because everything is everything.
There was nothing that was not everything. There was only the whole. Outliers were not needed, as they would only disrupt the Harmony.
And Harmony it was. That was the first Path Sunny had the choice of pursuing within the Simulated Universe — all he had to do was take on the fluid form of a dancer.
The Aeon that governed the Harmony was one known as Xipe. THEY were not antagonistic towards humanity, but from what Sunny had learned from the various...
The final destination of Harmony was the assimilation of all life into a singular, perfect melody. An existence that transcended what it meant to be a lifeform, a merged entity containing all organisms. They would sing and dance, and their voices and movements would be the same as a cell in Sunny's body.
It was freaky in one of the worst ways possible, and Sunny found himself glad that the Aeons were able to keep each other in check and prevent any one Path from consuming the Universe.
The other Path, on the other hand, was also everything. But not in the way the Harmony was.
It was every observation, every proof, every evidence ever written down. Every evidence that hasn't been written down. Every evidence that will never be written down. It was a world without gaps — where gaps should be, logic bridged. Knowledge flowed like rivers, dressing everything in Eruditive surplus.
There was no chaos to be found. Everything was reduced to binary code, a simplified yet deeply complex stream of information that was only ever true, and never false. The world was shaped and perfected by trigonometric calculations and algebraic computations. Life was reduced to complex biological machines, each imperfection allowing one to trace that life's history back to the beginning without flaw.
Emotion was merely a preprogrammed reaction to different variables and conditions. Humanity was flawed, still bearing useless bones and organs that serve no purpose, and perhaps could bring about the deterioration of their own functions. Imperfect, and yet, humanity could not force their own evolution without losing what it meant to be human.
Inefficient. An unnecessary mental disorder. A flaw in the system.
And yet, nobody dared to solve it.
Because Erudition was not perfection. It was an omniscience that delved into the depths of chaos, branching into the unknown and making it known. With every answer, there are three more questions, then five, then seven, then nine. Then seven, then five, then three, then one, then zero.
Once everything was reset to zero, there was nothing left. Omniscience would be achieved, and the eye no longer serves a purpose. There was no need to observe, as everything was already predetermined from beginning to end. From the past to the future, then even further beyond.
To be an Erudite was to be a consumer of knowledge, leaving no stone unturned. And to be historian was to discover the forgotten secrets of eras long abandoned, and to piece together those ancient stories.
Nous, the Aeon of Erudition, was also harmless to humanity. Every member of the Genius Society was a Pathstrider personally selected by Nous, with a couple of Emanators in the mix.
With that in mind, Sunny found himself split between two Paths. Harmony and Erudition. Dancer and historian.
The choice shouldn't matter much. He was inevitably going to experience them both, so any hesitation would only be a waste of time. Still...
"How accurate would the recreations of the past be now, compared to before?"
Sunny's voice echoed in the voice. For a moment, he wondered if he would get a response, but his worries were quickly dispelled when Ruan Mei's voice echoed back:
[Herta marked the current accuracy at 98.7%. According to your last test almost a year ago, it was stuck at 23.4%. The main issues were found in the development of life, which contained a multitude of biological inaccuracies.]
'O-Oh...'
Sunny was quite startled by the major difference. Back then, he had thought that the Simulated Universe was extremely sophisticate, simply due to the fact that it could recreate the past and simulate Aeons. However, he hadn't considered that the recreations were inaccurate. In fact, he remembered Herta saying that those exploding wolves were customized, rather than being faithful to the scene.
"...If it's that close to perfection, why not get it to a hundred percent before testing?"
Ruan Mei's voice bounced back against the borderless edges of the void.
[Technically, we could, but by all means, the Simulated Universe had been perfected. That margin of 1.3% was caused by Herta's insistence to allow your soul and body to remain unchanged. There were drastic enhancements to the immersion and synchronization rates, so developing a mental illness due to experiencing a different life wouldn't have been uncommon.]
She let out a distant, melancholic sigh.
[This issue wouldn't have been present if we went with our original plan and used a few hundred test subjects. Would have been a better sample. But alas, Herta has made her choice.]
...Well, that sounded vaguely psychotic. In any case, Sunny was half-tempted to tell Ruan Mei to just push everything to a hundred, but he managed to refrain. He wasn't concerned abut any mental illness he may end up developing, since he had already partook in a similar experience in the Second Nightmare, trapped in Nightmare's... well, nightmares.
He could endure it, that was for sure. But he also wasn't getting paid extra to work extra, and he'd rather keep his own Aspect. It was vastly superior to any other he may end up being forced to use if he was in another's body, so there was no reason to limit himself. Especially since whoever he met in the simulation wouldn't realize something was off.
In any case, Sunny got his answers. The past was full of mysteries, and he would be their lord.
So, his choice was obvious...