When Raffi returned from his patrol, he stared in round‐eyed wonder at the words Alice had said and froze for a moment. Then he swallowed a gulp and said in a snapping manner. "You want to get in touch with the… 'outside'. Is that what you said?"
"Yes. We can't possibly resolve this situation on our own, since it's likely impossible to do so…"
"But…"
"Try to think calmly about this. Why is Lewis in the middle of this?"
Raffi gasped at the question. "… Maybe he escaped from something…?"
"Yes. That's how I felt when I talked to that guy." Alice continued in a hushed voice, pulling her knees up in Jack's embrace. "Something has happened in the real world. So Lewis escaped into the M.O.R.S. Doesn't that make sense? It's too unnatural for someone who has been interfering from the outside, pretending to be God, to show up right in front of us out of nowhere."
"But, what exactly happened…"
Then Jack quietly interjected.
"Perhaps this Lewis guy is dropping his consciousness from reality to us. Maybe he's been forced to do it."
"Forced to drop…?"
Raffi pondered, then had a flash of surprise. After seeing his expression, Alice said softly. "I'll let you talk, Raffi. There are things you are concealing from us."
"…"
Raffi was silent for a long time. Then he heaved a breath and sat down on the spot.
"… You are the administration system of M.O.R.S. You are a program that was created in this system. Isn't that right?"
"… Yeah. And I was 'curing' a girl."
"…"
"That's you. Alice." Raffi continued, nonchalantly. "I'll give you a brief explanation of how the M.O.R.S. system works. This system was developed for the purpose of healing the human mind. However, it cannot magically erase the reality of mental wounds… that is, the 'pus' that has consumed your memory. After all, it is a system. Even if you remove the memory, it will remain in place as data."
"…"
As Alice listened quietly, Raffi stared at her with his round cat eyes.
"A person's memory is a huge amount of data. Even a single moment can occupy a huge amount of storage space. M.O.R.S is a system that manipulates that data."
"Manipulate… data?"
When Jack opened his mouth, Raffi looked up at him and nodded, "M.O.R.S uploads the consciousnesses of all patients who have suffered irreversible psychological trauma in real life into a data space called M.O.R.S. There, we transfer the patient's traumatic memories into the physical memory of M.O.R.S over time. Doing it all at once will lead to shock and disability. Therefore, it is done slowly. Then a support system like mine implants another memory in the mind of the excised patient. That's what we called 'healing'."
"That's…"
"Jack, I understand what you are trying to say. But 'you guys' have suffered from irreversible psychological trauma in real life, and you chose to come here. It is by your own choice. And you, Jack, are one of them."
"Wait a minute. I have a wife and a daughter…"
"…"
Raffi fell silent slightly, then began to speak.
"Patient Number 345. I did a search and was able to access the information. Jack, that's you."
"345…?"
Then Jack recalled that Lewis had referred to him as such.
"In reality, you lost your wife and daughter in a car accident. Your memory likely drifted in reverse when the M.O.R.S. had a malfunction. Perhaps that's why you remembered it."
"…"
The brutal truth was told so simply that Jack became silent. Alice grasped his arm as he kept silent, squeezing it tightly.
"Jack?"
"It's okay… Raffi, you can continue."
"… I understand." Raffi nodded and gazed up at them. "This place was originally a wonderland. There is a novel called Alice in Wonderland. We were programmed to resemble the characters in the novel. Originally, all of us were normal support systems. But Alice. One day a strange phenomenon happened to you… or rather, to Archi-Alice."
"A strange phenomenon…?"
When Alice asked doubtfully, Raffi lowered his head and continued.
"Now that I think about it, I believe it was a manipulation by Lewis. Archi-Alice was a particularly sick child. Even I couldn't completely heal her… Then her real memories started flowing back to her."
"…"
Alice held her head down, feeling a slight headache.
"And then, Archi-Alice couldn't bear those memories and chose to die. She committed suicide by hanging herself in this M.O.R.S."
"No way…"
Raffi carried on quietly to Alice, who was speechless.
"That triggered this wonderland to go haywire, and the memories of the patients' emotional scars… negative emotions, and hatred… stored in M.O.R.S. began to contaminate our support system and this world itself."
"…"
"I was fortunate enough to escape the contamination, but my data was nearly destroyed by the Jabberwock that had taken in the flesh and blood of Archi-Alice. The best I could do was to transfer my consciousness to a cat program that was nearby."
"Archi-Alice… flesh and blood…?"
"Yes. That's how the support program ended up being 'Nightmare'."