Chapter 23. John? Joey?
"It should be that one of the components in the machine has malfunctioned."
"It stinks so bad in here—never mind, not the point. Wasn't the machine just serviced last time? I thought it would last half a year. Damn it, why are there so many idiots in Maintenance!" Dr. Watts pinched his nose and cursed angrily.
Hearing the two doctors complain, all the viewers perked up.
They had a hunch the game's turning point was coming.
"But it's fine. We've already saved the teenage memories. Maybe we can still complete the job."
As everyone wondered about that, what followed—the two doctors' conversation with the Old Johnny from the beginning—cleared up the confusion.
As company employees, their assignment was to fulfill Old Johnny's wish to go to the Moon.
As for why he wanted to go to the Moon—sorry, that wasn't what they most needed to care about.
If conditions allowed, taking a look would be fine.
But since things had gone wrong now, they could only use the fastest method to resolve it.
Namely, to instill in Johnny while he was still a teenager the desire to become an astronaut, then guide him step by step onto the astronaut's path to the Moon.
So long as the final result was going to the Moon, the process in between wasn't important.
Sirin: "?"
At that, not only was Sirin dumbfounded; the tens of thousands watching were too.
A screenful of question-mark bullet comments swept across, covering the entire screen for a moment.
"No, what is this even? We've come all the way to this point, and now you're telling me you're not doing it?"
"What exactly does that rabbit mean? What is up with Old Johnny's wish? None of that got explained—why suddenly pull this stunt!!"
[Exactly! I already took my pants off, and you show me this?]
[Hard to keep it together; this designer sure knows how to write a script.]
[Calling it now: wrap it up immediately, review scores will nosedive.]
[So the game designer's name is Xander, huh? Okay, okay, I remember.]
...
But no matter how much they cursed, the plot still had to move forward.
Frowning all around, Sirin controlled the two doctors and began influencing Johnny's memories.
However…
After they finished instilling the wish, looking at Old Johnny at the cliff's edge—unchanged—the two of them fell silent.
"Perhaps we should give him more of a push."
Then they began altering Old Johnny's memories starting from childhood.
First they swapped his usual cinema into astronaut-themed, even changing the films' contents.
No use.
Next, they held an Anti-Entropy astronaut recruitment fair at Johnny's school.
Still no use.
Then they tried one thing after another: pitching Moon lottery tickets to Old Johnny while he agonized over whether to build the house or pay for River's treatment; going to the ward where River received her diagnosis to recommend astronauts' family medical benefits; hawking a "honeymoon on the Moon" at the wedding…
No use, no use, still no use.
They went to every possible time point and tried every method, yet Old Johnny's life remained as before, never changing.
[Does this old geezer even want to go to the Moon?!!]
Clearly, the viewers were stumped by this.
He was so determined about going to the Moon at first.
How is it that now, even short of tying Johnny up and throwing him into a rocket, Johnny still refuses to be an astronaut?!!!
Could it really be that, in old age, he's letting himself go, wanting a spontaneous thrill trip before he dies?
Then this old man is actually pretty trendy.
"Don't panic, everyone. I feel like a major twist is absolutely coming up."
Sirin said this while quickly pushing the plot forward.
Of course, she didn't need to say it; everyone understood.
The bullet comments were just venting.
With the story this far along, anyone could tell what came next wouldn't be simple.
With no choice, the two doctors could only step out for a temporary break and continue the next day.
But during this not-too-long break, a clue appeared.
Dr. Watts unexpectedly discovered that, in childhood, Johnny had taken large amounts of beta-blockers, and this medication for cardiovascular disease carries major side effects—memory impairment being one of them.
All the more so at such a high dosage.
"I've now set up the adjusted frequency. Next we just need to find a trigger with a strong presence in Old Johnny's memory. With it, we can enter his childhood memories."
As it happened, that trigger was the little squirrel they'd accidentally hit with their car yesterday.
Soon, with a flash of familiar white light, Sirin finally entered Johnny's childhood memory-dream.
But right then, the entire screen suddenly shook, turning a terrifying red, with the background filled with shrill alarms.
"W-what's going on?!"
Startled, Sirin hurriedly looked at the on-screen story.
The view shifted outside: the doctor and Lily were standing at Old Johnny's bedside.
"Doctor, there's a problem," Lily said in a panic.
"His condition has gotten very bad…"
Inside, the experienced Dr. Rosalene understood as well: they had to race against time.
The sudden turn made Sirin nervous too.
She threw herself into it completely, afraid to waste even a second.
In Johnny's childhood home within the memory, the two saw many little Johnnies.
Some were running around.
Some were chatting with people whose faces couldn't be seen.
One little Johnny was happily kicking a soccer ball in the street.
"Oh, his technique is great—like the ball is following him," Dr. Watts even complimented.
But just then, Sirin found she suddenly couldn't control the character, and the scene on the screen forcibly panned upward.
Anyone who's played games knows: this had triggered a forced CG cutscene.
At the doorway, having finished chatting, Johnny's mom started the car and prepared to back up.
Unaware, little Johnny happened to be kicking the ball past at that moment.
Bang!
A screech of brakes rang out.
Thump—thump.
Everything in the background instantly turned pitch black, and in the darkness echoed little Johnny's heartbeat.
"Lucky he survived that crash," the male doctor sighed.
"No, he didn't survive," the female doctor suddenly interjected.
What do you mean?
What came next made everyone's minds buzz and explode.
Another "little Johnny" appeared.
He ran swiftly to the fallen little Johnny and cried in pain, "Joey, wake up! Wake up!!"
"Mom, why did you hit Joey!!!"
Facing her son's accusation, the mother only wept in silence, eyes empty.
The moment she realized she had hit her own son, her mind… collapsed.
So Johnny had never been an only child.
He had a twin brother named "Joey."
And this tragedy, caused by his mother's carelessness, made him lose his own blood brother.
The unstable mother, perhaps to remember Joey, or perhaps to make Johnny forget the pain, forcibly fed him large amounts of beta-blockers.
And the "transforming warrior" stuff River had once brought up to awaken Johnny's memory had in fact always been Joey's hobbies—hobbies that the unstable mother then imposed onto Johnny.
Just when Sirin thought this twist was enough to shock her, the real truth of To the Moon quietly revealed itself before her.
With a flash of light, the two doctors jumped again to a few months earlier.
The scene shifted; they arrived at a bustling amusement park.
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