As the game continued, Eric was starting to feel worse and worse inside.
But Dr. Neil and Dr. Eva were still working, trying to help Johnny become an astronaut and land on the moon.
After all, they'd already signed the contract in the real world.
No matter what, they had to help Johnny achieve his dream.
Time moved forward again, now showing Johnny in high school. That's when they learn from Johnny himself why he liked River.
It was because Johnny thought River was different.
At this point, Johnny came off a little selfish—even his best friend Nicholas called him out on it.
"Feeling sad for River right now."
"Suddenly, Johnny's kinda annoying!"
"+1, selfish jerk!"
"But something feels off... maybe there's a twist coming later?"
The chat in Eric's stream was full of comments and guesses.
But right now, Eric wasn't paying any attention to them. He was fully pulled into the story.
It really did seem like Johnny was acting selfish, maybe even a bit unlikeable.
But Eric couldn't shake the feeling that something deeper was going on.
Sure, this helped explain why River kept folding paper rabbits.
But to Eric, it still felt like something was missing. Something didn't quite add up.
Time kept moving back, and now we saw Johnny as a kid.
At home, when Johnny left for school, his mom didn't call him Johnny—she called him Joey.
With soccer as a way in, Neil and Eva pushed forward again.
But everything that came next... was completely different.
In front of his computer, Eric leaned in a little, eyes wide open.
The screen showed a white, foggy scene. In that memory, even Neil and Eva said they could smell the stench of a dead animal.
Before they could enter the next part of Johnny's memory, there was nothing but emptiness.
That meant some of Johnny's childhood memories were damaged.
And from the look—and smell—of things, those missing parts involved something bloody and the death of an animal.
Since they couldn't move forward, Neil and Eva decided to stick to their original plan.
By planting the dream of becoming an astronaut in Johnny's mind, the machine could guide him to keep moving toward that goal.
But players clearly weren't happy with how Eva and Neil were going about it.
"What the hell?! They messed up the memory—Johnny's childhood memories aren't even clear yet!"
"Why are they doing things like this?"
Eric looked annoyed. Compared to the whole "go to the moon" thing, he was more curious about the hidden story behind it.
And judging from how the game was going, he had a strong feeling that all the answers were buried in Johnny's childhood.
But seriously, these two doctors were just cutting corners to get the job done. Was this all just for show?
Then, unexpectedly, something went wrong.
No matter how much Neil and Eva tried to guide Johnny or drop hints—
They added astronomy classes in elementary and middle school, swapped out the movies he watched for space-related ones—
Everything pointed toward becoming an astronaut.
But none of it worked. Johnny's later memories didn't change at all.
He wasn't even interested in going to the moon.
It wasn't just the two doctors—players were just as confused.
In Johnny's subconscious, there wasn't even a trace of a desire to go to the moon.
So why would someone like him make that his final wish before dying?
What was it about the moon that drew him in?
There wasn't much time left—Johnny's body was getting weaker and weaker.
If they really wanted to make Johnny's wish come true, his broken childhood memory was probably the key.
Dr. Neil contacted the company to ask why this was happening.
Dr. Eva kept digging into why planting memories didn't change Johnny's desire.
Assuming the machine wasn't broken, then going to the moon wasn't Johnny's main goal.
There had to be something deeper behind his wish.
And River played an important part in his life.
They'd been together since high school.
But what was it exactly that changed Johnny's desires so much?
While Watts was still thinking, Neil finally got the answer.
Johnny's memory loss was caused by the large amount of beta-blockers he took as a child.
Propranolol, a type of beta-blocker, is thought to stop the brain from storing memories the usual way.
So Johnny's missing childhood memories were likely due to heavy use of beta-blockers when he was young.
But that didn't mean the memories were completely wiped—they were just hidden.
To use the machine to dig into Johnny's childhood, they needed something to trigger them.
That's when Eric thought of something.
"The smell of blood? Rotting flesh? Wait! Didn't the doctor run over a squirrel in the beginning!? What if the smell of the squirrel could be used as a trigger?"
Looking at the clue in the game, Eric suddenly understood.
It was all part of the setup from the very beginning!
"So that's it. That squirrel from the start really had a purpose!"
"You could say it died for a good cause. It was meant to die! Huge thanks to that squirrel for its contribution."
Eric said as he moved the character to the side of the road to collect the squirrel's scent.
Meanwhile, the chat exploded with comments like:
"Squirrel: Wow, thanks a lot!"
"One of the most tragic characters: the squirrel!"
But aside from some jokes in the chat, most people felt the same way as Eric.
They were curious and excited to see what Johnny's childhood memories would look like.
As the chat kept urging him on,
Eric used the scent as the memory link and successfully entered one of Johnny's more chaotic memories.
This one was all jumbled up, with different points in time overlapping.
So on the street, you could see many little versions of Johnny running around.
One of them caught Eric's attention—Johnny playing with a soccer ball.
That ball was one of the memory links from earlier.
The two doctors searched all over the town but couldn't find anything useful.
At the same time, Johnny's mom had just finished talking with someone and was about to start the car and drive off.
But no one noticed that "little Johnny" was chasing his soccer ball and had ended up behind the car.
The engine started. *Bang.* The little boy was hit and fell to the ground.
What just happened? Did little Johnny get hit by the car?
Is that the reason for the missing memories?
But wasn't it because of too many beta-blockers?
Eric was confused, just like the two doctors in the game. They all thought the kid who got hit was Johnny.
But in the next moment, the real Johnny showed up.
And suddenly, the confusion started to clear up.
(End of this chapter)
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Let's do a challenge: for every 100 Power Stones, I'll release one bonus chapter.
Now, give me your Power Stones! (said in the most polite tone possible)
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Read +45 advanced chapters on my patre*n
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