Episode 3: Oswin's Prequel

Oswin is almost the age of Thoule Metaverse. It was him who created Thoule Metaverse, and it was Thoule Metaverse that made him who he is today. He is undoubtedly one of the fathers of Thoule Metaverse.

Oswin, symbolizing the "Friend of the Gods", was not his initial name.

Well, he was not that ambitious before. It was his achievements that made his desire grow day by day.

Success itself is not that difficult to achieve. The difficult part is to make all the right decisions in every critical stage, even great figures in history often failed. But Oswin did.

This maybe because of his friendship with God, or that he happened to spot every upcoming big thing. Of course, it may also be because of the company's AI decision-making system, which is far more rational than humans.

A resolute and handsome middle-aged Caucasian man is sitting inside a neoclassical design car. The vehicle is speeding quietly through a deep tunnel, where the soft background light calms the exhausted mind after a long tiring and worrying day of work. Oswin didn't buy "neo-kitschism", which is popular among the rich Uranus. He reckoned it was a vulgar behavior that lowers their class and mixes successful figures with street thugs. His body shape is as perfect as an ancient Greek statue. Of course, he has neither the time nor the interest to go to the gym. Instead, he is fully built with advanced Thoule prosthetics that grant him a perfect bodyline, powerful strength and even a longer life without the side effect of turning him into a cyber maniac.

Perhaps the more artificial the body, the less humane the heart...

Oswin, the president of the Thoule Group, has ended his whole day’s work and is riding the smart car invented by his own company, back to his home through an underground tunnel exclusively built for him. Above the tunnel, colorful neon lights masked the ugly and aging building among the crowded and dilapidated downtown. Almost everyone in the city works for him. As for how the citizens were living, Oswin is indifferent and doesn’t even bother to care.

The air is rarely good tonight. Oswin peeked through the skylight, looking for Mars.

When a bright comet swept across the night sky, Oswin's intelligent prosthetic eye caught it without any intentional glance—in order to "see the truth and grasp the thrust", Oswin has already abandoned his original eyes. Although his smart prosthetic eye cannot present him with the past and present of the person in front of him, it can screen valuable content for him from complicated visual information, and he will never be presbyopic.

"This is Halley Comet, which would visit the Earth every seventy years. In ancient Chinese legends, the appearance of a comet was regarded as an ominous omen," Oswin thought.

Today was troublesome, but the visit of the comet is likely to bring new troubles.

People who work for Oswin, earn pitiful salaries, and then spend their salary back in Oswin's Thoule Metaverse so that their avatars won’t live as miserable as their flesh. Men living in this era are undoubtedly more miserable than ever before. In addition to earning cars, houses, and promotions, they are also expected to achieve things in the Thoule Metaverse, otherwise, they will be less competitive in the marriage market. No woman wants her husband's avatar to run naked all day, and to be teased by neighbors for days if they happen to run across it. Even if people fall asleep after a hard day's work, their brains would still have to be connected to the brain-computer interface, being assigned computing power tasks by the "Skynet", excavating cryptos to pay their bills, insurance, and loans... Otherwise, baring their wife's unprecedented expense, attracting goods presented by KOLs, as well as the increasingly high tuition fees of the school, they might never be able to make ends meet with their pitiful salary.

No wonder there are more and more accidents happening to young adult men, like sudden death or early Alzheimer’s disease. Their brain is still working even when their body is resting. How could they possibly be healthy?

These disasters originated from Oswin. About 10 years ago, when the brain-computer interface was barely maturing, Oswin declared that year that "the human brain is the best-decentralized computing tool" at the annual meeting of his company.

Oswin believed he did not have to pay high salaries to workers because they could make money while sleeping.

The 2020s was a time of upheaval and opportunity. Oswin was born into an afluent family on the day of Queen Elizabeth II's death. London was being demolished and polished, awaiting for its renaissance and Oswin’s father's construction company made a handful from it.

If Thoule Metaverse of the 2060s is said to be higher than reality, then Thoule Metaverse of the 2020s might not even be a thing. It was only slightly better than an infant’s first step.

Oswin's family offered him a good education. Oswin seemed different from the rest ever since his childhood. When his classmates joyfully played video games and watched short videos, little Oswin was digging into "History of the Peloponnesian War" and " Homer's Epic” with relish. Even after school, he would still sit quietly in the classroom with a book, waiting for his father's driver to pick him up.

He seemed to be able to talk to Thucydides and Homer.

Thucydides, Homer could tell him more than the books.

As a businessman, Oswin's father did not want him to spend too much energy on unprofitable affairs. His father believed that Oswin should make more friends, to develop his network, learn managerial theories and wealth management... His father scoffed at Oswin's ability to "talk to Thucydides." He even once thought his son was insane.

However, Oswin’s academic performance settled his father’s concern.

During his years at business school, Oswin always went to the School of history of the university, and he finally had some poor and nerdy friends that his father did not respect. Oswin continued to crave for history knowledge, to an extend where Homer and Thucydides could not teach him anymore, so they "introduced" him to some more well-educated people...

Oswin was also so smart and hardworking enough that he didn't fall behind in his business school curriculum.

Curiosity is the driver behind the development of human society. However, the other side of curiosity is desire, which is the greatest weakness of human nature. These weaknesses are even more vividly reflected in great heroes, philosophers, kings...

Oswin knew well where the weaknesses of human nature are, and how pathetic modern people are. And Oswin knew how to take advantage of these weaknesses to do business.

Oswin’s first pot of gold in the Metaverse had nothing to do with history or philosophy. As a noob, he needed primitive capital accumulation rather than those utopian symbols. Although he was not interested in sex and violence, it is a man's instinct...

After graduating from college, he borrowed some money from his father and started a game company. Sarcastically, he engaged in the game industry which he deeply despised. He produced junk content, copied hot topics without a blink, did what he could to earn.

The groundsill must rely on simple and effortless products. If a product is too high-end, ordinary users cannot get it. There is something called education cost, which might turn into a sunk cost if the product fails to take the market.

After solving the survival challenge, Oswin went back to do what he wanted. He recalled a few college classmates who spoke the same language. Although Oswin's company had a bad reputation, those poor nerds could not resist the temptation of such high salaries. An Athenian city emerged in the Metaverse. Unlike other common killing games, in his Athenian Metaverse, there were many immersive historical scenes. Philosophers wandered in the City Square, whom players could always go to with their confusion and discuss the problems in life. Suddenly, players who had suffered from inferior games flocked to the new game, and Oswin's notorious company stormed back with a good name.

It was around this time when Oswin changed his name to Oswin, who considered himself a friend of God.

The psychiatrist believed Oswin was normal, without any dissociative identity disorders or schizophrenia…

It is undoubted that Oswin's "Cyber Athens" is quite humanistic, thanks to the increasing development of AI. However, Oswin's "psychic" ability was the secret of success. He knew the philosophers’ real thoughts.

That's the reason why these cyber philosophers’ answers are so down to earth.

When Oswin's father finally recognized his son's superiority, he handed over the company's business to him and retired honorably. Therefore, the construction company merged with the game company, and the newly formed the Thoule Group became a unique Metaverse construction company.

The “Neo-Danzig” project led by UNESCO in the late 2040s seemed to be tailored for the Thoule Group. It was a magnificent megacity of the network world. It was the Memphis, Troy, Babylon, and Carthage of the Cyber earth... It was built with reference to "modern free ports" such as Hong Kong and Singapore. The economic system was based on the cryptocurrency and NFT economy, and its planning and urban development also developed using the models of real cities.

Prior to this, Oswin had long realized the importance of "hardware first", and the brain-computer interface was the highway to the real Metaverse. When other companies believed that the concept of brain-computer interface is too advanced and may remain in the theoretical stage forever, Oswin bet everything on this project with an uncertain and unforeseeable future. At the beginning, Oswin wanted the brain-computer interface to help children learn quickly so that parents would be willing to pay lots of money, but unfortunately, unexpected accidents occurred during the human experiment stage. After trying to "publicize" against the adverse effects, Oswin decided to position the brain-computer interface as a game peripheral, and incidentally use the extra computing power of the human brain to do something else.

After all, active parts of the human brain when playing games are very limited.

For Oswin, his Genesis will be written here. The starry sky of the Uranus raised another chaotic giant star.

When the construction of Neo-Danzig began, the Uranus controlled everything on earth. The tower-like society had been solidified, and the gap between the rich and the poor was huge. Living conditions of ordinary people could be easily told. Many science-fiction novels were themed Anti-Utopia, and unfortunately, these novels would also become scripts of the real world.

Therefore, people needed an escape from reality. Meanwhile, the Uranus also needed new sources of revenue. Obviously, this demand and supply would form an infinite cycle.

Fortunately, Oswin was born at the top of the tower.

It was also around this time when Oswin met Vlasova.

Oswin had been through countless women in his life, but none of them could be soulmates like Vlasova.

When he interviewed Vlasova, he knew that this woman was special.

However, he could only see Vlasova on the screen now. What a pity. It was his growing desire that scared her away.

Why can't the people understand his painstaking efforts? Oswin thought he had worked so hard to be the switchman of mankind's fate, guiding mankind to break the fate and rush to a broader world. He is the only one who grasps the truth of human destiny, and his grand plan is being implemented step by step, but why do people still regard him as an unreasonable careerist?

There is a small museum filled with a variety of ancient Greek artifacts in Oswin and Vlasova’’s house. The artifacts are not numerous, but you could not see them in any other museum. Oswin still has no idea where Vlasova got these artifacts.

Nowadays, people call Oswin's old lover "Matushka". She has stolen Oswin’s thunder ever since she established her own business.

“Matushka... "Matushka..." Oswin whispered, smiling bitterly at the screen hanging on the wall amidst the artifacts. Suddenly the "Matushka" on the screen turned into snow noise. The last time Oswin saw snow on the screen, he was still on “The Peloponnesian War”.

The dusty red phone line is ringing. Oswin slowly paces past to pick it up, and the voice of the Tech Director emerged.

"Mr. O, I'm sorry to bother you this late, but the main network signal was interrupted for unknown reasons. All business systems stopped working, we are commencing the SOP for troubleshooting and repairing..."

"Just leave it! Go home and have a goodnight sleep. I bet scientists at Skynet must also be confused. "

Oswin's real concern was the little bastard named Hanssen created by "Matushka", who, thankfully, was not their rebellious son. He is a virtual idol, brain-controlled by Matr1x after awakening. Oswin had set up to catch the boy and destroy him, but the useless employees didn’t get him, and the ambush soldiers were also killed by the Matr1x’s snipers. Someone must have leaked the information. The Thoule Group has been penetrated by Matr1x a lot. It is useless to engage in a big purge with these idiots. It's rare for the Thoule Group to miss something like this, someone must have leaked the information.

If Skynet is also disturbed, it will be impossible to find Hanssen. If he seizes the opportunity to change his chip, Oswin will lose the chance. There are tens of billions of living people in this world, as well as billions of robots that look exactly like living humans. Nobody will find this kid if he disguises himself.

This " mommy's boy " would not run far, Oswin thought.

After having a few glasses of whiskey, Oswin is in a somewhat fugue stage. His thoughts drift from the newly built switchman launch pad, to the Thule Group's server room, to Homer, to archaeological sites, and to the stock market blinking in green and red.

Soon the decision-making program built into his brain-computer chip pulled him back, surpressing his alcohol reaction to a minimum level, keeping him awake and sharp at all times. So, he could deal with important matters. For a giant like him, reckless thoughts are tantamount to destroying the company's financial statements.

At Vlasova 's age, she fits the name "Matushka".

However, Oswin has found a his way, preventing him from being "отец (Daddy)".