"Idiot~?" "Assimilation?"
Ron, Emy, and Mark spoke almost simultaneously. While the two oldest were puzzled and questioning the words Quan had just uttered, the youngest boy sat by the bedside, quietly wiping away Quan's drool.
"Uh... Ron, look. What did that guy your friend just say? Does it have anything to do with your hypothesis?" Hearing the word assimilation from Quan's mouth, Emy immediately recalled what Ron had told her earlier. "Death bringing about assimilation into the ground?"
Evidently, to forge a temporary alliance, the first requirement is a shared objective forced upon them by circumstance; the second is a form of psychological binding.
Ron had not hesitated to share as much information as possible, excluding strictly confidential secrets such as the fact that he and Quan didn't inherently belong to this world, or what a gun was. After all, despite being blind, a student was still a student. Emy was a social history major, enabling her to comprehend and analyze at a level far above the general populace, meaning she could assist Ron immensely with both strategy and lore.
Ron stared at Quan's expression and pondered for a moment.
The sedative I injected him with was meant to calm him down, but looking back, he was already acting strange at that point. According to Lunas, he exhibited signs of using the narcotics I formulated. Is it possible... that the past Ron set him up, intentionally driving him into this state?
Midway through his thoughts, the pocket of his coat suddenly vibrated. He pulled out a small electronic box.
"What is this?" Emy asked suspiciously.
Ron turned off the device and added, "Miss Emy, Mark, would you mind coming with me for a bit? While we move, I will break down and connect Quan's words for you. First, let us get to our destination. Once there, we will share this data with the others."
"Since those two phrases were meant for me, I shall explain," Ron began as they moved. "Ignorance can be broken down into four primary categories: Lack of knowledge. Lack of awareness. Lack of experience. Lack of critical thinking.
Now, if I am ignorant, I would need to elevate my intelligence. But at the same time, there is a principle I know inside out: if you excel at something, double down on it as your primary focus rather than desperately trying to compensate for your greatest deficit. In other words, if you are ignorant in one domain, elevate the other domains to compensate. Here, we have four domains.
People usually default to viewing ignorance as entirely negative. However, there is a famous idiom: 'Ignorance is bliss.' I am certain that if a message was being relayed through Quan, a controversial quote like that wouldn't be chosen lightly. In other words, the intent to criticize or insult here is remarkably low. Instead, it serves as a calculated reminder urging me to elevate a specific aspect.
Judging by the phrasing, it is a reminder from my past self to my current or future self. This reinforces the hypothesis that my memory was wiped, or that two distinct personalities coexist across my past and present. No, given the convoluted nature of this dimension, it could also be an illusion woven by overlapping, multilayered spatial dimensions."
"This line of thinking... is far too convoluted," Emy countered. "Furthermore, the real issue is whether this person you call Quan is even accurate. By your own admission, Quan went through a massive psychological crisis and severe trauma, which is why you injected him with a sedative. What kind of sedative was it? What are its effects and side effects? Could you explain? Could it cause cognitive confusion or delirium?"
Emy, Ron, and Mark sprinted down the street, bypassing swarms of human mimicking monsters along the way. Because Emy was blind and Mark was far too young, Ron had insisted that all three of them tie a nylon cord around their waists to prevent separation. Ron carried Mark on his back as they ran.
Reflecting on Emy's words, Ron realized there were indeed multiple anomalies at play here. Both Ron and Emy even speculated deeper: perhaps Quan had actually been corrupted, much like the lunatics roaming the streets, and the medical sedative was merely what allowed him a brief window of lucidity.
Delving deeper into his thoughts, Ron explained to Emy that his sedative was a standard medical grade solution essentially acting like an anesthetic. Emy nodded, letting the matter rest. In reality, anesthetics and sedatives share similarities but differ fundamentally: an anesthetic is essentially a higher dosage meant to paralyze cognitive functions, whereas a sedative is weaker. That was the basic premise. And because it was a medical grade anesthetic, it also guaranteed that Quan was reasonably lucid right before slipping into unconsciousness. Perhaps that was normal?
"...To continue my point," Ron spoke up again. "Because the four types of intelligence or ignorance are linked to a certain baseline metric for instance, an elementary education is the bare minimum baseline for everyone, whereas middle school, high school, or university aren't meant for the masses we can use elementary level comprehension as our baseline benchmark. Based on that, for someone like me, Ron Irus, the deficit lies in formal knowledge, as I have only mastered basic elementary concepts. Thus, the remaining three categories must have been drastically amplified to make me exceptionally proficient."
"...Why choose to optimize your strengths while completely discarding your weaknesses? Why not elevate them uniformly? And are you deducing all of this solely based on a single phrase familiar to you and the assumption that this riddle was tailor made for you?"
Emy picked up on the skew in Ron's logic and questioned it. Of course, she was merely offering a counterargument rather than outright dismissing his theory.
This caught Ron by surprise. It wasn't that he had never met a lucid person before, but finding someone clear headed enough to sprint, process complex thoughts, and construct a logical counter argument all at once was incredibly rare.
Ron replied, "Because this riddle was custom built for me, it naturally operates according to my specific cognitive pathways. Following that logic, the breakdown of the riddle unfolds across four distinct layers:
The First Layer: Criticizing ignorance, issuing a warning, and transmitting data.
The Second Layer: My deduction from the phrase 'Ron is an idiot' follows a precise chain of operational logic: Ignorance→Inability to function→Requirement to gather more information→Execution and action
The Third Layer: Recognizing that the world is operating under an unconventional logic → information and knowledge are partially distorted or mutated, aligning perfectly with my lack of formal knowledge.
The Fourth Layer: Thought processes, awareness, and experience are also experiencing glitches. However, experience is fundamentally the process of perception and understanding, and it is severely blocked right now much like how I previously mentioned making critical errors and overlooking vital clues, which has had the most palpable impact.
Thought processes and awareness are mutually reinforcing. If mapped accurately to my existing memories, they barely differ from one another."
In truth, Ron had been continuously cross examining his own mind. He knew this line of reasoning was highly contrived; almost anyone else hearing this riddle would derive a completely different answer.
Nevertheless, if the two remaining domains for Ron to reinforce were critical thinking and awareness, how should go about optimizing them? The answer lay in cognitive modeling and raw input data.
And right now, he was standing directly in front of a bookstore alongside Emy and Mark.
"...If my deductions serve me correctly, entering this place will give us the answers regarding this ignorance and the assimilation of the world."