"Last beautiful dream?" Hao Ren looked at Nolan in surprise. "What do you mean?"
Nolan folded her arms over her chest and lowered her head, making it impossible to see her expression. Only her thin lips could be seen pressing together slightly. "Actually... I can occasionally hear voices from the 'Awakened World.' They're extremely, extremely faint, but I know that outside this false planet, there's a real world..."
Hao Ren stared at her, dumbfounded. "You never told me that before."
"I didn't know how reliable you were before." Nolan bit her lip. "The fact that you can retain your memories doesn't tell me anything about your character or willpower. Besides, I can only hear some 'voices' from time to time. I'm not even sure they really come from the 'Awakened World.' Except for this most recent time—they were very clear."
Nolan explained a few more things before Hao Ren more or less understood her situation. In short, the girl's special nature wasn't limited to retaining her memories through the cycles. She could also sense the workings of the "simulation program" behind this world.
No wonder she had been so certain that the world was an awful stage, and had so frequently used "director" and "script" to describe everything she had experienced. It wasn't only because hundreds or thousands of cycles had given her that impression. It was also because she had truly become aware of the existence of the "fabricator."
However, her perception of the "Awakened World" was extremely faint, hardly any more reliable than ordinary auditory or visual hallucinations. She could occasionally hear or see scenes that would happen in the future, or sense a consciousness transcending humanity whispering beside her ear. It was as though, while running wild onstage, she had accidentally lifted the curtain like a child