Full of Questions

Continuing their conversation with the two griefers, Dr. Neil learned another piece of information: before Johnny fell ill, he often visited a Lighthouse by the cliff.

And Johnny had built his house in such a remote place just to watch over that Lighthouse? There was clearly something going on here!

So Dong Zhen followed the two griefers toward the Lighthouse as well.

On the way there, they chatted about all sorts of random topics, making the otherwise dull journey rather entertaining.

Griefer (boy): "Do you play RPGs too?"

Dr. Neil: "Uh... I don't..."

Griefer (girl): "He's not cool enough to play them!"

Dr. Neil: "If I wanted to, there's nothing I couldn't do!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the two griefers spotted a squirrel sleeping soundly and cried out in delight.

"Look, a squirrel!"

Meanwhile, Dr. Neil braced himself. "Oh no! A terrifying Squirrel Monster!"

What?

Dong Zhen, who was playing at his computer, looked utterly bewildered.

The next moment, stirring background music began to play. The squirrel, Dr. Neil, and the two children faced one another, while a crude RPG turn-based UI appeared.

"Don't be afraid, children. I'll protect you!"

The two griefers behind him looked at each other, shrugged, and wore helpless expressions.

At the same time, attack and defense options appeared on the screen.

"What the hell, this game has a system like this? Why does this feel so weird?!"

"Oh my god!"

Staring at the game, whose art style had suddenly changed, Dong Zhen froze completely.

He clicked the attack button, and four skills appeared.

"Volcanic Leap Kick, Whirlwind Palm, Fist of Final Battle, Shoe?"

Dong Zhen was dumbfounded and randomly picked one.

Then a new option appeared: Shout volume.

There were three choices: loud, louder, loudest.

What kind of lunacy was this?!

What even were these?

Dong Zhen was completely stunned.

He decisively chose loudest.

"Your turn is over, Squirrel Monster!"

Dr. Neil shouted at the top of his lungs.

At that moment, the two griefers behind him stepped forward.

"Stop—! Or I'll tell Mom you're abusing animals!"

"Yeah, she'll call the police and have them arrest you!"

The RPG UI from before instantly vanished. The squirrel glanced at Dr. Neil as if he were an idiot, then turned and scampered away.

"What kind of development was that? I was just getting into it! I got played!"

Dong Zhen understood now. This was obviously a joke about turn-based RPGs within the game.

After all, most RPGs followed a similar kind of setup.

The livestream chat was also flooding the screen.

"Holy shit, I really thought this was going to be a turn-based RPG!"

"I'd just gotten into it, and now I'm already out of it!"

"Haha, I was wondering why the art style suddenly changed."

"Damn it, we got played!"

"Chen Xu is so evil!"

"23333333, I think it's pretty interesting. Could this be a comedy game?"

"Haha, it feels possible. Everything from the beginning until now has been full of humor!"

In the game, Dong Zhen continued step by step and arrived at the Lighthouse by the sea.

In front of the Lighthouse stood a tombstone.

The name on the tombstone was: Liva.

"The old man's wife's grave."

Looking at the grave before him, Dong Zhen recalled that the maid in the mansion had mentioned Johnny having a wife, though she had passed away long ago.

Clearly, this was the old man's wife's grave. But why had she been buried in front of the Lighthouse?

What did this Lighthouse mean to the old couple?

With that question in mind, Dong Zhen entered the Lighthouse and climbed to the top.

There were Paper Rabbits here just like the ones in the basement, except one of them was different.

It had been folded from two different colors of paper combined together, which took much longer and was harder to make than an ordinary Paper Rabbit.

It could also be collected, and it looked like an important item.

Yet Dong Zhen only grew more confused.

After going around in such a huge circle, it seemed that none of his questions had been answered. Instead, he had only gained a bellyful of new ones.

What did the Lighthouse and the Paper Rabbits actually mean?

Full of questions, he returned to Johnny's room and activated the machine with Dr. Eva, who was already prepared.

Johnny, the old man lying on the bed, was about to have his entire life laid bare before everyone.

But just as they had done before, entering Johnny's memories required a medium.

The purpose was to enter the old man's childhood memories so they could implant the dream of becoming an astronaut, which the machine would turn into a goal he had pursued throughout his virtual memories.

That way, in the end, the old man could construct a future for himself—a future where he became an astronaut and successfully landed on the moon. That would count as fulfilling his final wish.

Thus, in pursuit of this goal, they had to gradually work backward from the old man's recent memories toward his childhood memories.

Before setting out, they found a sheet of music on the piano downstairs from the old man's room—For Liva (for river).

The composer was Johnny himself. Clearly, he had written it for his wife.

Behind the mansion, the two doctors found Johnny, but through their conversation, they discovered something very strange.

Dr. Neil curiously asked Johnny why he wanted To the Moon.

But even Johnny himself seemed very lost.

"I'm sorry, but I really don't know."

"I just... want to go."

Looking at Johnny's confused expression, Dr. Neil was as bewildered as Dong Zhen and the countless viewers in the livestream.

He himself did not even know why he wanted to go to the moon?

Then why was he so obsessed with it?

"Could it be the Origins of an alien invasion of Earth? No, that doesn't make sense either."

Dong Zhen looked utterly puzzled. Brimming with curiosity, he continued the game's story, using the rabbit obtained from the Lighthouse to perform a memory jump and move backward through Johnny's memories.

Time moved on, and the memory in the game had reached Johnny's old age.

The house was filled with Paper Rabbits, while old Johnny simply sat before the piano, playing the song he had written for his wife, Liva, over and over again.

Clearly, Liva had already passed away by this point.

"Paper Rabbits... what deeper meaning do these Paper Rabbits have?"

At that moment, Dong Zhen was certain that these Paper Rabbits had something to do with Johnny's wish to go to the moon.

But the key was, what was the connection?

This section of the game was also quite simple: find memory items related to Johnny.

Once they were all gathered, players only needed to complete a fairly easy jigsaw puzzle to continue progressing through Johnny's memories.

By this point, one thing was clear: "To the Moon" was not a game with particularly rich gameplay.

It was a game primarily focused on its story.