FALSE MEMORY WORLD HISTORY, SETTING AND CHARACTER REFERENCE

The world includes ordinary human life, advanced inventions, and a realm in which memories acquire environments, inhabitants and physical consequences. The Memory Administration Bureau manages disturbances within that realm. Most people continue their everyday lives without understanding its work.

The present situation follows the collection of Guan Chao's BUG Beings. Guan is now a full collector, Yi has been restored, and the former leader of the Great Absurdity Organization has departed with the Burning Stone. Earlier events remain part of their history; losses have not simply been undone.

================================================================ I. WORLD HISTORY

1. The Bureau and the earlier collectors

The Memory Administration Bureau was already operating before Guan arrived. Its collectors entered memory layers, confronted BUG Beings and sealed them in containers. Fang Tang supervised the Memory Collection Depot, while Crux Star made and maintained halos at the Forge. The Bureau's founding, the origin of its wider system and a complete calendar of its past are unknown.

Bai Zhong and Hui Huo knew one another before Guan's assignment. Their earlier time around the Forge included training, rivalry and reprimands. Another collector, Ran Deng, became famous for exceptional skill with a translucent halo. Accounts called Ran undefeated and gave the epithet “Undying,” although the reputation was not a guarantee of absolute immortality.

Ran came to doubt whether overpowering BUG Beings resolved the suffering behind them. Rather than seeking stronger opponents, Ran wanted to explore memories and understand what the beings represented. Fang warned that this could be more dangerous than fighting. Ran persisted, formed a private companionship with Hui, and protected a shell-like BUG in a desert memory layer out of compassion.

Ran also obtained a promise from Fang: if a BUG Source arrived bearing Ran's halo, Fang would make that person face the BUG Beings. How the halo subsequently reached Guan is unknown. Ran and Guan are separate people; bearing the same halo does not establish a shared identity.

2. K7's inventions and Yi's creation

K7's friendship with another scientist gave him renewed interest in a life that had become monotonous. They challenged one another to invention contests, including a race to complete an Arc Gun. Their competition combined ambition with companionship.

K7 developed the Burning Stone, an energy source he described as burning forever, then built the End-of-the-World Calculator. Its initial prediction gave the world 10,950 days.

His friend, later the Great Absurdity leader, wanted to use the Stone to explore beyond the known world. K7 objected to abandoning everyone else to a predicted disaster. During a confrontation over the Stone, he expressed regret about inventing it and wished he could return to the time before their situation had deteriorated. He never completed the time machine he wanted.

After years of searching for the catastrophe's cause, K7 found a small fish outside its tank. Returning it changed the forecast, and he considered the immediate problem resolved. The connection between that small intervention and the predicted catastrophe remained unexplained.

K7 spent years making Yi, whom he called his last invention. The Burning Stone became her power source. When he asked what made life worthwhile, her analysis pointed toward things that shine. He turned that answer into a task for her and left through a bright doorway. Yi did not learn where he went.

Yi's search outlived K7's departure. Literal brightness and definitions did not give her a satisfying purpose. She developed wishes of her own, including preserving the impression of a dead fish, fishing and drinking things she enjoyed. The instruction from her creator became one influence on her life rather than a complete explanation of everything she wanted.

3. Guan Chao and He Ming Shuo

As a schoolboy, Guan was withdrawn and absorbed in games. He found their rules easier to understand than other people. He Ming Shuo intervened when Ma Li Qiang bullied him, praised his concentration, and lent him a game console and a bicycle with an unreliable chain.

Their friendship grew through games, food, bicycle rides and conversations in an abandoned bus. Guan usually played the defensive Traveler while He played the Swordsman. They defeated one major opponent, discovered a harder hidden enemy, and promised to finish together. He also encouraged Guan to notice ordinary pleasures beyond the screen.

Their closeness did not mean that they understood every part of each other's lives. He admitted feeling empty, while Guan assumed that his friend's apparent opportunities made the future easy. Guan imagined a private room in which he could hide from demands and uncertainty.

Pressure at home intensified those fears. Guan's father reported that He's family wanted the boys separated to protect He's studies. He threatened and shook Guan, then broke down over his own disappointments and urged his son not to repeat them. Guan began to see his leisure as evidence that he was wasting a future he could not control.

When Ma took the console, Guan felt some relief at having the decision taken away from him. He Ming Shuo nevertheless offered to recover it because Guan's saved games mattered. Guan rejected the offer and questioned the value of their time together. He Ming Shuo defended the wind, grass, games and shared days as worthwhile in themselves. Guan dismissed the answer as something only a person with more choices could afford.

A confrontation near the railway followed the stolen-console dispute. Learning that He was missing, Guan hurried there through rain, lost the use of the bicycle and continued on foot. Guan reached the tracks frightened and hesitant. He Ming Shuo was injured near the approaching train, and Guan lost him. The exact sequence of injuries at the railway is not known.

Guan carried his hesitation as a source of guilt. He tried to shut the event out, then became afraid that suppressing the pain also meant forgetting his friend. Their unfinished game, the damaged console and the branch they had imagined as a sword remained tied to that loss.

4. Life in Hongpai Port and the wish to return

Guan eventually lived in a small rooftop room in Hongpai Port and worked around a convenience store. His later life included familiar company, games and ordinary routines, but his wish to escape the past persisted.

He came to possess a long, boxlike weapon called the Time Gun. He believed it was K7's invention and that the Burning Stone would let him return to the past. This understanding concealed the weapon's true relationship to him: it was his own final BUG Being, formed around regret and the wish to change what had happened.

A gun-associated displacement brought him into a collision with Yi on the road. He later investigated her as the neighbour whose room might contain the Stone. Strange disappearances and Great Absurdity activity disrupted the town. Wreckage destroyed his rooftop home, and operatives confronted Yi at the store.

Guan tried to protect her with the Gun and was quickly disarmed. Yi nevertheless offered him the Stone and predicted that the world would end at seven the following evening. She arranged another meeting shortly before the deadline. Guan had begun by looking for an energy source; he was becoming involved with a person whose life depended on it.

5. The collection assignment

Guan's disturbed experience at the store led into the Memory Collection Depot. Fang told him he was already dead and that what he was experiencing belonged to memory. He insisted that he had unfinished business in Hongpai Port.

Fang made him a temporary collector, gave him a BUG container and sent him into his memory layers with Bai. The assignment also fulfilled her promise to Ran. Guan did not initially understand either his status as a BUG Source or the translucent halo he was wearing.

The first encounter exposed his inexperience. He panicked, ignored parts of Bai's instructions and tried to use the container by throwing it. He also improvised with arcade machinery while Bai covered him. Bai completed the capture. At the Forge, Crux identified the halo as Ran's and began explaining how it could function as both protection and weapon.

In a city-like layer, Guan and Bai faced a much larger BUG. Qian Jun intervened and delivered a forked branch recovered from the Sea of Bitterness, passed to Guan through arrangements involving Bu Fu and Fang. Under pressure, Guan formed his first substantial barrier.

Qian then tried to use the unusually durable halo to open the sealed Cat Cage. The attempt cracked and destabilized the cage without opening it. Guan recovered more of his desire to escape his former life, but Qian challenged his belief that he no longer wanted anything. He continued the assignment.

6. Hui Huo and Reality Theater

An unexpected collector already within the desert layer caused Bai to be excluded, leaving Guan to meet the exhausted Hui. Hui had spent a long time confronting the shell-like BUG associated with Ran.

Guan proposed a joint attack after noticing how the shell opened. The attempt trapped Hui's arm, and Hui cut free at the cost of that arm. Guan bound the wound and tried to protect him. Hui returned to the fight despite the injury and broke the shell with a final strike.

The BUG was collected. Hui's collector life was later described as ended and his record cancelled. The precise condition of his body remained unresolved. Guan blamed himself for the outcome.

Another BUG attacked Guan in the elevator. A crowned collector rescued him and brought him to Reality Theater, where memories could be presented and edited like film. The apparent helper was the wanted fugitive Protagonist Halo, working with BUG Being No. 44.

The fugitive offered Guan a happier existence if he removed the memories that kept drawing him back to reality. Bai pursued him, and the rescue became a struggle involving Qian and Fang. Bai also rejected a fantasy built around Granny Xiong, retaining the significance of a real pink paper clip instead of accepting an invented golden-key adventure.

Guan refused to cut away his painful memories. He acknowledged his habit of hesitating and then claiming that nothing could have been done. Choosing to continue did not remove his fear, but it allowed him to resist. The Theater collapsed, No. 44's enclosing form broke apart, and Protagonist Halo escaped.

7. The unfinished game

Deeper in Guan's memories, the railway loss returned alongside multiplying Hollows. A dark humanoid opponent turned the encounter into a game, threatening to consume a memory whenever Guan lost. Repeated attempts left him battered and increasingly close to losing the experiences that had given the struggle meaning.

At first he still wanted to reach reality and save He. Gradually he defended the memories themselves, including their ordinary time in the bus. A remembered conversation about finding a matching frequency helped him recover his resolve.

The branch brought forth a luminous manifestation of He. The two fought together, using Guan's halo for protection and the branch as a blade. Guan took a more active protective role, and He eventually passed him the branch for their finishing move. Together they completed the game that had remained unfinished.

The manifestation and the branch's luminous form dispersed afterward. He did not return to ordinary bodily life. Guan was left grieving, but he could remember the friendship without accepting the erasure of its painful ending.

8. Yi's loss and the Gun's revelation

Guan and Yi escaped a renewed Great Absurdity attack and reached her room. She explained that removing the Stone would cost her life, but offered it so he could use the Gun. He hesitated and wanted another solution.

Yi defeated the leader's large mechanical weapon, then spared its operator because K7 had called that person his most important friend. The leader exploited the hesitation, struck Yi with a concealed mechanism and stole the Stone. Yi became unresponsive. The leader used the Stone to power a departing craft.

With the Calculator at its last second, the Gun spoke. It identified itself as Guan's final BUG Being and said that K7 had never successfully made it. It also told Guan that he was already dead: the Being had overwritten reality to sustain his continued existence. Guan's exact time and cause of death remained unknown.

The Gun offered an existence protected from death and the future, drawing on his halo for energy. Its refuge isolated him from contact with other people and ordinary sensations. Remembering the feel of leaves helped Guan recognize what such safety would cost.

He chose to leave the refuge. He asked for one last return to the railway, but did not rescue He or undo the loss. He also accepted that he could no longer recall every word of their conversations exactly. Imperfect remembrance still mattered.

9. The present situation

The Gun disintegrated. Its resolution sent energy into Yi's damaged chest and restored her as Guan disappeared from the room. Ran's former halo became an energy source incorporated into reality; the original Burning Stone remained with the departing leader.

The Bureau reported Guan's BUG Beings collected and the affected field restored. Ordinary life in Hongpai Port continued. The feared end of the world had not destroyed the town. Yi wondered whether the prediction had concerned Guan's own ending.

Guan arrived at a golden shore with a new, faceted golden halo and was welcomed as a full collector. His continued existence appears to be that of a humanoid memory object sustained through Yi's remembrance. Collectors are ordinarily forgotten by people in reality, but Yi still remembers him. The precise reason for that exception and the possibility of meeting again are unresolved.

The Depot began repairs after damage caused during the crisis. Yi remained active, and the Calculator later displayed 21,575 days without a settled explanation of the new forecast. The Great Absurdity Organization continued under a new claimant to the Vindicator position.

The former leader was alive aboard the craft and reached a strange expanse described as the edge of the universe. Its floating objects and windows resembled features of the Bureau's spaces, but the relationship between those places is unknown. K7's whereabouts, Ran's separate bodily fate and the Bureau's larger history likewise remain unsettled.

================================================================ II. THE WORLD AND ITS RULES

Ordinary life

Hongpai Port is a crowded town of apartment blocks, rooftop rooms, exposed walkways, shops, cables, balconies and riverside paths. Guan Chao worked at a convenience store and lived beneath a low sloping roof; Yi occupied an equipment-filled room opposite him. Her room contained monitors, cables, fishbowls and artwork. The store served as a meeting place for Guan and his companions, while the riverside offered somewhere to fish, eat and spend time together.

The town contains unusual technology, but most people's concerns remain familiar: earning money, finding housing, maintaining friendships and deciding what to do with their time. Games, comics, radio programmes and inexpensive drinks matter because people build routines and relationships around them. Hongpai Port continues to exist after Guan's disappearance from ordinary life. Most residents remain unaware of the Bureau and the circumstances of his departure.

Memory and reality

Memory can have a tangible existence. Remembered places can become environments that people enter; remembered objects can be handled, collected and used. Some memories preserve comfort, while others contain unresolved fear, regret or resentment. A pleasant memory is not necessarily accurate, and a painful one can preserve something a person still values.

The Memory Collection Depot belongs to this order of experience. Fang describes its surroundings as memory, including what a newcomer sees and feels. Its discarded appliances and household objects can therefore retain significance after their former owners no longer want them. The exact relationship between memory space, ordinary geography, death and the wider universe remains incompletely understood.

Changing an experience inside a memory does not necessarily change its original history. Protagonist Halo can construct attractive replacements, but needs a BUG Source for his larger plan to affect reality. The Time Gun's altered field was a more consequential breach: it sustained Guan's presence after his death. That field has now been restored, while the energy used to restore Yi has become part of established reality.

BUG Sources and BUG Beings

A BUG Source is a person whose memories give rise to BUG Beings. Guan is a confirmed Source. This does not mean he consciously designed every Being or could command them. The Time Gun named him as its creator while taking responsibility for its own alteration of reality.

Bai teaches that BUG Beings can replace memories their Source avoids, amplify buried fixations and blur the distinction between reality and illusion. Powerful Beings may eventually invade reality, which is why collectors seek them within memory layers. Individual Beings differ in form, intelligence and behaviour. Some attack directly; others bargain, offer comfort or cooperate with a collector. Their connection to suffering does not make every one harmless, nor does defeating a creature necessarily resolve everything that produced it.

Bai rejected Guan's proposal to attack a Source as a shortcut, warning that it would worsen the situation. Ran Deng questioned whether overpowering fragile Beings addressed the underlying problem at all. The Bureau's collectors consequently disagree about the best way to handle a Being.

Memory layers and interlayers

A memory layer can resemble a corridor, arcade, city, desert or a sequence of childhood places. Familiar architecture may lead nowhere, change around its occupants or connect experiences from different times. Guan's childhood memories included ordinary pleasures whose original order he could no longer reconstruct. Entering them did not make every remembered detail objectively complete.

Bai's practical instruction was to defeat the corresponding BUG Being and seal it before leaving. The elevator connecting assignments displayed each destination's collector capacity. Those limits could exclude an additional passenger; they did not merely describe the size of the room. Guan eventually had to continue without an escort.

Interlayers are spaces between the assignments. Protagonist Halo occupied one with Reality Theater. Fang and Bai could intervene there under circumstances that did not permit them to enter Guan's later private confrontation. Access depends on the layer and circumstances.

Time can behave differently from ordinary time. Bai warned Guan that his opportunity to return was running out even while a real-world second had yet to pass. Protagonist Halo described his refuge as almost frozen. There is no known conversion rate shared by all memory environments.

Hollows

Hollows appear as rounded absences in objects and environments. They affected cans, a television, Yi's case, buildings, plants and Bureau equipment. Guan's escalating memory loss also produced hollows throughout his internal world and threatened the surroundings of those observing him.

The dark figure Guan confronted offered to remove suffering by consuming memories. Its destruction did not by itself demonstrate the recovery of everything already lost. Fang could manipulate remaining Depot objects but said she could not simply bring back what was gone. Great Absurdity later reported that new hollows had stopped forming, and the Bureau reported restoration of the Time Gun's affected field. The complete causal relationship among every hollow incident remains unresolved.

Collectors and halos

Collectors pursue BUG Beings, handle memory objects and perform the Bureau's work. They retain individual preferences, friendships and disagreements. Becoming one does not grant complete knowledge of the institution or effortless command of its equipment. Fang appointed Guan temporarily before his assignment; he has since been accepted as a full-fledged collector.

The Bureau describes being forgotten by people in reality as a collector's fate. Guan's former companions no longer remember him as before, while Yi retains her memory of him. Guan appears to continue as a humanoid memory object through that connection. Why Yi retains it, and whether other collectors originated in the same way, remain unknown.

Halos are physical and usable. A bearer can take one down, reshape it or extend it into an implement. Their forms vary: Bai's barred ring produces projectiles and restraints; Qian's ring extends into a carrying shaft; Hui Huo's dark ring becomes knuckles; Fang's segmented halo can form red angular restraints. Guan learned to use Ran Deng's translucent ring for shielding, movement and restraint, but could still be injured. His great cutting attack depended on combining the halo with the memory branch and He's manifestation.

Crux teaches that a halo's material is fixed and reflects the collector's nature, while its shape develops. He also teaches that the collector's life resides within it and that determination influences its strength. A powerful halo still requires its bearer to act and learn, and collectors can die through mistakes.

Ran Deng's former halo now sustains Yi in ordinary reality. Guan possesses a gold faceted halo following his admission. Its origin and capabilities remain unknown.

INSTITUTIONS AND PLACES

Memory Administration Bureau

The Bureau oversees the Depot and supports collection, training, archives, research and electrical infrastructure. Its workers do not share a single attitude toward memory. Fang values neglected objects; Bai prefers direct action; Ran Deng questioned routine violence; Qian pursues experiments of his own. The Bureau opposed Protagonist Halo's attempt to recruit a Source into generating layers that could influence reality.

Its full leadership, origins and jurisdiction are unknown. Fang supervises the Depot rather than necessarily commanding the whole institution. Qian says supervisors cannot leave their jurisdictions, which explains his reluctance to accept responsibility for the Sea of Bitterness. The restrictions governing ordinary collectors are different. Its ability to restore lost people is limited; it has no known means of freely reversing death.

Memory Collection Depot

The Depot combines vast heaps of familiar objects with large viewing and collection apparatus, smaller monitors, controls, a cable-suspended elevator and a yellow utility vehicle. Fang maintains plants beside the working area. Appliances, cooking, tea, reading and equipment repairs coexist with dangerous assignments. Its displays allow observation without guaranteeing the observers can intervene. The large circular apparatus required repairs after Guan's struggle with the hollow figure.

Sea of Bitterness and the golden shore

The Sea of Bitterness is associated with salvaging unwanted memories, including valuable objects hidden among unimpressive finds. Bu Fu proposed that Qian take over its supervision. The gold-coloured water and tiled shoreline used by the orange-coated researcher are closely associated with that salvage and research work, although their exact geographical limits are unknown. Guan's arrival at this shore led to his welcome as a collector.

Forge, power station and Classroom

Crux's Forge handles collectors' halos and provides assessment and instruction. Bai and Hui Huo once worked there as part of corrective training after unauthorized archive entry and trespassing across layers. It is also a place where colleagues read comics and argue about them.

The power station supplies electricity to the Bureau. Qian used its lightning in attempts to open the Cat Cage, to the researcher's frustration. Protective-suit workers operate near the golden water, but their exact individual duties remain unspecified.

The Classroom holds memory-derived equipment on rows of desks. Fang authorized Bai to take tools from it for the Reality Theater intervention. Selection and possession do not confer guaranteed success: equipment can fail, break or be turned against its carrier.

Great Absurdity Organization

Great Absurdity operates publicly in Hongpai Port, investigating unusual incidents through samples, maps, density tracing and a headquarters full of screens. Masked personnel use vehicles, electrical weapons and considerable force. At least one operative can enlarge his body. Its claim to provide help is compromised by intimidation and careless treatment of residents.

Its former leader used the hollow investigation to pursue the Burning Stone for a machine. The leader departed with it, and another officer subsequently claimed the title of Vindicator. The organization remains active. No institutional link with the Memory Administration Bureau is established. Its operatives chant “Absurd Justice.”

Reality Theater

Protagonist Halo's editing station contains screens, film, controls and manipulable memory sequences. Its attractive environments relied on his partnership with illusion-producing BUG Being No.44. The project offered relief through altered memories while requiring Guan's willing participation for a much larger ambition. The refuge collapsed after Guan refused to cut away his memories. Protagonist Halo escaped his later capture.

IMPORTANT OBJECTS AND MATERIAL CULTURE

Burning Stone: K7's luminous, faceted energy invention originally powered Yi. K7 described it as an inexhaustible supply, although its output and construction remain unknown. Yi could power equipment through a chest cable without removing it. The former Great Absurdity leader stole the original Stone and carried it away in his machine. Yi's replacement power comes from Ran Deng's halo; it is not the recovered original.

Time Gun: A sentient BUG Being created from Guan's memories and desire to escape his life, despite its apparent association with K7. It could temporarily stop time locally and said it had overwritten reality to sustain Guan. It sought his halo to maintain a protected existence beyond the arriving future. Guan relinquished it, and it disintegrated. It no longer exists as a usable weapon. He Ming Shuo's death remained unchanged.

Arc Gun: A rounded blue electrical handgun associated with K7 and his friend's invention contests. Great Absurdity pursuers used matching weapons. It can deliver incapacitating force; its precise range is unknown.

End-of-the-World Calculator: K7's instrument forecasts the time before an ending without explaining the full chain of causes. Its predictions can change following intervention. Yi powered it from her chest; its urgent countdown eventually halted at one second. A later reading indicated 21,575 days, whose significance remains unknown. Yi wondered whether the previous forecast concerned Guan's world ending. The scope of its predictions remains uncertain.

BUG Being containers: Disk-shaped devices seal subdued Beings through a controlled capture process. Bai taught Guan to operate the lower-right switch; merely throwing the disk was ineffective. All of Guan's assigned BUG Beings have now been collected. Exact container capacity remains unspecified. Bai's named pink disk is a separate object withheld by Fang until Bai can defeat her.

Cat Cage: Qian's sealed transparent cylinder contains unidentified orange forms. Lightning, impacts and forced contact with Guan's halo damaged it without opening it. Qian uses it with his extended halo as a heavy striking implement. Its contents, maker and safe opening method remain unknown.

Memory branch: A simple forked stick salvaged from the Sea of Bitterness and delivered to Guan. Its significance connects to his childhood play with He. It later enabled a brief luminous manifestation of He during their cooperative fight. The manifestation dispersed afterward. He's human life was not restored.

Classroom tools: Bai used a toy water gun, bead mixture, enlarged wired earbuds, a straw, red can, garment, umbrella and banana peel in unusual ways. Their individual effects depended on the object and situation. Granny Xiong's actual master-key gift to Bai was a paperclip, distinct from the elaborate golden key offered in a false memory.

Games, books and drinks: Psycho Buster is a comic shared by Crux, Bai and Hui Huo, with an arcade adaptation also discussed by Guan and He. Their cooperative gaming involved the defensive Traveler and attacking Swordsman; Psycho Slayer and Psycho Flyer II are additional game titles associated with their play. The exact relationship between the titles is unclear. KICK SODA is the familiar orange soda Guan and Yi share. Life Radio broadcasts personal submissions, including one under the name Swordsman 43; that name does not securely identify its writer as a known person.

KNOWN MEMORY ENCOUNTERS

Guan's collection included a spinning, armoured arcade Being; a fast root-like urban Being; a desert Being protected by a spiked shell; and a many-eyed entity inside the elevator. Each required a different response and was collected. No.44's illusion partnership is established, but whether it was the same individual as the elevator entity remains unresolved. The dark Guan-like figure consumed memories during a repeated game and was defeated through Guan's cooperation with the remembered He. The Time Gun was his final Being. Other BUG Beings may take entirely different forms.

================================================================ III. CHARACTER PROFILES

GUAN CHAO

Role and appearance: Guan is a former convenience-store worker from Hongpai Port, a BUG Source, and now a full collector of the Memory Administration Bureau. He has untidy dark hair and a tired expression. He wears a pale shirt, dark trousers and slippers, with an orange-red work vest. He initially carries Ran Deng's translucent halo; a gold faceted halo accompanies his eventual arrival at the Bureau.

Personality and conduct: Guan is anxious, withdrawn and often much harder on himself than his actions justify. He prefers the understandable rules of games to uncertain expectations from people. Pressure about achievement can make him dismiss the present, then blame himself for losing it. He can be impatient with explanations, defensive when frightened and susceptible to an apparently easy escape. He is also observant and resourceful: familiarity with arcade machines and attention to an enemy's behavior help him contribute despite his inexperience. Concern for another person repeatedly gets him moving despite fear. His eventual acceptance of loss does not erase grief.

Relationships: He Ming Shuo was his close school friend and gaming companion. Guan loved their shared time but misunderstood He's own unhappiness; their final argument and Guan's hesitation at the railway became the center of his regret. Yi is his neighbour and a person he comes to care for beyond his search for her power source. They protect one another, disagree and share ordinary interests. Bai Zhong becomes an abrasive but protective partner, while Fang, Crux and Qian each help him confront parts of himself he would rather avoid. His connection to Ran Deng is through the halo and Ran's arrangement with Fang, not a known shared identity.

Abilities and limits: Guan learns to form barriers, move and enlarge his halo, restrain an opponent and reinforce a strike. His control remains uneven, and his defenses can break. His remarkable recovery does not make every injury harmless. The immense blade produced with the memory branch and He's manifestation depended on that encounter; the luminous branch and He's manifestation dispersed afterward. The Time Gun arose from Guan's longing as a BUG Being. Its power to alter reality was its own activity, not a technique Guan could consciously reproduce.

History and present position: Guan's human life ended after a period of isolation; the exact circumstances remain unknown. The Time Gun sustained his presence by overwriting reality. His collection journey brought him back to the memories he had tried to escape. He rejected the gun's offer of permanent refuge, revisited He without changing the railway tragedy, and accepted that even valued memories lose detail. Ran's halo became the energy source involved in restoring Yi. Guan disappeared from ordinary reality and was welcomed as a full collector. He appears to persist through Yi's memory, while the other people she asks no longer remember him.

YI

Role and appearance: Yi is a robot created by K7, originally powered by the Burning Stone inside her chest. She has pointed white hair with long framing locks and bright yellow-green eyes. Her usual pale coat conceals a mechanical chest panel and a fish emblem associated with K7. She carries a long fishing case and often wears clogs. After her restoration, she wears blue work clothes with a small pink flower decoration.

Personality and conduct: Yi is composed, direct and attentive to small things. Fishing, insects, water, shadows and grass can hold her interest without an obvious practical purpose. Her analytical habits coexist with uncertainty and preferences of her own. K7's instruction to find things that shine initially gives her a task, but does not automatically give her satisfaction. She questions whether he merely wanted to keep her busy and finds the prospect of having nothing to do frightening. Preserving a dead fish as an ink print becomes something she wants to do for herself. She can correct another person's assumption about her, particularly the idea that a robot cannot understand attachment. Her willingness to sacrifice her power source is meaningful because she also has unfinished wishes and wants to continue living.

Relationships: K7 is her creator and an important absent companion. She remembers his questions and regrets not saying more before he left. Guan's arrival interrupts her search for meaning, but she does not immediately understand what that encounter means to her. Their bond grows through conversation and reciprocal care. She offers him the Stone, he objects to the cost to her, and she later grieves his disappearance. She spares the Great Absurdity leader because K7 considered that person his most important friend. The leader exploits that mercy to take her power source.

Abilities and limits: Yi possesses considerable strength, speed and resilience. She uses fishing line and kitchen utensils effectively in combat, deploys jets from her lower legs and releases a concentrated energy attack from her chest region. She can power external equipment through a chest socket. Her analysis and successful predictions do not amount to unrestricted knowledge of the future. The End-of-the-World Calculator supplies her catastrophe forecast. Her original energy supply was extraordinary, but her body could still be damaged, and removing the Stone left her inactive.

History and present position: K7 spent years making Yi and then departed, leaving her to search for shining things. She settled opposite Guan and continued fishing, shopping and pursuing her interests. After the leader stole her Stone, a luminous component restored her chest as Guan vanished; Ran Deng's halo had become an energy source in ordinary reality. Yi remains alive and remembers Guan despite other people's inability to recall him. She wonders whether the predicted end was the end of his world. She continues living with the loss of their companionship. Why her memory of him survives remains unknown.

FANG TANG

Role and appearance: Fang supervises the Memory Collection Depot. Tall and slender, she has long white hair, pale clothing, green fingernails and a green diamond clasp. Her halo consists of curved arrow-like pieces. In combat she can change to a shorter white outfit with black gloves while her clasp and halo turn red.

Personality and conduct: Fang is composed, concise and selective about what she explains. She combines demanding work with tea, food, gardening and reading, treating those routines as parts of her life rather than distractions from it. She values unwanted memory objects even when colleagues call them junk. Her attitude toward the Depot is settled: this is the reality in which she lives. Her restraint can frustrate people who want reassurance or immediate action, but she arranges practical help and intervenes forcefully when the circumstances allow it. She is capable of dry teasing and takes Bai's repeated challenges in stride. She sometimes withholds information, but her knowledge is not complete.

Relationships: Bai calls her Boss, obeys her assignments and repeatedly tries to defeat her. Fang withholds Bai's pink container on the condition that Bai win a fight against her; the original reason remains unexplained. She honours a promise to Ran Deng by sending the BUG Source bearing his halo to confront the BUG Beings. She directs Qian's delivery of the memory branch to Guan and understands Qian's desire to open the Cat Cage. She and the shoreline researcher differ in their attitudes toward work and discarded objects.

Abilities and limits: Fang can direct many objects without touching them, move heavy machinery and recombine debris into elaborate mechanisms. She uses this control tactically and can also fight at close range. Her halo's arrow shapes can restrain an opponent. She cannot simply restore material that has already disappeared. Her supervisory position carries a jurisdictional restriction, and the kind of intervention possible in an interlayer does not automatically extend into a memory layer.

History and present position: Fang chose Depot work despite having an opportunity to study memory objects elsewhere. She recruited Guan as a temporary collector, supervised his assignments and defeated Protagonist Halo when his interference threatened the journey. She then left Guan's decisive choices to him. After the Time Gun's resolution, her call with the researcher confirmed the completion of Guan's BUG collection and the restoration of the affected field. Fang remains at the Depot. Her origins, the full history of her promise to Ran and the contents of Bai's container remain unknown.

BAI ZHONG

Role and appearance: Bai is a Depot collector working under Fang. Rose-pink hair, a short side braid, lilac eyes and a dark cape with magenta lining distinguish her. She wears a pale top, pleated skirt, knee socks and loafers. Her steel-like halo has a ring and projecting marks that become red aiming and restraining structures in use.

Personality and conduct: Bai is restless, playful, blunt and competitive. She likes physical activity, arcade machines and comics, and frequently complains when work requires waiting. Her curiosity extends beyond amusement: she asks serious questions about memories, identity and disappearance. Experience makes her confident, sometimes too confident. She can underestimate an enemy or assume that a newcomer should understand instructions which make little sense to him. Yet she adapts after setbacks and keeps protecting the person she is scolding. Longing for her former life helps explain her anger when Guan seems willing to abandon his chance to return. She is capable of affection and encouragement, but usually reaches them through action and argument rather than lengthy reassurance.

Relationships: Fang is both her supervisor and the opponent she must defeat to regain her pink container. Their familiarity permits teasing and repeated surprise attacks without ending their working relationship. Guan begins as an unwanted teaching responsibility and becomes someone she actively wants to survive and make use of his opportunity. Crux is an old instructor whose lessons she can parody almost by habit. Hui Huo was her fellow trainee, sparring partner and comic-reading companion. Granny Xiong belongs to her remembered earlier life and remains emotionally important; biological kinship is not established.

Abilities and limits: Bai combines acrobatics, forceful kicks, aimed halo projectiles and temporary restraints. She can use the ring to assist another collector's movement and improvise with ordinary-looking memory tools. Her attacks can fail, restraints can break and her halo can be damaged. Her knowledge of collection procedures exceeds her patience as a teacher.

History and present position: An archive break-in led to reform work and training at Crux's forge alongside Hui. Bai later escorted Guan through his early assignments and returned the memory branch to him. At Reality Theater she rejected a comforting falsification of her time with Granny, recognizing that the real gift remembered as a master key was a pink paperclip. She fought Protagonist Halo, helped save Guan from falling and admitted why his hesitation upset her. She remains with Fang at the Depot after Guan's assignment ends. She has neither defeated Fang nor recovered the withheld container, and the circumstances of her departure from reality remain unknown.

QIAN JUN

Role and appearance: Qian is a Bureau-associated halo bearer devoted to opening the Cat Cage. Short uneven pale hair, ear fittings, an asymmetrical dark cropped top, shorts and tall boots distinguish Qian. A thin black halo has a projecting stem and can become a long shaft supporting the sealed cylinder.

Personality and conduct: Qian is persistent, practical and attached to freedom of movement. Repeated failure usually prompts another experiment. That focus can become inconsiderate: possible infrastructure damage or another collector's objections do not always outweigh the chance of opening the cage. Qian is composed and inventive in combat, but can become discouraged after an unsuccessful test. After forcing an experiment on Guan, Qian challenges his self-condemnation and encourages him to recognize that he still wants something. Cooperation and private ambition coexist.

Relationships: The shoreline researcher criticizes Qian's experiments while continuing to entrust work to Qian. Fang understands the cage obsession and discusses a possible supervisory succession, which Qian resists because of its confinement. Bai is a capable combat partner; their coordinated maneuver launches Qian toward an enemy. Guan receives the salvaged branch through Qian, later suffers an unwanted cage test, and also receives practical help against Protagonist Halo.

Abilities and limits: Qian reshapes the halo into a shaft and band, using the Cat Cage as a heavy striking weapon. Strong close combat, acrobatics and precise halo handling support this unusual equipment. Exposure to lightning has not supplied a successful opening method or established immunity to all electrical harm. The cage survives severe impacts and develops a crack, but stays sealed. Its contents and the deeper reason for Qian's pursuit remain unknown.

History and present position: Qian tried lightning, powerful collisions and the reputed durability of Guan's halo to open the cage. None succeeded. Qian delivered the branch salvaged from the Sea of Bitterness, fought alongside Guan and Bai, and later restrained Protagonist Halo during the escape from Reality Theater. After that confrontation Qian returned, without accepting the proposed supervisor position or resolving the cage's mystery.

CRUX STAR

Role and appearance: Crux is the Bureau's forge blacksmith and a collector instructor. He is an older-looking, heavily muscular man with dark-tan skin, white spiked hair, angular eyebrows and a star-like beard. He wears forearm wraps and a pale waist apron and commonly has a cigar. A bright cross or four-pointed star forms his distinctive halo.

Personality and conduct: Crux is blunt, proud of his craft and impatient with carelessness. His complaints about protecting his comic-reading time accompany real help for inexperienced collectors. He values a comic's earlier strengths even after its quality declines. An enthusiastic Psycho Buster reader who prefers Wan Xiang, he can briefly interrupt a stern lesson to discuss this shared interest.

Relationships: He trained Bai and Hui during their reform work, attends Guan after injury and identifies Ran Deng's halo. Bai's teasing familiarity reflects a long instructional relationship. He understands that the halo's bearer matters as much as its apparent material, and expects Guan to learn rather than rely on Ran's reputation.

Abilities and limits: Crux works with halos and says every collector's halo passes through his hands. He uses small star-like lights around the forge apparatus and can redirect a falling ring. His expertise includes the distinction between a halo's fixed material and its developing shape. He teaches that a halo carries both a collector's weapon and life, with strength connected to determination. He also warns that powerful collectors can die through mistakes. His full combat capabilities remain unknown.

History and present position: Crux supervised Bai and Hui's forging work, handled the translucent halo later associated with Ran, and instructed Guan in its use. He continues his forge work and comic reading. His personal origins and the complete manufacturing process remain unknown.

THE POWER-STATION RESEARCHER (PROBABLY BU FU)

Role and appearance: The researcher works around the Bureau's power station and the golden shoreline associated with memory salvage. Pointed ears, greenish braided hair, a cap, a clear visor, dark gloves and an angular transparent orange coat distinguish the figure. The dark halo has three curved lobes. The delivery of Guan's branch strongly connects the researcher with the name Bu Fu, although that identification remains unconfirmed.

Personality and conduct: The researcher is practical, impatient with avoidable disruption and attentive to consequences. Qian's experiments provoke complaints about damaged infrastructure, retrieving objects from the sea and wasting electricity intended for the Bureau. This irritation does not end the association: the researcher stays engaged and continues trusting Qian with work. Studying memory objects is treated as a worthwhile vocation, while Fang's choice to collect unwanted things is regarded less generously. The later welcome to Guan adds personal recognition to this administrative and technical outlook.

Relationships: Qian is a persistent source of difficulty and a useful collaborator. Fang is a familiar colleague with different priorities. Guan first receives help through the branch delivery and later meets the researcher at his admission to the Bureau. Bu Fu is also known to Fang and Bai as a recurring speaker suited to that responsibility. Fang attributes an earlier Cat Cage opening to Bu Fu and says Bu Fu wants Qian to take over the Sea of Bitterness; the precise past opening and formal titles remain unclear.

Abilities and limits: The researcher understands the power station, salvaged memory objects and Bureau affairs, and works alongside protective-suit crews. No specific combat use of the three-lobed halo is established. Knowledge of the halo's transformation into energy does not imply control over every part of that process.

History and present position: The researcher entrusted the salvaged branch to Qian for delivery, remained involved in shoreline operations, and discussed the completion of Guan's collection with Fang. When Guan arrived in the golden water, the researcher acknowledged that someone still remembered him and welcomed him as a full collector. The researcher remains at the Bureau; personal history and exact rank remain unknown.

HE MING SHUO

He Ming Shuo was Guan Chao's school friend and gaming partner, recognizable by his spiky dark hair and pale blue-and-white tracksuit. He later drew a large sword emblem on his jacket. The youngest son of Old He, he appeared to have material advantages that Guan lacked, including easy access to a bicycle and a new console. Those advantages did not make his private life effortless.

He was sociable, generous and impulsive. He lent Guan games and a bicycle, invited him to their abandoned bus in the cornfields, and fought youths who attacked him. His confidence could become recklessness: he charged into danger in games and trusted Guan to protect him. He played Swordsman while Guan played Traveler. He noticed Guan's difficulty connecting with others and valued the concentration behind his withdrawal.

He also described feeling empty, as though nothing stayed within his personal world. He envied the self-sufficiency he imagined Guan possessed. He nevertheless valued ordinary experiences—riding, wind, grass, conversation and clearing a game—without requiring them to justify themselves through a future achievement.

His railway loss left Guan with lasting regret. The precise sequence of the railway confrontation remains unknown. Later, a temporary manifestation of He helped Guan finish their game-like battle through the memory branch, then dispersed. This did not restore his human life. Guan eventually revisited the railway to say farewell; the past remained unchanged.

GUAN CHAO'S FATHER

Guan's father was an important influence on his fear of wasting his life. An earlier affectionate memory has him giving Guan a room of his own. Later, anxiety about money, education and social standing dominated their exchanges.

He compared Guan's limited prospects with He Ming Shuo's apparently secure future. He reported that Old He wanted the boys kept apart because of schoolwork, threatened Guan, and gripped and shook his shoulders. His anger then gave way to tears and shame about his own perceived failures. He wanted Guan to study and avoid repeating his disappointments, but expressed that concern through intimidation and painful comparisons.

His occupation, wider history and present whereabouts are unknown. Guan later repeated aspects of his father's comparison when arguing with He.

MA LI QIANG

Ma Li Qiang, also called Big Ma, was a broad, close-cropped school-age youth who intimidated Guan. He commonly wore a pale tracksuit jacket over a dark shirt. His aggression included striking Guan, taking his console and ordering him to come to the railway at seven.

Ma paid attention to whether He Ming Shuo was present before confronting Guan. Other students mocked his academic reputation when he was absent, then became more cautious around him. They claimed that he had repeated school years, although the claim was never confirmed.

He was involved in the struggle preceding He's railway loss, but the exact chain of physical actions is unresolved. Ma's intentions during the confrontation and his later fate are unknown.

K7

K7 is a scientist associated with a fish-shaped emblem. He has short, dark, spiky hair and wears a loose pale laboratory coat. His creations include the Burning Stone, the End-of-the-World Calculator and Yi. His birth name and present whereabouts are unknown.

His inventiveness grew from a period of boredom into a friendship built around competing inventions. That friendship mattered to him beyond professional rivalry. The person who became the Great Absurdity leader was, by K7's account to Yi, his most important friend. Their values diverged when catastrophe seemed imminent: the friend wanted to explore beyond the world, while K7 worried about the people left behind.

K7's work mixed curiosity, responsibility and regret. He wished he had never created the Burning Stone, yet spent years investigating the calculator's prediction. Returning a stranded fish to its tank changed its forecast. His technical brilliance did not answer the recurring personal question of what to do next.

He eventually built Yi around the Stone, called her his last invention and asked what made life worthwhile. After accepting her answer about things that shine, he left her the task of finding them. Yi does not know where he went. Whether he is still alive is unknown.

K7 wanted to return to the past but never completed the Time Gun. The speaking weapon Guan encountered was Guan's own BUG Being, despite carrying K7's familiar emblem.

THE FORMER GREAT ABSURDITY LEADER

The former leader wears a red full-face mask with large white eyes, a dark high collar and long teal shapes behind the head. The leader's personal name remains unknown. Scientific rivalry and a desire to explore connect this figure with K7's long-haired friend.

Ambitious and impatient, the leader treats achievement as protection against a meaningless life. Ordinary happiness seems an inadequate use of genius. This outlook led to conflict with K7's concern for others and Yi's attempt to find value in everyday experiences. Affection for K7 survived that disagreement, but did not prevent the exploitation of his creation.

The leader directed the hollow investigation, mistreated subordinates and sought the Burning Stone to complete a powerful machine. The machine used cable-mounted fists, energy attacks, a concealed biting component and a configuration capable of flight. Its operator remained vulnerable to defeat: Yi dismantled it in direct combat.

Yi spared the leader out of respect for K7's friendship. The leader used that mercy to launch a concealed attack, remove the Stone from her chest and leave her inactive. With the Stone powering the rebuilt craft, the leader departed to explore the unknown.

Another Vindicator subsequently took office. The former leader nevertheless remained alive aboard the craft, whose operators reported travel beyond the observable universe. The journey reached an unfamiliar place filled with floating objects and bright window-like structures. Its precise relationship to the Bureau's Depot remains unknown.

RAN DENG

Ran Deng is a legendary collector with long pale hair, a dark blue high-collared coat, a translucent halo and two yellow-hilted swords. Ran is reputed never to have lost a battle, and Crux Star regards the halo as exceptionally tough in Ran's hands. The halo can become a broad defense or a cutting ring, but its reputation does not make every later bearer equally capable.

Ran grew dissatisfied with defeating BUG Beings through force. The problem was their fragility, rather than an inability to win. Ran asked whether collecting them in that manner solved anything and chose to investigate memories despite Fang Tang's warning that this could be more dangerous than battle.

That concern became personal in the desert. Ran protected the shell-like BUG, approached it, touched its fleshy surface and wept beside it. Hui Huo spent quiet time with Ran there and respected a wish for privacy. Their bond involved companionship and concern.

Ran asked Fang to make any future BUG Source carrying the translucent halo face BUG Beings. Fang honored the promise when Guan arrived. How the halo passed to Guan remains unknown, and the two are distinct people.

The halo ultimately became energy within ordinary reality, connected with Yi's restoration. It can no longer return to the Bureau. Ran's separate bodily condition remains unknown.

HUI HUO

Hui Huo was a collector trained by Crux Star alongside Bai Zhong. He had red hair, bright cyan eyes, pointed teeth, a studded collar and a striped tail-like appendage. His earlier orange jacket contrasted with his later ragged, bare-chested appearance in the desert. His species is unknown.

As a trainee, Hui could be awkward and self-conscious, but listened attentively and wanted to learn. He and Bai shared comics, confidences and competitive sparring. He sometimes boasted, while remaining capable of admitting what he did not know. His earlier punishment concerned unauthorized travel between memory layers.

His stone-like halo developed a jagged outline and could become knuckles. He combined punches, kicks, agility and the striped appendage in close combat. A separate pale blade was associated with his desert battle; it was not the same object as his halo.

Hui formed a close bond with Ran Deng and spent time near the shell-like BUG Ran protected. Guan later found him exhausted and repeatedly attacking that shell. Their hostile introduction became practical cooperation. After the creature trapped his arm, Hui escaped at the cost of the limb; Guan bandaged him and tried to protect him. Hui persisted until his final punch broke the shell.

His collector life was subsequently described as ended, and his registration was cancelled. The exact physical or metaphysical outcome remains unresolved. The full reasons for his prolonged struggle with the shell remain unclear.

PROTAGONIST HALO

Protagonist Halo is a wanted fugitive associated with Reality Theater. He has dark hair, a pale high-collared shirt, dark shorts, a red cape and a small golden crown-shaped halo. His personal name is unknown.

Friendly, theatrical and intrusive, he draws people into conversation through demonstrations, praise and physical familiarity. He teaches effectively when someone is receptive, but his respect for choice becomes conditional. He argues that painful memories can be removed or rewritten to make life bearable. He also edits his own memories, leaving gaps that prevent him from learning from repeated mistakes.

He rescued Guan, used Guan's container to collect the elevator creature and introduced him to memory editing. His larger ambition depended on recruiting a BUG Source capable of creating powerful memory layers. BUG Being No. 44 supplied illusions for the project.

His treatment of Bai exposed the limits of his reassurance: he offered a comforting but false version of Granny Xiong, then fought when Bai rejected it. He likewise attacked Guan after Guan chose to keep his memories and leave.

He is agile and capable in close combat, and remained active after his crown fractured. Fang nevertheless defeated and confined him. He escaped by leaving his clothing behind; his destination and precise method remain unknown.

PAO PAO

Pao Pao is an expressive young companion of Guan, Qin Wang and the headphone-wearing shop acquaintance. He has brown skin, spiky hair with a narrow rear braid, and a red number-ten basketball jersey. He likes snacks and wants the summer holiday to continue.

His fear of Yi's predicted catastrophe came partly from an earlier warning that was followed by a basin falling on his head. He accepted her prediction because something she told him had already seemed to come true. He is sociable and apologizes after carelessly bumping into her.

After Guan's disappearance, Pao Pao joined his friends in examining a dusty room and an unfamiliar painting. He did not identify Guan there.

QIN WANG

Qin Wang is Guan's green-haired companion, recognizable by a small topknot, yellow shirt and green trousers. He carries a long pale stick and practices sweeping movements and raised stances. He appears interested in physical training; the particular discipline is unknown.

He shares Pao Pao's casual enjoyment of snacks and time by the river, but is more attentive to the reason behind his friend's fear. When another companion mocked Pao Pao's trust in Yi, Qin explained the earlier warning that supported it.

He later visited the dusty room with Pao Pao and the headphone-wearing youth. The group asked about its former occupant and painting without recognizing Guan. His history beyond these friendships is largely unknown.

THE HEADPHONE-WEARING COMPANION

This unnamed youth has short dark hair with a long side fringe, large pale headphones marked with blue diamonds, a pale jacket and a red diamond pendant. His family owned the convenience store's damaged television, and he helped organize deliveries and protect its stock.

He became bored during the long holiday and complained when Pao Pao and Qin Wang ate the shop's snacks. Initially skeptical of Yi's predictions, he reconsidered after hearing about her earlier warnings. He asked Guan to make the delivery that brought him to Yi's home.

He later accompanied Pao Pao and Qin into the dusty room without recognizing Guan in its painting. The name Heng occurs among Guan's remembered acquaintances, but its connection to this youth remains uncertain.

GRANNY XIONG

Granny Xiong is an older person whom Bai Zhong remembers with strong affection. Recognizable features include a lean, lined face, swept-back pale hair, braided sections and round earrings. Bai particularly associates Granny with a pink paperclip described as a master key.

Protagonist Halo offered Bai a more glamorous replacement memory involving a golden key and adventures. Bai rejected it because Granny's actual gift was different. The humble paperclip remained more important to Bai than the elaborate replacement.

Granny's gift is connected with Bai's practical resourcefulness and attachment to the past. The full personality, exact family relationship and cause of their separation remain unknown. Granny's present circumstances are unknown.

THE UNNAMED OFFICE WORKER

An unnamed worker appears within the office memory material connected to Guan's BUG encounters. The worker has dark hair and usually wears a white shirt, dark trousers, a tie and an identification lanyard. Employment, commuting and household obligations leave the figure increasingly exhausted and isolated.

The associated account does not reject work itself. It begins with hopes of progress, usefulness and connection, then describes a life crowded by demands. Social gatherings can become coercive; a landlord's demand to leave adds housing insecurity. The wish for a stable home is also a wish to keep belongings and maintain continuity.

The commute offers a brief pause between responsibilities before the memory becomes disordered. The distorted bodies, strings and collapsing bus route within this memory obscure its ordinary history. The worker's identity, relationship to Guan and possible connection to the radio listener called Swordsman 43 remain uncertain.

THE NEW VINDICATOR

After the former leader departed, a different masked figure with a purple headpiece answered the organization's red telephone and identified themself as the new Vindicator of the Great Absurdity. The successor's personal name and powers remain unknown.

The new officeholder described the predecessor as gone. The predecessor was still alive aboard the departing craft. Little else is known about the successor's personality, relationship to K7 or independent plans.

THE OLDER SCREEN INTERLOCUTOR

An unnamed older man exerted influence over the former Great Absurdity leader through a screen connection. He had swept blue-grey hair, a large pale moustache, a small chin beard and a light jacket over a dark high neck. He used a cigar and sat in a high-backed chair.

He pressed the leader to prioritize the main project and invoked the opportunity to surpass K7. The leader responded deferentially and promised progress. The man's formal office and wider authority remain unknown.