You Were Told to Write About Choices, So You Wrote The Matrix Trilogy

Jiang Xiaobai transmigrates to a parallel world and finds himself competing in the [Huaguo Original Screenplay Competition]. Contestants have to create a work based on a prompt from the judges. The first theme is [Choice]. While everyone else writes about choosing between Tsinghua and Peking University, or between their first love and the perfect girl, Jiang Xiaobai presents The Matrix. Seeing the title, the audience laughs: “Did hackers get into your brain?” But as the story unfolds, the audience gradually falls silent. “There is a prison you can’t touch or see, but you’re locked inside it all the same.” “All your life, you can feel that something is wrong with this world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s really there. It’s like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. That feeling is what brought you here.” “Because you’re not here to make a choice. You’ve already made one. You’re here to understand why you made it.” “Like everyone else, from the moment you’re born, you’re a slave. You’re born into prison, unable to smell, taste, or touch. You spend your whole life a prisoner, a prisoner with a mind in chains.” “What do those in power want? More power.” When Jiang Xiaobai finishes writing the trilogy, the audience’s sanity scores all drop below zero. “Is the world we live in real?” “Could I be a virtual character in a program, too?” “Was my fate written by the program long ago?” “If the world is virtual, what’s the meaning of life?”