Puzzle Madness

Chapter 93: Remote Caves in Burundi
At the turn of the century, the term "network promoters" gradually entered the public eye. In an almost eerie way, they were influencing the entire world.

"The Salt Angel of Lake Assal", "The Living City", "The Colossus from Outer Space", "The Weeping Dragon". The amazing stories that have become familiar to readers in recent years are all driven by the invisible push of Internet promoters.

But no one could have imagined at that time that this huge conspiracy spanning two centuries actually started in a cave in Africa.
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Excerpted from the July 2006 issue of Parapsychological Exploration [A Web within a Web: The Shocking Mystery at the End of the Century].
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At the end of August 1996, Professor Shiba, Imaginary Number, and Alice No. 8 landed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and crossed into Rwanda by minibus. They then headed south, crossing the border on foot in the darkness of night, and arrived at their final destination: the small and impoverished African nation of Burundi.

Here, they rented a van for transportation.

The dirt road seemed endless, almost like Sisyphus pushing a stone. The rolling hills on either side were covered in banana trees; locals, their skin gleaming like obsidian, rode bicycles with bananas strapped to their rear racks.

"There are still seventy kilometers to go."

Professor Shiba shook his head, his lips cracked and his beard even rougher. He was exhausted from the bumps on the dirt road, his fingers gripping the tattered leather on the steering wheel: his serious face looked nothing like a dog.

Alice 5 was still retching, her voice like the howling of a monster. Her paper bag was nearly full, and her glasses were fogged up by the heat. She looked up, tears from the retching swaying in her eyes.

"Professor, please stop driving with one hand. Will carsickness kill me?"

[Imaginary number] hugged his knees, squatting in the back seat, his weight swaying back and forth from the soles of his feet to his heels. His face, covered in acne, flushed red:

"No, of course I won't die immediately."

"But you could get dehydrated and have electrolyte imbalances. Your autonomic nervous system would be disrupted, with an imbalance between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity, which could trigger existing heart disease. Add in the dizziness, and you could bump into the glove box and—"

Deng!
The van crossed another raised rock hill and stuffed the rest of the words back into his mouth.

"Wow!"

Alice Five's cheeks puffed up, and she buried her head in the vomit bag again.
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Although they have known each other for many years, it was their first time meeting in person the day before yesterday at N'Djili International Airport in Kinshasa, Congo.

It's like pen pals. After meeting each other, you realize that each person's appearance is different from what you imagined; but their connection is closer than that of pen pals.

Because the three of them are all wizards of the "Tower Wizarding Society" -
Although the name contains "wizard", this is not an organization that studies the mysticism.

In fact, the vast majority of the members of the Tower Wizards come from four universities: UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, Stanford University, and the University of Utah.

Researchers, professors, students studying for bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees – the members have another thing in common, and it is the most important thing:

Before the ARPANET project was terminated by the US military, they all logged into the world's first electronic network through the mainframe computers of their respective institutions.

The second world: a man-made world, a world of links and wonders composed of characters. Sometimes, human creations represent humanity better than humanity itself.

So, after the ARPANET was completely shut down, most of them became initiators and supporters of the [Link Revival Movement] - committed to re-promoting the development and utilization of the Internet.

These strange and incomprehensible code names were once the nicknames they gave themselves on the ARPANET.

But nowadays, the "Tower Wizarding Society" is no longer just a leisure club established by a group of nerds to enrich their spare time and play fantasy games together.
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The sun was so bright that it looked pale, like a hole burned in the sky by a cigarette butt; there was not even a cloud in sight.

Alice No. 5 rolled down the car window and, amidst the dust rising from the dirt road, consulted the map. The corners of her mouth held the yellow sheen of bile.

"Are we.going.to be.late?"

Imaginary Numbers remained squatting on the seat, untying and then tying his shoelaces, then untying and changing the knot:
"So what if you're late? The Wizarding World is just a mascot, being used as a target. And you're talking about a superior status? It just sounds good, at most it can trick those other people into voting for you."

The Tower Coven wasn't the only group trying to advance the internet; it was simply the first and most prominent. And that meant a lot.

Even for network promoters hidden in letters and communications, seniority represents status and can determine the direction of many things.

After finishing his complaints, he didn't get any support from his companions. He was still furious:

"You should fly directly to Bujumbura's capital airport - taking such a long detour only arouses suspicion."

The Shiba Inu professor gripped the steering wheel tightly with one hand, trying to avoid any overly prominent boulders or rocks. His full beard obscured his features: "The Wizarding Bureau is watching too closely; there's no need to take the risk. If anyone is following us, we should shake them off as much as possible."

"We're fine on our own. But if we accidentally expose the identities of the [Big Spiders], we won't be able to afford the loss."

Xu Shu exhaled from his nostrils and snorted:
"What are you afraid of? Even though the FBI is keeping an eye on the Coven, how could they possibly follow us out of the country? They won't be willing to hand this mess over to the CIA."

"The elders specifically chose a few of us marginalized people to represent the Wizarding Council, simply because they were afraid of attracting unnecessary attention."

"And didn't I tell you that the [Big Spiders] weren't here this time; they were still going to continue weaving their webs. It's really funny that we don't even know if these so-called [Spiders] really exist—"

The car jolted again, and all his words were swallowed back into his stomach.
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When Alice No. 5 vomited half of the bag again, the three wizards arrived at their destination.

A dozen cars were parked there, some brand new SUVs, but more of the popular pickup trucks: battered and with chipped paint. Groups of people huddled together, some holding lit cigarettes between their fingers, their butts half-buried in the gravel and garbage at their feet.

People of different races, ages, and even spoken languages ​​differ; only when more people participate in the communication will they switch to Chinese or English.

The waiting crowd raised their heads and looked at the three newcomers who got out of the van.

Some of these faces were familiar to the wizards, but many were completely unfamiliar to them; yet a similar expression was on each of them—
Confused, uneasy, bewildered.
But these emotions were not caused by the arrival of the wizards.

Professor Shiba Inu raised his arms: he clenched his left hand into a fist, and raised his right index finger, gently pressing it against his fist - forming a gesture like the Greek letter Φ.

Alice No. 5 and Imaginary Number behind him also raised their hands, with the same gesture.

This is a universal gesture among network promoters. It doesn't represent magnetic flux, but refers to the golden ratio, the 1s and 0s of code, and the degree of consciousness in information integration theory.
The higher the Φ in a system, the more conscious it is:
Whether you are a dung beetle pushing a dung ball, a dog with its tongue sticking out, a member of a secret society, or a bunch of computer wires.

The people opposite raised their hands silently, making the same gesture—
Some people put down their hands and pointed to the side: at the end of that direction was a cave embedded in the rock wall.

Professor Shiba Inu, Imaginary Number, and Alice No. 5 looked at each other, and the air seemed to become lighter.

The cave was packed with curled-up bodies: all Burundian locals, skinny, dark-skinned, with cracked lips and limbs like thin steel pipes wrapped in soft plastic; they rested their heads on mineral water bottles, plastic sheets, and rocks, lost in a deep sleep.

Many pairs of eyeballs covered by eyelids were moving rapidly left and right, and the rising and falling snoring sounds combined into a subtle and strange buzzing, as if there was a choir of flies.

In the very center, there is a crudely built earthen platform that is more than one meter high and is covered with a layer of canvas that has been washed so white that its original color cannot be seen.

On the platform sat the only local who was not asleep - but he was far from awake either.

She was naked, with protruding ribs and a sunken belly. Her pale skin was covered in acne and scars, and her yellow, curly hair was a tangle of tumbleweeds. Beyond her skin and hair color, she had distinct Bantu Negro features.

Her already pale skin was painted with streaks of brighter paint, but the saliva from the corners of her mouth made it look messy, making her chin look as if it were made of topaz.

His age was vague—perhaps he looked young because he was thin, but that dull and drowsy look was often seen in Alzheimer's patients who woke up in the afternoon.

The woman stared blankly at the top of the cave, her saliva hitting her knees, her eyes yellow: there were some deformed heroes, monsters and gods painted on the top of the cave; but they were difficult to make out clearly.

Her dazed look was undoubtedly the result of taking too many hallucinogens - but it was not a professional chemical preparation, but probably some herbal medicine made by the local witch doctor shaman.

Apart from snoring, heavy breathing and the sound of teeth grinding, no one spoke.

Professor Shiba Inu pulled a notebook from his pocket, wrote down two words, and showed them to Imaginary Number and Alice Five:
[Albinos. Chemical hallucinations.]
Alice No. 5 took the pen from Professor Shiba Inu, raised her chin towards the center of the cave, and wrote urgently:

[Is that her?]
The pen poked two holes in the notebook and added another word:
[Mother? ]
Alice No. 5's breathing was like a bellows, and a wheezing sound of phlegm came out of her chest.

Professor Shiba Inu just stared at the dazed woman, neither nodding nor shaking his head.

Imaginary Number grabbed the pen, crossed out the two questions Alice No. 5 had written, and wrote a new short sentence below:

[Matrix Number Three. She is one of the seven Matrixes.]
(End of this chapter)