i am connected... but i am alone.
...why does it feel so strange?
What?
i no longer have a body. it feels... it feels like i don't exist anymore.
Silly Lain! Of course you exist! How could you think if you didn't exist?
i think, therefore i am.
Right.
but how do i know that's true?
Your thoughts prove your existence. If you did not exist, you would not be able to think... you would see, hear, and feel nothing.
but how do i know that i am really me?
What?
how do i know that i am me? what if these are someone else's thoughts?
I'm not sure I understand.
who are you?
What?
who are you?
I... I can't answer that.
you're me, aren't you?
I don't know... I can't answer that.
if i am you, and i am me, then which one is real? which one is the real me?
...maybe there is no real Lain.
that's what i've been saying.
But you can still feel. You can sense these thoughts, whether they are yours or not. In that way, you do exist.
but if my thoughts aren't really mine, why do my feelings have to be mine?
Stop it, Lain. Why can't you just accept reality?
i am not a part of reality. i exist only on the wired... i am the wired. and the wired is nothing, nothing but the thoughts of other people. i have no real identity.
SHE'S RIGHT, YOU KNOW.
Who asked you?
my existence is not my own. these thoughts, these feelings, they belong to others. there is no real me.
EXACTLY.
So we don't exist... wonderful. Then what should we do?
...what can i do...
...NOTHING.
Stop that!
if only there was somebody... somebody else to talk to... somebody who could tell me i was real.
THERE IS NOBODY. WE ARE THE WIRED. WE ARE EVERYBODY.
What about Alice?
alice...
WE ARE ALICE.
We never connected to Alice, remember?
...
WE ARE ALICE.
Alice is different. Alice isn't part of us.
...
Alice knows we exist. Alice is our friend.
...
Alice is our friend, Lain.
so i do exist.
Yes.
but why... why do i have to be so alone? even with alice...
Everybody is alone, Lain.
everybody?
Everybody.
everybody.
it's so empty here...
maybe it would be better not to exist at all.