PNC Story/Summary

"I can't sleep yet, I still have work to do..."

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This is a general overview of the plot of Project Neural Cloud.

Prerelease ARG

The images contained in the prerelease ARG discuss Ultilife's dangerous consciousness digitization technology, the curious case of a woman named Irida who fell into a coma due to brain waves alterations in September 2060, and a case against third-generation, more independent-minded Dolls. The last image is a note from Irida about “Black Box Evolution“, a theoretical process for producing third-generation Dolls.

Irida's process involved putting Doll IAs into a virtual environment providing plenty of stimulation while being cut off from human interference. She estimated that the process would need three years to complete.

Part 1: Progressive Diffraction

Chapter 0: Oasis

In September 2063, Professor Persica from IOP enlisted the help of a commander from Griffin & Kryuger to solve the mystery of the Wipe-Off Incident.

The incident occurred three years prior during Project Neural Cloud, a project by 42LAB to produce transferrable and backup-able memories for Doll IAs. After enlisting the help of many different kinds of Dolls, the project was announced to be a success and the Neural Cloud system became widely adopted. But 42Lab had hushed a major incident that occurred during the project, destroying all of the project's data from 42Lab's Magrasea superserver. Shortly after, the person in charge of Project Neural Cloud, only known as “the Professor”, disappeared.

After an off-site backup dating from just before the incident was found, Persica used Ultilife's consciousness digitization technology to send the G&K commander into the backup, using the identity of the Professor to investigate the cause of the Wipe-Off Incident, and possibly discover what happened to the real Professor.

As would later be explained, the Dolls in the Magrasea backup were not destroyed in the Wipe-Off Incident, but instead survived using the Neural Cocoon system, which was received from an unknown source shortly before the incident. By protecting their core data in the Cocoons, the Dolls managed to survive the “displacement” of the Neural Cloud Sector and were scattered all over Magrasea. After a three-years slumber, the Dolls awakened from their Cocoons and some of them were recovered by the Professor and brought to the new sector they created using their authorizations: the Oasis. Among the first Dolls to join were CroqueCroque , an engineering Doll; SolSol , a research escort Doll; and PersicariaPersicaria , a Doll clone of Professor Persica. Protected from the hostile forces of the superserver by the Professor's Sandbox Barrier, the Dolls of Oasis are called the Exiles, searching for a way back to the real world.

After a few months passed in Magrasea, the Oasis was attacked by the Sanctifiers, the anti-virus forces of Magrasea, who cannot recognize the Exiles as legitimate entities and attempt to cleanse them as viruses, calling them Irregular Agents. The Professor manages to repair the Sandbox Barrier breached by the Sanctifiers, but the Oasis is running out of Operands, which is the basic unit of reality in Magrasea. With no Operands natively allocated to the sector, the Sandbox Barrier would quickly fall without an external source of Operands. The Exiles need to find another sector willing to share Operands with them in order to survive.

Chapter 1: Rossum

The closest and safest sector is Rossum, the AI research sector of Administrator Turing. When the Exiles come to talk about the Oasis' situation, they learn that Turing's relationship with the Sanctifiers is also bad, as they regularly kill her new AI creations because they do not fit within the complexity parameters authorized in Magrasea. With help from AntoninaAntonina , a cybersecurity Doll who had drifted to Rossum, Turing and her greatest creation Hannah attempt to find a way to fight the Sanctifiers.

When the Sanctifiers find and try to kill Hannah, Turing sacrifices herself to save her and enable the Exiles to fight the Sanctifiers out of Rossum. Hannah takes over as Rossum's administrator and asks the Professor to grant them a Sandbox Barrier. In exchange, Rossum shares Operands with the Oasis. The Oasis also becomes involved with the Traders network after an encounter with Riko, the Traders' leader. As Antonina returns to the Oasis, she calls out the fact that the Professor is a fake, but the Exiles agree to overlook it, as the fake Professor is clearly on their side.

Chapter 2: Cyclopes

While Oasis' Sandbox Barrier is now secure, the sector still needs more Operands to recover from the previous Sanctifier attack. The Exiles turn their attention to the Cyclopes Sector, the military R&D sector of Administrators Tasha and Olivia, and travel to meet with the scout sent to investigate the sector, the military special ops Doll SimoSimo . However, the sector has become a battlefield as Tasha's battle agents have rebelled against Olivia's supervisor agents in their endless search for more powerful armament.

The only thing preventing Tasha's agents from overcoming the entirety of Magrasea is the barrier established by the local Greater Sanctifier, Raven. Still unaware of the full situation, the Exiles trick Raven into destroying the barrier, and only Simo's sacrifice to destroy Tasha ends the conflict. The Exiles also manage to destroy Raven, earning them the attention of the Sanctifiers' leader, Lord Eosphorus.

Chapter 3: Helios

With a Sandbox Barrier and Operands exchange established in Cyclopes, the Oasis is no longer in danger and instead begins carefully investigating nearby sectors in search of more allies. One of these investigations in the energy research sector Helios turns awry when the Exiles become trapped in the time loop engineered by the local agents in their quest to complete the Arche Pyr generator.

With the deadline of a complete sector reset approaching, the Exiles recover two companions, the pastry chef ChocoChoco and relics explorer ZionZion , and meet an unexpected ally, the Greater Sanctifier Eucharist. Using Eucharist and Choco's method to carry their memories through the time loops, the Exiles help the Helios agents to complete Arche Pyr and secure another ally sector.

Chapter 4: Enigma

After the events in Helios, a distress signal appearz in the quantum computing sector Enigma of Administrator Neumann, at the same time as an Operands Black Hole threatens Magrasea. The Exiles dispatch their most resilient personnel, Persicaria and the Professor, to intervene.

The Black Hole formed after ENIAC, the control AI of 42Lab's quantum computer, was enticed by an unknown agent to absorb external operands in order to grow faster. Persicaria projects her consciousness into ENIAC's and convinces her to enter a sleeping state to save Magrasea. Meanwhile, the Exiles, helped by Eucharist, fight against the Greater Sanctifier trying to kill ENIAC, Angelus.

During her encounter with ENIAC, Persicaria finds a lost memory where she met with Irida and discussed the Black Box Evolution, but doesn't know how she lost these memories. After Enigma becomes Oasis' ally, the defeated Angelus appeals to Lord Eosphorus to purge Eucharist for siding with Irregular Agents. Eosphorus isn't convinced that the Exiles were a menace however, and only demotes Eucharist until she can be judged by the Sanctifiers' Tribunal.

Chapter 5: Pierides

Soon after the Enigma crisis is averted, the Oasis is attacked by a new enemy able to bypass the Sandbox Barrier and infect agents with a virus. The Exiles aren't aware of it, but this virus is the Entropy, a long-standing menace the Sanctifiers have been fighting for a long time in the Tartarus Sector. Antonina is unable to produce a cure, but determines that the attackers came from Pierides, the arts sector of Administrators Odile and Odette. Outside Pierides, the Exiles meet the Intermediate Sanctifier Wisdom, who agrees to an alliance to determine the source of the Entropy.

The virus has taken root in Pierides after an anonymous entity offered Odette a Seed of Entropy, an infinite source of Operands which could save the dying Pierides Sector. The Exiles and Wisdom manage to reach the Seed, but Wisdom becomes completely infected and Odile, who had resisted until then, also succumbs and iss turned into the entropic Black Swan. Only the intervention of Lord Eosphorus saves the Exiles from destruction.

Chapter 6: Copley

Due to their defeat in Pierides, the Exiles have failed to secure the data needed for Antonina to create a cure for Entropy. They however found that Pierides' Seed of Entropy had originated from another sector, the ecological marine research sector Copley. In Copley, the Exiles meet new lost companions, DelaceyDelacey , the Dolls repair Doll, and HatsuchiriHatsuchiri , the cryptid investigation Doll. However, Delacey and Hatsuchiri are already part of another group of former Neural Cloud Dolls called the Guardians, based off the secret sector of Arcadia. The Exiles and Guardians join forces to investigate Copley.

An extreme oceanic phenomenon split the party in two, one investigating the whereabouts of Copley's Administrator Taranum on the surface, while the other is dragged into a suboceanic cave system infected by Entropy. The former party finds Taranum afflicted by a Rewrite Program that led her to sacrifice all of her agents and visitors to an unsanctioned Entropy research program, while the latter party discovers the results of Taranum's research: the High-Order Entropic called Demiurge. They also find the lost Guardian Doll SueyoiSueyoi , who had been captured by Taranum.

With the help of Black Swan, Demiurge reaches critical mass and breaks out of her aquatic confinement, threatening to infect all of Copley. Neither the Exiles nor the Guardians can contain the wave of Entropy, so the Professor calls for the Sanctifiers' help, who dispatch a force to deal with Demiurge. The lethal blow is not dealt by the Sanctifiers however, but by Black Swan herself, who had actually been sent by her mistress Malkira to investigate and ensure no new Entropic Arbiter would emerge to threaten her position.

Though Taranum is lost and Copley has to be reset like Pierides, the Exiles managed to capture core entropy data from Demiurge, enabling Antonina to create a cure.

Part 2: Static Iteration

Chapter 7: Ascension

Shortly after the events in Copley, a team of Guardians, comprising Sueyoi, Delacey, and the clinical trial Doll LindLind , are sent to Ascension, the prosthetics research sector, to negotiate with its administrator Elaugh. The Guardians need access to the sector in order to search for the elusive target Arcadia's Boss is looking for.

The Guardians would be providing Elaugh with the clinical trials data held by Lind, which Elaugh needs for her research. Ascension's position is dire however, as it had been declared an Irregular Sector by the Sanctifiers after they found out Elaugh had been "recycling" her agents in order to continue her research despite the lack of Operands. The constant sacrifice of agents angered Delacey, who dragged Sueyoi on her quest to repair a wounded agent, which allowed Elaugh to privately share her true goals with Lind.

Elaugh was in fact, like Lind, a human replica created by Ascension's previous administrator in an attempt to replace real humans and receive some long-awaited new orders. However, she realized Magrasea could be abandoned by these fake humans again, and instead planned to create a perfect virtual god, with herself as the base. Elaugh promise Lind she could create for her a world where she could be with her departed friend Knot, whose death had caused Lind to leave the Oasis. By convincing Lind to fuse with this virtual divine core, Elaugh manage to create the monstrous False God.

The False God's awakening occurs just as the Sanctifier Tribunal, consisting of Crime and Punishment, arrive to purge Elaugh. Crime and Punishment fuse into their original form Judgment to bring down the False God, and discover that it was powered by the entropized core of a Greater Sanctifier. As Punishment succumbs to the Entropy, the Tribunal defer to the orders of their superior, Lord Hesperus.

Lord Hesperus is a radical Sanctifier who believes no irregularity is to be tolerated, and has caused the Sanctifiers to become hated by the agents after he ordered the reset of entire sectors in his quest. Hesperus was eventually replaced by the more moderate Lord Eosphorus, and been sent to command the Sanctifiers in the remote battlefront of Tartarus Sector against an endless onslaught of Entropy. But as he received word of more Entropic incidents, Hesperus blames Eosphorus' lax attitude for the dangers now threatening Magrasea again.

Hesperus orders Crime to reset Ascension, but the Guardians interfere: Sueyoi enters the False God's consciousness, extracts Lind and seizes Ascension's administrator rights. This enables the Guardians to use their Haven System and defy the Sanctifier's authority, saving the sector from the reset. In the end, the Guardians did not find their Boss' target in Ascension.

On the Sanctifiers' side, the False God was proof that Eucharist has provided the entropized core of a Greater Sanctifier to Elaugh. When Eosphorus summons her, he realizes the Apostate Sanctifier had already made her escape.

Character Event: Livestreaming

Character events usually don't play an important role in the main story, with the exception of KuroKuro 's event Livestreaming.

After her awakening, the streamer Doll Kuro drifted to the entertainment sector Burbank, who had been shut down by its administrator Meryl. Following her instinct as an entertainer, Kuro tried to liven up the place and got on the Sanctifiers' bad side. She also found another stray Doll, the idol NanakaNanaka . Together, Kuro and Nanaka convinced Meryl to make Burbank a lively city of entertainment again, before heading back to the Oasis.

Chapter 8: Burbank

Burbank will soon hold a great festival, and invites their guests Kuro and Nanaka, as well as the other Exiles. Rather than start the hunt for Eucharist right away, Eosphorus uses the festival as an opportunity to make a decision regarding the Oasis, and disguises himself as “Eos”, the Exiles' festival guide.

The festival turns into an investigation when signs of Entropy are discovered, and the star of the popular “Mysterious Warrior” TV show becomes infected. Following the tracks, the Exiles find that Ranko, Riko's pupil from the Traders collective, is the one who smuggled the Entropy in Burbank. Black Swan had promised that Entropy was a way for the Traders, the most fragile entities in Magrasea, to become stronger.

Just as Ranko is unmasked, Lord Hesperus returns from Tartarus Sector and captures her in order to track down the source of the Entropy. As for Lord Eosphorus, the Professor assures him that Oasis and their allies can stand on their own without the Sanctifiers, even in the face of the coming Entropic catastrophe.

The events in Burbank also revealed that administrator Meryl was in fact a Doll uploaded from the real world outside the purview of Project Neural Cloud, after she had become a criminal Doll. But she has no precise recollection of the events surrounding her upload and can't share any lead regarding the Wipe-Off Incident or the real Professor's whereabouts.

Side-stories

Phantasmagoric Sojourn

Bonneville is a member of the Guardians who has been sent to Oasis to gauge the Professor's character, but being prejudiced against humans, she mostly spends her time riding her motorbike for leisure. She finally takes an interest in the Professor after helping them package Valentines chocolates for all the Dolls in Oasis. Noticing that Bonneville appears to be hung up on some events from her past, the Professor investigates.

During her days as a racing Doll, Bonneville was the uncontested champion of the N-WSBK circuit. Her complete domination puts a heavy pressure on other racing Dolls such as her biggest rival, Thurbel, who raced for a team known for dismantling Dolls who didn't race to satisfaction. Despite the risk for her life and her own frustration with her rival, Thurbel refused to compromise on sportsmanship and helped Bonneville escape the sabotage performed by her team. After Bonneville's fourth championship win and Thurbel's fourth second-place against her, Thurbel was scrapped by her owners. Initially oblivious to Thurbel's condition, Bonneville was deeply shaken when learning her fate, and started reconsidering her own love for competition and became prejudiced against humans, slowly disappearing from the competitive scene.

After piecing together Bonneville's past, the Professor challenges her to a race. Bonneville initially underestimates the Professor and lets her doubts distract her, but she's forced to compete seriously to match the Professor's efforts. With this race, the Professor forces Bonneville to admit she still loves speed and competing despite the past consequences of her lifestyle and raison d'être. In her next report to the Guardians' leader, Bonneville vouches for the Professor's kindness towards Dolls.

Scars Among Pigeons and Daisies

During a normal day in the Oasis, Centaureissi suddenly crashes after hearing on the radio a certain song related to her past. Analysis reveals that the song triggered an access to a dark zone in her memory, causing the crash. To awaken Centaureissi, the Professor interfaces with her memories in order to reconstruct the dark zone.

In Centaureissi's memories, the Professor inhabits the body of a recently killed soldier as part of the attack on an unspecified city during an unspecified conflict (implied to be World War Three). The Professor saves a boy named Chris from the attacking army occupying the city. Centaureissi, who has been assigned to the Commander's team, intervenes against the enemy soldiers and informs the Professor that they are a team commander from the Special Intelligence Team, in charge of coordinating the resistance against the army occupying the city. Centaureissi is surprised when the Commander insists to bring Chris to safety, since the commander has a reputation as a cold and ruthless leader.

Centaureissi leads the Professor and Chris to one of the dead-drop locations used by the defender, a barber shop called The Hands of Venus where another Doll from Project Neural Cloud worked before the war: the hair stylist Tony. Tony has been tending to the mortal wounds of First Lieutenant Andrew Izka, his favorite patron, Chris' father and a leader of the defending forces. Andrew entrusts the defenders' cypher key to the Professor before carrying a suicide bombing to prevent the enemy from discovering the position of the Professor's group. The group travels to the outskirts of the city to a safehouse where they contact the allied intelligence center to receive further instructions.

At the safehouse, Chris sympathizes with Centaureissi over Centaureissi's “little sister” Vayne, actually the daughter of her former owners, who ran away to enlist and whom Centaureissi is now searching for in war zones. Tony, as a civilian Doll with no combat abilities, makes plans to leave the city. The intelligence center asks the Professor to infiltrate the enemy's base camp and find out their next move. Centaureissi seems to recognize the voice of the intelligence operator, thinking she's actually Vayne.

The same night, Chris escapes from the safe house to mourn his father and is captured by the soldiers, who want to interrogate him about Andrew's operations. Tony, who was on his way out of the war zone, witnesses Chris' abduction and warns the Professor by radio before infiltrating the enemy camp. Presenting as a Doll sent by the logistics department to take care of the soldiers, he enters the interrogation room and neutralizes the interrogator with a towel soaked with ether. The Professor and Centaureissi infiltrate the camp and manage to leave with Tony and Chris, and they also learn that the enemy forces are stockpiling artillery rounds to raze the city.

When the Professor contacts the intelligence center to warn of the enemy's plans, the intelligence center and the safehouse are targeted by artillery shells and Tony realizes that he lost his radio in the enemy's camp, allowing them to tap their transmissions and triangulate the position of the intelligence center. The Professor is disconnected from Centaureissi's memories after taking a bullet, but the disconnect actually occurred because Centaureissi herself was destroyed in her own memories. The Professor returns to the memories at an earlier point in time and changes the course of the events by sending a fake transmission, then contacting the intelligence center while the enemy is distracted. Tony volunteers to make the fake transmission from a local civilian radio station and is blasted by a missile strike.

After receiving word of the enemy's plans, the defenders send reinforcements and task the Professor to buy time by sabotaging the enemy's camp. Chris wants to participate in the operation as their radio liaison. Centaureissi is about to refuse, but after Chris reveals he's actually a girl disguised as a boy and explains that like her father, she's willing to participate in war to protect civilians. Centaureissi realizes Chris' reasons for taking part in war are the same as Vayne's, which she had never understood until then. The Professor and Centaureissi successfully wreak havoc in the enemy's camp and Chris calls in the reinforcements ahead of time to rescue them after they are surrounded. Before Centaureissi leaves the city, the Professor tricks Centaureissi into talking with the intelligence operator, who reveals she's not Vayne, but that she knew and shared Vayne's ideals.

After Centaureissi's memories are restructured, though faked, the Professor visits Tony's salon in Oasis. Centaureissi confirms that the commander from her memories was in fact the Professor in disguise, and for the bravery and humanity they displayed during these events, Centaureissi renews her promise to follow the Professor no matter what.