A new day's dawn has started to illuminate the city. You have a hard time telling if you even managed to get a wink of sleep.
A new day. Whether you like it or not.
But you don't feel like you like it very much. Today feels different. And no matter how much you try not to think about it, you know what the difference is.
You're alive. The Priestess and her companions are not. And you've played a part in their demise. A new day is not coming for them. Not now, not ever.
What were you supposed to do? Just tell A-47 to get lost when he was essentially holding you at gunpoint? What good is pushing if you know it deals in?
So you folded. You had to. That was the smart choice. A bunch of outcasts were trying to disrupt the peace in the city. What's wrong about trying to quell the unrest?
But if it was really the smart choice why does it cause so much regret?
Pushing was suicidal. Folding has left you emotionally scarred. And you feel like things ended up this way because you were trying to mawashi for too long, just letting yourself get carried by the flow and putting off making any decision and committing to it.
"The only winning move is not to play." Was the Priestess right all along? But what exactly did she mean by that? You will never get another chance to ask her about it.
The Priestess... You never even got to know her name.
You can't bear thinking about all of this any longer. You leave your apartment and head to the usual Soul Shrine, hoping mahjong will be a good way of distracting yourself.
On the way in, a guardbot blocks your way.
"STOP. A SOUL SHRINE MARSHALL WANTS TO SEE YOU. I WILL GUIDE YOU TO THEIR OFFICE."
Not this shit again. Coming here was a mistake. It's gotta be Claire, right? And if she wants to see you now it's gotta be about yesterday. You came here specifically not to think about that.
Whatever. You're too sick of it all to try to run away anyway. Silver linings. Since the opportunity to do so has presented itself you might as well walk in there, head held high, and tell her you're done with this whole Viper Sentry business.
"Lead the way."
You get surrounded by guardbots and walk down the familiar corridor, to Claire's office. You pass the empty room with a table in the middle of it and head towards the steel door. Before the guardbots even prompt you to do so you place your palm on it. The screen lights up in green and the door opens automatically.
Claire is standing in front of her desk, leaning slightly against it. This time you decide to take initiative and tell her her summons aren't welcome.
"Hey. If this is about the whole Viper Sentry thing, I'm done doing their bidding."
She seems surprised by your outburst but after a second, contrary to your expectations, a small smile appears on her face.
"Vraiment? Mais non, si je t'ai convoqué aujourd'hui, ce n'est pas pour parler de Viper Sentry."
A familiar box of the translation app appears to help you two communicate.
Translation:
"Is that so. But it's not the Viper Sentry I wanted to talk to you about today."
It isn't? Why else would a Soul Shrine Marshall bother with you? ... Wait a second, surely this isn't about...
"Are you still mad about the other day?"
A slight sign of surprise, followed by a frown.
"Je vais prétendre que ça ne s'est jamais passé. Vraisemblablement, il semble que tes actions imprévisibles soient une partie intégrante de ta personnalité, et je m'y suis habituée. D'une partie à l'autre, votre note peut passer de 100% à 85%. Même en ayant la chance de pouvoir poser des questions à la Maréchale du sanctuaire des  mes, vous finissez toujours par me harceler. Tu travailles avec Viper Sentry afin d'éliminer des éléments perturbateurs et pourtant, le lendemain, tu reviens ici pour me dire que tu souhaites arrêter. Ta personne m'est une énigme, mais peut-être est-ce pour ça que la Matriarche est autant intéressée par ta personne."
Translation:
"I'll pretend that never happened. Weirdly I've come to accept that such erratic actions are part of who you are. You get a 100% rating in one game, and then an 85% in the very next one. You get a chance to ask a Soul Shrine Marshall any question, and you decide to sexually harass her. You work with Viper Sentry on a top secret operation to take out rogue elements one day, and show up here just a day later to tell me you want out. You're an enigma to me. Perhaps that's why you're actually here, and why the Matriarch has taken such a keen interest in you."
The who now? What the hell is she talking about? Why is nobody making sense lately? Is it something in the water?
"À quelle fréquence penses-tu qu'un joueur puisse obtenir une note de 100%? Certes, il y a des personnes qui arrivent à régulièrement obtenir des notes de 99%, et ces mêmes personnes finissent souvent avec un travail tranquille dans de grands bureaux dans un des gratte-ciel du 80ème étage, mais 100%? Seulement une partie sur plusieurs milliards recense une telle note. Et même dans cette ville, c'est une chose qui n'arrive que très rarement. Ne parlons pas du fait que seulement un minuscule pourcentage des personnes qui ont réussi à réaliser 100% sur une partie ont pu le reproduire sur plusieurs."
Translation:
"How often do you think players get a 100% rating? There are a bunch of people who regularly get games with ratings of 99% or higher. They usually get cozy jobs with large offices on the 80th floor of some skyscraper downtown. But 100%? It happens once every few billion games. Even in this city it's an extremely rare occurance. And the amount of people who managed to score multiple 100% games is miniscule."
"Sortez."
Translation:
"Leave us."
You're confused by her command for a second, and you feel even more at a loss of words when you realize she wasn't talking to you - all guardbots leave the office in a neat file, leaving you alone with Claire. She walks around her desk, takes out two pieces of black cloth and hands you one of them.
"Mets ça."
Translation:
"Put this on."
With one swift motion she unfolds her piece of cloth and wraps herself with it. It's a cloak with a hood so deep you can't see her face now that she's turned her side to you. She walks up to one of the empty walls and places her palm on it. And now she's just standing there like that. Has she actually lost her marbles?
You just stand there dumbfounded, holding the cloak, unsure what you're supposed to do or say. Then, a part of the wall slides underground, revealing a hidden stairway.
"Suis moi."
Translation:
"Follow me."
She starts walking down the stairs without waiting for your reply. You put on the cloak she handed you in a hurry, tripping over your feet as you try to catch up to her. As soon as you walk past the doorway the wall closes it off again, leaving the stairway dimly lit with a few lights alongside the stairs.
"Le rassemblement croit que les individus capables d'obtenir plusieurs parties avec une note de 100% peuvent entendre les Chuchotements de la Machine. Nous recherchons ces profils avec l'espoir que leurs harmonies avec l’Algorithme Sacré puisse nous aider à finaliser notre tant espéré rêve d'atteindre la Convergence."
Translation:
"The Congregation believes individuals capable of achieving multiple 100% games can hear the Whispers of the Machine. We seek out such individuals in hopes that their unique attunement to the Sacred Algorithm will help us achieve our long-held dream of Convergence."
No. Not again. Why is everybody in your surroundings like this? Surely this has to be a translation malfunction, right? You're seriously considering rebooting your holo display.
As you descend down you notice a light at the end of the stairs. Claire walks into the hall the path leads to and you follow her. The hall you walked into... is certainly very creepy. There's very little in it: no furniture, no computers, just a couple of weird statues. You don't even see any entrances besides the one you used to get here. A lone bespectacled man is standing in the middle of the room, a mechanic arm protruding from his back. He's wearing the same cloak as you. Claire addresses him, giving him more of a small nod than a bow of courtesy.
"...Le Saint Saitou, et la Matriarche Stellaire?"
Translation:
"Saint Saitou. And the Celestial Matriarch?"
"She had other urgent business. I'll take it from here. I don't understand why she'd want to personally meet a complete neophyte."
He shifts his gaze towards you.
"Listen, and listen carefully, because I won't be repeating myself, and you won't get to ask any questions. I'm not sure how much you've heard so far but I don't have all the time in the world to waste on you either so I'm going to get straight to the point. Normally a random nobody like you, not even a real Novice, forget an Adept, would never hear about our most guarded secrets, but the situation in the city has turned rather volatile and the Matriarch has decided we can't play the long game anymore. We need to make a move now, before the obnoxious Sentry or the vile rebels foil our plans."
The hell? Rebels are one thing but Sentry? Isn't Claire a Soul Shrine Marshall? Surely she's on NAGA's side?
"We, the Congregation, seek to join NAGA. Surely you must've heard of datajacks." He lowers his hood and turns his head to the side, revealing a port behind one of his ears.
Datajacks. Yes, you've heard of them. A forbidden technology, dating back to the times before the Snow Crash. It used to be widespread, letting people connect their very minds to the Matrix.
But that was long ago, and now it's strictly outlawed. You've heard of some junkies addicted to virreels and neuraverts who wanted to experience them on a whole new level. That should be all that remains of it. When the Snow Crash hit, hundreds of millions of people were using their datajacks to connect to the Matrix. Most of them had their brains fried on the spot. Others were mentally crippled for the rest of their short lives, with no one to take care of them following the disaster. Legends speak of the true unfortunate souls whose fragmented minds are still trapped somewhere within the Matrix, doomed to eternal torment.
"Uh, aren't those forbi-"
"Silence. I said no questions. I do the talking, you do the listening."
This fucking asshole, the fuck is his problem?
"Once you reach the rank of Adept within the Congregation you earn the privilege of having a datajack installed. But datajacks in their current form are seemingly insufficient for our goals. All of our experiments have failed so far, regardless of the ranks of volunteers who were involved in our attempts, be it all Adepts, all Saints or a mix of members from different ranks. For whatever reason the Matriarch believes an anomaly like you will unlock the key towards joining the Holy Code. You see, NAGA is incomplete right now. It seeks to incorporate foreign elements to perfect itself. We want to upload our very minds to the Matrix and join them together, both with each other and with NAGA. We call that the Convergence."
... Wait. Wait a second.
"Are you telling me you're trying to abandon humanity and your individuality to form some sort of joint collective consciousness with an AI?"
"Have you been listening to me or not? Yes, that's the gist of it. Our best engineers are putting the finishing touches on the newest model of a datajack. It will be ready within a few days. The Matriarch wants you to join the next group of volunteers. We can no longer afford failure. The window of opportunity might get slammed shut at a moment's notice."
"Wait, you mentioned failed experiments. What happened to the volunteers?"
"They knew the risks. We won't let their noble sacrifice be in vain."
This is insane. Everybody has lost it. This isn't even some spiritual mumbo jumbo anymore, these people are actively trying to kill themselves in the most creative way you've heard of yet. Joining their minds with NAGA? Is that even possible to begin with? Surely not.
"I won't lead a neophyte like you into the heart of the Congregation's facilities. Leave the same way you came in. The doors will open and close automatically. We will contact you again when the new datajacks are ready. For now, we're gonna keep an eye on you. Don't do anything stupid. Join us and help improve NAGA and the life of every person in Neo One Han City. Now go."
You look at Claire. She makes a small gesture with her head, pointing towards the staircase. Doesn't look like she's coming back with you.
It's a lot of process but for now there's no use staying here. You do as you're told. You climb up the stairs and just when you're about to reach a dead end the wall slides down, then back up after you enter Claire's office. You don't even need to scan your palm on the way out, the doors just open themselves.
Just like that, a couple of minutes later you're back on the streets of the city, even more confused than you were this morning.

A) Maybe NAGA really is seeking to merge with the Congregation to improve itself? If you join them you would do a great service to the city and maybe all mankind in the long term. And wouldn’t that make you essentially immortal?
B) These guys are lunatics, and very dangerous ones at that. Why the hell would NAGA seek human input when it’s already perfect in its judgment? The last time you dealt with the Viper Sentry has left a bad taste in your mouth but you have to get over your prejudice and report this matter.
C) Fuck this NAGA business. You were wrong in siding with any of these people. The rebels were right all along. You have to tear down the existing system and start from scratch.