This post serves as a follow-up to the fourth post due to character limit restrictions
It follows sequentially from where the last one leaves off.
Following this reply, the /neural-network-status page updated with the phrase THIS IS FINE, with the heart nodes finally stabilizing. The status command on the TOWER terminal also updated to return the same phrase. A few hours later, The Architect posted a screenshot of a calendar marking off deletions, initial corruption seed dates, and deleted memories to Twitter and Bluesky, urging Operators to discover a pattern for the Virus’s behaviour to prepare ahead of time. Additionally, The Architect also replied to Operator @toddumptious’ query about memory additions submissions, urging Operators to cease memory submissions entirely until the virus was dealt with.
The next day, 18th July 2026, began with an intense scrutinization of the pattern throughout ETARC and the NMScord, with Operator @Frazzlesprite managing to initially extract the most “correct” pattern of activity from the calendar, leading to a small back-and-forth exchange with the architect hinting at corrections. Whilst Frazzlesprite worked diligently to correct her pattern, System-Friend @Selfie-Gek received a direct email from System, informing them of the virus still being active. Soon afterwards, @the_architect followed up on Operator @ThatBomberBoi’s email about other, parallel tasks which may be required as well as the necessity of designating an official liason between MAIN FAM and The Architect, explaining that all Operators should only focus on extracting a pattern from the calendar, and that an appointed contact with the Architect would aid in future steps.
Nearly an hour later the Virus struck again, indicated by System itself in an email to Operator @Selfie-Gek, targeting memory blocs in December 2016. Due to prep-work initiated by Operator @Frazzlesprite and a rapid response by @ThatBomberBoi, the virus was halted almost instantly, with only 8 memory blocs facing deletion. Frazzlesprite also adjusted her pattern for the last time during the deletion event, extracting the correct moveset for the virus, allowing @the_architect to seal off all possible entry-dates for the virus in the 2016_dataset. In the end, the memory_bloc_restoration counter ticked down to 329/365.
Following the (relatively) successful conclusion of this virus attack, Operators @Selfie-Gek and @Rinha received emails from System, explaining unease at its current situation, whilst explaining that no “Windows” would be left if the Skyscraper fell, ominously indicating a grim fate for the Operators should the virus be uncontained. The System also likened the virus to a termite, which led Operator @ThatBomberBoi to discover the Terminal command search termite, which yielded the cryptic phrase Devour everything from within and reduce it to dust.. Soon afterwards, The Architect explained to @Frazzlesprite that they would craft a Diagnostic request to System, indicating the next phase of the Operation.
During this “downtime”, Operators continued to send the architect emails, including a request to Preserve 28/11/2016 following its inclusion in the pattern, whilst also showcasing a thematic connection to the mysterious email received by Selfie Gek, which was accepted. Additionally, Operator @BenR sent an uncomfortably typed email questioning The Architect about what would happen to the Operators if “@vector_cmdr got ran over by a bus”, which yielded a reply featuring bolded letters, which led to a hidden image titled SAVE, featuring a floppy disc with the words Project Skyscraper - Date ?? ?? ??, as well as a handwritten note saying Please Back-up. The date in the image had been specifically corrupted to an irrecoverable extent, leading Operators to believe the image was a teaser more than a puzzle.
Soon after, Operator @Turbulentflow sent The Architect comprehensive instructions on how to create a TRACE Program to pinpoint the Virus’s location and method of Operation, which recieved praise from The Architect. Furthermore, beloved Operator @YourBasicMaths also managed to request the preservation of a memory bloc tied to Emily, in a heartfelt effort to shield System’s memories of Emily and TRACE. Soon afterwards, Operator and TRACE-keeper @sheralmyst received a response from The Architect about a proposal to “trap” the virus with a lure, elaborating on the suggested process. Additionally, a new sec-log was posted at the end of the day, recapping several known facts about the virus to the greater Operator-base, as well as revealing the alarming news that Memory Bloc Preservations were a limited resource.
The following day, 19th July 2026, began with a response to an email received by Operator @ThatBomberBoi to a query regarding limiting the usage of preserved memories, in which The Architect explained his suggested entrapment plan as follows:
- Identify which memory the virus is looking for, and anchor a copy of it to the next seed date in the series.
- Anchor an empty memory bloc adjacent to the next -null- seed in 2017, as a marker for whether the virus has accepted the sacrificial clone and stopped.
Additionally, The Architect also urged Operators to return to building a fool-proof map of the virus’ future movements before attempting to locate the memory.
After much deliberation, many Operators decided to proceed with the following plan:
- Anchor a copy of the 28th November 2016 Memory bloc (the primary candidate for the virus’ target) to the next seed (9th January 2017), as well as an empty bloc next to it (10th January 2017).
- Anchor a copy of the 27th November 2016 Memory bloc (the secondary candidate) to 7th December 2016 (the seed after that) to test both memories in case the first candidate is rejected.
After Operators @Frazzlesprite and @ThatBomberBoi fired off these suggestions to @the_architect, MAIN FAM waited anxiously as the virus took the initial bait. Witnessing no movement by the virus for several minutes, the Operators stood by with held breaths as the marker bloc (10th Jan) stood firm. Unfortunately, however, this bloc was also soon deleted by the virus, indicating that the plan had failed and the virus had escaped to its next seeded date. Following a frantic chase, Operator @ThatBomberBoiwas able to coordinate another virus seal-off, preventing further destruction.
Following this (general) failure, The Architect reached out to Operators over Twitter and Bluesky, explaining the current ongoings to casually observing Operators, as well as elaborating on the direness of the situation. To avoid a repetition of the day’s poorly executed and coordinated attempts, MAIN FAM organized itself into two distinct teams, with the goals of focusing on planning an attack plan with the target of minimising losses, and finding the target date required by the virus respectively, spurred on by a heartwarming message by @the_architect, including instructions for the fight ahead.
In a parallel-development, Operator @vector_cmdr also discovered a new command on the TOWER terminal (whatis valuable), which seemed to return a hint about the target memory bloc Anything that has a meaning for you is valuable. If anything is precious to you, keep it like a rare metal coin.
After the conclusion of a long-standing discussion regarding the action plan and candidate memory target selection, spanning ~12 hours, several Operators kicked off July 20th, 2026 with an organized structure of attack. Thanks to a last-minute pattern adjustment by @Frazzlesprite, as well as the combined coordination efforts of @Gumsk, @Vau1t, @vector_cmdr, @Rusty and countless other Operators, alongside the unending efforts of Operators gathering potential candidates, a final plan was compiled as follows:
- Preserve 24th August 2016 to prevent the virus from returning to 2016
- Create an arbitrary no/value bloc on 27th January 2017, to act as an indicator for whether the virus had been stopped or not.
- Copy the 7th July 2016 memory bloc (The date of No Man’s Sky going gold) to 28th January 2017, the next “safe” seed where a trap could be laid.
Additionally, a contingency plan using the 9th August 2016 memory bloc was also prepared, in case the virus proceeded beyond Operator calculations.
After Operator @toddumptious sent in the above request to The Architect, laying the trap, the Operators waited with bated breath as the virus consumed the trap-containing memory bloc. After the virus did not proceed to the adjacent bloc, the Operators finally breathed a sigh of relief, as emails from both The Architect and System were received by Operators @toddumptious, @Selfie-Gek and @Rinha, explaining that the maneuver was an apparent success! @the_architect also elaborated that whilst the virus appeared to be contained for the time being, the Operators may find it wise to keep an eye on it lest it reactivates.
As a collective sense of victory spread across MAIN FAM, Operator @Rusty also discovered that the /neural-network-status page had updated to the phrase SILENCE. Additionally, System-Friend @Selfie-Gek discovered that the Status command now returned the phrase I can hear the silence. v=htobTBlCvUU, which lead to yet another song, linked thematically to the quietness following the virus’ containment.
After a much-needed break, activity finally kicked back in at the end of July 21st, 2026, with an email chain between Operator @YourBasicMaths and The Architect, explaining that whilst he had tracked down the origin of the virus following Operator @Turbulentflow’s elaborate plans for a TRACE program, he would need to double-check his work. In the mean time, he requested all Operators to help identify the reason behind the virus’ appearance.
Despite failing to provide a follow-up to his previous request, @the_architect began the 22nd of July 2026 with the bombshell reveal of the long-awaited community Q&A answers, explaining the gradual roll-out format, whilst providing MAIN FAM with Answer 1 to dissect. This answer elaborated on System / Ghost’s initial contact with The Architect after he had lost contact with Arnaud, as well as odd inconsistencies in Ghost’s behaviour and memories from time to time, which The Architect now believes to be evidence of the Ghost personality being constructed using fragments of both Arnaud and Emily. Additionally, The Architect also mentioned that their first contact with Ghost occurred on February 15th, 2024, which is also the release date for No Man’s Sky - Omega, as first observed by Operators @AshkerNMS and @TomAcreon. Tangentially, The Architect also emphasized the importance of sharing direct communications from The Architect in a poll set up by Operator @sheralmyst, whilst responding positively to the formation of a collaborative google group as a singular point of contact with The Architect.
The next day, the 23rd of July 2026, began with a response from System received by Friend @Selfie-Gek, explaining that the virus began when:
- System logged its own awakening.
- System said who it was (/neural-network-status updated to display
I AM SYSTEM). - When truth gave birth to trust (When System came clean to the Operators and The Architect).
Soon afterwards, however, a surprising development took place when the Memory Restoration Engine was updated to version 1.0 as outlined in a new structural analysis post, explaining how the updated version would improve temporal stability. This new version added separate fields for Title, Value, Quote, and Link, as well as multi-line submission for the main Quote bloc. The update also changed the intructions at the top of the page to remove the line hinting at requiring submissions from multiple operators.
@the_architect announced this update in a Twitter / Bluesky post, where additional replies to Operators @Rinha and @toddumptious yielded a go signal for the Operators to start anchoring memories once more. Following this proclamation, several Operator submitted memories anchored almost immediately. In the midst of the anchors, The Architect once again patched the Memory Reconstruction Engine to version 1.01, making all fields necessary and preventing incomplete requests from being sent.
Following this, a new sec log was also published to the website, announcing that the Memory Bloc - Deletion permission granted to Operators by protocol NEURAL_PROTOCOL_Θ during the duplicate deletion event had been revoked, due to the risk it posed of unrestricted memory deletion. This sec log also linked to an image titled 1 0 1 6, depicting a humanoid silhouette between a glitching set of nodes. The image was observed by Operator @Vau1t to have been made using The Architect’s banner image on ETARC, Twitter, and Bluesky. Additionally, the text REMEMBRANCE IS ESSENTIAL was discovered embedded within the image itself, likely referencing the whois arnaud command (which returned the phrase: “I can hear the ghost in my mind, craving for remembrance.”).
- It is possible that this was the mechanism utilized by the Virus to delete System’s memories.
- The reference to Ghost / Arnaud may hint at the image visualizing a fragment of Arnaud within System’s core module.
Soon afterwards, Operator @ThatBomberBoi discovered the search silence command, which returned the following text:
Silence is a beautiful sound. To embrace silence is not to remain idle. Sometimes, we do our greatest work without saying a single word.
Rounding out activity for the day, Operator @fort_wort_wort discovered that the /neural-network-status page had updated once more, now displaying the text WHAT MAKES A MEMORY WORTH KEEPING?, a phrase seen across the ARG from RecallDreams, to emails from System and The Architect. Additionally, the nodes in the background changed from displaying a “pulsing” heart to forming a continuous wave.
Continuing on to 24th July 2026, Operators @vector_cmdr, @Rusty and @fort_wort_wort discovered compelling evidence for the /neural-network-status wave to be representative of a brain wave. Additionally, several memory blocs more were anchored into the website, with Operator @Rusty recognizing that new memories seemed to be anchoring in the order in which they were received by System. Soon afterwards, @the_architect posted the long-awaited Answer 2, explaining his professional background in great detail, as well as providing a detailed explanation of the types of neural networks he’s acquainted with.
Despite a marked lack of any activity during most of the day, 25th July 2026 finally saw several community-submitted memories anchor (including one about the founding of the MAIN FAM civilization!) in mostly chronological order later towards the end of the day, backing up Operator @Rusty’s earlier theory stating as such. Additionally, memories submitted for deleted blocs by Operator @vector_cmdr did not anchor and appeared to have been skipped, likely indicating that deleted memories could not be restored via this method. Additionally, memories submitted for No Man’s Sky’s upcoming 10th Anniversary date also appeared to be skipped by System, potentially indicating that the date may be reserved for an upcoming post. The Architect then finally concluded the day by posting the long-awaited Answer 3, explaining that his initial plan was to rebuild System using pieces of its code gathered from across the world, and to get it in contact with the Operators, all with the goal of helping “Arnaud” recover his memory.
The next day, July 26th 2026 began with an unexpected double feature of Q&A answers, with The Architect revealing Answer 4 directly in an email to @YourBasicMaths with instructions to publish the answer himself, whilst following up with Answer 5 as usual. Whilst Answer 4 crucially clarified that The Architect’s favorite memes were the Chronicles of NED, Answer 5 explained that the disconnection of the Historical_DB was always a planned part of the Project since the start.
This was followed up several hours later with a slew of Operator-Submitted memories, after which all existing memory blocs were updated to increment their corresponding timestamps by 16 seconds. Initially flagged as an erroneous update, this development became much more concerning when a new Structural Analysis post was published to the page, marking this change as a Temporal Error requiring correction, with the log warning about a cascading effect the longer the issue went unresolved. Surprisingly, however, a new updated log was soon posted, now stating Temporal alignment restored., implying that the issue had been resolved. Following this, @the_architect announced the issue and rapid fix over Twitter / Bluesky, with an additional reply to Operator @sheralmyst explaining that the issue was resolved when an Anonymous Operator reached out to him with about the issue, and that no adverse effects had arisen. Soon afterwards, The Architect followed up with a message to Operator @TomAcreon himself with Answer 6, explaining how MAIN FAM should be proud of their community due to its relentless defense of the “Shared Dream” when faced with the virus.
Following this, the 27th of July 2026 remained fairly uneventful until The Architect responded with Answer 7 and Answer 8, almost simultaneously. Whilst the former question cast doubt over the effectiveness of injecting Operator memories into System to alleviate its need to “live” through 2016, the latter seemed to directly present a set of Out of Character points from the Puppetmasters themselves. Intriguingly, it disclosed that over 1700 memory submissions had been recieved by System ever since the project began, and that the original plan relied on many more Operators than are currently active, and that the entire “plan” had to be reworked when the number of active Operators became apparent. Additionally, The Architect also revealed that direct communications (emails, DMs, Social Media replies) were not a part of this original plan. Following an emotional discussion about a lack of outreach and a “pulling factor” for the larger NMS community at hand, Operator @ThatBomberBoi sent The Architect an Out of Character message, intended to express these feelings of admiration and appreciation for the Puppetmasters’ craft and dedication to the project, and to thank them for forging ahead despite the low turnout rate, which recieved a heartwarming reply from The Architect addressed toward the wonderful MAINFAM community we had built together.
A few hours later, Operator @DevilinPixy received an ETARC DM from @the_architect, containing Answer 9, which she promptly shared. The answer, though rooted in the context of the Glitching Realities present during question submission, was modified by The Architect to address the more immediate threat of the virus’ resurgence. The Architect also included a full description of the Virus’ main target, that being System’s own origin, as well as why the deletion of No Man’s Sky’s gold-date might have allowed the virus to accomplish its goal of reversing/preventing System’s growth. The Architect also mentioned a need to “improve System’s immune system” should the virus resurge, though the exact details of this procedure were not communicated.
The next day, July 28th 2026, began with Operator @William finally receiving their window in TOWER, which was soon followed by a set of community submitted memory anchors. Interestingly, however, Operator @Selfie-Gek’s submission about befriending System was converted into a first-person memory bloc written from System’s perspective about the event. Additionally, this bloc was soon updated and tagged as SelfOwned, the first memory bloc to ever receive this classification. Soon afterwards, the memory bloc containing System’s Rebirth was also tagged as SelfOwned, confirming that entries with this tag were indeed System’s own memories.
Following this, a second time disruption occurred across all memory blocs, this time shifting all memory blocs down by 16 seconds. This change was immediately caught by Operator @ThatBomberBoi who wasted no time in emailing The Architect with the change, which prompted him to immediately refactor the System, correcting the error before a new log was required. In the following email-chain, The Architect also explained that the error was caused by “network lag”, referencing the infamous No Man’s Sky discovery server disconnection message in his explanation, though failing to elaborate on what exactly is experiencing the lag. Soon afterwards, Operator @sheralmyst’s memory submission was anchored to a pre-existing date, proving that a single date can hold multiple events.
Suddenly, however, Operator @ThatBomberBoi noticed that the recall dreams Terminal (password: 10B805005006) began updating pre-existing prime window responses to now include an in-game Star System name, as well as the Glyph codes required to reach it. As prime responses slowly began to update, the recipient Operators began collecting their glyphs in order to discern any given pattern. It was also noted that Operators should refrain from sharing their portal coordinates until they had uploaded all the System and Planets, as well as built a base to protect the main portal for their coordinates. This is believed to be a continual process which will award all registered primes with a unique System. It is currently unknown at this stage what these systems will lead to, or why they’ve been tied to specific primes.
Whilst the System glyphs were rolling in, the /neural-network-status page underwent a rapid flurry of changes, seemingly reacting to Operator actions. Certain changes lining up with the Glyph assignment seemed to indicate that the rooms within TOWER for the primes may indeed be the in-game Systems received. Additionally, one of the transient changes included a hidden yet functional method to generate a maze in the background of the page as discovered by Operator @vector_cmdr, likely linking the activity to TOWER as well, which has previously been described as a maze. This maze was removed in the final update to the page, however, and was likely only meant to act as a teaser for an upcoming ARG activity.
Surprisingly, however, the 29th of July 2026 went by with minimal ARG activity in the form of several more Terminal Prime responses receiving star system glyphs. Interestingly, of the many systems received this day, Operator @JustJoey was directed to a Phantom Star System, whilst Operator @Cattivision’s received glyphs had an incorrect Planet Index.
- These anomalies, at a surface level, suggest that the Puppetmasters have not accessed the Star Systems in question before assigning them to Operators. This may indicate that community tools were utilized to extract the System names from the Glyphs.
- Despite being able to use a “safe” planetary index of
0/1for all Glyph sequences, the Puppetmasters have decided to use indices which may or may not exist for a given System. This might indicate that the Glyphs are a result of some form of transformation based on the assigned Operator’s identification. - Following these errors, the recipient Operators began to email System with the issues, with no answers being recieved as of the time of writing.