[Flere821]

Originally Posted by tusjecht

This brings up a psychological argument. Say, you're in RATH's FullDive machine, with its 100% realistic rendering, and you've lived there your entire life. Unless your 'god' suddenly appeared before you, and informed that this world is a testing ground, how would you know you're simply a soul in a computer. If you're not anyone important, just your regular villager trying to make ends meet, is that even going to come to mind?

How the web novel got to the point of Underworld moving against Real world, I don't know. But this sheer inability to know is what protects the Underworld residents to begin with. We're having all these issues with assigning them status because relative to them, we're gods, and we're debating on whether to grant them equal status.

Covered in final WEB chapter of Alicization:

Spoiler for RL & Fluctlights:

Alice got sent into the real world and Rath had her be present as part of the media meeting of what they have created, and why the US had attacked them. Fundamentally, there's no difference between a Fluctlight and a normal human soul, as both can log into a VR game or be copied. Answering one reporter's question, Alice asked them if Gods suddenly showed up one day and said to the RL humans "we own all of you, we created all of you, obey us or die", obviously most humans aren't going to accept/believe that. In this situation humans won't just submit quietly, if at all. It's the same with UW and the resident Fluctlights within there. Alice herself stated "We citizens of Underworld have legs to stand as equals to the humans of this world, not legs to bend down and kneel before you".