100 Ghost Stories That Will Lead to My Own Death - Ch. 87 - Civitalk

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15,000 yen at current exchange rates is slightly more than 100 US dollars at current rates, which means that if the old man spent more than 10-20 hours talking to his de-aged not-wife he'd have been better off just buying a high-end GPU and self-hosting an AI model instead.

Or maybe the real horror here is that it's showing us a world in which GPU prices are so high that only the five richest kings of Europe are able to afford them and the proles are left to rent access to linear algebra-driven wish fulfillment from them.

Interestingly enough this wasn't even the first story to deal with the concept of AI, which was central to Ch. 71 along with the same theme of humanification.

The Civitalk kiosk in this chapter is almost certainly a reference to Civitai, so it looks like the author's been doing some research on the subject.

Considering how directly impacted online independent artists are by the rise of neural networks I'm a little surprised I haven't been seeing plotlines about AI popping up more often in manga, but my follows are mostly horror and anything with the gyaru tag, so maybe there's a lot more out there than I realize.

 

[LilBurglar]

Feel a bit sad for the old man. Had a feeling that was the twist.

Also, stepmother? Did we know she was Yuuma's stepmother and not his biological mother? Where IS his biological mother?

it was kinda obvious it was his stepmom

 

[ThatGuy]

It has been hinted at before. Back in Ch. 39 she mentioned nothing good ever comes from being involved with him, which would be a particularly estranged way to refer to their relationship if he was biologically her's. Also in Ch. 66 after phoning the police she mentioned always being creeped out by Yuuma's presence for as long as she's known him and was glad to be rid of him from the house. It's important to note she's still wearing the bandage dressing from having her hand impaled back in Ch. 20 and the neck brace from the injuries she suffered in the Umakin attack back in Ch. 30.

As far as the timeline, Yuuma mentions his Dad comes home on Fridays (shown to be particularly violent at those times, perhaps drunk?) such as in Ch. 36. Every chapter is a different day which Yuuma marks off on his calendar on the wall in the background of his room. So therefore he tends to show up after every several 7-chapter incremental multiples thereof like in Ch. 57 and again later in Ch. 85 when he got ceiling Hina'd.

Yuuma also stopped going to school in Ch. 48 (or roughly one and half months ago now in-universe) following the death of the first police officer and the ensuing investigation that his Dad and Stepmother were suspiciously hostile toward. Also interesting to note Yuuma does have a modest recurrent wardrobe, with the dark star t-shirt he wore this chapter also seen previously like in Ch. 40.


Interestingly enough this wasn't even the first story to deal with the concept of AI, which was central to Ch. 71 along with the same theme of humanification.

How do you remember all this

 

[Sonaldo]

Lmfao 😂. This is too specific

 

[22nd_Ranger]

Good one

 

[Arexty]

How do you remember all this

Hyperfixation & compulsive rescanning of previous chapters which is pretty easy as the overarching story pieces are always situated within the first and last few pages of each chapter. Another bit of trivia I found interesting while checking is (to my knowledge) Ch. 51 is the only one so far to not include any sort of outro after the story's ending stinger.

 

[beansbunko]

this was one of the better stories for sure

 

[Foreus]

Feel a bit sad for the old man. Had a feeling that was the twist.

Also, stepmother? Did we know she was Yuuma's stepmother and not his biological mother? Where IS his biological mother?

why do you feel sad for that trash

 

[fennec]

why do you feel sad for that trash

Based on the small glimpse we got, his wife changed a lot from their youth. She was always sitting in front of the TV, left a bag of stale chips for dinner... The line about a loveless marriage and his wife sticking around only for his pension was probably true.

He loves a person who's alive, but has changed so fundamentally they're no longer that same person he fell in love with. That part is just sad to me because it's pretty true to reality. A lot of older people stick to miserable relationships just because they used to be in love, and the miserable state of affairs is just "normal" for them.

 

[SleepyDemon]

why do you feel sad for that trash

At one point she was the love of his life.

Now look at her. Jack Stauber claymation-looking hag who throws a bag of stale ass chips on the table for dinner, is hinted to have played the long con for solely monetary reasons. The her that he fell in love with is so far gone that even the AI reconstruction of her past self assumes she's literally dead.

Granted, we only have his perspective on this story...maybe she kicked his ass for trying to kill or abuse her in the past and that's why the relationship ended up where it is. Guy got way too spooked by that glance over the shoulder for it to be just guilt. Or heck, maybe she was the one physically abusing him for years and he finally reached a breaking point.

Regardless, love fizzling out like this over decades is by far the most realistic horror story yet. It's easy to feel sad for him because it's a tragic position you wouldn't want to find yourself in and chances are you've known (openly or secretly) a good number of people who are on their way there if not there already.

 

[JBreezy]

I honestly expected the AI to rip people's souls from heaven or something and bring them to the booth, still sad tho

 

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[sksocks]

Ooh, I said this last chapter! Surprised I seem to have been on the mark about it being his step mother. So I think his mother is "us" and he was trying to bring her back with the stories. His father and stepmother are abusive and his mother is getting revenge now.

I wonder if maybe his birth mom died and we've been seeing a step mother (hence the disdain?), and his dad is at fault? Kind of a shot in the dark since I don't think we've had indication that those aren't his birth parents, but could be a mom wanting revenge or to save him from his situation?

 

[fatto_catto]

I honestly expected the AI to rip people's souls from heaven or something and bring them to the booth, still sad tho

So did I. This story is really just sad tragedy, not a ghost story.

 

[WaterSoluble]

why do you feel sad for that trash

The point of tragic storytelling is usually to elicit empathy for the person who is making the tragic choices, regardless of whether they're a good person.

 

[Rodnap]

Scariest part of this is that it could very well be real within 5 years time

Seen how good something like janitor.ai can get without artificial/commercial restrictions, it is scary true

 

[zawarudo]

Ooh, I said this last chapter! Surprised I seem to have been on the mark about it being his step mother. So I think his mother is "us" and he was trying to bring her back with the stories. His father and stepmother are abusive and his mother is getting revenge now.

Yeah, these were hinted at every so often, including even all the way back in chapter 1. But it only becomes really obvious on a re-read.

 

[Cynn]

I did expect the wife’s identity to be revealed, but I still found it disturbing at the end. The man, who cowered at home during the strangle attempt, now flew in an absolute killing rage at the booth upon seeing them both side by side. It further enforced the idea they’re two separate people, and he wasn’t hurting his loved one.

This separation from reality and how easily this scenario can be easily nowadays is scary.

 

[sotokouya]

i wondered if civitalk was a thing before reading the chapter only to find a dubbed version of this chapter claiming that it's its own standalone comic with barely any credit to the series