Protagonist Halo & Protagonist Syndrome

Protagonist Halo is basically a walking case study in Protagonist Syndrome. He rearranges his own memories to fit a narrative where he's the savior of the BUG-Source — the classic edgy "hero" who justifies anything as long as it serves the greater good. But strip that away and he's just a coward who can't stomach living with what actually happened to him.

The Kuleshov Effect, but for memory. In film, the same neutral face reads as sad, hungry, or happy depending on the shot before or after it. Memory works the same way — it's not a recording you replay, it's something your brain reconstructs on the spot, and the meaning shifts depending on what you frame it with.

The Motorcycle Rider is the clearest example: instead of recalling the moment he got rejected, he reframes the memory around the hot-pot ad that happened to be playing. It saves him from spiraling that night — but it doesn't fix anything. Next rejection, he's right back at the edge.

And that's the irony with Protagonist Halo himself — he lost to FangTang once, then deleted the memory of losing. So he never actually learned from it.

Beating BUG-Being 44: Reality Theater

Protagonist Halo's been using BUG-44 to rewrite people's memories and build illusions for them. Makes sense where that power comes from — it's pure escapism given form. Fantasy, delusion, maladaptive daydreaming, imagining a version of you that's smarter, tries harder, gets luckier. The version who got the better life.

What's huge here is that BUG-44 gets taken down without brute-forcing it through the Memories Collector — the first BUG-Being to fall that way. The moment Guan Chao actually accepts his reality instead of hiding in the dream, BUG-44 just collapses. Ran Deng's gamble is paying off.

Unless — BUG-Hollow was the one that actually killed it. Which would mean Hollow works by erasing whatever memories Guan Chao wants gone.

Either way, that scene of Ran Deng giving Guan Chao another change was beautiful.

BUG-Hollow: New Theory

I originally read Hollow as a manifestation of Guan Chao's suicidal ideation — his wish to just be forgotten. Its power is total erasure, deleting things so completely even the Memories Collector can't pull them back.

But the trigger seems tied to his friend. Almost everything about them has been wiped, black-hole... and that absence is what left Guan Chao hollow in the first place.

Given the preview of Ep 06, I assume the BUG-Hollow is his old friend.

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"Kick Soda tastes like oranges, not like straw at all. I kept hesitating. And I missed my chance to say what I meant."
This reads like he fell for Xiao and just never said anything. All the Time Gun, K7, G.A.O stuff — that might just be a theater his mind built to avoid sitting with the regret of never telling her. BUG-Hollow erased her from his memory entirely, which is why FangTang can't even find her memories.

Episode 4:

Memory Collector Lore: Ran Deng

The strongest collector, exhibiting suicidal/hyper-empathy — prioritizing extreme compassion and emotional openness over logic and self-preservation. Likely a consequence of killing many BUG Beings over time.

This reframes the central question: what is a BUG Being, really? So far they're shown only as antagonists.

The Hydra Theory

• BUG Beings exist to protect BUG Sources from the painful truth of reality.
• They are literalized psychological defense mechanisms: fantasy, rationalization, delusion, escapism, projection, denial, repressed memory.
• Each is built on a lie / false memory meant to shield the ego during distress.
• The Memories Administration Bureau tries to brute-force these BUG Beings out of existence — but since the root cause (unresolved trauma) is never addressed, new BUG Beings simply spawn again. Classic Hydra problem: cut one head, two grow back.

Ran Deng's Last Will + Gambit

He wants a BUG Source to inherit his Halo and use it to face their own BUG Beings — theorizing that only the Source can end their own cycle, by confronting the painful memory directly rather than having it fought for them externally. Once the Source no longer needs the BUG Being to survive, the cycle ends permanently.

Central Image: Mourning Seashell Clamp in a Desert

• Represents resilience/protection in the most hostile environment — but for Guan Chao specifically, it reads as cowardice and self-protection in the face of trauma, mirrored by the "crawled up in his blanket on the bed" memory.
• Possible reading: an ocean once existed here and dried up — home/security/love has vanished, leaving Guan Chao alone and isolated.
• The Clamp constant screaming shows it feel pain deep inside, but refuse to open up. It also attacks people who tries to help them. It's a metaphor for people who is in pain but refuse help and push away those who tries to help them.
• Ran Deng sympathize with the clamp pain. The Seashell open-up to Ran Deng, but it also killed him. Another metaphor saying 'even if they open up to you, doesn't mean they will change' and worse they can take you down with them.

Working Theory: The Father

• Likely an alcoholic.
• A fight broke out between them.
• Father possibly died or sacrificed himself.
• The game console is precious — possibly the only promise his father ever actually kept.

"The truth hurt me. Creates false memories. To save me."

Core premise: Every BUG Man we've seen so far may originate from Guan Chao alone — nothing says a single BUG Source can't spawn multiple BUG Men, and all memory layers shown so far are his.

Additionally, Bai Zhong said if a BUG Man gets powerful enough, they can invade reality, not just memories.

The Time Gun as BUG Man:

• Ep 2 = his school days, Ep 3 = his corporate-slave years, and Ep 3 heavily implies he successfully used* the Time Gun to travel back.
• My theory: the Time Gun is a BUG Man — not a real device. Everything from the moment he finds it is partly false memory: a fantasy of escaping or undoing something, which the BUG Man weaponized to convince him he'd actually traveled through time by messing with his memories.
• Additionally, the 'Burning Stone', K7 and 'Great Absurdity Organization' might be an elaporate false memories Guan Chao's mind conjurred up to keep him distracted from the truth that hurted him. They can also be BUG Man as well.

Xiao, the Hollow girl as BUG Man:

• Xiao, said— "Do you ever subconsciously long for the end of the world?" — suggests the Hollow is a BUG Man born from the desire to escape existence by ending it. Hollow is a BUG Man that manage to effected reality.
• Bai Zhong's warning that failing to recycle all BUG Men means "all your memories will be eaten" reframes Hollow's origin is born from the desire to forget regretful memories.
• Supporting this: Hollow starts destroying memory-objects in the Memory Collectors' shared space the instant Guan Chao enters — because that space is now part of his memories.

The reveal: Hollow's real power is destroying memory and it has evolved to be able to hollowing reality as well.

Conclusion: Hollow manifested from Guan Chao's desire to be completely forgotten and escape the world. Since "the world and reality are just memories," Hollow is a BUG Man capable of unmaking reality itself by unmaking the memories that constitute it.

Now Guan Chao must goes through all the layers of his memories to confront the final boss, "Hollow", to stop it from destroying his existence.