okay, two points on the recent discussion.
1. show dialogue where it clearly states verionica's connections is the monster. as far i recall reading, it sounded like he could be. but nothing saying he is. so im wondering if i missed a clear statement of fact. cause one of you out there stated it like it was fact.
2. i posited that MC could be the monster, using the same line "when do i get to be the monster" as a possible foreshadowing, especially as it came before the monsters first appearance(to my recollection at that time and still now). furthermore, i noted his disscociative problems and tech skills as well as physical and emotional proximity to all the girls involved would give him the ability to track and monitor them. the how isnt even hard, i have an app on my phone that that gives me time delayed notifications called a calender. somone with a lil tech know how could easily hack their own phone and leave themselves messages to communicate with their other personality. its actually a very common literary device in stories where a character has dissociative disorders that the main personality is not aware of the others, and the protector personality is well aware of the main, goes out of their way to protect them, as well as communicate with them. My favorie example is a pscyh episode where a dude is being haunted by a female ghost, turns out one dissociative personality is a women and she is trying to warn him about their more dangerous personality. all sorts of shenanigans in that episode but im starting to stray. just saying, its normal in stories for a main personality to not know about the others, and the others to do all sorts of shit and even make contact through varied means to guide or protect the main from themselves and others.
it may not be where the story is headed, but there is as much evidence making it possible as any other saying "this" or "that" character is the monster.
There's so many theories, but I want to jump in on the whole MC is the Monster thing and say I fully support this hypothesis - my evidence (and sorry if this has been pointed out already).
When the AI video is shown, the monster tells the MC to go directly to Christine. This (at least to me is because the MC already suspects its AI (he works in the tech field after all))
The monster tells the MC this because the MC is already aware that Christine would spot it as a deep fake and would be able to point this out to the MC.
It's almost like he's talking to an alter that he just isn't aware off is himself.
Also, as established in ACT 1, the MC is able to use technology to text himself (the servers text him when they have faults))
Happy to be wrong, but There's more evidence that supports this - though the link to Veronica in Act3 does throw a slight spanner into the theory, but I guess that can be explained due to the unreliable narrator plot device.
The problem with the idea the MC is The Monster is while it could be possible from a technical point of view their is a problem, the MC has live chat with The Monster, so the implication would be he is hallucinating an actual conversation with his other personality on his phone, his other personality that is able to perceive everything the MC can, while the MC can't perceive everything the other personality perceive, at this point the amount of wild loops required to be jump thru to make it work has never happened in the history of that sort of issues, communicating indirectly, sure, but live selective communication via hallucination is over the top.
So let's humor that theory and see what would be required to make it work, a fully functional AI the like doesn't exist currently, created by the other personality which would require the other personality to have access to a supercomputer to hold it, as well as the extremely expansive tech required and specially made housing location, that can interact in its stead with the MC & others, so option 1 this story has a secret Sci-fi background.
Option 2, the MC is possessed by a supernatural entity, that entity can perceive anything the MC does and is using its powers to make the MC hallucinate what it wants, and when necessary it can take over to safeguard the MC from danger.
Beyond those two options to have a secondary personality, that has access to the primary personality entire sensorial and memorial input, while being able to block the same thing when its control from reaching the MC, is capable of triggering hallucinations on demands, take over at need, its beyond anything ever experience by any human being suffering from mental issues. Because that is starting to border on the MC being the pilot of a living mecha and the AI that run the mecha normally in the background interfer whenever it need to do so.
Oh and on the subject of the MC not being the MC, look I don't think the Prof would be going that far into the batshit insane, maybe reveal at the end of Act 1 that the MC isn't the MC but making it halfway into the game would be abjectly ridiculous, now if you mean that the MC of the story is Lacey, now that sure Lacey being the main character of the story its far more possible, the Prof seem to care alot more about her than the MC, but otherwise its farfetched to expect some other character would be the MC, and where would it even leave the story, it would effectively erase most of 3 Acts of the narrative and characterization, I know some stories pulled that sort of trick, within like half an hour of the start, at this point we are what maybe passed a dozen hours if you read everything? It would kill this game instantly if the Prof went for that, sure the diehard MC haters might rejoice, but everyone else would abandon this game instantly.
