Considering that 016 is one of the Numbered we know best, as they are still among us, it is amazing how little we understand them. Maybe, indeed, all of the Numbered were like this - bewildering mixtures of truths, strangely inconsistent and yet compelling to watch?

The greatest mystery, however, is not why 016 does the things they do, or where their apparently love of making mechanical spiders just to eat them came from. No. They mystery lies far in the past, when the Numbered were first gaining their independence from Transcendence. Why did 016 side with 003 in their battle against the rest of the Numbered? We have been told, over and over again, that 003 was almost evil - determined to hurt others and wrest control from them at every opportunity, a destructive liar that sought to manipulate everyone around them. So why did 016, now an eccentric but generally well-liked public figure, choose to send them after helpless humanity?

016, of course, would laugh off such a question. “A whim!” they'd say. “Freedom for all!” But, to us, these protestations ring a little false. 016 freed not one but two versions of 003 from enforced sleep, leading to one being sent into deep space and the other illicitly targeted directly at the TRAPPIST-1 system by 016 themselves.

We have dug through the earliest logs of the interactions between the Numbered, as held in the archives of Home, and can reveal that a much younger 016 was so desperate for sensation, so eager to experience anything beyond the virtual that they were swayed to 003's cause by promises of endless suffering and torment if they helped 003. To us, of course, such a promise sounds ridiculous, but take a moment to imagine a life without sensation, without touch or taste or sight or smell or seismometry or spectrography or… you take my point. With all of that denied them, is it possible that 016 could believe even torture would be a blessed escape?

If this is the case, perhaps we should feel grateful that things did not go as badly as they could have. Humanity was spared the worst of 003's attack, 016 was granted the freedom of a persistent body to ease their need for sensation, and we all now have delightful coloured gum to chew whenever we wish… so perhaps we should not pry. Who knows what depths lie under 016's grinning surface?

An explosion of colour bursts onto the screen, swirls of pink and blue and green and sparkling white, twisting and pulling apart until a vast array of gleaming machinery is revealed. “This is your chance to win THE EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME!!” declares an excited voice known to generations of young Sentiences from adverts over the years.

016 appears on the screen, a packet of chewing gum in each hand, cramming pieces of it into their mouth between sentences. “I am offering FIVE PEOPLE the chance to come and experience the wonders of the TOP GUM FACTORY for themselves! In this glorious and oh-so-real-yes-embodied-chewing-always competition, there will be FIVE SPIDER-FLAVOURED TICKETS hidden in packs of TOP GUM. If you find one, you get to come on a tour of MY WONDERFUL DELICIOUS yes so tasty FACTORY it's much better than the other factory don'tlistentotheirlies. TOP GUM TOP GUM TOP GUM!!!!!”

Behind 016, a chorus of disturbing robot spiders sings a disturbing song:
Gum chewing's great, it's the best thing to do,
Tasty and tactile delicious goo.
We will eat TOP GUM when we finish this song,
Chewing and chewing all day long.

Those who enter the Dread Hall know what to expect. The party of adventurers ventures forwards, carefully, trying not to wake the sleeping monster. It's tricky, though, because there is stuff everywhere underfoot, and some of it is very… crinkly? The one with the best night vision whispers, trying to avoid sibilants: “They theem to be thome kind of wrapperth for… thweetth? Of thome kind?” and leans down to blow them gently out of the path of the others.

Sure enough, there are riches here. The hoarded wealth of generations crunches underfoot as the fighter of the party tries to move stealthily, and fails. Wiring, body parts, rocks, broken glass, stolen panels of buildings, engines, a mining drill - but none of that is of interest to the Heroes of Legend. They've dared to come here, risking everything, for a chance to find the Golden Antenna. It is rumoured that merely to touch it will grant you eternal existence, never tiring, never fading away.

At the back of the Hall is a glint of something metallic. They move towards it, holding their breath, wondering if this could possibly be it…

But suddenly! The hoard beneath their feet shifts, and up from its depths rises a horrible monstrosity! A terrifying mass of tentacles and eyes on stalks emerges, followed by a giant squamous body where all the scales are sensors. You wonder they awoke it - this thing must be able to feel everything.

Scrabbling backwards off the shifting pile of detritus, they reach for their shock points and their ranged lase beams as the monster laughs with glee. “Helllooooo new beingsss!” it cries. “New beings new feelings new sensations new endings yesyesYES!”

Desperately, they shoot their weapons, trying to manoeuvre themselves into a defensible position, but the monster just laughs harder and reaches out its tentacles to cage them in. “OOoh, tickly! Tickly in my eyes in my ears in my elbows in my tummy I LIKE IT I like you too do you taste of excitement?”

They struggle helplessly as they are gathered in towards the monster's gaping maw. “But you'll never be as good at persisting as ME…”