There is something in the northern-most tower of the second cave/terminal.
The correct quote is: "The map is not the area."
I spent quite a while going through the blue terminal, but I couldn't find what you were talking about. Since you turn around so much in this game, I couldn't tell where north was. I thoroughly searched all tower like structures but found nothing. Just went in circles, occasionally finding the entrance again and collecting ego orbs.
Can you give me any more clues? Or is there some other condition to making this secret appear? Is it a different portal, a strange coloured ego orb, a special sound cue, a hidden area or something else entirely? I feel lost. Sorry.
I appreciate the effort you're putting in, it really means a lot.
So, when you enter a terminal you are always "up-right" and facing north, I mistakenly told you the north tower but forgot that I rotated the entrance direction for the second terminal, so it would more properly be called the east tower.
When you enter the second terminal, take an immediate turn to the right, 90 degrees, and go straight through the hall, it will take you to the middle pillar of the three pillars/towers/long halls in the second terminal's map. From there, go straight up that middle pillar, at the end you will find this area, think hard about this square:
Wow, that was a wild secret area. Thanks for telling me about it, I would have never found it otherwise. Now my curiosity is finally satisfied.
What were your inspirations for this game? I remember the last bit of dialogue with TV man, I told him to stop being so damn cryptic. He told me things weren't as abstract as I thought. But in the end, I still wonder why the map is not the area.
Many things inspired me, the map-territory thing is based on this philosophical concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation The visuals of the game were inspired by System Shock 1's hacking worlds, as well as the game im null, which I think is currently unavailable to play: https://gamejolt.com/games/null/40128
Thanks again for spending time with it. It's a bit of a game design failure on my part, but it was a lot of fun to make and probably what I'm most proud of creating so far.