Even those words were enough to upset his duplicates, to make them sad. Atlas knew he wasn't lying. From his sister to all his friends, so many people had died for him. When he was able to go back and live again, Atlas wanted to try to save them.
As he said in the goal he set at the beginning:
"The whole world may burn, but somewhere in the world I will create a place where everything is normal, where all my loved ones can live."
Maybe it was stupid, maybe it was too much thought. Nevertheless, this was his goal.
Now he was very close to realising it...in a world that never burned.
He couldn't leave everything now. He wouldn't dare.
That's why he refused to die. If there was a way, which he hadn't thought of before he absorbed the poison, he would live and return to the real world.
He was determined to tell these thoughts to each copy, but the only thing he noticed was that each copy suddenly started to smile, but still did not lose its seriousness.
