Human dimension reduction

Wrapped in an army green blanket, Wang Zhun pulled the thick fabric up to his chin, wishing he could shrink into a harmless and plump cocoon, holding a hot water cup that someone stuffed for him when he sat down, The hot water is pressed heavily in the hand through the stainless steel cup, which feels very safe.

He greedily breathed the moist air in the mountains and forests under the sun, and stared straight at the open blue sky, feeling that he had never experienced the beauty of blue sky and white clouds so much in his life in the past 20 years.

So much so that he didn't care that the buddy sitting next to him was trembling nervously, which made him start to tremble too.

The medical tent was huge, enough to accommodate a group of survivors, and well-trained military doctors shuttled among them to bandage their wounds during their escape.

Fortunately for Wang Zhun, the most serious wounds on his body were just a few scrapes from rolling down the stairs. It is said that an unlucky guy next door tried to escape through the window, and one leg was cut off by the monster that chased him. He disappeared and the armed police came in quickly. I'm afraid he should be waiting for his family members to claim him in the mortuary now.

In that case, he might be the luckiest one.

A group of men and women who are still in shock are tightly packed together. Most of them escape together for friendship. This kind of environment is the easiest to breed trust. Even though they know that they have been rescued, the surviving instinct of panic still keeps them together like a flock of sheep. Son.

Wang Zhun suddenly raised his head and looked around for a certain figure.

Surrounded by companions with life-threatening friendships, he still couldn't help but want to find the first person he saw when he opened his eyes.

It's hard to say what kind of mentality it is, it may be a bit similar to the baby bird effect, even if his companions all bleed together, he still looks forward to seeing the young man who has only been together for a few minutes but gave him the courage to take steps to fight .

...He should have been rescued too, right?After all, his temperament is that of a big boss at first glance. He is calm in the face of adversity, and acts decisively with a calm mind. It is too unreasonable for such a person not to survive.

Wang Zhun turned his head slightly to look east and west, and finally saw a somewhat familiar figure from behind in a place not far from the crowd.

How should I put it... Although everyone was wrapped in a uniform army green cotton blanket, that figure looked extraordinarily refined, even the earthy army green was worn by him like a retro nostalgic design on a fashion show.

"Joe...Brother Joe?"

Wang Zhun moved his legs, but he still couldn't help strolling over. When he saw that calm face, a sense of reality of "I really escaped alive" hit him belatedly. The fluttering heart suddenly pressed firmly into the chest cavity.

Qiao Zhou was observing the turbulent water in the cup with lowered eyebrows, and his thoughts were spinning on the puppet in his pocket. Unexpectedly, there was someone beside him, who was still talking to him. Qiao Zhou, who followed the basic social etiquette, raised his head and stared at the other person For a moment, a flash of realization flashed in his eyes: "Ah, it's you...Mr. Yang."

One second Wang Zhun was happy to see Qiao Zhou, but the next second he was dumbfounded: "Brother Qiao, my surname is Wang...my name is Wang Zhun."

Qiao Zhou took advantage of the situation and changed his expression into an apology: "Wang...? Hey, sorry, I'm not very good at remembering names, so I won't get it wrong this time."

Wang Zhun waved his hand: "It's okay, it's okay. Um... Brother Qiao, where did you go? I listened to you and went out to explore, and then I met other survivors..."

As soon as Wang Zhun opened his mouth, he couldn't close it. He originally planned to say a few words, but under Qiao Zhou's watchful eyes, he kept talking more and more. When I vented out, my eyes got wet while talking.

"That nurse...if she hadn't given me a hand, she wouldn't have been caught behind...I didn't even have time to ask her name..."

The young man lowered his head and wiped his eyes. His voice was broken because of sadness. Qiao Zhou looked at him without saying anything to comfort him. His expression was extremely calm. Wang Zhun calmed down by himself and smiled at him: "I remember her appearance. I can go to the hospital's personnel department for investigation. I don't know what else to do, so I can only give more compensation."

The curtains of the tent were raised and then lowered, and the medical staff took the survivors out and back in by turns. Seeing Qiao Zhou staring at them, Wang Zhun suddenly remembered something: "Oh, it seems that the higher authorities are investigating this matter, take turns Find someone to go out and talk to, there is nothing to be afraid of, just say whatever you want, and... I also want to know what's going on."

When he said the last sentence, this always good-tempered young man clenched his teeth, and a gloomy and stern light flashed in his eyes.

He was brought up by a wealthy family, cheerful and lively, carefree, but it doesn't mean that he is really stupid enough to be tossed around like this without heart.

The order of the conversation quickly came to Wang Zhun. He made a gesture to Qiao Zhou, probably meaning "rest assured", and followed the officer who sent the message out. Within 5 minutes, another officer walked in to take a look. : "May I ask who is Qiao Zhou?"

Qiao Zhou raised his eyes, took out the glasses stuffed in from the other pocket, unfolded them, pressed them lightly on the bridge of his nose, stood up and replied, "I'm Qiao Zhou."

"Don't be nervous, just tell what happened before, make a record, and the psychiatrist will listen in, if you feel that you can't stand it, stop..."

The officer leading the way babbled about the precautions to Qiao Zhou, fearing that he would collapse on the spot, and gently reminded him to be mentally prepared.

The two finally stopped in front of a small tent. Qiao Zhou smiled at him, thanked him politely, then opened the curtain and walked in.

The inside is only five or six square meters in size. There is a table and a chandelier that is deliberately adjusted to be a little dark. They were wearing soft-colored uniform jackets, but Qiao Zhou still spotted the collars of the standard shirts under their jackets sharply.

It's a simple psychological trick, and it seems that they have done a lot to make the survivors relax.

Qiao Zhou pretended to be soothed by this scene, the tension in his limbs eased a little, and he sat down on the chair behind the table with a little vigilance. The top just fits the curve of the human body.

"Mr. Qiao, don't be nervous, we just chat."

It was the short-haired woman who spoke first. She closed the folder in front of Qiao Zhou and put down the pen to show that she was harmless. The other man even pretended that he didn't exist, just smiled and didn't speak.

"Did you come to the hospital this morning? I heard that it seems that your sister accompanied you here..."

Taking the homely chat as the starting point of the conversation, Qiao Zhou slowly eased his expression and showed a slight smile: "Yes, I didn't expect to encounter such a thing. I thought it was my hallucination."

"Hallucinations? Because it's unbelievable, isn't it?" The female doctor spoke calmly, following Qiao Zhou's words.

"No," Qiao Zhou glanced at the two of them and reminded gently, his eyes flicked over the folder closed by the female doctor, "You should have read my medical records? ——ah, no need to apologize, no What I can’t say, I should have been diagnosed with paranoia, and I can often see strange things appearing in front of me.”

"For example, before entering the hospital in the morning, I saw a huge slime floating in the parking lot, the colorful one, and then I saw a big black hole, which was slowly swallowing up the entire hospital—— "

Qiao Zhou keenly noticed that when he said the word "black hole", the expressions of the two people on the opposite side changed, and they exchanged glances with each other.

He pretended to ignore this small detail, and was still immersed in his own world: "A tall tree grew in the garden, with strange-shaped fruits hanging on it... To be honest, I'm used to this kind of scene, So after the surrounding environment changed, I just wondered if I—was sick again.”

He uttered the word with ease, and he didn't seem at all to think that admitting he was mentally ill was such a big deal.

However, such a calm attitude also made the two people on the opposite side relax a bit. The female doctor nodded: "It is indeed an illusion to say this. When did you see that black hole? It has been moving?"

"The body feels like it's moving forward at a constant speed, as if all the buildings within the range of the black hole have been swallowed up, it must have lasted for a while, why, isn't this my hallucination?" Qiao Zhou asked back.

The female doctor cleverly led the topic: "Apart from the black hole, is there anything special? The scene in the hospital suddenly changed?"

Qiao Zhou nodded: "Suddenly, it's like changing the perspective from 3D to 2D, the surroundings suddenly become pixelated, even the people are pixel squares, and then immediately change back to 3D - I can't rule out that I'm still sick. "

The female doctor laughed at his self-deprecation: "What about after changing back to 3D? Does the Third Hospital look like an almshouse? It is said that it is the architectural style of the 100th century. Although it is only more than [-] years ago, it is now in China. It’s not easy to see that kind of architecture.”

"To be exact, it was 1885. I heard from the doctor there." Qiao Zhou added.

The two people on the opposite side looked up at him again with indescribable eyes.

...Are you nervous or too calm?When other people mentioned the monster doctor in the poorhouse, their faces were pale and they could not speak clearly. There was also one who cried directly during the recall stage. This Mr. Qiao actually talked to the monster doctor?

Judging by his expression, he doesn't seem to think that chatting with non-human species is a big deal.

"You... aren't afraid?" The female doctor couldn't help asking.

Qiao Zhou looked at her and asked, "Why are you afraid?"

The female doctor was confused by this question. Is there any other reason?Facing a hungry liger in the wilderness and a storm that overturns everything in the ocean, the first reaction of anyone who has the desire to survive is fear.

"Your analogy is wrong." Qiao Zhou shook his head, and the female doctor realized that she had said something unknowingly. The colleague beside her frowned and gave her a nonchalant look, and hesitated for a moment.

"What's wrong?" The female doctor is also a serious person, and her intuition tells her that this question may be the most valuable thing in the long conversation with so many people today.

"It's not right anywhere," Qiao Zhou changed his posture, crossing his fingers on the table, changing his stiff state just now, as if the boss pointed out the wrong work of his subordinates, "Whether it's a hungry beast or an ocean wave, their essence is It's irrational, the dilemma you face is that the beast wants to eat you, the waves want to take you away, unless the beast's hunger is relieved and you can escape from the extreme weather, you will die, and you can't control the beast and you can't control the weather, So you can only die."

The female doctor quickly grasped a word in his words. This word made her thoughts rush out like a tide, and she reflexively remembered more things, and these things made her scalp go numb for a moment, and even her voice froze. Instinctively lowered a lot: "You said irrational..."

The expression of the other man was also faintly distorted.

"You mean... those monsters in the almshouse are rational?"

This guess was too scary, and the female doctor subconsciously glanced at the people around her.

When talking with the previous survivors, they said that monsters can communicate, talk, and even seem to have their own class divisions, but from the information they provide, all communication among monsters revolves around killing people. Just like all biological actions in nature revolve around survival, and only human beings can pursue a higher realm, and therefore only human beings are rational.

But now, Qiao Zhou put forward another completely different point of view.

If this point of view is correct... then what is the purpose of those monsters behind the black hole...?