Qin Zhou

Qin Zhou

"...all Thralls within Xiangping Town have been cleared. Xiangping Town is now a completely safe and harmless safe zone. Survivors in other towns, please hold on. Do not be contaminated by Thralls. Do not be devoured by your town. Xiangping Town's area continues to expand. We must Believe in Qin Zhou. So long as we Believe in Qin Zhou, salvation will surely come. He is Humanity's Last Hope... Repeating: Qin Zhou has cleared Xiangping Town..."

The old radio repeated the same passage over and over. Mu Sichen frowned harder the longer he listened.

He had no idea how strong this person called Qin Zhou really was, but wasn't it too heavy a burden to place the hopes of the entire world on one person?

Mu Sichen thought of that diary. The diary's owner had probably lived exactly like this, in a room without a glimpse of daylight, listening to this broadcast again and again, eating food that dwindled by the day, waiting for Qin Zhou to save him, until he finally went mad.

The diary's owner had not merely gone mad. In his diary, Mu Sichen had also faintly tasted a trace of hatred.

Before he went mad, he had already begun hating Qin Zhou for failing to come save him in time.

Could one person bear that much expectation and hatred? Unless he was a god.

Of course, in this bizarre game world, perhaps gods really did exist.

Mu Sichen shook his head and turned off the radio.

"I won't be expecting you to save me, Qin Zhou," Mu Sichen murmured.

After his parents died, Mu Sichen had once sunk into a low point. Back then, he had felt like the most pitiful person in the world. He had longed for his parents to come back to life and stay with him, protect him the way they used to; longed for someone to save him and carry him out of that mire of pessimism.

But blaming the world was useless. Everyone had their own life and their own difficulties. The help other people could offer was only temporary. If he wanted to stand up, in the end, he had to rely on his own strength.

That was how Mu Sichen had pulled himself together back then. Now that he had come to a strange world, he did not intend to count on help from the so-called "Humanity's Last Hope" either. He would rely on his own strength to find a way back to reality.

And if there really was no way back, then he would find a place in this world where he could live.

After saying this, Mu Sichen suddenly felt an extremely sharp gaze land on him. He swung the pickaxe and turned around, but there was nothing behind him.

It was different from the earlier feeling of being gazed upon.

The gaze from the darkness had been more like observation through a door, like knowing there was someone in the building next door but not knowing what they looked like or exactly where they were, only being able to watch that building from the shadows.

The gaze just now, however, was more like someone staring straight at him, so naked and direct that it was impossible to ignore.

But there really was no one behind him. Where had that gaze come from? Mu Sichen could not understand it.

[The player guessed correctly. You have indeed been marked by an unnamable presence.]

A System prompt came through.

"So you do have some use," Mu Sichen said.

[The System will only tell the player things you already know. For things unknown to the player, the System will not provide prompts.]

"Then what use are you?" Mu Sichen felt this System was good for nothing except setting people up.

[Too much understanding of the Unknown is not beneficial to the player. The player will understand in the future.]

"No need for the future. I understand right now." Mu Sichen picked up the diary and the book on the desk, and had a basic guess about his current situation.

When he had opened the book to the parts related to "eyes" earlier, he had become dizzy, even mentally disoriented. At the time, he still had not understood why that happened. After reading the diary, he understood the situation.

It was not that the book had a problem, nor that knowledge had a problem. The problem was "understanding" itself.

The diary's owner had reminded himself countless times not to read books, yet people outside the room often came to make him read aloud from the books and check his "understanding" of the "knowledge" within.

And when one day the diary's owner really ate a book and "understood" its contents, he went mad.

This was a mad world, one with certain Unknown terrors. These "Unknowns" could not be spoken of and were not to be understood. The more one "understood," the closer one came to these "Unknowns," and thus the deeper one sank into madness.

But if he never explored this world, if he never "understood" anything, then he would be like the diary's owner, trapped in this room forever until he was destroyed.

No matter what he did, it was wrong.

And just now, he had been "marked" by who-knew-what.

Mu Sichen examined himself. For the moment, he could still rationally analyze the situation in this world. His mind was normal, proving that this "mark" was probably only a kind of observation and had not actually done anything to him.

In that case, he should not think about this "mark" for the time being. Maybe the "mark" itself was harmless, and the more he thought about it, the more easily he would be affected.

Focus on himself, maintain reason, listen less, think less. That was probably the way to survive here.

Mu Sichen pushed the matter of the "mark" to the back of his mind and considered what he should do next.

Staying in the room forever would not work. If this went on, he would either starve to death or go mad. No matter what dangers waited outside, he had to go take a look.

But placing himself in danger with no preparation whatsoever would not work either.

Mu Sichen tapped the diary with his fingertip and soon had an idea.

He sat down at the desk, opened the book about "eyes," and at the same time turned on the radio, letting it play the broadcast about "Humanity's Last Hope" on loop.

A broadcast that repeated and instilled the same sentence over and over had a brainwashing effect in itself. By the same token, the contents of the book could also change a person's mind.

Since the diary's owner had been able to rely on the broadcast to hold on until his food ran out before going mad, that proved the broadcast's brainwashing effect had some resistance against the mental contamination here, enough to counter that dizzying disorientation.

If Mu Sichen wanted to survive and complete the mission issued by the game system, he could not simply sit and wait for death, refusing to listen, look, or think. But once he did listen, look, and think, he would go mad. It was a dead end.

The only way was probably to fight poison with poison.

Mu Sichen raised the flashlight and concentrated on the contents of the book. A wave of vertigo immediately struck him.

At that moment, words such as "...Qin Zhou... Hope... safe zone... Xiangping Town..." came from the radio, and Mu Sichen instantly regained clarity.

He used that clarity to read the book at top speed.

Mu Sichen felt as if he had gone back to high school, dozing off while listening to English listening comprehension, half understanding the audio in a state between dreaming and waking, then relying on instinct to pick the answers.

Under these opposing forces, Mu Sichen finally managed to read half the book.

This book was not about eyes. It was the story of a Great Being gazing upon humanity.

The Great Being saw the suffering of the human world. People constantly yearned for protection and light, and compassion stirred in Its heart, so It watched over the human world with Its benevolent gaze.

The region where Its gaze fell formed this "Town of the Eye."

So long as they lived beneath the Great Being's gaze, the residents of Town of the Eye would forever be happy, peaceful, and blessed.

But the Great Being was too tired. It could not keep Its eyes open forever. It always had to close Its eyes and rest. When It closed Its eyes, Town of the Eye would fall into darkness and despair.

To keep the Great Being awake, the town residents decided to become the Great Being's eyes.

They protected the eyes, made the eyes brighter, and made the gaze sharper. Some town residents who deeply loved the Great Being would work hard to increase the number of eyes and offer their own sight to the Great Being. These town residents would become the Great Being's Apostles.

Through the mutual understanding and love between the town residents and the Great Being, the Great Being stayed awake longer and longer. "Daylight" grew longer, and "Night" grew shorter.

But there were still always some Fallen in town who did not understand the Great Being and did not trust the Great Being. They were not bad people; they simply did not understand yet.

Therefore, the town residents had to actively accommodate the Fallen, let the Fallen understand the Great Being's greatness and hardship, spread the Great Being's story to them, and reform them.

One day, the day when people understood one another would surely come. The Great Being would never sleep again, and Town of the Eye would finally become everyone's ideal home!

After finishing the book, Mu Sichen painfully rubbed his eyes.

He could barely recognize the word "eye" anymore.

At the same time, he had unconsciously picked up a pen and written all over the desk.

By the light of the flashlight, the desk was covered with the crooked words "eye" and "Qin Zhou." Whenever his mind became muddled, he would write the word "eye" on the desk. Then the contents from the radio would bring him back to clarity for a moment, and Mu Sichen would write "Qin Zhou."

Mu Sichen only glanced at the desk once before moving the flashlight away, not daring to look again.

He had the feeling that he had transferred all the influence he had just suffered onto the desk through writing. If anyone tried to make out what was written on the desk now, they would probably go mad at once.

This really was a chaotic and mad world.

Under the influence of this kind of power, it seemed that only Madmen could live happily. Those who remained clear-headed would only feel pain.

But was a life like this truly right?

Mu Sichen carefully recalled the contents of the book. Some of the wording was terrifying once he thought about it closely.

For instance, "Apostles will find ways to increase their own eyes." How would they increase them? Or, "when the Great Being is awake, It watches Town of the Eye at all times." How did It watch? Were Its eyes everywhere?

Mu Sichen did not even dare to think carefully about these questions. The moment he did, he could not control the impulse to draw eyes on his arm.

Thank goodness the radio was there.

When Mu Sichen thought of the words "Qin Zhou" on the desk, he felt embarrassed. He had just solemnly declared that he would not rely on Qin Zhou, only to immediately use Qin Zhou's name to resist mental contamination. It really was a little embarrassing.

"That was my fault just now. I'll try to defeat the contamination with my own strength as soon as possible, Qin Zhou," Mu Sichen promised himself.

No sooner had he finished speaking than he felt the exact same sharp gaze as before.

It was as if someone had looked at him once, then looked at him again.

A thought suddenly occurred to Mu Sichen.

When he was unconscious, he would write Qin Zhou's name to resist the mental contamination of Town of the Eye. Did that mean Qin Zhou and the so-called Great Being possessed the same kind of power?

Both times he said "Qin Zhou," a sharp gaze followed.

"Could the one watching me be Qin Zhou?" Mu Sichen tried saying the name again.

Sure enough, the feeling of being watched came again, but this time the gaze was no longer so sharp.

"Does that mean whenever anyone says Qin Zhou's name, Qin Zhou can glance at them? If this diary has Qin Zhou written several times, does Qin Zhou look at the diary's owner several times?" Mu Sichen asked.

At the same time, he received four more gazes.

"Qin Zhou Qin Zhou Qin Zhou Qin Zhou..." Since he had been "marked" anyway, Mu Sichen was no longer afraid. He repeated the name over and over, testing whether it really was that accurate.

This time, he did not feel any gaze. Qin Zhou was probably too lazy to bother with him.

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Author's Note:

Mu Sichen: Qin Zhou

Qin Zhou: Someone is calling me. Take a look.

Mu Sichen: Qin Zhou

Qin Zhou: Take another look.

Mu Sichen: Qin Zhou Qin Zhou Qin Zhou Qin Zhou Qin Zhou!

Qin Zhou: Qin Zhou is tired. Qin Zhou is going to sleep.