Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 896 Cognitive Distortion
33 reached out and touched his waist. There was only one magazine left. He took a deep breath and slowly moved towards the armored off-road vehicle full of gasoline.

At some point, the howling wind carried a faint fishy smell, and what made 33 even more puzzled was that even though he was wearing a breathing mask, the fishy smell still got into his nasal cavity... The smell was very It was very faint, so light that it almost made people suspect that there was something wrong with their own olfactory organs... But even so, this fishy smell was hard to ignore.

This fishy smell is not unfamiliar, 33 remembers where he should have smelled a similar... no, it should be said to be exactly the same smell, but he just can't remember it.

33 suddenly felt dizzy, the whole world began to spin, the lead gray clouds stirred up, as if they were glued to the earth, even the armored off-road vehicles around them turned into abstract color blocks, flowing into the gap between the sky and the ground between.

Everything in the world no longer has a clear dividing line, everything is like a fruit thrown into a broken machine, smashed, stirred, mixed... 33 I can't even feel my own body, the only thing that remains Independent and clear, only his self-awareness remains.

A word popped up in his head - "Chaos".

……

……

The frustrated boy staggered onto the overpass with the pace of an 80-year-old man, leaned against the guardrail, and looked at the bustling avenue under the bridge. The traffic flow never stopped, and the flashing lights were moving at high speed. It was pulled into one after another gorgeous light belt.

The high-rise buildings in the distance are brightly lit, and the bustling city will not sleep even in the middle of the night. The neon billboards and the huge screen complement each other. The advertising airship slowly passed over the office building.

But all the excitement has nothing to do with this grown-up boy.

It's already winter, and it's very cold on the overpass. The harsh wind made the boy's thin jacket rattle. He pulled up the hood of the jacket, but in the next second, the hood was blown away by the wind blowing on his face. Filled and pulled back.

The boy sighed softly in the wind, and instead of pulling his hat, he reached into his pocket.

He touched a metal object with rounded corners.

He used to smoke cigarettes when he was in college because of the pressure, but since he started his business, he has quit smoking - for him with a small pocket, cigarette money is really an expense that cannot be ignored... But He didn't know until a week ago that he was reluctant to smoke a pack of cigarettes worth five yuan, and that "friend" who lost all his money to Lisboa smoked a pack of cigarettes worth [-] yuan in the casino. Cuban cigars.

After quitting smoking, he only kept a "Zippo" brand lighter as a souvenir. He has used this lighter for many years, and all the old coatings on the surface have been worn off, revealing the original metal color of the pure copper shell. The embossed pattern has almost been worn down... Although it has become very old, it feels much better than when it was just bought.

He took out the lighter, lifted the cover skillfully, and rolled the grinding wheel—he seemed to want to use the little flame of the lighter to keep warm, but after the crisp "click" sound, the flame did not appear.

He hadn't used this lighter for too long, and the kerosene stored inside had already dried up.

The boy's originally calm face finally revealed a trace of anger. He raised his hand, making a gesture to throw the lighter from the overpass, but just as the lighter was about to leave his hand, he held it tightly in the air again. palm.

Not because of reluctance, but because he was worried that the lighter would hit the car driving under the overpass-if someone caught him, he would not be able to pay for compensation and repairs.

The boy lowered his head, buried his head in his arms, and whispered to himself, "Is life always this painful? Or is it just like this when I was a child?"

"It's always been like this," he asked himself.

This is a very classic movie line, from "This Killer Is Not So Cold". As an old era movie lover, Ke Lan has of course seen this movie, and more than once.

He also had a deep impression on Matilda's line.

But then again, the entire illusion comes from Ke Lan's memory. If he hadn't watched the movie, the lines of the movie would not have appeared in this illusion.

Even the boy's facial features are somewhat similar to Ke Lan... Ke Lan even has a feeling that if he lived on the earth in the old era, if he was not a "biochemical person" without father and mother, if the earth no destruction...

Perhaps, this will be your own life?

No... This boy and his personality are not compatible with him. Compared with the boy who was cynical when he was young and full of enthusiasm as an adult, Ke Lan's attitude towards things is more resigned-to put it nicely, it is called resignation, and to put it bluntly That is indifference.Unless it's something he thinks is important, he won't care at all.

This attitude cannot be said to be exactly the same as that of the boy's father—assuming that an old man falls to the ground, the boy's father is unwilling to help him because he has seen too many "evil" in the real society and has been indoctrinated. There are too many "selfish" concepts, whether this concept comes from himself or others... All in all, the boy's father chose to stand by and do it out of interest.If this matter will not harm his own interests, maybe he will help if he is in a good mood...

But for Ke Lan, if he is walking on the street and an old man falls to the ground not far away, his brain may automatically filter it when receiving this information—unless the old man who fell The bombs strapped to his body were exposed from the open clothes.

Looking at the boy on the flyover, Ke Lan suddenly realized that he seemed to be an extremely cold-blooded person...

no... not right...

I am not that kind of person... If I were so cold-blooded, I would not choose to form a team with the old dog and others, and I would not become angry after learning that Zofia was bombed, and I would not be angry with heretics. Those practices of the sect produce any emotion...

I am a normal emotional person, a flesh and blood person...

Although Nieto stopped talking, it seemed that he was constantly using some kind of power in this illusion to change Ke Lan's cognition and thinking. Although this kind of power would not cause direct harm, it was actually stronger than swords and bullets. It's even more scary... As the saying goes, "It's easy to hide with a sharp gun, but hard to defend against a hidden arrow." It's not enough for Ke Lan to keep his brain clear all the time. He must emphasize it repeatedly in his self-consciousness, so as not to be induced by illusions...

Moreover, in the illusion, thinking has become a very dangerous thing.

The more you think, the more confused your mind becomes, the easier it is for Nieto to find an opportunity.

This is like a computer program. The longer the program, the more prone to bugs, and the simplest program that outputs "hello world" after running is hard to make mistakes even if it is written by a rookie who is new to programming.

Maybe you should empty your mind... In the face of a consciousness that refuses to think, no matter how many tricks Nieto has, these tricks will not help.

But the question is, if Ke Lan doesn't think, how will he get out of this illusion?

The fact that there is no danger in the illusion does not mean that it is safe in the real world—he and 33 are now in the jungle hunting ground, and, not long ago, there was an extremely abrupt gunshot in the depths of the hunting ground.

Ke Lan couldn't guarantee that when he was struggling in the illusion, the gun would have reached his forehead.

The game must be broken, but how?
The boy in the illusion was very depressed. Although he didn't cry, the expression on his face made Ke Lan wonder if he would suddenly jump off the bridge, and it would be over once and for all.

If the boy "dies", will he switch to the next illusion?

Ke Lan's consciousness has always followed the boy, and he cannot switch to his parents or anyone else in this fantasy world except the boy—this is a third-person perspective with the boy as the protagonist. If so, then the story should end there, right?

This illusion is not good for Ke Lan. He has no entity, and his perspective is tied to the boy. He cannot move freely, nor can he have any influence on this illusion. He cannot even communicate with the "character" in the illusion...

wait?Communicate with characters?

Ke Lan's eyes fell on the boy... It seems that he has never tried to communicate.

Although Ke Lan has decided to wait until the next illusion to find a way to break the situation, but before the end of this illusion, he still decided to make some attempts.

"It's not always like this." Ke Lan tried to speak.

There was no sound—he didn't even have a body, which meant that he didn't have any vocal organs, and naturally he wouldn't make any sound.And the communication between him and Nieto just now was done entirely through conscious communication.

But the boy heard it.

He was startled suddenly, raised his head, and looked around: "Who? Who is talking?"

"It's not important." Ke Lan continued, "Are you planning to jump off the bridge?"

The boy widened his eyes, rubbed the bridge of his nose, blinked vigorously, and then looked up into the sky—the airship with the giant advertising screen was slowly flying over the flyover, and the popular actress on the screen They are dancing hotly, and the sound waves from the loudspeaker pass through a distance of hundreds of meters, hitting the ground one after another.

"Is it my illusion?"

"It's not an illusion."

Ke Lan's voice rang directly in the boy's head. Although his auditory center was already occupied by the music played by the airship, he could still clearly hear what Ke Lan said to himself.

"Why is your voice in my head? Who are you...what are you? You...how did you know I wanted to jump off the bridge?" the boy asked, calming down a little.

A few minutes ago he was still thinking about whether to end his life, now even if someone told him that the earth was going to explode in 5 minutes, he would not feel so hard to accept.

On the contrary, I will be secretly happy that there are so many people going to the same ending as me.

As for the surprise and panic just now, it was just a human instinct.

"I said, it doesn't matter who I am." Ke Lan thought for a while, and decided to be a psychological tutor for the boy. I have written several books about it, and used it to enlighten a person who can't think about committing suicide... Maybe it will be successful?

Although doing this runs counter to Ke Lan's original goal, he actually doesn't care whether he succeeds or not—if he succeeds, he may be able to change the illusion, but if he fails, he will just reopen and start the next illusion.

Although these three illusions are different, Nieto's purpose is the same, that is to show Ke Lan the disappointing side of the human race - from the perspective of modern people, the three illusions are full of negative emotions, and will spread this negative emotion to the "audience".

As for Ke Lan, when he was experiencing these illusions, he was still constantly receiving psychological hints from Nieto—in the first illusion, facing those ignorant and fanatical people, facing those who were forced to survive And those who have to betray their friends face the church that has the right to speak but wants to burn the "truth" to ashes for their own benefit... Nieto told Ke Lan that it is impossible for such a human being to obtain the truth of the universe of.

Although the heliocentric theory was later proved to be wrong, just like the geocentric theory, it is a wrong conclusion drawn by human beings limited to cognition and technical conditions... But the history of human technological development is a continuous theory, and then it will be put forward again. the process of its overthrow.

Many things that are considered to be true may prove to be false hundreds or even decades later.And human beings' understanding of the world is gradually perfected in this process of continuous overthrow and reconstruction.

Just like those things that are now regarded as "theorems" by human beings, they are simply vulnerable to the technology of the Alpha civilization, let alone when facing the "great god".

Chemistry, physics, mathematics... Those laws that cannot be shaken can also be wrong...

As for the truth of the universe, compared with the current level of cognition of human beings, it is too far away... so far that human beings will not be able to touch it even after tens of thousands or even hundreds of millions of years.

If the truth really comes to the world, perhaps there will be no such thing as Bruno being sentenced to be burned to death for heresy, but it will definitely subvert human cognition completely.

Ke Lan suddenly understood why "forbidden knowledge" turned people into monsters...

It's not that those people have become "monsters", but that they have come into contact with existence beyond cognition, and they themselves have become something that cannot be "understood" by their former kind.

In the eyes of humans, an incomprehensible creature is a monster, isn't it?
[PS Thanks to Ruikang for the reward of 100000 starting coins... This book finally has an eighth leader. I didn't expect that it was almost over, but there are still big bosses who are willing to spend a lot of money. I checked the background last night and saw that the reward news is true. I was stunned... At first glance, I thought it was [-] starting coins, but when I counted carefully, there was an extra zero...]

[The addition of the PPS leader will be arranged soon in the next few days. 】

(End of this chapter)