Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Before Su Chen had run far, his mind went blank.
The scene before him began to warp, and images from multiple viewpoints even overlapped.
Wait, multiple viewpoints?
Su Chen jolted awake.
He hurriedly took out his phone and used it to look at his face.
One glance sent him into a panic.
An eye had grown over his right brow bone, and another behind his left ear.
“Fuck! Why is ‘It’ watching me?”
Su Chen could not understand.
Then something occurred to him.
Was it because he had not been viewing the animals? Had acting unlike a visitor contradicted “Its” perception and drawn “Its” attention?
Su Chen wondered silently.
After some thought, Su Chen believed this might be the truth.
In “Its” perception, visitors came to tour the zoo and view its animals.
Su Chen’s attempt to flee sharply contradicted that logic.
Having understood, he slowed down.
Pretending to admire the elephants, he moved gradually toward the exit.
Before long, his vision returned to normal.
The overlapping viewpoints disappeared.
He knew “It” had looked away.
The method clearly worked.
Moving little by little, Su Chen finally neared the exit.
Then the situation abruptly changed.
A pure-white elephant appeared in the enclosure out of nowhere.
Before Su Chen could react, he saw that it had two enormous rabbit ears.
Its blood-red eyes stared fixedly at him.
The grotesque sight left Su Chen frozen for a moment.
He remembered the drawing of an elephant on the note he had found.
He had assumed the visitor’s contaminated perception had invented that image.
He had never expected such an elephant to exist in the zoo.
Su Chen knew danger had arrived.
To withstand it, he had to reinforce his own perception.
He hurriedly reminded himself that an elephant was enormous, with a long trunk and legs as thick as pillars.
And an elephant’s ears should be…
“Should be what?”
His thoughts stalled.
He had forgotten what elephant ears looked like.
Right. There were real elephants in the enclosure. He only needed to look at them.
Su Chen hurriedly searched.
After sweeping his gaze around, he discovered that every real elephant had vanished.
Before he could process the shock, numerous elephants with rabbit ears appeared across the empty grounds.
Each was white, rabbit-eared, and rabbit-headed, continually battering his perception.
Su Chen knew he was in danger.
His perception had been distorted so badly that he could no longer remember a real elephant.
If this continued, he might be forced to waste his save point.
He tried to flee the Elephant Enclosure.
To his dismay, his legs no longer obeyed him.
Worse, his eyelids were beyond his control. He could not close his eyes.
He even felt an urge to believe that he himself was an elephant.
At this desperate moment, he remembered the advice on the security note.
He concentrated as hard as possible and reinforced the perception that he was human.
The method worked as reliably as ever. After one minute, his eyelids obeyed him again.
He immediately closed his eyes, cutting himself off from the source of contamination.
With the source blocked, he finally gained a moment to breathe.
His mind, which had been spewing chaotic thoughts, also calmed.
He did not even have time to celebrate.
To his astonishment, he discovered that he could see again.
Not only could he see, but he had a complete field of vision from multiple angles.
“Fuck! ‘It’ is watching me again!”
Su Chen knew he had once more contradicted “Its” perception.
These elephants were so beautiful; a visitor who refused to look at them clearly did not fit “Its” logic.
Naturally, “It” had focused on him again.
Staring at the bizarre elephants with 360-degree vision, Su Chen felt a trace of despair.
This was fucking impossible!
If he conformed to “Its” perception, he had to act like a visitor and stare at the contaminating creatures.
If he refused, “It” watched him, distorted his eyes, and forced him to stare anyway.
Most important, the continual contamination had erased his memory of real elephants.
How the hell was he supposed to survive?
Wasn’t this a guaranteed kill?
Every country’s livestream audience was terrified.
The other Chosen Ones were in even worse condition than Su Chen.
The most striking were those with rabbit ears, led by Ugly Nation’s contestant.
They smiled at the white elephants and danced happily.
Whenever their hands brushed the tops of their heads, the tangible rabbit ears there swayed continuously.
They looked even more delighted.