Chapter 170: Taiyi Observer

On the screen with flickering fluorescence, a huge Buddha statue sat in the center. The resolution of the almost static picture was not very high, only 720p, and the bitrate was also very low. Because Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's phone was a cheap product whose brand he couldn't even remember, and he even forgot when he bought it.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's material desire was not high, and his attitude toward daily necessities was that it was enough. He could wear a $20 million custom suit or a $5 t-shirt.

"Need to buy some professional equipment after going out." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe stared at the flickering screen and said to himself.

He had seen in the materials that the dead soldiers cultivated by the local government who specifically dealt with strange events that no ascender was willing to deal with sometimes used drones, robot dogs, and other equipment to explore unknown areas. Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe felt that he also needed to get one.

It wasn't needed before, but it is now.

For example, now in Zanju Town, if he had a drone equipped with professional-grade camera equipment, his previous arrangements would have been much easier.

Why?

This involves a concept—observer.

1. It is known that the stone statues in Zanju Town have two states: "life" and "death." They are "alive" when not observed, and "dead" when observed. This is one of the rules covering Zanju Town.

2. It is known that the life-death judgment of the stone statues does not regard each other, as fellow stone statues, as "observers."

Combining the above two points, the entire logic chain leads to an interesting question:

—Who, or what, will be judged as an observer?

Being watched by someone's eyes counts as being observed, and being shrouded in the Strange World's sensory field of vision also counts as being observed, but being seen by each other as fellow stone statues doesn't count as being observed. What is the difference between stone statues, people, and ghosts?

A phone leaning against the wall with the recording function turned on, this electronic device that is completely disconnected from the internet and has no one to operate it, will it also be regarded as an observer?

3. It is also known that Xia Yubing, who is a living person, received a text message from Jiang Han and heard Jiang Han's voice under the condition of "thinking Jiang Han was still alive." She observed a living Jiang Han.

4. But after being reminded by him and realizing that Jiang Han might have died, Xia Yubing could no longer observe a living Jiang Han. What she could see was only a corpse with its abdomen pierced by a stone-carved arm, the same as what Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe and Xiao Ke saw.

Through the abnormal phenomenon on Xia Yubing, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe can easily reach a guess:

—The world where Zanju Town is located is changing, fluctuating, and uncertain. What people see here depends on what their cognition is. Xia Yubing didn't realize Jiang Han had died, so she observed a living Jiang Han.

In a sense, the strange events permeating this abandoned, deserted small town are more like an indeterminate probability quantum cloud. Everything under the shroud of fog is uncertain, and this world will collapse toward the appearance that the observer thinks it is.

So, what would the world observed by a mechanical inanimate object without self-cognition look like?

There are many such questions.

For example, when in the building before, Xia Yubing didn't know Xiao Ke had died in advance, and the shadow he observed using the Strange World was also a living person. Why did he and Xia Yubing, who "didn't know Xiao Ke had died," see Xiao Ke as a cold corpse after going upstairs?

Who caused the probability cloud on Xiao Ke to collapse toward her death?

And for example, why are the Three Corpses of A-Zhen, who died three years ago, still wandering in this small town? And why can they be observed by Jiang Han and others?

As the clues learned gradually increased, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe made many guesses about the core rules of this strange event, but all this didn't reduce the unsolved mysteries lingering here much, but instead made the haze over the small town thicker, heavier, and suffocating.

If all this has an answer, then this answer might be in Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's hands.

The video on the phone screen played at double speed. Soon, a disheveled running figure broke into the center of the screen from the bottom of the picture. It was Shen Qing, who had fled to the center of the town in a panic. He sat paralyzed at the bridgehead, exhausted, and the phone in his hand fell to the ground, almost falling into the dried-up pool bottom.

Shen Qing didn't know the fact that Jiang Han had died, which is to say, in his cognition, Jiang Han was still alive. Would he observe a living Jiang Han?

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe canceled the double speed, restored the picture to normal, and watched with eyes unblinking as Shen Qing, sitting on the ground, was turning sideways and reaching out to pick up the phone.

Then, Shen Qing jumped up, dancing and gesturing.

The clarity of the phone lens at this distance is not worth mentioning. Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe didn't see the hand stretching out from the bottom of the pool. In the silent picture, only the epileptic Shen Qing appeared crazy, as if he had been extremely frightened and then had a mental breakdown, falling headfirst into the dried-up pool.

What scared him like this?

It was Jiang Han.

Only to see an arm stretch out from the bottom of the pool, climbing onto the ground, bringing the whole body up together.

That was a young man wearing a black windbreaker, tall and thin, with meat on his clothes. According to the information Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe asked from Xia Yubing and Xiao Ke, Jiang Han was wearing such an outfit today.

Without a doubt, the one climbing out of the pool was Jiang Han, a living Jiang Han.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's heartstrings tightened quietly, watching with eyes unblinking as the young man wearing a black windbreaker struggled to climb up from the deep pool bottom, bending down to pick up the phone Shen Qing had dropped.

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At the same time his hand touched the cracked phone screen, a drop of bright red blood flowed along his arm to Jiang Han's fingertips.

By the time he stood up straight again, the clothes on Jiang Han's body had disappeared. His naked body was wrapped in dried bloodstains, pink-white intestines hung from his waist, and a bloody hole in his abdomen, with sticky secretions flowing out as he walked.

Deep step, shallow step, Jiang Han left the empty center of the small town and disappeared at the end of the picture.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's breathing became slightly rapid. He caught it, he captured it, that fleeting streamer.

"When Jiang Han just climbed out of the pool, he was in a state of neat clothes. That was the Jiang Han observed by Shen Qing—a healthy, living, freely moving Jiang Han."

"But after climbing out of the pool and being exposed to the daylight, the clothes on Jiang Han's body disappeared at a very fast speed, and the wounds I saw before appeared on his body. The living him turned back into a corpse."

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's fingers pressed on the screen and slid to the left, replaying the few seconds of the picture again and again. The chaotic thoughts in his brain turned rapidly, gradually weaving into a complete and smooth line:

"Why did Jiang Han turn back from a living state to a corpse? Because Shen Qing fell into the pool and died?"

"Or because after he climbed out of the pool, another observer saw him?"

The video retreated again. Jiang Han stood straight again with his broken body without an inch of cloth. The murderous evening breeze lifted the dust under his feet. The Buddha overhead watched everything happening under the moonlight quietly, neither happy nor sad.

"Found you." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said softly: "Taiyi Observer."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 171 =====