Fang Xiu woke up from his sleep again, the madness on his face had receded, replaced by a dead, still calm.
He repeated his previous actions: getting dressed, washing up, using the toilet, eating, and then leaving his home.
He saw the bizarre creatures filling the sky and the cute little girl eating a lollipop once more.
Ignoring everything, he walked out of the residential area and onto the street.
The street was crowded with pedestrians and bustling with traffic.
People hurried about, busy going to work or school, completely oblivious to the bizarre entities all over the street. Some even had snake-headed creatures clinging to their shoulders, but they were completely unaware, chatting and laughing with those around them.
Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.
Fang Xiu scanned a shared bicycle on the roadside, planning to wander around the streets and carefully observe these bizarre beings. To kill them, he first needed to understand them.
Of course, this so-called observation didn't mean staring directly at the bizarre creatures. Once noticed, he would only face death and a reset.
Fang Xiu could only pretend to stroll around casually, observing in all directions.
He wanted to see if bizarre creatures were everywhere and if they had a source.
Ding!
A crisp notification sound rang out.
Fang Xiu stopped his bike and took out his phone. It was a message from the work group.
Manager Wu Dahai was @ mentioning him.
"Fang Xiu, what time is it? Why aren't you at work yet? How many times have you been late this month? Do you still want your bonus this month?"
He started with a barrage of three questions, his tone aggressive and forceful, like a leader interrogating someone.
If it were the old Fang Xiu, he would have already apologized profusely.
But now, Fang Xiu was too lazy to bother with such mundane matters.
In this hellish world, he only wanted to seek the truth and then take revenge.
Having a stable job was a luxury for him.
Just imagine having to pretend not to see the bizarre creatures around you every day, being constantly cautious, and getting eaten if you weren't careful. In this state, just staying alive was difficult enough, let alone going to work.
Just as he was about to close the group chat and ignore these trivial matters, he suddenly thought of the three-digit balance in his bank account.
"To investigate the truth of this world, a few hundred yuan is definitely not enough. I can't just ride a shared bike everywhere.
This city might be full of bizarre creatures, but other cities might not be like this. I'll need to take high-speed trains or even planes, and that all costs money.
It seems my predecessor still had a commission that hasn't been paid yet. If I get that commission, it should be enough to support me for a while."
With this thought, Fang Xiu decided to go to the company one more time to resign and claim his commission.
He had actually considered using his ability to rewind time upon death to win the lottery, but after thinking about it, he gave up on the idea. He didn't have that kind of luck. Besides, unless there was a special reason, he really didn't want to die again. The feeling of death was truly unpleasant, even though he had died many times.
The city where Fang Xiu lived was called Green Vine City, and his company was in the development zone of Green Vine City. There was a villa area called Hundred Willow Academy there, and he worked as a salesperson at the Hundred Willow Academy sales office.
Six months ago, he had sold a villa, but the commission had not yet been paid.
So, Fang Xiu began to type a message in the work group.
"I've resigned. I'll go to the sales office this afternoon to settle my last commission."
After typing, he clicked send.
Fang Xiu's words were direct, without much politeness, like a naive newcomer to society who could easily offend people.
But he didn't care. He was too lazy to deal with those social niceties. He just wanted efficiency and didn't want to waste time on them. He only wanted to resolve these mundane matters as quickly as possible and then take care of his own business.
As soon as his message was sent, the group chat exploded.
Manager Wu was @ mentioning him frantically.
"Fang Xiu, what do you mean?? Didn't I tell you last time that the commission would be paid at the end of the year? If you resign now, you won't get a single cent of the commission!"
Fang Xiu glanced at it casually without replying, and then directly closed the group chat.
Then, he rode the shared bicycle straight towards Hundred Willow Academy.
His home was far from Hundred Willow Academy, and it would take two hours by bus, but he wasn't in a hurry at all. He planned to carefully observe the city.
Fang Xiu rode very slowly, as if he were taking a leisurely stroll, but his mind was entirely focused on the bizarre creatures around him.
As he rode further and further, the types of bizarre creatures he saw became increasingly diverse and strange.
Gradually, he also noticed a pattern.
These bizarre creatures could see humans, but humans could not see them.
The bizarre creatures could be roughly divided into two categories.
One type of bizarre creature had no rationality. They had grotesque and hideous appearances and only knew how to roar madly or constantly attack the humans around them, but they were like air and could not affect their surroundings in the slightest.
Then there were some humanoid bizarre creatures that would pretend to be your colleagues, classmates, relatives, etc., accompanying you and chatting with you.
Of course, humans couldn't see them at all, nor could they hear them speak.
Clearly, his wife belonged to this second category of bizarre creatures.
The second type of bizarre creature had very distinctive characteristics. Most of them resembled humans, and some even looked exactly like humans on the outside.
They seemed to be trying to integrate into your life. Even though people couldn't see or hear them, like an outsider, they still tried their best to stay by your side.
This made Fang Xiu very puzzled. Why were these bizarre creatures so persistent in role-playing? Even though they couldn't affect reality, they relentlessly accompanied humans?
Recalling his wife's various actions, Fang Xiu had a conjecture in his heart.
These bizarre creatures were testing whether humans could see them. After all, once they could be seen, they could attack.
No!
Fang Xiu instantly rejected his conjecture.
Testing should only be one aspect.
Normally, after bizarre creatures finished testing and confirmed that humans couldn't see them, they should switch to the next target to test others, as this would be the most efficient approach.
But his wife didn't leave after failing.
Not just his wife, Fang Xiu had seen many humanoid bizarre creatures along the way. They all clung to one person, desperately talking to them even though the person couldn't hear them.
Why was that?
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Fang Xiu's mind, and a chilling thought emerged.
They are integrating into human lives!
That's right!
It must be so!
Otherwise, why would his wife role-play?
If bizarre creatures wanted to test whether humans could see them, they could completely do so by frightening them, such as suddenly appearing, rather than role-playing.
So, the only possibility was that they were trying to integrate into human lives.
Then, what was their purpose in doing so?
Let's deduce from the result.
The bizarre creatures' goal was clearly to eat people, so everything they did was in preparation for eating people.
Could it be... that integrating into human lives could better help them get in contact with humans?
The state of bizarre creatures seemed to be illusory. When humans couldn't see them, they were illusory. Only after both sides confirmed that they could see each other would the bizarre creatures turn from illusion to reality.
Why did they have to be seen?
No!
Perhaps hearing was also enough.
He could see and hear the bizarre creatures, while others could neither hear nor see them.
Hearing and seeing both represented information.
After the bizarre creatures determined that humans could receive their information, the two sides could make contact.
So, bizarre creatures integrating into human lives should be to make humans receive information, which could also be called sensing their existence.
Integrating into lives would definitely speed up this process; otherwise, the bizarre creatures wouldn't need to do this.
At this moment, Fang Xiu suddenly realized that perhaps some people's auditory hallucinations and visual illusions might not be illusions at all.
When some people inadvertently heard someone calling their name or heard someone talking but found no one around, it was very likely that a bizarre creature was integrating into their lives.
As the degree of integration increased and the time lengthened, humans might inadvertently occasionally receive some signals!
And as more and more signals were received, the probability of the bizarre creature manifesting would also increase!
Therefore, never respond!