Chapter 11 10

3:25 Eri Asai continued to sleep deeply. However, the faceless man who was sitting on the chair next to her and staring intently at Eri's face was gone.The chair disappeared, too, neatly.This made the room even more unsightly and empty.There was a bed roughly in the center of the room, and Eri was lying on the bed, looking as if she was floating alone in a lifeboat on the calm sea.We watch this scene from the side, that is, from the actual room of Eri, through the TV screen.The camera that seems to exist in the other side of the room shoots down Eri's sleeping posture and transmits it to this side.The camera changes angles at a certain time, or zooms in slightly, or moves away slightly.

Time kept passing, but nothing happened.Alice was motionless, nothing moved.She floated on her back in a calm sea of ​​pure thought.Still, we can't take our eyes off the image being delivered.Why?The reason is unknown.But we can sense what's there through a sort of intuition.what's there.It removes the breath of existence and dives beneath the surface.We must pay close attention to the still image in order to capture what is invisible to the naked eye. ——At this moment, the corners of Asai Eri's lips seemed to tremble slightly.No, maybe it's hard to call it a flutter.Because it is very small, if there is nothing.It may be nothing more than the flickering of the image, or it may be the illusion of the eyes, or the psychology of seeking some kind of change has contributed to such an illusion.In order to confirm this point, we kept our eyes sharper.

The camera lens seems to understand this will and approach the subject.Allie's mouth turned up.We stare at our TV screens with bated breath, patiently waiting for the changes that are supposed to ensue.Lips quivered again.Muscle spasms instantly.Yes, the movement is exactly the same as before, it is not an illusion of the eyes.Something was happening to Eri Asai. Gradually, we are no longer satisfied with just passively facing the TV screen from this side, but want to directly confirm the interior of the room with our own eyes, and want to watch more closely the tiny changes that Ellie begins to show (probably the fetal movement of consciousness), and want to further speculate on its meaning.Because of this, we decided to move to the other side of the screen.

Once the decision is made, it's not that difficult.Just leave the body and abandon the entity, and turn it into a conceptual viewpoint without quality.In this way, any wall can be passed through, and any abyss can be flown over.And in fact we also become a pure point and pass through the TV screen that separates the two worlds.Move from side to side.When we pass through the wall and fly through the abyss, the world twists violently, the world shatters and disappears for a while.Everything turned into fine dust without impurities and splashed away.Then the world reassembled and new entities surrounded us.Everything happens in an instant.

Now we're on the other side, in the room where the TV screen rolls out.We looked around for movement.Generally the smell of the room has not been cleaned for a long time.The windows are closed tightly, the air is not circulating, it is cold, and there is a slight musty smell.The deep silence almost hurts the ears.There is no sense of anyone and nothing lurking.Even if there is something lurking, it has already gone there.Right now, only us and Eri Asai are here. On the single bed in the middle of the room, Ellie was still sleeping deeply.A familiar bed, a familiar bedspread.We walked up to her and stared at her sleeping face, taking time to examine its details.As I said just now, as a pure point of view, all we can do is observe.Observe, gather information, and make judgments (if possible).Touching her was not allowed, no talking to her, not even an indirect hint of our presence.

Soon, there was movement again on Aili's face, a movement reflexive in the muscles, just like when a small flying insect was shaking off her cheek.Then, the right eyelid trembled a few times.Ripples of thought swayed.In the dim corner of her consciousness, a small fragment of a certain kind echoed silently with another small fragment, connecting together like ripples expanding.We witnessed this process before our eyes.The unit is formed in this way, and then combined with the unit formed elsewhere to form the basic system of self-knowledge.In other words, she is taking small steps toward awakening.

Although the speed of awakening was anxiously slow, the pace did not reverse.Although the program hesitated from time to time, it was indeed advancing little by little.The time required from one action to the next is also gradually shortened.Muscle tremors are initially limited to the face, and then slowly spread to the whole body.At a certain moment, the shoulders were raised quietly, and small white hands poked out from under the quilt.left hand!The left hand wakes up one step earlier than the right hand.The fingertips thawed out in the new timeliness, let go, and moved clumsily in search of something.After a while, his fingers moved on the bedcover as small independent creatures, and moved to the small throat, as if hesitatingly exploring the meaning of his own body.

After a while, the eyelids opened.But under the illumination of the fluorescent lights lined up on the ceiling, it closed again in an instant.It seems that her will refuses to awaken, excludes the real world that exists there, and wishes to sleep indefinitely in the gentle darkness full of mysteries.At the same time, her bodily functions seek a definite awakening, a new natural light.These two forces were at odds with each other in her body.But the forces that signaled the awakening triumphed in the end, and the eyelids opened again, slowly and cautiously.But it's still very eye-catching - the fluorescent lights are too bright!She covered her eyes with her hands, her head tilted to one side, her cheek pressed against the pillow.

Time passed like this.For three or four minutes, Eri Asai lay on the bed in the same position, eyes still closed.Could it be that he fell asleep again?No, otherwise.She is taking time for the consciousness to adjust to the waking world, as time plays an important role in the adjustment of bodily functions in a person who enters a room with a very different air pressure.Her consciousness recognized that inevitable change had come, and tried - despite the reluctance of the boss - to accept it.A faint sense of vomiting.The stomach is contracting, as if something is rushing upwards, but it is suppressed by repeated deep breaths.After the feeling of vomiting left at any rate, several other kinds of unhappiness came forward.Numbness in hands and feet, slight ringing in the ears, muscle aches—the result of sleeping in the same position for too long.

Time continued to pass. Soon, she got up on the bed and looked around with uncertain eyes.The rooms are quite large.No one was there.Where is this place?What am I doing here?She stroked the chain of memories, but all the memories were quickly interrupted like a short thread.All she understood was that she seemed to be sleeping here all the time.The evidence is that he is in bed and wearing pajamas.The bed is my bed, and the pajamas are my pajamas, yes.But this is not my place.Numb all over.If I had slept, it would have been rather long and deep, though how long it was impossible to know.Just as I was about to find out the root cause, my temples began to ache.

Resolutely got out of the bed, and carefully walked to the ground with bare feet.She was still in her nightgown, a blue figureless nightgown of slippery fabric.The air in the room was cool.She took the thin bed cover and wrapped it over the pajamas like a shawl.Want to take a step, but can't move in a straight line.The muscles can't remember the way they used to move.But she still tried to move forward step by step.The slippery hard linoleum floor examines her, questioning her.They asked coldly: Who are you?What are you doing here?And of course she couldn't answer. She walked to the window, put her hands on the window frame, and stared out through the glass.But there is no so-called storm outside the window, there are only pure abstract concepts and generally no space for color.She rubbed her eyes with her hands, took a deep breath, and looked out of the window again, but it was still blank and saw nothing.She tried to open the window, but couldn't.Tried to open all the window sashes one by one, but all of them remained motionless, as if nailed to death.Maybe it was a boat, she thought.So this idea came to mind because she felt a steady shaking in her body.Maybe I'm on a big boat at this moment, and the windows are closed tightly to keep the waves from rushing in.She turned her ears sideways, trying to hear the roar of the engine and the sound of the hull breaking through the waves.But what came to her ears was the echo of an unassailable silence. She walked slowly around the spacious room.Touch the wall, touch the switch.No matter which switch is pressed up or down, the fluorescent lights on the ceiling will not go out.No response.There are two doors in the room, very ordinary doors with a decorative panel.She twisted the knob on one door, but it just idled, unresponsive.Whether you push or pull, the door does not move.The same goes for the other door.All the doors and windows here are like independent creatures, sending her the signal of rejection. She knocked hard on the door with both fists, expecting someone to hear the door open from the outside.However, no matter how hard she tried, the sound was surprisingly small, and she could hardly hear it clearly with her own ears. It was impossible for anyone (even if there were real people outside) to hear such a movement, and it only resulted in a sore hand.She felt something like dizziness in the back of her mind, and the shaking in her body was bigger than before. We found that this room was very similar to the office where Bai Chuan worked late at night, or it was not known whether it was the same room.However, at this time, it became a completely empty room, with nothing left of furniture, utensils and decorations, and only the fluorescent lights on the ceiling remained.All the objects were moved out of the room, and after the last person closed the door and left, the room was forgotten by the whole world and sank to the bottom of the sea.The silence and the musty smell sucked into the walls suggest to her, and to us, the passage of time. She squatted on the ground with her back against the wall, gently closed her eyes, and waited for the dizziness and shaking to subside.After a moment, he opened his eyes and picked up something that fell from the floor beside him.The pencil has an eraser and the name of Veritech printed on it. It is the same silver pencil as the one used by Bai Chuan, and the tip of the lead is bald.She held the pencil in her hand and stared at it for a long time.There is no veritech name in memory.Could it be the company name?Or what is the name of the product?Not sure.She shook her head slightly.Except for a pencil, nothing could be found that would provide information about this room. Why would I be alone in such a place?She couldn't understand it.No impression of the venue, completely inexplicable.Who moved me here for what purpose?Could it be that I am dead?Is this the afterlife?She sat up on the bed, studying the possibility.But don't think you're dead.What's more, the world after death shouldn't be like this.Assuming that the empty room of an isolated office building alone is a mirror after death, is there no hope of rescue anyway?Is it a dream?No, otherwise, it is too coherent as a dream, the details are too specific and vivid.I can actually touch objects here with my hands.She pricked the back of her hand with the tip of a pencil to confirm the pain, and licked the eraser with the tip of her tongue to confirm the taste of rubber. She concluded that this was reality, that another reality had somehow replaced her own.No matter where the reality came from, no matter who brought me here, I was left alone and closed in this gray and strange room with no view and no exit.Is something wrong with your own head?As a result, people were sent to a place like some institutional facility?No no, that's impossible.From the perspective of common sense, who would bring their own bed to the hospital?What's more, this room doesn't look like a ward, nor does it look like a prison cell.Here—yes—is nothing more than an ordinary empty room. She returned to bed, touched the quilt with her hands, and patted the pillow.But it is a natural quilt, a natural pillow, neither a symbol nor a concept.Realistic futon and realistic pillows.They gave her no clues.Ellie ran her fingertips all over her face, put her hands on top of her breasts through her pajamas, and confirmed that it was her usual self.Beautiful face, well-shaped breasts.I'm such a piece of meat, such an asset, she thought ramblingly.Suddenly, she felt that "I am myself" became uncertain. The dizziness disappeared, but the shaking continued.It felt as if the scaffolding supporting his body was being dismantled one by one.The inside of the body loses the necessary weight and becomes completely hollow.The organs, senses, flesh, and memories that had made her what had been her hitherto had been stripped away expertly by someone's hand.As a result, I become nothing, completely reduced to an existence that only provides convenience for the passage of external things.A surge of isolation hit her like goosebumps.she yelled.I don't want to be like that!However, as much as she intended to shout, what came out of her throat was only a barely audible sound. She longed to fall back into a deep sleep.How wonderful it would be to wake up from a deep sleep and be able to return to one's original reality!This is the only way Allie can think of to escape from this room right now.There should always be value in trying.The question is can such sleep come easily?Because she had just woken up from a sleep, and she had slept so long and so deeply that she had forgotten somewhere the original reality. She twirled the silver pencil she picked up between her fingers, vaguely expecting that this feeling would lead to some kind of memory.But all she felt at her fingertips was the endless hunger of her heart.She couldn't help throwing the pencil on the ground, got into bed, and closed her eyes. Nobody knows I'm here, she thought.I know this very well: no one knows that I am here. We know, but we are not eligible to participate. We look down on her lying on the bed from above.Then, we who are the point of view gradually recede.Through the ceiling, back quickly, back indefinitely.Asai Eri then gradually became smaller, turning into a small dot, and soon disappeared.We picked up speed and just backed away through the stratosphere.The earth became smaller and finally disappeared.In the vacuum of nothingness, we make the point of view recede infinitely, and we cannot control the process of receding. When we realized it, we had returned to Eri Asai's room.The bed was empty.The TV screen appeared, and all that was shown on the screen was a sandstorm. The piercing noise of "crash la la".We casually watched the sandstorm for a while. The room grew darker, the light quickly faded, and the sandstorm disappeared—total darkness fell.