Mystery: Higher-Dimensional Overlookers

Chapter 499 "Alice"

Zhou Mingrui looked at the scene in front of him that looked like a twisted jungle, and his expression became alert.

He seemed to have recently suffered from a mental illness that caused him to have hallucinations, and he saw a dark, twisted, and strangely shaped forest. In this twisted and illusory sky, there was also a deep black, with no stars to be seen, only blood-red moonlight pouring down from the moon, casting a layer of darkness on the forest.

However, Zhou Mingrui did not feel that the moonlight was abnormal beyond reality in his subconscious. He only realized that something was wrong after he had been in a hallucination and stared at the blood-red moonlight for a long time. After all, the moon should be white, not blood-red.

However, through Zhou Mingrui's experiences in the past few days, he gradually summed up his experience that this dream and reality correspond one to one, but in his eyes, some things in reality have become more bizarre and distorted.

Based on his self-diagnosis based on the psychological knowledge he learned by himself, he thought that he might have fallen and hit his head a few days ago, or perhaps because of a concussion, which caused him to have such hallucinations from time to time and fall into a state of delirium.

If Zhou Mingrui had not felt that the frequency of these strange hallucinations was gradually decreasing over time, he would have been ready to go to a mental hospital to consult a professional doctor about his problem.

He took two steps to the side, took out a mobile phone from his pocket, pressed the power button, and prepared to explain to the friend he had made an appointment with online that he would be arriving at the fortune-telling club a little later.

This hallucination actually doesn't have much impact on my daily life. After all, this hallucination only makes the things in the distance turn into this horrible scene. Well, it gives me a feeling of traveling through time, which is a novel experience now that hallucinations are becoming less and less common.

Zhou Mingrui tried to find a way to cheer himself up and thought to himself that as a college graduate, although he had graduated, he had not yet started working, so he naturally had a lot of free time.

Generally speaking, whenever he was caught in an illusion, Zhou Mingrui had learned to take out his phone and stand there for a few minutes waiting for the illusion to dissipate. Of course, in order to deal with such illusions, Zhou Mingrui, who now has sufficient experience, now knows that he should stand on the side of the road to play with his phone. If he stands in the middle of the road, he will definitely be pointed at by others.

After all, there are many people walking with their heads down playing with their phones now, so he is not conspicuous standing on the side of the road. It is much better than the first time he saw the hallucination and was almost sent to the hospital by the people next to him because of the sharp explosion sound...

However, after Zhou Mingrui pressed the power button of the mobile phone several times, he found that the phone still had no response. Seeing this, he immediately frowned.

He remembered clearly that he had just scanned a QR code with his mobile phone in the supermarket...

A few drops of sweat flowed down Zhou Mingrui's forehead. He lowered his voice and spoke to himself in a voice that only he could hear:

"Could it be that my hallucinations have become more serious?"

"This, this shouldn't happen!"

He was a little panicked for a moment, but considering that he was still on the street, Zhou Mingrui suppressed his panic. After all, he didn't want to be taken to a mental hospital, especially since although he was able to control himself now, he still had hallucinations - this would be no different from being in jail.

However, just as Zhou Mingrui was trying to suppress his panic, a mass of darkness seemed to melt around Klein and combined with the darkness in the distance, slowly outlining the image of a hideous beast.

"Ah?" Zhou Mingrui was stunned when he saw this scene. This had never happened before!
The shadow quickly outlined the ferocious beast, and it seemed that the black dots outlined all the details on its body. As the details on its body became more and more, its body also added some color from the original black and white.

The beast had a muzzle like the one used to control a vicious dog, which tightly stitched his mouth together.

However, the beast has countless black spikes or barbs growing on its body, and its body is strong, like a natural predator.

Although Zhou Mingrui did not understand what it was, the moment he saw this beast made of darkness, he felt an irresistible fear rising from the depths of his heart. This fear drove his body, and after hesitating for a moment, he turned around and ran along the path he remembered.

"Help! Kill someone——"

Zhou Mingrui originally wanted to shout like this.

But he still maintained his most basic rationality and just ran towards the depths of the forest along the path with black shadows wriggling around him. Although reason told Zhou Mingrui that the beast running behind him was just an illusion, his body drove him to run madly forward, and he even almost bumped into a few wriggling black shadows.

Zhou Mingrui and the beast were running one after the other. The sharp and strong claws almost grabbed Zhou Mingrui's back several times - or perhaps it had already scratched him. Zhou Mingrui felt a stinging pain on his body. At this moment, this illusion was extremely close to reality.

Some strange thoughts suddenly emerged in his mind: he suddenly felt that this was not the right way to escape, and the speed seemed a little too slow.

The next moment, Zhou Mingrui wanted to laugh at the thought that just came to his mind. This smile was abrupt and unrealistic. The next moment, he forcibly suppressed the urge to laugh and the fear that kept coming out of his heart, and continued to run faster.

The trees around him were getting taller and taller, but also becoming more and more sparse. Soon, Zhou Mingrui saw that the twisted and weird jungle around him had changed. His eyes suddenly became clear, and a calm surface of water was reflected in Zhou Mingrui's eyes.

Oops!

After Zhou Mingrui saw the environment in front of him become open, this thought came to his mind. Before, even with obstacles blocking him, he still had difficulty escaping from the monster in the dream behind him. Now, with no obstacles around him, he might find it even more difficult to face such a situation.

I can’t run anymore—there’s something fishy about this hallucination!

Zhou Mingrui suddenly calmed down at this moment. He turned around, endured the fear in his heart, and cautiously retreated towards the monster while looking at the black monster in front of him.

Zhou Mingrui used the corner of his eye to search if there was anything on the ground that could be used as a weapon, such as sharp branches or playing cards.

After the latter option appeared in his mind, Zhou Mingrui couldn't help but want to laugh again.

But at this moment, he heard a sudden rustling sound from the lake behind him. He subconsciously looked towards the direction where the sound came from, and found an unreasonable and extremely deep whirlpool near the shore.

Such a scene made Zhou Mingrui calm down a little, because this situation was obviously impossible to happen in the real world, which made him more certain that he was in an illusion.

After this hallucination is over, I must find a professional doctor to diagnose me... I don’t want to die young!
Zhou Mingrui thought to himself, he carefully adjusted his position, watching the vortex getting bigger and bigger. As Zhou Mingrui retreated, he was surprised to find that the monster made of black shadows was also retreating backwards, as if it also felt fear.

What could make him feel scared? Just when Zhou Mingrui was confused, he saw a golden color emerging from the vortex. The golden color became stronger and stronger, and then from the vortex... a girl slowly emerged.

Seeing this scene, Zhou Mingrui's pupils suddenly trembled, his mouth opened wide, and the fear in his heart disappeared a little because of the shocking scene in front of him. What he didn't notice was that the beast made of black shadow became more and more timid with the appearance of the girl.

The girl was about fifteen or sixteen years old, with golden hair and green eyes. She was wearing a white dress and looked calmly at the "fear beast" in the distance.

The next moment, Zhou Mingrui saw the girl's pupils turned into golden vertical pupils, and she began to speak wildly. Zhou Mingrui then realized that in such a distorted world, this seemingly bright and beautiful girl could also be regarded as a "monster".

However, unlike the fear beast, Zhou Mingrui did not feel the deep-seated fear from the girl. He just heard the fear beast in the distance also making some mumbling sounds, and then its body slowly shrank.

The girl took a step forward and pressed the terrifying beast, which was almost lying on the ground, to the ground with one hand, making the originally huge terrifying beast lie on the ground and unable to move.

Zhou Mingrui saw the girl looking at him. He hesitated for a moment, and after making sure that the girl in front of him had no ill intentions, he said uncertainly:
"Thanks?"

The girl did not reply to Zhou Mingrui's words, she just walked out of the water step by step and looked at Zhou Mingrui. Just when Zhou Mingrui was hesitating and didn't know what to say, he heard the phone that he couldn't open before now made a harsh ringing sound.

I couldn't open it when I wanted to use you before, but now you open it at this critical moment? Seeing the girl continue to lower her head and hold down the fear beast, Zhou Mingrui also recognized that the person who called was [##] who had made an appointment with him to go to the divination club before, and answered the call.

At first, there was some noise coming from the phone, but soon the sound became clear. Zhou Mingrui heard a familiar voice, which made him feel familiar:

“####…Hello? Is the signal bad over there? Can’t you hear me clearly?”

"Uh-huh……"

After hearing the human voice, Zhou Mingrui felt much happier, like a tourist returning from Innsmouth: "I just encountered something and didn't have time to contact you. Oh, sorry."

"...It's okay. I'm free anyway. I'm drinking tea in the restaurant next to the club. You can come to the Red Maid Cafe next door to find me later."

"Drink tea?" Zhou Mingrui asked with some doubt. The voice on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment, and then he coughed lightly before speaking:
"milk tea."

Very good, it fits my perception of contemporary college students. No matter where they go, they always have mobile phones and drinks in their hands - Zhou Mingrui, a "contemporary college student" holding a mobile phone in his hand, thought so.

The netizen he met was also a college student like him, and had not officially started working. But think about it, people who have officially started working would not have so much free time to go to the fortune-telling club with him on weekdays...

After a moment of silence, the other end of the line said, "Okay, Lao Zhou, how long will it take you to get there? Call me when you're almost there, and I'll order you a cup of milk tea."

"How can I be so embarrassed..." Zhou Mingrui subconsciously wanted to shirk, but after thinking about it, he still said:
"I'll check the location later. It will probably take a while to get here."

He had just been running for about six or seven minutes. He estimated that given his physical condition, he would not be able to run too far and would soon reach the Fortune Telling Club.

If it really doesn't work, I'll buy something for Lao Gao later - by the way, I remember his last name is Gao, I must not let him know that I forgot his name...

As Zhou Mingrui was thinking about this, the distorted and weird environment around him gradually became normal. He saw that he was now standing by the lake, and where the blonde girl was just now was a petite golden kitten.

The kitten was holding down a small stray dog ​​with its paws. The scene was exactly the same as the one where the blonde girl was holding down the fear beast.

After seeing this scene, Zhou Mingrui subconsciously wanted to take a step forward to see what was going on. However, he stepped into the mud by the lake and his body slid forward uncontrollably.

I can’t swim—Zhou Mingrui shouted in his heart, and was about to slip into the lake. But just as this thought came to his mind, he found that he suddenly “stood” firm.

He actually stood on one foot in the mud in a posture that no ordinary person could do. This scared himself and he quickly jumped back two steps.

He suddenly found that his body was exceptionally light, and even his eyesight, which had become a little poor due to staying up late to study, became exceptionally good at this moment.

Zhou Mingrui looked around in doubt, and after confirming that this was reality and not his own hallucination, he let out a long sigh:

"What exactly is going on……"

As he was thinking, he looked at the golden shaded cat who was holding the stray dog ​​again, and suddenly noticed a metal tag hanging under the golden shaded cat's neck:
"'Alice.'"

　I've been a bit exhausted lately. Well, I don't know if you like this chapter or not. It's a transitional chapter. The dream part won't be too long, but you can't skip it.
　　Feel free to tell me what you think of this chapter, I'm a little unsure
　　
　
(End of this chapter)