Mystery: Higher-Dimensional Overlookers

Chapter 500 Familiarity

Cat? "Alice"?
When Zhou Mingrui discovered that the girl he had seen walking out of the lake had turned into a cat, his mouth suddenly opened wide - in his hallucination, he had actually imagined a small animal as a girl.

This had never happened before. In his previous hallucinations, Zhou Mingrui only saw pedestrians on the road as distorted black shadows or other creatures similar in size to humans.

And now all kinds of phenomena seem to prove that the hallucinations in his mind seem to have become more serious, and this is definitely not the result Zhou Mingrui wants to see.

No matter what, I should go see a psychiatrist... Although I heard from my brother that the prices of mental hospitals are generally very high, no matter what, I still have to check my own situation carefully.

Otherwise, if something serious happens in the future, it will be a big problem if you can't distinguish between reality and illusion! Zhou Mingrui was obviously still in shock about what happened just now.

However, the movements I just performed were obviously not something I could do according to my physical condition... What is going on?

Zhou Mingrui was secretly sighing in his heart. At this moment, he suddenly heard the extremely ferocious kitten, which had just pinned down the stray dog ​​with one paw, meowing and purring while walking towards him.

The stray dog ​​that was released and was obviously not very old let out a grievance cry at this moment, then ran away dejectedly with its tail between its legs.

When Zhou Mingrui saw the pitiful appearance of the stray dog, he couldn't help but think of the time when he was being chased by the beast that the stray dog ​​transformed into in his hallucination.

And now, Zhou Mingrui was feeling lucky that he didn't actually say "Help! Someone is killing me!", otherwise, on the way here, many people would have seen him like this and thought he had some mental illness.

Hmm... Zhou Mingrui thought about it and felt that he seemed to have mental problems now, otherwise he would not have seen such a weird scene - then it's okay.

But when he thought about his current state, Zhou Mingrui couldn't help but feel a little socially dead. He shook his head, looked at the kitten walking towards him, and squatted down gently:

"Is your name 'Alice'?"

Zhou Mingrui suspected that this might be a lost kitten, otherwise it wouldn't appear here with its limbs covered in mud. From the rusty iron plate hanging around its neck, Zhou Mingrui guessed that the kitten was called "Alice".

Although Zhou Mingrui has never raised a cat, he is still a senior cat lover. He knows that domestic pet cats usually respond to their names. Sure enough, after Zhou Mingrui said this to the kitten in the gentlest voice possible, the kitten called out again and walked towards him.

Sure enough - Zhou Mingrui watched the kitten walk in front of him, he gently picked up the kitten and looked at the cat in his hand carefully. Zhou Mingrui inexplicably felt that the image of the cat in his hand was somewhat familiar, but he couldn't tell exactly what was familiar about it.

After thinking for a while, Zhou Mingrui could only attribute the reason why he felt familiar with the cat to the fact that he had seen information posted by the owner of the lost cat on the Internet, or that he had seen a cat that looked very similar to it.

Well, there is a pet shop nearby. Before finding its owner, I should prepare some necessities of life for it... Zhou Mingrui looked up the information on the map opened on his mobile phone. After finding the information he wanted, Zhou Mingrui hurriedly took the cat and trotted to the pet shop on the way.

"Turn right ahead... The destination is on the right side of the road. This navigation ends."

After a while, Zhou Mingrui, carrying a cat bag, walked towards the navigation destination "Red Maid Cafe". Although he had never been here before, he did a quick search on the Internet before coming here and found out that this cafe was opened by several young people, and the cafe's signboard was the red maid drawn by Mr. Wu, a painter who was one of the founders of the cafe.

——According to the records on the forum, the prototype of this poster girl is Mr. Mei, the manager of the cafe.

Zhou Mingrui took a deep look at the huge portrait on the wall... or rather, the portrait of the red maid that was more like a mural, and walked into the cafe.

After entering the cafe, Zhou Mingrui looked around, turned on his phone and sent a message to [Gao#]:
"where are you?"

"here."

Not long after Zhou Mingrui sent the message, a young man in casual clothes stood up and waved in Zhou Mingrui's direction:

"I am here."

Zhou Mingrui immediately turned his gaze to look at the young man. When their eyes met, Zhou Mingrui immediately turned his phone around:
"High-dimensional?"

"Gao Wei." Gao Wei nodded. Apparently he saw the cat bag Zhou Mingrui was carrying. He raised his eyebrows and responded, "Zhou Mingrui? You brought a cat with you?"

"Yeah." Zhou Mingrui also nodded in response: "I just picked it up on the road. Sorry for the delay."

"It's okay." Gao Wei waved his hand: "Then can you take her to the club?"

"Well, if I remember correctly, there shouldn't be a rule that pets are not allowed in the club. After all, the fortune tellers in the club really want to be close to animals."

Zhou Mingrui recalled the information about the fortune-telling club he had looked up before, and it did not prohibit bringing pets or certain items in like other clubs.

It seems that there is a theory that is advocated in the club: people who are close to animals are natural psychics. Whether it is divination by Tarot cards or other methods, people with high spirituality can get more accurate answers in vague divinations.

Of course, Zhou Mingrui, who always believed in scientific theories, would not advocate their theories. However, in the case of fortune-telling as a pastime, a little "research" of these things did make Zhou Mingrui feel very interesting.

Moreover, after what he had just experienced, Zhou Mingrui couldn't help but wonder if there really was an extraordinary power in this world. Perhaps his perception would deceive him, but Zhou Mingrui could feel the real changes that were happening to him.

"Indeed." Gao Wei raised the drink beside him and drank it all in one gulp: "Then shall we go over there now?"

"Okay." Zhou Mingrui nodded, and walked out of the Red Maid Café with Gao Wei and entered the door of the fortune-telling club.

"Come to think of it, is this your first time in the store?"

Gao Wei, who was wearing casual clothes, said this to Zhou Mingrui while walking beside him. Zhou Mingrui nodded subconsciously when he heard his words:

"Yes, I have never been here before. And I always feel that it is very inappropriate to have a fortune-telling club in a place like this. Generally speaking, aren't these clubs only available online?"

"Then I don't know. This store has been here for a long time. Well, no one has used the name of the club to create a cult." Gao Wei answered casually: "But it is still a store in essence. After you go in, there will definitely be people who will come to sell you the goods in the store, but you don't need to care too much, just decline."

"Decline politely?" Zhou Mingrui looked at Gao Wei with some confusion.

"Just tell them that I had a fortune-teller before I left, and that it's not appropriate to communicate with others today." Gao Wei smiled and said to Zhou Mingrui, "They will know that you are not a customer who strayed in by mistake, but a fellow fortune-teller, and they will not disturb you."

“Then how does this club make a profit?”

Zhou Mingrui turned his head left and right to look around at the place where he was currently. Although it was still some distance away from the real city center, it was undoubtedly a prosperous business district, and the rent here must not be cheap.

"Well, there are always some people who believe in these things. Of course, it is all within the limits allowed by the law, otherwise he would have been closed down long ago with such fanfare." Gao Wei waved his hand: "Besides, I heard that the owner of this shop has a lot of businesses on this street. Maybe he just held this club out of interest."

"What's more, the membership fee here is just over 5,000 yuan a year."

"There are still many rich people in the world..." After hearing Gao Wei's last words, Zhou Mingrui was immediately relieved, sighed, and stepped into the door.

After Gao Wei extended his hand to show that he was a member of the club and drew the conclusion that "it is not suitable to go shopping today" from the coins he carried with him, Zhou Mingrui followed Gao Wei and walked into the club. Of course, the cat bag Zhou Mingrui was carrying also attracted the attention of many young people.

"drop."

After the two entered the club, Gao Wei walked towards a certain place with ease. He took out a card and swiped it on the door.

As a small green dot lit up, the door opened automatically.

Zhou Mingrui opened his mouth - this was completely different from the club he had imagined, with dark rooms and paintings full of mysterious patterns.

Perhaps noticing his gaze, Gao Wei's mouth curled up slightly, and he turned around and said to Zhou Mingrui:
"What do you think this place will be like? I've said before that this is a formal club. Moreover, it provides free coffee and tea, and you can also order food and buy some divination materials at a discounted price."

He paused for a moment, then emphasized, "Of course, in my opinion, these divination materials are useless. At most, they are cheaper than those purchased online. However, the amount a member can purchase here is very small, and it is impossible to purchase in large quantities here at a preferential price."

Hearing Gao Wei say this, Zhou Mingrui looked at Gao Wei with some suspicion: "I always feel that you are very familiar with this place. Could it be that you are actually the boss here or the boss's son?"

"No, no, no, how is this possible?"

Gao Wei burst out laughing: "I just have some friendship with the boss here... But then again, you didn't come here just to chat with me, did you? I remember when we were chatting online before, you wanted to find someone you could trust to do a divination for you."

Have I ever had such a strong thought? Zhou Mingrui suddenly felt a strong sense of strangeness and separation in his heart. He stood up and said to Gao Wei with a smile:

"I'll lock the door. I'll let out the cat I picked up outside and let it move around a bit - the boss here shouldn't mind having animals around here, right?"

"Of course I don't reject it. After all, in the eyes of many people who know divination, many animals represent various spiritualities." Gao Wei spread his hands and said in a relaxed tone: "Look, there is nothing in this divination room that can be broken by small animals. It's very safe."

Zhou Mingrui responded, turned around, and took out his mobile phone while locking the door. He looked through the chat history and found that he had actually said those words and expressed his desire for others to help him with divination.

But why? Zhou Mingrui frowned. He didn't remember any of these things.

When he returned to the table, he saw Gao Wei, who was sitting in front of him, took out a deck of tarot cards, took out the Major Arcana card, shuffled it, and placed it on the table. Seeing Zhou Mingrui coming over, Gao Wei raised his eyebrows:
"What do you want to divine?"

Zhou Mingrui, who already had a plan in mind, said, "The development of one thing."

"Well, then, cut the cards one by one, and then randomly select three cards you like." Gao Wei pushed the neatly arranged tarot cards forward: "What you want to predict is the future, so these three cards represent the present, the future, and the more distant future."

Zhou Mingrui quickly cut the cards, followed his intuition, and randomly picked three cards to place in front of himself. Gao Wei stood up and moved a chair to sit next to Zhou Mingrui.

He turned over the card he had cut, and suddenly, the towering "inverted tower" came into Zhou Mingrui's sight.

"This is your attitude towards this matter from your perspective."

After turning over the first card, Gao Wei turned over the three cards selected by Zhou Mingrui one by one. Drawings on them were the "Fool", a young man wearing colorful feathers and with a joyful smile on his face, the upside-down "Grim Reaper" holding a sickle, and the inverted "Stars" with stars in their hands.

The golden shaded cat that was released by Zhou Mingrui just now and was now licking its own hair also sat down in place, stopped its actions, and looked at the two people in front of it with a calm and detached expression, just like a spectator sitting here quietly.

Gao Wei said softly:
"You are trapped in this upside-down tower. What happened to you?"

"...Mr. Fool."

　Alice's identity should not be difficult to guess ()
　　I feel so tired. Good night.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)