Half an hour later, following Sanimo's announcement, a group of energetic men and women arrived, and the originally deserted club suddenly became lively.
As soon as these people arrived, they gathered in groups of three or four, laughing and playing with each other. The club was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
Every time these people asked Sanimo what huge discovery he had made, Sanimo did not answer directly but said to wait until everyone came.
"Sanimo, you said you had a huge discovery. What is it?"
When President Marcus arrived, he looked calmly at the mysterious Sanimo and asked.
As a president, he always needed to show a calm personality and convincing ability, and his efforts were indeed rewarded. In the entire club, many people had a deep respect for him, which was very difficult to achieve among his peers.
Hearing the question from the dorm leader, Marcus, Sanimo said obediently, "Marcus, I made this huge discovery inadvertently. I suspect that I've found a pattern with hypnotic power. This pattern can affect the human subconscious and cause people to have nightmares one after another."
"Oh?"
Marcus glanced at Sanimo when he heard this and saw that Sanimo was indeed holding a piece of A4 paper in his hand. There seemed to be something printed on it, so he smiled and said, "Don't tell me you're talking about the pattern in your hand."
Sanimo nodded.
Seeing this, Marcus continued, "Sanimo, I've said many times that the amount of information carried by a picture is actually not large. It's far from enough to be used as a tool for hypnosis. In the application of psychology, it can only be used as a condition for suggestion at most. If it's used for hypnosis, songs on the auditory level are much more effective than pictures on the visual level."
Sanimo shook his head and said firmly, "Marcus, if you said this before, I would definitely agree with you, but now it's different. The pattern in my hand is absolutely unusual. I could tell from the first moment I saw it!"
"Then let me see it."
Seeing this, Marcus did not refute again but stretched out his hand and placed it in front of Sanimo's eyes.
Sanimo hesitated for a moment but finally put the picture in Marcus' hand.
Marcus smiled and spread out the pattern in his hand. At the same time, a group of club members quickly gathered around.
Then, a strange man's face appeared in front of everyone …
The moment they saw this picture, everyone was stunned. In an instant, the entire society fell silent. However, this scene did not even last for two seconds before it was diluted by the fiery atmosphere of the society.
"Is this the picture?"
"Apart from being very strange, I don't see anything special about it."
"Perhaps it involves the language of advanced psychology, or perhaps its origin itself is a hint?"
"He's so ugly …"
"Hahahahaha!"
For a moment, everyone started talking at once. Everyone was commenting on the picture in front of them to express their fearlessness.
Among the crowd, only Marcus and a few others revealed pensive looks.
"Where did you get this picture?"
Marcus suddenly turned his head and asked Sanimo.
"I drew it unintentionally."
The possessiveness in his heart made Sanimo reluctant to say the name of the forum, so he said vaguely, "I named it This Man. The important thing now is that we have to understand whether he's a hypnotic picture or not, isn't it? I believe the moment you saw him, you had a special feeling in your heart, right? "
"Maybe it's because he's too weird."
One of the men immediately explained, "I did feel something strange the moment I saw it, but I think it was a hint. First, you hinted to us, making us think that it was very mysterious. Then, when you showed it to us, we were all stunned because we were caught off guard. This is the reason why we had a special feeling in our hearts."
This view immediately attracted everyone's support.
"In the end, it's about gaining the upper hand by a show of strength. This picture also seems to involve the 'uncanny valley' phenomenon, which is the reason for the strangeness in our hearts."
Another young girl said.
The so-called "uncanny valley" was actually a hypothesis about human feelings toward robots and non-human objects — the affection of humans for a certain anthropomorphic object (robots, movies, anime characters, etc.) was displayed according to a graph. Because anthropomorphic objects were similar to humans in appearance and actions, humans would have positive feelings for robots. This emotional value would increase as the similarity between the anthropomorphic object and humans increased.
However, when the degree of similarity between anthropomorphic objects and humans reached a specific value, humans' reaction to them would suddenly become extremely negative. Even if there was only a slight difference between anthropomorphic objects and humans, it would appear very conspicuous and glaring, causing people to develop feelings of disgust and even fear. At this time, the curve of the emotional value would plummet.
When the similarity between anthropomorphic objects and humans continued to increase, it was equivalent to the similarity between ordinary people. Humans' emotions toward them would return to the positive side again, resulting in empathy between humans. It was equivalent to the emotional curve rising in a straight line, rising to a level similar to the previous peak.
As a result, such a scene appeared: the curve of human feelings for anthropomorphic objects rose slowly in the beginning, then plummeted in the middle, and finally rose again. A "Great Rift Valley" appeared in the middle of the curve.
And this Great Rift Valley was called the "uncanny valley" effect. It referred to some anthropomorphic objects that were too human-like but had certain differences from humans, so in the human senses, they would feel that the other party's appearance was extraordinarily terrifying, glaring, and so on...
The reason given by this member was the uncanny valley effect.
"I admit, it does look ugly, but I swear, this is not the uncanny valley."
Sanimo shook his head, extremely disappointed. He did not expect that everyone was unwilling to believe him, so he had to take the pattern back from Marcus, then turned and walked out of the club.
"The only way to verify it, you just need to wait until after tonight."
After saying this, Sanimo walked straight out of the club. The crowd kept shouting behind him, but he ignored them.
Only Marcus silently savored the creepy feeling from before. Gradually, a thoughtful look appeared on his face.
...
When it was lunchtime, the members of the club gradually dispersed. As the last person to leave closed the door of the club, the entire venue fell into complete silence.
However, this silence only lasted for a few minutes. Soon, as the door of the washroom creaked, the door slowly opened, and a blonde girl walked out of the door.
This girl was the one who proposed the uncanny valley theory earlier. She first looked around and after confirming that there was no one in the club, she quickly walked to the computer and began to retrieve the previously printed documents.
Soon, a grateful look appeared in the girl's eyes. She pressed the print button slightly and suddenly, the printer made a squeaking sound again. At the same time, a pattern was printed out.
It was the strange face from before. Ha Ha Literature Network
Seeing this scene, the girl picked up the pattern with satisfaction and was just about to leave, but the moment she turned around, she suddenly found that a tall person was behind her at some point!
"Ah!"
The girl sat on the ground abruptly. It was not until this time that she saw clearly that standing behind her was the president, Marcus.
"Marcus, what are you doing sneaking around behind me?"
The girl stood up angrily and at the same time, subconsciously hid the paper in her hand behind her.
"There's no need to hide it. I've already seen it."
Marcus stretched out his hand and snatched the pattern from the girl's hand. At the same time, he said calmly, "It's very immoral to print items without permission from others."
"I'm just a little curious."
The girl hurriedly tried to take it back but could not grab it no matter how hard she tried. She could only stomp her feet. Then, her eyes turned and she immediately smiled. "Mr. President, why haven't you gone back?"
"I'm just going to clean up."
Marcus replied while putting away the pattern in his hand and preparing to pick up the broom on the side.
"Marcus, you haven't left until now. Isn't it also because of that weird picture of Sanimo?"
The girl stated her conditions and at the same time advised, "How about this, I'll print another one and we'll each take our own. No one will tell anyone, how about that?"
Marcus hesitated for a moment, then nodded his head in agreement, and immediately left the society.
It was not until he walked out of the club and came to the campus road that Marcus took out the pattern again. He looked at the strange face in the pattern and his eyes could not help flashing with a hint of contemplation.
The reason why he stayed at the end of the club and even bumped into the girl who had stayed for a long time was that he felt a special feeling from this picture.
It was a feeling full of gloominess and strangeness. The moment he saw the picture, he seemed to see the face talking to him and at the same time, there seemed to be a kind of whisper in his ears.
This feeling was something that no movie, book, or even painting could achieve. Perhaps, as Sanimo said, it was a pattern that could hypnotize the human spirit.
That was why he was the last to leave the club just now.
But now it seemed that in the entire club, apart from Sanimo, only he and Molly felt the extraordinariness of this pattern. The others seemed to be unable to feel it at all. Otherwise, they would not have been so dismissive of this mysterious pattern...
Thinking of this, Marcus returned to the dormitory. He recalled Sanimo's previous words, so he simply put the pattern away and lay directly on the bed.
Then, he slowly closed his eyes, ready to use sleep to verify whether all this was true or just Sanimo's wild talk.
Gradually, Marcus drifted off to sleep.
...
"Who are you?"
Marcus looked around. At this moment, he was on a desolate road. He was walking alone, and there was a dense fog all around him.
At the forefront of the road, a black figure stood quietly not far away.
This black figure had extremely slender limbs as if it was just skin and bones, but unlike the limbs, it had a huge head. The big head was placed on the body, showing an extreme sense of incongruity.
After seeing this, the strangeness of the scene made Marcus stop warily. He stood still and said to the black figure in front of him, "Who the hell are you?"
"Rustle..."
There was a sound of movement in the fog. At the same time, the figure also began to move slowly, approaching Marcus little by little.
Marcus wanted to escape, but at this moment, he only felt that he was standing in a pool of asphalt. No matter how he moved his feet, he was firmly stuck to the ground and could not move at all.
So, he could only watch as the black figure slowly approached...
Ten meters, nine meters, eight meters...
As the figure got closer and closer, Marcus also became more and more frightened. He seemed to instinctively understand that this person who was approaching him was by no means a good person!
Just at the moment when the other party was only three or four meters away from him, finally, the black figure revealed its face. At the same time when he saw this face, Marcus could not help but gasp!
This Man!
For some reason, this name suddenly burst out in Marcus' mind. He shouted and at the same time, the whole world shook rapidly as if the mountains were collapsing and the earth was cracking!
The dream collapsed!
A faint understanding emerged in his heart. At this moment, Marcus suddenly regained consciousness from the dream. He looked at This Man who was still standing in front of him in shock and said immediately, "Who the hell are you!"
The meaning of this question was completely different from the previous one …
"I'm not anyone. I'm me, I'm you, I'm everyone in the world..."
However, a surprising scene appeared. The strange man in front of him did not do anything to hurt him. Instead, he said directly, "And now, I'm the embodiment of your dream and unknown fear."
After hearing this, Marcus suddenly revealed an extremely shocked expression. For some reason, his emotions in the dream were more flexible and rich than in reality. He suddenly raised his head and asked again, "Why did you appear?"
"Didn't you ask me to appear?"
The strange man replied solemnly, "Because deep down in your heart, you wanted me to appear, so I appeared. It's that simple."
Marcus took a deep breath when he heard this. He only felt that he seemed to have received some kind of inspiration from the depths of his heart. The other party's words seemed simple, but they were extremely profound, even causing his soul to tremble continuously...
So, he finally could not help but ask the final question, "You... Are you God?"
"God?"
Hearing this, the corners of the strange man's mouth seemed to curve even more. He said noncommittally, "You can think of me as God because there's no difference between me and God. He exists in the hearts of believers, and so do I."
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