Reason Zero

[Sanity: 0]

Well, I'll be.

Lu Ban exclaimed "Well, I'll be" when he saw this stat.

His sanity had dropped to zero overnight.

According to the stat's description, zero sanity meant Lu Ban had no reason left.

Reason, logic, thought—the very things that made humans human—would all abandon Lu Ban.

Or rather, if his sanity dropped to zero, Lu Ban should have immediately fallen into an irreversible madness. How could he possibly still appear as he was?

Was there some kind of discrepancy here?

Lu Ban felt perfectly healthy, both physically and mentally.

In fact, due to last night's experience, Lu Ban believed his mental state was better than ever. Being able to sleep undisturbed for several hours was incredibly beneficial for recovery.

"I should see a psychiatrist later."

Lu Ban thought.

It was already past six, nearly noon. Lu Ban took one last look at the dilapidated Jiangcheng Grand Theater, packed his things, and walked out the door.

After taking a bus and then a subway back to the city center, Lu Ban didn't rush home. Instead, he made his way to Jiangcheng City People's Hospital.

He put his backpack and crowbar in a public locker, registered, and sat on a hospital bench waiting to be called.

"Sir, you shouldn't do that. Smoking is prohibited in the hospital."

Seeing the old man next to him holding a homemade paper cigarette and shakily lighting it, Lu Ban quickly put it out with his fingers.

The old man glanced at Lu Ban, his eyes vacant and lifeless, dark red veins pulsing beneath his pale skin.

Lu Ban noticed a mother with a silent child nearby looking at him in terror, turning her child's head away to prevent him from making eye contact with Lu Ban. He smiled.

"Lu Ban to Room 2, Lu Ban to Room 2."

Hearing his name, Lu Ban straightened his clothes and entered the examination room.

Opposite him was a male doctor in a white coat, about forty years old, wearing frameless square glasses. He looked very kind.

"Hello, my surname is Hao. You can call me Dr. Hao."

He introduced himself and shook Lu Ban's hand.

"Are you feeling any discomfort or having any emotional issues?"

Dr. Hao held a notepad and pen, with Lu Ban's newly acquired medical record beside him, and asked in a gentle tone.

Hearing Dr. Hao's question, Lu Ban thought for a moment before calmly speaking.

"I think I might be crazy."

"?"

Dr. Hao was taken aback.

He looked Lu Ban up and down, then adjusted his glasses.

"You mean, you think you're having mental problems?"

"Yes."

Lu Ban nodded.

"What are your symptoms?"

Dr. Hao had been practicing medicine for many years and had seen all sorts of psychiatric patients.

There was the man who became depressed after practicing sword techniques he saw online, the big boss who always thought some commoner was trying to harm him, and the "assassin" who treated a potted plant as a friend and wore sunglasses at night.

Most psychiatric patients, when sitting down and facing Dr. Hao's questions, would usually say: "I'm not sick."

It was rare for someone like Lu Ban to open with, "I'm crazy."

Of course, it wasn't entirely unheard of.

For instance, there was a wealthy young man who, after hitting and killing someone with his car, repeatedly ran over the body. He eventually sought psychiatric help, strongly demanding to be declared mentally ill to evade punishment. Dr. Hao, of course, told the truth, and the man was sent to prison.

"Recently, I've encountered ghosts repeatedly. They want to kill me, torment me. I've also seen monsters in the starry sky. When They open Their eyes, humanity perishes."

Facing the doctor's question, Lu Ban told the truth.

"Ghosts?"

Dr. Hao patiently followed Lu Ban's lead, writing a few words on his notepad.

Delusional disorder, phantasmagoria type.

"Yes, there are at least two ghosts in my house."

Lu Ban nodded.

"Do you think they will harm you?"

"One will, one might not."

"Oh."

Dr. Hao wrote a few more words on his record board.

Paranoid personality disorder, mild, with suspected schizophrenia.

"You seem very calm. Aren't you afraid of those ghosts harming you?"

"I can hit them with a crowbar, and I can also play the suona to ward off evil spirits."

"Suona?"

Dr. Hao paused.

Playing the suona to ward off evil spirits... it felt like there were a lot of problems with that, yet also like it made perfect sense.

"Yes, I have a suona. If I play it, I can see a dim yellow planet in the universe. On that planet, there is a great being lying dormant. It has not yet awakened, but it can influence humans through delirious whispers in dreams, driving them to madness."

Lu Ban described his experiences in detail.

The system in The Silent Land had no confidentiality policy; it had even provided Lu Ban with a mission video, clearly not caring about secrecy.

However, a normal person would definitely not believe Lu Ban's story unless they experienced it firsthand.

As Dr. Hao listened to Lu Ban's account, he wrote another sentence on the paper.

Delusional disorder, extremely severe, has formed its own set of world theories. Recommend imaging studies for observation; there may be organic lesions.

He was quite ill.

"You seemed like you wanted to say something earlier, glancing at me. Is there a problem?"

Dr. Hao asked again.

"No."

Lu Ban answered immediately, then shifted his gaze away from the doll with the funny smiley face on Dr. Hao's shoulder.

"Alright, I understand your condition now."

Dr. Hao finished his notes and continued.

"I think your condition might be caused by excessive stress, possibly stemming from childhood experiences, or perhaps you've encountered some recent stimulus. It's best to approach these things with a normal mindset."

"For example, ghosts. Of course, there are no ghosts in this world. The reason you think there are ghosts might be due to excessive delusion."

Mentioning this, Dr. Hao remembered what the nurses had been chatting about that morning, something about a supernatural video.

"Many of the ghosts you think you see are just special effects. I've heard there are some popular supernatural videos online that claim to feature ghosts, but these videos look very fake, you can tell they're special effects. Why don't you find some to watch? Let me look... Found one."

Dr. Hao took out his phone and did a quick search. He quickly found the video that had over six million views and handed his phone to Lu Ban.

Lu Ban took the phone and saw the video titled ["DO NOT OPEN AT NIGHT!!!"] He saw his own room in the video, and then he saw himself lying down.

"But Doctor..."

Lu Ban's expression remained unchanged as he pointed at the video on his phone.

"The person in here is me."

"???"

Question marks appeared above Dr. Hao's head.

He quickly moved the video's progress bar, and then he saw that the man lying on the bed, with dark handprints appearing on his body, struggling with his eyes closed, was indeed Lu Ban.

"How about this: go get a CT scan. We'll see if there are any lesions then."

He wrote a referral slip and handed it to Lu Ban. He watched the kind and ordinary-looking man leave the room. Instead of calling the next patient right away, he finished watching the entire six-minute video.

After a long while, Dr. Hao, who almost dropped his phone, touched his shoulder and picked up his pen again. On the board where he was recording Lu Ban's condition, he circled and crossed out his previous conclusions, turning them into a diagnostic result.

Severe delusional disorder, paranoid personality disorder, schizophrenia, has formed a complete and self-consistent worldview. Delusional behavior has projected into reality, with mild self-harm and masochistic tendencies. Long-term observation recommended.

After writing this, Dr. Hao recorded this information in Lu Ban's file within the hospital's internal system. He also made a brief note in the system linked with the police.

The note contained only four words.

[EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!]

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