Rationality Down to Zero

Rationality: 0

Good grief.

When Lu Ban saw this attribute, he blurted out, "Good grief."

His rationality had actually become zero in the span of just one night.

Going by the meaning of the attribute, if his rationality had reached zero, that meant Lu Ban no longer had any rationality at all.

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

Or rather, if his Rationality value had become zero, Lu Ban should have immediately fallen into madness from which he could never recover. How could he still look the way he did now?

Had something gone wrong somewhere?

Lu Ban felt that he was perfectly healthy at the moment, both physically and mentally.

In fact, because of what he had experienced the previous night, Lu Ban felt that his mental state was better than ever. After all, being able to sleep undisturbed for several hours was an enormous help in restoring his energy.

"I'll go see a psychologist later."

Lu Ban thought.

It was already well past six, and nearly noon. After taking one last look at the dilapidated Jiangcheng Grand Theater, Lu Ban gathered his things and walked out the main entrance.

After taking a bus and then transferring to the subway to return to the city center, Lu Ban did not hurry 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 for the doctor to call his name.

"Old man, you can't do that here. Smoking is prohibited in the hospital."

Lu Ban saw the elderly man sitting beside him holding a homemade paper cigarette and trembling as he lit it. He quickly snuffed it out with his fingers.

The old man glanced at Lu Ban. His eyes were hollow and lifeless, while dark-red veins throbbed beneath his deathly pale skin.

Lu Ban noticed a mother some distance away, standing with a silent child, staring at him in terror. She even turned the child's head away so he would not meet Lu Ban's gaze. Lu Ban smiled.

"Lu Ban, please go to Examination Room Two. Lu Ban, please go to Examination Room Two."

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

Across from him sat a male doctor in a white coat, around forty years old. He wore rimless square glasses and had a very amiable air about him.

"Hello. My surname is Hao. You can call me Doctor Hao."

He introduced himself and shook Lu Ban's hand.

"Are you feeling uncomfortable mentally, or are you having any emotional problems?"

Doctor Hao held a clipboard and pen. Lu Ban's newly issued medical record lay beside him as he asked in a gentle voice.

Hearing Doctor Hao's question, Lu Ban pondered for a moment before speaking calmly.

"I think I might be crazy."

"?"

Doctor Hao froze.

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

"You mean you think there's something wrong with your mental state?"

"Yes."

Lu Ban nodded.

"What symptoms are you experiencing?"

After practicing medicine for so many years, Doctor Hao had seen all kinds of psychiatric patients.

There had been one who became depressed after practicing a saber technique he had found online, a wealthy businessman who was always convinced that treacherous commoners were trying to harm him, and even a "killer" who treated a potted plant as his friend and wore sunglasses late at night.

When most psychiatric patients sat down and faced Doctor Hao's questions, their first sentence was usually: "There's nothing wrong with me."

Someone like Lu Ban, who opened with "I'm crazy," was fairly rare.

Of course, it was not unheard of.

For example, there had once been a rich heir who ran someone over and then repeatedly drove over the body. He later came to the psychiatric department and demanded that they certify him as mentally ill so he could escape punishment. Doctor Hao, naturally, had reported the facts truthfully and watched him get sent to prison.

"I've encountered ghosts repeatedly lately. They want to kill me and torment me. I've also seen monsters in the starry sky. The moment they open their eyes, humanity will be destroyed."

Faced with the doctor's question, Lu Ban answered honestly.

"Ghosts?"

While patiently following up on Lu Ban's words, Doctor Hao wrote a few words on his clipboard.

Delusional disorder, supernatural orientation.

"Yes. There are at least two ghosts in my home."

Lu Ban nodded.

"Do you think they'll harm you?"

"One of them will. The other one might not."

"Oh."

Doctor Hao wrote a few more words on the clipboard.

Paranoid delusions, mild. Possible schizophrenic tendencies.

"You seem very calm. Aren't you afraid that those ghosts will harm you?"

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

"A suona?"

Doctor Hao paused.

Using a suona to ward off evil spirits. It seemed to raise a lot of questions, yet somehow there did not seem to be anything wrong with it.

"Yes. I have a suona. If I play it, I can see a dark-yellow planet in the universe. A great being is lying dormant on that planet. It hasn't awakened yet, but it can influence humanity through nothing more than whispers in dreams, driving people insane."

Lu Ban described what he had seen in detail.

The Silent Land's system had no confidentiality principle. It had even specially provided Lu Ban with a mission video, clearly showing that it did not care about secrecy.

But unless an ordinary person experienced it firsthand, they certainly would not believe Lu Ban's account.

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

Delusional disorder, extremely severe. Has developed a self-contained worldview. Recommend imaging examination and observation. Possible organic brain disorder.

This patient was seriously ill.

"I noticed you seemed to want to say something earlier. You kept glancing over here. Is there a problem?"

Doctor Hao asked another question.

"No."

Lu Ban answered immediately, then shifted his gaze away from the doll with the comical smiling face perched on Doctor Hao's shoulder.

". All right. I understand your condition now."

After finishing his notes, Doctor Hao continued.

"I think your condition may be caused by excessive stress. It might stem from experiences during your childhood, or it might be the result of some recent stimulus. You should try to maintain a normal state of mind when looking at these things."

"For example, ghosts and monsters. There are, of course, no ghosts or monsters in this world. The reason you think there are may be because of excessive delusions."

Mentioning this reminded Doctor Hao of what the nurses had been chatting about that morning. It seemed to have been some kind of supernatural video.

"Many of the ghosts and monsters you think you see are actually just special effects. I've heard there are some popular supernatural videos online these days. They claim to show ghosts and monsters, but they're obviously fake once you watch them—you can tell they're special effects. Why don't you look up a few? Let me find one. There it is."

Doctor Hao took out his phone and searched around. He quickly found the video that had already received over six million views and handed it to Lu Ban.

Lu Ban took the phone and saw the video titled Never Open It at Night!!!. He saw his own room in the video, and he saw himself lying down.

"But, Doctor."

Lu Ban's expression did not change as he pointed at the video on the phone.

"The person in this video is me."

"???"

Question marks appeared above Doctor Hao's head.

He hurriedly dragged the video's progress bar. Then he saw that the man lying on the bed, dark handprints appearing across his body as he struggled with his eyes closed, really was Lu Ban.

"How about this? Go get a CT scan. We'll see if there are any lesions."

He wrote a note and handed it to Lu Ban. After watching the amiable, ordinary man leave the room, he did not hurry to call in the next patient. Instead, he watched the entire six-minute video first.

After a long while, Doctor Hao, who had nearly thrown his phone away, rubbed his shoulder. He picked up his pen again and took the conclusions he had written earlier on Lu Ban's medical record, circling and annotating them until they became a diagnostic assessment.

Severe delusional disorder, paranoid delusions, schizophrenia. Has developed a complete and internally consistent worldview. Delusional behavior has projected into reality. Displays mild tendencies toward self-harm and self-abuse. Long-term observation recommended.

After finishing, Doctor Hao entered the same information into Lu Ban's file in the hospital's internal system. He also added a brief note in the system linked to the police.

The note contained only four words.

Extremely dangerous!

*

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