Hospital 444
Chapter 178 - 5: Belief and Existence

Chapter 178: Chapter 5: Belief and Existence

Fang Zhou clutched his forehead tightly.

Dai Lin seemed to have heard something and looked back. Then he turned to Fang Zhou and said, "Doctor Fang, it seems like my brother has woken up, so I’m going to hang up now and contact you later."

After Dai Lin ended the video call, Fang Zhou immediately noticed that the strange sensation in his forehead had lessened significantly.

Indeed... there was a connection between the two!

Fang Zhou walked over to the hotel window, still holding his forehead, and began to ponder a series of questions.

He had discovered something when he began to deeply ponder the question, "Does Hospital 666 truly exist?" The pain in his forehead would become much more pronounced.

This wasn’t a psychological effect, nor was it a coincidence.

"What on earth is going on?"

Fang Zhou was a big fan of American TV shows.

Each year, he would select a few of the many newly released high-rated shows to watch.

He remembered an American TV show named "Westworld," which had been acclaimed as a masterpiece online and had produced three seasons so far, with a fourth expected next year.

In this show, humans in the future have created a mechanical android-themed park. The androids have high-level AI intelligence and are programmed with various roles to play NPCs within the park, where they can be killed by visitors over and over, only to be revived again and again through repairs.

For these androids, they were repeatedly asked a question by the park’s repair staff in their daily routine.

"Do you doubt the world you live in?"

The androids wouldn’t lie in their presence. For the park staff, it was crucial to ensure that the androids did not develop self-awareness but always believed they were real humans, never realizing they were expendables living in a fake theme park.

Fang Zhou was quite fond of this American TV show. There were many sci-fi themes about AI rebellion, but this show, focusing on self-perception, was laden with philosophical significance.

Each android, when asked if they doubted the world they lived in, would not find it strange to be asked such a question. They were programmed but within allowed parameters, possessed almost human-like self-awareness. In the end, Fang Zhou was even shocked to discover that some of the park’s staff were androids, who had no realization of this and genuinely believed they were human, even adopting the stance of creators toward their kindred androids.

An android’s recognition of everything can be arbitrarily changed by modifying their programming. For example, the female protagonist, an android gradually awakening to self-awareness, was given a new android to play the role of her "father" after the previous one malfunctioned and was discarded. And every morning when she woke up, the reset program would alter her cognition, making her call an android she was meeting for the first time "father."

Wait...

Thinking about this, wasn’t it almost exactly the same as the issue Luo Ren was facing??

Now, upon reflection, Fang Zhou couldn’t help but dwell on a... deeply unsettling question.

Why did he never find it odd to see the rule that said "You must believe that the hospital is called Hospital 444, not 666 Hospital, and there are no departments with English names," a phrase that, from a linguistic standpoint, is very strange?

Why "must believe" instead of directly stating the conclusion with an affirmative sentence?

And it was only when his forehead began to hurt that Fang Zhou truly realized how odd this sentence was in the grammar of the Chinese language. And the more doubtful he felt about it, the more pronounced the pain became.

And then... what he saw just now...

Fang Zhou’s curse object had one characteristic: it had an extremely precise perception of danger. This precise perception had saved his life many times. And the dangerous sensation he had just felt was the first of its kind since he became a doctor. Even when facing the most terrifying fierce spirits in the past, he had never felt such intense fear!

Compared to that black silhouette, fierce spirits were nothing to mention! Could it be, the legendary...

Cursed Spirit???

Fang Zhou had heard about Dai Lin’s brother’s case, after all, it was Vice President Han, the head of the Department of Fierce Spirits, who personally pushed it forward. His brother had successfully been discharged from the Demons Department after treatment.

Dai Lin regarded that black humanoid silhouette as his brother???

It’s just like bionic people whose self-awareness has been altered.

And according to the rules, if one continues to question the existence of Hospital 444 and the pain persists for over an hour, then Fang Zhou is faced with a problem, he would have to follow the rules and visit the Demons Department.

Seeing that black silhouette, would Fang Zhou still dare to register for an appointment at the Demons Department?

But if he doesn’t comply with the rules set by the chief physician and visit the Demons Department, what would be his fate?

Sweat began to bead on Fang Zhou’s forehead and cheeks.

Even though he was a department head, he was nothing in front of the chief physician.

Fang Zhou had come to realize some harsh realities, and he lacked the courage to delve into the truth behind them.

"I believe, the hospital I work in is called Hospital 444..." He gritted his teeth and said, "There is no such thing as 666 Hospital. It doesn’t exist... I believe, I believe this hospital has no departments with English names!"

He kept repeating this sentence, and by about the twentieth time, he finally felt the pain in his forehead begin to lessen bit by bit.

Right, there’s no such thing as 666 Hospital...

It absolutely doesn’t exist...

Doesn’t exist...

...

Fang Zhou finally became tired and fell asleep directly on the couch.

After a long sleep, he was woken up by the sound of his cell phone ringing.

"Dr. Fang," the person calling was Lu Yuqing, "This is the situation, today we will take you to meet Luo Ren’s mother."

Fang Zhou suddenly discovered that the pain on his forehead had completely disappeared!

Gone!

He immediately became overjoyed.

That’s wonderful...

He immediately said to the other end of the phone, "Okay, I, I understand."

After fixing a time with Lu Yuqing, Fang Zhou hung up the phone, entered the bathroom, and took a shower.

Ever since he woke up in the morning and discovered the pain on his forehead, his sweat hadn’t stopped.

He was certain that the root cause of the pain on his forehead was due to that woman who might be related to the Harland family!

He didn’t want to know what lay behind it anymore, nor did he want to discover the secrets behind the red-masked nurse.

He just wanted to live.

Surviving is more important than anything.

His parents were both old, his child had just started kindergarten, and he had only remarried a year ago, with his wife staying home as a housewife to take care of the child. Fang Zhou could be said to be the pillar of the family; he couldn’t afford any accidents, he couldn’t die. And he always told his wife that he was a surgeon at a large private hospital, which wasn’t exactly a lie.

This case... He didn’t want to get too involved anymore!