NOVEL WEB 0022 – Ultimate Perception!
The noise of the world filled her ears. This is not a rhetorical device, but rather the literal meaning. Zoe, who had just awakened from sleep, had no time to care about anything else at the moment. Because countless voices were rushing into her ears like a tide, or rather, her ears were continuously receiving all the surrounding information.
That loud clap of spring thunder was the starting gun.
After that, the humming of the refrigerator, the slightly heavier snoring of Benny from the opposite door after getting drunk, the sound of cooking oil from the household upstairs, and the murmurs of daytime indulgence from the opposite building.
The sound of raindrops outside the window breaking through the air, hitting the ground, and splattering. The sound of cars driving on slippery roads.
Whispers from all directions, countless notification sounds from mobile phones. Countless voices mixed together, flooding into Zoe's mind. The world was so noisy.
Zoe suddenly became abnormally sensitive to sound. At this moment, amidst the bustling city, she felt a strong sense of discomfort. Whether big or small, all these sounds converged.
Even the subtle sound of insects breaking through the soil after being awakened by spring thunder was mixed in with countless other noises. It was like a form of mental pollution, more harmful than having a hundred loops of a cringey movie playing on the phone.
Zoe was sure. No one could understand her feelings; the sensation of information overload to the point of CPU and receiver overload was indescribable. If someone could empathize with Zoe, it would probably only be Superman from fantasy works who had experienced something similar.
This feeling made Zoe's thoughts chaotic, almost to the point of collapse. However, perhaps Zoe's discomfort triggered some special mechanism. A special sensation emerged, a warm flow from the heart, or a feeling similar to it.
As soon as this special warmth appeared, it smoothed out all of Zoe's fluctuations. Zoe's tense emotions calmed down as if a long-awaited rain had finally come after a drought.
Amidst the garbage information composed of countless sounds filling her brain, she now felt inner peace and relaxation.
Countless disturbing voices were categorized in Zoe's mind, neatly organized and planned.
These sounds no longer stimulated her mind; instead, they became an active skill that could be turned on and off and adjusted at will, like a sense of smell. Or should say, she suddenly acquired a basic ability to categorize and process, with all the cluttered sounds being automatically filed and organized by her subconscious, ready to be accessed at any time.
With experience leading the way, Zoe quickly became proficient. The noisy world returned to calm at this moment.
Only Zoe, with a lingering fear in her heart, understood the tumult hidden behind the world. She slightly adjusted her extraordinary hearing, which she had adapted to by now, and listened to the murmurs from the neighboring building for a while as an experiment.
She confirmed that she could control this ability freely, just like her sense of smell. She could now actively increase her special attention to certain sounds or greatly reduce her focus on others.
After confirming this, Zoe ended her eavesdropping without changing her expression.
Shortly afterward, feeling somewhat mentally exhausted, she left the computer desk where she had unexpectedly fallen asleep for quite some time.
She tossed herself onto the soft bed. The gentle breath enveloped her. The room, dimly lit without the curtains drawn, seemed even more drowsy-inducing.
However, after Zoe closed her eyes for a few seconds, she stood up refreshed. The fatigue brought by the disturbance of noise had vanished. Like a machine unaware of hardship, she casually pulled open the bedroom curtains.
Outside, there was no sunlight shining in. Even at noon, there was hardly any sunlight to be seen. The clouds brought by the Walpurgisnacht season almost completely covered Hamilton. So much so that if one were to close the curtains and turn off the lights, the interior might also be pitch black.
This dim world, combined with the falling rain, was like frosted glass, making it difficult to see clearly and adding a sense of mystery.
However, when Zoe looked out the window, she discovered the second transformation brought about by her second sleep. In addition to her enhanced hearing, her vision at the moment seemed unusually good.
The scenery, blurry to most people's eyes, appeared as if the image quality had been upgraded, with nothing unclear.
Even if Zoe wanted to, in terms of static vision, she could easily see the ladybugs clinging to the roof tiles of the neighboring residential buildings.
In terms of dynamic vision, as long as she concentrated, she could even see the raindrops falling slowly from the sky, hitting the ground, and bouncing back up in a special shape after reaching the ground.
In fact, Zoe's improved static and dynamic vision had been demonstrated in the past few days. However, she had never thought it would be this clear now.
She could be sure that in terms of vision alone, she had reached the pinnacle of human ability. It wasn't just about seeing clearly; she could actively and effortlessly focus on objects at different distances.
Her dynamic vision even rivaled that of some high-speed cameras, allowing her to see the entire process of rainwater falling into puddles and splashing up mushroom-like water sprays with focused attention.
Obviously, after this second sleep, Zoe underwent physical changes just like the first time. Hearing was one of them, and so was vision! And just like the first time, there might be more changes waiting to be discovered.
She was about to embark on a period of exploration and busyness. Moreover, Zoe realized one thing: after seven days, she had once again experienced sleep and transformation.
After this, would there be further changes? Would this kind of sleep evolution continue indefinitely? Was this sleep evolution a fixed-time-triggered process, or did some of her behaviors trigger some special mechanism that led to this sleep?
Many questions filled her mind, leaving Zoe momentarily confused and somewhat lost. Fortunately, over the past week, she had become accustomed to her peculiarities.
So, after a brief moment of being lost in thought, she made a decision: regardless of the circumstances, she would first get a camera.
Next time she might sleep, she would try to record the entire process of her sleep before falling asleep, trying to document as much as possible about her sleep process.
Besides that, the most important thing was to explore thoroughly the various changes brought about by this second sleep evolution!
