svetikya Chapter 133 [The Questionnaire of Alaya]
Chapter 133 [The Questionnaire of Alaya]
Chapter 133 [Alaya's Questionnaire] (Please subscribe and vote with monthly tickets)
On the edge of Manhattan, on the defensive line where ruins meet the Hudson River.
A fierce wind, carrying viral spores and embers of gunpowder, swept over Pei Qi.
He stood on this scorched earth that had been bombarded countless times, his gaze fixed on the blueprint artillery array that was being frantically worked on in the distance.
But his thoughts drifted to the old, worn-out folder he had just tossed to Alex like trash.
[The Alaya Questionnaire]
Even as the highest-ranking director of the GOC Global Paranormal Alliance in Asia, Pei Qi's knowledge of this item was limited to a few vague and confidential internal documents.
Regarding the origin of this thing, there is no clear containment record in the Occult League's central database.
It wasn't unearthed from some ancient ruin, nor is it the creation of some mad scientist.
Within that extremely small circle of top executives, only one awe-inspiring saying circulated.
This thing was personally materialized by His Excellency Neos, the Secretary-General of the Supernatural Alliance, using some indescribable means.
It was distributed to regional managers as a special strategic resource.
Its core purpose sounds a bit convoluted: "deep anchoring tests to assess the residual human cognition of specific humanoid anomalies, in order to accurately evaluate the target entity's level of danger and communicability."
In layman's terms, it's used to test whether a monster still has even the slightest bit of "human decency".
But don't think that this thing can be used to provide psychological counseling to zombies on the street.
Within the Supernatural Alliance, access to this thing is extremely restricted.
Any action team that wants to use this questionnaire must write a risk assessment report that is dozens of pages long and submit it directly to the regional supervisor, Pei Qi, before it can be approved after a long discussion and review process.
Why be so cautious?
Because in most cases, the Supernatural Alliance's attitude towards anomalies can be summed up in one word: kill.
To be included in the "questionnaire test candidate list," a humanoid anomaly must meet two extremely stringent prerequisites.
First, the military force is under absolute control.
Second, it has extremely high tactical and strategic value or scientific research value.
Only when the final result of the questionnaire acknowledges that the subject "still counts as a human being" will the Supernatural Alliance initiate the subsequent series of cumbersome procedures of imprisonment, co-optation, or humane annihilation.
Otherwise, they would be executed on the spot, and their ashes would be scattered into a pool of strong acid.
Pei Qi recalled the extremely bizarre characteristics of that questionnaire, which even he, who was used to the unreasonable rules of MC, often felt was absurd.
The item is just a standard A4 kraft paper folder with severe wear and tear.
The surface is bare, without a barcode or manufacturer's logo.
There wasn't even a stain; it was eerily clean.
But what's most chilling is its quality.
Researchers from the Paranormal Alliance have measured it using a microbalance with atomic-level precision.
The results showed that the folder was open regardless of whether it was closed or had been opened to the first or hundredth page.
Regardless of how many tens of thousands of words the subjects wrote on it with blood or ink.
The weight of the entire rubbing will always be fixed at 314.15926 grams!
Not a single microgram more or less is acceptable.
It's as if it's been locked in place by the fundamental constant of the universe, pi, ruthlessly rubbing the law of conservation of mass in physics to the ground.
If you try to cause damage, forcibly tear off the top page.
The torn paper will turn into a cloud of ordinary fly ash with no research value the moment it leaves the folder.
The folder, as if it had a life of its own, would automatically replace itself with a brand new yellow paper in the blink of an eye, while its weight remained unchanged at 314.15926 grams.
Viewed from the side, it always maintains a thickness of only about 50 sheets of A4 paper.
But since its inception, no subject, or any bored researcher from the Supernatural Alliance, has ever been able to "turn to the end directly" by physically turning the pages.
As long as the test continues, and as long as the underlying logic requires data, those 50 thin sheets of paper will continue to expand to the next page as the test progresses, as if its interior is connected to an infinite-dimensional paper mill.
The content and number of questions in the questionnaire vary entirely from person to person.
It seems to be able to directly read the complexity of a subject's life experiences and the depth of their memories.
Pei Qi remembered an extremely extreme case recorded in the archives.
It was an immortal, aberrant entity that had lived for countless centuries and suffered from severe schizophrenia and post-war PTSD.
That guy sat in the containment room, crying as he wrote, for three whole months.
Papers piled up on the ground like a mountain, and the questionnaire had been generated into a terrifying 114514 pages of questions based on his long and distorted memories!
That is also the longest recorded answer in the history of the Supernatural Alliance.
According to the agent in charge of the surveillance, the subject even wore his fingers down to the last bit, and finally finished writing by biting his tongue and drawing blood.
The criteria for judging that thing are absolutely not based on the literal meaning of the written words.
Pei Qi crossed his arms, looked at the blood-red sky in the distance over Manhattan, and sneered.
The official records provide an extremely vague description of the scoring mechanism, mentioning it only briefly.
However, what circulates among these high-ranking officials is that what the questionnaire actually records is the "cognitive waveform" at the moment the subject writes down the answer.
Lying is useless. Pretending to be a saint is also useless.
Pei Qi knew all too well the nature of this kind of idealistic creation.
This thing is definitely related to grand concepts like the ocean of the human subconscious.
After all, the name itself clearly bears the ultimate concept from the Yogacara school of Buddhism—"Alaya".
If you say this thing has absolutely nothing to do with that collective unconscious of humanity, Pei Qi wouldn't believe it even if he ate the keyboard.
After the subjects endured psychological torment and finally answered all the questions that could define the nature of their souls.
The questionnaire will no longer present any new torment. Instead, you will be presented with an extremely clean, blank page.
In the center of that bottom page, the final, so-called HS value (Humanity Score) will slowly appear.
The HS value is based on an extremely simple and crude percentage system. Currently, Pei Qi only has access to know two clearly defined ranges.
Those in the top tier of [85-100 points] are "pure humans" who possess a complete moral compass, empathy, the ability to understand human emotions, and normal logic.
The vast majority of mentally healthy ordinary citizens in the world will fall steadily into this range after taking the test.
Below that is the second tier, which can be described as being on the verge of danger: [60-84 points].
Objects that fall within this range are extremely complex in composition.
Most of them are ordinary people who have experienced severe trauma and suffer from serious mental illnesses, or professional killers and mercenaries with blood on their hands and hearts as cold as iron.
According to the questionnaire, these individuals were still able to understand human values and beliefs.
However, the prolonged killing and suffering may have caused them to develop a serious disregard for life.
They are incomplete, rusty humans, but ultimately—they are still human beings.
As for what happens if the score falls below the passing mark of 60, entering the bottomless abyss of [59 points and below] —
"Then it's not my responsibility." A cold glint flashed in Pei Qi's eyes.
His regional supervisor's operating manual did not provide a more detailed explanation of the classification of this area.
Because there's no need to explain it at all.
The instruction manual contains only one line of text, prominently displayed with a blood-red warning box:
[Any individual who passes the questionnaire and whose HS score falls below 60 will be immediately stripped of their humanoid entity status. They will be classified as a high-risk, uncontrollable anomaly. To prevent further real-world harm and memetic contamination, nearby armed personnel must immediately execute a physical destruction procedure.]
There was no opportunity for appeal, and no possibility of detention or investigation.
A score below 60 means your underlying logic has become completely inhuman; you are a monster in human skin.
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