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A million years ago, humans had just learned to make fire, ending the days of eating raw meat and drinking blood. At dusk, a group of ape men returned to the cave with their prey and started a fire.
At this moment, another person walked in from outside the cave, his face hidden in the darkness, unclear to others.
1
A smart ape-man raised a torch, and tentatively approached the newcomer, scrutinizing him all over. Yes, he looked the same as himself, apparently of the same kind, but this smart ape-man always felt that something was not quite right.
He asked the man in low murmurs, “I’ve never seen you before.”
The man laughed, “Just a passer-by, wanting to sleep.”
Humans are social animals, so the people in the cave agreed to his request.
At deep night, when everyone else had fallen asleep, the man who held the torch earlier couldn’t sleep at all. He kept thinking of one question over and over again -
What exactly was wrong with this person who came in?
A nose, two eyes, a mouth, two ears, two arms, two legs…
Everything seemed normal, and nothing extra like any tail or wings stood out.
The clever ape-man couldn’t solve this mystery at the moment, but he felt that something was off!
He silently glanced at the man who had come to stay overnight, who was sound asleep at this moment.
Late in the night, he also fell asleep and had a dream where he saw the man who had lodged there again.
In the dream, only the two of them were there, and he felt a bit scared, calling upon the gods as a blessing.
That man seemed to see through his thoughts and said, “Shh, even the heavens do not know of my existence…”
The two got closer and closer, and as he shook all over, watching the other, he finally remembered what seemed off!
After he woke up, he ran out of the cave like a madman, howling fiercely!
“It’s too terrifying! I need to tell everyone this secret!”
From that moment on, mankind’s gene for fear of ’that’ has been passed down. Thus, the term ‘Uncanny Valley’ has also been derived in modern society.
2
Click!
In my home office, at this moment, my cousin Lin Yu types the last word on her computer and looks up at me.
“So what happened next? What kind of secret did the clever ape-man end up discovering?”
I asked, curious.
My cousin shut her computer, picked up the coffee next to her, and ambiguously said as she sipped it,
“This is a story I just wrote, I’m not even sure what the secret is.”
Hearing her answer, my face fell, “Huh, I was just so entranced watching you write. I was waiting for you to figure out the answer. You’re the author, and you don’t even know!”
My cousin looked at me, “Lin Yan, don’t you usually have a lot of ideas? Why don’t you help me figure out how to develop this secret.”
I was speechless, “What the heck? You’re a horror story writer, and you came to me for answers?”
My cousin patted me on the shoulder, “This is called brainstorming. My initial plan was to make the passing ape-man a monster, but that seemed too cliche and lacked suspense.”
“Since your story is themed around the uncanny valley, you certainly can’t describe it as a monster …”
And with that, I stood up and took a book from the shelf - a foreign book mainly about the works of various world-renowned horror authors, along with some theoretical analysis of horror.
Finding a particular page, I handed the book to my cousin. I sat back down and said, “You see, the earliest theory about the uncanny valley pertains to robots and non-human objects.”
My cousin grimaced, “I’ve known about this basic theory for long.”
She claimed so, but she still patiently studied the book.
I couldn’t help but laugh: “So since your story starts with an ancient ape-man, robots are clearly out of the question. It’s illogical, would break immersion.”
Searching for a particular page, I handed the book to my cousin and sat back down. “See, the earliest theory of the uncanny valley pertains to robots and non-human entities.”
My cousin pouted, “I’ve been aware of this basic theory for a long time.”
Even though she said that she was still patiently studying the book.
I couldn’t help but laugh, “So, since your story starts with an ancient ape-man, a robot is immediately out of the question. It’s illogical, and the anachronism breaks immersion.”
Without lifting her head, my cousin said, “Exactly. So, I initially defined this thing as something that looks the same as humans but has one fatal flaw, and this flaw, once discovered by humans, will out it.”
This piqued my interest. “That sounds good. So what is the flaw?”
Annoyed, my cousin said, “Didn’t I just say? I haven’t thought it through yet.”
Seeing that my cousin was still deep in thought, I flippantly suggested, “Mars people? Lizard people? People from the underground?”
“Go away!” My cousin waved me off dismissively. “Such a boring setting.”
After a while, my cousin pointed to her computer. “But I’ve already chosen a name for it.”
“What name?”
“We are human, so they are… human-like!”
Upon hearing this name, I leaned back on the couch. “Why are you so casual? Besides, if a reader doesn’t hear well, they might think it’s ‘startling’, making it even more startling.”
With a gesture of disdain, my cousin continued to read her book.
Suddenly, I remembered a snippet from the novel earlier and asked curiously, “Cousin, why does the clever ape-man feel something is off when he first sees the human-like?”
She gave me a deep look and asked puzzlingly, “Lin Yan, do you feel scared looking at me?”
“Huh?” The question confused me. “What do you mean?”
Seeing my reaction, my cousin’s tense face relaxed into a playful smile. She said,
“One characteristic of the human-like is that even before their flaw is discovered, a small portion of humans can detect them and will feel fear towards the human-like.”
“But fear must have a source. If the human-like flaw hasn’t been discovered, how can humans feel afraid?” My curiosity grew.
My cousin put the book on the table and suddenly stopped talking. Staring blankly at me with an expressionless face.
“Big sis, why are you staring at me?”
I felt a bit uncomfortable with her demeanor.
She tilted her head slightly with an ambiguous smile and asked,
“Why do you assume that the person who came to your house today is your real cousin?”
3
With a buzz, I instantly felt my scalp tighten!
“You… are joking around again.”
I tried not to appear too embarrassed on the face. I assumed she’d be amused again, as she was when she saw my shocked reaction earlier.
But…
A few seconds later, something felt wrong. My cousin was still staring at me with that indifferent and eerie gaze!
It was completely out of sync with her usual persona!
I couldn’t say anything. My body wound tight, all I wanted to do was to escape this room.
My cousin at that moment looked as if she was possessed by an unknown entity, or like a mentally disturbed person - as if her acquired persona of over twenty years was merely a charade, and only now was her true self revealing.
Then suddenly, she got up and moved her face closer to mine.
“Hey!”
I jumped at the situation, my body tensing up.
Her face got closer to mine, and then, she burst out laughing.
“Silly little brother, you got scared by me again.”
She turned around and sat back down in her chair, her demeanor returning to the familiar one, with a cunning smile of success on her lips.
With a sigh of relief, I threw a hand cushion at her and shouted,
“Lin Yu! Are you crazy?!”
“Hahahaha!” Seeing my reaction, my cousin became even more amused.
“Just wait, one day I’ll frighten you too!” I said helplessly.
My cousin put her laptop into her backpack and said, “I was doing a little experiment earlier, and also answering your question.”
“What question?”
“Weren’t you asking me why humans inexplicably feel afraid of the human-like? I think our recent experiment could partly explain that.”
Reflecting on her demeanor just a minute ago, I had an epiphany, “I get it. You’re saying, when a familiar person suddenly becomes strange and eerie, that’s also a form of the uncanny valley, right?”
“Exactly!” My cousin snapped her fingers, “Assume I’m a human-like. You didn’t notice my flaw, but you were still scared. This was because my abnormality created an enigma, causing you to fear.”
I nodded involuntarily. Her words did make sense.
“So, have you figured out how to write the story about the ape-man and the human-like?”
My cousin sighed and put on her backpack, “Not yet. I need to think more about what the flaw of the human-like could be.”
“Alright, I hope you can think of a fascinating flaw. Let me know as soon as you do.”
“We’ll see.” My cousin waved her hand dismissively and left the room.
Upon opening the lock, she had just taken a step when she suddenly paused and asked me a question in a low voice,
“Lin Yan, do you remember a sentence from the story I was writing earlier?”
“Which sentence?”
Without turning her head, she said, “The human-like stated that even God was unaware of its existence. So, where do you think it came from?”
Bam! She closed the door tightly behind her.
For some reason, despite it being noon, I felt a chill run through my body. Her last sentence, I couldn’t comprehend…
4
Three days later, this event was still looming in my mind. I even started resisting sleep every night, afraid of dreaming about the troop of apes and … that human-like.
I opened up my phone and saw that my cousin Lin Yu’s writing blog had been updated with a story about the human-like.
“Perhaps she has figured out the human-like’s flaw!” Excited, I clicked in and started browsing. After all, I was really curious about this secret.
Here is her updated document:
When another tribe found the clever ape-man, he had gone insane. He was completely covered in mud and had a lot of wounds. It seemed like he had suffered a lot on his journey.
Ape-men from that time didn’t know the concept of going mad. Seeing his state, they thought he was possessed by an evil spirit. So, they tied him up and surrounded him in the middle of the crowd, praying again and again.
“It’s already here! It’s blended in among us!”
The clever ape-man couldn’t stop roaring, repeatedly shouting these words.
This added to the fear, making people dare not approach him.
“I’ll tell you the secret about it!”
Upon hearing this, the leader of the tribe stood up and slowly walked towards him.
“Who is it? What secret do you want to tell?”
The clever ape-man twisted his body, hopping about, and shouted,
“A person entered our tribe, no! It’s not a person! Although it looks the same as us, but…”
Before he could finish, the leader suddenly leaned in, face to face, and began to speak:
“Look at me, think carefully, how do you want to say it?”
“You!!!” The clever ape-man’s pupils dilated abruptly. Looking at the approaching leader, his heart abruptly stopped.
At that time, it was too common for a person to die. The crowd didn’t understand the situation and casually discarded the ape-man’s corpse in the forest.
Perhaps there was something off with that leader. He might be the human-like. Regrettably, with the death of the clever ape-man, nobody knew of this incident.
A million years ago, Earth was still thriving with many animals. One day, a cheetah chasing its prey accidentally wandered into a cave.
Yes, it was the cave where the human-like had once taken shelter.
The cheetah seemed quite curious about the place and started wandering around inside.
Please note!
Animals tend to avoid human crowds, as they can scent human activities. However, this cheetah didn’t feel any human presence around.
There were piles of prey carcasses and some stone artifacts on the cave wall.
The cheetah vaguely felt something was wrong. Its underdeveloped brain attempted to make sense of it.
There should have been human activities here, but I can’t see or smell anyone.
The cheetah could not understand and decided to claim this prey as its own. It was about to start its feast when -
A human face appeared out of nowhere.
“Are you looking for me?”