by <unknown>
Surely enough, the signal tower would be visible from the top of the mountain once lit up.
"This is the first target of our expedition."
Fisher spread out the map made from torn pieces of clothes and nodded when he looked at it. "We need to light up three signal towers. This is the tower closest to us."
With that, he turned to the blonde-haired lady who had been silent all this time.
"I'll do it!"
Jennifer nodded as she took a deep breath and approached the bottom section of the signal tower. Fisher quickly waved and motioned for the others to get back.
Jennifer was going to light up the signal tower.
"The black sphere Gantz mentioned that a curse will be placed upon lighting the signal tower. What does this curse refer to? Virus, toxic fumes? Or is it something else…"
Fisher muttered to himself. His expression became extremely dark as he did so. He was prepared to immediately evacuate to the safe zone at the drop of a hat if he noticed something odd.
Below the tower, Jennifer raised the communication device in her hands and pressed into the button to light up the signal tower!
One second, two seconds, three seconds…
After several seconds had passed, Jennifer remained still like a statue in place, still maintaining her motion of pressing the button.
"Jennifer?"
Fisher could not stop himself from calling out to her. It was only then when Jennifer slowly came back to her senses. She blankly shifted her attention away from the display on the communication device and turned to Fisher. "Did something happen just now?"
"No, nothing happened at all."
Fisher looked at the top of the signal tower and noticed that the spotlight was turned on silently. However, there did not seem to be any visible change in the signal tower or Jennifer herself.
Jennifer also looked up and said as she approached Fisher, "I didn't feel any curse or anything else either…"
Before she could finish, she suddenly stumbled.
When she approached her group, everyone including Fisher instinctively took a step back.
"Jennifer... Are, are you feeling alright?"
Fisher quickly reacted and mustered out a smile. "It's great to see that you're fine. I thought that the curse would be some sort of biological weapon like rabies!"
"It's not. I didn't feel anything at all."
Jennifer's expression turned darker as she shook her head and said with a bitter smile, "I only saw a strange image appearing on the communication device. When I clicked the confirmation button, the image disappeared."
"What kind of image?" Fisher immediately asked.
Jennifer seemed to have returned to her usual self as she expressed curiously, "It's hard to describe. That picture gave off a gross impression, it's like… It's like a pile of dead bodies or a bunch of foul-smelling, dirty garbage piling together into a pattern. It gives off a filthy impression."
"Is that so?"
Fisher frowned. "This is the curse that black sphere Gantz mentioned? That can't be it…"
"This isn't the time to discuss these things. Let's go ahead and light up the second signal tower."
Jennifer shook her head. She saw her group keeping a noticeable distance from her and decided to just go ahead by herself.
"Be careful of those monsters wandering around here, let's catch up to her!"
Even Fisher felt like he had a hard time keeping it together. He quickly motioned for the people behind him and quickly caught up to Jennifer.
Apart from the five humongous Tyrants, there seemed to be minimal threat in this ancient jungle that had not had anyone set foot on it for countless years. They did not even run into any venomous snakes or vicious creatures. Within three hours, they had lit up the remaining two signal towers.
After that, they only had to bring Jennifer back to the safe zone to declare this a successful mission.
After completing this signal tower mission, they would only have to light up another one hundred towers closest to the safe zone. This was also a way for them to experiment with how they could circumvent the rules. If it proved to be successful, the remaining hundred towers should be achievable as well.
There were good reasons they did not choose to light up all the signal towers in one go. First of all, because there were Tyrants in the jungle waiting for them and the risk increased exponentially the further they went into the jungle. Secondly, they could at least minimize the risk if the people in charge would not allow them to play around with the rules like this.
On the way back, nothing abnormal seemed to have occurred to Jennifer who had lit up the signal towers.
"What are the odds that the so-called curse doesn't even exist in the first place? What if they are just bluffing us?"
That's what I've been saying. How do you expect something like dark witchcraft to be a thing? Turn someone into ashes in a day? That's impossible!"
There was the occasional small talk among the group, expressing their relief at how things had turned out.
Fisher also started to settle down slowly. He smiled at Jennifer. "Thank you, Jennifer, you're a hero."
"I sure hope so."
Jennifer only squeezed a forced smile, not appearing to be in good spirits.
Just as Fisher was trying to come out with something to say to redeem his image, his pupils suddenly shrunk.
He suddenly noticed that there was a cloud of black substance permeating through Jennifer's stained back.
The substance crawled out from Jennifer's back and had spread to the back of her neck. Also, the substance did not appear to be something that was produced from the forest, but something that had grown directly from her skin…
What appeared to be ashes were clinging onto the back of Jennifer's neck. When her shirt brushed against it, pieces of black ashes dropped onto the ground.
After the pieces broke off, what appeared was not the texture of Jennifer's skin, but a large sunken sore…
The sore was horribly pale, mixed with the stark pink of flesh under it. It seemed to be steadily spreading out, invoking a great sense of terror when one looked upon it.
However, despite having such a large sore forming on her, Jennifer seemed to have hardly noticed it at all.
"Is this the curse the black sphere spoke of?"
Fisher's eyes fluttered. His previous sense of relief had all but dissipated into thin air. It was true, the curse was real and was happening to Jennifer already…
While a terrible shiver climbed through every part of Fisher's skin, Jennifer seemed to have sensed his eyes on her and turned to him curiously. "What are you looking at?"
"No, nothing!"
Fisher quickly brushed her off and quickly hastened his footsteps as he took the lead in front. "We better quickly return to the safe zone, be careful not to make any loud noises, the monsters could be stalking nearby at any given time!"
With that, the crew moved along without so much as a whisper.
They continued their journey like this for another two hours. Just as they were starting to feel exhausted, they re-entered the safety ring of the safe zone. One after another, they allowed themselves to collapse onto the safe ground and laughed and celebrated.
It was then when Jennifer suddenly unleashed a sharp, nightmarish shriek. When everyone turned to look at the commotion, they saw that Jennifer was tearing away at her long strands of hair with her face expressing horror.
With a relentless tear, a huge chunk of hair on the back of her head was torn right off along with a black chunk of rotten flesh clinging onto them…
Chapter 348: Deterioration |
A disease known as "Filth" was starting to spread on the uninhabited island.
The symptoms were that black ashes would begin forming on the limbs and body of the afflicted. These ashes would eventually spread across the body and expand their effects into other sections of the skin and turn them into the same ashes.
What was even more te
rrifying was that the ashes could spread into the body. The ashes started with only affecting the outer layer of the skin but as time passed, not only did it spread outward, it began to spread inward deep into the skin as well.
The flesh, arteries, veins, even bones…
More teams were returning to the camp from their successful expedition of lighting the signal towers, but there was not the slightest hint of joy painted on the faces of the returning members. This was because each volunteer who lit up the signal tower was covered in these black ashes.
Some of the volunteers suffered its effects around the elbow region and it had spread through the greater half of their arm. The black ashes fell off constantly until all that was left of their arm was withered bones…
For some of the volunteers, it was their feet. The several hours' journey had completely shattered their legs and they had to be carried back by the others.
Meanwhile, some of the volunteers had black ashes stemming from their faces. They had essentially become blind and more than half of their face had corroded, leaving the brain structure inside the skull exposed.
This was the situation the people in the safe zone were currently dealing with.
"More than thirty people have lost the ability to care for themselves at all."
Watching the hellscape shown on the display, Yoru Kamidera turned to the researchers with their eyes widened and mouths agape. "Everyone, this is what we'll be researching…"
"So, what exactly is this 'curse' you speak of? Is this some sort of bacteria? Virus? Biological weapon?"
Both Adenauer and Erickson turned to Samuel for answers. After all, Samuel was the only certified biologist in the entire research team.
Safe to say that even Samuel was just as confused as they were. When he saw everyone turning to him for an explanation, he could only smile bitterly. "Consultant Yoru, please spare us the suspense. I'm sure that you're the only one in this entire laboratory who knows what the curse is, am I right?"
"Everyone, please don't be mistaken as this curse has nothing to do with biological weapons so you may rest assured."
Yoru Kamidera reassured. "After all, this curse is far more powerful than biological weapons. If you compare its destructiveness to biological missiles, you should imagine it as comparing fireworks and nuclear missiles."
"What!"
Hearing Yoru Kamidera state that this curse was unrelated to biological weapons eased their concern a little, but the sentence immediately after that stunned them yet again.
"I'm sure every one of you here has heard of the phrase 'meme'."
Yoru Kamidera continued. "This phrase originated from the book 'The Selfish Gene' by the famous British scientist Richard Dawkins. It discusses the role played by genes in the process of biological evolution in the context of transmission of language, ideas, beliefs, behaviors, and whatnot. Alternatively, it can be viewed as a measurement unit for messages. Just like regular genetics, it has the shared characteristics of heredity, variability, and selectivity."
"I do know this."
"I know about this as well."
Both Erickson and Adenauer nodded in unison when they heard of this. After all, they were professionals in psychology and sociology and had at the very least heard of the term.
"In that case, it'll be much easier to explain this."
Yoru Kamidera nodded before raising his head and called out, "X-112, you can print the information now. Please print several additional copies."
"Understood!"
An electronically synthesized voice of a woman was heard across the laboratory.
"Who were you speaking to?"
"That was the computer in the laboratory just now? Where is her host machine?"
"Oh my, she can understand such abstract languages?"
They were all extremely surprised by this sudden occurrence.
"She certainly is the computer of the laboratory. All of you have actually seen her host machine already."
Yoru Kamidera pointed at the pitch-black spire on the display. "This is her host, her name is X-112. As it is, I'm the only one given the authorization to access her."
"Are you kidding me?" Erickson was in disbelief. "How can the host of a computer be that gigantic black spire?"
"It's the truth."
Yoru Kamidera did not further explain but instead handed out the copies of printed information to each one of them.
Samuel took the print, still undecided on what he had just been told. He saw that the first page contained a strange image.
It was a picture that deeply unsettled a person on a biological level. Based on Samuel's observation, he saw that the picture had several nuances used to exploit psychological perception. Let the chaotic scribbles looked like thousands of rotting corpses stacked on top of each other, painting an extremely violent and bloody imagery.
Upon closer inspection, he saw that this picture was a scribbled mess composed of irregular and disorderly lines and color polygons.
Additionally, the four corners of the picture were blacked out. When Samuel saw this, he was filled with a strange sense of disappointment of not being able to see the full picture.
"Alright, back to the main topic."
Yoru Kamidera began his explanation, "What you are looking at now is a meme known as 'Filth'. It's a meme that assumes the form of a picture as a transportation medium. When you see this picture, you'll turn into ashes within a day, just like these victims."
The hands of the three professors and the other assistants trembled when they heard this. Even the usually stout Samuel shivered at the thought of it.
"Professor Erickson, didn't you previously ask me how messages are supposed to kill people?"
Yoru Kamidera turned to the silent Erickson. "Now I can tell you the answer. These messages that transmit themselves in the form of pictures can turn anyone who sees it into a measly pile of ashes. This is how it can be utilized to kill!"
"You mean that anyone who sees this picture will end up like that? Then didn't we just…"
Some of the researchers among the group were starting to lose their nerves.
"Don't worry, the full effect of the meme can only be triggered upon seeing the full image. Nothing is going to happen to you all now."
Yoru Kamidera assured them. "What you see now is a cropped version."
They let out a collective faint sigh of relief when they were assured of this.
"But how exactly does this work…"
Erickson was visibly puzzled. "How does a mere picture achieve this effect? Is it a physiological virus?"
"Memes aren't viruses."
Yoru Kamidera shook his head. "It does indeed qualify as a physiological virus if it requires a transmission material and a medium. The spread of a virus can only be possible provided there's a transmission medium such as air or blood. However, the 'Filth' image doesn't require either of this.
"It doesn't need a transmission source nor a transmission medium although strictly speaking, the image itself can be viewed as the transmission source while 'vision' and 'sight' is its transmission medium. Anyone who sees the picture will be infected by 'Filth'. This is how its transmission operates!"
Chapter 349: Deterioration 2 |
"Their wounds are already showing signs of becoming inflamed and infected…"
One day, after the end of their tasks, a member who was responsible for looking after the volunteers slowly stood up and shook his head at Fisher beside him. "If we have no medicine, only a small number of these 30-odd people will survive."
Fisher's face was rather gloomy. He looked at the wounded who were laid out in a row. These were the volunteers who had lit the signal towers before. However, just as the Gantz sphere had said, now these volunteers were suffering from a terrifying curse.
In some parts of their bodies, a large patch of black ash had appeared.
This ash continued to spread, eroding every inch of their skin, but the hosts seemed unaware of it. This ash would not b
e detected until it had eroded deep enough to start affecting the hosts' movements.
Nonetheless, the Gantz sphere was also right in that, after entering the safe zone, the black ash did not continue to spread. Even so, the wounds under the black ash did not disappear. Instead, they turned into hideous and fatal wounds. Moreover, without antibiotics, these volunteers developed signs of infection due to extensive skin ulceration.
Fisher thought to himself silently.
Their deaths would not have mattered much but Fisher must not let them die because after these people died, the signal towers they had lit would go out again, wasting all of their previous efforts.
Therefore, this group of people must not die, at least not until they had left the d*mn island…
"Send someone to look for herbs. We still need more herbs and water to clean the wound!"
Thinking of this, Fisher ordered again. He added in an inspiringly righteous manner. "We mustn't let this group of heroes die in such pain, absolutely not!"
At once, members of the Environmental Protection Association were half-coerced and half-herded by the mercenaries. They once again left the area of the safe zone to look for water at the mountainside.
"D*mn it, why is it us again?"
On the way, the group of Environmental Protection Association members cursed loudly and a blond youth said unhappily, "Didn't you notice? The group of mercenaries did almost nothing. All they do is eat, drink, and relieve themselves on the top of the mountain. Yet they make us come out and take the risk to collect supplies. It's not fair!"
"Indeed, we risk our lives to collect these things. Whether it's gathering supplies or transporting clean water, and it's almost just us who take care of the wounded. Even with the lighting of the signal towers, it's our people who voluntarily went. What have they actually done?"
Suddenly, someone chimed in helpfully. "Yes, the weak should receive more protection! When we return, let's suggest to Fisher that those mercenaries should also do their due duty!"
