I Have A Super USB Drive

by <unknown>

  When the man's gaze swept across Yu Qi, he felt a sudden tremor because he was shocked that the man's eyes were completely different from his frail, dying image. They were extremely dark and piercing, just like eternal stars in the night sky. They were also like black holes that could draw in human souls. These two extremely contrasting sensations were intertwined together, creating a strange feeling.

  He had never seen such a unique pair of eyes!

  "Good afternoon, gentlemen. I'd like to welcome you since you've taken time out of your busy schedules, cough…"

  The next second, the man suddenly spoke in a tired and raspy voice, "At the same time, I'm also very grateful for your presence because it means that you're willing to listen to my explanation of all this and place such huge trust in me. In just a few moments, I'll make you feel that this trip is worthwhile…"

  "Alright, let's not waste time on formalities."

  However, at this moment, the President of Northern America suddenly waved her hand impatiently with a somber expression. "Go straight to the point. I hope you can give us a reasonable explanation for the Los Angeles incident!"

  "No problem."

  The man nodded and flashed a smile. Even so, thanks to his skeleton-like appearance, this smile seemed truly peculiar.

  "First of all, I'd like to ask everyone, do you still remember when the Earth Federation was established?"

  "When was it established?"

  Hearing the man's question, the president of the North Sea Continent twirled his pen, recalling. "It was around 1992. I still remember that year, I had just returned from East Germany and witnessed the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Even though more than 70% of the voters in the last referendum wanted to retain the Soviet Union, the upper-level rulers had already made up their minds at that time."

  "To be precise, it should be 20 April 1992."

  The president of the European Continent added. "I also remember that day when the upper-level government suddenly informed us of a resolution to integrate the world, strengthen the ties between various countries on the basis of the United Nations, and form a huge institution."

  Hearing the answers of the two, the man nodded and said slowly, "So, what happened back then? Why did the Earth Federation appear?"

  "That is classified."

  The big boss sitting in front of Yu Qi reminded him kindly.

  "I understand."

  The man immediately replied, "In fact, although I don't know the details, I have a general idea. There was a person who united the many countries and created the Earth Federation and that person's name…"

  "It's a blank!"

  Hearing this, the faces of the leaders of all the continents changed. Among them, the president of the European Continent asked in shock, "This is top-secret. Fewer than five people in each continent know about this. How did you learn all this?"

  "I don't just know this, I also know that he left behind the quantum computer 'Adam', an instrument that can predict the future. With this instrument, the Earth Federation was able to survive to this day…"

  The man coughed slightly and continued. "Am I right?"

  Hearing this conversation amongst everyone, Yu Qi felt his world turn upside down. The Earth Federation was expedited by an unnamed person? Who on Earth had such immense power?

  "You're not wrong."

  At this moment, the president of the North Sea Continent suddenly spoke up. He chuckled and said, "I was stunned when I learned this and even used various secret powers to investigate the identity of that person, but the strange thing was that all traces of him seemed to have been erased throughout the world. The secret files of both the Earth Federation and the North Sea Continent had nothing on him."

  "That's right, cough cough…"

  The man nodded, wearing a serious expression. "If there's anything that you've ever wondered about, I'm guessing that mysterious man's disappearance into thin air must be number one, right?

  "Not only his name disappeared but even his identity, family background, nationality, and all traces of daily life had disappeared. If it weren't for the existence of the 'Earth Federation' as proof of his existence, I'm afraid that this disappearance wouldn't even be noticed by anyone. Don't you think that's scary…"

  "Do you have information about that person?"

  The president of Northern America asked again, "Please stop keeping us in suspense, okay?"

  The man nodded slowly when he heard these words. He gripped the podium, took a breath, and then continued. "I don't know who that person is, but I know why he disappeared."

  "What!"

  "What's the reason?"

  The presidents and the other high-level officials of various countries looked stupefied and they all sat up straight to pay closer attention.

  "I believe you've received the information I shared before you came here? The information about 'memes'…"

  The man did not answer directly but kept them in suspense as he spoke slowly.

  "The term 'meme' is based on the ancient Greek word 'μίμημα' and evolved from the term 'gene' in biology. Dawkins wrote in the book The Selfish Gene that evolution doesn't depend on the specific chemical basis of genetics. Rather, it relies only on the existence of self-replicating delivery units that are called memes.

  "Maybe many people mistakenly believe that a meme is just a so-called Internet buzzword, akin to something like a joke. In fact, this is both right and wrong."

  The man coughed and continued to explain, "The meme defined by our human civilization is indeed a joke, but the meme I define here is something that includes jokes but is far more influential than a mere Internet buzzword…"

  With that, the man waved his hand slightly and the word "meme" written in several languages ​​appeared on the white screen behind him.

  "A meme is a unit of information, not an entity. It's a new branch of learning that can change human civilization. It's also a subject that has never been revealed to humans before. We humans have never come across this, not because we failed to discover it, but because it didn't exist on our Earth before."

  "What you said was 'before', right."

  Listening to what the man said, the elegant man in front of Yu Qi suddenly spoke, "In other words, 'they' have now appeared on Earth?"

  "More or less, yes."

  The man nodded. "No one knows how memes are born, but I tend to think that the Internet has spawned them. As the online world becomes more developed, more and more Internet buzzwords have emerged. Some of these Internet buzzwords are only viral for a while, but some have been celebrated for a long time. I suspect that this unlimited possibility led to the birth of the first batch of memes…

  "The angel statues from a few days ago are a meme that is extremely threatening to humans."

  At this point, a paragraph of text appeared on the screen behind the man again. This paragraph was densely packed with words. On the right side of the text, there was a cartoon of an angel statue standing in place with its eyes covered.

  Everyone looked at the screen immediately and the text said—

  [Memetic Name]: Weeping Angel.

  [Special Containment Procedures]: The "Weeping Angel" should be placed in a location that cannot be observed by anyone. Direct or indirect observation is not allowed. Anyone who sees a full picture of a "Weeping Angel" must be permanently quarantined.

  [Description]: The "Weeping Angel" is a pattern painted with blood. The pattern is composed of 13,236 "blood dots", each "blood dot' is between 0.3-0.5cm in diameter. The "blood dots" constitute a pattern of an angel statue covering its eyes.

  The "Weeping Angel" is contagious, and the mode of transmission is visual transmission. Anyone who sees the full picture of the "Weeping Angel" will be infected and the infected person will be transformed into a strange memetic derivative within 90 minutes.

  In one operation, four mercenaries inadvertently saw the full picture of "Weeping Angels", so to prevent memetic infection, all four of them were d
estroyed in the steel furnace of the Blacklight Steel Mill in the industrial park of the Eco Science City, in Namibia, Africa. More than three months later, when the steel produced in the steelmaking furnace arrived in Los Angeles, Northern America, a memetic infection still occurred, resulting in a large number of derivatives. To distinguish the "Weeping Angel" from its derivatives, a distinction is made —

  [Derivative Name]: Weeping Angel 1.

  [Special Containment Procedures]: According to the size of "Weeping Angel 1", it should be placed in a closed space with a height of more than two meters and a width of more than one meter. No particular containment material is required, but it should at least score a 4 on the Mohs scale or there is a risk "Weeping Angel 1" will escape.

  When placing "Weeping Angel 1" in containment, the number of personnel must not be less than three at any time and the door must be locked upon entry. At least two people must maintain eye contact with the Weeping Angel throughout the entire process until all personnel have left and the containment chamber is locked again.

  [Description]: "Weeping Angel 1" is an angel statue of a material similar to granite. Its usual posture is to cover its face with its hands, with the head slightly lowered at 15-25 degrees, and its wings slightly opened; it appears in the form of a stone statue when observed by human eyes, but once the human looks away, "Weeping Angel 1" will change its position and approach the human at a very fast speed. Its known method of killing is to wring the neck. No other killing method has been found.

  It is known that "Weeping Angel 1", a derivative of the "Weeping Angel", has indestructible characteristics. Infection occurs through human observation of the "Weeping Angel". At the same time, anything that bears the image of a "Weeping Angel 1", including but not limited to photos and videos, has the same infectious power as a "Weeping Angel" itself. However, portraits are an exception…

  Seeing this lengthy explanation, both Yu Qi and the others looked flabbergasted.

  Did this mean that this was the cause of the Los Angeles incident and the Quantum Deity Laboratory incident?

  Chapter 486: Verify |

  At last, a high-ranking official from Northern America suddenly said, "In other words, is it because of this that there are so many angel statues in the Quantum Deity Laboratory?"

  "Yes."

  The man nodded. "Presumably you must've experimented with them using death row inmates as well. What the quantum computer Adam predicted was none other than a video of the 'Weeping Angel'. You don't want to believe that Adam will betray you. But in fact, Adam didn't betray you because the video isn't the issue. The real problem isn't the video but the meme…"

  After hearing everything the man on the stage said, everyone went silent.

  Although this incident happened in Northern America, all those present naturally had a wide range of information acquisition channels. They knew everything about what happened that day, except for why it happened. Now this man was explaining that it was something called a "meme".

  Yu Qi did not know what the others thought, but he was already a little convinced because earlier the Northern American representative in the United Front, Nancy, had said something similar and blamed Yu Qi.

  Hold on…

  Suddenly, Yu Qi came to realize that the man on the stage must be from Blacklight Biotechnology. No wonder he did not know who this man was. However, why was it not the founder of Blacklight Biotechnology, but instead a sickly patient sent in his place?

  At this time, the man on the stage was still explaining, "Later, in our experiments, we found that the statue has a very strange nature. It has the ability to influence any monitoring equipment. This ability is ineffective when the statue is in its petrified state, but once no one is observing it, the Weeping Angel will come to life and the equipment responsible for monitoring it will immediately fail.

  "In other words, no one can see what the Weeping Angel looks like when no one is watching and even the monitoring device itself cannot observe it.

  "When we look at it, it's a statue and even its hardness is comparable to that of a statue. It can be easily broken into pieces, but no matter where you throw these statue pieces or how small you break these pieces into, the moment you look away slightly, you'll find that the statue is restored again…

  "This is the indestructibility of the statue. As for why it is so, we tend to believe that it's because the statue itself doesn't exist. We cannot kill a meme because a meme is a concept and a concept is immortal."

  "So, do they have any flaws?"

  Below the stage, a senior official sitting next to the president of the European group suddenly asked.

  "Their flaw can be said to be simple, that is, a line of sight."

  The man coughed twice and continued. "I believe you have also noticed, why can't the Weeping Angel break our necks directly, but has to play 'Statues' with us? It's not actually that this meme has this particular hobby because memes have no thinking. They are like wind and rain, a natural phenomenon, a natural law. So this is the law of this meme, that as long as it's within someone's line of sight, it'll never be able to harm humanity."

  Hearing this sentence, many people looked disappointed. This was not helpful at all.

  Nonetheless, in the next second, the man suddenly said, "Besides, we found that the reason the Weeping Angels always cover their eyes isn't that they like to cry, as their name suggests, but because their line of sight also creates an effect of observation. Once two or more Weeping Angels look at each other, then these Weeping Angels will never be able to move…"

  Yu Qi's eyes suddenly lit up upon hearing this. Although he had never seen a real Weeping Angel, he could still deduce now that if this principle was used well, it was indeed a trump card against Weeping Angels!

  "Also, we discovered in our experiments that if we kill a transforming person in advance before they transform into a statue, it can also stop the transformation of a human to a Weeping Angel."

  The man continued to speak. He sighed and said ruefully, "This is all the research we have on Weeping Angels."

  After hearing all this, everyone subconsciously looked toward Northern America as if they wanted to hear these words verified by the people from Northern America.

  "No errors or omissions have been found for the time being."

  Seeing this, Nancy from Northern America nodded reluctantly, but he suddenly frowned, and asked in a mildly accusing tone, "You made some good points, but if everything you said is true, then how should your Blackwatch Corporation compensate for the losses incurred in the Quantum Deity Laboratory and Los Angeles City? After all, all of this was caused by your Blackwatch Corporation!"

  Hearing this, several high-ranking officials in the European seat also agreed.

  "Moreover…"

  Nancy continued to speak, aggressively saying, "In the middle of the night on 2 June, outside of the Herrank Warehouse District in Los Angeles, one of our army units suddenly lost contact with headquarters. When they were found, they had already been wiped out. Don't tell me this was also thanks to the Weeping Angels…"

  "We at Blackwatch Corporation don't know about this."

  The man replied with a placid expression and without waiting for Nancy to continue asking, he changed the subject again. "Then, back to our previous topic. I think after this instance, you should understand why he disappeared — the mysterious person who spurred the United Nations to form the Earth Federation, who didn't even have a name?"

  Everyone's expressions flickered when they heard this and Nancy swallowed the words he was about to say…

  "You mean that the mysterious man who united the world and created the Earth Federation also disappeared because of memes?"

  Suddenly, all the questions began.

  "That's right."

  The man wore a solemn expression. "But what I want to clarify is that he wasn't relying on ordinary memes, but something heterogeneous to memes — the antimeme."

  "Antimeme?"

  Ever
yone murmured in low voices, wishing to break up all these words, and analyze each word clearly…

  "If a meme is a unit of information and its raison d'être is to copy, mutate, and spread, then an antimeme is the opposite."

  A dark glint flashed in the man's eyes and he said softly, "Any antimeme would be unknowable, because its existence doesn't give out any information, just like a black hole of data. All perceptions, when they come into touch with an antimeme, will be sucked into the black hole…"

  "In other words, maybe that person was right by our side and we might even know him very well?"

  The president of the North Sea Continent was almost laughing in exasperation. "But because of the antimeme, we forgot about him?"

  "Yes."

  The man nodded. "However, the impact of the antimeme on memory isn't only to make people unable to remember it but also to make people lose interest in it and eliminate all traces of itself in reality. This is the most terrifying thing… Ignorance is frightening, but if you're ignorant and unable to acquire any knowledge, then that's true despair.

  "It's through the use of an antimeme that this person can conceal himself and eliminate everything related to himself in the world!"

  "If what you are saying is true, doesn't it mean that our human civilization could use memetic technology more than 30 years ago?"

  Secretary Lin frowned and suddenly asked, "But isn't this contrary to your previous statement? You said that there were no memes on Earth before. Don't these two statements contradict each other?"

  "It's not a contradiction, sir."

  Though a flaw was pointed out, the man did not show the slightest hint of embarrassment but instead flashed a peculiar smile. "Because I didn't say that the antimeme came from Earth. Don't twist my words…"

  After hearing these words, Secretary Lin was startled. Everyone else also looked thoughtful.

  The United Front representative, Nancy, was just about to say something, but at this moment, he suddenly saw the president of Northern America shoot him a look. He took a deep breath, slammed the table, and got to his feet!