Volume 11: Memetic Crisis Chapter 539: Memetic Contagion
"In addition, the entire laboratory building is in a state that AI cannot recognize...so we can basically determine..."
"The whole building has been infected by that 'thing'."
"Yes." Lin Qiming nodded.
"So? What do you want me to do?" Ke Lan asked.
Since the other party did not further investigate the abnormality in his body, he naturally would not continue to dwell on the topic - it was obvious that the undead crew would know some secrets related to him but he knew nothing about it.
Otherwise, the people who came to the door now should not be the deputy chief of the crisis management department, but a team of fully armed elite agents.
Although Ke Lan was very interested in these secrets, now was not the time to discuss them. He looked into the other person's eyes and said word by word: "I think, with my ability, I can't help you."
"Don't be so quick to refuse. Let me finish my story first." Lin Qiming said, "If the laboratory building of the institute was not contaminated, we could just launch the entire block into low-Earth orbit like we did with the East 9th District, and then destroy it with artillery fire... But the area where the institute is located involves too many things. It is no exaggeration to say that if we really do this, the level of human technology will regress by at least 30 years."
"Oh." Ke Lan had no expression on her face. "It was Professor Smith who violated the ban, not me. What's the point of looking for me? Can I solve the problem?"
"But Professor Smith is dead." Lin Qiming did not feel any dissatisfaction with Ke Lan's attitude, but explained very patiently, "According to the analysis of the research institute, as the 'mother' in the biological sense of the 'source of infection', you may be the only one who will not be infected by it."
"Maybe? Shouldn't scientific research advocate rigor? I'm wondering, how did these experts and scholars, who earn the highest salary in the Ark, squander huge amounts of research funds every minute, and can arbitrarily decide the life and death of ordinary people, say the word 'maybe'?" Ke Lan asked in a deep voice.
"All those who failed to fulfill their duties will be held accountable afterwards." Lin Qiming shook his head, "But now, you are our last hope."
"The last hope? There are obviously many solutions, why do you put your hope on me?"
"Yes... In theory, there are indeed many solutions that are safer, more appropriate, and have a higher success rate, but we don't have time."
"No time? Why?" Ke Lan was puzzled. "Since the mode of transmission has been identified, as long as the transmission route is cut off, the number of infected people will not increase... As for those who have been infected, they will soon die of organ failure anyway. You don't even have to execute them yourself, you just need to destroy the bodies. I don't believe that the combined forces of the Institute and the Security Bureau can't even handle such a small matter."
"But the problem is that the laboratory building of the biomedical group is contaminated... In the underground freezer of this building, there are more than a thousand active cells of the Seed of Corrosion, as well as various gene samples from the native creatures of Alpha Star and the biological weapons of the Alpha Civilization... If these things are devoured by 'it', 'it' is likely to undergo a secondary mutation... By then, the source of infection may not be as simple as visual contact."
Lin Qiming paused and continued, "Experts at the research institute believe that 'it' is still just an imperfect individual. If it can evolve into a perfect state, its transmission channel should not be sight, but... 'cognition'."
"Cognition..."
"Yes, to put it simply, everyone who knows of its existence will be infected, without exception - this includes you, me... and even the crew members. By then, the situation will be completely out of control."
"The moment you know of its existence, it is equivalent to being infected by it... Haha, this is the real 'spiritual pollution'... Professor Smith really created something incredible." Ke Lan couldn't help but reveal a helpless bitter smile.
"The experts at the institute named it 'memetic contagion'. The principle of this transmission method is currently beyond our ability to explore. The only way to fight it is to eliminate its source," said Lin Qiming.
"The origin of 'it'... is it the piece of flesh that was injected with the cells of the Seed of Corrosion?"
"That was 'it' three hours ago... As for what 'it' looks like now, no one knows."
"Besides 'memetic infection', are there any other threats from this thing? For example, high temperature, corrosiveness, toxicity, radiation, etc.? Does 'it' have the ability to actively attack?" Ke Lan asked.
"I'm sorry, we know nothing about this." Lin Qiming shook his head. "We tried to modify the AI logic of the autonomous robot to make it follow a pre-set patrol route into the biological laboratory building in order to obtain more intelligence related to 'it', but the signals of all the robots that entered the laboratory building disappeared. It can be basically determined that they have been destroyed."
“…”
"However, the peripheral infected people do not show any aggressiveness. Although the 'eye-like organs' generated on the surface of the infected people will search for nearby infectible targets, they will not drive the host's body to perform any activities. There are many examples showing that the infected are conscious before death and have not lost control of their bodies. They can even use these 'eye-like organs' to gain additional vision." Lin Qiming said. The peripheral infected people he referred to should be people outside the contaminated area who were infected because they accidentally looked directly at the eyes in the video or picture.
There must have been quite a few people like this in the early days of this accident... This kind of infection was so hard to guard against that even the Ark's top managers were not immune...
Ke Lan suddenly became curious. Was there anyone among the Undead Crew that was "hit"?
"But the 'Origin' should be completely different from these secondary infected people, right? Otherwise, you can solve the problem with just the autonomous robots." Ke Lan said, "If that thing has a combat power that is not weaker than the B-type mutant, I am afraid that if I enter the laboratory building alone, I will just be delivering food to them, right?"
"The opponent's actual combat capability is unknown for now, but it can be preliminarily determined that 'it' possesses a certain degree of self-awareness, and there is a very low probability that it is intelligent."
"You can just tell me to go and die." Ke Lan couldn't help but complain.
"We will provide you with the most complete logistical support and technical support..." Lin Qiming said.
"These are secondary... The key question is, how can you be sure that I will not be infected by 'it'? Is it just because 'it' comes from my cloned cells?"
"This is the conclusion reached by experts after research..."
"But wasn't this accident caused by one of these experts?" Ke Lan interrupted him. "I just want to ask, is this the Undead Crew's request?"
"Yes." Lin Qiming answered directly, "The crew will appoint you to handle this incident. The researchers, the Security Bureau, and the Crisis Management Department will provide full assistance. From the moment you take on this mission, you will have the temporary highest command authority over these three departments."
"Then I'll let you die now, okay?"
"Okay." Lin Qiming took out his pistol without hesitation, put it against his temple, and turned on the safety.
Seeing that this guy was about to pull the trigger, Ke Lan directly picked up the electronic calendar on the table and threw it at him -
"Bang!"
The gun went off, but because of Ke Lan's blow, the bullet did not penetrate his head, but hit his thigh, and blood gushed out.
However, Lin Qiming seemed to feel no pain, and his facial expression barely changed. Ke Lan even suspected that this guy had undergone some special surgery to block the pain nerves...
"Okay, I believe you... Stop the bleeding first. I have something to ask you. I don't want you to go into shock due to excessive blood loss." Ke Lan said.
Lin Qiming didn't say anything. He silently tore open his trouser leg, inserted two fingers into the bloody wound, and forcibly picked up the lead bullet.
The soft lead-core bullet had been severely deformed, probably because it had hit the hard leg bone after entering the leg - the bone strength of a person with enhanced strength above level three was almost the same as that of steel.
"He's a ruthless guy." Ke Lan commented when she saw the other party throw the deformed bullet into the trash can beside the table without saying a word.
The other party did not carry any medical equipment, so Ke Lan simply took out the small first aid kit she carried with her and threw it on the table.
"Thank you." Lin Qiming looked up at Ke Lan and opened the first aid kit. His technique was very skillful, and it took less than ten minutes to clean the wound, disinfect, sew and bandage.
Fortunately, the shot did not hit any major artery. Apart from staining the dark gray combat pants into black and red, the amount of bleeding was still within a controllable range.
Looking at Lin Qiming's slightly pale face, Ke Lan asked, "How can I be sure that I won't be infected by that thing?"
"There is an encrypted folder on the desktop of the tablet , which contains photos that have not been mosaiced. The password is 20211224." Lin Qiming replied.
"Haha... this method is really simple and crude." Ke Lan clicked on the folder and entered the password.
When there was only one digit left in the password, his finger stopped.
He looked at Lin Qiming and asked, "Why are you still here? If... I mean if, I am also infected, you will be the next one to suffer if you stare at me like this."
"If an accident really happened, there must be a detailed report from the witnesses, so I will not avoid it." Lin Qiming replied, "If an accident really happened, after I submit the report, my deputy will take over my duties and clean up the scene."
"That's right. After all, you're not even afraid of death." Ke Lan nodded, "But...cleaning up the scene, does that mean destroying both of our bodies?"
"Only me." Lin Qiming shook his head. "According to the requirements of the crew, if you are infected, we need to send you to the designated location as soon as possible at all costs."
"A designated location? Where is it?"
"I don't know. We will be informed of the details of the mission only when that happens."
"I guess they're probably treating me as a precious experimental specimen." Ke Lan smiled indifferently and entered the last digit of the password.
Lin Qiming did not respond, but looked at Ke Lan seriously.
"I'm going to open the image file. If you want to change your mind now, there's still time." Ke Lan reminded finally.
Lin Qiming shook his head.
"It's too late to regret now." Ke Lan clicked on the picture.
It was a face, vaguely recognizable as that of a young woman, but apart from her original facial features, the face was completely occupied by densely packed "eyes" - those raised, tumor-like growths covered the skin layer by layer, and almost half of them had "burst" open, revealing the eyeballs wrapped under the skin.
Just seeing this picture is enough to make one feel creepy.
No wonder the researchers in the previous video looked so terrified. What's more, they didn't even know how the woman was infected at that time.
However, what made Ke Lan feel a little strange was that he always felt that these eyeballs seemed to be moving - they were chasing the focus of his sight. No matter which corner of this face he looked at, these eyeballs were looking at him...
Ke Lan took a look at the suffix of the image file, which was .JPG instead of .GIF. This was indeed a still image rather than a dynamic image.
But those eyeballs of different sizes are really moving.
However, after considering the incredible way this thing was transmitted, Ke Lan was too lazy to ask Lin Qiming.
The "information" attached to this photo is equivalent to a "virus", and the photo file itself has become a dangerous source of infection.
If the "meme contagion" predicted by those unreliable experts really happens, then not only photos... any carrier that carries information related to "it" will become a means and channel for "it" to spread...
Cognition is infection, which is probably the essence of "memetic contagion" - and the only way to remove the threat from cognition may be high-intensity "physical brainwashing", erasing all memories and cognitions related to "memes" from the minds of the infected, or simply transforming people into mentally ill patients whose cognition of the outside world is different from that of ordinary people... In this way, perhaps the risk of memetic contagion can be avoided.
But after this round of trouble, this person is basically useless...
"It's been five minutes." Lin Qiming said, and even he couldn't help but sound nervous. "Do you feel any discomfort? For example, itchy skin, joint pain, or respiratory distress?"
