Volume 11: Memetic Crisis Chapter 545: Source of Mutation
"Fuck it... I think I finally understand why this mosquito can grow so fucking big..." Ke Lan couldn't help but blurt out a string of swear words with a lot of fucking connotations.
These eyeballs were originally rolling around, but once Ke Lan set his sights on them, they all stared at him at the same time... Even though Ke Lan had a big heart, he couldn't help but feel his scalp tingling at this moment.
"I found the 'meme' in the body of the mutant six-winged gray mosquito and prepared to dissect it." Ke Lan said.
At the front-line command center far away at the other end of the communication line, Schroeder and Lin Qiming heard the news, looked at each other, and both subconsciously held their breath.
Ke Lan pulled the high-frequency particle vibration dagger off the six-winged gray mosquito's head. In order not to cause unnecessary damage, he also turned off the vibration function of the dagger. The high-frequency particle vibration dagger is actually essentially a blade made of a special alloy that is heated to make the molecules of the alloy move at high speed, thus forming a "cutting force" at the molecular level...
Rather than saying that the object is "cut off", it would be more appropriate to say that it is "melted".
It is for this reason that, in order to enhance the life of the blade and make it more durable, the high-frequency particle vibration dagger is not considered sharp when the "vibration state" is not turned on. At best, it is equivalent to a blunt metal knife without a sharp edge.
But at this time, the shell of the six-winged gray mosquito had been burned by the flames and became extremely fragile. Ke Lan could easily break it off piece by piece with the hand armor of his power armor. All he needed was a "crowbar". It didn't matter whether it was sharp or not.
"I'm expanding the wound surface of the shell to expose more 'infected' tissue." While working on it, Ke Lan gave a real-time report to the command center via voice.
He found a crack on the shell, inserted the vibrating dagger into it, and then pried it gently. An entire palm-sized piece of shell was completely lifted up, revealing the soft tissue wrapped in mucus underneath.
"I don't know how to describe what I saw... You can imagine the scene... It was like countless translucent fish eggs piled up together. They were constantly wriggling, as if the fry would break out of the shell at any time... However, what came out of it was not a living creature, but an organ similar to an eyeball..."
Ke Lan took a deep breath. Although these "eyeballs" were still in the process of development and had not yet opened, he could still feel that they were staring at him through the thin layer of fascia. That kind of real sight could not be ignored at all.
Even without a mature "eyeball", it seems to have the ability of "meme transmission"...
"You...should be able to understand the scene I described, right?"
"Yes." Schroeder's voice came from the headset, "You and Asano Akira, there are no signs of being infected by the 'meme', right?"
"I can only say that nothing abnormal has been found yet." Ke Lan replied.
He couldn't help but feel fortunate that he had interrupted the real-time image transmission between him and the command center in time when the mosquito appeared. Otherwise, the entire command center would probably have been wiped out.
He stretched out his hand and carefully picked up a "fully mature" eyeball. A sharp surgical blade popped out from the fingertips of his fingernail, cutting off the tissue at the base of the eyeball and separating it from the body of the six-winged gray mosquito.
Ke Lan placed the eyeball in the palm of his hand and observed it carefully - after being separated from the body of the six-winged gray mosquito, the eyeball seemed to be "dead", the pupil gradually dilated, and the focus of the eyes also became blurred. No matter from which angle Ke Lan looked at it, the creepy "eye contact" before never appeared again.
He turned his eyeball over, and behind it were several severed tendons, blood vessels and nerves. Under strong light, through the retina covered with capillaries and nerves, he could even see the transparent vitreous body inside and the aqueous humor filling the gaps - this was almost exactly the same as the eye structure of most mammals... especially humans.
Ke Lan applied a little force with his fingertips, and the quail egg-sized eyeball was instantly crushed, turning into a pool of blood, which stuck to his fingernails and kept dripping down.
These eyeballs are very fragile and can be said to be vulnerable to any attack. They also do not have any attack capabilities other than "infection".
If one of these eyeballs were placed individually in a glass jar filled with formalin solution, anyone who saw it would simply think it was an organ specimen removed from someone, rather than a dangerous "meme carrier."
"After I separated the 'meme' from the host carrier, I unexpectedly discovered that the 'meme' seemed to have lost its infectiousness, but I can't make an accurate judgment." Ke Lan said to the people in the command center.
"Why do you think that memes lose their contagiousness after being separated from their hosts?" Schroeder asked immediately.
"Because the moment the eyeball was taken out, it 'died'...When I looked into the eyes of those 'living' eyeballs, I felt like I was being stared at. Even though I wasn't infected, I still felt creepy. But the 'dead' eyeballs didn't give me that feeling."
"We need a high-definition frontal picture of the 'dead' eyeball, and remember to transmit it using an encrypted channel," said Schroeder.
Ke Lan knew that Schroeder asked her for this picture in order to verify her guess. As for the method of verification, it was naturally to find a living person as a test subject and let him look directly at the unprocessed picture.
This verification method is cruel and even inhumane, but it is also the most efficient and accurate.
After the outbreak of the "meme contagion" incident, many people have died, and the lives of these dead people, whether they are professors at the research institute or senior officials in the crisis management department, security bureau and military, are very valuable. Although Ke Lan believes that all people are born equal, he has to admit that there is indeed a huge difference in the "value" between people.
The value of a miner who has not even completed compulsory education is at most tens or hundreds of tons of unrefined raw ore. If you want to make the best use of it, it can only be regarded as a "test subject" in a sick village. However, a researcher in the equipment department invented a new mining equipment that can increase the "output" of each of these miners by several times or even dozens of times. It is obvious at a glance which of the two has higher "value".
If the life of an ordinary person could be exchanged for the life of a researcher, both the Crisis Management Department and the Undead Crew would do it without hesitation... let alone at this moment when every second counts.
Five minutes later, Schroeder's voice sounded again in the communication channel: "It has been tested. Your guess is correct. The 'dead' eyeball is not contagious. In other words... the 'meme' it carries has dissipated."
"But the question now is..." Schroeder continued, "How can we be sure that 'it' is dead... During the early blockade, there were cases where soldiers were infected by the 'eyeball' of a small piece of mutilated corpse. Even during the cremation of corpses, some were infected by the 'eyeball' that had already turned to charcoal... It's difficult to determine the standard."
"The preliminary judgment is that the 'eyeball' must be completely separated from the host, that is, the tendons, blood vessels, and nerves at the root must be cut off." Ke Lan replied, "In addition, the 'dead' eyeball will show the characteristics of dilated pupils and loss of consciousness, just like when a human dies. This should be used as a criterion for judgment."
"But this standard has no practical significance..." Schroeder said with a bitter smile, "We can't judge it with our naked eyes, and AI can't recognize it..."
At this point, Schroeder paused, and then he and Ke Lan said in unison: "If it is an eyeball that has already died, perhaps AI can recognize it!"
"I will immediately arrange the relevant experiments. You guys keep moving forward. Time is running out... Since the six-winged gray mosquito escaped, it means that the power supply to the institute's underground ice storage may have been cut off. The longer the time is delayed, the more specimens will be free after thawing..."
"I know." Ke Lan nodded and stood up.
But he hadn't taken a few steps before he seemed to remember something. He turned around and went back to the body of the six-winged gray mosquito and took out another eyeball.
"Asano, come here and take off the gauntlet on your right hand." Ke Lan said to Asano Akira.
The latter did so without giving it much thought, and Ke Lan placed the cold, sticky eyeball in his palm.
"Feel it, can you guess what this is?"
"...like an eyeball." Asano Akira hesitated for two seconds and replied.
"Are you sure you came to this conclusion based on your own 'feelings' rather than guessing?" Ke Lan asked further.
"Sure."
Hearing Asano Akira's answer, Ke Lan fell into deep thought.
Asano Akira's eyes are blind, and because of this, he is completely immune to memes that rely on "vision" to spread. And unlike himself, he has never witnessed the "meme" with his own eyes, so naturally he does not have a "preconceived" concept and will not be affected by his own subjective will. Ke Lan did not tell Asano Akira what he put in his palm through other information...
Under the accumulation of all these conditions, it can be basically confirmed that the information collected by his touch is indeed a cold and slimy eyeball.
These eyeballs are real, not just some "illusion" created by a meme, nor are they something else.
The speculation that "eyeballs do not exist in the real world, but only in cognition" raised in the previous discussion between Ke Lan and Lin Qiming can also be ruled out.
Unless, this meme can also interfere with and influence human sense of touch or consciousness - but if it really has this ability, Asano Akira should have been infected by now.
This is good news, at least it means that these "memes" have physical entities. Since they have physical entities, they can naturally be eliminated through "physical means."
The fear is that "memes" only exist in "cognition" - in this way, as long as any person affected by this incident has not had his or her memory related to the "meme" completely deleted, the meme will lurk in his or her memory, leading to more terrifying mutations and more deadly secondary outbreaks.
When that time comes, the undead crew will probably be powerless to save the situation - humans can only say "GG".
However, judging from the information we have now, this "meme" has not yet become that perverted... But if it is allowed to evolve a few more times, then everything will be hard to say.
Lin Qiming was right. They really didn't have much time left... Compared with the evolution and mutation of "memes", those monster specimens that escaped from the underground ice storage were just insignificant troubles...
Ke Lan took out two pieces of clay explosives, stretched them out, rubbed them together, inserted the detonator, and then stuffed them under the pried open shell of the six-winged gray mosquito. After retreating more than ten steps, he directly pressed the detonation button.
The structure of the eyeballs themselves is very fragile, and this amount of explosives is enough to erase them along with the "memes" they carry.
"Come on, Asano, we have to speed up."
