Volume 3 Chapter 126 Containment and Memetic Infection
Three days later.
When Lin Xu and his companions met the detective named Anna again, it was in a cafe on the street.
At this time, Miss Anna was still dressed in a slightly revealing outfit.
I don’t know if she likes this style of dressing or has some special hobby, but Lin Xu finds it quite pleasing to the eye.
"What have you found out? Do you know why the Galactic Alliance and the Mechanical Empire have joined forces? And why are they just surrounding this planet and doing nothing?" Nanzhu asked a series of questions in a low voice right from the start, looking very excited as he glanced around with the corner of his eyes.
I'm afraid I've transported myself into some spy movie.
"Please, why did the Galactic Alliance and the Mechanical Empire join forces? Is it possible for a little street detective like me to find out such a thing? Even the Royal Agent can't do it! Didn't we agree at the beginning that we would just investigate as much as possible to see if there is anything special about that planet?" Miss Anna felt sick after listening to Nanzhu's question.
I just feel that my employer doesn't want to pay anymore, so he uses such an outrageous question to make me back off?
"Don't listen to her nonsense. She has watched too many movies. Just tell her the information you have investigated. Don't worry, I won't be short of your money." Lin Xu stretched out his hand and pushed the excited Nanzhu back to her seat.
"Okay, but I did find out some strange things that are related to that planet." Anna, who was only wearing a tube top, stretched her body and took out a piece of information from her bag.
"Paper?" Lin Xu was a little surprised that paper materials were still used these days .
"This place is managed by the military. Any information stored in the storage device is not safe and may be discovered by the military at any time. On the contrary, no one will check paper materials from this old era." Anna said with a little pride.
Then, Lin Xu saw what was written on the header of the document: Shelter: Smiley Monkey.
"Containment?"
"Yes, it is the shelter. It is said that it is a palm-sized plastic toy of a smiling monkey. But anyone who sees this monkey will start to laugh from the bottom of their heart. At first it is just a smile, but after a few days the smile will become more and more intense until they are out of breath and finally die of laughter." Anna introduced.
"Laughing to death?" Nanzhu was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect this result.
"Yes, it is said that this smiling monkey was brought back from that planet by an agent, and now the agent is dead." Anna added.
"Then there is no way to stop them from laughing?" Nanzhu asked in surprise.
"Yes, by erasing their memories, deleting the image of the smiley monkey from their memories, they stopped smiling and their lives were saved. But this was discovered later. Before that, the first group of people who came into contact with the smiley monkey had almost all died." At this point, even Anna felt a little scared.
"Where is this smiley monkey now?" Lin Xu asked after thinking for a while.
"I don't know. They were collected by the military. It is said that there are many similar items brought back from that planet, and they have all been collected by the military. According to the custom on that planet, these items are collectively called shelter objects." Anna introduced.
"Why does it feel a little scary?" Nanzhu said, shrinking his neck.
"Memetic infection, of course it's scary." Lin Xu sighed.
He is now certain that this is definitely something done by humans.
After all, Lin Xu is very familiar with the containment object.
By the 21st century, it had already spread all over the Internet.
Although they were all made up by netizens, Lin Xu also followed the trend and watched a lot of them, and found them very interesting.
Unexpectedly, one day humans actually achieved it.
By using high-dimensional information to interfere with low-dimensional information, objects involving rules and laws are produced, which are called containment objects.
Could humans ten thousand years ago have already reached this level of utilization of higher dimensions?
Lin Xu was a little surprised.
"That's right, it's memetic infection. Any intelligent life that has seen the smiling face of the Smiley Monkey will be infected. The Alliance even specially found some races that can't laugh to conduct experiments. As a result, people of those races also laughed, even though they themselves didn't understand why they laughed." Anna continued to introduce.
"Have you seen any pictures or video images?" Lin Xu asked.
"Same here." Anna nodded solemnly.
"What? You can laugh when you see pictures or videos?" Nanzhu on the side had never heard of such a thing and shouted in surprise.
"Yes, even if you just see pictures or videos, you will laugh along and eventually die of laughter. The first group of people who saw the smiley monkey through videos and pictures have now died of laughter," Anna added.
"If someone broadcasts this thing to the entire universe." Nanzhu felt a chill when he thought of the scene.
"The Alliance doesn't have enough time to erase the memories of everyone in the universe." Anna's expression also became serious.
When Anna first accepted the commission, she just wanted to earn some money for the trip, but now, as she discovered more, she began to become curious about what was happening on that planet.
As a detective, how can I not be curious?
"Are you going to that planet?" Anna asked.
"Did you guess it?" Lin Xu looked at her and was not surprised.
“In fact, I also found out a route that can sneak into that planet without being discovered by the patrol team.” Anna said in a low voice.
"You can find out all this? How did you find out?" Nanzhu looked at Anna in surprise.
Lin Xu was also surprised.
In fact, being able to find out about the smiley monkey was already beyond Lin Xu's expectations.
This thing is obvious. It should be confidential information within the Galactic Alliance and the Mechanical Empire. I really don't know how she found out.
"I'm a detective. Tracking, investigation, disguise, lock picking, hacking techniques are all essential." Anna said confidently.
"Wait a minute, so you sneaked into someone's house and found the information from the computer? You have this means and yet you are short of money?" Nanzhu looked incredulous.
"I'm a detective, not a thief. I have professional ethics, okay?" Anna immediately retorted.
"What kind of thief is that? He broke into the house and took some things. How can that be considered stealing? Can detective work be called stealing?" Nanzhu thought of an excuse for her.
"Okay, okay, you two stop bickering and tell me what you want." Lin Xu stopped their rambling conversation and spoke directly to Anna.
Investigating intelligence is part of the job, but finding a safe route to enter the planet is obviously not part of the job. So when Anna said this at this time, she naturally wanted more benefits.
It just so happened that Lin Xu also wanted to find a way to enter that planet without being discovered by the Galactic Alliance and the Mechanical Empire.
It can be said that both parties have needs.
"What I want is simple. When you go to that planet, take me with you." Anna said with sparkling eyes.
"Take you with me? You want to go to that planet too?" Lin Xu was stunned. He didn't expect this to be the request at all.
"That's right. As a detective, how could I not want to see such a magical thing as a containment object? Although I don't know why the Galactic Alliance and the Mechanical Empire suddenly joined forces, my guess is that it has something to do with the magical containment objects on this planet." Anna's raised hair flickered like a detective radar that had discovered a target.
"Okay, no problem." Lin Xu said indifferently.
And just like that, there is one more person heading to the target planet.
Then the group prepared to set off.
Although it has not been fully understood why the Galactic Alliance and the Mechanical Empire have remained inactive until now and have not launched a large-scale attack on the planet.
But most of them are related to the containment.
Lin Xu no longer planned to wait. Everything would become clear once he reached the planet.
However, before the group could return to the port and board the Skylark to officially set off, bursts of alarms suddenly rang out outside the window of the cafe.
A large number of armed robots flew towards the neighborhood from the sky.
At the same time, the armed robots on the ground also blocked the block. The long isolation belt pulled up by the robots blocked all the people in the entire block.
Soon after, more armed robots, some flying in the sky and some running on the ground, poured into the block.
"What's going on?"
"What happened?"
"I don't know. The port just notified me that I could unload the cargo, and I was about to go back."
"Could it be that the Galaxy Alliance and the Mechanical Empire are finally going to fight?"
"It doesn't look like that. Didn't you see the armed robots deployed? Both sides had them?"
People on the street were whispering, and Lin Xu and a few others stood aside, observing the situation.
"Hey, could it be that you were discovered sneaking into someone's house to steal information?" Nanzhu leaned close to Anna's ear and whispered.
"How is that possible? I'm a professional." Anna expressed indignation at Nanzhu's behavior of doubting her professional skills.
"What's going on? Are they catching a fugitive?" When she said this, Nanzhu's voice suddenly paused, because she realized that she and her group seemed to be the wanted fugitives.
"No, there's no need for such a big fuss to catch a fugitive." Anna denied.
Nanzhu really wanted to say, "That's because you don't know how big a thing we have done." But after thinking about it, she decided not to say it because she also felt that it was not about catching a fugitive.
"Could it be related to the containment?" Mu Xiyue, who had been silent for a while, suddenly spoke.
"Containment? I remember now." Anna's face suddenly looked a little ugly.
"What did you think of?" Nanzhu asked.
"I remember that document mentioned that there was a less dangerous item in containment that escaped due to the carelessness of the caretaker," Anna replied.
"The danger level is lower? Then it shouldn't be difficult to catch him. Why did they mobilize such a large force?" Nanzhu asked puzzled.
"Because the characteristic of the containment is that it can disguise itself as any intelligent life it has seen, so the sudden blockade of the block could be a sign of searching for that containment?" Anna guessed.
"It makes sense, but no matter whether it makes sense or not, we cannot be searched." Lin Xu looked at the armed robots in the distance and began to check every person in the block one by one.
"Are you fugitives?" Anna guessed it easily.
Or maybe she had guessed it long ago. After all, from what Lin Xu asked her to investigate, she knew that these people were at least not law-abiding people.
"Everyone always has secrets, like you, can you accept such an examination?" Lin Xu asked with a smile.
Anna smiled bitterly. It was obvious that she also had a secret that could not be investigated.
"Then shall we fight back?" Nanzhu asked eagerly.
"No, we still want to sneak into the target planet quietly. If we start fighting now, all our efforts will be wasted." Lin Xu shook his head and said.
"What should we do then?" Nanzhu hesitated.
"It's very simple. Before arming the robots, we need to find the object in custody. Once they have captured the object, they will naturally not block the block." Lin Xu said easily.
"Good idea, but how do we find it?" Nanzhu looked around and felt that it would be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack to accurately find a containment unit disguised as an intelligent life form among the hundreds of thousands of people in this entire neighborhood.
"Do you know any other information? For example, is there any flaw in the containment?" Lin Xu looked at Anna.
Now we are all in the same boat, so just say whatever you want to say and don't be secretive.
"The flaw is that it is said that although he can disguise himself as any intelligent life and even read the memory of the person being disguised and imitate them exactly, he is essentially composed of a mass of unknown matter. When he was disguised as an intelligent life, some researchers extracted some tissues from his body. They were not normal cells, but still that mass of unknown matter." Anna thought for a moment and replied.
"That's easy." Nanzhu said with his eyes lighting up.
"Easy? How can it be easy?" Anna asked in confusion.
For example, those armed robots can extract a little body tissue for testing when checking each person.
However, if they wanted to find the shelter in advance, they had no way of obtaining the body tissues of every person in the block.
But Anna didn't know that after learning the information Anna said, Lin Xu's personal space had been quietly opened, and a large number of nanorobots were released out.
In order to prevent being discovered here again, Lin Xu did not do his habitual job of releasing nanorobots and constructing a suitable casting area when he arrived here .
I didn't expect that he would be released in the end.
Soon, the spreading nanorobots had spread over a large area of the block. Although they were not densely packed, they ensured that there were some in every area.
Then Lin Xu's consciousness connected with the nanorobots, controlling them to sneak into the body tissues of every intelligent life in the block.
Given the atomic size of nanorobots, no one can notice that an atomic-sized object is penetrating deep into their bodies.
In just a blink of an eye, Lin Xu had instantly screened the body structures of hundreds of thousands of intelligent beings in the entire block.
All intelligent life forms are made of flesh and blood. Even if some believe in the mechanical ascension of the Mechanical Empire and have most of their bodies transformed into machines, they are still made of machines.
There is only one individual, a special individual, whose body is made of some unknown substance.
That substance carries some kind of high-dimensional pheromone. That high-dimensional pheromone distorts the matter of the low-dimensional world and constitutes this substance.
If it weren't for the fact that nanorobots are human creations and have their own high-dimensional characteristics, even atomic-level nanorobots would probably not be able to enter that mass of unknown matter.
In short, Lin Xu quickly found the target object.
At this time, the armed robots' inspection was about to reach them.
"What do you think? Do you have any solution?" Seeing the armed robots getting closer and closer, Anna became a little anxious.
"Don't worry, it's okay." Nanzhu even began to comfort her.
"Found it, let's go." Lin Xu said.
"Found it? Found what?" Anna looked puzzled.
"Of course we found the shelter. Let's go." Nanzhu said, pulling Anna and quietly following Lin Xu.
"How did you find it?" Anna was puzzled.
This time Nanzhu did not answer.
Several people disappeared silently among the crowd on the street.
Because they walked slowly, they did not attract the attention of the armed robots on guard in the sky.
The armed robots do not prohibit people from moving. As long as they are not running or trying to escape the security zone, it is fine to move within the area.
After all, the inspection of hundreds of thousands of people cannot be completed in a short period of time, and it is unrealistic to prevent everyone from moving for such a long time.
With the help of such convenience, Lin Xu and his companions quickly arrived at a nearby shop selling warship and aircraft models.
Then he bought a flying battleship model from the clerk.
"Lord Lin Xu, are we going to expose it ourselves?" Nanzhu didn't understand Lin Xu's intention.
"No, that's why we need this." Lin Xu took out the battleship model that he had thrown away the packaging, and several people left the store.
The next moment, the model airplane in Lin Xu's hand seemed to be out of control and suddenly crashed into the sky.
"Alert, alert, a high-speed moving object has been detected." The armed robots in the sky responded immediately.
A shot was fired in the air, and with a loud bang, the battleship model was directly blew up.
At the same time as the battleship model exploded, Lin Xu controlled the nanorobot, manipulating one of the fragments and flying it directly towards a young man who seemed to be watching the excitement not far away.
With a puff, the rotating fragments directly cut off his arm.
With a snap, the young man's arm fell to the ground without any blood.
There was only a mass of dark, unidentified substance on the wound.
"What is this?" The people around him, who originally thought that the young man was very unlucky, immediately noticed the abnormality on his wound.
Immediately the crowd became chaotic.
The young man's face changed several times and he was about to rush out, covering his wound.
Unfortunately, the changes here have alarmed the armed robots.
The result was as expected. The containment object, which had no combat capabilities other than its transformation, was quickly captured by the armed robot, and even his arm that fell to the ground was taken away.
Then, the entire blocked block was unblocked and the patrolling armed robots were withdrawn.
Everything returned to normal, except for some onlookers who saw everything with their own eyes and were warned not to say anything.
"How did you find him? And how did you make the exploding model airplane hurt him?" Anna still couldn't understand.
Lin Xu just smiled.
"Okay, we should go. Do you want to come with us? I'm afraid that planet isn't that safe."
"Come, of course. As a detective, how could I be afraid of danger?" Anna shook her hair and followed Lin Xu and others towards the port without any care.
Soon, the group arrived at the port and boarded the Skylark.
Then the Skylark took off, but did not go out of the galaxy like most of the departing fleet, but instead flew into the galaxy.
However, there are also many transport ships that need to deliver supplies into the galaxy, so the Skylark does not appear too abrupt.
"It's up to you now. The route you mentioned won't be discovered and can be sneaked in quietly." Lin Xu looked at Anna and said.
"No problem, just follow my instructions from now on. In fact, this route only exists because of the containment. Otherwise, who would have the ability to build a safe route under the noses of the Galactic Alliance and the Mechanical Empire?" At this point, Anna no longer kept it secret and said directly.
"Is it the ability to contain objects again?" Lin Xu nodded.
"Yes, or it is precisely because of this containment that the Galactic Alliance and the Mechanical Empire have not occupied the planet on a large scale until now." Anna nodded.
"How do you know this information? It doesn't seem like you can get this information by just prying into a staff officer's home." Lin Xu frowned.
"It's very simple, because I happened to break into the home of an important person." Anna shrugged.
"Okay, if you don't want to tell me, forget it. Everyone has secrets, right?" Lin Xu said with a smile.
"Thank you for your understanding." Anna also laughed.
"However, what exactly is the containment object you mentioned that prevented the large-scale invasion of the Galactic Alliance and the Mechanical Empire?" Lin Xu asked the question that concerned him most.
"I don't know what that thing is, or rather, no one knows. It's just because of the existence of that thing that the space near the planet has become an area that the warships of the Galactic Alliance and the Mechanical Empire cannot enter." Anna explained.
"Inaccessible area? All spacecraft cannot enter?" Lin Xu asked.
"Yes, there is only one route that allows small spacecraft to enter, and that is the route I am talking about now." Anna explained.
"So if we hadn't met you, we wouldn't be able to enter here, right?" Lin Xu looked at Anna thoughtfully.
"What I want is a fair deal, not threatening you to take me with you. In the vast universe, arbitrarily threatening unknown existences is an act of seeking death. I don't want to be turned into a corpse by you halfway." Anna raised her eyebrows and said.
Lin Xu nodded without comment.
He did feel that there was a kind of high-dimensional information disturbance near the planet, but he didn't know its effect.
I didn't expect it was used to prevent the spacecraft from approaching.
However, even if he didn't know the effect, this level of high-dimensional information disturbance would not be able to stop him.
Of course, there is no need to talk about this kind of thing.
