Chapter 420: This Man

“It looks like your Congress intends to abandon me.”

When Chen Chen heard the abrupt pause coming from Zurama’s end, he immediately had an impression of how the meeting had ended.

“How, how did you know?”

Zurama sounded nervous as he said this.

“Does it need to be said? If the final decision was to stick by my side, I’d have dozens of ministers calling me by now.”

Chen Chen smiled, revealing a row of fine teeth. “Am I right, Minister Zurama?”

Zurama had trouble finding the words. He only responded after another momentary pause, “Chen Chen, get out of here as soon as you can before Northern America issues the sanctions. Get out of Namibia and return to the Central Continent. It’s the only place in the Earth Federation that may keep you safe?”

“Get out?”

Chen Chen found the notion so ridiculous he started to laugh. “Can I bring Eco Science City with me if I run? What happens to my work over here the last three years then? I’ll have nothing if I return to the Central Continent!”

“But if you don’t leave, you’ll be a sitting duck waiting for the Namibian police’s arrest!”

Zurama tried to advise him. “If you leave now, you’ll have a chance to make a comeback in the near future. Haven’t you heard of the saying where there’s life, there’s hope? If you get detained by us, people from Northern America will come and extradite you secretly within hours and no one will be able to save you!”

Chen Chen took a deep breath and did not say anything in response.

“This is all I have to say concerning this situation. I’m telling you all this now out of respect for our dealings over the last three years, and as a way of expressing my gratitude for the help you’ve provided during the pandemic...”

Zurama got the last word in before promptly ending the call and slumping back into his seat.

Zurama sighed. This man behind Blacklight Biotechnology was certainly far from a saint. His many deeds include purchasing felons for experiments, bribing officials, forcefully conducting ethically questionable clinical trials, and even interjecting into military and spacecraft affairs that he had no business dealing in. This was the man who nearly took over the entire Namibian governmental cabinet.

However, the company this man founded had provided several millions of stable jobs for the Namibian people. He never cut anybody’s salary and was directly responsible for Namibia’s rapid economic growth.

The Namibian government had just as much reason to loathe Blacklight Biotechnology as they had to adore the company. They resented Blacklight Biotechnology for taking over Namibia and taking advantage of the country time and time again. However, they did not see how they could survive without Blacklight Biotechnology. The entire country could very well face collapse within days of the company leaving.

However, there were no alternatives this time around...

Zurama contemplated silently.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Chen Chen flung the phone in his hand with all his might against the window in the office!

With a piercing crash, the phone burst into countless pieces and scattered all over the office. The window, on the other hand, was completely unscathed.

“Sir Godfather...”

Little X was shocked by this sudden outburst. She quickly shot up from her seat while rubbing her eyes and whispered.

“Telling me to leave?”

There was poison in Chen Chen’s glare. “Even if I leave, I’ll blow up the entire Eco Science City before leaving! Don’t even think about piecing together the remnants of what I leave behind!”

“Are you suggesting that Zurama intentionally warned you to persuade you to leave?”

Little X asked.

“I wouldn’t know if this is his intention, but one thing I know for certain is that he’s thinking of taking advantage of the current situation as well.”

Chen Chen scoffed. “If I leave, Eco Science City becomes free for all. Northern America is going to collect the array of biotechnology at most and leave the rest for Namibia. A modern city, large-scale industrial park, fully fitted with an aerospace base and military factory, everything laid out carefully for them...”

“Now that we know that Namibia isn’t going to stand on our side, what do we do?”

Little X asked urgently.

“There’s only one option left.”

Determination appeared in Chen Chen’s eyes as he said, “We need to plunge Northern America into turmoil, even to a point where they’re on the brink of collapse. We need to let them know that we’re the only ones who can bail them out!”

Little X immediately understood what Chen Chen was suggesting. Her eyes lit up. “Are you suggesting that we use memes?”

“Exactly, I need a memetic effect similar to the ‘Astral Catalyst’, but without any possibility of unwarranted mutation. It needs to be extremely infectious and generate mass panic among the people without posing a direct lethal threat.”

Chen Chen briefly described it before looking at Little X in the eye. “Can you do that?”

“I’ll give it a shot!”

Little X nodded and answered excitedly, “Give me an hour!”

With that, she plopped herself on the sofa and shut her eyes.

Chen Chen acknowledged the fact that an hour was required even with Little X’s supreme computing speed was a testament to how complex E language was. Perhaps it also had to do with how Little X had only scraped the surface of its potential.

Upon mastery, the destructive prospect of memetic technology was incomprehensible to the mortal mind. It would not take much effort to wipe out human civilization.

An hour passed quickly.

While Chen Chen was getting some rest, he suddenly heard the printer beside him operating.

The printer produced two image patterns.

Chen Chen did not head over to collect them because he was aware of the effects of memetic technology. It was something that went beyond common sense. It was an informational weapon that penetrated the sense of sight, hearing, smell, and even thoughts. It was impossible to guard against.

Within moments, Little X opened her eyes again. She got up cheerfully and approached Chen Chen with the two pictures in hand. “Sir Godfather, take a look at this one first.”

Chen Chen opened his eyes when he heard this. He saw countless irregular black and white patterns stemming from both edges. They faintly formed the picture of a person’s face on the A4 paper.

It was the strange face of a male...

It was a fairly large and round face of a male who looked to be somewhere around thirty to forty years old. His eyebrows were curved together like two squirmy, thick caterpillars. Under the thick caterpillar eyebrows were a pair of large, soulless eyes that droop downward, carrying an unplaceable expression.

The man in the picture had a crooked nose below his eyes. The bridge of his nose was subtle and thin but expanded to an unnaturally large size upon reaching the point of the nose, ultimately forming what was usually referred to as a pug nose.

The most uncanny part of it all was his mouth. His mouth was spread far wider than the average person to a point where they nearly extended to his ears. They seemed to be tweaking upward continuously even in a still picture.

In addition, his hair was extremely sparse with a large piece of a bald spot on the top of his head that revealed his smooth scalp. Only a handful strands of hair stubbornly grew from the top of his head...

This was the bizarre face that Chen Chen saw formed from the pattern.

With just one glance, the image evoked a chilling sensation that seeped deep into one’s heart. It felt as if this strange person was staring into one’s soul. The way he smiled so grimly seemed to suggest he knew something others did not know. It was extremely discomforting...

“What in the world is this supposed to be...”

Chen Chen jumped at the sight of this image.

Little X only smiled and left it at that before showing Chen Chen the next image.

The second image was a lot more normal in comparison. It was only a random scribble of black and white lines that did not contain any discernible pattern. The image itself could not be properly made out either. It was closer to a splatter of nonsense that did not contain any specific meaning.

The restlessness Chen Chen felt pulsing in his mind after seeing the first image quickly faded away upon seeing the second picture.

“This here is the pattern vaccine.”

Little X finally informed, “The first pattern was designed based on the concept of an urban legend. It’s a Basilisk pattern derived from several E language constructs that I’ve deciphered up to this point. It’s considered a very simple and elaborate Basilisk pattern.

“This pattern is transmitted using sight. This means that anyone who sees this image becomes infected with its memetic effect. Upon being infected, they’ll have nightmares of this man each time they fall asleep and the nightmares will only increase in magnitude as time goes on!”

With just a simple explanation, Chen Chen was already very impressed and began to clap. “Not bad at all, this is the exact memetic effect that I need. However, I’m afraid its effects are still too lethal and we might need to modify it slightly.”

“Too lethal?”

Little X was puzzled by this comment. “But this doesn’t kill people.”

“Humans are inherently fragile beings.”

Chen Chen explained patiently, “An average person has four to six dreams each night, but they forget most of them except for the ones who wake them in the middle of the night. The reason I said that its effects are still too threatening is that it directly disrupts the sleep schedule of a person. Losing quality sleep over prolonged durations will cause the mental state of a person to deteriorate and lead to depression or in severe cases, death, within a month.

“Which is to say that the lethality of this meme is still too powerful.”

Chen Chen shrugged. “To a certain extent, you could say that this is a catastrophic meme... Enough to wipe out the entirety of human civilization.”

Little X pouted when she heard this. “Understood, how should we nerf it?”

“Just removing one characteristic will do.”

Chen Chen immediately said without pause, “Remove the nightmare quality. Just make it so that everyone who is infected with this meme will dream of this man but not to such a severe extent that it would become nightmarish. This will do.”

“Will it still be effective?”

Little X sounded uncertain.

“This will do.”

Chen Chen nodded ceremoniously. “You hold the keys to the World Wide Web so you of all people should understand human nature. You should know just how many rumors are circulating the Internet these days...”

“From century-old tales such as the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ to ‘Lizard People’, there’s also Internet tales like how ‘Soul weighs 21 grams’ and ‘The Boy from Mars’. Are these tales so impregnable that hundreds of millions of people could be convinced that they are true?”

“No, they aren’t. It’s just because this is the nature of man.”

Chen Chen said in a deep tone, “The reason people believe these tales isn’t because they’re inherently gullible but because deep inside, they choose to believe these stories. They don’t care what the truth is. They only wish that these stories were true. Even if these stories were debunked tens of thousands of times, they simply refuse to look further into it.

“This is the nature of man. Therefore, when a real supernatural event occurs to the masses, there’s not much else that we need to do since they will come up with theories of their own. Some would claim that it’s God, the Devil, and stir up fierce social debates and turmoil...”

Chen Chen snapped his fingers and smirked. “I’m willing to bet that it won’t take more than a month before Northern America plunges into chaos...”

Little X nodded in a way that seemed like she had a rough idea of what Chen Chen was talking about.

“I’ll modify it right away. Give me ten minutes.”

With that, Little X sat down on the sofa and shut her eyes again.

In just nine minutes, Little X opened her eyes again. The printer simultaneously produced two patterns, which Chen Chen promptly inspected. He saw that the patterns were largely the same as their previous versions, only there were several strokes missing here and there.

“Excellent.”

Chen Chen crumpled them up and tossed them into a shredder. “X, your task is to ensure that everyone in the continents other than Northern America and Europe sees the immunity pattern. This way, only the population from our targeted continents will be vulnerable to this infection, can you do that?”

“It won’t be an easy task, but it won’t be anything compared to the task of producing the Basilisk images.”

Little X smiled slyly, bobbing her head to the side.

Chen Chen nodded contently, confident in his assistant.

...

The Secret of Dreams was a well-known forum in Northern America that had been operating for thirteen years, accumulating millions of members and millions of posts discussing their dreams.

The forum admins even went out of their way to hire dozens of masters at dream analysis to answer questions of the netizens visiting the forum.

On this day, a new post seeking advice suddenly appeared on the forum.

[Hello fellow dreamers and teachers, my name is Lilith, I’m a psychologist. Recently, I’ve been having some strange dreams that I’m not sure if should be attributed to the stress I’ve been feeling. I always see the same face in the dream. Is there an explanation for this?]

Within moments, a fellow forum member replied:

[It must have been the face of someone you’ve met in real life but forgot about. What happens is the face of this person remains deep in your conscience so that you would see this person in your dreams since dreams are inherently the product of our underlying memories. You won’t see someone you haven’t met before in your dreams.]

The comment was well-received and saw many likes quickly. A lot of comments followed after this comment.

[Of course, it’s Sanimo, you’re reaching the level of the teachers!]

[All hail Sanimo!]

[I’m new here, is this Sanimo popular here? Is his analysis reliable?]

[...]

Meanwhile, in the suburbs of New York City, Sanimo was looking at the chain of replies under his comments, a prideful smile hung by his lips. He proceeded to swallow a gulp of coke.

He had just finished class and was browsing the Internet inside his dormitory. He just happened to see this new post and decided to write a comment since it was convenient for him to do so.

This person was a senior member of the forum and usually very rarely replied to new members.