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?”

Everyone 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!

“Enough!”

“I admit that if you’re a speaker, you’re indeed well qualified, but everything you’ve said should at least be based on evidence. Now, I only see a series of hypotheses, which aren’t enough to be believed!”

“Evidence?”

The man turned his head, rather mystified. He raised his handkerchief and coughed slightly. “I’m the evidence.”

“You?”

Nancy seemed to be indignant at being mocked. He was about to say something when suddenly there was a blur across his vision. In the next second, the man who was ten meters away suddenly flickered and appeared in front of him!

“Woah!”

Nancy was so frightened that he fell back. In less than half a second, the man who looked like a terminal patient had crossed a distance of more than ten meters. This strange speed shocked everyone. In an almost conditioned reflex, the three bodyguards from Northern America took out their guns at the same time and took aim at the man who had moved abruptly!

However, the man just flashed a weird smile. With a single wave of his hand, the guns in the hands of these bodyguards seemed to come alive. They spun out of the bodyguards’ hands and flew directly toward the man!

‘Oh no!’

Such a thought flashed through everyone’s minds.

At this, not only the high-level bodyguards from Northern America, but also the bodyguards and soldiers in the entire venue all pulled out their guns and a dozen guns were steadily aimed at the man in the center!

At once, the atmosphere turned chillingly tense!

“Chen Chen, what are you trying to do!”

Several high-ranking officials stood up and looked at the man in front of them in indescribable rage.

“Don’t be nervous, I’m just doing a demonstration.”

The man looked around. At this moment, he suddenly transformed from his previous sickly aura. He seemed to be a different person. His eyes were sharp and his whole body exuded a disturbing presence.

“Clack clack clack, click, jingle jingle...”

Following the man’s words, the three pistols were automatically disassembled in mid-air. It took just the blink of an eye. The three guns were completely disassembled into their most basic parts and they clinked against each other as they scattered to the floor like puzzle pieces...

Seeing this scene, everyone was stunned. They had watched the three guns automatically self-disintegrate as if they were alive. These people wanted to tell themselves it was just a magic trick, but what kind of magic could perform this?

“If this isn’t enough...”

Following that, the man spoke again. He spread his palms out to everyone and then walked directly to the podium.

Just when everyone was still shocked by the fact that he had previously dismantled the guns in thin air, he went straight to the wall at the end of the podium and even stepped onto the wall when he reached the end.

Then, an even more incredible scene appeared — like a helium balloon, the man directly broke free of gravity and his body walked across the wall vertically at 90 degrees. This was not over yet, he was still walking forward...

When he reached the top of the wall, he stepped on the ceiling again.

“Patter, patter, patter...”

After a few thudding footsteps, the man was standing on the ceiling. He spread his arms to face everyone and even his hair and the corners of his clothes had not shifted as if gravity did not exist...

At this moment, everyone looked up at this man and the whole meeting room was dead silent...

“Clatter!”

The President of the North Sea Continent was stunned, with mouth agape, by all this. He did not even notice that the pen he was twirling subconsciously had fallen to the ground. The heads and officials of the various countries were stupefied. Everyone seemed to have been turned to stone.

Still, this was not the end. In the next second, everyone suddenly felt their bodies becoming lighter and many people exclaimed reflexively. Then, as they cried out in surprise, everyone apart from the presidents of the four continents started to float up uncontrollably!

Yu Qi only felt that there seemed to be countless pairs of big invisible hands all over his body, beginning to tug at him. He struggled instinctively, but no matter how hard he struggled, he could not resist this dark unseen force. After that, his body flipped over and he floated toward the roof, upside down...

“Please forgive my manners, everyone. Do you still think all this is just a magic trick?”

The man on the stage looked calm and unruffled. At this time, his words had an incomparably persuasive force...