Chapter 1919: Invitation

After a brief hesitation, he spoke his most precious experience. Logically, this method was something he planned to use as a condition in a talk with Lin An, but after witnessing Lin An's loss of control just now, he suddenly realized that if Lin An really got into trouble, then his mother would be the apocalypse!

"The solution is to eliminate the source of the meme! Lin An, you should know that although the meme is alive, it also needs a carrier."

"Without a carrier, the meme's power would greatly diminish, even vanish outright! As long as no one, or any living thing, remembers it, knows it! Then the meme would die quickly, like losing energy."

"So, as long as you resolve the source of your meme, even if not completely eradicated, theoretically you could clear out all those messy meme fragments inside you. At worst, it could prevent these memes from controlling you."

Without reservation, Jiang Haochen raised his own hand, indicating that he had done just that.

To fuse this meme, he poured immense mental effort and energy, completely purging knowledge of his meme's source, keeping only what he himself was aware of.

This is an incredibly clever idea! Jiang Haochen has always regarded this as his proudest accomplishment.

Only he knows this meme, so the meme on him poses little threat and won't run amok! Moreover, this meme, already possessing life instinct, must submit to his control, because only by relying on him can the meme 'continue to live'!

It's like dancing on the tip of a blade!

In Jiang Haochen's view, Lin An obviously did the same, but his execution was clearly inferior! He also never thought to clear away other sources aware of the meme!

(I'm still... stronger than Lin An!)

However, contrary to Jiang Haochen's expectation, upon hearing this Lin An frowned, as if not surprised at all, but instead gave him a strange look.

"Clear out other sources and carriers?"

"Is there any other way?"

Almost as soon as Jiang Haochen finished speaking, Lin An fell silent. He hadn't expected Jiang Haochen's solution to be this.

Eliminating the carrier to destroy the meme — he had known this long ago. When he first encountered the puppet, he resolved it this way. Moreover, speaking of it, he might have done it better than Jiang Haochen. He directly dissolved the meme's own 'obsession,' thereby settling the matter.

Of course, this also counts as resolving the carrier, the little boy.

As for clearing up...? Lin An already knew what was going on with the meme inside him.

The sources of these memes are precisely those Fifth Stage beings he devoured. If they were from the same batch, it would be fine, but these Fifth Stage beings he ate came from hundreds of civilizations! Some civilizations might not even be in the same star cluster!

Without a doubt, to erase these memes at their source, Lin An would likely have to destroy hundreds of star systems — and even that might not be enough!

His reaction wasn't slow; Jiang Haochen blinked slightly, looking at Lin An's gaze, and instantly guessed that the source of Lin An's meme was probably not simple.

"You can't clear it? If you can't... then there's nothing to be done."

He gave a bitter laugh.

"If you don't clear it, then Lin An, to be frank, you'd better not use your power. Also don't continue breaking through to grow stronger."

"I don't know whether you're Fourth Stage or Fifth Stage, but I can sense you intend to fuse your power."

"No! Don't do that! You yourself know your condition just now — if even a bit of these memes combine, there's a ninety-nine percent chance you, Lin An, will turn into a super monster! An ultimate meme!"

Saying this, Jiang Haochen's face turned deathly pale.

He didn't know where Lin An had consumed so many high-rank memes; in his perception, these memes were clearly just fragments, yet the thing contained within them was stronger than the complete version he himself possessed!

Merely in the act of dissuading Lin An, Jiang Haochen couldn't help but feel a flicker of 'pity' toward Lin An.

If Lin An doesn't want to die, then in all likelihood he can only stop at his current strength for the rest of his life.

".. Lin An."

"I know; perhaps you were forced to absorb so many memes to oppose those gods. But power comes at a price — if you want to live, listen to me and let go, Lin An!"

"To be honest, I actually admire you quite a bit. I've always taken you, Lin An, as my goal. I just never imagined that behind your growth lay such a tremendous sacrifice..."

As he spoke, Jiang Haochen suddenly felt a pang of sorrow.

He looked at the silent, speechless Lin An, assuming Lin An's heart was also a haze of bitter confusion. Perhaps, too, tinged with reluctance?

Unable to resist, he reached out to pat Lin An's shoulder, comforting this man who had once seemed unattainable to him, who had driven him to despair countless times.

"Lin An, give it up. I know this pain, but your path is already cut off."

"But rest assured, I will gradually replace you, becoming humanity's strongest, becoming humanity's hope!"

Without waiting for Jiang Haochen to say anything more,

the next second, Lin An's voice sounded as if without ripple, softly speaking;

"Getting stronger would mean losing control and dying, right?"

"Huh? Yes! Not only can you not grow stronger, but your power also cannot be used frequently! The more you draw power from the meme, the deeper your cognition becomes! By then, you might even die in battle!"

"Hmm."

Quite unlike what Jiang Haochen imagined, all that was seen was Lin An calmly taking off his mask after hearing the warning, and peacefully looking at him.

"Then let's die."

"Giving up power, giving up growing stronger — what's the difference from dying?"

"But... but you don't have to...!"

"Nothing but, just die again."

Having said that, Lin An gave a light laugh, as if he didn't care at all that one foot had already stepped into the gates of hell — no, he had always been standing there.

"Die again?"

"No."

"Even if ten deaths, what then?"

The meme loss of control that Jiang Haochen spoke of is probably the 'thought split' mentioned by the Overseer. So, No. 77 likely said that only by emerging from the Ghost Skull could one truly walk this path.

As if thinking of something, Lin An looked at the bewildered Jiang Haochen before him and chuckled, saying:

"Are you afraid of death?"

"If not, are you interested in undertaking a mission with me?"

"A mission..!? What kind of mission!?"

"A mission that would kill even those above Fifth Stage."

Jiang Haochen:!!??

Ghost Skull countdown: 479 hours