Chapter 1999: Unknowable Truth 6

What does absolute vacuum resemble?

Like a black hole.

When all matter disappears, light seems to lose its propagation path and can no longer refract back any information.

Darkness, as if the boundary of the void, No. 77 looked solemnly at the slowly closing black arc.

The city floating in deep space is being enveloped by the void, like rice paper soaked in ink, fading away bit by bit.

Of course, No. 77 knew this wasn't the Ghost Skull scene disappearing; he simply couldn't see here, as if covering one eye with one hand, and the system was blocking the image.

The range of the void kept expanding, like a laboratory isolating a virus.

After quickly estimating the blockade time, a hint of solemnity also flashed in No. 77's huge eyeball.

At most twenty minutes, this place will completely disappear.

He didn't tell Lin An what kind of mutation this place had become, and even many Overseers didn't know. It was just like when the Meme first appeared—people didn't realize what disaster it would bring.

"Three Systems united, the Faith System—perhaps that's a decent path..."

"But it's still not enough... we can still take a stronger path!"

Tentacles waving, if No. 77 could take a deep breath, he would surely do so to calm his mind.

Danger is also opportunity.

Before the Seventh Stage, battles between lives relied on energy; after the Seventh Stage, it becomes a contest of cognition, of understanding the rules, of grasping the essence of how the universe operates!

If we compare Ghost Skull to an enhanced resource, the power brought by the Star Battlefield is 1, then here it is 1000! 10000!

As long as Lin An can come out alive, the road up to before the Seventh Stage will be smooth sailing! If he can fully digest the information here, reaching the Eighth Stage is imminent, surpassing stages makes him invincible! Only such a Lin An could possibly reach that point!

Of course, perhaps Lin An will die directly inside, like a mouse overinflated and bursting with a bang into fragments, forever sinking...

To be honest, No. 77 himself doesn't know why he's doing this, perhaps like a gambler who's gone red-eyed.

He has already lost enough; even if he loses again now, before investing much, it doesn't matter.

Perhaps doing this is unfair to Lin An, perhaps it's cruel.

"Everything requires a price; the more precious something is, the greater the price."

"Especially..."

"Hope!"

"Come out alive, Lin An!"

In the dark space, a beam of light suddenly lit up.

Just like turning on a light in a room.

"Human origin? Ultimate?"

Standing opposite Andre, Lin An couldn't help but repeat it. He could see that Andre's expression just now wasn't feigned; in fact, having come this far, if Andre lied again, it would undoubtedly be an insult to both of their intelligences.

Just the two words 'ultimate' are really too vague, too 'grand and infinite', to the extent that Lin An rarely even thinks about such illusory problems.

That is not a realm humans can set foot in.

Lin An finds it hard to imagine what Andre discovered here that would let him say such things.

Does information about the ultimate really exist? Or how could it possibly appear here?

No need to read minds; Andre looked at Lin An with a complex gaze and spoke softly:

"You can't believe it, right?"

"Lin An, aren't you thinking that even if we don't discuss whether the ultimate exists, even if it did exist it couldn't appear here? That's right—the difficulty of Ghost Skull is not low, but compared to the meaning represented by the ultimate, it's no different from a speck of dust compared to the universe."

"But who would have thought... the answer really is here."

Andre let out a low laugh, his laughter full of various complex emotions, as if he himself didn't know how he could have encountered such a thing.

He was like a frantic mouse that one day ran into the Hall of Truth, where he unexpectedly glimpsed the truth, then got trapped here, unable to live or die.

Putting away his smile, Andre casually spread his hands and instantly conjured two chairs.

"If you want to hear it, I can tell you."

"But the story is long; perhaps only after hearing it all will you understand. Of course, did you see the Light Gate behind me? You can just walk out and pretend nothing happened."

"As I said, I dare not kill you; rather than trapping you here, I'd rather let you leave."

"How about it? Plug your own ears, cover your own eyes, and be a blind man. Or listen to the ultimate riddle of this universe?"

Likewise, like a chant.

"Hum"

The Light Gate appeared.

Andre calmly looked at Lin An, as if truly letting Lin An just leave like that.

They stared at each other in silence.

Lin An opened his mouth, feeling a rare hesitation.

Reason told him to leave directly; his mission was already complete, he had also figured out the answer to the Faith System's secret, and upon leaving he had a ninety percent chance of advancing to the Fifth Stage!

But facing the ultimate...!

Just like the red spider lily, like the most deadly yet tempting poison! He actually felt his soul craving it! If he walked out, he would regret it for a lifetime!

To hear the Dao in the morning, to die in the evening would be enough!

If what Andre says is true, then from the very beginning of humanity's birth, countless people have painstakingly pursued it, braving fire and water, pursuing it until death, and that secret would appear before him. Just by sitting in this chair, he could know the answer!

After a long while, Lin An took a deep breath and hoarsely opened his mouth:

"You say..."

"First tell me why I came in here..."

"Since the confrontation match ended, I've realized that the conventional power system is truly too weak."

"Whether it's you, the fugitive, the alien species, or even that bear beside you, I'm actually no match—indeed, I'm as laughable as a worm, forced to face death..."

But I clearly completed every mission perfectly, pushing everything to the extreme...

It was then that I suddenly realized that if I wanted to survive, I had to seek other power.

Sitting opposite, Andre regained He Xi's smile and calmly recounted past humiliations.

Yes, to him, he was clearly the strongest in North America, the perfect test subject of the Creation God Plan, and he had never taken a wrong step. Yet in front of Lin An, in front of the fugitives, no matter how he schemed, it was all meaningless.

Especially with his powerful computing ability and mind-reading, he had practically rehearsed his own inevitable death.

That kind of pain and despair could drive any human mad.

So you started looking for special dungeons, wanting to gain stronger power? And then you entered Ghost Skull?

Yes.

Andre nodded.

I gathered a lot of data and finally determined that your power definitely doesn't come from the conventional system. I don't know what it is, but your companions gave me a reference direction.

Special Event, Meme, Paranormal side. Only these three major events could possibly let me gain stronger power in the shortest time.

During that time, I was evading the fugitives' pursuit while desperately completing various special missions. It was then that I inadvertently discovered a Meme event.

But you got one thing wrong.

Andre paused slightly, then smiled:

I didn't enter Ghost Skull at first; Ghost Skull came later.

Entering here was also an accident. But that doesn't matter.

What matters is that I knew something before entering Ghost Skull...

Before Lin An could even raise his eyebrows, he instinctively wanted to ask.

The next second, Andre suddenly waved his right hand, and a black-and-white photo with an old-era tint instantly appeared between them.

Enlarged to the size of a map, the black-and-white photo showed a man with a solemn expression answering a telephone handset.

Lin An, have you ever wondered what a Meme is?

A Meme is alive; it is another form of life...

Andre asked and answered himself.

In an instant, Lin An's gaze narrowed.

For some reason, Andre's sudden words gave him an extremely uneasy feeling.

Jiang Haochen had said this too, and even Mo Ling had said it.

It seems you've heard some, but your knowledge of Memes is definitely incomplete.

Ignoring Lin An's reaction, Andre lowered his tone, as if narrating a bizarre story:

The Meme event took place in the San Francisco area, with a Meme background of 1915. Event name...

Telephone Ghost.

In 1915 San Francisco, people eagerly awaited the connection of the telephone lines between San Francisco and New York. Once the lines were linked, it meant that over a million telephones were connected together. Thereafter, they could easily contact friends and family far away in New York. However, unlike everyone else, a group of people felt anxious, even wanting to stop this from happening.

The reason is simple: these people were scientists and professors of the time, who believed that so many telephone lines connected together resembled the synapses of a human brain.

And within that extremely complex, enormously vast telephone network at the time, it was quite possible for a self-consciousness to spontaneously arise.

At the moment the telephone lines were connected, the scientists nervously picked up the phone, listening to the static on the other end. But to their disappointment, they heard nothing.

The scientists breathed a sigh of relief, thinking they had overthought it. But what people didn't know was that, at the moment they hung up the phone, an electrical signal appeared out of nowhere..

And my mission was to destroy it.

Saying this, Andre waved his right hand, and a series of images appeared before Lin An's eyes.

Changing the subject:

Lin An, what do you think the definition of life is?

Their eyes met, and Lin An blinked slightly.

Although he didn't know why Andre suddenly brought this up, Lin An still thought a bit and quickly answered:

Having reproductive ability, whether viviparous, oviparous, or self-division.

Having basic consciousness, able to change with the environment, and adapt to it to sustain itself.

Andre nodded and praised, saying:

Correct, but there's one more point: life must affect the material world. If it cannot be seen or touched, leaving no trace of existence, then it cannot be called a living thing, or even said to exist.

And the reason I say a Meme is alive, a form of life, is because I discovered something quite interesting.

He pointed with one hand at the image, and the picture Andre pointed to—a drawing of a cat with a line of English beside it—instantly enlarged.

This is a cat picture from 2003, and also the first suspected Meme product on the internet before the Apocalypse.

Its name is 'Can I Eat a Cheeseburger?', born on the 4chan forum. It is a static image, only 4KB in size.

Lin An blinked slightly, '2004? That was a long time ago.'

Before Lin An could even frown, Andre opened another picture and said to himself:

This cat had circulated for a long time, but its spread was limited to just a part of forums and blogs. However, this one is different.

Andre enlarged the second picture, and there was clearly a dog wearing sunglasses.

This is an animated GIF titled 'Deal With It', created in 2010, with the sunglasses coolly landing on the dog's face, often used by people to express that something is awesome.

He waved his hand to dismiss the images, and as the third picture appeared, Lin An's heart jolted; he seemed to realize why Andre was showing him these things.

The third was not a picture, but a video.

In the video, a man nervously lifts a bucket; with a splash, the ice cubes inside pour over him.

The Ice Bucket Challenge first appeared in 2014, a video format that suddenly went viral in the following nearly ten years, with people eagerly imitating it.

As his words fell, Andre raised his head, speaking each word deliberately:

Did you notice? Lin An?

They are evolving, reproducing at an extremely fast speed, and evolving into ever higher forms.

From merely an electrical signal, to a static image, then moving images, and finally video!

From being unknown to influencing thousands, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of millions! From merely being seen by people and used as emojis, to influencing people's behavior patterns! Memes are evolving at an astonishing speed and massively reproducing in the network.

If one were to say that a person's memory converted into data storage, a few hundred gigabytes, a few hundred terabytes would suffice. But by the time the Apocalypse broke out, the global accumulated meme data had far exceeded that number!

The developmental history of memes is like biological evolution accelerated by tens of millions of times!

From single-celled to multicellular, from invertebrate to upright walking! Their impact on the real world is also rapidly expanding, from initially causing people's emotions to fluctuate, to later actually affecting reality and controlling human behavior!

In terms of energy consumption, calculated by the energy needed for information storage, their current energy consumption equals that of humanity from primitive society entering the space age!

In summary, as stated above..

Something that can evolve, reproduce, evolve different forms according to the environment (network), and consume vast resources to ensure its own existence—what is it if not life?

They parasitize within humans, reproducing within network data. Our eyes are their eyes, our hands are the hands that give birth to them!

Under the influence of memes, every photo we take and every sentence we write is their carrier. Every newly built power plant and data center is their nourishment and breeding ground!

A new angle, Lin An's heart jolted; although he had early exposure to the concept of memes.

But Andre's angle is undoubtedly more complete.

Especially...

(My mission is to destroy it..)

(Mission era: 1915... electric signal... connection...)

(The network, or rather the emergence of information links, has caused the evolution speed of memes to increase ever faster...)

Lin An frowned, as if in a dim haze he had grasped something that flashed away. He understood what Andre was saying, and these things also seemed to have countless connections with the knowledge inside the Ghost Skull.

But it feels as if just a breath away, as if the answer is right before one's eyes, yet just a step short! This feeling actually makes one want to go mad with nausea.

I acknowledge that memes have the characteristics of life, but likewise, memes rely on human cognition; they actually lack the ability for self-evolution.

Lin An took a deep breath, unable to refrain from voicing his long-held understanding of memes.

Memes appear to influence people, but essentially it is people influencing people; they do not possess a complete life, nor subjective initiative toward the material world.

They are passive, lacking the ability for active evolution!

Moreover, what does this have to do with human consciousness? Memes ultimately still need to attach to a carrier, to attach to something truly alive to be considered...

Before Lin An could finish, Andre suddenly let out a light chuckle and spoke softly:

Lin An, you think memes are not truly alive because their evolution and reproduction depend on human cognition, and since humans are alive, they appear to have the characteristics of life.

Just as a moving object would be considered alive if motion alone defined life, then an axe held in a person's hand—how would that be alive? It does not move on its own.

But have you ever considered?

Perhaps we are that axe?

The human brain is merely a lump of meat; your consciousness controls the flesh, making you alive. What difference is there between that and memes controlling humanity?

Memes evolve with the aid of human cognition, evolving under human influence—how is that different from humans being influenced by matter, from crawling on the ground to walking upright?

As for subjective initiative... it is the most important sign of life..

While speaking, Andre shook his head, seeming somewhat pitying, self-mockingly looking at his own reflection in Lin An's eyes.

Lin An, what I said earlier was merely groundwork; what I am about to say is the truth I discovered in the Ghost Skull.