Chapter 614

"You only received your first memory enhancement this morning, so that thing can exist in your memory."

This is the anti-memetic effect.

No matter how unreasonable or abrupt that thing is, most people will turn a blind eye to it.

Even if someone glimpses a corner of it in a trance, or sees its blurry full picture, these memories will be cleared in the next instant.

For the person involved, it's just a trance moment quite common in life; everyone has had that feeling more or less.

Hearing Ma Ma Liang's statement, a trace of surprise flashed across Moreno's face, which had a considerable proportion of alertness.

"Such a big thing has been standing there all along, and we have turned a blind eye to it?"

"Yes." Ma Ma Liang nodded.

"Then what exactly is it?"

"What is it?" Ma Ma Liang repeated Moreno's words and pointed to the corridor leading outside the site, "I'll take you to see it."

It was raining outside the site, and there was only one kind of continuous white noise in the world—falling rain.

Ma Ma Liang led Moreno, walking through the forest path, and walked into the shadow of the giant rock.

This was ancient basalt; it was huge and complete, weathered by time, presenting a deep black color.

It was by no means naturally formed; its near-perfect rectangular shape and ninety-degree edges without any error all indicated that it was an artifact carved by humans.

It leaned against the forest on the east side of Site-41, almost occupying the entire view outside the windows of the main building of the site.

"There is a weak anti-memetic effect around it," Ma Ma Liang explained to Moreno while walking carefully in front.

"For most people, it doesn't exist, or rather, it's invisible."

"You have also climbed the nearby hills before and should have seen it completely and clearly, but you have no memory of it, is that right?"

"Besides this performance, it has another more powerful anti-memetic effect, enough to erase people's memory of everything about it, even the Foundation's memory drugs are of no avail."

That was enough to penetrate the defense line built by the Foundation with drugs.

"So we will forget all of this?" Moreno asked.

Is there no way to write it down... as soon as such a question arose in her mind, she saw the notebook and blue ballpoint pen in Ma Ma Liang's hand.

The method was right in front of her.

The channels for the anti-memetic effect to act are diverse and complex; sometimes only by taking notes can one avoid the blockade of memory, electronic data, radio signals, and even sound.

Agents of the Anti-Memetics Division know this well and have gradually developed their own countermeasures.

For example, using Foundation terminals, carrying fast-shooting equipment, mechanical tape recorders, taking notes, or using walkie-talkies to let others write it down for themselves...

Moreno didn't expect that she could practice it herself today.

"Of course we will forget," Ma Ma Liang replied.

"One side effect of the anti-memetic effect is that I can't remember the route; we might be able to put some signs here, or set up road signs, but it's just not finished."

"I don't think this is because of the anti-memetic effect, but the person responsible for this project is just lazy... go this way."

Ma Ma Liang led Moreno toward a downward passage.

It was called a passage, but it was actually a deep trench; it led directly from the top of the giant rock to its base, leaving only a narrow strip of sky above, and steps leading up one by one underfoot.

The two climbed in silence for a few minutes, during which Moreno stopped several times, blocked the rain with her body, hurriedly wrote down one or two keywords, and then hurried to catch up with Ma Ma Liang, who was always moving at a steady speed.

Ma Ma Liang: "What content did you write down?"

Moreno asked: "For example... what kind of place is this?"

Ma Ma Liang: "Tell me."

"Um." Moreno hesitated for a moment, not sure where to start, so she checked her notes.

"Okay, first of all, from a geographical location, this rock doesn't belong here."

"At first I thought this was a mountain body carved by humans, but the nature of the stone itself has problems."

"Its material is completely different from the surrounding hills and mountains; you need to travel at least 500 kilometers to find a similar basalt texture."

"This means it might have been excavated from elsewhere, possibly carved into shape there, and then transported here."

Ma Ma Liang (bbda) didn't speak, but judging from her expression, Moreno's reasoning seemed to be close to the truth.

"However, this is almost impossible," Moreno turned.

"This is a whole giant rock; according to its volume and density calculation, its weight far exceeds 3 million tons."

"Even under current technical conditions, human civilization does not have the ability to move such a behemoth as a whole, let alone before?"

"Correct." Ma Ma Liang nodded.

"Then how did it come here?" Moreno asked.

Ma Ma Liang: "Very good question."

Moreno waited for the reply; she had no idea about the origin of this giant rock, let alone draw a conclusion, and could only wait for Ma Ma Liang to give more clues.

However, Ma Ma Liang didn't respond; she continued to throw out questions: "Are there any other discoveries?"

This way of asking reminded Moreno of a famous philosopher in history, Socrates.

This great philosopher called himself a "midwife of knowledge," and seemed to be good at using this way of constantly asking questions to lead his students to think deeply.

"……And, it has some kind of carving marks on it."

Moreno said, pointing to the wall of the stair passage, where neat rectangular patterns were arranged.

█████

█████

█████

"This was chiseled out with tools; I noticed the outer wall was also like this, just like the rectangular cursor on an old computer screen."

Ma Ma Liang nodded, noncommittal, and under the curious gaze of the young doctor, she proposed another possibility that had not been considered.

"Or a tombstone for letterpress printing."

……

"Ah? Tombstone?"

"Under what circumstances would such a tombstone be built? Are the individuals of this civilization mollusks? They won't leave any bones after death?"

"It's possible it was erased by the anti-memetic effect."

"That shouldn't be the case; people erased by the anti-memetic effect don't exist from the beginning in other people's memories. People who don't exist, how can there be a tombstone?"

"No, no, no, what is always difficult to detect is the anti-memetic hazard entity, not the people killed by Him. Those people killed by Him will leave vacancies in society, and someone will always be able to react and infer the existence of 3125."

"In other words, this is a tombstone erected by a civilization destroyed by 3125 for itself?"

"This is a Supreme Divinity..."

……

Tombstone... Moreno leaned closer, looking more carefully at the dense rectangular matrix.

"……Indeed, their styles are unified, and the marks left are quite delicate."

"But if this is the truth, these squares are too small; there will be hundreds of millions of such patterns on the whole giant rock."

"Completely correct," Ma Ma Liang affirmed again, "Anything else?"

Moreno looked up, staring at the iron-blue sky and the rain curtain falling continuously from above, pondering the atmosphere created by this rock, or rather, this sculpture project.

——Loneliness, quietness, independence, solemnity, and a trace of disturbing pressure and fear, although there was no actual danger or threat under that deterrence.

"We think we are very powerful..." she took a deep breath and said loudly.

Ma Ma Liang heard it and didn't pursue it; she seemed very satisfied, turned around and continued to climb upward, and Moreno followed closely.

The passage turned a few more times; every corner was a regular square, and every angle was a ninety-degree right angle.

Moreno had no intention of recording, only feeling that her knees were about to explode when they reached the top.

Finally, they arrived at an open area filled with moisture, wind, and steepness.

Under their feet were more miniature tombstones, spreading forward until the edge of the giant rock.

Under their feet, more miniature tombstone grooves spread out until the edge of the stone block at the end of the line of sight.

Not far away were the Foundation's scientific research equipment, a table under the canopy, a computer on it, and a diesel generator next to it.

Ma Ma Liang ignored this equipment, walked directly in another direction, turned her back to Moreno, looked at the sky, and played with a lighter in her hand.

The lighter was actually a propane burner used to light the stove, which was passed to her by her mother before she passed away, but Ma Ma Liang didn't remember.

"This is a monument," Moreno said her thoughts.

Ma Ma Liang turned off the lighter and put it in her pocket, her face slightly surprised, but only slightly.

"That's right, in fact, when I mentioned the tombstone before—"

"How many times have past anti-memetic wars occurred?" Moreno grasped the key point.

Ma Ma Liang was silent for a while, then suddenly laughed: