Chapter 629

……

Dr. Hughes stared at the ceiling, his gaze trying to penetrate the heavy fog lying before the fate of humanity.

"Ironically, the most feasible way to do this is to develop an artificial meme."

"We will weave its core, infuse it with the meaningless and harmful concepts of memetic research, supplement it with religious fanaticism or pseudoscience toxins, and spread it to the general public."

"After it subtly takes hold for a year, we will naturally destroy all related laboratories ourselves."

"Unless the Anti-Memetics Division’s intuitive immunity to internal threats is strong enough to withstand this pressure."

"Interesting scenario... even if we don't go down this path, we should definitely consider practicing it in a simulation to see what the results would be—"

"Dr. Hughes," Ma Ma Liang interrupted Hughes.

"No. Evasion is useless. 3125 could be introduced from the outside, or it could arise spontaneously..."

"And as far as we know, 3125, just as we predicted, has already descended into reality."

"Look at these precursor anomalies; we are in the so-called omen—He is close at hand."

What she was talking about was the prediction model Hughes himself had created in a previous meeting, the model even he himself had never studied in depth.

However, at this moment, Hughes understood it perfectly, even though he wished he never had to understand all of this.

His fear stemmed from elsewhere, completely different from ordinary people.

Faced with such a pure alien threat, most people might have already been crushed by fear and surrendered, but he would not.

Roughly browsing the file of "Containment-3125," Hughes only felt like he had fallen into a nightmare:

It would mercilessly reshape human civilization into a form of existence he could not imagine.

He was familiar with most of the anomalous files in the Foundation’s database and could be called a top anomaly containment expert.

For those scientific fields where he did not yet possess the talent for insight, there were always trusted colleagues bearing the heavy responsibility.

For them, those anomalies were just mysteries that had been unlocked, Pandora’s boxes that had been sealed.

Only this time was different.

He had ideas, but he could not conduct research on 3125; as long as he tried to understand the whole problem, He would rip him open.

He needed to design and build a cage without being able to study the problem itself.

He had to be inside this cage under construction, and he had to include the entire universe within it.

Hughes looked around the walls of the room—they seemed to be able to hold up.

This sturdy fortress built by the giant beast seemed to satisfy all his requirements for a cage.

"… We could perhaps choose to spend the rest of our lives hiding in this narrow space," he whispered, "And our entire species as well."

"Let 'Containment-3125' run rampant uncontrollably like a plague; I declare this to be the outside of the containment unit."

"Done."

Silence, no response.

……

"Even more genius idea! As long as I declare that I won, then I am always winning!"

"Instead of this, it would be better to be more thorough, declare a D-class personnel as 'Containment-3125,' and then execute him, so the Foundation has defeated 'Containment-3125,' and the human world has returned to peace."

"No, not direct enough; just declare 'Containment-3125' and its creations to be human, and the Foundation only needs to protect the newly defined humans."

"Sleeping when encountering difficulties, taking photos when the house is on fire? Barbecuing where you fall, and lying down by the way?"

"You might as well declare the 'Lord Ravager' as an Arbiter of 'Preservation,' and then declare that Nanook of 'Destruction' does not exist."

"I declare that your declaration is valid!"

"I declare that your declaration of his declaration is validly invalid!"

"I declare... (Qian Zhao's)"

……

"But I think we can't do it," he admitted.

"If 'Containment-3125' is already living in the consensus reality, the game is already over."

"I don't care if the Apollyon classification is dead or alive; according to my own view, this anomaly is actually uncontainable."

Bartholomew Hughes said while shaking his head, lifting his free hand to tap his temple repeatedly, but hitting the embryo several times; the little guy’s eyes looking at his fist became less friendly.

After the embryo rolled its eyes several times, making Hughes feel a bit dizzy, he sighed long, as if his energy and faith had been drained:

"My team and I might have said different things in previous times... I might have seen the answer in the wrong state of mind."

"Each of us is constantly changing, and our ideas are constantly changing, aren't they..."

"No," O5-8 said, "You are consistent."

"In that case, is everything coming to an end here?" Dr. Hughes’s voice became lower.

O5-8: "The Foundation’s goal is protection."

"In most cases, this requires controlling and containing anomalous entities, establishing special containment procedures that can monitor these entities, safely and permanently."

"We are in principle opposed to active neutralization, trying to avoid acts of destruction; everyone here is aware of this."

"However, senior Foundation staff like me also have the right to ignore this principle in a few specific circumstances, and I am exercising that power."

"I have determined that in our reality, 'Containment-3125' cannot coexist with human civilization—we must completely eliminate 'Containment-3125'."

"Does this change your view?"

"Special neutralization measures..." Hughes’s face was pale, his expression even uglier.

"I understand; in general concepts, neutralization might be easier than simple containment," O5-8 added.

As O5-8’s voice fell, the entire conference room fell into a long silence; Ma Ma Liang began to drink coffee, and Graves and Michael Li sat quietly.

Hughes looked at this underground emperor with deep eyes, then looked up at the ceiling again.

Looking at this ceiling, it really is a ceiling, and this light really is a light.

He couldn't understand the meaning of the three directors and one O5 present; it was nothing more than throwing the responsibility of saving all of humanity onto him, asking him to give a final solution, or to execute a certain mission.

But such a responsibility was truly a bit too big.

His thoughts gradually drifted away, returning to the day he first joined the Foundation.

"When I first joined the Foundation, I asked my mentor, who had retired a few years ago, 'What is the largest anomaly we have ever contained?'"

"He told me that he once heard an old rumor that the Christian religion was not always monotheistic."

"At first, there were three Gods with capitalized initials. And at some point in the last 150 years, the Foundation slew two of them."

"I believed him."

The people present looked at him with interest, not knowing why this genius of the Anti-Memetics Division would bring up the distant past, and why he would start from the God of the Christian religion.

But Dr. Hughes had no desire or thought to explain; the embryo on his face was shaking its cyclops eye slightly.

"I was very young and inexperienced at that time, and very naive, revering the Foundation, revering my mentor, thinking the Foundation was omnipotent."

"A few years later, when I looked back on these words, I realized he was just bullshitting me."

"Twenty years have passed now, and modern memetic composite technology is billions of times more advanced than it was back then, thirty percent of which came from my hands."

"I check what the Anti-Memetics Alliance is dealing with every quarter; I know better than anyone what is possible and what is impossible on Earth, and..."

Dr. Hughes spoke quieter and quieter, with fewer and fewer ideas; tracing back from the beginning of his Foundation career didn't bring him enough ideas, and the ordinary days didn't have much content worth referencing.

The four high-level officials held their breath, hoping to get a clue from his mouth.

But Hughes’s thoughts were as chaotic as hemp; he ultimately failed to squeeze out a single word.

He felt he was framed in the wrong thinking; perhaps he was resisting a certain truth deep in his heart, or perhaps he was unwilling to face a certain response strategy that made him shrink back.

At such times, just ask the past self for help.

"What did I say? Tell me directly."

"Your team believes that although 'Containment-3125' is the most powerful memetic composite threat we have encountered so far, it does not mean it is at the peak of the system," O5-8 said.

"Theoretically, it is possible to synthesize an anti-memetic concept that can surpass 'Containment-3125' by an order of magnitude, designed specifically to counteract its influence, and completely under our control."

Using one meme to counteract another meme—this line of thinking is undoubtedly feasible; a concept can be killed by a better concept.

But humanity doesn't have much time left; can the Anti-Memetics Division, no, the Foundation, synthesize this anti-meme before the world-destroying 3125 descends?

"This... is indeed... possible."

This move is extremely dangerous, will consume massive resources, and requires ten to twenty years of uninterrupted, dedicated research...

"But this work will be extremely dangerous, consume unimaginable resources, and require ten to twenty years of actual time of uninterrupted work..."

"To prevent being spied on by 3125, we must be completely isolated from the outside universe throughout the process... We also need a laboratory as big as a launch tower..."

"Wait..."

At this moment, a flash of inspiration, his thoughts were like the night sky illuminated by lightning, instantly becoming clear.