“The thing that people are most likely to forget is dreams.”
Chen Chen said softly as he walked, “I once read a research paper on dreams. It said that within 5 minutes of waking up from sleep, about 50% of the content of the dream will be forgotten. In the next 15 minutes, more than 90% of the details in the dream will be forgotten.
“So, dreams may truly be a kind of ‘anti-information’ that exists in reality.”
Chen Chen continued. “Of course, the anti-information here has nothing to do with antimemetic effects. The reason dreams are easily forgotten is that there are ‘MCH neurons’ in the brain, which secretes a ‘melanin accumulating hormone’. This neuron and its secreted hormone can be mapped to the hippocampus and the hippocampus is the brain’s main memory area.
“In experiments, activating these neurons will inhibit memory and these MCH neurons that inhibit memory are only active in the ‘rapid eye movement period’, which is one characteristic of humans when they’re dreaming. In other words, the brain happens to inhibit the formation of memories during the sleep phase where dreams are produced.
“Because dreaming mainly occurs in the rapid eye movement period and this period is when MCH neurons are active, this prevents the hippocampus from storing dream memories. This is why the dreams that humans have are often forgotten after waking up…”
Hearing Chen Chen’s explanation, Little X immediately pulled up the paper from the Internet. “I’ve found it. It’s exactly as you said, but what does this have to do with the ‘method of concealment’ that we’re looking for?”
“Uh…”
Chen Chen shook his head. “We can start with this angle and create a kind of dream meme to achieve the same effect as an antimeme. Let’s regard this as a research direction.”
“Alright.”
Little X said thoughtfully, “I can try to use E language to calculate and see if I can find memetic effects that can affect human dreams, but I’m afraid it’ll take a long time. Still, it’s simpler than directly trying to engineer an antimeme.”
Chen Chen nodded. This guideline was thus tentatively set. “Very well, but it’s better to be as fast as possible.”
While speaking, Chen Chen frowned slightly.
“Are you worried about the Federation’s quantum computing?”
Little X suddenly became a little puzzled. In her experience, Chen Chen had never rushed her as this would indicate a lack of confidence. This hardly happened to a person like Chen Chen who had such a strong will.
Chen Chen suddenly stopped in his steps when he heard this. He frowned and finally voiced the thoughts in his mind, “I don’t know why, but ever since I’ve merged with the T-virus and become non-human, I’ve always felt inexplicable anxiety.
“At first I thought it was just an illusion or that I hadn’t gotten used to being a non-human, but now it has been a month, this anxiety hasn’t diminished at all. Conversely, it has started to worsen and even taking NZT-48 cannot alleviate it. …”
Little X huffed softly. “I’ve also discovered that this kind of anxiety has begun to affect your judgment. Recently, your decision-making has become more radical. I still have some doubts as to why you’re suddenly willing to step up research on memetic effects!”
Hearing this, Chen Chen could not help but nod. “So, it seems that all this isn’t just in my mind… When I merged with the T-virus, there were hidden dangers that I didn’t notice.”
“Dreams…”
However, at this moment, Little X suddenly said, “Do you remember that when you woke up from the life incubator, you said that you had a dream, but you forgot what it was upon waking up? Even so, when you felt uneasy just now, you mentioned dreams again. If this is a subconscious suggestion, does it mean that the source of anxiety in your heart is related to dreams?”
Chen Chen’s pupils shrank.
He suddenly recalled that he did have a frightening dream when he was fusing with the T-virus, but when he woke up, he forgot about it completely. The only thing he could remember was that he did have a dream…
To someone like Chen Chen, whose willpower and self-discipline could be said to be terrifying, this was practically impossible.
Then, the only explanation was that — there was something in that dream that was enough to make his subconscious feel a sense of foreboding.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen suddenly realized that he could almost ascertain that the source of his uneasiness must be from something in his dream!
“The foreboding didn’t come from the T-virus itself.”
Out of nowhere, Chen Chen murmured, “After all, I’ve been taking blood tests every day recently. If there are any follow-up problems with the T-virus, I’d definitely find out. But if it isn’t the T-virus or my body that’s having problems, what would it be?”
“Do you need hypnosis to retrieve that dream?”
Little X asked, “Maybe hypnosis can remind you of everything in that dream.”
Chen Chen hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “We can try…”
While speaking, Chen Chen left the park and stood on the side of the road. Within half a minute, a commercial vehicle stopped in front of Chen Chen and he opened the door and got in.
“Don’t go back to the Spire Experimental Base.”
Chen Chen shook his head. “Go to the Faraday cage built in the industrial park and then lock me in.”
“You…”
Little X hesitated to speak. “Do you suspect that this is a memetic effect?”
“No.”
Chen Chen shook his head and when Little X breathed a sigh of relief, Chen Chen suddenly added. “I suspect this is an antimemetic effect.”
“Ah…”
Little X whispered, “It should be impossible, right?”
Chen Chen shook his head and said nothing more.
Dreamland, antimemetic…
Perhaps it was his subconscious that kept warning himself, which led to him figuring out the key factors — antimemes and dreams.
To ordinary people, this was of course a preposterous suggestion. How could the subconscious mind be so intelligent? Nonetheless, for Chen Chen who had taken NZT-48, all this was not impossible…
After all, this drug had never disappointed him.
Chen Chen thought silently.
Still, if this was the case, then all of this would be truly alarming. He had been infected with an antimeme without being aware of it?
However, where did this antimeme come from? The dimension of Gantz?
No, it was impossible!
If it was transmitted from the Gantz dimension, would this not mean that the USB drive did not have the power to shield any memetic effects? Then, it would have been impossible for him to get rid of the entanglement of the memetic effect “Thuds”.
Therefore, these two causal relationships were in conflict.
As such, since it did not originate from the world in Gantz, where did this antimeme come from?
The commercial vehicle drove fast on the flat road and soon left the Eco Science City and moved toward the industrial park.
Inside the vehicle, Chen Chen fell into deep thought.