Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Faced with this scene, Yu Qi’s heart was pounding wildly. This was not an ordinary international conference. The leaders of the four strongest continents of the entire Earth Federation had gathered. What kind of major incident had happened to cause this?
What kind of fortunate opportunity was it for him to be able to attend this event in person?
Yu Qi only felt that the blood in his body was about to boil. His breathing was heavy and his adrenaline surged. If he had not learned to keep his calm on the frontlines of the world through years of experience, he would have barked out laughing.
Regardless of the excitement in Yu Qi’s heart, after everyone walked into the venue from their respective entrances, they naturally sat in their own positions. Occasionally someone would politely nod when they met another party. Even when they greeted each other, the entire venue was silent, without any conversation.
Yu Qi looked behind him but saw that, except for the two bodyguards, the remaining soldiers had stood at the fringes of the venue, guarding their respective doorways.
Seeing that all four parties were here, Secretary Lin in front of Yu Qi looked at the people from Europe and asked aloud in English, “Is that person here?”
Hearing Secretary Lin’s fluent English, Yu Qi was taken aback for a moment and then he immediately realized why. As the meeting was a secret meeting and not due to any formal occasion, everyone used English by default to facilitate communication.
“He has already arrived and he’ll enter the venue in three minutes at most.”
In the seat of the European Continent, a senior official replied.
However, after hearing the exchange between the two, Yu Qi was even more surprised. It was obvious — the reason they came here was to meet someone?
Who was it that warranted the highest leaders of the top four continents in the Earth Federation to meet here like this?
Just when Yu Qi’s mind was exploding in astonishment, he suddenly heard a deep cough.
The sound came from the door behind him. As the meeting had not started yet, the doors behind everyone were not closed, so the sound of the cough easily traveled along the corridor into the venue.
This cough sounded weak as if it belonged to a dying patient and there was a slow set of footsteps.
Before Yu Qi saw who it was, he heard this voice first. Upon hearing this voice, Yu Qi subconsciously conjured up the appearance of a decrepit old man with gray hair.
Then, the footsteps gradually became louder, approaching the venue. Yu Qi looked back subconsciously and finally saw a pale, thin, sickly-looking man appearing outside the doors.
Was it a Chinese man?
“Cough cough cough…”
The soft cough came again. The man was wearing white pajamas. He covered his mouth with a white handkerchief and walked toward the front stage step by step.
This man seemed to have lost his eyebrows and hair after a long period of chemotherapy. Not only that, his body was as thin as if he had lost his human form and his face was so bony that one could no longer see his original countenance.
However, even though this man looked to be near death’s door, he ignored everyone’s gaze and walked toward the stage very matter-of-factly…
Was he whom the supreme leaders of the four continents were waiting for?
Seeing this man, Yu Qi was surprised. He watched the man walking past his side. At the same time, all the politicians he had met before flickered through his mind, but none of them matched this man’s appearance.
Who was this man who was so thin that his age could not even be discerned?
Still, it was obvious that no one in the silent venue would answer Yu Qi’s questions at this time. Everyone just watched the man walk up to the podium step by step and even Yu Qi was a little worried about what they should do in case this man suddenly died halfway as he was walking.
At this moment, Secretary Lin on the side suddenly tapped Yu Qi lightly under the table. Yu Qi turned his head but saw that the big boss and Secretary Lin had both turned their heads to glance at him.
Yu Qi’s heart leaped and he suddenly realized what to do. He quickly stood up and walked over directly to prop up the man. “Old sir, let me help you up.”
“Thank you…”
The man immediately nodded with a smile, allowing Yu Qi to help him along as they walked to the podium under everyone’s gaze.
After helping the man onto the podium, Yu Qi walked off, a little embarrassed, and took his seat again.
“Everyone… I, ugh cough cough cough cough!”
The man was just about to speak when there was another rapid burst of coughs, which caused Yu Qi to wince.
After coughing for a while, the man breathed a sigh of relief. He slowly put down the handkerchief and raised his head, panting slightly.
Suddenly, the man’s eyes met the eyes of everyone there for a moment.
When the man’s gaze swept across Yu Qi, he felt a sudden tremor because he was shocked that the man’s eyes were completely different from his frail, dying image. They were extremely dark and piercing, just like eternal stars in the night sky. They were also like black holes that could draw in human souls. These two extremely contrasting sensations were intertwined together, creating a strange feeling.
He had never seen such a unique pair of eyes!
“Good afternoon, gentlemen. I’d like to welcome you since you’ve taken time out of your busy schedules, cough…”
The next second, the man suddenly spoke in a tired and raspy voice, “At the same time, I’m also very grateful for your presence because it means that you’re willing to listen to my explanation of all this and place such huge trust in me. In just a few moments, I’ll make you feel that this trip is worthwhile…”
“Alright, let’s not waste time on formalities.”
However, at this moment, the President of Northern America suddenly waved her hand impatiently with a somber expression. “Go straight to the point. I hope you can give us a reasonable explanation for the Los Angeles incident!”
“No problem.”
The man nodded and flashed a smile. Even so, thanks to his skeleton-like appearance, this smile seemed truly peculiar.
“First of all, I’d like to ask everyone, do you still remember when the Earth Federation was established?”
“When was it established?”
Hearing the man’s question, the president of the North Sea Continent twirled his pen, recalling. “It was around 1992. I still remember that year, I had just returned from East Germany and witnessed the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Even though more than 70% of the voters in the last referendum wanted to retain the Soviet Union, the upper-level rulers had already made up their minds at that time.”
“To be precise, it should be 20 April 1992.”
The president of the European Continent added. “I also remember that day when the upper-level government suddenly informed us of a resolution to integrate the world, strengthen the ties between various countries on the basis of the United Nations, and form a huge institution.”
Hearing the answers of the two, the man nodded and said slowly, “So, what happened back then? Why did the Earth Federation appear?”
“That is classified.”
The big boss sitting in front of Yu Qi reminded him kindly.
“I understand.”
The man immediately replied, “In fact, although I don’t know the details, I have a general idea. There was a person who united the many countries and created the Earth Federation and that person’s name…”
“It’s a blank!”
Hearing this, the faces of the leaders of all the continents changed. Among them, the president of the European Continent asked in shock, “This is top-secret. Fewer than five people in each continent know about this. How did you learn all this?”
“I don’t just know this, I also know that he left behind the quantum computer ‘Adam’, an instrument that can predict the future. With this instrument, the Earth Federation was able to survive to this day…”
The man coughed slightly and continued. “Am I right?”
Hearing this conversation amongst everyone, Yu Qi felt his world turn upside down. The Earth Federation was expedited by an unnamed person? Who on Earth had such immense power?
“You’re not wrong.”
At this moment, the president of the North Sea Continent suddenly spoke up. He chuckled and said, “I was stunned when I learned this and even used various secret powers to investigate the identity of that person, but the strange thing was that all traces of him seemed to have been erased throughout the world. The secret files of both the Earth Federation and the North Sea Continent had nothing on him.”
“That’s right, cough cough…”
The man nodded, wearing a serious expression. “If there’s anything that you’ve ever wondered about, I’m guessing that mysterious man’s disappearance into thin air must be number one, right?
“Not only his name disappeared but even his identity, family background, nationality, and all traces of daily life had disappeared. If it weren’t for the existence of the ‘Earth Federation’ as proof of his existence, I’m afraid that this disappearance wouldn’t even be noticed by anyone. Don’t you think that’s scary…”
“Do you have information about that person?”
The president of Northern America asked again, “Please stop keeping us in suspense, okay?”
The man nodded slowly when he heard these words. He gripped the podium, took a breath, and then continued. “I don’t know who that person is, but I know why he disappeared.”
“What!”
“What’s the reason?”
The presidents and the other high-level officials of various countries looked stupefied and they all sat up straight to pay closer attention.
“I believe you’ve received the information I shared before you came here? The information about ‘memes’…”
The man did not answer directly but kept them in suspense as he spoke slowly.
“The term ‘meme’ is based on the ancient Greek word ‘μίμημα’ and evolved from the term ‘gene’ in biology. Dawkins wrote in the book The Selfish Gene that evolution doesn’t depend on the specific chemical basis of genetics. Rather, it relies only on the existence of self-replicating delivery units that are called memes.
“Maybe many people mistakenly believe that a meme is just a so-called Internet buzzword, akin to something like a joke. In fact, this is both right and wrong.”
The man coughed and continued to explain, “The meme defined by our human civilization is indeed a joke, but the meme I define here is something that includes jokes but is far more influential than a mere Internet buzzword…”
With that, the man waved his hand slightly and the word “meme” written in several languages appeared on the white screen behind him.
“A meme is a unit of information, not an entity. It’s a new branch of learning that can change human civilization. It’s also a subject that has never been revealed to humans before. We humans have never come across this, not because we failed to discover it, but because it didn’t exist on our Earth before.”
“What you said was ‘before’, right.”
Listening to what the man said, the elegant man in front of Yu Qi suddenly spoke, “In other words, ‘they’ have now appeared on Earth?”
“More or less, yes.”
The man nodded. “No one knows how memes are born, but I tend to think that the Internet has spawned them. As the online world becomes more developed, more and more Internet buzzwords have emerged. Some of these Internet buzzwords are only viral for a while, but some have been celebrated for a long time. I suspect that this unlimited possibility led to the birth of the first batch of memes…
“The angel statues from a few days ago are a meme that is extremely threatening to humans.”
At this point, a paragraph of text appeared on the screen behind the man again. This paragraph was densely packed with words. On the right side of the text, there was a cartoon of an angel statue standing in place with its eyes covered.
Everyone looked at the screen immediately and the text said—
[Memetic Name]: Weeping Angel.
[Special Containment Procedures]: The “Weeping Angel” should be placed in a location that cannot be observed by anyone. Direct or indirect observation is not allowed. Anyone who sees a full picture of a “Weeping Angel” must be permanently quarantined.
[Description]: The “Weeping Angel” is a pattern painted with blood. The pattern is composed of 13,236 “blood dots”, each “blood dot’ is between 0.3-0.5cm in diameter. The “blood dots” constitute a pattern of an angel statue covering its eyes.
The “Weeping Angel” is contagious, and the mode of transmission is visual transmission. Anyone who sees the full picture of the “Weeping Angel” will be infected and the infected person will be transformed into a strange memetic derivative within 90 minutes.
In one operation, four mercenaries inadvertently saw the full picture of “Weeping Angels”, so to prevent memetic infection, all four of them were destroyed in the steel furnace of the Blacklight Steel Mill in the industrial park of the Eco Science City, in Namibia, Africa. More than three months later, when the steel produced in the steelmaking furnace arrived in Los Angeles, Northern America, a memetic infection still occurred, resulting in a large number of derivatives. To distinguish the “Weeping Angel” from its derivatives, a distinction is made —
[Derivative Name]: Weeping Angel 1.
[Special Containment Procedures]: According to the size of “Weeping Angel 1”, it should be placed in a closed space with a height of more than two meters and a width of more than one meter. No particular containment material is required, but it should at least score a 4 on the Mohs scale or there is a risk “Weeping Angel 1” will escape.
When placing “Weeping Angel 1” in containment, the number of personnel must not be less than three at any time and the door must be locked upon entry. At least two people must maintain eye contact with the Weeping Angel throughout the entire process until all personnel have left and the containment chamber is locked again.
[Description]: “Weeping Angel 1” is an angel statue of a material similar to granite. Its usual posture is to cover its face with its hands, with the head slightly lowered at 15-25 degrees, and its wings slightly opened; it appears in the form of a stone statue when observed by human eyes, but once the human looks away, “Weeping Angel 1” will change its position and approach the human at a very fast speed. Its known method of killing is to wring the neck. No other killing method has been found.
It is known that “Weeping Angel 1”, a derivative of the “Weeping Angel”, has indestructible characteristics. Infection occurs through human observation of the “Weeping Angel”. At the same time, anything that bears the image of a “Weeping Angel 1”, including but not limited to photos and videos, has the same infectious power as a “Weeping Angel” itself. However, portraits are an exception…
Seeing this lengthy explanation, both Yu Qi and the others looked flabbergasted.
Did this mean that this was the cause of the Los Angeles incident and the Quantum Deity Laboratory incident?