Chapter 503 - Flower of Flesh

As time went on, they started to notice abnormal behavior inside these strange creatures.

It happened on the sixth day since the commencement of the experiment.

The researchers noticed that these creatures ate any and everything they could find. Any humans or animals that were not infected that came within a thirty-meter vicinity of these creatures were indiscriminately mowed down.

When the researchers held back on feeding the creatures, they would resort to eating the grass and various other plantations around them.

To determine if the creatures could starve to death, Professor Will decided to stop feeding them for three days. On the first day, the creatures did not display any abnormal symptoms. They remained in the yard and continued to loiter around aimlessly.

By the second day, the creatures were starting to become restless. They tried to search for sources of food but their efforts proved fruitless since they could not climb out of the yard.

By the third day, something unprecedented happened…

“Will, look..”

Eugene pointed at the display and called for Professor Will’s attention, “Just as expected, these ‘Xenophorbs’ are exhibiting new behaviors.”

Xenophorb was the name they had given to these products of memetic infection.

Will immediately turned to the display. Positioned in the center of the yard was a slab of what seemed to be a plant formed of flesh that appeared out of nowhere. The plant was about three meters in diameter and took on an irregular, circular form. It laid on the bare ground like a filthy rug coated in flesh.

The bare shape of what seemed to be arms and legs could be seen poking out of the rug. There was even the bare shape of a deformed head stretched to the length of half a meter…

Coincidentally, as soon as the researchers noticed this, one of the Xenophorbs approached this strange plant. It proceeded to kneel in front of the plant and tore out a chunk from the plant using its sharp claws before stuffing it in the holes on its body.

“Are they cannibalizing each other?”

Professor Will turned to Eugene with a baffled expression.

“No, this is more like ‘sharing burden’.”

Eugene chuckled. “Looks like it, doesn’t it? They would sacrifice themselves and transform themselves into a plant-like form to extract nutrients from the ground and allow their peers to eat them. Isn’t it a noble sight to behold? Just like Jesus.”

Will had to do a double take upon hearing this remark. It was a good thing he was not a Christian, otherwise, he would kill Eugene with his bare hands for making such a statement.

“But…”

Will suddenly asked when a thought came to him, “After they root themselves into the ground and transform into a ‘plant’, do they grow as regular plants do?”

“Of course.”

Eugene answered with a nod, “It rooted itself into the ground at early dawn and its total surface area has grown by approximately ten percent since then. This is after its peers have eaten some parts of it. If not for the other Xenophorbs eating it, this Xenophorb that rooted itself into the ground would’ve been far larger by this point.”

“Out of our expectations, but it does make sense.”

Will reflected on their findings. “Now, we have an explanation of how the valley covered in flesh came to formation.”

Will turned to Eugene again. “Get yourself ready, the higher-ups just issued a new order. In a few days, the four major continents will dispatch robotic troops into the alternate dimension with napalm and incendiary bombs to take care of the mass of flesh in the mountains. After all, the only thing that fazes these things is fire.”

“So, they are going to deal with the Xenophorbs in the area? That’s a good idea.”

Eugene chuckled dryly. “The only thing we should be concerned about now is whether or not these Xenophorbs will retaliate against us. It’s a wise move to take the initiative and purge them.

“In addition to cleaning up the Xenophorbs with several thousand kilometers radius of the portal, they will also be fortifying the outpost.”

Will added. “We’ll make this place a fortress to protect the real world from a Xenophorb invasion. Speaking of which, it’s good news that this meme cannot travel across water.”

Will gazed at the endless ocean outside the window as he noted this. “Which gives our world a huge advantage.”

“Of course…”

Eugene turned to look outside as well. “All we can do now is pray that this infectious disease doesn’t make it to our world…”

…

The foundation was maintaining its efforts in exploring the dimension behind the Rosen bridge.

Fortunately, with the XTN robots bolstering the military force, mankind was able to dispatch enough resources to explore the alternate dimension. With the vast amount of observation conducted on these Xenophorbs, they managed to figure out certain sets of behavioral patterns.

For instance, in the initial stages of turning into Xenophorbs, the creatures still displayed human-like behavior. This included a range of behavior such as holding conversations, moving, and expressing as they once would while still living.

The most common sign was that the Xenophorbs would preserve their ability to interact socially. During Professor Eugene’s observation, he often noted the Xenophorbs gathered in groups of three to five and conversed as regular humans would.

The foundation specifically hired dozens of well-known linguists all over the world and they managed to translate a portion of the Xenophorb language.

The results of this translation proved to be rather surprising. The language the Xenophorb spoke was largely identical to English. The only problem was that their pronunciation made it difficult for humans to understand them.

The dialogue between the Xenophorb sent chills down one’s spine. The Xenophorbs had the impression that they were still alive. Additionally, due to their cognitive systems malfunctioning, they were unable to detect the drastic changes in themselves as well as their peers. On the contrary, when they met regular humans or the robots sent to their dimension, their reactions ranged from fear to panic, sometimes even anger or sheer madness.

This meant that in the eyes of these Xenophorbs, they saw humans and other organic life forms as monstrous beings instead…

In their fit of rage and delusion, they would massacre and tore this organic life form into pieces. After the work was done, their senses that were muddled at that point would see the torn chunks of flesh as great delicacies to be savored.

There was one occasion where an inmate given the death sentence was torn apart by a pack of Xenophorbs. According to the linguists, the Xenophorbs that saw the exposed brain of the inmate started exclaiming that there was a gigantic block of delicious jelly on the ground. The Xenophorbs proceeded to get in a row over who could devour the brain of the inmate…

However, these behaviors were only temporary. As the Xenophorbs started to become more twisted, the structure of their brain became altered as well. Around the sixth to the eighth day, whatever was left of their humanity was completely drained away until they turned into walking sacks of meat conditioned to kill any humans on sight.

Additionally, in situations of food shortages, some of the Xenophorbs had the natural instinct to root themselves into the ground and morphed themselves into a plant-based Xenophorb. There was no discernible pattern to determine which Xenophorb would do this. They did not specifically scour for the most fertile plot of land either. It was merely an act of instinct.

As long as the Xenophorb felt that the location was appropriate, it would root itself into the ground regardless of how fertile the land was. The Xenophorb would then proceed to grow by absorbing the nutrients in the ground…

Most of the underlying principles of this memetic entity had been unraveled.

With this, another item was added to the Blacklight Foundation’s memetic entity database. This was the third entry, preceded by This Man and Weeping Angel. Its name was…

[Memetic effect: Flower of Flesh and Blood.]

[Origin: 6 August, 2028. Indian Ocean, Latitude 22.1°S Longitude 57.5°E. An Einstein-Rosen bridge that led to an alternate dimension was discovered at this location. The new memetic effect was discovered in the alternate dimension.]

[Description: “Flower of Flesh and Blood” is a memetic effect with an infectious quality that is effective on any organic life forms. Its method of infection is airborne. The “Flower of Flesh and Blood” exists in two different forms, categorized as ‘Xenophorb’ and ‘plant-based’ forms.]

[Symptoms: The initial symptoms of infection includes rash, itching, and mild bleeding, accompanied by extreme hunger. During this period, the food intake of the infected increases drastically, consuming up to three to five times as much food. The frequency of food consumption is also greatly increased.]

[After approximately ten hours, the infected will enter the middle stages of the infection process. Around this point, tissue proliferation will begin to occur on the surface of the body of the infected which will spread to the legs and back region. The infected’s nerve center becomes over-stimulated which tends to lead to signs of agitation, self-harm, and such.]

[In the later stages of the infection, lumps of sarcoma will spread throughout the body and overtake the humanoid features of the infected. The body of the infected becomes completely deformed with tentacles protruding at various sections. Their aggression continues to increase at this point and their perception becomes distorted by the memetic effect. The infected becomes extremely hostile toward any organic life form which includes but is not restricted to humans and will indiscriminately attack any life forms that enter within a thirty-meter range. The infected now enters the ‘Xenophorb’ form.]

[Morphing: In such circumstances where there is a shortage of food, some of the infected will alter their forms by finding a suitable spot for them to root themselves into the ground. This process transforms them into what seems to be a carpet of fungus composed of a mesh of flesh and blood. This is the second form of the infected, the ‘plant-based’ form. In this state, the infected can absorb nutrients from the ground to survive and grow. Meanwhile, its infected peers that remain in the initial ‘Xenophorb’ form can cannibalize the infected in the second form to sustain themselves.]

[Weakness: Research shows that the Flower of Blood and Flesh is extremely susceptible to high temperature. Fire can be used to halt the spread of the infected in plant-based form. High-temperature environments also drastically lengthen the overall infection process. The Flower of Blood and Flesh is also unable to transmit itself across water sources or in a vacuum space.]

[Note: Once infected, the lifespan of the infected victim is immediately put on the countdown. Currently, there are no recorded cases of recovery from this condition.]

Chen Chen was in his office, reading the detailed written report on his computer. He wore a pensive look upon his face as he noted these findings.

“Sir Godfather, how would you rate the foundation’s overall performance of this expedition?”

Little X asked.

“Overall, I’d say I’ll give it a 60 out of 100, just enough to receive a passing grade.”

Chen Chen answered dryly, “A few notable points is the slow response speed in the initial stages as well as the high-level officials bickering among themselves during the initial meeting. Things became better once the operation officially commenced. The foundation has had its moments of brilliance during the exploratory stages of this memetic effect. The only major concern is that they nearly brought it into the real world…”

“That’s rather impressive already.”

Little X noted, “After all, this is the first time this crew of researchers dealt with any memetic entities. Although the memetic effect we’ve released is considered a less lethal variant, it still posed a considerable amount of threat. The fact that it only took them twenty days to figure out how the meme operated is a testament to the quality of this research team.”

“That’s true.”

Chen Chen smiled. “We’ve already achieved our primary objective, which is to beat a sense of urgency into the four major continents. This will give them the incentive to speed up the signing of the ‘Blacklight Foundation Agreement’ with other countries around the world.

“In addition, the four continents are preparing to establish official logistics networks to work in conjunction with the foundation. Once these organizations are properly established, the efficiency of communication and cooperation between the associated parties should see significant improvements. It seems that my efforts to expose the Flesh Carpet meme wasn’t in vain…”

Chen Chen turned to look at his table upon mentioning this. There was a tightly sealed, completely transparent petri dish set on the table.

Inside the petri dish was a chunk of flesh only the size of a piece of fingernail. The chunk of flesh was the beet-red color of a tomato and it squirmed around in the petri dish as if it was sentient. Dense collections of tentacles could be seen sticking out of the chunk of flesh.

This chunk of flesh was what Chen Chen had placed into the Resident Evil dimension. It was the product of Chen Chen’s first memetic experiment performed several years ago.

Several years ago, an organization opposing Blacklight Biotechnology known as “White Embers” was established in the European region. They constantly opposed Blacklight Biotechnology’s operations and even conjured plots to assassinate significant members of Blacklight.

In a fit of rage, Chen Chen captured all of the members of the organization which totaled up to several hundred. He had them all thrown into a remote island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where he would conduct a gruesome experiment.

In the end, all three hundred plus members of White Embers met their demise on the island. The memetic experiment turned out to be a complete success and that was where the unique memetic entity was formed – the Flesh Carpet.

It was a unique memetic effect that was a hybrid plant-based meme with infectious qualities. Anyone who was infected by this meme would turn into a carpet of flesh. Since it was susceptible to fire and was unable to transmit across bodies of water, it was the perfect subject as the first trial of the foundation.

Just like how armies needed to conduct large-scale military training and exercises to gain combat experience, the foundation required appropriate training for its operations as well. This process of trial and experimentation was how they could detect certain flaws in their operation and improve upon them.

The need to train the members of the foundation was only a secondary objective. The primary objective which Chen Chen emphasized was to ensure the four major continents prioritized this matter.