Chapter 29

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Zhang Heng shook his head and stopped paying any more attention to Yurianne.

He had all the time in the world to take a good look at the Marker by then. He put his hand on the huge sculpture and felt it to be cold to the touch. The material the Marker was made of was metal-like, with the two helix-shaped strands entwined 270 times, forming a sculpture that looked like a hill. The tightly packed symbols seemed to be an amalgamation of cuneiform and hieroglyphic writings. The entire construct looked to be some kind of stunning huge artwork.

The Markers were wireless transmitters created by some very advanced civilization that possessed the ability to affect mental states and alter the DNA structures of living beings. Their creators left the Markers behind on planets that had a high chance of giving birth to civilizations. It would only be a matter of time when civilizations on such planets would come to discover the Markers.

At the same time, the design of the Markers made them incredibly easy to replicate, as every single fragment contained the complete information regarding their construction. The illusion created by the Markers that received energy would lead the advanced species of a planet to think that they possessed the key to an endless supply of energy, which in turn would lead to the advanced species to replicate the Markers. It was due to that reason that humans made 13 replicas of the Markers.

The Markers were capable of affecting the intellectual capacities of living beings. Signs of humans being affected include manifesting signs of depression or some other mental illness, which eventually lead them to kill each other. The Markers would also alter the cells after the deaths of those beings into monsters called xenomorphs. The Markers would collect and congregate at the right time, making the amalgamated xenomorphs into Blood Moons to be collected by the creators of the Markers.

That was the ultimate secret underlying plot of the Dead Space series, which also elaborated the true purpose of the Markers.

Zhang Heng recalled all of the data and asked, feeling puzzled, “The Markers sure are something, but what’s the purpose of the Dimensional Star issuing that particular mission? Is it to say that the Marker would serve other purposes as well?”

“The Marker is actually a quantum computer, creating illusions is only a basic feature,” Yurianne explained, “Its greatest function is to create virtual reality. All the runes seen on it possess a certain measure of meme technology, enabling it to mess with the DNA of dead beings without any consideration to logic, reviving the dead and triggering further genetic mutations.”

A huge poster of the Marker appeared behind Yurianne and she was dressed in a lab coat and wore black-rimmed glasses, which made her look like a researcher of sorts, as she pointed at the poster with her pointer and replied earnestly.

“Quantum computer?” Zhang Heng’s eyes lit up. “So, that’s to say that I could use the Marker?”

“Bingo! That’s correct!” Yurianne chuckled and continued, “The Marker possesses an AI that was equivalent to humans at ages 10 to 15. It’s capable of computing power billions of times more powerful than the most cutting-edge of computers found in this world, boosting a technological level that is hundreds of years ahead of this world.”

“Noted, but there’s something else that puzzles me.” Zhang Heng nodded and continued asking, “Why would the mission be to acquire the DNA evolution code on the Marker? Are those symbols more important than the Marker itself?”

Yurianne did say that the Marker possesses a measure of meme technology on it, which was rather primitive, and enables it to mess with the DNA of dead bodies. That is the most powerful function inherent in the Marker. All that talk about computing capabilities, illusion-creation, and whatsoever are trash when compared to that one function of the Marker.

“By the way, what is meme technology? Doesn’t ‘meme’ refer to patterns of information transmission? How could there be technology revolving around memes?” Zhang Heng was stunned after asking that. He was very elated when he heard about the Marker’s functions and failed to pay attention to Yurianne’s elaboration. It was only then that he realized that the so-called meme technology was the most valuable part of all technology inherent in the Marker’s construction.

“Meme technology is a field in itself, just like biotechnology, electronics, mechanics, and what have you.” Yurianne explained, “You could say that it’s a field of science. However, what makes meme technology stand out the most is that it’s anti-logic.”

“Anti-logic?”

“It’s worth noting that all technology follows a certain kind of logic. For example, if someone were to create a clone using biotechnology and caused the world to have two identical creatures in it, would the happening be deemed illogical? No, and that’s because it’s something achievable through science and as such, is logical.” Yurianne went on to elaborate in detail and tense background music played in Zhang Heng’s mind as he listened to her.

“However, meme technology is without logic. You have no idea why the string of symbols would be able to alter a dead body’s DNA, only knowing that it could do so. That is meme technology.”

“But ancient people wouldn’t know about someone who could create clones through biotechnology? If you were to put it like that, wouldn’t biotechnology be considered meme technology to ancient people then?” Zhang Heng asked in return.

“No way.” Yurianne shook her petite hands and took a deep breath before continuing, “Let’s put it this way. You know about genes?” She continued to explain before waiting for Zhang Heng to nod. “Memes and genes are similar in some ways. Both spread through replication and mimicry. Memes are like some kind of information that could spread through all kinds of mediums—something that no other form of technology could achieve.”

Yurianne’s puffy cheeks shrank as she let out a sigh, seeing that Zhang Heng still looked puzzled after her examples. “Okay, it looks like I’m going to give another example then. In a destroyed human plane, a sculpture was unearthed before its destruction. The sculpture looked somewhat abstract and no one knew which era the sculpture belonged to. Since the era was unknown, important details such as when the sculpture was constructed, what it was used for, and who created it were also lost. It was something that never caught the attention of people in the first place. However, as the team of archaeologists went on to take the sculpture for themselves, they began to talk about the sculpture, its uses, and how the sculpture looked pretty and artistic. But as time passed, all of those people seemed to be mesmerized by that sculpture and everyone began to illustrate the sculpture’s shape to others in a frenzy. The ones who heard about the illustrations, be it just descriptions of its shape or just the data regarding the sculpture’s size, would be subjected to the sculpture’s influence. Those people would in turn talk about the sculpture to others, and eventually, the entire plane was destroyed as talk of the sculpture spread.”

Zhang Heng was baffled by the elaboration. “Gosh, something like that happened? Isn’t this considered some kind of mental virus then, like how computers would go on to continue infecting other computers when they catch a virus, eventually leading to their collective doom?”

“If there were such a transmissive matter and medium, it could be considered some kind of mental virus. Transmission of viruses would require the virus themselves as well as air, blood, or some other kind of transmission medium for the spread to happen. That sculpture, however, has nothing. There is no source and no medium, and the spread is completely devoid of scientific logic.” Yurianne chuckled in a sinister fashion. “Do you get it now, host dude?”

Zhang Heng was unable to help but ponder about the whole deal, wondering if that was what consisted of memes. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe what he just heard, but that the elaboration of memes exceeded scientific logic and became something that sounded spiritual instead.

“Of course, memes won’t necessarily be able to alter human DNA, destroy the world, or some such similar thing.” Yurianne continued, “It’s just like how it is with weapons—they’re devoid of any notion of good and evil and the key lies in the people who would use them. Your world has begun to grasp the concept of ‘meme’, but the whole idea is still in its very early stages and your people have yet to realize the true power of memes. You guys would need at least about 500 years or more to be able to achieve the state of making use of memes.”

“Is there a way to resist meme attacks?” Zhang Heng’s expression became very serious. If such attacks truly exist, then the likes of bacteria, viruses, and nuclear weapons wouldn’t be able to compare with the likes of meme weapons.

There was no bloodshed and no slaughter. All it needed to destroy human civilization was but a string of messages. To him, that notion itself sounded godlike.

“There definitely are solutions to resist memes,” Yurianne answered in a definite manner. “The answer came in the form of anti-memes, as they would be able to easily take out the memes. Using that same sculpture as an example, if someone in that plane were able to research yet another meme, that could erase the data regarding the sculpture in the minds of those who heard of the sculpture, stopping the phenomenon altogether.”

“So you’re saying that only memes could work against memes?” Zhang Heng wore a bitter smirk, thinking that he had been given a non-answer.

“No, because memes are not invincible. Regardless of how surreal memes look, they are still a field of science and there is philosophy above science. For instance, the laws of cause and effect or the idea of karma are parts of philosophy. Making use of karmic weapons would allow one to ‘correct’, ‘alter’, and ‘delete’ memes by taking the meme out of existence right then and there. Memes would be as laughable as child’s play before philosophy. Memes are categorized into types as well. When discussed in terms of functionalities, there are ‘solvable memes’ and ‘unsolvable memes’. Some memes would fail after being used once, other memes would have limited effect on the targets that came under their influence, and some memes wouldn’t be able to have any effect on humans. All of those memes are referred to as solvable memes. Memes would also be categorized as ‘singular memes’, ‘plural memes’, ‘phenomenal memes’, and so on. Singular memes couldn’t be transmitted and could only affect one particular target. Phenomenal memes, on the other hand, are a lot more powerful. Theoretically speaking, the spread of phenomenal memes is practically limitless.”

Large amounts of knowledge that Zhang Heng had never heard of before gushed from Yurianne’s mouth that left him completely dumbfounded by all that he heard. Eventually, he was only able to shake his hands and surrender. “Alright, alright. Save the rest of that for later. The thing I’d like to ask now is if I could alter the programming of the Marker. At the very least, I’d like to be able to make use of that thing.”

“No problem, of course. After all, the Dimensional Star’s research system is out to help the host in scientific research, and altering a technological construct like the Marker is a piece of cake,” Yurianne said.

“What would I need to do to make that happen?” Zhang Heng was elated to hear an affirmative answer from Yurianne.

“The technological level of your plane at the moment is so that it could be done by using special equipment only. The tools required would be…” Large amounts of technological data were sent into Zhang Heng’s mind through the Dimensional Star directly and enabled him to learn what was needed instantly.

He was surprised to learn that so many materials were needed. Worse still, he found that he would need a supercomputer to serve as the Marker’s data converter, which caused Zhang Heng’s jaw to drop to the ground in shock.

His phone that laid right before his computer table suddenly rang. Zhang Heng paused his conversation with Yurianne for the moment and picked up his phone and found the call to be from Li Jianguo. Additionally, this call was definitely not the first, as there were over a dozen missed calls from the older man in his missed calls log.

The string of missed calls made it look like the older man had something really urgent to talk to him about, and he wondered what it could be.

He had no choice but to answer the call, feeling rather exasperated.