371: Chapter 372 The Information About the Murder

The words of Lin Fang and Xiao Hei left everyone inside the command flagship in a fog, unable to understand what they were doing.

On the screen, countless lines of obscure alien code scrolled rapidly; it was the source code Xiao Hei had extracted from the captured Polyphemus intelligent core.

A communication carrying special information was being sent.

There were no majestic energy fluctuations or dazzling beams of light, yet it harbored a lethality more terrifying than any interstellar weapon.

Lin Fang didn't know what would happen after this message was sent, but facing the powerful Polyphemus, this was the method most likely to yield miraculous results.

Looking at Ains, who was like a curious baby, and the group of scientists beside him.

Lin Fang thought for a moment and had Xiao Hei project an image.

This, naturally, was not that white human face.

The image was somewhat strange—at first glance, it was a twisted, entwined metal band. But the eerie part was that it clearly had only one surface and one edge; if you followed the edge with your finger, thinking you'd reach the end, you would return to the starting point without warning.

It had no distinction between inside and outside, front and back; you could never escape its closed loop, as if forever trapped in a bizarre circuit with no end and no beginning. No matter how you walked, you were merely in an infinite cycle on the same plane.

This was a pattern drawn based on a visual paradox; such a creation could never exist in reality.

Beneath the projection was a line of small red text: Infohazard.

Information Hazard.

Someone asked in confusion, "Executive Lin, what does this mean?"

Lin Fang didn't answer directly but looked at them and asked in return, "Everyone, I wonder if you've heard that there is information in the World that can kill?"

Lethal information? How could information kill?

The person who had just asked was completely bewildered.

Ains frowned at the side. After a moment, he seemed to think of something and said, "Fang, are you referring to that music that can induce suicide?"

Ains's words reminded everyone, and they realized he was right. Many sad pieces of music could indeed make listeners depressed; in specific environments, those with fragile minds could easily be influenced to end their own lives.

Some had heard of such cases.

"No," Lin Fang shook his head and said in a low voice, "The information hazard I'm referring to isn't like that. Information that can truly kill doesn't need this kind of psychological suggestion; it possesses immense danger in itself and can easily cause death."

How is that possible? This was everyone's first reaction. If not for Lin Fang's status, someone would have stood up to refute him.

But inevitably, some murmurs arose, all expressing disbelief in what Lin Fang said.

"Executive Lin, this..."

A Professor wanted to say something, but before he could finish, Lin Fang interrupted him.

Lin Fang looked at them and sneered, "A bunch of fools. Then how do you think I wiped out these Polyphemus?"

Ains: ...

The scientists, called fools for the first time: ...

This mouth is really annoying.

But Lin Fang had helped them win this war; they could hardly wait to put him on a pedestal, so how could they be angry because of this?

Instead, Lin Fang's words made them think, and they were all startled to realize he was right. Perhaps there really was such terrifying information; otherwise, they couldn't understand why, in such a short time, nearly billions of Polyphemus kin on those ships had turned into cold stone statues.

Recalling the scenes they had witnessed earlier, these scientists felt their skin crawl. Even if they weren't the same species, they could see the final struggles of those Polyphemus kin.

"I call this kind of information a meme. It's a field of study that humanity has been very weak in so far."

Lin Fang continued in a deep voice, "A meme is a type of information virus that can exist independently of a physical carrier. It has no physical form, yet it can replicate, mutate, and be selected just like genes.

Genes spread through biological carriers, while memes spread through cognition. As long as the brain of an intelligent lifeform receives it, whether you realize it or not, you can be infected. It can change cognition, rewrite physical structures, and even warp the rules of reality."

The situation inside the Polyphemus ship reappeared in the projection; the dense, lifeless stones made one's heart race with unease.

"This is the lethality of a meme,"

Lin Fang said, "It's not through physical strikes, nor chemical toxins, nor any conventional weapon you can understand. It attacks cognition itself."

After hearing these words, everyone's lips quivered, their eyes full of disbelief that such a bizarre and eerie thing existed in the Universe.

What startled them even more was that this eerie meme could actually be used by Lin Fang before them to help win this war.

The man was unfathomable.

Existence is reasonable; some scientists accepted this concept, a deep curiosity about memes appearing in their eyes.

Ains took a deep breath. "Fang, that communication you just sent... was it a memetic virus targeted at the Polyphemus?"

"Exactly,"

Lin Fang nodded. "I obtained this meme by chance and know very little about it. It's hard to say what the effect will be..."

Lin Fang suddenly felt that his actions were a bit rash.

...

Planet Plifimos,

The vastness of this Planet was a terror that humans could not measure with conventional cosmic scales.

The Planet's surface was divided by five super-giant continents stretching for hundreds of millions of kilometers. The entire Philiphimus Civilization Empire existed within a Hive-like social system centered around the Scorpio Intelligent Core. Every inch of land and every individual was like a tooth on a precision gear, tightly meshing into the machinery of this civilization.

The deceased Gamox had once been at the very bottom of this system, a slave in the underground mineral veins.

Mirthi, born into a commoner family, was much luckier than this Vanguard General, especially since she was born with fourteen eyes, earning her the affection of her parents and family.

Living a carefree life from childhood until attending a higher university, Mirthi once believed that going to school was something every Polyphemus individual had to go through.

Today, after bidding farewell to her friends with her tentacles, Mirthi, who had finally endured the ordeal of school, returned home happily.

"Heehee, I can finally rest for a while."

Mirthi's fourteen eyes blinked joyfully. School was truly boring to the core, filled with those dense cosmological formulas everywhere. What was the point of learning those things?

However...

Mirthi suddenly remembered some rumors she had heard at school; the Empire was at war again, and this time it was no small matter, as even she had heard about it.

Mirthi shook her head and put the matter out of her mind.

In her mind, the Empire was invincible, and those opponents weren't of her own kind, so why worry?

Weak aliens should just die.