Chapter 147:
At the end of the day, any kind of meme is just a concept at first.
Through viral infection, the concept is implanted into the human brain, and then the phenomenon of group behavior is caused, so that the meme spreads into reality.
What if, an extremely broken and distorted meme, became more contagious?
The human brain is the medium of concepts. Without humans, memes cannot continue to spread... This is the reason why Luo Er has not paid much attention to meme pollution. But the few words of the puppet egg and what he saw and heard in Xiaoshi Village this time, made Tang Xiao have a new idea:
What if there were some memes that were not just concepts, but made the real world part of the concepts too?
Then this meme does not need destruction and lethality, as long as it can expand infinitely, it can easily destroy a world.
--When a living person is assimilated into a "concept", it is death in the actual sense.
--What happens when a world is assimilated?
Like the Little Rock Village meme born from the blood sacrifice ceremony, it was initially just a concept implanted in the hearts of all villagers, and it may even be triggered by a certain image of the death of an innocent sacrificed person Nightmares, but under the catalysis of evil beliefs, produced grotesque "life".
In the end, it devoured the blood sacrifice, and also devoured all the villagers, assimilated Xiaoshi Village, and became a real nightmare.
Memes do not belong to matter, they do not belong to energy, they do not belong to space and time. Its attack is an imperceptible existence, just like the moment when everyone entered Xiaoshi Village on the first night, they had already entered the process of being assimilated by memes.
But it's not unsolvable either.
As long as the concept of omnipresence can be eliminated, its pollution can be curbed.
"Then what exactly is your concept?"
Under the blessing of "Momentary Reality", everything Tang Xiao saw faded away from falsehood, leaving only the original true state—
There was no one beside the abandoned altar, and the wasteland was overgrown with weeds. There are no villagers, nor Wu Shi and others.
The deep forest is dilapidated and empty.
This is the essence of the world of memes that has stumped countless people: the most dangerous thing about memes is pollution, but "pollution" itself is nothing. What's really worth worrying about is what happens when the original source of pollution is assimilated into the real world...that's the concept, the concept of a meme!
Following his intuition, Tang Xiao turned around and saw a little boy.
The little boy with flaxen curly hair was the children who bumped into her and Barlow one after another on the path. He had a pair of amber-like eyes and stood there and tilted his head to look at Tang Xiao.
"What's your name?" Tang Xiao asked.
The little boy shook his head: "I have no name, I am a child born by the altar."
"What do people call you?"
"I'm called the Dream Boy because I always like to dream, and I like to tell other people that I'm the only one. Is that so?"
The little boy looked at her quietly, "Don't adults dream?"
Tang Xiao bent slightly: "What kind of dreams do you like to have?"
"Many, all kinds of dreams. But lately I always have one. No one else wants to hear my story about this dream. They say it's a bad dream."
"What is the content of the dream?"
"I haven't talked about this dream for a long time," the little boy rolled his eyes, showing a smile like a real child: "In the dream, I always come back here, my parents kneeling on the sacrifice In front of the altar, there is a sister who is much older than me on the altar, her eyes are big, bigger than a stone in the river, they say it is because the eye socket is split."
"She just looked at me like that... her eye sockets split open and a lot of red water came out, and she said, we're all going to hell."
This is just a common curse.
But the little boy dreamed of this sentence frequently, and later, he also began to have this dream during the day. In the dream, the sacrifice came back alive, stood in front of him and said to him, let everyone know about it.
Then the little boy started talking about the dream.
"In the beginning it was just me telling and they would beat me, cut off my ears and fingers and shut me up...but then they started telling the story too. I'm so happy because finally someone I had the same dream."
"It's just that I haven't had any other dreams since then."
The little boy tilted his head to look at Tang Xiao: "Sister, do you want to see my dream?"
"Forget it." Tang Xiao also smiled, "—I don't want to go to **** yet."
The surrounding sounds became distant, the night wind blew the dead trees, the dust whimpered on the altar, the soil was rolled up and swirled... The little boy's face also began to blur, and the whole world seemed to be in Pull away, farther and farther away from her.
Tang Xiao understood that the skill time limit was about to arrive, and everything that happened in front of him was just the result of the infinite collapse of consciousness within one second.
The "Moment of Reality" effect is only one second, and when she returns to the conceptual world of memetic control, this perfect moment will be gone—
Now!
"Karma!"
Black flames rose into the air, strong phagocytic pure energy burst out, and penetrated the little boy's body in the next instant.
Blood oozes from the corners of Tang Xiao's mouth, and his face turns white to the naked eye.
This blow is half the energy in her knowledge!
However, the karmic fire did not stop. After penetrating the little boy's body, it still moved forward and engulfed the huge altar.
The altar is the source of all evil, and the little boy is the original communicator.
They have long since been swallowed up by memes like the entire Xiaoshi Village, and now standing in front of Tang Xiao are just two projections carrying concepts—and the core of memes.
In the black flames, the altar cracked countless gaps, gurgling black blood gushed out to fight the karmic fire.
Although Karma was born out of a demon seed and has the ability to assimilate some memes, it is still weak compared to the Koishimura meme that has been in existence for seventeen years. Devour the other.
However, the karmic fire is not endless - every bit of energy is transformed by the power of countless thunder and lightning, once it is exhausted, it is difficult to make up for it.
But now there is no room for regress and sluggishness. At the moment when the energy was exhausted, Tang Xiao took out the machete, let the blade cut open the palm of his hand, and poured the blood into the karmic fire - after the energy, the vitality was overdrawn!
One drop, two drops…
There was a sharp pain like a tear in the sea of consciousness, causing Tang Xiao to be in a trance for a moment.
The last time the same energy was depleted, and the same desperate attempt was made, it was still in the first copy of the doomsday world.
At that time, she was a novice who could only use the power of thunder and lightning jerky, but now she has reached a completely different strength and realm.
There is nothing else that makes her strength grow rapidly, just one challenge between life and death. And what she needs most is this kind of challenge.
—A step forward is life, a step back is death, except for breakthroughs, there is no way back!
Tang Xiao stabbed to the ground with both hands holding the handle of the knife, Tang Xiao knelt down on one knee suddenly, the karmic fire around his body rose with her movements in the wind, with the boundless engulfing potential.
Mental power, lightning power, spiritual power... For a moment, the world seems to be transformed into pure matter and energy. Every detail of transformation and change enters Tang Xiao's eyes, and the lifelike lines are like the whole world The pulse of breathing—
Then, in her pulse, she saw the structure of karmic fire.
Using violence to control violence, to be strong when strong, to devour all things, and then to be reborn...
Mysterious and mysterious, Tang Xiao's eyes flickered and he had an epiphany.
She couldn't describe how she "perceived" one or two of them, but she was clearly aware of them.
"Using violence to overcome violence, and encountering strength, strength..."
Tang Xiao raised his eyes, as sharp as lightning split the night sky.
Under the support of vitality, Karma Fire attacked the altar again, and the pure black flame ripped open the stone altar, even if it was polluted by memes, it also perished with it!
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Tang Xiao's eyes were filled with confidence, almost arrogantly confident, she whispered, "devours everything, so it's like this..."
The fire of karma, the fire of hell, was born from devouring and destroying, and it is an extremely unstable existence that cannot be broken or established.
Only by devouring stronger things, can the Karmic Fire break through to the advanced stage—either be swallowed, or everything in the way.
Although the process was somewhat unexpected, the conclusion was the same as Tang Xiao’s bold decision—
—Let the karmic fire consume the memes!
This was not only a life-or-death danger, but a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, for which she had been prepared from the first night.
The altar screams in the fire of karma!
All the attacks fell on the body, and the altar seemed to fall apart—
"Ten, nine, eight..."
Tang Xiao counted down the remaining vitality, the world around him was already at the end of the force, and it would collapse at any time.
"Five, four, three..."
"Sister?"
The trousers were suddenly pulled, Tang Xiao looked down, it was a little boy.
He covered the gap in his stomach and sat cross-legged on the ground, neither making noise or making a fuss. On the small white face, Tang Xiao saw unprecedented tranquility.
"Am I going to never dream again?"
"No, you will have a lot of dreams." The blood dripped to the ground along the wrist, Tang Xiao replied softly.
"Are there father and mother in the dream?"
"It's everything."
The altar finally disappeared, and black flames swept the entire space.
…
"Tang Xiao? Tang Xiao? Wake up!"
The body is being shaken violently, and the consciousness can only feel a heavy feeling of exhaustion, falling down continuously.
"Ah, ah, they're coming! My power has been exhausted! I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead...Tang Xiao wake up!"
Tang Xiao felt as if his soul was torn into two parts, one part just wanted to fall into a deep sleep - while the other part just wanted to open his eyes now and cast a silence spell on the person who was speaking.
Darkness cracked a gap, chaotic figures and red light spilled through the gap. The scene has not yet been seen clearly, and the spiritual sense has already given a danger warning:
"Go right."
"—Huh?" An Ji, who was already on the verge of despair, turned around in amazement, and was pushed directly to the right by a force in the next second, just avoiding the attack of a monster.
"Tang Xiao? You're awake!"
Seeing Tang Xiao who was already standing up holding his forehead, An Ji wanted to cry: I am alive again!
God knows what she went through just now, it was just a moment when Tang Xiao touched the altar, and before she could react, the whole world changed instantly:
The altar suddenly gushed blood, and the monster-like villagers climbed out of the altar, but directly bypassed Tang Xiao who was standing in front, and wanted to come and arrest her!
Tang Xiao also suddenly vomited blood and fell down. I don’t know about personnel, so scared An Ji hurriedly applied a healing technique, but the divine power was almost sucked dry as soon as it touched—Tang’s portrait is a bottomless black hole, not at all. Angie's divine power can change the category.
Tiantian should not be called to earth, Anji can only shake Tang Xiao frantically and call her to wake up, otherwise the two will really be buried here!
Fortunately, there is no end to the road, Tang Xiao really woke up and dragged her life back.
Being pulled and pulled by this, An Ji saw the right side from the panic: There is actually a passage in the monster group! Will this be the way to escape?
Tang Xiao regained his consciousness, endured a severe headache and squeezed out a little power of lightning, and patted Anji on the shoulder: "Run!"
Angie stepped lightly and his speed suddenly increased. The two passed through the monster's encirclement, and sure enough, they saw a hidden path leading all the way out of the woods.
"Where are you going?"
Wushi's voice shocked Anji, and saw a group of young people crowding the path, it was Wu Shi and others who seemed to be unscathed.
"I..." Angie slowed down.
"Never mind, keep running."
Tang Xiao's voice sounded behind him, causing An Ji's heart to sink. But she immediately increased her pace, gritted her teeth and rushed towards the group of people blocking the road.
At the moment of the collision, the touch that should have disappeared like a bubble, Tang Xiao and An Ji actually penetrated directly through Wu Shi and several people!
Before she could breathe a sigh of relief, Anji saw another figure appear in front of her.
This is...Monley?
No, to be precise, Mengli with only half of her body left.
The skinny woman stood in the middle of the road and stretched out her bones in pain, as if trying to stop something.
"This is the part of human nature that Montrey has been eroded by memes."
Tang Xiao passed through Meng Li without a pause, and at the moment of penetration, he pulled a machete and cut it off, turning Meng Li's phantom into dust.
The same is true for the next time. The road is blocked by victims who have died in sacrifices, including young people, girls, children...until a strangely dressed person appears in the middle of the road.
Even Tang Xiao couldn't help raising his eyebrows.
This man standing in the middle of the path, with a dazed expression, was wearing a black tuxedo.
Tang Xiao immediately realized: this is a player, more precisely, a high-level player who was once swallowed by Xiaoshi Village memes.
But this is not the most important information, because Tang Xiao saw the man's cuff with a pair of dark gold cufflinks.
If she remembered correctly, this pair of cufflinks was the pair that Sharon bought at the underground auction in the alliance field.
Cufflinks belonging to the advanced player - Duke Weihan.