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Chapter 746: Knowledge Is Power

“This is all we can do for this case. I think we’ve all earned a day to relax.” Chel said with a smile, earning a brief cheer from the assistants. It was rare to get a day off, as there was always another project waiting for them. However, with the constant work that they had been doing lately, Chel felt that it was well deserved.

“Well, if you’re taking a day off, mind if I pick your brain for a bit?” A voice spoke up behind Chel, causing her and the rest of the research staff to jump slightly as she turned around. Standing behind Chel was the smiling form of Aurivy, waving a hand in greeting. “Hey there.”

Chel let out a long sigh, pulling herself out of her seat. “Alright, everyone, you’re all dismissed.” She said, before moving to walk towards Aurivy. “You could have just found me topside, you know?” She muttered with a shake of her head.

“I mean, I could have. But there are some things that I wanted to learn and you would have needed me to find you anyways.” Aurivy said, sticking her tongue out as golden mist surrounded them. By now, Chel was more than familiar with this method of transportation, and the two of them soon ended atop a high tower overlooking a vast meadow. Chel couldn’t immediately tell where they were, as this was a location she hadn’t visited in the past.

“Alright, then what do you need from me?” Chel shrugged her shoulders, stretching her arms out as she waited for Aurivy’s request. As she had long since achieved perfection of both the body and soul, this avatar of hers did not require sleep. Yet, she had been keeping her mind active nonstop for several days, leading to her wanting to rest for a short while.

Aurivy nodded her head, her expression turning more serious. “I want to know how to use memetic effects, like the one you used against the ninja clan. There’s a specific effect that I need to produce, and I think that kind of power is the best option here.”

Chel blinked, raising an eyebrow at that. “Oh? I haven’t seen memetics in use on a large scale in this world, so I figured that you guys hadn’t researched it much yet. Alright… but I’ll need to explain what memetic effects are in order to properly teach you how to use them. Is that alright?”

Chel let out a yawn, her eyes closing for a moment. When they opened, Aurivy was sitting at a wooden desk, having instantly changed into a school uniform. Chel blinked at that, soon letting out a chuckle. “Fine, I get it. Let’s just get this lesson over with.”

She twisted her body, still stretching as she began to explain. “A meme is simply an idea that is transferred from one person to another through any non-genetic means. The idea of raising your hand in class, an ad marketing a new brand of soda, even language itself is a form of a meme. We call these first level memetic effects, ideas transmitted without supernatural assistance.”

“You’re already aware that it’s possible to create substances from the void through proper manipulation and control. Now, look at it this way. The void itself is a realm of information, a universe of thought. You use this information to reconstruct the physical structure of a material, but it can also be used to create the structure of an idea.”

“This is a different branch of void manipulation, and requires a fair amount of practice in order to master. When creating a physical structure, you have to simulate the circumstance in which that material could be created as the foundation, and this happens much in the same way. You need to imagine how you could give birth to this idea that you want to create.”

“Let’s say you want to create the idea for someone to buy a new shirt. You channel the void, focus your mana on transmitting your thoughts, and begin to create this idea. You start by thinking ‘It’s starting to get cold’, ‘I need something new to wear’, or you picture all of your current shirts being tacky and unwearable.”

“This is what we call a second level memetic effect. It’s a simple idea that is propagated supernaturally. The more clear your image of the simulation, the more effective it is. If you can mentally conjure a simulation applicable to a wide audience and in great detail, the power is all but unavoidable. You will have created an ad compelling people to buy a new shirt. Maybe not the shirt you’re selling specifically, but a shirt nonetheless.”

“Now, the effect that I used is known as a third level memetic effect. These are complex ideas conveyed through the void. In order to use a third level memetic effect, you typically need to construct dozens, maybe hundreds of different simulations to convey a single idea. In order to achieve the effect of ‘pass the letter along without opening it’, I had to imagine over twenty different reasons for the person holding the letter to want to act as the carrier and protector for the letter.”

“Creating the effect I used against their leader is on the harder end. In order to create the feeling of guilt necessary for them to openly convey their wrongdoings, I touched at the fourth level of memetic effect. This is a self-propagating idea conveyed through the void. Through countless simulations, I created a nearly tangible idea that ‘this is wrong’, and anyone who hears about the crime in question from an ‘infected’ individual will be subjected to the effects. Finally, the effect for the letter’s recipient to self-terminate is kept separate, and is more powerful the more varied the accidents that you can simulate.”

Aurivy nodded her head as she listened to the explanation, actually writing down everything that was being said. “So there are four levels of memetic effects, then? A standard idea, a void-transmitted simple idea, a void-transmitted complex idea, and a self-propagating idea?”

“Actually… there are five that our world discovered before it was terminated.” Chel said with a shake of her head. “The fifth level is one that we first saw through the use of void creatures, and only managed to scratch the surface of. The fifth level of memetic effect involves using information from the void in the form of an idea to directly alter a physical object or creature.”

“You can think of this in the form of a memetic virus. We encountered two during our time as a result of void beasts, and managed to artificially create a third. The first one we discovered took the form of an image. Anyone that saw this image began to melt, their bodies liquifying into a pool of blood and gore. However, anyone that directly saw this pool of gore would be affected as if they had seen the original image.”

“The second memetic virus we discovered took the form of a phrase. If an infected individual asked you what your favorite animal was, you would gradually take the form of that animal over the course of one week. At first, your behavior would begin to shift, before your entire physical structure changed. Anyone that then saw you afterwards and identified you as their type of favorite animal would then become infected themselves.”

Aurivy shivered when she heard that, able to clearly imagine just her terrifying memetic viruses could be with that. “And… the one that you created yourself?”

Chel smiled, nodding her head. “We followed the style of the second virus, using the void traces discovered on the infected individuals during their transformations. Once we had isolated the memetic properties, we began eliminating aspects of its ‘idea’ while replacing them with others. Think of it as… a form of revisionist history applied to a memetic virus.”

“The final product we achieved involved mentioning your favorite color. If someone said that their favorite color was blue, their hair would turn blue. This effect was almost instantaneous, and responded only to the truth. If someone whose favorite color was actually red responded that it was blue, their hair would not change. This was the only memetic virus we had managed to create, though we followed this pattern to theorize a sixth and seventh level of memetic effect, following the Keeper System’s standard seven-rank policy.”

“According to our theory, a level six memetic effect would create a void entity within the material world. This entity would be able to function at its full power, as if it were still in the void, due to having been created in our world. Its rules would be set by the creator of the effect, and whether it would possess the power to grow beyond that point was unknown.” Chel fell silent for a long moment after she said that, prompting Aurivy to lean in closer over her desk.

“As for the theorized seventh level… it would be to overwrite the entire information of a world, returning it to the void with only an idea. Just think… a single thought could destroy a universe, causing it to collapse and return to nothing. Even if our world hadn’t been destroyed, there were bans being created on studying beyond the sixth level.”

Aurivy’s eyes went wide, and she hastily nodded her head. “Right, that seems like too much, doesn’t it? I mean, to do that, you’d probably need to be able to mentally simulate the entire universe at once, and imagine it collapsing. Even I can’t do that.”

Chel smiled, nodding again. “Exactly. It’s something so complex that not even a Companion can achieve. Even a System Companion like Terra can’t do it. And that’s because the system does not enable us to observe all of creation in such detail. Perhaps that restriction is in order to prevent the accidental misuse of such an ability. However, we can only look at where we plant the seeds of our focus. You’re still watching that girl, Julia, aren’t you?”

“Always.” Aurivy said with a silly grin. “But yeah, I get what you mean. So… if I wanted to create a memetic effect that prevented people from tampering with another person’s mind or soul, I would need to channel the void and simulate reasons for them not to do so?”

Thinking it over, Chel gave a shrug of her shoulders. “That’s one way to go about it. For instance, you could simulate all of the different punishments that they could face, or the social taboos involved. However, this is not a one hundred percent guarantee. If their reason for acting is stronger than your deterrent, they will be able to overcome the memetic effect.”

“Going back to my letter. Let’s assume that it was standard training for someone to be instantly killed if they attempted to deliver any form of physical package to another member of the ninja clans. My reasoning behind why they should act as the mail carrier would be overridden by this knowledge, and they would immediately break free. The only way for you to create a memetic effect that will not be dissolved even under lethal threat is if the reasons you simulate imply a fate far worse than death.”

“But, in that case, the mail carrier would just be killed anyways, and the package destroyed before it could transfer hands.” Aurivy pointed out, causing Chel to nod again. “How did people get around memetic effects in your world?”

“Antimemetic effects.” Chel smiled. “These are ideas that destroy ideas. As an example… when the Earth was first discovered to be round, it became an antimeme targeting the idea that the Earth was flat. When something happens that destroys a concept you accepted to be true, that is considered to be an antimeme.”

“Antimemes are hard to properly cultivate with the void, because you need to know what sort of information you are targeting. For my mail carrier memetic effect, they would need an antimeme targeting how people pass messages from one to another. Once that’s done, you use the antimeme on the package itself before subjecting yourself to it. If there was a memetic effect like you prepared to defend against, that effect will be erased.”

“The strongest antimeme someone ever created targeted themselves, if you can believe that. They simulated what would happen if they had never been born, and used that as the foundation of the meme. Every piece of information on them, every memory or written note, was immediately erased. Nobody became able to perceive their existence, and attributed them moving objects to a lapse of perception.”

“Eventually, he became infected by his own antimeme, forgetting his existence himself. He laid down on the floor, eyes open and staring at the ceiling… and just laid there. He didn’t move, he didn’t eat… after a while, he didn’t even breathe anymore. He simply became a corpse that nobody knew existed, until his body slowly dissolved into nothing…”