Chapter 314
NO.0149: Meme Virus
Although Goro acted like a tough guy when faced with violent threats, the information about the Thracian club still helped Jiang Zhou and his team pry a lot of useful information out of him.
First, there's this thing they've been temporarily calling "Rainbow Bridge Parasite," but its correct name seems to be "Dionysus Virus."
This is not a biological concept of a virus, but rather more like a meme with viral properties—its effect is to induce the development of the iridobrain region by stimulating specific patterns of brain nerves through certain media.
According to Goro, it seems that inducing the development of the iridopontine brain region is the core purpose of the "Dionysus virus." However, the frequency of stimulation that can induce this phenomenon is too broad, enough to fill the gaps between the core stimulation with other stimulation signals, thereby adjusting the non-core structures of the iridopontine brain region.
In short, in addition to the core stimulation frequency that induces the iridopontine brain region, other stimulation frequencies can be added. The iridopontine brain region that grows under the influence of these stimuli will produce different effects based on the frequency of the new stimulation.
If operated properly, it can hijack the brain's reward system and change a person's cognition from the very bottom up.
"Rather than requiring artificially crafted stimulus signals, I feel it's more like a mutation, selection, and propagation mechanism that can quickly adapt to the environment."
Jiang Zhou commented in this way.
Consistent with the logic of real-world viruses, the core of the Dionysus virus's existence is to continuously multiply and spread itself, ideally causing every living person to grow the iridobrain region.
And those additional stimuli that can compile cognition are like the reproductive organs of angiosperms that often display vibrant colors to attract insects for pollination—thinking about it this way, the blank spaces that can compile other stimuli are also designed from the beginning.
If certain perceptions are more conducive to the spread of Dionysus virus, then as long as the number of infected people reaches a certain scale, Dionysus virus can quickly show explosive growth in the population.
In this hyper-information age, meme viruses spread much faster than biological viruses.
In a sense, if the Dionysus virus were allowed to spread unchecked, it would indeed be enough to create a Type II crisis scenario—widespread cognitive dislocation contamination.
But when the discussion reached this point, the illustrator was somewhat puzzled:
"If that's the case, then why don't they just find a place and secretly release the Dionysus virus without any additives?"
Just as most hackers who develop iridobrain regions due to brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) don't (perhaps) become mentally ill, the Dionysus viruses from Muji don't necessarily make a person paranoid.
Although viruses inevitably mix with "stimulating noise" during transmission and deviate from their intended path, under the natural (social) selection process, newer viruses that are more concealed, easier to spread, and more seemingly harmless will gradually take the lead and eventually have a certain probability of achieving their goals undetected.
But right now, it seems that their actions have backfired.
This is another reversal of love and hate perception, and another of fighting against everything... Even a genius can see that there is a big problem here.
Upon closer examination, the reversal of love and hate perceptions reflects the perpetrator's XP in the raw meat artist case; while the spirit of resistance seems to stem from Jingoro Ue's influence by Liao Qi...
"Perhaps it's because this is the side effect they wanted... For them, the growth of the iridophone region might just be a side effect."
Jiang Zhou thought for a moment and said.
Many angiosperms have evolved brightly colored and beautiful reproductive organs to help them attract insects for pollination, but they never imagined that many years later a group of naked apes would cut them off to aid their courtship behavior.
Of course, in a way, this can also be considered a way to ensure the survival of their own species...
"According to Goro, the Dionysus virus in his possession was encrypted."
At this moment, Booker, who had been silent until now, spoke up.
“Let’s make a hypothetical scenario… suppose that Jingoro Ue is a spy sent into Icarus by some other organization.”
He spoke very quickly when he got to this point, as if he wanted to get through this part as fast as possible.
“If that organization gave him the Dionysus virus just to awaken his iris and give him some self-defense capabilities, then that Dionysus virus must be encrypted—for example, by using invalid noise to fill all the spaces that could hold other cognitive instructions.” Booker said, pacing back and forth, his leg armor making a crisp “tap-tap” sound as it hit the floor.
"Then, for some reason, he collaborated with the guy codenamed 'The Painter' to crack the encryption in the Dionysus virus. He even reverse-engineered the stimulation frequencies that could precisely edit cognition in order to achieve some of his own purposes."
As he spoke, he became increasingly excited and stopped in his tracks.
"Yes! He probably doesn't like the way his original organization operates either, which is why he wants to help Icarus in his own way. He just doesn't realize that his methods will only cause more trouble."
He finally stopped and concluded.
Jiang Zhou and the draftsman looked at each other in bewilderment. They remained silent for a long while before the draftsman finally asked, puzzled:
Why do we say "also"?
Fortunately, Booker was wearing a face mask at the moment, otherwise Jiang Zhou doubted whether he could have kept his expression...
Did this guy project himself into the character?
Thinking this, Jiang Zhou quickly took over the conversation, easing Booker's current embarrassment.
"In any case, we need to find the 'painter' he mentioned, and how many underground pseudo-spirituals he had previously spread, and how many people had been infected with the Dionysus virus as a result."
He paused to think for a moment, then continued:
"And most importantly... it has been confirmed that there is a way to cure the Dionysus virus."
The illustrator was not very optimistic about this.
"If there really is a cure, we'll probably have to find the organization behind him and ask for it... But this guy is obviously infected with the Dionysus virus. Apart from the information about the Thrace Club that he told us out of guilt, he probably wouldn't reveal any other important information even under severe torture."
As long as the other party believes that they are "resisting," no matter how much torture they are subjected to, his distorted reward system will convert that pain into pleasure.
At this point, the illustrator sighed dramatically and said:
"So if you ask me, we should write up a report about the situation here and hand it over to the big shots above us... I'm sure they'll have a way to completely eliminate the threat."
Yes, through a major thunderbolt.
he thought.
On the other hand, although he didn't know about the Great Thunder, the draftsman's remarks still made Booker feel a little uneasy.
Based on his past experiences, he really didn't think those so-called "big shots" would resolve the threat in a way that would satisfy everyone.
On the other hand, he was indeed somewhat helpless with Jingoro Ue – if the guy insisted on being a tough guy and didn't say a word, he had no way to dig that information out of the other party's mind.
It was at this moment that a voice came from the doorway.
"Or perhaps, someone can extract the information from his brain?"
The door opened, and Jim Ritter and White Raft walked in.
Behind them followed humbly a tall warrior clad in tattered armor. (End of Chapter)