When you open your eyes, the first thing you see is the snow-white ceiling that you might mistake for being in a hospital.

But it wasn't a hospital, it was someone's dormitory, a dormitory of someone she knew.

With a "snap", someone closed the book.

Looking in the direction from which the voice came, there were two people sitting on the large bedroom sofa.

One of them, dressed in a girl's school uniform in a foggy hill, was putting a book on the coffee table. Apparently the sound of closing the book was made by her.

The other, on the other hand, sat casually dressed on the sofa, tilted his head and held a straw, "sizzling" a drink with ice cubes.

She frowned, her brain racing, and she unbelievably bypassed all the speculation and came to a conclusion.

"What deal did I make with you again?"

She didn't sit up from the bed, but just lay down like this and asked.

"Wouldn't it be nice to pretend to be stupid, you guy?"

The casually dressed girl also put down the glass.

"We have one thing to make sure with you, how long ago was the last memory you kept?"

She closed her eyes and began to reminisce quickly. And then......

"I seem to be ...... Kidnapped by your guys? ”

The two girls on the couch glanced at each other.

"It's thorough."

Said the girl from the foggy hill.

"What have you done to me? I never knew you had this kind of manipulation of memory. ”

She knew very well that unless she was in a state of complete consciousness and unable to maintain her abilities, in principle, there should be no one who could affect her spiritual abilities. But in this regard, she is not so confident. Because in front of her, there is a guy who can physically interfere with other people's brains.

The girl shrugged, and the unbuttoned Fog Hill school uniform writhed as if it were squirming.

"I do, but I don't do it in the same way as you, and I don't do it."

"Who did that?"

"No one." Another girl interjected, "That's yourself." ”

"Myself?" A flash of inspiration suddenly flashed in her mind, and she sat up as if she had bounced up from the bed, "I deleted my own memories myself? ”

Yes, there is another possibility. In those days, it also came close to happening. And the subtle thing is that there was one person who was related to it back then.

"Don't talk yet, if your memory is at this point in time, then we're going to let you know the cause of this first."

While talking, the casually dressed girl picked up a remote control from the coffee table and pressed it a few times.

The lights in the room suddenly dimmed, and the snow-white walls turned into a huge screen, showing a certain picture.

The hero of this picture is undoubtedly her. In this memory, it did not exist in her mind.

Sitting in a sci-fi mechanical chair with a rather gigantic device on her head, she is talking to people outside the screen. No, not so much a conversation as a quarrel.

"I've heard enough of your apologies! If you want to be so sorry, take that big thing off my head first! Do you really think this thing can suppress my abilities? Also, what's inside that thing around my neck? Poison? Is it set up to automatically inject anyone if they are pulled out or if they observe an abnormal brain wave? ”

Her almost swearative tone in the picture made her frown, but she finally watched quietly.

Then, from this record, she learned about the cause.

"Got it?"

"What did I encounter?"

She pressed her forehead.

"It's a pity that we can't answer you because we don't know the details either. You probably only knew about it a few hours ago, and we can't possibly learn from you unless we want to be infected by the virus. ”

"I see......"

"Thankfully, our surveillance left a record before you erased your memory."

The casually dressed girl said and pressed the button on the remote control again.

The picture is in vain, the scene has not changed, but the self in the picture is somewhat unusual.

Remove the huge instrument from your head and pull out the syringe from your neck through gritted teeth. She was keenly aware that the syringe had already been used.

In the picture, she shakes her head vigorously, clutching her chair with both hands, as if she is fighting against something invisible.

"Subject, confirm your condition. Do you need help? ”

The room rang out with the sound of mechanical electronics.

"Fuck you!"

Extremely abruptly, she actually cursed a dirty word in the picture.

Seeing this scene, her brow jumped involuntarily.

No, it's not like her at all.

In fact, she herself who scolded this sentence in the picture suddenly fell silent.

"Calm down." The voice in the picture was replaced by the schoolgirl in the current room, "The deep consciousness blocker should be effective, and your exposure to the virus should be short." I'm afraid it's still the first days of infection. Try to control yourself first, but don't try to recall. We can't guarantee which scenario the virus lurks in, and it would be dangerous if we understand the virus more deeply in our memories. So calm down first and let the brain stagnate for a while. ”

"Who the fuck is infected? Where is that XXX (swearing) stuff to be understood? Woo......"

With a hideous expression, she suddenly slammed her fist into her face. The punch was so hard that she fell straight back into her chair. The rapid breathing made one wonder if her lungs could hold so much oxygen, and she coughed violently.

After a few moments, relieving her breath, she stretched her body and leaned every part of her body against the chair.

"I'm sorry. Looks like I did get infected. However, for the time being, I can still control myself. At least for a short time, I won't be lost until the infection deepens. Although it probably won't last long......"

Her calm words were not easy to say. Judging from the picture, fine beads of sweat are constantly oozing from her forehead.

"Listen, there's a way to undo the effects of the virus on you, you should know-"

"I know. Although I can't tell the virus in my memory, I'm afraid it has become my knowledge. However, with the elimination method, as long as I exclude all the information I have obtained today, then I must have not been infected yesterday. ”

For normal people, this is impossible. But she was able to do this, because she was the strongest spiritual ability in the school city, and even her own memories were within her reach.

"Hey, Yunchuan, you're there too, right? I'm going to ask you for one thing. ”

The sound in the picture stopped for a few seconds before another voice picked up.

"What's the matter?"

"I didn't fully understand the essence of the virus, but in just a few moments I got a glimpse of how it works. This part itself is not a virus and there is no possibility of infection, but it is important information. So, I wanted to take a risk and see if I could isolate this part of the information. I need to recall the kind of things I felt at the moment I was briefly infected, and I can be overinvested in the recollection, so please guide me with questions. ”

"Are you crazy?"

was unceremoniously scolded.

Obviously watching the past self being scolded on the screen, I can't feel any dissatisfaction. After all, even she knows very well that once she is deeply infected, it is definitely not a dangerous situation that can be compared to a trivial matter such as "being injured".

With the ability to control people's hearts, she is simply the most ideal and the greatest source of dissemination in the face of this kind of information virus, and the result of destroying one or two countries can be regarded as light.

She knew this very well, so she didn't understand why she was taking such a big risk at that time.

There was only one reason she could think of, and that was that she judged at the time that the information she roughly felt was worth taking the risk.

"I know the risks. That's what I'm going to ask you for, monitor me, stop me from becoming the source of the virus. This lab should have monitored my brainwave activity, and it should have weapons in place, right? Switch them all to computer control. Once I found out that my brain waves were suddenly abnormal......"

She pauses for a moment.

"Shoot me."

“…… I'm starting to wonder what you're seeing. ”

"I'm so sorry. As you said, this is the part that I can't recall, and it's a forbidden matter. ”

She curled the corners of her mouth slightly, and pressed the controller in her hand to her temple like a pistol. There was a slight "click" in the lab, and it was a very ominous sound. But she ignored this and slowly closed her eyes.

Silence begins to be the only dominator in the show. She maintained this posture and slowly spoke:

"People choose their own position and choose their own belonging because of their understanding of themselves. Especially, it is an understanding of one's own vulnerability. I don't want to admit it, but we humans are not that strong, and we are weak in every way. That is why we have created a complex social system that starts with bureaucratic organization, in which we can survive. But that virus, it broke the system. It is not entirely man-made, and its foundation—the core part—should come from a desire within itself. A desire that is considered noble......"

When there is a slight pause, the voice outside the screen will lead the conversation in the form of a question.

"What's that?"

“…… Everyone knows that from the day they recognize their own vulnerability, they can only exist in the group of others. But no matter what, it's as if everyone knows what it is to live for others. It clearly does not represent anything, nor does it represent anything more than anything. So, subconsciously, the person begins to move to the other end, averse to what limits the self. That's what is at the heart of the virus, like DNA...... No, it would be more accurate to say that it should be the equivalent of RNA-like beings......"

"What's that thing that's the heart of the virus?"

Even though language was used as a guide as always, the pause seemed longer than before. Judging from the footage displayed on the screen, her breathing became very heavy after this question, and her hand holding the controller tightly even trembled a little.

When it comes to the core of the virus, isn't it true that you can touch it casually?

When she thought so, her past self spoke again:

"It's 'freedom', a 'freedom' that comes entirely from the subjectivity of the individual. Nothing will be gained at all, but it is the best narcthetic, the best drug. No, it's even more effective than drugs, because you'll have a preconceived notion that it's unspokenly right. ”

A chill ran down her spine and up her head.

She finally understood why she had to take such a big risk and go into such a dangerous field as "the composition of the virus".

Just because this memetic virus actually uses a core that will definitely not be considered wrong. That is, no one will become resistant to it. Because when it affects you, you tell yourself that it is self-evidently right.

It is not similar to a DNA virus, but to an RNA virus. It is indeed more dangerous than drugs because absolutely no one would think that drugs are right. But this is not the case with "freedom", and absolutely no one will consider it wrong.

Double think.

She even shuddered at it. This is simply an unprecedented, unprecedentedly vicious virus, which actually spreads malice with nobility as the core.

…… No, it's not. This should not be the case.

The virus itself should not have the concept of good or evil, but just as the virus in nature developed a set of mechanisms to avoid the body's own immune system in the process of evolution, this memetic virus has also acquired a mechanism to control people's hearts in the same evolution.

Viruses that emerge from the seedbeds of the meme pool are indistinguishable from those that emerge from nature's seedbeds. At the root, they are one.

Just from the fact that he is safe and sound now, he can tell that there was no danger at that time. But even so, it made her feel palpitations.

"Stop trying to get into the makeup of the virus, we don't need to know that. You just need to tell me the purpose of the virus. ”

Obviously, she was not the only one who sensed the danger, and she should have changed her purpose for the first time in the language of guidance. Although it was not a straightforward stop, it was very obvious that she was advising her to avoid it.

“……”

However, she has no longer delved into the composition of the virus, but she has entered an eerie silence in the picture. For five minutes, it was as if the surveillance video had been paused. If it weren't for the fact that she was breathing more and more rapidly in the picture, it would even make people think that this video had been artificially cut.

Until, suddenly, there is a murmur in the picture, followed by a shrill siren.

"Hey! Can you hear me? Are you still in control of yourself? Come back soon! Don't recall any more fragments! ”

Undoubtedly, something serious happened. But she didn't understand why such a problem could arise without even understanding the composition of the virus itself. But that's not so important anymore.

The tubes protruding from all over the room in the picture reveal the situation very bluntly.

It's just that at the most dangerous moment, she in the picture strangely hooked the corners of her mouth and moved her lips subtly. It's like he's saying something, but it's not making any sound at all.

Then she took a deep breath and pressed the controller down as hard as if she had killed herself.

This surveillance video ends up in this scene.

“…… What did I say then? ”

Dominated by the bizarre atmosphere for a moment, she asked the two of them.

"See for yourself."

The casually dressed girl operates the remote control, zooms in on the partial scene, and then plays the final scene again at a slow speed.

She still didn't make any sound, just the movement of her lips, but she told everyone her whisper unmistakably.

“…… Put...... Abandon...... ......."