Hypnosis / Going Together

"Not yet, but it's highly likely to be the work of a hacker group. I've already sent Prometheus Unit 2 and some professionals to investigate." Mei shook her head solemnly. The professionals she was referring to were Qianqi, who was originally one of the world's top hackers and was therefore more familiar with the situation on the dark web.

"Have any members of the Fire-Chasing Moth been contaminated?"

"... Not yet, but two people have gone missing during the investigation."

A gloomy look appeared on May's face and on Kevin's face behind her.

Those two people were Elysia, the captain of the Squad Thirteen, and her adjutant, Lin.

He has been missing for seventeen days, and his fate is unknown.

"Sigh, the female lead in this movie is so devoted, it's so pitiful, it's a pity she met such a jerk..."

"Hehe... right..."

"I think this is the best movie I've seen this year..."

A group of young couples walked out of the movie theater. The woman looked both regretful and sentimental, while the man, though disagreeing in his heart, had to pretend to agree.

Another couple came out from the side, chatting casually. "How many points?"

"I'd give it a 25 out of 100. Too many plot twists are just for the sake of plot twists. The male lead only sees a third of the film before realizing that the real culprit is him. The clues are too obvious and there are too many loopholes. As a suspense film, the second half is basically not suspenseful at all, and it even has the suspicion of inciting gender antagonism."

The woman, who had been feeling sad about the movie's plot, became agitated when she heard the man say that the movie only deserved a 25 out of 10: "What? Only 25 out of 10? You didn't understand it at all!"

Upon closer inspection, the couple were wearing matching hoodies, with most of their faces covered by the hoods, and they were also wearing face masks.

She thought to herself with a pang of resentment, "They're two really shameless people."

The masked man turned his head, and when his gaze from under the hood fell on the woman, her heart skipped a beat.

"Am I wrong? What's wrong with this movie? You don't like it because you're a scumbag who lies to his girlfriend, just like the male lead! You can tell just by watching one movie!"

"..."

The masked man casually turned to his female companion and said, "Look, that's someone who's been provoked."

That nonchalant tone almost made the woman vomit blood.

"Then tell me, what's wrong with watching this movie?"

"You might as well ask me what's good about this movie. As a suspense film, its suspense is poor, the plot is mostly based on another movie, some of the twists and information are too childish and full of loopholes, and they are exaggerated."

"You're only saying this because the male lead showed the ugly side of you men!"

"...Madam, I also feel sorry for the female lead in the movie, but it's obvious that the movie was marketed as a suspense film, so I'm looking at it with the perspective and standards of a suspense movie." The masked man replied very politely. "Besides, a movie can't prove anything, and it can't be used to verify anything. Even if you switch the genders of the male and female leads and slightly modify the plot, it would still work. I think that's what your boyfriend thinks."

The man, who had been nodding in agreement, was suddenly enraged and stared blankly at his girlfriend, who was glaring at him with an angry expression.

"Uh... I..."

"Also, ma'am, I think you must be indignant about the betrayal plots in movies, so I sincerely hope you can explain to your boyfriend that the hickey on your waist doesn't belong to him, judging from its size."

"What?!"

The woman's face suddenly turned pale, and she instinctively clutched her waist, while the man looked at her in shock.

She never expected that this masked man would spot something she hadn't even noticed. Could it be...? Maybe he was in too much of a rush this morning...?

"Let me see it!"

"Don't you believe me? Let's break up!"

The masked man didn't watch the argument that followed; he and his female companion fled the scene of the impending battle at lightning speed.

"You're so mean, Lin. How could you provoke a conflict between people?"

Back at the hotel Elysia took off her hood and jokingly scolded Lin, who was taking notes nearby. In the soft yellow light, she pulled her long, bound hair out of the hood and let it cascade down like a waterfall.

"I'm just telling the truth," Lin said calmly as he wrote in his notebook. "Since she hates betrayal so much, she should also be prepared to bear the consequences of betrayal."

"Hmm... I knew it." Elysia looked Lin up and down.

"..."

"Lin has changed a lot. You would never have bothered with this kind of thing before. You would have said things like it's not your place to lecture others on how they treat relationships..." Elysia's smile was sweet, like honey. "Now..."

"Isn't that normal? People will always encounter things that change them, it's just that some things happen earlier and some things happen later."

After Lin finished organizing the existing intelligence, he closed his notebook, drew back the curtains, and looked out at the bright white crescent moon, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

"The Fire Moth should be conducting research on infected individuals now."

"But is this the right thing to do? We've already confirmed that the Meme Contamination video came from inside the Firemoth. Aren't we going back now?"

"... We have not yet found His means."

After several days of investigation, they have confirmed many things, but Lin still cannot go back, because he has no idea whether they will be contaminated in the same way if they return to the Firemoth.

There has to be a catalyst...

Chapter 104 Hypnosis

Several pieces of information regarding the circulation of the Meme Contamination video:

1. The ability of video recordings to Meme Contamination does not originate from the recordings themselves, but rather is a capability imposed upon them.

2. There are two ways the video can be circulated: 1. Dark web hackers randomly release corrupted videos at 1:15 AM. 2. Some individuals who have already been corrupted possess the videos and distribute them directly.

3. Hacker groups were the first to be compromised, and they became the main driving force behind the spread of the video, which is also why Moth to the Flame could not find the source of the video.

4. The pollution video was not broadcast in places with wide dissemination capabilities, such as cinemas, street screens, and television channels, possibly to reduce the possibility of its source being traced.

5. The video likely originated from within the Firemoth organization. Sending out a large number of personnel to investigate was intended to weaken the garrison's strength and launch an attack from within...

Lin's hand, which was writing, stopped under the light, and his expression flickered in and out of focus in the shadows.

After pausing for a moment, he put down his pen, went to the window, and looked down at the city, or rather... the world, from a strange perspective.

Some say that the city by day is like a veiled young lady, while the city by night is like a dancer who unveils her face, revealing her luscious lips, with the hustle and bustle and revelry of the night surging in the steel jungle built by humankind.

These past few days, he and Elysia have been secretly investigating many people, including someone who possesses a contaminated video recording. That video, which has some unknown power, is currently in the phone he confiscated.

What would happen if he distributed these videos on the busiest screen in the center of the shopping plaza... no, on the website with the most viewers in the world?

The resulting unrest will likely be more terrifying than any previous major Honkai.

Want to give it a try?

Let's see if this video has that capability.

Lin took out the confiscated phone and found the video recording.

The video itself is not problematic; it is just a meaningless landscape video. As long as there is a camera or mobile phone between the person and the device playing the video, there will be no problem. Only when the person "directly captures the video playing on the screen" will it be contaminated.

A bone-chilling cold arose from his heart and lingered on his fingertips as Lin placed his fingers on the play button for the video.

"Should we make our move...?"

"Qianqi" stood in front of the mirror, gazing at her Blood Moon -red eyes reflected in the mirror. There was no doubt that the consciousness of the Eighth Herrscher had once again taken over this body, but compared to her arrogance and evil a few months ago, she now had a more cautious look on her face.

She had always believed that with careful preparation, she could easily dismantle the Firemoth from within, and even the entire human world. She was in the shadows, humanity in the light, and as a Herrscher specializing in attacking human consciousness, she had already infiltrated the Firemoth, humanity's last line of defense. It seemed inevitable that she would easily capture all members of the Firemoth, then slowly devour human society like a silkworm larva...

But the events of three months ago have left her somewhat fearful.

Those eyes... there's no mistake, those iridescent Prismatic Eyes like discs, are the eyes of Lin in her Herrscher form that she saw in Lin's world of consciousness.

The woman with the same eyes as Lin ambushed her. In the clash of consciousness, both were injured. She was Herrscher with specialized consciousness abilities, and she was still forced to lie low and recuperate for three months before she could regain control of this body.

Just when she thought her life as Herrscher was about to end prematurely because of a sneak attack, she lived peacefully for three months after the attack, and it seems that Lin has not told anyone else her identity.

She had no idea what Lin was really planning.

It should be noted that she is not as good as other Herrscher in direct combat, and if it were Lin, who possesses the Herrscher Authority of Reason, she would have virtually no chance of winning.

Thinking back on the situation, it was quite strange. She had never seen that woman before, and the attack was directed at her consciousness, not her body...

This also made her more cautious in her actions, and she would not declare war on humanity without absolute certainty.

But the most troublesome thing is this critical juncture... Lin has disappeared.

She thought she could finally breathe a sigh of relief after sending the person she feared most out of headquarters, only to learn that he had disappeared.

Unable to ascertain Lin's situation and location, she dared not make any further moves and could only gradually corrupt the Fire-Chasing Moth through her own means.

"Hmph... then let's give it a try, human..." The Eighth Herrscher casually flicked her wrist, and her reflection in the mirror returned to normal.

"So this is the triggering condition for Artificial Collapse... Hehehehe..."

With her long hair, which hadn't been styled for days, hanging limply on the table, Mobius coiled like a seductive snake over the scattered manuscripts. She stared excitedly at the completed project plan in her hand, then curled her lips as she looked at the suspicious green liquid that was slowly gathering into a syringe from the refining machine beside her.

She tidied up the messy room a bit, made herself a cup of coffee, sat on the sofa, and stared intently at the ever-increasing amount of green liquid.

"... Speaking of which, what is that?"

Mobius suddenly remembered that at the end of the document left by that person about the artificial Honkai, there was a piece of inexplicable gibberish. She had paid a little attention to it at the time, since she thought it was unlikely to be a word typed accidentally.

Now that she finally had a free hand, she naturally became curious about the meaning of the gibberish.

Sitting down at the computer, he reopened the document, scrolled to the bottom, Mobius frowned as he looked at the string of code.

A jumble of symbols, words, and numbers in different languages, if it's a code that needs to be deciphered, has no other sentences or codebooks to crack it.

Wait a minute... what if this is something that has no meaning at all?

For example, it might actually be... the password to another hidden file.

Mobius racked her brains but still couldn't figure out which locked file in the Firemoth was the password for. She couldn't possibly try them one by one, could she?

From another perspective, since she was given this password, it means that she must be able to use it, that is, she can understand its meaning under the current conditions.

He only gave me three documents...

After staring at the string of characters for a while, Mobius's peripheral vision unconsciously caught sight of the file path. A flash of inspiration struck her, and she copied the string of characters, overwriting the format of the third audio file with it.

The file format has changed; it has changed from an audio file to a video file!

Mobius eagerly clicked on it...

"If you find this file, I regret to inform you that it is a video that will hypnotize the viewer."

"But I imagine you can't hear me anymore, can you?"

The video contains only two brief sentences.

But Mobius did not hear it.

She had collapsed onto the table, and all that could be heard was the sound of the dark green liquid dripping into the syringe.

Chapter 105 Traveling Together

"Speaking of which, Lin, aren't you worried that the Moth Chaser will use your card spending to pinpoint our location?"

"I'm not using one of our cards."

Lin knew, of course, that carelessly using the card given by the Fire Moth would lead to being tracked. He used a self-created account unrelated to the Fire Moth, using the identity "Lin Qijiu" that Prometheus had created.

He sat at the table by the window, taking stock of his belongings.

There wasn't much to prepare, except for his old pistol. Although he took good care of it, the marks of time were still visible on the gun. He wiped the handle and then loaded the magazine full of bullets.

"...That's quite unexpected." Elysia gazed at Lin's profile and suddenly murmured with emotion.

"..."

"We have lived among the moths for so many years, and now that we have returned to normal society, we do not feel any discomfort."

They've been investigating the contaminated video for the past few days, but their investigation methods are no different from those of ordinary people. Just like when they went to see a movie, they watched it attentively.

Aside from noticing unusual events, their behavior is not much different from that of ordinary people.

Lin stopped what he was doing, looked out the window at the bright, equal full moon that shone on the world, and said calmly, "Maybe it's because we're just naturally suited to this kind of simple life."

"..."

"..."

He suddenly felt a bit quiet, and when he turned around, he saw a pair of smiling eyes staring at him.

"Lin... you are sometimes so good at talking that I... don't know what to say to you."