Chương 184: Non-existent Division

"No, this is the building on the right." Zhang Jue said with a frown.

After he finished, Yang Xue also looked outside and found that this was indeed the case. That main building appeared on their left this time. They were originally supposed to be on the tenth floor of the building on the left, but now they appeared on the 28th floor of the building on the right.

The time was also late at night. It was like they had drunk too much, and all the memories of that time had disappeared.

"Ugh…" Yang Xue covered her forehead and tried hard to remember, "What happened?"

Zhang Jue was also unable to answer this question because he also didn't remember anything. The last thing both of them remembered was the moment he opened the door. After opening the door, they didn't remember whether they went in or not. There was absolutely no way to know what they experienced back then. Most importantly, Gray and his security team were completely missing.

"We should have encountered some kind of item that will make people lose their memories." Yang Xue said.

Zhang Jue cupped his chin and didn't say anything, and after a moment, said, "Let's go back to the main building first."

The situation was unclear, and they didn't linger here much longer. Zhang Jue flicked on his flashlight, and the two of them made their way down quickly, descending to the first floor. But just as they came out of the building on the right, they felt that something wasn't quite right.

It should have been around one or two AM, but the main building was in pitch black. No more guards were guarding the guard tower. The steps in front of the main building had been covered with a thick layer of fine sand, and it looked like they hadn't been cleaned for at least a few days.

There were no footprints on them either. This means that no one has walked from here for at least a few days. It looks like they were unconscious for more than just a few days.

They looked at each other and slowly pushed open the door of the building. The inside of the building was a mess, and there were many signs of battle inside. But there was no blood and no dead bodies.

The researcher who had been left here by Gray and the few remaining security team members were not seen alive or dead. Yang Xue followed Zhang Jue, frowning the whole time.

What had happened here? Were those people gone or dead? There was no way to know.

Zhang Jue walked ahead. Yang Xue wanted to communicate with him but held back from disturbing him.

"We're a bit scattered and rushed for a moment." Zhang Jue suddenly said.

Sure enough, she had thought of that too.

Yang Xue nodded, "We should get a clear picture of the main building first before exploring the other two."

"That's alright. It's not too late for us." Zhang Jue hummed, regaining his posture, "But it's just a bit of a hassle. Hey, the most annoying thing is we're stuck in this kind of situation."

The two of them had spent a lot of time together, and Zhang Jue hadn't intentionally hidden his expression. Yang Xue knew at first glance that he already had an idea.

Yang Xue looked at him, "Do you know something?"

"What exactly is contained here, I can probably guess it. I only need more evidence."

...

The two of them ate something and then started searching inside the main building. The entire site's control room for water and electricity was here, including the workshop for synthesizing proteins. But again, there had been no one here to control it for several days.

The roots of some water-planted vegetables had started to rot. I'm afraid there are no living people on the entire site unless they could access food from thin air whenever and wherever they wanted, like Zhang Jue.

The two of them arrived at the top floor, where there was only one room - the Supervisor's office. The door was locked, but this was not difficult for Zhang Jue to break in. He kicked the solid wood door right through, then reached in and unlocked the lock.

They entered the room and turned on the lights. The room showed obvious signs of having been tossed around. Zhang Jue came to the desk and found that the computer had been smashed, the hard drive had been burned, and there was a pile of burn marks on the floor.

It looked like someone had gotten there first. All the information had been destroyed. There was a black notebook on the desk, with a very delicate cover. But it seemed to be quite old, as the paper inside was slightly yellowed. Some part of the middle of the notebook had been violently torn out, leaving only a pile of scraps of pages.

Zhang Jue flipped through it casually and found that whatever had content had been torn out, leaving all the blank pages. He grunted and tossed the notebook back onto the table with no manner. He had never had much patience for these things.

Yang Xue shook her head helplessly, took the notebook into her own hands, and carefully flipped through page after page. After turning a few pages, she hummed.

Zhang Jue looked at her, but Yang Xue did not say anything. She picked up a pencil from the pencil holder on the table and quickly drew on a blank page. Her pencil was in a strange position, sketching, and she quickly filled up the page.

Zhang Jue saw that a word slowly appeared in the bottom right corner of the page. This technique allowed her to rewrite the word on the back page by drawing it with a pencil as long as the handwriting on the previous page was hard enough. Zhang Jue had played with it when he was a child, But he wasn't as meticulous as Yang Xue and couldn't spot that slight trace.

Looking at her results, Zhang Jue was overjoyed. "Dr. Yang, you did it. You found something."

Yang Xue sighed, "Those difficult and dangerous jobs are all for you to do. I can only do these insignificant things."

Yang Xue's hands kept moving, and a minute later, she finished the last stroke. She gently exhaled. Under her careful drawing, the word had clearly surfaced on the paper. It was an English word. Yang Xue looked at it and her brows knitted deeply.

She had a double degree in Biology, and Organic Chemistry, and Domestic and Foreign Literature. He doesn't know how many languages she's proficient in, but her vocabulary is even larger than most foreigners. But she had never seen this word before.

Zhang Jue's attention shifted elsewhere after seeing that it was in English. With his half-assed standard, he was not even as good as a junior high school student. He thought Yang Xue must be okay, but it didn't seem that way when looking at her expression.

"Come on. Show me." Zhang Jue held out his hand.

Yang Xue looked up at him, and although she didn't open her mouth. Two words were written on her face, "Really? You?"

"Don't look down on me." Zhang Jue hummed, "When I was in elementary school, I scored over 80 in English."

80 points in English in elementary school? What a nerve you have to say. Yang Xue smiled and shook his head but still handed him the notebook. Taking the notebook from Yang Xue, Zhang Jue took a closer look at the word.

Sure enough, he didn't know it. But it was familiar. He searched through his memory palace and soon found the answer.

"Nice!" he snapped his fingers, and things were really going as he thought they would.

"You really know?" Yang Xue looked at him in surprise.

Zhang Jue laughed, "Yang Xue, this word is very simple. It looks like you must not have listened well in elementary school. Now let teacher Zhang teach you about A-n-t-i-m-e-m-e-t-i-c. It means it's the opposite of Meme itself."

"Antimemetic?" Yang Xue repeated subconsciously.

"Yes, Antimemetic." Zhang Jue nodded, "If I'm right, this should be the Foundation's Antimemetics Divison."

Yang Xue looked at him, "I know about Memetics, and I know about the Memetics Division. But I've never heard that the Foundation has a Division called the Antimemetics Division."

This was probably the standard knowledge for the vast majority of Foundation employees.

Zhang Jue sighed, "Indeed, in the eyes of most people. The Antimemetics Divison had never existed, but they do exist and have saved humanity."

...

To know what an Antimemetic is, let's first review the concept of Meme itself. It has already been introduced in I don't know how many chapters before.

A meme is a concept or information that is contagious. It is contagious through the exchange of information from person to person and can spread at a very fast rate. If the information also causes unpredictable harm in the process of spreading, then it is considered a memetichazard.

The Foundation has many Memetic SCP in its collection. For example, Zhang Jue encountered the SCP-701 (The Hanged King's Tragedy) earlier. Whether an item has memetic properties or not depends on whether it can be transmitted and spread widely.

In contrast, the "Antimemetic" is to prevent the spread of the concept. Antimemetics also exist in real life.

For example, you use a random string of PINs or passcode for your bank card and make it as obscure as possible. Thus, preventing you from remembering it easily and needs to be noted every time you want to use it.

The Antimemetic anomalies are those SCPs that prevent themselves from being discovered or known, the exact opposite of Memetic itself. There is no better-known Antimemetic SCP than SCP-055 "[Unknown]".

SCP-055 object class is Keter. It can be observed freely, no matter how it is observed and recorded. The information about SCP-055 will not be remembered. People will lose interest in the object and gradually forget about it.

Then one day, the records of the object differ for each person who observed it, and it caused panic. The Foundation sends someone to observe and record it, only resulting in being forgotten again. The cycle repeats every time.

There is a large amount of documentation about SCP-055, but it is impossible to study it because it is impossible to remember. So far, the Foundation's description of it is summarized in four words: It's definitely not round.

In fact, SCP-055 is not a perfect Antimemetic object. Because people still remember what it is not, there will be people who will notice the existence of SCP-055 from time to time, which will lead to it being studied and discovered.

A genuinely remarkable Antimemetic object is the one that is clearly right in front of you, but you keep forgetting about it. Compared to other SCPs with horrific destructive power like SCP-682. While Antimemetic SCP is not really lethal, it's placed at the top of the list of all types of SCP objects regarding how dangerous it is.

Because there is a good chance that one day, a person, a group of people, or even hundreds of millions and billions of people will disappear and die for no reason, and the world will not even know they ever existed.

Humans fear of the unknown. When you face an unknown enemy, how can you fight against it? And the Antimemetic is that kind of enemy. It plays with your mind and makes you doubt yourself and its existence.

What does not exist is truly unrivaled because it has no enemy at all. No move is better than a move. In order to fight against such an enemy, the Foundation has set up a special "Antimemetics Division", but because of the nature of the Antimemetics itself, this department is not well known.

In the documents Zhang Jue saw, they had already died with an Antimemetics SCP object. The unsung heroes could still be called heroes because someone remembered them. Even those Antimemetics Division leaders were not remembered by many. They disappear into history in silence, and even their blood relatives and flesh and blood will forget them.

When Zhang Jue finished telling these stories to Yang Xue, she showed an incredulous expression. She never knew that the Foundation would have such a group of people making sacrifices for the survival of humanity.

The Foundation itself was an organization that lurked in the darkness, and the Antimemetics Division lived ever further in the darkness. From life to death, no one remembers their existence.

Yang Xue looked at Zhang Jue, "Then my father--"

Zhang Jue nodded, "He most likely joined the Antimemetics Division and became a part of them."

After confirming that this was the Antimemetics Division building, some questions were solved. The first was that Yang Xue's father isn't likely to be someone that Yang Xue and Yang Wenbai imagined. He actually existed and joined the Antimemetics Division.

Although Zhang Jue had speculated this, but now it can be said that they have some supporting evidence. The drugs that were missing in the medical wards, which could be confirmed as well. That all the drugs were to restore memory.

Several memory deletion techniques, such as Foundation Amnestics, and several memory recovery drugs, such as Mnestics. The staff at the Antimemetic Division are very demanding on their memory because they have been dealing with Antimemetic-based SCP for a long time.

While they train their memory ability, they usually take some memory-enhancing drugs. Only then they can remember those damn SCP and contain them. But most of the time, some SCPs will make them forget to take the drugs and thus forget everything they have experienced before.

Although the Foundation has set up this division, its support is very limited because most of the time. They are in a state of oblivion. Even if there are people like Yang Wensong who were sent over, they lose their reputation because it is too difficult to find people like him.

It was undeniable that there was no telling how many human skeletons were buried in the middle of this desert. With this in mind, Zhang Jue did not contact the Foundation in the first place because there was little use other than to send more cannon fodder over.

In this place, the only one who could save them was themselves.

"But there is one thing that is strange." Yang Xue said, "Why do we still remember so much?"

"The reason is simple. You still remember because your father did something to you. As for me, of course, I can resist some of their abilities."

"So, what do we do now?"

"You're the one is the Foundation's doctor, doesn't it obvious?" Zhang Jue waved his hand, "Of course, we find that Antimemetic SCP. Whether it is round or flat, all of them are dead to me!"