Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 188: Easter Egg - : Wine of the Moon_3

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"The third is Mr. Fear. He studies memetics."

You decided to greet this seemingly affable research mentor.

"Peace, Mr. Fear."

He performed an act of removing his hat, "Peace, sir, I am the apprentice of Mr. Fear; I am Brave. Mr. Fear is in this box; he’s not too fond of going out."

You looked at the one-meter-wide box, finding it hard to imagine what the person inside looked like.

"May I see Mr. Fear?"

"Certainly, seeing the mentor isn’t dangerous, probably. By the way, for your own good, please don’t believe anything he says."

Mr. Brave opened the iron box, and you saw neatly arranged human bones. The skull burning with a soul flame started to yell.

"Don’t open the box! Don’t open the box! Don’t open the box! They will find me! They are coming to get me!"

Mr. Brave closed the box, and Mr. Fear’s screams stopped.

You felt he should be thrown into some psychiatric hospital rather than serving as a mentor.

"He is responsible for your communication; after you become an Ascender, all normal means of communication will have failed, but trickster memetics can achieve it."

"The last one, you’ve met, our leader, Mr. Apocalypse. He is in charge of adjusting the macro variables in the experiment."

Mr. Weather looked at you and nodded.

"Then the experiment officially begins!"

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Mr. Brave stood beside you.

"Alright, next, Mr. Fear will say a sentence to you soon, and you must completely believe him. You cannot miss a single sound of a word. If there’s anything in the sentence you can’t understand, tell me immediately. I will clear the memetics you’ve been contaminated with to prevent any dangerous situations from occurring. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

Mr. Brave opened the box again, and you drew your head close to the skull.

Mr. Fear’s voice was dry, "Just say the following five words, and your thoughts will synchronize to the brains of Advanced Magic Research members, allowing you to engage in thought communication. These five words are... happy Mid-Autumn Festival. You shall live forever."

Mr. Brave closed the box, even though Mr. Fear had said a bit more than necessary, you felt it should be fine—it was after all a blessing, wasn’t it?

You walked over to Electromagnetic.

"How’s the memetics inoculation?"

"Seems like it worked."

"Then let’s test it."

"Okay, happy Mid-Autumn Festival."

"Hmm... thank you." Electromagnetic called over Mr. Stasis, "Stasis, fit the newcomer with a Stasis Force Field, shall we see how effective the memetics are?"

Mr. Stasis touched your body making adjustments while continuously comforting you.

"Actually, the Stasis stance is a kind of microparticle I invented. These particles do not transmit energy, not one bit. All energy is reflected back unchanged... except holy light, that is. So, when I activate the stance, you’ll feel restraint, as if you’re trapped in a small black box, no light, because it’s all reflected, no sound, because the particles won’t vibrate. The only thing you can rely on is the memetics. Let’s start with a small experiment of twenty seconds."

"Stasis Force Field, activate."

You were enclosed in a small box, no light, no sound, nothing to be seen. If you were still alive, you probably wouldn’t want to stay for even ten seconds, but as a Lich, you evidently didn’t care about that.

"Happy Mid-Autumn Festival."

Your blessing appeared perfectly in Electromagnetic’s mind.

"All right, it worked!"

You heard Electromagnetic’s excited voice.

"Newcomer, let’s get started with the experiment right away; time waits for no one, and the full moon is upon us."

"I have no objections. Anytime is fine."

"Good, then let’s start the Ascenders project!"

"Laser! Move the newcomer’s black box into the Black Tower."

Laser carried your black box up to the top of the sloping Black Tower, which had a square hole in its middle.

It looked like a super-large electromagnetic railgun.

Mr. Stasis, in his spare time, watched Electromagnetic making adjustments to the machinery.

"Electromagnetic, I’ve never understood why you don’t just rename the Ascenders project to the Moon Launch project. The latter seems more fitting."

"What, are you a fool? If there’s a miscalculation, and it doesn’t launch to the moon but into outer space instead. Then the Moon project would be considered a failure, whereas the Ascenders project could be deemed a success!"

"Is that how you swindled Andrey’s research funding?!!"

"Regardless of the experiment’s outcome! My grand attempt is worth that funding."

"Then why not just report honestly, the Salvation Association would understand."

"Then what about my pride? If the Death Star can pass off a malfunctioning gravity device as research on a new type of terrestrial weapon, can’t I just change the name of a plan?!!"

Mr. Stasis slapped himself, "Damn, the Advanced Magic Research is going to be ruined by you idiots sooner or later."

"Time’s up! Begin trajectory calibration!"

"Black Tower, target, the moon!"

The thick pipes at the base of the Black Tower started to supply energy, and the Black Tower slowly moved following the full moon.

"Gravity! It’s all on you now!"

Gravity’s simulated celestial body began rotating rapidly, soon forming a cross pattern.

"Stars return to their places, this land, escapes from the gravitational pull of Earth’s core!"

Gravity disappeared around the Black Tower, you couldn’t feel it, because your black box was fixed at the very bottom.

"Charging begins!"

In the lowest part of the Black Tower’s internal cavity, below the black box, a huge ball of blazing plasma was churning and boiling but was compressed by a layer of Stasis Force Field and was still intensifying.

"Mr. Apocalypse, success or failure hinges on this single effort!"

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