Chapter 13: Memory Replicas
“Captain Asker, care to explain?” Matthews asked coldly, his face grim.
“Explain what?” Asker didn’t look up, examining the other corpses.
Nuo’s, Peggy’s… all nine of them were here.
“He accused you of being an imposter,” Matthews said icily.
“Do you know why these corpses resemble members of our Azure Longsword, and not your Free Wind?” Asker asked, instead of answering.
“Why?” Matthews asked, after a pause.
“Because if they had impersonated members of Free Wind,” Medea sneered, “our Azure Longsword definitely wouldn’t have fallen for it.”
Matthews: …
So we’re easier to fool? Matthews was about to retort when he suddenly realized the problem.
All the others were already dead, yet this “Asker” on the ground was still barely alive, just long enough to accuse Azure Longsword of being imposters after they arrived. Wasn’t that a bit too convenient?
Moreover, if these people from Azure Longsword were really disguised by the supernatural force of this anomaly, then with the abilities it had displayed earlier, it could have easily distorted this space, preventing them from seeing these corpses on the ground.
Otherwise, wouldn’t it have exposed itself?
Thinking of this, Matthews broke out in a cold sweat. Good thing I didn’t fall for this trap. Otherwise, if we had fought Azure Longsword, judging from their strength when they killed the Templar Knight Von Kesim, it would have been a pyrrhic victory at best.
Damn, this anomaly is insidious! Trying to lure us into killing each other!
Matthews thought to himself, then forced a laugh, acting as if nothing had happened.
“Don’t worry, we Free Wind wouldn’t fall for such a clumsy trick. I was just joking.”
Behind him, the Free Wind mercenaries were all dumbfounded.
Captain! Could you please not make such sudden turns in your speech? We’ve already drawn our weapons, just waiting for your order to attack, and now you’re saying it was just a joke?!
The mercenaries looked at each other, then lowered their weapons, forcing smiles that were uglier than crying.
“Hehe.” Asker didn’t seem to mind, just walked around and returned to his “own” corpse, examining it carefully.
Medea came closer and clicked her tongue. “The tragically deceased captain, how rare. It’s not every day you see this.”
“Hey, really?” The girls also gathered around, eager to examine Asker’s corpse.
“What tragically deceased!” Asker shooed them away, exasperated. “Go, go, go, all of you, go find your own corpses.”
“Why do we need to identify our corpses?” Nuo asked curiously.
“Observe the differences between the corpses on the ground and yourselves.” Asker said calmly. “It will be easier to identify them if we encounter imposters trying to infiltrate our team again in the future.”
“I see.” So the girls went to examine their “corpses,” exchanging observations.
“The pattern on her axe handle is different from mine,” Sidlipha said, comparing the Axe of the North Wind from the corpse with her own weapon.
“Tsk, her breasts are smaller.” Medea poked the chest of her “corpse” on the ground.
“Look!” Mia suddenly discovered something and called everyone over. “Look at Miel’s corpse!”
She pulled open the jacket of “Miel’s” corpse, revealing the white tank top underneath.
Miel, squatting nearby, had also taken off her jacket. On the hem of her tank top was a small bear print.
One with a print, one without? What did this mean? The girls were confused.
“Miel,” Medea seemed to have realized something and asked, “before this, did you remember what kind of tank top you were wearing today?”
Miel hesitated for a moment and shook her head.
“I see.” Medea immediately concluded, “It’s about memory.”
“This anomaly reads our collective memories and then replicates our appearances, just like the Nightmare we encountered before.”
“When it comes to external details that even the person involved doesn’t remember clearly, the replication will be deliberately blurred. If I’m not mistaken, everyone check the labels on their clothes. The words printed on the labels of all the corpses’ clothes should be incorrect.”
The girls hurriedly checked the corpses’ clothing. As expected, whether it was on the inside of the collar or the waist, the text on the clothing labels was blurry – or simply not there.
Because no one would specifically remember the wording on their clothing labels.
“That is to say,” Thira immediately connected the dots, “in the future, to identify whether a teammate is real or fake, we just need to check whether there’s a label on their clothes and whether the words on it are displayed normally.”
“The premise is that no one here has a photographic memory and can remember the words on the label after just one glance.” Nuo added with a smile.
Ah, so they just need to look at the clothing labels? Matthews, standing nearby, listened to the whole conversation discreetly and was immediately impressed by the girls’ intelligence.
These girls’ minds were really sharp, unlike the men in their group, whose heads were full of muscles.
“Actually, it’s not just the labels,” Thira said. “Any detailed, hard-to-remember external features won’t exist in anyone’s memory, which means that this anomaly can’t read that information.”
“A very simple method is to write the numbers 1 to 9 on nine pieces of paper, then crumple them into balls, and randomly distribute one to each person to carry.”
“In other words, before unfolding the paper, no one knows what number is written on their own slip. Therefore, the anomaly wouldn’t be able to copy the number on the slip, it would just show a blur or blank space.”
“When unable to determine the other party’s identity, just ask them to show the slip of paper and see if there is a clear number on it.”
Great idea! Matthews immediately instructed the nearby mercenaries to quickly write a large batch of slips of paper with random numbers from 0 to 9 and distribute them to everyone, thus preventing imposters from infiltrating their ranks during this anomaly.
“Wait, that’s also based on the assumption that this anomaly has no intelligence, right?” Medea glanced at Matthews, who was eavesdropping, and sneered, raising an objection. “If this anomaly has self-awareness and intelligence, although it doesn’t know the number on each person’s slip, it knows that it must be one of the numbers from 1 to 9.”
“Then it just needs to randomly copy one of them and have the replica carry the corresponding slip of paper. After all, no one can tell right from wrong.”
The girls fell silent. Judging from the performance of those imposters before, the intelligence of this anomaly wasn’t low.
“Then what about the labels?” Eleanor said. “Assuming the anomaly is already smart enough to create false information to deceive us, then why is there no information on the clothing labels of these corpses? It could just copy false information as well, we can’t possibly go to the clothing manufacturer for verification.”
“Could it be that it didn’t think of that before?” Nuo suddenly had an idea. “Originally, it didn’t think that we would look for flaws in the details. Now that we’ve mentioned it, it knows…”
Everyone: …
What! So this method doesn’t work?! Matthews, who was eavesdropping, was greatly disappointed.
“Captain, the slips of paper are all written.” A Free Wind mercenary came over and reported. “Would you like to explain the distribution and identification rules to everyone?”
“No need,” Matthews said profoundly. “I’ve thought about it carefully, this method still has flaws. I need to think about it some more.”
Free Wind mercenaries: ???
Leave a Reply