episode_0053

It is one of the hypotheses explaining the origin of life.

Lava flows on the earth, the sea is empty, and lightning continues to strike in the primordial atmosphere. This is enough energy to synthesize the first organic matter.

Amino acids with a very simple structure mix with rain and fall to the ground.

The seeds of life pool and accumulate in the puddle.

Soup from the beginning.

Life began here.

In a pool, only amino acids with a stable structure survive.

Those that do not are scattered to pieces and become materials for other things.

The competition continues.

As organic matter is concentrated, organic matter with increasingly complex structures is created.

Nucleic acid, the genetic material, appears.

A more stable state can be achieved by adopting a complementary helical structure.

It gathers organic matter around it and creates a protective film.

Above all, if you clone yourself and create identical offspring, your genes will multiply endlessly.

Shake!

Right after leaving the 7th floor, of course, the elevator was constantly moving.

“Dabin.”

Choi Se-rim suddenly calls me. We were in the middle of a conversation about genes.

“That’s why the word MEME was created. Information, like genes, survives through self-replication.”

It is a calm voice without a sense of crisis.

Me and Jeong Hae-won. Even Daju. While everyone was nervous ahead of the expedition, only Choi Se-rim was speaking.

“More interesting and valuable information is preserved longer. However, information that is not that good is forgotten and disappears. Just as organisms that cannot adapt to the environment are eliminated. It is similar to the natural selection mentioned in evolution theory.”

I said the word without thinking.

“Meme.”

Then, Jeong Hae-won, who was staring blankly in the mirror, reacts.

Rather than being nervous, I think it’s more about being excited about something you know coming out.

“Huh? I heard that too. On the Internet.”

“Which one is it?”

Choi Se-rim asks, looking at Jeong Hae-won and waiting for an answer.

“It’s often posted on YouTube. Something like Eom Jun-sik or Sakuranbo. Once a trend catches on, a ton of variations emerge. Also, if you go abroad, there are things like Ssanik, which is completely dead these days, but Knuckles, a Ugandan native.”

“Yes. I see.”

Jeong Hae-won is very excited and talks about various things, but Choi Se-rim answers in an emotionless voice.

ah. I feel ashamed of everything I see.

“Okay. Is it so fun or interesting for people? Turning off something like that could be a survival strategy.”

However, I think I get along well with Da-ju Yoon.

Da-ju, who was quietly listening to the conversation, approaches Jeong Hae-won and pretends to know her.

“Uh. Then do you know Yellow City?”

“Yes.”

“Fire man too?”

“Yes!”

“Mudeungsan World Tree. Haunted house experience. Do you know all this?”

“Of course I know!”

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

I think it’s an internet broadcast meme, but I’m not sure.

When I look at them quietly, it’s nice to see that they seem close.

Da-ju Yoon gets very excited and asks various questions, and Hae-won Jung answers with shining eyes.

First of all, the downside is that the two of them are very noisy.

They cackle and shout out the name of a person named Park Jong-woo incessantly.

The advantage is that a lot of the tension has been relieved.

Even if there are two people, that’s half of the people here.

A little while ago, I was so frozen that I couldn’t even get a word out except for Choi Se-rim, but that’s not the case anymore.

A lively atmosphere like a classroom during break time fills the elevator.

There is something else to look forward to.

Da-ju Yoon, that evil villain. He’s crossed the line with me more than once, so I hope the target is a little different this time.

Bully Jung Hae-won, not me.

After leaving the two of them playing, I walked up to Choi Se-rim.

As if she knew I was coming, my older sister moves a little from the corner and makes way for me.

“Is it okay if I don’t bring a laptop?”

“Wow! Just leave it behind!”

huh?

“Why is your sister speaking like that all of a sudden?”

It’s a voice I’ve never heard from Choi Se-rim.

My sister always spoke quietly and didn’t change her expression much, but she suddenly became like this. Not a little, but a lot. Am embarrassed.

Choi Se-rim mutters with her head down, perhaps feeling a sense of self-destruction.

“… … He said.”

The voice is trembling without confidence.

“Yes?”

“… … He said there was.”

shaking.

Sister Serim clutches the hem of her dress with both hands and then raises her head.

“You told me to be cute!”

“No, that’s… … .”

I turned my head and checked the other side.

Daju and Haewon don’t seem to be able to hear anything else because they are talking amongst themselves.

“It’s okay if you don’t have to do that.”

Let me answer,

Okay.

Choi Se-rim also checks once and then brushes her hair back for no reason and says.

“I don’t like it. I’m confused.”

“Yes. This is just fine.”

“Huh? What is this level?”

“It suits my older sister.”

It’s not too cringy, and it’s not too emotionless.

I said it without much meaning, but then I realized it.

“… … .”

A pair of eyes look at me silently.

The thinly folded lips repeat faintly licking.

After much deliberation, Choi Se-rim came up with just one word.

“Dabin.”

I didn’t answer.

Other people’s thoughts flow directly to Choi Se-rim.

Even the emotions of a completely unrelated person can be felt as if they were one’s own.

So what is ‘me’ and what is ‘other’?

Choi Se-rim does not have the ‘self’ she should have had when she was young.

So, Serim Choi once leaned against her laptop. By writing down all my thoughts and thoroughly classifying them according to their nature, I attempted to maintain some semblance of myself.

The target has now changed to me.

Instead of answering, I just looked at my sister quietly and narrowed the distance.

Shake!

The elevator shakes violently again.

“That’s right. How much did I explain earlier, Davin?”

“Even what a meme is.”

“That’s right,” mutters Choi Se-rim, gently placing her finger on the elevator handle.

“So. Memes, like genes, evolve to survive.”

When he spoke again in a mysterious voice, Da-ju and Haewon, who had been talking a lot, also focused on the story again.

“As Haewon said earlier, it may be possible to evolve mainly for fun, but what is more powerful than that is probably the ‘anomalous nature’. Some information endlessly pursued self-replication, and even acquired surreal properties.”

In the silence, only a small rattling noise can be heard.

Choi Se-rim closed her eyes and continued speaking.

“It either uses a person as a host and spreads itself continuously. Or, once seen, it quickly remains in a person’s mind and is never forgotten.”

I remembered Choi Jun-ki’s last appearance. The image of Park Seong-jin, who never returned to his original state, also flashes before my eyes.

The memetic killer that killed the two people was probably information created through the evolutionary process that Se-rim Choi mentioned.

“Information has reached that level.”

The elevator has arrived at its destination.

The door opens with an unpleasant noise. Dry air rushed in, but Choi Se-rim just stood in the corner of the elevator and glared at the darkness outside. He continued his explanation.

“The general information we know has no anomalous properties. In reality, no information is preserved that long. Most of it is either discarded, or edited out of necessity and completely rewritten. It’s like this.”

The wind blows.

Serim Choi walked out from the corner of the elevator, blocked the entrance, and looked back at us.

“Didn’t we talk about how life was created earlier?”

The wind is strong.

I can hear something whispering through the sound of the wind.

However, Choi Se-rim’s voice comes through much more clearly.

“A puddle of freshly synthesized organic matter. Soup from the beginning. That state continued for hundreds of millions of years.”

and.

Light leaks in.

“This is that kind of space too.”

What filled the outside of the elevator was not a dark void.

Making a huge roar. Shaking the air.

The pitch-black door begins to open.

“Where all information gathers.”

Mixed in with the wind, completely different voices whisper a single name.

Choi Se-rim is still standing in front of the entrance.

My sister’s long, semi-curly hair is scattered here and there.

Soon, Choi Se-rim says the same name.

The Wanderer’s Library.

Wandering library.Wandering library. Some people’s hometown and place of worship. or LEMMA-7.

Its names vary.

One thing is certain: no one can stay here forever.

We got out of the elevator and headed to the library.

The flashlight only illuminated the area in front of my eyes, and I relied more on the light coming from the gap in front of me.

“It’s really dark in here.”

“Ah, don’t magazine Yoon Da-ju.”

I shook Daju’s hand away.

“Oppa. ah. No. My sister is a bit cold.”

“Get out.”

This is okay, but why did I get swayed by wearing a maid uniform?

If you think about it, there are a lot of strange things.

Putting Da-ju Yoon away, I quickly walked up to Se-rim Choi and questioned her.

“Sister is responsible.”

“Huh? Dabin?”

Choi Se-rim looks embarrassed, and I pout my lips and keep pushing.

“My sister made me feel weird. I can’t even think straight.”

It’s probably Choi Se-rim’s fault.

Because you said you were trying to massage my thoughts and make them like dolls.

“… … I’m sorry.”

“Then, my sister wears a maid uniform too. Later.”

“Huh!?”

She’s definitely older than me. It’s cute to see him get flustered at times like this.

“What did you just say?”

“Uh, no. Dabin… … .”

Choi Se-rim lowers her head and rolls her eyes here and there.

It’s unfortunate that it’s dark and you can’t see it clearly, but you can see it vaguely thanks to the flashlight.

“… … okay. Once I get out of here… … . Instead, once when it’s just the two of us… … .”

I went around talking like that for a while.

Choi Se-rim closes her eyes tightly and speaks with difficulty.

“I’ll wear it.”

“Yes. I will take pictures of my sister, so I am prepared.”

“Huh? What?”

“I also took a picture of Daju. We should do the same.”

After tapping my very embarrassed older sister once on the forearm, I walked forward.

The surrounding area is completely black.

I can’t see my body walking at all. Even the palm held in front of the eye cannot be seen as it is buried in the darkness.

However, the whole world seemed to be split in two.

Light emanates vertically from a gap located not far away.

“… … .”

and also.

No matter how much I look up, I can’t see the ceiling or the end of the crack.

How big is the door really?

Even though I was just playing a prank on my sister, I felt like I was being overwhelmed by something huge.

The more you walk, the more slowly the surroundings become brighter.

As dawn breaks, the color of the entire sky gradually becomes brighter.

The scenery was completely brightened like that.

That was when I discovered the first structure in the distance.

Deddd-

A loud noise comes from behind.

When I turned my head and checked, the door was closing.

“I won’t be able to go back easily now.”

Serim Choi speaks quietly next to her.

“You must find information here.”