Trickster Hunter

Chapter 91 Self-purification effect

"Are you the one infected by the Taotie meme?" asked "Iron Wall", who had always been following Professor Li.

"Yeah." Sun Hang nodded.

Tie Wall stared at Sun Hang for several seconds, but in the end he said nothing and sat down cross-legged on the ground.

Even when he was sitting on the ground, he was still much taller than Sun Hang.

"Xiao Shen will be more cautious about strangers, so don't mind it too much." Professor Li said with a smile, handing two cups of tea to Sun Hang and Yang Qi respectively.

Xiao Shen? Sun Hang was stunned for a moment. To be honest, he couldn't connect this nearly four-meter-tall giant with the name "Xiao Shen" together.

"Professor Li." Yang Qi took the teacup and asked somewhat flattered, "Excuse me, professor, is there anything you want us to do?"

"Actually, there is nothing important. I just want to take this opportunity to take a look at this young man who interests me and Old Pei." Professor Li did not have the sense of distance of a high-ranking person. Instead, he was quite friendly and gave people the feeling of being an old grandfather next door.

"Old Pei? Who is that?" Sun Hang took a sip of tea and asked subconsciously.

"Pei..." Yang Qi hesitated for a moment, then his pupils trembled, and whispered to Sun Hang, "You have to call him Old Pei... He is the tower master of Tianshu Tower! The most authoritative person in the field of weird research in the entire federation... No, it should be said that he is the most authoritative person in the field of weird research in the entire human race, no one else!"

"Don't say that." Professor Li waved his hand with a smile, "If Old Pei hears it, he will be unhappy again."

"You are not happy when someone praises you? This tower master has a weird temper." Sun Hang said.

"To accept such praise, you must bear the corresponding responsibilities. Old Pei and I are old, and the burden on our shoulders is almost unbearable..." Professor Li shook his head, "Let's not talk about this, let's talk about you."

"Me?" Sun Hang pointed at himself, "What can I talk about?"

"I have conducted in-depth research on Taotie in my early years... To be honest, the theory that 'Taotie's memes cannot infect humans' was proposed by me." Professor Li said.

"Ah?" Sun Hang was stunned, "Then my appearance is considered a slap in your face?"

"Ahem." Hearing what Sun Hang said, Yang Qi immediately coughed. She winked at Sun Hang frantically, but was completely ignored by the latter.

"That... Professor, what he meant was..." Seeing that she had no explicit or implicit hints, Yang Qi had to speak to smooth things over, but as soon as she said it, she was stopped by Professor Li.

"This is a slap in the face... a good slap! Your appearance proves that my theory is wrong - this slap is not to my face, but to the faces of those who are superstitious about authority! I have always believed that there should be no authority in the field of weird research. But every time I say this, they always think it is a humble statement... Alas." Professor Li showed a bitter smile on his face, "Old Pei also thinks so. He told me that this feeling is like walking on a tightrope with everyone. As long as you take a wrong step, the people behind you will fall into the abyss with you. I don’t know if you can understand this feeling..."

"Walking on thin ice." Sun Hang concluded.

"Yes, walking on thin ice." Professor Li nodded in agreement, "If this continues, human research on weird things will only stagnate... We will never be able to recover those lost lands, and can only watch our living space being compressed bit by bit until it is completely destroyed."

"Professor, I am curious about one thing." Sun Hang asked.

"You tell me."

"Yang Qi told me that strange creatures existed as early as the pre-Qin period, but why have they not invaded human territory for thousands of years, but instead launched a large-scale attack on humans three hundred years ago? Why is this?" Sun Hang directly asked the question he had asked Yang Qi not long ago.

"Like you, I also want to know the answer to this question." Professor Li smiled, "I can't give you this accurate answer, but there are some more mainstream speculations in the academic community that I can share with you."

"For example?"

"Do you know the 'self-purification effect' of the environment?" Professor Li asked.

"I have heard of it." Sun Hang nodded.

The self-purification effect generally refers to the phenomenon that water or soil uses physical (precipitation, dilution, adsorption, etc.), chemical (oxidation, reduction, etc.) or biological decomposition methods to purify itself after being polluted.

Sun Hang felt that he should not have been illiterate before he lost his memory. He not only recognized the characters, but also recalled a lot of knowledge from textbooks in his school days. He even remembered a lot of high-level math formulas that most people would forget after graduating from college.

"Strange things are probably nature's self-purification method." Professor Li said slowly, "Humans in the agricultural era did not cause any serious damage to nature, but with the advancement of technology, everything has changed... Going back three hundred years, in addition to the 'appearance' of strange things, can you think of any major events in human history?"

"Three hundred years..."

Sun Hang was still thinking, but Yang Qi had already given the answer: "The First Industrial Revolution."

"That's right. Soon after the first industrial revolution, a large number of strange creatures appeared all over the world. At that time, humans could only use flintlock rifles, steam tanks and steam warships to fight against these terrifying creatures... Many historical documents have recorded the cruelty of that war. I don't need to elaborate on this point." Professor Li said, "From that time on, humans have changed from being part of nature to being "pollutants" and "harmful substances" that need to be removed."

"...This set of statements sounds like it was proposed by an extreme environmental protection organization." Sun Hang commented.

"The person who first proposed this theory is indeed an environmentalist." Professor Li nodded, "Although this set of statements has no conclusive evidence to support it, it also has no obvious loopholes and is completely self-consistent in logic. For this reason, this is the view with the most supporters in the academic community."

"It is said to be a self-purification mechanism, but it is actually more like an immune mechanism of organisms... After the strange creatures equivalent to immune cells are "activated", they will not stop until they completely eliminate humans, which are judged as "viruses." Yang Qi added on the side.

"Then professor, are you also a supporter of this theory?" Sun Hang asked.

"No, I never support any statement without solid evidence. I only believe in my own eyes." Professor Li shook his head, "But I won't openly oppose it either... Topics that can arouse discussion and spark ideological collisions are good topics. They are more beneficial than harmful to the development of the academic community."

"In addition to the 'self-purification theory', the second most supported is the 'territory theory'." Yang Qi said on the side, "The territory theory is similar to the self-purification theory, which means that the early human development of the earth was not strong enough to affect the 'habitats' of those strange creatures... But I actually think this statement is more one-sided. It describes those strange creatures as Just like wild animals seeking revenge on humans, in fact, anyone who has studied strange things knows that they are completely different from wild animals. "

"The 'territory theory' has many supporters among the people, but few people support it in the academic world." Professor Li said, "I have a student who has been looking for solid evidence for the 'territory theory'. If you are interested in this, you can contact him."

"Uh... I'm not really interested." Sun Hang said, "I just want to know, professor, what your opinion is."

"I have already said my opinion at the beginning," Professor Li spread his hands calmly, "I don't know."