A while later, when Sunday reappeared and changed his appearance under Lucian's instructions, Lucian seemed to see an old acquaintance.
Sunday was now too similar, far too similar, especially that middle-parted hair, those suspenders—they were perfect.
"Father, you said that meme can make people regress into monkeys, which means it's powerful...." Sunday said with a hesitant expression, looking uncomfortable. "But me dressing like this... will it really work?"
He still had not realized how serious the situation was.
Even though the outfit itself was fine, conservative, and proper enough, he remained doubtful that dressing like this could overwrite a memetic virus.
"In my hometown, this meme lasted for many years. It got to the point where if someone just wrote the number '8', people would recognize it immediately. Besides, everyone who got affected by this meme became extremely united, making it a positive meme."
Lucian, who had once been one of them, explained calmly.
Against Slumbernana Monkey, he could personally vouch for the strength of the chicken meme. Compared to Slumbernana Monkey, which caused civilizations to regress into monkeys, the chicken meme instead produced group identity and collective harmony, oddly similar to what The Family of Harmony aimed to achieve.
With such an effect, plus the help of the blessing of an Emanator of Harmony that he would later order The Family to summon, it could make the chicken meme even stronger.
Affect Penacony?
Such thinking was too small, since Lucian planned to affect other star systems.
As long as people mentioned 'chicken,' they would immediately think of Penacony and think of Sunday.
No matter whether it was fame, money, traffic, or population, everything would flow endlessly toward Penacony, and people would even go out of their way to protect Penacony—and that was Lucian's true objective.
As for the Slumbernana Monkey?
Now, it was merely a tool used to test the power of the chicken meme, not worth mentioning.
Besides, if something went wrong, Lucian could simply shift the blame to Dr. Primitive, so he was quite grateful for the Slumbernana Monkey's existence because of that.
"Is it really that amazing...? Then... what do I need to do?"
Feeling a heavy responsibility suddenly fall onto his shoulders, Sunday's expression turned serious.
"Very simple. Here—this is the video I made. Just imitate what's in the video."
Lucian showed Sunday a self-made music video of a song called 'Only Because You're Too Beautiful' on his phone—the very video where the chicken meme was born.
"Learn from it. Don't worry about anything else."
With that, when Lucian played the video, the hypnotic melody soon echoed through the room, and within the video, a blurry figure was dancing with very distinctive movements, movements that resembled those of a chicken having a seizure.
Seeing the strange dance, Sunday's vision went dark.
"F-Father... this... isn't this inappropriate for me? I mean, I represent The Family..."
Sunday's voice trembled slightly as he pointed toward the phone.
"Nah, it's appropriate," Lucian said casually, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Try dancing once."
Hearing this, Sunday swallowed hard, cold sweat breaking out across his back.
He couldn't help it.
He still remembered clearly how his father dealt with those who defied him, especially the memory of Aventurine being toyed with like a clown—it was still fresh in his mind.
Knowing that, he definitely didn't want to become another Aventurine.
"I... I'll dance..."
Just like that, the music began playing again.
Hearing the music, Sunday closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them, revealing a sharp gaze.
He decided that if he must do it, then he had to go all out.
He took a deep breath to calm himself, then started twisting his body to dance, but sadly, his movements were so stiff, and his expression was so tragic, like someone walking toward the execution ground.
"Keep practicing."
"Once this succeeds, you'll become a top star, like your sister."
"Didn't you want everyone to live carefree in your so-called beautiful dream? Now, this is your chance. Become a 'chicken' who can unite everyone."
Just like that, Sunday was completely led astray by Lucian.
===
Several days later, following Lucian's order, Sunday gathered the core members of The Family and held a ceremony to summon an Emanator of Harmony, Beatriz, the Merrymaker of the Blissful Ball, to enhance the effect of the chicken meme.
With the blessing of Beatriz, Sunday finally completed his 'deification dance.'
Following that, Lucian also mobilized all the power of The Family, ordering them to produce remix videos, meme videos, and chicken-themed merchandise, then spread everything across the entire Interastral Network.
With a precedent to follow, this chicken meme that belonged to Penacony, now named 'Dreamcluck Chicken,' progressed extremely smoothly.
One had to admit that The Family's execution capability was truly strong—or rather, because no one dared to disregard Lucian's orders, they had no choice but to do their best.
Overnight, the Interastral Network exploded as all kinds of hypnotically edited videos of Dreamcluck Chicken flooded the feeds and went viral, and Penacony Paperfold University College became the hardest-hit area, as almost all its students were obsessed with the meme.
"Hahaha, the dance performed by the Oak Family's head is kinda way too hypnotic!"
"Yo, look! A new remix! Lord Sunday playing basketball!"
"Not gonna lie, these brainrot videos are weirdly too addicting. I legit can't stop watching."
"Suspenders! Middle-parted hair! Dude's style is actually fire!"
===
Early the next morning, the atmosphere at Paperfold University had changed completely.
Now, boys wearing suspenders could be seen everywhere, all sporting various versions of middle-parted hair. Even the way they walked had changed, as at the slightest provocation, they would start twisting their bodies, all while humming the song from the remix videos of Dreamcluck Chicken.
In the cafeteria, someone carrying a tray suddenly started doing a chicken-like moonwalk.
On the sports field, it was even more chaotic, as an entire crowd of people was imitating Sunday's dance movements.
Needless to say, the scene was nothing short of spectacular.
Amid this meme hype, chicken plushies were also selling like crazy.
"Dreamcluck Chicken limited-edition plushies! Only ten left!"
As soon as the seller shouted, all the plushies were sold out within seconds.
In the student dormitories, almost all the bedroom walls were covered with abstract-style chicken posters, brimming with postmodern artistic flair.
On social media, the tag '#Dreamcluck_Chicken' ranked first in trending, while '#Dreamcluck_Chicken_Cosplay_Contest' followed closely behind.
Now, not only was the entire Paperfold University immersed in a frenzied, hypnotic atmosphere, but the entirety of Penacony was also affected by Sunday's Dreamcluck Chicken.
Slumbernana Monkey?
It had long since been washed away without a trace by the stronger meme of Dreamcluck Chicken, which was only natural, considering that behind it stood an Emanator of Harmony.
As Lucian had hoped, Dreamcluck Chicken gradually swept across Penacony and began spreading outward.
If the people of Penacony knew about the viral meme, Robin naturally also knew about it.
"Hehe, the song and the dance are way too funny... I've never seen Big Brother like this before..."
Even though she had watched the remix videos of her brother more than ten times already, Robin still didn't get tired of them, mainly because seeing her always-serious and stiff brother doing this weird dance was just too funny and ridiculous.
Clearly, Lucian must have been manipulating things behind the scenes, or her brother would never do something this ridiculous.
"Let's repost."
Robin reposted Sunday's remix videos without hesitation on her social media account.
One had to remember that she was a famous galactic singer, a famous galactic star, so with just a flick of her finger, countless people in the Epsilon system and the Asdana star system soon came to know Dreamcluck Chicken.
When Lucian learned of Robin's reposting of Sunday's videos, he just smiled knowingly.
Truth be told, he had just been thinking about asking Robin for help to spread the meme, yet she had already acted before he even had the chance to say anything.
And the effect far exceeded his expectations.
In just a few days, Sunday completely went viral—explosively viral beyond Penacony, explosively viral across various star systems—to the point that he even completely overshadowed Robin.
"Brother... so you finally have your day..."
Robin looked at the overwhelming news about her brother on her phone with a complicated expression, feeling both amused and helpless.
Now, whenever Sunday went out, he had to be fully disguised like Robin, wearing sunglasses, a mask, and a hat, or he couldn't move an inch.
However, compared to Robin's fans, almost all of Sunday's fans were far too crazy and outrageous, especially when he learned that those fans had actually organized themselves and founded an online cult called 'Chickendity.'
Who did they worship?
Naturally, it was Sunday in suspenders.
Not only did they produce standardized 'holy chat stickers'—chick figures with middle-parted hair and suspenders—but they also established a massive online community, complete with daily check-ins that featured tasks such as watching Dreamcluck Chicken's videos, learning Dreamcluck Chicken's dance moves, spreading Dreamcluck Chicken's gospel, and attending offline events like mass gatherings where participants wore suspenders and middle-parted hair.
One had to admit, the scale and momentum of the meme had become truly massive and overwhelming.
===
In Dreamflux Reef, Aventurine sat alone in a quiet bar, looking at his phone with amusement while idly playing with his glass of wine.
"You're Too Beautiful~"
From the phone, hypnotic music played, accompanied by a familiar person dancing in a ridiculous manner.
"Sunday... What kind of madness is this scheming bird getting into?"
Aventurine murmured with a faint smile, gazing mockingly at the video playing on his phone.
"He's actually doing ridiculous stuff like this..."
"Singing, dancing, and rapping over these past few days—this is getting ridiculous."
"Honestly, the Traditional Project Department should recruit him into the entertainment industry."
Just after these words left his mouth, however, Aventurine suddenly felt that something was off.
"No, wait... being ridiculous is one thing, but why would he urgently hold a ceremony to summon an Emanator of Harmony? No, something's wrong... there's definitely a conspiracy here..."
Despite saying so, Aventurine unfortunately couldn't pinpoint where the conspiracy lay.
Nonetheless, no matter what the conspiracy was, he needed to hurry and gather intelligence by digging into Penacony's internal affairs to secure a more advantageous position, or he would end up dead at his boss's hands.
"Still, these ridiculous meme videos are pretty funny. Might as well send them to Topaz and Jade."
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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