Chapter 1029

Dr. Hughes stared at the ceiling, his gaze trying to pierce through the heavy fog lying before the fate of humanity.

"Ironically, the most feasible way to do this is to develop an artificial meme."

"We will weave its core, infuse it with the concept that memetic research is meaningless and harmful, supplement it with religious fanaticism or pseudoscience toxins, and spread it to the general public."

"After it subtly influences them for a year, we will personally destroy all related laboratories."

"Unless the Antimemetics Division's intuitive immunity to internal threats is strong enough to withstand this pressure."

"Interesting scenario... even if we don't go down this path, we should definitely consider practicing it in a simulation to see what the result would be—"

"Dr. Hughes," Marion interrupted Hughes.

"No. Avoiding it is useless. 3125 could be introduced from the outside or arise spontaneously..."

"And as far as we know, 3125, just as we predicted, has already descended into reality."

"Look at these precursor anomalies; we are in the midst of what is called an omen—He is close at hand."

What she was talking about was the prediction model Hughes himself had created in a previous meeting, a model even he hadn't studied in depth.

However, at this moment, Hughes understood it intuitively, even though he wished he never had to understand any of it.

His fear came from elsewhere, completely different from ordinary people.

Facing such a pure alien threat, most people might have already been crushed by fear and surrendered, but he wouldn't.

Roughly browsing the file of "SCP-3125," Hughes only felt like he had fallen into a nightmare:

It would mercilessly reshape human civilization into a form of existence he couldn't imagine.

He was familiar with most of the anomaly files in the Foundation's database and could be called a top anomaly containment expert.

For those scientific fields where he didn't yet have the talent for insight, there were always trusted colleagues bearing the heavy responsibility.

For them, those anomalies were just mysteries that had been unlocked, Pandora's boxes that had been sealed.

Only this time was different.

He had ideas, but he couldn't conduct research on 3125; as soon as he tried to understand the whole problem, He would rip him open.

He needed to design and build a cage without being able to research the problem itself.

He had to be inside this cage under construction, and he had to include the entire universe within it.

Hughes looked around at the walls of the room—they seemed to be able to hold up.

This sturdy fortress built by the giant beast seemed to satisfy all his requirements for a cage.

"... We might be able to choose to hide in this narrow space for the rest of our lives," he whispered, "and our entire race."

"Let 'SCP-3125' run rampant like a plague, uncontrolled; I declare this to be the outside of the containment unit."

"Done."

Silence, no one responded.

"Even more genius idea! As long as I declare that I won, then I'm always winning!"

"Instead of this, it's better to be more thorough, declare a D-class personnel as 'SCP-3125,' and then execute him, so the Foundation has defeated 'SCP-3125,' and the human world is restored to peace."

"No, not direct enough, just declare 'SCP-3125' and its creations to be human, and the Foundation only needs to protect the newly defined humans."

"Sleep when you encounter difficulties, take photos when the house is on fire, right? Fall down where you are, barbecue where you fall, and lie down while you're at it?"

"You might as well declare the 'Lord of Extinction' as an Arbiter of 'Preservation,' and then declare that Nanook of 'Destruction' doesn't exist."

"I declare that your declaration is valid!"

"I declare that your declaration that his declaration is valid is invalid!"

"I declare... (Qian Zhao's)"

"But I think we can't do it," he admitted.

"If 'SCP-3125' is already living in the consensus reality now, the game is already over."

"I don't care if the Apollyon classification is dead or alive; as far as I can see, this anomaly is actually impossible to contain."

Bartholomew Hughes said while shaking his head, raising his free hand to tap his temple repeatedly, but he hit the embryo several times, and the little guy's eyes looked at his fist with less-than-friendly eyes.

After the embryo rolled its eyes several times, making Hughes feel a bit dizzy, he let out a long sigh, as if his energy and belief had been drained:

"My team and I might have said different things in the previous few times... I might have seen the answer in the wrong state of mind."

"We are all constantly changing, and our ideas are constantly changing, aren't we..."

"No," O5-8 said, "you have always been consistent."

"Since that's the case, is everything coming to an end here?" Dr. Hughes's voice became lower and lower.

O5-8: "The Foundation's goal is protection."

"In the vast majority of cases, this requires controlling and containing anomalous entities, establishing special containment procedures that can monitor these entities, safely and permanently."

"We are in principle opposed to active neutralization, trying to avoid destruction, and everyone present is aware of this."

"However, senior Foundation staff like me also have the right to ignore this principle in a few specific situations, and I am exercising this power."

"I have determined that in our reality, 'SCP-3125' cannot coexist with human civilization—we must completely eliminate 'SCP-3125'."

"Does this change your view?"

"Special neutralization measures..." Hughes's face was pale, and his expression was even uglier.

"I understand; in general concepts, neutralization might be easier than simple containment," O5-8 added.