Chapter 11

"Our kin are spread across the entire world; if you need, we can separate out bodies for you that you won't be able to use up in a lifetime."

"..."

One condition after another was listed.

It also made the audience outside finally realize the terrifying nature of [SCP-610].

Such conditions were undoubtedly fatal for a poor wretch who had lost all his kin.

"My children?"

Maxim blew a cloud of smoke at its face and hesitated:

"The price is letting you disguise yourselves as survivors?"

It continued:

"Yes, you are the one chosen by them, and we fear them."

In an unknown region.

Herta chuckled twice:

"...Their aesthetic level seems higher than mine?"

Maxim smiled, revealing a cunning grin.

[SCP-610] also manipulated that body to smile, making a charming gesture in the process.

Maxim gently stroked the other's cheek, his hands climbing up the neck toward the head.

Then, in full view of everyone.

He tore its head off.

Maxim looked at the skull filled with red tendons and shook his head:

"After all, it's just a fake human."

[SCP-610] landed on his skin, causing rashes and scar tissue to appear on Maxim's skin.

"Negotiations failed; we will dig the knowledge out of your brain ourselves."

The body that had lost its head no longer disguised itself, and rows of amorphous eyes opened upon it.

Tentacles covered in hideous flesh-thorns popped out from within its body, shooting straight through Maxim's chest.

Asta covered her mouth directly;

Miss Miss Qingque had a sense of calm as if the dust had settled, though there was a hint of sadness, perhaps related to being caught by her boss while skipping work to play mahjong.

Maxim was still trying his best to hold the cigarette butt with his hand, smiling and saying:

"No need to struggle; look up, that is the wrath of the gods."

After speaking, Maxim was thrown out the window like a broken sack, smashing onto the red flesh carpet that had been waiting for a long time.

Amidst the wind and snow, the entire town returned to its original appearance.

Red roads, red streetlights, red houses...

No wonder there was much less snow on this road than in other places.

In the sky, a burst of light suddenly erupted.

When the light dissipated, a huge shadow covering the entire sky appeared.

It had a huge, long ship body and giant rings surrounding the ship.

Its volume was not much smaller than the entire planet!

Planet-killing weapon—Colossus!

At the same time, an expression of relief appeared on Maxim's face.

The Colossus began to transform.

The long ship body was like a spear, pointing straight at the planet.

The ring was like a ring worn upon it.

In the center of that huge ship body that obscured the starry sky, light faintly radiated, and the space around it seemed to be distorted.

The next second.

In Maxim's eyes, which still held a trace of vitality, the sky cleared, and the wind and snow dissipated.

A scorching neutron torrent surged out, melting his body and piercing through the entire planet.

After that beam, all things were silent.

The audience who saw this scene all had a sense of loss.

Even though they understood that the man in the footage carried unforgivable sins.

But they still didn't want to see the scene of him calmly meeting his death in the footage again.

Such stories are not popular in the universe.

Not romantic enough, nor individualistic enough.

The key is, it’s meaningless.

If Maxim were a person who feared death.

He could have played along with [SCP-610], fought wits and courage with [SCP-610] through various means, eventually succeeded in saving the survivors of the civilization, and then met his death calmly; that would have been better than this ending.

Arlan stood in front of the elevator, his expression solemn.

With him were March 7th, "Stelle," and Dan Heng, who had failed to find Arlan.

March 7th's pink eyes were a bit lost; she spread her hands and looked at "Stelle" and Dan Heng:

"Is all this really worth it?"

If Maxim hadn't chosen to go there, at least his civilization would have had one survivor left.

But now, this civilization would only be a string of characters in history, and might even be completely tampered with by the "Fictional Historians."

After a few decades or hundreds of years, where would their names be, other than in the dusty archives of the Foundation?

"Stelle" chose to be mute, and they all looked at Dan Heng.

Dan Heng shook his head:

"There's no worth or lack thereof; when he chose to return home, he had already defaulted to his own destruction."

His eyes were somewhat deep, as if his spirit had crossed long spans of time and space to face that scene of destruction directly.

"He had a strong tendency toward self-destruction; all he lacked was a reason to give up completely."

Arlan also nodded in agreement:

"The reason that supported him to live was gone; otherwise, he would have left when Dr. White tried to dissuade him twice."

"You can imagine that eerie and terrifying scene, everywhere is red flesh, the whole planet, except for inorganic matter, is nothing but flesh monsters..."

March 7th hugged her arms, feeling a chill all over.

"Haha, let's hurry and leave here."

The footage hadn't ended yet.

After the white light dissipated, the perspective shifted.

The huge warship spewed light, painting destruction evenly across every part of the planet.

And in the same star system, there were layers of warship arrays: frigates, destroyers, battleships, aircraft carriers, dreadnoughts, supercarriers, titans, fleet flagships, and juggernauts.

Their hulls were painted with the Foundation's logo on both sides, all weapon restrictions had been lifted, and they were ready to annihilate all enemies at any time.

At this point, the footage ended, and lines of text emerged.

[Operation Codename: ██]

[Time: Year ██, Month █, Day █.]

[Operation Location: ██]

[Approved by the O5 Council and finalized by the Administrator, three contingency plans have been made for the purification operation against the infected planet ██, and sufficient fleets have been mobilized to blockade the star sector.]

[The tragedy that occurred on planet ██ indicates that SCP-610 may possess a certain level of intelligence. Before the Foundation completely destroys it, a certain degree of sociological research is required.]

[There were ten teams of D-class personnel initially dispatched to planet ██, totaling fifty people. In addition, a temporary research base was set up in orbit to conduct initial investigations on SCP-610.]

[The first batch of D-class personnel confirmed after landing that flamethrowers were highly effective against SCP-610, and subsequently used white phosphorus bombs to successfully open up a safe zone and rescued 367 survivors.]

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[During the daily contact on the second day, it was discovered that all D-class personnel had lost contact.]

[After retrieving the infrared satellite perspective of the research base, it was discovered that the infrared signatures of the survivors were abnormal; they generated a large amount of heat at night and eventually turned into a pool of liquid. It is speculated that this is SCP-610.]

[Data Deleted]

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