Chapter 244

This was the video that recorded the truth of the sinking of the Magic. All anomalous organizations united with various countries to seal off all channels that might leak, minimizing the chaos as much as possible.

Like a doctor letting a terminally ill patient leave with dignity.

In the video was a gem-like sea surface, with the Magic sailing steadily and quickly, with some small boats floating around it.

Pairs and groups of young people were dressed coolly, enjoying the beauty of youth, full of passion, leaning on each other, intoxicated in romance.

Just like the dream scene of every honeymoon couple.

However, the Magic stopped.

It was an unlucky guy repeating the tragedy of the Titanic.

Like hitting a mountain rock, a huge impact sound echoed, and the sound of metal and glass shattering mixed together.

The young romance suddenly became disheveled, a pile of junk rolled off the ship's side, fell into the sea, and splashed water.

The people falling from the deck were like a school of fish released, falling straight down in screams, mixed in the fine debris.

Just like that, a few seconds passed, and a cluster of foam suddenly appeared behind the ship, but that was not the ship's propeller turning again.

An arm appeared.

Robert could only guess that it was an arm; if it wasn't an arm, it was at least some kind of limb that could perform the function of an arm.

It was ten stories high, gray, covered with scales and warts, making one's hair stand on end.

Deep in biological memory, there was a fear called "megalophobia."

It brought people back to the primitive era, facing those existences that were far superior to humans in both body and power.

"Damn it, is this a bit too unlucky? Blowing the sea breeze and singing, and then running into a giant monster. Is this a bit inappropriate?"

"Hell, is the size of this thing a bit too big? I think the length of this one arm is almost catching up to the size of the smallest starship."

"This monster's size must not be small, otherwise it wouldn't have been able to make a cruise ship stop completely just by colliding with it!"

"Wait! Even if this kind of monster is terrifying, it shouldn't lead to the end of the world, right?"

Pitter-patter—

A burst of rain sounded on the window again. Robert felt a bit short of breath, so he stood up and continued to perform actions that an excellent agent shouldn't.

No one cared about these things anymore; the world was fucking going to be destroyed!

Fucking going to be destroyed!

Fucking, fucking!

Robert grabbed a bag of potato chips, tore open the package, "crunch, crunch."

The arm in the video reached the ship's side and tore open the Magic without any effort, just like pulling a jacket zipper.

"Crunch, crunch—"

Robert stuffed the potato chips into his mouth, bit them, and bit them again.

The people inside the ship screamed in despair and fled, but it was to no avail.

A huge, spiky existence pushed aside the seawater and surfaced.

Its head was like a giant octopus, but even more terrifying; countless tentacles and sharp teeth covered its body, like a giant beast in a nightmare, and a pair of red eyes stared at the Magic.

It pulled at the cracks in the hull and shoved its head in, unable to wait.

The tissue on its head began to squirm, and after a while, thin blood lines flowed down along the mouthparts, staining the sea surface red.

"Boom—"

Several missiles trailing white smoke whistled from afar and exploded on its back.

"Whoosh—"

Several jet fighters flew past quickly.

It didn't move, burying its head deeper, letting more missiles land on its body; the insignificant explosions went off on its back, not even staining a single scale black.

Then, the video ended here.

Robert stood in front of the window, looking up blankly, seeing under the thunder in the distance, in the clouds, layer upon layer, as if some huge object was moving.

He withdrew his gaze, stepped on the cigarette butt, lit another one, and continued to ravage his lungs.

Only the feeling of suffocation gave him the courage to realize he was still alive.

"To be fair, although the weapons in the footage are already seriously outdated—the mainstream atmospheric weapons now are laser cannons and wave cannons, not missiles—I must emphasize that no normal creature could take a few missiles like that without reacting!"

"Very normal. If this monster were just simply large in size and could defeat the Foundation, then the Foundation would be too incompetent. But thinking from another angle, if an organization like the Foundation, which has integrated a large number of anomalies, couldn't successfully prevent the end of the world, then how terrifying must this end of the world be?"

"Maybe it's just a guy at the level of a Doomsday Beast? Although the Foundation has Administrators, his strength in that era might not be considered strong. If an existence at the Doomsday Beast level appeared among the anomalies, it could also destroy the entire civilization."

"Pure passerby, to be fair, objectively speaking, aren't 'SCP-682' and 'SCP-2599' more powerful than some Doomsday Beast?"

"6, you kid report your coordinates, I'll contact the Legion to your doorstep right now."

"Asking a question: in the interstellar era, if one has to face this level of monster, what means should be adopted as the most appropriate?"

"You can slander it as a 'Abundance Abomination,' and there will naturally be followers of the 'Hunt' to annihilate it."

"Whoosh—"

The wind whistling past lifted a curtain of water, smashing against the tightly closed window.

On the glass, the raindrops were no longer one by one, drop by drop, but became a sheet, falling like a waterfall.

"Swish—"

"Boom—"

The firmament was no longer poured with lead, but filled with black ink.

Through the window of the building on the Foundation's surface, Robert could only vaguely see the color of the clouds, splashed with a few layers of carbon ink, and then casually brushed a few times with a water pen.

But he had no heart to watch the rain; this scene had nothing to do with the scenery, but rather it was announcing that the apocalypse had officially arrived.

"Ding-a-ling—ding-a-ling—"

It was the landline ringing.

Robert came back to his senses; the Foundation's decision-making level had finally reacted.

He walked quickly back to the table and picked up the receiver.

"This is Foundation Level 4 Agent Robert."

In an unremarkable bungalow, Joel was looking at the television in shock.

The cognition he had built up over the past twenty-plus years was shattered in just a few minutes.

This, of course, did not refer to the fact that the Foundation existed.

The news program on the television station was playing the footage of the Magic sinking, openly, without any concealment.

This was too abnormal!

They had never been so sincere!

Even on the day the anomalous organizations announced their existence, many news programs were still being stubborn.

Just like how they claimed they had never encountered aliens.

Now, the heads of these programs had all changed their nature, a 180-degree turn, which was jaw-dropping.

A doomsday trend suddenly broke out on TKTK, famous ones, unknown ones, beautiful ones, ugly ones, men, women, attack helicopters...

A dance of demons, humanoids were all expressing their views, collectively excreting their anxiety.

Anxiety and fear were breeding and spreading among the crowd, and the number of people chasing the trend was still increasing.

At the moment when everything was about to slide toward a situation that could not be recovered and completely lost order.

The figure of the President appeared on the screen; he was already old, his golden hair was messy, and his eye bags had deepened a lot.

"... My fellow citizens, today I am here to announce that our country is facing an unprecedented crisis, an unprecedented disaster is descending on this planet."

He solemnly declared, his tone trying to be cheerful, but it was pressed to the ground by the heaviness of reality.

"In order to protect our great country and people, I have decided to declare a national state of emergency. I have instructed the federal government to provide all necessary assistance to local areas, including medical supplies, weapons and equipment, money, and personnel."

"I believe that with the efforts of our great military, medical staff, scientists, entrepreneurs, and all patriots, and under my leadership, we will definitely be able to overcome this disaster, let the Federation return to normal, and make the Federation great again! Thank you all!"

The days after that became very strange. Joel sat restlessly all day, as if an bottomless abyss would emerge at any time and swallow him.

In fact, everything was eerily normal.

Joel's life had not changed—

The damn bills would still come;