Chapter 631

The next moment, Michael Li conjured a handgun out of thin air in front of everyone.

The large pupil of Hughes’s embryo contracted in horror at this riot.

This was not part of any plan!

Ma Ma Liang, O5-8, Graves, and Hughes all knew that it was a real gun.

But how could Michael Li have a gun?

When everyone came in, everything they carried was checked in detail; this was completely impossible!

Did he defect? Was he infected by a meme? Was he a spy for the "Chaos Insurgency"?

Ma Ma Liang got up from her chair, preparing for hand-to-hand combat—her gun was locked in a box outside the door.

But there was enough distance between her and Michael Li, giving him enough time to pull the trigger.

"Bang! Bang!"

Michael Li did not hesitate to aim the muzzle at Hughes and pulled the trigger repeatedly.

The trigger was pulled, the firing pin was released and struck the primer, the gunpowder burned violently, the generated gas expanded rapidly, pushing the bullet out of the casing, rotating and flying out along the barrel.

The first bullet pierced Hughes’s lung.

As Hughes fell to the ground, the second bullet was fired, but it grazed the computer screen and ricocheted off the wall of the conference room.

"So, Dr. Hughes, who was regarded as a savior by so many people, actually died so early..."

March 7th looked up at the light screen; the story in the containment file showed what a joke of fate was.

The Foundation forged his schedule and death to let Dr. Hughes focus on anti-memetic research, but the plan definitely did not include his real death.

And this room happened to have the power of memory erasure; even if the remaining people left the room alive, they wouldn't remember that Dr. Hughes was dead.

A perfect closed loop was formed.

When she said this thought, "Stelle" frowned and proposed a very Anti-Memetics Division-style approach:

"Just write that Dr. Hughes is dead in the notebook."

"Eh? It seems it really can be done like that."

March 7th realized, then looked at Bai Bai Xuan: "Little Bai, Little Bai, is there an anti-memetic entity that can also delete text information?"

"Theoretically, there is, after all, there are so many 'anomalies,' and the manifestations of anti-memetics are naturally strange."

……

The smell of blood spread, and the airtight, absolutely safe room seemed to have become an inescapable sealed coffin.

Hughes looked astonished, unable to figure out why his old superior would suddenly riot, when exactly he was contaminated by 3125, and how he bypassed the various means of the Anti-Memetics Division?

But Hughes had no chance to ask these questions.

He felt his chest hit by a heavy hammer, and then he was knocked down.

He fell heavily to the ground, the pain immediately degenerating into a strange numbness, as if every nerve ending in his body was covered by sudden coldness.

Breathing became extremely difficult; every inhalation felt like trying to suck the whole world into his lungs, and every exhalation seemed to release his life along with it.

He felt a deep powerlessness and coldness, crawling from his fingertips to his limbs, accompanied by a strange sense of lightness, as if his soul was gradually breaking free from its shackles.

And the murderer who completed the shooting, with dangerous red light flashing in the depths of his eyes, his huge cyclops eye swept toward the most noble person in the room, while turning the muzzle to aim at O5-8, pulling the trigger repeatedly.

"Zzz—"

The bullet hit an invisible barrier, erupting into a sharp roar of electricity and a dazzling green light.

O5-8’s protective magic talisman annihilated the bullet and absorbed the bullet’s kinetic energy.

Michael Li wanted to continue pulling the trigger, wanting to grind away the energy of that thaumaturgic artifact one shot at a time.

The moment he was about to pull the trigger for the third time, Ma Ma Liang grabbed Michael Li’s gun-holding arm with one hand and twisted it upward violently, while her other hand gripped the fountain pen, stabbing directly into the other party’s throat.

What Foundation agents learn is not just knowledge and skills to deal with anomalies, but also lethal killing techniques.

The tip of the fountain pen was very sharp, becoming a lethal weapon in Ma Ma Liang’s hand; it pierced Michael Li’s skin and flesh, going directly deep into his throat.

Michael Li tried to resist.

But a pure researcher had no room to struggle in front of an agent, not to mention he was currently back-to-back with the other party, and his joints were locked.

Ma Ma Liang gritted her teeth and exerted force, the tip of the pen cutting through skin and flesh until it severed the windpipe.

Michael Li made a low grunt, his fingers loosened powerlessly, the gun fell to the ground, and Ma Ma Liang took the opportunity to throw the gun far away.

He slowly tilted backward, futilely covering the gushing wound, and finally hit the conference room door with his head, the embryo on his head bursting into a pool of blood.

He was dead.

O5-8 looked at Ma Ma Liang, still in shock: "What do you think?"

Ma Ma Liang’s tone was heavy: "Michael Li has been infected in some way; the specific details are not yet clear."

After she ensured the gun was safe, she quickly put it in a holster and went to check on Hughes’s condition.

No miracle appeared; Hughes’s heart had already stopped beating. Ma Ma Liang shook her head at O5-8, whose face immediately became gloomy.

Ma Ma Liang then realized that there should be one more living person in the room, but why didn't he even say a word?

She hurriedly looked at Graves, only to find that this director was leaning back on his seat, and the embryo on his head had also closed its eyes.

How did Graves die too?

When was he hit?

"The entire site from top to bottom has been infected—" Ma Ma Liang’s words were not finished, and a deadly heat and light interrupted her.

The wall behind O5-8 instantly turned charred black.

Ma Ma Liang turned around quickly, aiming her gun.

A laser was cutting the airlock of the containment unit; something wanted to come in!

"My private security," O5-8 said, "It heard the gunshots—"

"Tell it to stop!" Ma Ma Liang said, "If this unit is breached, SCP-3125 will capture us alive."

"This unit is fully sealed. I cannot send any signal before the airtight door opens," O5-8 replied.

"The problem is right here—"

Before the words were finished, the airtight lock disintegrated instantly under a huge impact, torn into pieces.

A huge, pitch-black, streamlined armored robot walked out from the crack, crouching down like a giant beast, scanning the room with glowing eyes.

Its shape and metal parts reminded Ma Ma Liang of O5-8’s vehicle—was it a Transformer?

Behind the Autobot, the lady in charge of the workstation was firmly bound to the seat by a mass of translucent orange slime, screaming helplessly for help.

"Help!"

Ma Ma Liang felt a dark wave surging in, pouring into the containment room from the outside, as if to swallow her.

She decisively abandoned the gun and raised her hands.

When O5-8’s security robot was holding a gun, it wasn't very good; if it was judged as an enemy unit by the Autobot, it wouldn't be fun.

"Stop," O5-8 ordered.

The Autobot stopped moving, but the laser gun in its hand was still flickering, and the lock on Ma Ma Liang, Hughes, and Graves’s Michael Li had not been lifted.

It was waiting for any tiny movement.

Michael Li was not dead yet and twitched.

The laser gun responded instantly, turning his head and embryo into dust with a scorching pulse.

The laser gun switched to short-range Protection Protection Mode, continuing to wander between the remaining three targets.

Ma Ma Liang remained motionless, her heartbeat like a drum.

"I said—stop!!!"

The majesty contained in O5-8’s voice finally seemed to reach the machine.

The laser gun went out in response and returned to calm.

Ma Ma Liang breathed a sigh of relief and emphasized again: "Michael Li has been infected."

She hurried to the back of the room, where a medical kit was embedded.

"We must evacuate this place as soon as possible and perform a comprehensive disinfection of the site."

"When was he infected?" O5-8 asked.

"As far as I know, SCP-3125 will make the victim completely submit on a physiological level, becoming a loyal spreader of its concepts. But Michael Li clearly maintained a high degree of rationality."

"We misjudged some situations," Ma Ma Liang said while quickly searching the medical kit.

She threw most of the kits aside, leaving only a strangely shaped capsule with a thin tube containing pink liquid.

"What about that gun? We already searched him when we entered."

"I don't know," dozens of possible concealment methods flashed through Ma Ma Liang’s mind.