Beads of light began to gather, taking Negary's form. He had now thoroughly transformed into a type of virus, a soul virus.
He was no longer a soul dependent on Soul's Blood that had characteristics of a soul virus, but rather he was now the virus itself, a virus strong enough to infect a world.
Strictly speaking, if Negary had continued his infection, the world of the Moon Tree would have soon fallen into his hands. However, the prerequisites of this would be that he was able to triumph against the seven Gods, thus retrieving the authorities from them bit by bit; otherwise, this infection would continue to remain an infection at the shallowest level.
The more the world was infected, the more information Negary would obtain, and the more Principles he would be able to compile, thus the stronger his pathway of manipulation would become.
However, the Moon Tree world wasn't suitable for further infection, so the most he could obtain was some information from the outermost layer. There were still 10 years until the 'fruit' that was the Moon Tree world became fully ripe once again, so it was now the perfect time for him to make a trip to another world, especially when Negary had just gotten a set of world coordinates from the Dim Silence Envoy.
The Dim Silence Envoy left a beacon in that world, allowing him to pinpoint its location.
In Negary's current state, it was a bit unsuitable for him to rely on an [Origin] and use the [Origin] transmigration method again. However, thanks to the beacon and the Dim Silence Envoy's transmigration method, Negary had devised his own method.
The gigantic organization that was the Hermit Order had started getting into gear, with increasingly more members joining it; yet at the same time, it was becoming increasingly less useful to Negary. At a time like this, Negary felt like he could understand the reason why the seven Gods were mostly complacent with their own churches.
〖 The Impure Hermit Order needs to truly develop itself. As the childish joke it currently is, it couldn't possibly aid me in any way 〗Negary shook his head. Restrained by the world's limitations and resources, before he obtained more world coordinates, it was unrealistic to develop the Hermit Order in any shape or form.
〖 The development of the Hermit Order shall have to wait… 〗Negary's body became incorporeal as he went to resolve the next sets of issues.
After the worldwide toll of the bell, the Moon Tree world once again fell calm. But this was merely the calm before the storm, and hidden currents beneath the surface of this world were all surging intensely. The next God's Offering Day would certainly not be quite so simple. Although, not a single God's Offering Day in the past had ever been simple in the first place.
…
Despite the 100,000 years of humanity's development and progress, only the most recent 4,000 years had been truly meaningful.
It could be said that we lived on a small island called 'Known', constantly taking the seawater of the 'Unknown' from our surroundings to fill our own island.
In the past 4000 years, the progress of our understanding of reality had gotten increasingly faster, the 'Known' island growing exponentially faster, at the same time, the area of 'Unknown' seawater we came into contact with every day had also gotten exponentially larger.
As modern science models and theories became more complete, our ability to explore the Unknown also improved, but at the same time, 'things' that challenged the very rationality of humanity had also gradually appeared in our daily lives.
If these 'things' that we cannot fully fathom are left to spread, human rationality itself would eventually collapse, and the tsunami of 'Unknown' shall once again sink humanity's small island of 'Known'.
For this reason, as everyone lived under the sun, we must fight against the Unknown in the darkness, preventing them from being exposed to the public. Only this way would people be able to live in a world with rationality and normalcy.
Ziiii…..
A certain noise slowly spread.
In a large hallway, every 10 meters, there rested a large, highly scientific metal door attached with a viewing port and a data screen.
Two C-class personnel wearing hazmat suits abruptly stopped their feet. In this hive-like underground structure, everything should be under strict management, all personnel present should be well-disciplined and professional, thus no meaningless noise should ever be heard.
Because of that, when things were completely normal yet an abnormal noise could be heard, then it must represent an abnormal occurrence.
This place was a C-class containment area, so all contained items should only be of C-class rating. Naturally, this rating was made from the studies conducted on them so far, and the fact that they were still in containment meant that they still hadn't been fully studied, so there was a possibility of an incorrect rating.
The two C-class personnel quickly reacted, pressing a button on their hazmat suit's wrists to turn on the communication function and reported the abnormal situation to their direct superiors, after which they began to carefully observe their surroundings.
The room immediately on their right was C-4-27, nicknamed [Ashy Granny], as well as some short description of her on the gate.
Description: C-4-27 is a female human around 70 years old in age, her expression is mostly blank, quiet; she has a disability on both legs.
She was discovered on May 5th year 20XX in the middle of a cremation morgue without any personal identifications. Her appearance coincided with the appearance of [REDACTED] at the same location, most likely related to it in some way.
Her food consists of the ashes of any creatures, and nothing but ashes. After consuming a creature's ash, she would utter a fixed phrase relating to the creature's ash, then indicate that she can provide certain items belonging to that creature. Other than instances like this, she rarely communicates.
On May 9th, Dr. ████ had conducted a test, providing a portion of ███'s ashes to C-4-27. C-4-27 then spoke words related to ███, indicating her capability of providing ███. When Dr. ████ said that he needed ███, C-4-27 was unable to produce the item, she simply repeated her words related to ███ before falling silent.
After Dr. ████ observed her for 5 minutes, C-4-27 said: "Ashes mixed with excrement would be better"
(Attachment: «Excrement-infused ashes feeding report experiment log»)
Danger level: 1
Unknown level: 3
Correlation level: 4
Overall rating: C-class.
Containment procedures: C-4-27 is to be contained within a C2-class observation chamber. Observation is to be done once every three days while feeding C-4-27 ashes of a pig's bone, observational staff consists of two C-class personnel.
On their left was C-4-28, nicknamed [Dim Silence Journal], which also contained the descriptions of this journal.
Description: C-4-28 is a journal, 20cm tall, 15cm wide, and 2cm thick. The cover is brown with cream-colored pages inside, it contains a total of 10 pages, made of plant material of an unknown plant. The ink has been determined to be the blood of an unknown creature; DNA extraction judged to be impossible.
C-4-28 contains accounts written in English depicting the life of a fantasy 'Elf' creature, known as C-4-28-1 – [Dim Silence Envoy], which includes 3 entries in total.
All three entries of the journal contained self-depictions and self-praise of C-4-28-1.
(Attachment: «C-4-28-1 appearance drawn based on depictions»)
C-4-28 was discovered on June 13th 20XX within a library on the day of the library's arson. C-4-28 was discovered to be unharmed after the events.
On June 25th, Dr. Clyne had conducted tests on C-4-28, discovering the outer layer of C-4-28 could create a protective barrier of C3-class energy level.
(Attachment: «Protective barrier experiment log»)
Danger level: 1
Unknown level: 4
Correlation level: 3
Overall rating: C-class.
Containment procedures: C-4-28 is to be contained within a C2-class observation chamber. Its contents are to be examined once every 3 days for any changes, observational staff consist of two C-class personnel.
The two C-class personnel then acted as ordered to examine both C-4-27 and C-4-28.
C-4-27 showed no abnormalities, but C-4-28 had produced an additional entry, describing a type of virus called [Negary].
TN: And that's the final chapter of this volume, we're now moving onto a new SCP-themed world.
As you can see from the item descriptions that took up more than half the chapter, the theme of this world is going to change drastically compared to the previous one. As far as I can tell, it's going to be THE most convoluted volume in the entire series (and not necessarily in a good way), so I hope that readers will be able to brave through the next 55 chapters of volume 4.
Thank you for your support so far, and happy reading.
