Church of the Broken God

Huang Xingwen pulled Zhang Jue and the two of them went to a garden. The other employees watched them and left them alone, seemingly didn't want to bother them.

Zhang Jue looked at Huang Xingwen with a strange look. In theory, promotion is almost impossible with Huang Xingwen around. If not because of Yang Wenbai resigned, he may not even be the Site Director.

Huang Xingwen himself aware about this, so has been to adopt a policy of decentralization. In this site he has, Yang Xue, Simmons, and Huang Xingwen. As long they are around, controlling Site-14 is doable.

With them going away for a bit and the distance between them and the guards is far enough. Looking at his face, this time they probably encountered a problem.

Zhang Jue patted his shoulder, "Old Huang, we are so familiar with each other. Say whatever you want to say."

Huang Xingwen looked at Zhang Jue, "Advisor Zhang, do you know about the Cult of the Broken God?"

The Cult of the Broken God?

Zhang Jue froze, probably anyone who had read the SCP documents would not be unfamiliar with it. The Church of the Broken God is an unusual religious organization that worships machinery and believes that life or flesh and blood is inherently evil.

They believe in the "Broken God" and believed that by restoring the "God" to a state of wholeness, they will also gain divinity at the same time. In short, it is a that worships mechanical madness.

The Broken God is called by this name because he is really "broken". He used his own body to seal the "God of Flesh and Blood" Yaldabaoth. The story related to these two supreme gods is enough to write another novel.

But as far as Zhang Jue knew, the followers of the Church of the Broken God were located on some overseas island. At least a hundred thousand miles from Jianghai City, under the influence of the Foundation and the GOC (Global Occult Coalition).

He asked, "Old Huang, what happened to the Church of the Broken God? Can you tell me more?"

Seeing that Zhang Jue really knew about this organization, Huang Xingwen sighed. "Since you know about this church. Advisor Zhang, you should know that its followers has been trying to resurrect the Broken God, and the most important thing to resurrect the Broken God is to get its 'body' together."

What Huang Xingwen said was indeed very clear to Zhang Jue. The Broken God was in a weakened state after it was shattered. The SCP Foundation had taken in many of its parts, that is its "body". Like SCP-217, SCP-1139, SCP-882, etc. should be part of its body.

Huang Xingwen continued, "In order to prevent the restoration of the Broken God, the Foundation preserve its body parts in a different site, and roll it every five years. This year, it is our site's turn. A year ago, when you went to the headquarters, they sent one of the items secretly here."

Seeing Huang Xingwen's frightened look, Zhang Jue laughed, "What is it, old Huang? Are you afraid of those fanatical believers coming to rob it?"

"Precisely." Huang Xingwen nodded his head.

"Not that I'm saying you're too worried about it, Old Huang." Zhang Jue said, "There are very few followers of the Broken God religion within the Chinese region. Besides, these items have been preserved for so many years at other sites. How do you know those fanatics will come to rob you now?"

Huang Xingwen shook his head, "I didn't believe it either, but something strange has happened recently, and I always felt it was related to this."

"Strange things?" Zhang Jue frowned slightly.

"Right." Huang Xingwen nodded, "We'll find out when you go see it, Advisor Zhang."

...

The next day, Huang Xingwen led Zhang Jue to a laboratory. Before entering the lab, Huang Xingwen and another staff member put on a thick protective suit.

"Advisor Zhang, you should put it on too." Huang Xingwen said, "It's good to be prepared."

"No need."

Zhang Jue shook his head, his current body could be said to be invulnerable to all poisons. If anything could infect him, then even wearing a protective suit would be useless. Zhang Jue saw the staff member spraying some more special liquid into the room through the machine. Only after the fog filled the air did they open the door. Seeing how careful they were, Zhang Jue couldn't help but be a little curious as to what was inside.

The three of them came inside the laboratory. The staff member carefully took out a petri dish from the freezer. The petri dish was covered with a hemispherical glass, and a specimen was kept inside. Zhang Jue thought and looked as if it was a spider. The staff carefully brought the vessel to Zhang Jue.

Seeing how careful they were, they thought there must be something special about this spider. Zhang Jue bent down and took a magnifying glass in his hand to observe carefully. Sure enough, he found the anomaly. That nail-cap sized spider legs were actually mechanical. Eight legs and there were actually gears linking up at the joints of each leg.

Huang Xingwen waved his hand to that researcher, who nodded and took Zhang Jue to a nearby room again. He drew out a drawer in which lay the corpse of a dog. The dog's limbs had likewise been turned into machinery, and even its eyes had been replaced with cameras. Zhang Jue gave an ok gesture to Huang Xingwen and the three of them exited that lab.

After Huang Xingwen and the researcher took off their clothes, Zhang Jue asked, "It's SCP-217, right?"

The researcher shook his head, "We can't be sure yet. But judging from the effects, it should be."

Zhang Jue hummed and cupped his chin in thought. At this moment, he finally knew the reason why Huang Xingwen was so worried.

SCP-217 was a mechanized virus that was capable of infecting all animals and was 100 percent lethal. It can be transmitted through body contact or touching body fluids, the body structure of the infected creature will be gradually transformed into a mechanical structure, the transformation process is extremely painful. This virus is so cruel and dangerous that the only people who can control it skillfully and not be devastated by it are the followers of the Church of the Broken God.

The presence of the SCP-217 infection here means that the followers of the Church of the Broken God must be nearby. As for their purpose, if they are not attracted by the great rivers and mountains of China and come to travel, then they must be searching for that body parts in the site.

Huang Xingwen's fears were not unreasonable. Zhang Jue thought for a moment and asked the researcher, "Where did you find them?"

"In a small village, just a few kilometers away from the site."

"Okay." Zhang Jue nodded, "Whenever you're free, let's go over there together and take a look."

...

The researcher who had set out with Zhang Jue was named Li Sicheng, currently a doctoral candidate in biology. Zhang Jue had met him and was considered one of Yang Xue's right-hand men.

When something like this happened, it would have been more appropriate for Yang Xue to step in. But coincidentally, Yang Xue had been working in the headquarters, and Huang Xingwen had been forced to promote him up.

According to Li Sicheng, the process of finding that dog was actually very simple. A colleague went to the mountains to collect insect specimens and inadvertently found the dog's corpse with some other scavenging insects scattered around. They judged from the dog's tracks that it should have come from the small mountain village on top of the mountain.

Li Sicheng said, "We had reported our findings to the headquarters, but the headquarters seems to be a bit busy. There is no reply yet for the time being. Knowing that it was left to us to take care of it, we should do it carefully and then ask the headquarters for help whenever they're available."

Zhang Jue nodded. It was true that the headquarters side seemed to be overwhelmed by something lately. Not to mention that Yang Xue had been there and no news had come from Lei Shan for a long time.

The two of them walked up the slope of the mountain. Before going to the top, Zhang Jue saw the village that Li Sicheng had mentioned. It was called a village, but Zhang Jue counted only a dozen families, and most of the houses were in ruins. It was an old village from many years ago.

This kind of village is not convenient for transportation, school and work. It is estimated that even if there are people, they would be only old people living in it. The kind of people who are not willing to move out.

Walking to the entrance of the village, Zhang Jue saw a brand new bag of food on the ground. There was not much dust on it, it looked like it was recently discarded. Zhang Jue picked it up and looked at it and found that it was all written in English.

They also found a lot of fresh footprints on the ground, probably left over from the rain the other day. All of them looked like hiking boots, it seems that a few people had come to this place before.

Zhang Jue narrowed his eyes. "You stay here, I'll go up and take a look." He said to Li Sicheng.

"But-" Li Sicheng was a bit hesitant, as if he felt that it was a bit unethical to let Zhang Jue wade through the risks alone.

Zhang Jue was already the Deputy Site Director of Site-14 and an A Class personnel. According to the Foundation's requirements, he was not supposed to be in direct contact with those dangerous anomalies.

However, Zhang Jue was a bit special. His so-called rank could only be taken as a kind of recognition from the Foundation, both in terms of power and influence. which was very different from other people of the same rank.

"What is it?" Zhang Jue slapped on the back of Li Sicheng's head, "The people and animals in this village force are likely to be infected by the virus, and you didn't bring protective clothing. If you go with me, be careful to die without knowing how."

Li Sicheng know is this reasoning, he asked, "What about you, Advisor Zhang?"

"You don't have to worry about me." Zhang Jue waved his hand, "I am possessed by a God. Since I was a child, I have never even gotten a cold. Hey, it's really a kind of regret that I can't even take sick leave."

...

Walking alone into the village, Zhang Jue put away his joking thoughts. The village had only one road, and the houses were built on both sides of the road. The height difference between the houses was also very large, and that last house had almost reached the top of the hill.

Zhang Jue followed the stone steps all the way up. He found that most of the houses in the village were empty as he had expected, and only a few had clothes hanging outside, probably someone was there. Zhang Jue picked one and walked into the courtyard. An old man was lying on a bamboo chair sunbathing can be seen.

"How are you, old man?" Zhang Jue said with a smile.

"What?" The old man looked at Zhang Jue with confused eyes, not knowing if his ears were bad or his brain was bad.

"I said, How are you?" Zhang Jue amplified his volume. But the old man still looked confused.

"What did you say?"

"I said, I'm going to give you 100 yuan." Zhang Jue almost yelled out.

"Oh, okay. Bring it here." The old man held out his hand decisively. His body language and eyes were clear that he has a demented look.

Shit, I've been cheated out of a hundred yuan in the blink of an eye.

Zhang Jue took out a hundred from his wallet and put it in the old man's hand, his heart dripping with blood.

"Old man, you can't take money for nothing. Let me ask you something."

"Go ahead and ask." The old man looked at the money against the sunlight and rubbed it with his hands before finally tucking it into his belt with in a good mood.

Zhang Jue pointed to the clothesline at the door, "Who gave you that dress?"

Of course, Zhang Jue didn't just find one and go inside. He found a dress on the clothesline at the door that was obviously different from the others. With a few letters written on it that Zhang Jue couldn't read, probably some foreign brand.

Seeing such clothes here was as out of place as seeing spaghetti in an authentic Chinese restaurant.

"Ah, about that. A month ago, a group of people came here and they broke one of my clothes. They replaced it."

"Oh, so that's it. Are they still in the village now?"

The old man looked at Zhang Jue and reverted to his confused demeanor, "What did you say?"

Zhang Jue sighed, it looked like the old man had a disease of playing dumb when he couldn't see the money.

He took out another hundred yuan and shoved it into the old man's hand, "Old man, are they still in the village?"

The old man took the money and looked left and right, smiling happily, "They have left a long time."

"Why did they come here for?"

Another hundred dollars.

"How should I know? Ask the village chief!"

After successfully being pitched four hundred yuan. Zhang Jue, with hot tears in his eyes, walked down the steps and all the way to the house at the top of the hill.

If I had known, I would have gone straight up the hill. What a cheeky old man!

Zhang Jue walked for ten minutes before he arrived at the home of the so-called village chief. There was an old man in the yard, younger than the one just now, looking only sixty or seventy years old, and he was feeding the chickens in the yard when Zhang Jue arrived.

"Excuse me, are you the chief of this village?" Zhang Jue asked.

"Yes, who are you looking for?"

"Ah, Hello. I'm from the Jianghai City Public Security Bureau." Zhang Jue took out a book of documents and waved it in front of the village head, "Our bureau is recently investigating a case with a few foreign suspects and would like to find out from you if they have been to your village."

"No." The village chief said directly, "This village is almost deserted. Our own people do not want to come back and no foreigners are allowed here."

"Really?" Zhang Jue stared at the village chief's eyes, and waved the documents in front of his eyes, "Village Chief, I know people are old. But let me tell you, these people are international felons. If you don't know about it, then it's okay. If you don't report it, then it is a serious crime. When the government sends missiles here and directly blow up the village. You're going to die as a sinner!"

Zhang Jue saw the old man that didn't know the law and exaggerates it. The old man did panic a little, his eyes flashed, but still refused to admit it.

"No, just no!"

"Okay, it's fine if you don't want to say anything. But let's be real and say it up front. If I find any clues, don't blame me for being ungracious." Zhang Jue looked around the courtyard and pointed to an empty doghouse, "Village Chief, can you tell me where your dog has gone?"