The Coffin

"What… do you mean?" Yang Wensong looked at Zhang Jue, revealing an uncomprehending expression.

Zhang Jue snapped his nose, picked out a pile of boogers, flicked them away, and then rubbed his fingers on his shirt.

"Haven't I made myself clear enough? You have a great story, but I'm too handsome. When it comes to lying, I'm the expert here." Zhang Jue extended the finger that had just snapped his nose and shook it, "You should just go home and play video games." Seeing that Yang Wensong still looked dumbfounded, Zhang Jue laughed.

What is the highest level of deception? Of course, are half-truths or the most prominent ones are things that have nothing to do with the main story are true, only that the most critical point is false.

There is no doubt about it that this hologram probably has a part of Yang Wensong's memory. The first half of what he said, including how Yang Wensong discovered the Antimemetic anomaly and how he joined the Antimemetics Division, was probably all true.

But later on, Zhang Jue gradually saw that he was lying.

Here's the question. How do you recognize a lie?

Details, of course.

In the first part, it was Yang Wensong's own experience, so what he said was very detailed and true. But as the story goes, "Yang Wensong" said so many things but did not even report the SCP number.

People with a slight awareness can see that there is a problem. In fact, he was given a warning before Zhang Jue came here. The last words of the interrogator he encountered were, "Don't trust him". From that moment on, Zhang Jue had already decided that he would be wary of all the people he met.

When Yang Wensong said, "I can assure you can find it as soon as you enter that door," Zhang Jue confirmed that he was lying. The purpose was obvious: to lure him into the door. Zhang Jue didn't expose it on the spot to see if the other party still had a backup plan.

"So, what's behind this door?" Zhang Jue asked with a smile, "Hell? Or is it your true body?"

Seeing that Zhang Jue had recognized him, "Yang Wensong's" expression turned uncertain and eventually changed to a sinister face.

"Zhang Jue." His voice suddenly turned cold, "No one can leave here alive."

"After I was born, I had no intention of returning alive." Zhang Jue laughed, "If you have any strategies on your own, then come at me. Why should I be afraid of you? my last name is not Zhang."

Zhang Jue is now strong and has all kinds of anomalous objects. He has to be careful when facing those gods and goddesses. But he will have fun out of it when it comes to fighting.

Yang Wensong was silent but had obviously torn his face off from Zhang Jue. A click sounded. The door Zhang Jue had entered was completely closed. Then the doors on both sides opened, and two teams of heavily armed soldiers rushed in.

Looking at the style of clothes, they should be part of the security team of this site. But their eyes were vacant, their expressions were dull, and they had obviously been taken over. They were clothed in human skin, but technically speaking, they were no longer alive.

At this moment, Yang Wensong spoke again. "Zhang Jue, join us or die. You can only choose one."

He still seemed to want to pull Zhang Jue into his plan.

But thinking with his toes, Zhang Jue couldn't agree to it. "Sorry, my life is not a matter of choice." Zhang Jue laughed.

"Then Goodbye." As soon as Yang Wensong's words left his mouth, the heavily armed security members aimed their guns at Zhang Jue.

Zhang Jue took the first step to strike before they could pull the trigger. He summoned the long black sword and made a move to sweep them. The sword extended outward, forming a wave of air.

The two security teams were too late to dodge, and their bodies were all chopped off. Their intestines were scattered all over the ground. At first glance, Zhang Jue had won completely. It didn't even take much effort.

Zhang Jue let out a tsk. Even he did not expect such a result after being tempered by SCP-682's ability. His physical quality had improved to a level that matched Able. Although this sword is not like Able, but he can extend the knife energy to more than ten meters or even dozens of meters away.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Yang Wensong froze. Probably because of his programming, he never thought an ordinary person could resist two heavily armed security teams.

"Well?" Zhang Jue plunged his sword to the floor and looked at Yang Wensong.

"You must join us, or else-"

"Or else, my ass!"

Zhang Jue slashed at the source of the hologram's light. With a click, the ceiling was split open by Zhang Jue, revealing the wires inside, flashing arcs of light and emitting a thunderous sound. Yang Wensong's hologram also gradually became blurred and finally disappeared.

"Really, the most annoying thing is riddlers like you."

Zhang Jue gave a swish, spat his saliva, walked around the pile of corpses on the ground, and walked over to a computer. He was about to check the computer when the fake Yang Wensong suddenly appeared.

Obviously, there was something in this computer that he didn't dare show anyone. Zhang Jue operated the computer while his head kept thinking. Yang Wensong's hologram was not some magical work but a set of computer programs.

It should have been designed by someone, not some SCP Object, unless it was SCP-079 (the Old AI) that caused it. But Zhang Jue had heard Simmons say before he came here that SCP­-079 had been well contained in another site.

"What secrets are hidden in this site? let me see if I can find out about it."

Zhang Jue mumbled under his breath, then opened the main interface of his computer. There was only one video file on the desktop. Zhang Jue clicked it open. A blonde woman with blue eyes appeared on the screen.

"Hello, I'm the fourth Site Director of Site-237, Lavie Healey." She said, "No matter who you are when you see this recording. I guess this site has already fallen."

"This is the Foundation's Antimemetics Division, whether you have heard of this division or not. After watching this video, you must leave quickly. It is very dangerous here."

"Inform the SCP Foundation of my next words, and you will be making a significant contribution to the survival of humanity."

"SCP-3125 is back."

That was the end of the video. Zhang Jue tilted his head and watched it again. But the entire video was only a few dozen seconds long, and the content was short. It was obviously filmed in a great hurry. Zhang Jue could even hear the gasps of others coming from beside this Director Healey. Presumably, they were being chased by something.

SCP-3125 is back? Zhang Jue sighed.

It was true that what was feared came. What SCP-3125 was, had been introduced before. It could be said to be the biggest enemy of the entire Antimemetics Division. It was the culprit for the disappearance of the Foundation and even the entire world's Antimemetics research organization.

It is an idea with no entity, so there is no way to contain it directly. The former head of the Antimemetics Division said a famous phrase about how to defeat it: Ideas can be killed with better ideas.

And in the end, SCP-3125 was neutralized by the very same idea that the Head Division had thought about it. SCP-3125 was completely neutralized, and Zhang Jue had felt that this was the end of the story, but he had not expected that it would make a comeback again.

Obviously, this time it still targeted the Antimemetics Division. As long as all the people in the Antimemetics Division were killed, it would have no more enemies. Sooner or later, all humans will become puppets.

How will SCP-3125 be contained this time? What better idea is left for him? Zhang Jue thought when he suddenly saw something in his afterimage.

He turned his head and saw a black shadow looking at him from the other doorway of this central room, which had also been opened at some point. Seeing that he had been discovered, the dark figure turned his head and ran.

Seeing this, Zhang Jue also immediately started chasing it. There were too many mysteries on this site. Although he had the main information, Zhang Jue was still confused about many things. For example, he didn't have a clue where all the people on the site had gone. The black shadow that had guided him to the cipher the password was the only clue so far.

Zhang Jue followed it and dived into another corridor. The black shadow was so fast that Zhang Jue could not catch up with it. It always kept a certain distance from Zhang Jue. By the time Zhang Jue realized it, he had already arrived at an area he hadn't been in before.

As he went deeper, he could feel the temperature lowering and already see his own shadow. Zhang Jue had a feeling that the black shadow seemed to have brought him here on purpose.

Zhang Jue was facing this long corridor like a man exploring an ancient tomb. He was careful at his step, fear of triggering some mechanism. After all, this was two hundred meters underground, and even if he was invulnerable to swords and spears, he could easily die here. But it was clear that he had a plan.

After a few more minutes of walking, he saw a large door after crossing a corner—a gate made of metal. There was a large cross painted on it. When he got here, the temperature had also nearly reached the freezing point.

"Holy shit, even though it's in the desert. How the hell this kind of temperature can be achieved." Zhang Jue grunted.

This level of temperature was not a threat to him, but it was bizarre. Zhang Jue came to the door, tried to push it, and found that it was not locked. He pushed slightly, and the door opened a little, and it was pitch black inside.

Zhang Jue groped around the door and found a switch. However, after turning on the light, he was stunned by the sight in front of him. This room was hemispherical, almost as big as the central control room from earlier.

However, there were no computers here. Instead, countless crystal coffins were placed here, large in size and heavy, neatly arranged in the room.

In each crystal coffin, there was a corpse lying. Zhang Jue looked around and roughly estimated that there were several hundred coffins here. In other words, there were also hundreds of corpses.

What the hell?

Even though Zhang Jue had seen all kinds of scenes, he was stunned for a moment. He suddenly felt like a white boy who knew nothing.

What the hell is this? Is this the mass grave of the Antimemetics Division?

No wonder the temperature here is so low. It turns out that it is used to keep fresh. The crystal coffin obviously also had special settings, and most of the corpses remained in their pre-mortem state without the slightest sign of decay.

Zhang Jue looked over one corpse after another and found that most of them looked very peaceful in death, and some even had smiles on their faces. There were no obvious external injuries on their bodies, but their lips were purple, obviously poisoned.

On the other hand, few of them had very grim faces. Most of them had died from traumatic injuries, had been shot, and simply had their necks cut out with a knife.

What's going on here? Did the comeback of SCP-3125 change its nature? Killing humans and then burying them here?

Zhang Jue himself didn't believe it when he said it. It was obvious that someone had placed their bodies inside one by one.

Who could it be? Gray and his daughter?

Zhang Jue thought about it and dismissed the idea. Although their current whereabouts were unknown, they shouldn't have known about this place based on their previous behavior unless everyone was a professional actor and had fooled him and Yang Xue simultaneously. But that was almost impossible.

As he walked inward along with the crystal coffin, Zhang Jue thought about it, finally arriving at the first coffin. This crystal coffin's system was clearly different from the others. Inside it was a blonde woman.

Zhang Jue narrowed his eyes as she was the same woman Zhang Jue had seen in the video, Lavie Healey, the fourth Head of the Antimemetics Division. Her name was also engraved on the top of the crystal coffin. Her lips were blackened, and she had likewise died of poison. Yet there was a smile on her face. It seemed very relieved.

What could possibly be the cause?

Zhang Jue felt a little strange. He looked closely at Healey's corpse and suddenly found some dried blood on the fingertips of her right hand. Her palm was down and covered with several letters. She seemed to have left some kind of message before she died.

"I'm sorry. Director Healey." Zhang Jue said and then moved the lid of the crystal coffin away.

A special gas emanated from inside. Zhang Jue covered his nose and moved Healey's right hand out of the way. Only to see a few letters written in blood underneath.

"Love u, my son."

Huh?

Zhang Jue had expected to see some important message, but he hadn't expected it to be this.

Love you, my son?

Well.

Zhang Jue sighed. It seems pretty normal for a woman to think of her own son before she dies. Zhang Jue was just about to put the lid back on, but a thought suddenly occurred to him.

Director Hurley was still alive when she was lying here and had time to bite through her own finger to write her last words, and she had a smile on her face. It was hard to believe that she had committed suicide.

Then all those people here who were poisoned committed suicide? They were not poisoned but took a poison!

This discovery made Zhang Jue frown. He began to look carefully at all the corpses. It was found that many of them had left their last words before they died. Some even held some mementos in their hands. Zhang Jue could almost imagine how they felt as they lay here waiting to die.

Zhang Jue thought of the man who had gone to Site-14 to give them a message that seemed to commit suicide as well. They must have had some kind of reason for having to do it.

Zhang Jue sighed.

Continuing down the path, an empty coffin appeared before him. He frowned slightly and slowly moved closer to that coffin. It was surprising to find a Chinese name written on it.

Yang Wensong.