Strange Things Below

Yang Wenbai's paused for a moment, and his voice trembled a little. Yang Xue froze, completely did not expect such information. For a researcher working in the SCP Foundation, death caused by anomalies is possible. But, erasing someone's existence was something different.

Zhang Jue frowned slightly and could probably guess what type of anomaly Yang Xue's father, Yang Wensong, had gone to be in charge of.

Yang Wenbai continued, "I reported your father's name, title, ID number, and employee number. But according to the staff's query results, there was no such person as Yang Wensong in the Foundation's employee database."

"I find it very funny. Your father was an influential person in Site-14. How could you not find any information about him? So many anomalies are under his responsibility. How could there be no record? And the people at the Headquarters replied that all of those anomalies were already contained in Site-14 a long time ago, and the person who handled them before was unknown."

"After hanging up the phone, I immediately checked the database within site and found that the anomalies that were supposed to be handled by your father on the column of the head researcher. It was indeed written unknown."

"I asked people within the site if they remembered your father, and they all thought I was crazy. As if your father really didn't exist in this world."

"I went home and found the pictures I had taken with him and found that wherever he had existed, had disappeared."

"I began to doubt myself, and I thought I was under the influence of some anomaly and was hallucinating."

"But then I realized. If it wasn't because of you, Xue, you were the one who reminded me that I wasn't the crazy one in this world."

"You remember your father too." Yang Wenbai leaned back on the sofa and looked into Yang Xue's eyes, tears shining.

"Yang Xue, that's why I told you to never mention your father to outsiders, let alone investigate it yourself."

"Because I was afraid. I'm afraid that you would face the same fate as him, afraid that you would disappear from this world too."

"Even the traces of existence are erased." Yang Wenbai finished speaking and slowly closed his eyes.

The shock in Yang Xue's heart could not be described. She never knew that this uncle of hers had been carrying this burden throughout his life.

Yang Wenbai let out a long sigh, "Yang Xue, there are many things in this world that we cannot understand. I know that I cannot stop you from investigating the truth of the matter, but you should always be careful because if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."

Yang Wenbai knew Yang Xue very well, and he knew that once he told her the truth of the matter. She would definitely investigate it even if the price were her life. But there was no way around it. If it was in the past, he might have buried this truth in his heart for the rest of his life. But now, he decided to trust her, and she was not alone. She had an "all-powerful" Zhang Jue by her side.

"Advisor Zhang." Yang Wenbai turned to him, and his expression was solemn.

"In terms of ability, you are better than me, maybe even better than my missing brother. I'm not worried about that, but I've lived longer than you in this world, after all, I've seen more people, and I have a saying that I've learned from working at the Foundation for so many years, and I want to give it to you."

Yang Wenbai was about to have his memory deleted, so every word he was about to say came from his heart.

Zhang Jue sat upright and cupped his fist, "Please speak, Elder Wenbai."

Yang Wenbai said, "If we talk about destructive power, one SCP object is enough to destroy the world. But if we talk about the degree of danger, sometimes it may appear in the form of a child - compared to those anomalous objects that looked scary. People are the most feared thing in this world."

After hearing Yang Wenbai's words, Zhang Jue was silent. He had heard similar statements, whether it was those invisible and untouchable demons and monsters or aliens with super high technology.

When it came to plotting devious tricks, they were all nothing in front of the humans. The old man had spent a lifetime of his own life confirming this truth. Zhang Jue nodded his head to his advice.

-----

Three days later, Jiangzhou Airport. Zhang Jue and Yang Xue came as friends to give Lei Shan a farewell. Several people had gotten along quite well in the past few days since Lei Shan came to Jiangzhou. Especially during the school celebration ceremony, Lei Shan gave Zhang Jue enough respect. Although Zhang Jue never said it, he always remembered it in his heart.

Zhang Jue whispered to Yang Xue, "This man, although a little wilted. Not bad at all for a friend." Despite Zhang Jue still has a grudge about the five million.

Lei Shan clasped his fist, "If you have the chance to come to the Headquarters, I will treat you for dinner."

Zhang Jue didn't even think about it and immediately declined, "No, we'll try not to go there if possible."

In his opinion, going to the Headquarters of any organization was very dangerous. SCP Foundation headquarters, there was no telling what demons and ghosts were inside.

Yang Xue glanced at Lei Shan, wanting to say something but refusing to do so. Zhang Jue is a person who has become an expert and immediately saw that she had something to say. It was that kind of question that she refused to know the answer to.

He shrugged and put his hands in his pockets, "I'm going to take a dump. You guys can talk."

"Gross." Yang Xue gave him a blank look, yet Zhang Jue had already walked out a good distance without looking back.

Lei Shan watched the two of them interact with each other and found it amusing, "Dr. Yang, aren't you afraid that Advisor Zhang will misunderstand your words?"

Yang Xue said, "I don't care about him."

Lei Shan was not Zhang Jue. He was modest and polite, and in his opinion, this level of joking was enough.

His face gradually became serious, "Dr. Yang, is it about that question?" Yang Xue nodded gently.

During the Jiangzhou University ceremony, Lei Shan had promised her that if Zhang Jue completed his mission, he would inform Yang Xue the truth about why Zhang Jue was trusted by the Foundation. In the end, Zhang Jue had lived up to the expectations and managed to stop the Hanged King's murder spree, and Yang Xue could finally satisfy her curiosity.

She finally had the chance to know why the Foundation trusted Zhang Jue so much and why they had given him such a high rank. She believed that Lei Shan was not someone who would forget his word.

Sure enough, Lei Shan nodded gently and looked around to make sure everyone around was more than ten meters away from them before asking her, "Dr. Yang, do you know about SCP-990?"

-----

Item No: SCP-990 (The Dream Man)

Object Class: Keter

Description: SCP-990 is generally a human male dressed in a Cold War-era business suit who appears to Foundation personnel through dreams. Presently there have been no reports of SCP-990 appearing to non-Foundation personnel.

SCP-990 has appeared to Foundation personnel since [DATA EXPUNGED]. SCP-990's existence came to light when several Agents discussed having dreams involving a similar individual. Numerous other Agents reported dream-sightings of an individual matching the description of SCP-990.

Special Containment Procedures: Currently, no containment for SCP-990 has been devised. Any personnel with suggestions for the containment of SCP-990 should report to Dr. ██████████. Any ideas are welcome, regardless of who suggests them.

-----

The appearance of SCP-990 was generally to war the SCP Foundation of something bad or even a disaster, so the Foundation encourages its staff to talk about it and spread the information. As a senior researcher, Yang Xue was certainly aware of the existence of SCP-990. Associated with the identity of Lei Shan, Yang Xue immediately came up with reasonable speculation.

"Do you mean that an O5 Member dreamed of SCP-990, and he prophesied about Zhang Jue?"

This seemed to be the most likely scenario, but Lei Shan shook his head instead.

"Not only one O5 Member," he said, "but all of them."