Foundation: I am recruiting crickets from all dimensions to fight

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This time there was no crazy involvement.

In the picture, O5 handed Hughes a document.

The document was a scientific paper, signed by none other than Hughes himself, and co-authored by some of his fellow researchers, including two who were supposed to be in the meeting room.

Hughes did not recognize the title or content of the paper, but this was not uncommon in his work.

The text was written in the original owner's own formal, scholarly style, so he had no reason to doubt its authenticity.

This is a snappy article, very dense and to the point, aimed at other memetics scientists.

In the abstract, the paper states that a new, extremely powerful and dangerous (anti-)memetic complex has been observed, tentatively designated SCP-3125, and the authors plan to apply for Apollyon classification for it.

See here,

The audience expressed their concerns about the purpose of this conference.

Finally there is a guess.

obviously,

This meeting took place at the final moments of SCP-3125's full-scale invasion.

O5 also began to consider countermeasures.

In the screen,

Hughes read the document word for word.

"We could wipe out all intelligent human life," he said.

"If there is no intelligent host in the universe, SCP-3125 cannot appear."

There was a slightly shocked pause.

"Yes," Wheeler said. "You've already mentioned that. I don't think any of you here can be sure you mean it."

"I'm totally serious that we can do this, and I'm totally serious that it will work," Hughes said.

"Our mission statement is Secure Contain Protect. We really should add a sentence to it sometime about keeping as much of the human race alive as possible."

The audience was shocked.

Is this guy really a Foundation employee?

Rather than some world-destroying demon king or something like that?

Who would just kill all humans just to contain an anomaly?

Even Thanos called him an expert after seeing it.

"It goes without saying that we need to protect humanity," a high-ranking official said.

"Control anomalies, contain anomalies, protect anomalies. Is there any other explanation?" Hughes laughed sarcastically.

"We're getting off topic," Wheeler said. "We're not going to exterminate all intelligent life."

"We can also immediately terminate and suppress all memetic and antimemetic research worldwide," Hughes continued, as if he didn't see the expressions of the crowd.

"Hughes!" Wheeler said. "No. Avoidance won't help. It could be introduced from outside, or it could occur naturally—"

"We all know this. Hughes, this is already happening. SCP-3125 is coming just as we told you. Look at these precursor anomalies. We are in the midst of what is known as the Omen. It's right here."

Wheeler was referring to the forecasting model Hughes had created in previous meetings, a model he had not had time to familiarize himself with.

But he still understood.

He hoped he didn't understand.

His fear did not come from the same source as most people.

The sheer alienness of the opponent is enough to scare most people into submission in fear.

At a glance, SCP-3125 appears to be a nightmare scenario;

It would transform human civilization into something Hughes could never have imagined.

But that was the Monday routine of the job, and Hughes never had much imagination.

He knows almost the entire SCP database by heart, and he is a world-class authority on anomaly containment.

In the few scientific fields where he does not have genius-level abilities, he has his own trustworthy colleagues in charge.

They are all solved problems, locked boxes.

This one is different.

He had more ideas, but here, mechanically, there was no way to work on the problem.

As soon as he tried to understand the whole problem, it would tear him apart.

He needs to design and build a box, while also being inside the box that is being built.

He had to fit the entire universe into a box.

Chapter 5: O betrayal? Death of the Antimemetics Division!

See here,

Even the audience in the chat group felt the suffocating and depressing atmosphere.

As Hughes thought,

SCP-3125 is unlike any previous antimeme.

It is not simply changing other people's memories,

It will kill anyone who knows of its existence.

This means that any containment measures against it will lead to the death of the leaders and executors!

however,

Following the words of O5,

The atmosphere in the chat group changed again.

"Your team has suggested that SCP-3125 is simply the most powerful memetic threat complex ever observed, but that does not mean it is at the top of the system,"

O5-8 said.

"You point out that it is still possible to synthesize an idea an order of magnitude more powerful than SCP-3125, designed specifically to neutralize SCP-3125, and under our control. A counter-meme."

Hughes's expression suddenly changed when he heard this.

"It will take...it's indeed...possible." Hughes began to speculate.

"It will be incredibly dangerous. It will require enormous resources. It will also require ten to twenty years of actual work, without interruption. To avoid observation, we will need to be completely sealed off from the outside world the entire time. We will need a laboratory as large as the launch building. Wait a moment."

His brain just caught on.

He realized the context in which he had said these words.

He has been working for the Foundation for a long time.

then,

He remembered.

"It's done," he said.

"The lab, it's finished. It was finished twenty years ago, in secret, we sent our best researchers into it, and it's finished now. Now, that's why we're meeting. We're ready to go.

We discovered how to deploy counter-memes.

Awesome! If I'm right, this is awesome.

Am I right?

However, after figuring it all out, he felt a shadow falling over him.

"You were right when you said the lab was fixed. Construction was completed within the last forty-eight hours. The construction team was amnesticized and disbanded. But work has yet to begin. That's what I'm going to talk about today."

Hughes seemed to have been shot.

He murmured, "...My people went there."

To carry out a mission that is almost certain to end in death

“That’s where your people went,” Li said.

As Hughes's boss, he sympathized with Hughes, but had to say:

"They're in the bunker, waiting. We've got a cover story for you. We're going to fake your death. It's time. You're going to go underground."

See here,

The audience also had mixed feelings for a while.

Because this is destined to be a mission with almost no chance of survival!

For Hughes in particular, this was undoubtedly a death sentence.

In the screen,

Hughes's face was pale.

"Now? No, I…I have my doubts."

“Your team is a volunteer. I personally took care of them. They are all good people,” Li said.

"Anyone who agreed to this before was a goddamn idiot, and I'm going to overrule him. This is a prison sentence. I don't want to spend twenty years in the dark. I don't want to be buried alive by my work. I have..."

He slowly closed his mouth and looked across the table, his eyes out of focus.

He was about to say, "I have family."

But he didn't.

"Give me the other people's names," Li suggested.

"Seriously. Who else in the world, besides you, has a reasonable chance of solving this problem? Who else can we send?"

Hughes said nothing.

There is no one left, really, there is no one else in this world.

And he can do it.

However, Li continued to ask,

"Anyone else? Even if they don't want to do it themselves. Anyone else with the technical skills we need, who isn't in the vault?"

The world has shifted its stance slightly.

Sherlock Holmes Universe.