I created a foundation

[Estimated arrival time: 0.5 seconds.]

It’s over.

This thought arose in the minds of every team member at the same time.

They watched as the giant, the monster that had been unharmed by their attacks, finally stopped its destructive roar.

Then, it slowly lowered its head.

[Estimated arrival time: 0.0 seconds.]

Time is up.

The expected attack did not come.

Deathly silence enveloped the forest that had just experienced the baptism of sound waves.

The giant lowered its head, motionless, like a statue made of despair. It ignored the tiny humans who pointed their weapons at it, and ignored the psychic beams that continued to fire at it in vain.

It just... stood there.

"what happened?"

One of the team members finally couldn't help but ask in a hoarse voice. His tense nerves were almost breaking at this moment. This unknown, unpredictable silence was more terrifying than the violent attack.

"it……"

Just as Busujima Saeko was about to give new instructions, her pupils suddenly shrank.

The giant moved.

It didn't attack, nor did it move. It simply turned its blurred head in a completely different direction from the investigation team.

It was a posture of extreme concentration, as if in its world, there was nothing else except that direction.

next second.

boom--!

The ground beneath its feet suddenly exploded, sending dirt and gravel flying everywhere.

Its body was like a cannonball, rushing towards the locked direction at a speed that was completely invisible to the naked eye and even the high-speed mode of a tactical camera could only leave a blurry white shadow.

That wasn't a run; that was a pure, reckless, devastating charge.

Everything along the way, whether it was the towering ancient trees that required several people to hug, or the hard volcanic rocks, was smashed into flying powder the moment it came into contact with it.

A straight "passage" full of traces of destruction was plowed out by it from the dense Aokigahara forest, extending infinitely into the distance.

The whole process didn't even take more than a second.

When the team members recovered from the destructive gust of air, the figure of the white giant had already disappeared at the end of the forest, leaving behind only a continuous trail of destruction that looked like a scar on the earth.

There was dead silence in the command channel.

Everyone was completely shocked by this incomprehensible scene.

It... just left like that?

Ignore them and leave?

"Captain... where is it... going?" A team member's voice was trembling with the pain of surviving a disaster and full of confusion.

Busujima Saeko didn't answer.

She just stared at the direction where the road of destruction extended, her mind frantically processing everything that had just happened.

The death of the D-class personnel. The rules that were triggered. The attacks that caused no damage. And, this bizarre departure that ignored the nearby enemy.

A terrible thought that chilled her whole body was gradually forming in her mind.

"wrong……"

Beside her, Yotsuya Miko suddenly uttered a sound like a dream, and her body shook like a fallen leaf in the wind.

"It's not running away... nor is it giving up the attack..."

When Jianzi raised his head, his eyes, which could see things that ordinary people could not see, were filled with unprecedented fear.

"I saw... those red lines... those lines that represent hatred, they haven't disappeared."

"They... connect the distance."

"Connecting... every..."

Before Yotsuya Miko could finish her words, Busujima Saeko already understood.

She figured everything out in an instant.

That D-class personnel.

The video footage that was transmitted back to command.

Everyone who saw that face on the surveillance screen in the safe house.

A chill even more biting than when she faced the giant itself climbed up her spine all the way to the top of her head.

This isn't a containment battle that can be confined to one area.

This is a "death" curse targeting all "observers" that is endless and absolutely unavoidable.

A rule was triggered.

Its target is never the enemy closest to it.

But everyone who saw its face.

No matter where that person is at this moment.

"Command!"

Busujima Saeko suddenly turned around and let out a heart-wrenching roar into the communicator, her voice becoming sharp and hoarse due to extreme urgency.

"Immediately cut off all live video feeds related to SCP-096! Now! Immediately! Immediately!"

The road of destruction plowed open by the white giant stretched like a hideous scar from under everyone's feet to the end of their vision, sinking into the depths of the Aokigahara Forest.

The aftermath of the violent gust of wind was still howling in the forest, sweeping up broken branches and dirt. The air was filled with the peculiar pungent grassy smell of crushed trees.

Dead silence.

A silence even more suffocating than the destructive scream that came before.

The command channel was filled with only the sound of heavy, suppressed breathing. Each battle-hardened member of the investigation team, like a puppet with its soul ripped out, stared blankly at the "pathway" leading to the unknown, their minds blank.

It just left.

In a completely incomprehensible way, he ignored them who were right in front of him and launched a desperate charge in an unknown direction.

"See you!"

Busujima Saeko's voice was like an icy sharp blade, instantly cutting through the frozen air.

She did not look at the road of destruction, but turned around suddenly, her eyes like lightning, fixed on Yotsuya Miko.

"Report! Report everything we just observed, all the details we saw, immediately to headquarters!"

There wasn't even a trace of hesitation in her voice. Her extreme calmness forcibly pulled back the nerves of the surrounding team members who were on the verge of collapse.

"Yes!"

Yotsuya Miko shuddered, her body instinctively snapping to attention. She took a deep breath, suppressed her fingertips trembling with fear, and activated the highest-priority encrypted communication channel on her tactical vest.

Her movements were still a little stiff, but when she spoke, her voice was clear, as if she had been forced into a desperate situation and was ready to make a last-ditch effort.

"This is MTF-Epsilon-6, Country Bumpkins, Forward Observer Yotsuya Miko."

"The target, tentatively codenamed the Weeping Man, has its triggering characteristics initially ascertained."

Foundation headquarters.

The atmosphere in the vast command hall beneath Feng Zhiqi Academy was solemn. Dozens of researchers in white uniforms and intelligence analysts in black tactical gear busied themselves at their respective posts. The clacking of keyboards and the low hum of servers intertwined into a symphony of efficiency and calm.

At the central command seat, Kaguya Shinomiya and Utaha Kasumigaoka stood side by side, their eyes fixed on the dozens of data windows split on the main screen.

At this moment, a communication request of the highest priority, in glaring red, forcibly occupied the center of the main screen.

The entire command hall fell silent in an instant.

"Connect."

Shinomiya Kaguya's voice was cold and steady.

The next second, Yotsuya Miko's voice, which was filled with radio noise but extremely clear, echoed in every corner of the command hall through the high-fidelity speakers.

"Trigger Condition: Any intelligent lifeform, in any form, including but not limited to direct visual observation, photographs, video recordings, or even drawings, triggers the event immediately."

Kasumigaoka Utaha frowned slightly, and she keenly grasped the terrifying meaning of the word ".~any form".

"Consequences of triggering: The target will immediately enter a rampage state that cannot be stopped by any known means. In this state, its only action is to kill all living beings that observe its face. It will stop at nothing until the target is completely eliminated."

"Warning: The target's pursuit completely disregards physical distance. Preliminary calculations indicate that its instantaneous movement speed at departure has exceeded Mach 3 and is still accelerating. All conventional physical obstacles along its path are ineffective against it."

On the main screen, a military satellite urgently pivoted, transmitting a live aerial view of the Aokigahara Sea of ​​Trees. The straight path of destruction, wrought by sheer violence, streaked across the green canvas like a razor, a horrifying sight. Meanwhile, the white dot of light, representing the target, was moving northeast at an incredible speed, its trajectory precisely pointing to the Tokyo metropolitan area.

"Warning: The target is in a rampaging state, and its physical strength exceeds the theoretical limit. All the psychic and Gaussian kinetic weapons we have used so far are unable to cause any effective damage to it. I repeat, any attack is ineffective."

At this moment, Yotsuya Miko's voice was filled with an uncontrollable tremor, and that tremor was clearly transmitted to everyone present through the loudspeaker.

It is the most primitive despair that rises from the depths of the soul when facing something that is absolutely invincible.

"Preliminary conclusion..."

She paused, as if trying to muster all her strength to utter that final, breathless judgment.

"This is a rule-based anomaly that kills you upon sight."

"Any conventional combat and containment methods may be completely ineffective. It may even cause a catastrophic, irreversible chain of containment failures by expanding the scope of observers during combat."

"repeat……"

"Conventional means...are meaningless to it!" The report ended.

The communication channel was cut off, leaving only bursts of slight electrical hissing.

You could hear a pin drop in the entire command hall.

Everything that had been running efficiently before came to a halt. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up at the central command center with a mixture of shock, confusion, and fear.