Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-adjective
Ji Dong, Ren Jianmo, Mo Tiangen, and the siblings from the Fan family walked into the Hourglass Cube. They registered as a team in front of the artificial intelligence dressed as a bunny girl before walking through the corridor and entering the foyer.
In the dark hall, where walls and domes were invisible, stood the massive glowing glass hourglass.
Inside, countless cube-shaped “grains of sand” were floating, seemingly weightlessly, appearing to be suspended in mid-air. They drifted chaotically, resembling thousands of fireflies trapped in a giant transparent bug cage.
Even though it was already the fourth time, little Ji Dong still felt a bit nervous.
His luck had never been great before, and even after arriving at the [Peach Blossom Spring], it seemed that there had been no improvement at all. He had always been an unlucky E.
The first three [Films] that he drew out seemed to have a difficulty level higher than most other [Films] of the same rank.
Even Fan Hemian and Fan Luming, who joined their team midway, complained that although they were both seasoned participants in B-level difficulty [Films], the two most challenging worlds were the ones they experienced together with them: [Painted Wall of Souls] and [Strange Tales at 24:00].
Ji Dong also felt hopeless about this.
But the card must still be drawn. Classmate Ji Xiao’niao could only stand in front of the hourglass, take a deep breath, calm his mind, and reach out to touch the giant hourglass.
His fingertips landed on an invisible wall of air.
[Please select the difficulty level of the [Film] you want to challenge.]
A male AI voice, speaking in a standard broadcasting tone, said clearly.
Although he was asked to choose a difficulty level, Ji Dong only saw one option, [A].
The five of them fell silent.
Ji Dong, Ren Jianmo, and Mo Tiangen had experienced this situation before.
While Fand Hemian and Fan Luming were encountering it for the first time, they had heard about it from Ji Xiao’niao and the others before. Although they were very surprised, they quickly realized what was going on.
Ji Dong: “Just to be safe, I’ll ask anyway.”
He looked up at the invisible figure in the void and said, “Why can we only choose difficulty level ‘A’?”
[The system is currently confirming the question raised by the participant with code C0919. Please wait.]
The AI voice responded in a soft and gentle tone.
After about two seconds, it provided an answer:
[Difficulty selection has been confirmed to be error-free.]
Then the voice continued to explain:
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
[All five participants in your team have recently taken ability-enhancing drugs, and their comprehensive indicators have significantly improved to varying degrees. Their strength has now fully met the requirements of the A-level difficulty level [Fim]. Therefore, the difficulty level of next month’s [Film] selection is limited to A-level.]
Pa qjerfv obg j wbwfca, atfc mbcalcefv klat atja wlrmtlfnber ilcf:
[Regarding this difficulty adjustment, the [Peach Blossom Spring] reserves the final right to interpretation.]
Snfgsbcf: “…”
Qfii, ktfc lc Ebwf, vb jr atf Ebwjcr vb. Qtja firf mjc kf vb?
Ji Dong reluctantly reached out and selected the option [A].
Ktf uibklcu meyfr oibjalcu lc atf uijrr tbeguijrr yfujc ab rqlc, obgwlcu j nbgafz bo iluta qjgalmifr. Ktfc, j meyf vfajmtfv ogbw la klat j “vlcu” jcv vgbqqfv ab atf ybaabw bo atf tbeguijrr.
The drawing was complete.
Ji Dong, with his experience, took a few steps back and returned to the group, ready to watch the upcoming trailer from a better distance.
At that moment, the air wall dimmed.
Then the group heard the distinctive noisy squeaking sound of a communication device being interfered with by electrical currents.
[Warning! Warning!]
In the footage, the voice of a middle-aged man came through the electrical noise, sounding anxious and frightened, as if he had been greatly startled.
[Level A containment breach! Level A containment breach!]
The man shouted hysterically:
[The containment of SCP-104 has completely failed! This will result in a large-scale containment breach at this site! All personnel at this site, evacuate immediately! All personnel at this site evacuate immediately!]
“Holy cow!”
Fan Hemian and Fan Luming simultaneously lowered their voices and whispered.
Ji Dong quickly glanced at the two siblings from the corner of his eye and saw that their faces had turned pale and their faces looked as if they had swallowed a fly.
Based on these simple three sentences, these two experienced participants had already deduced what kind of [Film] they were about to face, and it definitely wouldn’t be an easy challenge.
At this moment, the electrical noise disappeared, and in its place, a soaring soprano sang a stirring aria.
Simultaneously, the screen lit up.
Ji Dong and the others witnessed a scene that resembled a hellish landscape.
If he had to describe it, Ji Xiao’niao felt that this setting was quite similar to a famous horror movie he had seen years ago, called “The Cabin in the Woods.”
In the movie, there was this organization that, to appease ancient evil gods, would hold sacrificial rituals simultaneously in various locations around the world.
They would lure a group of innocent people to a meticulously prepared location, and have them summon one of the various evil creatures collected by the organization. These summoned creatures then proceed to kill all the sacrifices, providing entertainment for the evil gods.
However, the main characters in the story always seem to have an extraordinary stroke of luck.
Instead of being killed by the monsters, the male and female leads unexpectedly discovered an underground elevator that led to the heart of the organization.
Inside the elevator, they saw thousands of monsters and realized that everything they had encountered had been intentionally orchestrated by someone.
So, the male and female leads released countless monsters stored within the organization, plunging everyone in the facility into a bloody massacre.
At this moment, Ji Dong saw a scene in the footage that bore a striking resemblance to the classic plot of the movie.
Amidst the soaring and energetic soprano aria, the unknown building was filled with people running frantically.
Some were desperately fleeing, while others were fighting back with all their might.
And there were even more people who seemed to be possessed, behaving in all sorts of peculiar ways.
Some were standing there, either crazily dancing, others had vacant stares, and some were completely covered in blood. In addition, there were several individuals who, in his eyes, could no longer be called “human”…
Those who were chasing, expelling, hunting, and controlling the people inside the building were many strange things.
Ji Dong saw creatures resembling winged dragons with three heads, moving steel golems, a large group of insects covered in boils, and even a notebook and a gramophone…
Everyone gritted their teeth and endured about twenty seconds of gruesome scenes.
Finally, the soprano came to an end, and both the female voice and the visuals abruptly stopped.
[It has been confirmed that there has been a major containment failure at Site 7.]
A tired middle-aged man’s voice rang out.
The screen lit up again, and Ji Dong and the others finally caught a glimpse of the appearance of the building where the massacre took place.
It looked like a military base, except that everything was covered in a grayish-green unknown shell.
The overhead camera gradually zoomed in from a high vantage point.
Finally, they could see the true nature of that grayish-green shell.
It was a dense honeycomb-like structure, sticking together and overlapping, forming dull, plate-like barriers. These barriers were stacked and intertwined as if adding a layer or even multiple layers of intricate little houses on top of the artificial base.
Then, Ji Dong and the others saw “people.”
And not just one, but a group of them.
“From various buildings, ‘people’ emerged, each with different appearances, heights, and sizes, looking like the most ordinary and common humans.
But these people exuded something that didn’t seem quite ‘human,’ causing the audience to feel nauseous and suffocated with a sense of dissonance.
Each person had a dreamlike and eerily unsettling smile on their face.
These people, regardless of age, gender, or attractiveness, all seemed to be wearing a smiley face mask that was copied and pasted.
They walked out of various buildings in the base, gradually gathering in the open space. As they brushed past each other, every person greeted those around them.
The camera captured their expressions, and from beginning to end, these people seemed to be immersed in indescribably beautiful things the whole time, their smiles filled with joy and happiness.
Ji Dong and the others also noticed that these people were all wearing rough white robes.
In the end, the crowd gathered in the central playground of the base.
The tired male voice sounded again:
[Please prepare the special forces team to go to Site 7 for the containment of SCP-104…]
Those smiling faces slowly blurred away.
The screen returned to darkness, and then a blood-red headline appeared.
[SCP Containment Campaign]
The teaser ended here.
In front of the glass hourglass, no one spoke. Everyone stood silently in their place.
After about three seconds, Fan Hemian and Fan Luming suddenly shouted, “Ah ah ah ah!”
No wonder they say twins have a telepathic connection, even their frantic reactions were identical.
“Ah ah ah ah!”
Fan Luming grabbed Ji Dong’s shoulder and shook him desperately, wailing, “Why are you so unlucky?! What the hell kind of cursed luck is this!”
Ji Xiao’niao: “…”
He knew that he must have drawn another disastrous [Film] this time, otherwise, the Fan siblings wouldn’t be so devastated.
“What’s going on?”
Mo Tiangen, just like Ji Dong, had no clue, but seeing the state of this sister and brother pair, he could roughly guess the seriousness of the problem. His brows furrowed deeply, “Do you guys know something about this [Film]”
“People who have stayed in the [Peach Blossom Spring] long enough wouldn’t be unfamiliar with the letters ‘SCP.'”
Fan Hemian let out a long sigh and impatiently ran her fingers through her long hair.
“But I didn’t expect us to be so unlucky, not only being forcibly promoted to an A-level difficult [Film] in the [Peach Blossom Spring], but also drawing a [Film] related to the SCP!”
She said, reaching out and giving Ji Dong’s cheek a harsh twist, “Next month, I definitely won’t let you be the captain anymore!”
Fan Hemian pointed at herself and said through gritted teeth, “If we’re going to draw, it should be someone like me, the luckiest person!”
“Sis, let’s not talk about next month for now…”
Fan Luming pressed his temples and said helplessly,
“Let’s think carefully about how we can successfully clear the next [Film]!”
omg… looks like there’s going to be all kind of scp in that film 🥲
✨💖✨💖