SCP Corporation: Contain Bonfire

Gunpowder, dust, flames, drowned corpses, and the Human Patchwork Monster...

All motion came to a halt.

The place seemed like an exquisite three-dimensional picture.

In this still artwork, Colin's body rapidly swelled, splitting the clothes he was wearing.

In just a moment, he transformed into a massive creature that was no less intimidating than the Patchwork Monster before him.

The giant beast's claws waved in frozen time, casting countless afterimages in mere seconds, as limbs splattered and left numerous penetrating tears on the opponent's body.

Humm.

As five seconds passed and Time Stop ended, the Human Patchwork Monster's body tensed up, its hundreds of eyes still fixed in the expression from before the stop.

But upon seeing the sudden appearance of the red, ominous creature, it showed an expression of terror.

Inside, an extreme sense of crisis erupted.

However...

It had no chance to move before feeling intense tearing pain all over its body, followed swiftly by its entire form collapsing like a pile of blocks.

Large chunks of flesh slid off to the ground, here and there...

And among the chunks of flesh,

A feeble, skinless mass covered in blood vessels and muscles fell out.

It resembled an infant with an oversized head.

Or perhaps, an adult whose limbs and torso were severely atrophied.

Colin unceremoniously extended his sharp claws, skewering it like roasting a meatball, and held it up to his face.

"Is this your true form?"

Colin curiously observed, having not anticipated that this thing, like piloting the initial EVA unit, had hidden itself inside a twisted gigantic shell.

After posing the question, the exposed brain of the creature in front of him wriggled like a large intestine, sending out a massive amount of information in the form of mental waves.

"How is this possible?! What kind of monster are you?! Why do you carry the aura of an Ancient God!"

"No, I know you came to save them, spare me, without me, all those people are going to die in thirty days..."

"They came here entirely by their own doing, it's their fault, not mine, if they hadn't thought they were different from others, that they were special, the so-called protagonists, full of their own self-importance, harboring those ridiculous notions, believing in some fantasy about being transported to another world to save an Other World, they wouldn't have ended up like this..."

"It was their arrogant delusions that doomed them, not me, spare me, because the problem isn't mine at all, I even gave their lives more significance...."

"You and I are both Extraordinary Ones! Not inferiors. You shouldn't be acting on behalf of those inferiors, we could join forces, I'm nobility, I possess a great deal of knowledge."

Potent fear-filled mental waves radiated from the massive head.

Communications were direct through the mind, far more efficient than speaking.

Really, how unfair, looking like a monster yourself, yet calling me a monster... Colin gave no response.

Without listening to the other party's drivel, he flung his beast claw, tossing it to the ground, then lifted a foot capable of crushing half an adult, stomping down forcefully with a squishing sound.

"No!"

The ceaselessly beeping noises abruptly stopped.

"You die, I complete my mission, as simple as that. Why bother with all that pointless blabber?"

Colin scraped his large foot on the ground; tomato soup and minced meat bubbled up with blood at his feet, giving him the feeling that the tyranny in his heart had been somewhat vented.

As for the creature's words, he didn't pay any attention to them, nor did he care.

Who doesn't have fantasies these days?

If daydreaming is wrong, then doesn't the whole world deserve to die?

From this perspective, the rotten flesh at his feet seemed like the epitome of evil, and even he cursed it.

At the same time, after killing it, the task was completed.

A familiar transparent vortex appeared before his eyes.

Accompanied by a suction force, the scattered corpses on the ground, as well as the still-burning, charred roast meat in the distance, were sucked in together.

Then, in his brain, the prompt for task clearance came through.

[Event "Call from Afar" has been completed. Reward details will be settled after returning to reality.]

[Remaining time: 17 minutes 27 seconds.]

[Return immediately?]

"It's over," he said.

Colin shook his blood-red long fur, and blood and bits of flesh fell from the red hair, glancing at the nearby aftermath.

If he had used all his means on the first Human Patchwork Monster...

Indeed, there was now a chance of overturning.

However, in the end, it seemed unable to resist, personally entering the fray.

"This also proves that it really wasn't lying; it didn't use Life Paper, and it didn't know my methods, otherwise it wouldn't have come within ten meters of me," he reasoned.

Colin displayed a bizarre anthropomorphism; he truly hadn't expected the villain to actually tell the truth.

No, it wasn't necessarily because it wanted to tell the truth.

"Perhaps, it assumed I might have some way to determine whether it was lying or not? Did it tell the truth to avoid that, turning it into some sort of void counterplay? Or was it simply outwitted by its own cunning?"

Colin mused, not dwelling on it any longer. He gathered his thoughts and looked towards the still raging flames and the drowned corpses...

Under the intense fire, the already rotting bodies emitted a foul and unpleasant odor.

"Bonfire Company" only took away the parts that emitted the essence of the being and left the other bodies behind.

"The recipe from the Jailbreak Series bro sure is fierce; I hope no one inside was burned alive," he hoped.

Colin covered his nose and took out a glass jar filled with milky white powder from his spatial storage, throwing it towards the flames.

The moment the glass shattered, a large amount of powder mixed with grease, resulting in an expansion similar to the "Pharaoh's Serpent."

Most of the flames were quickly extinguished.

He then crossed the area with the remaining sparks to the kitchen.

A strong smell of blood rushed to his face...

But Colin, already transformed into a beast, didn't feel nauseated. Instead, there was an indescribable pleasure and some absurd thoughts emerged.

Mea culpa, mea culpa...

Suppressing the stray thoughts, Colin felt that the Beast Transformation Syndrome, after being trained by the company, was more controllable than before, but he didn't think much of it. His gaze shifted inward, and then he narrowed his eyes slightly.

The familiar dishes were still scattered around, and the "hero" who had been helpless in the large salt cage was no longer struggling but just emitting agonizing groans. The skin, stimulated and penetrated by the salt grains, resembled the crosshatch pattern of a Wellington steak, while inside was succulent red meat.

Even looking so miserable, he still wasn't dead, only passively enduring the pain.

"Kill me, kill me..." It seemed that he felt someone approaching, and this "hero" issued a muffled plea.

Colin glanced at him, with no nonsense, stepped across the blood-soaked floor, approached the salt cage in a few steps, and pierced his head with a claw, ending his life.

As death came, a rare peace spread across that decayed face.

"The task required us to keep people alive as much as possible. If you were alive, my task score might be higher, right? Too bad I am kind-hearted, can't stand to see people suffer, better to kill you then," he murmured.

Colin shook his head, flicked his claw, and shook off some tofu pudding and red grape juice.

Then, turning around, on a kitchen table lit by a white candle, he saw the Human Patchwork Monster preparing to process the next ingredient, Liu Dun.