SCP Corporation: Contain Bonfire

"A few hundred bucks a month really isn't worth risking your life for,"

Colin shifted his gaze and looked at one of the five fire pillars, suddenly thinking of something, and casually grabbed one of them.

It was about as thick as an adult's thigh, fitting snugly in his hand. At the top, there was a blood-red crystal stone the size of a human head. The strange firelight was emitted by this blood-red stone.

"Just as I thought... with this thing, I should be able to escape."

Without hesitating, Colin sensed "Event One" in his mind, confirmed the direction, and left the place.

Although there was only one pillar, its light covered a significant area, with a diameter of more than thirty meters.

"'Event Three' has 163 hours, 24 minutes, and 37 seconds remaining. It seems that about four hours have passed since I woke up..."

"I wonder what the status of that former colleague of mine is now. I hope he doesn't have too much trouble on his side..."

"Right, better hurry, in case someone catches up. After all, there are probably many powerful people in this world..."

Clutching the "torch" in one hand, Colin quickened his pace and soon found himself on a desolate plain, devoid of people...

And, despite the pressure of the darkness overhead, after hurrying for five hours, he still hadn't left the plains.

Nor had he seen the former colleague...

That guy's location was much further than he had thought.

"I'm not going to die halfway because the lamp oil runs out, am I? Oh, this stone seems pretty long-lasting though. I wonder how much longer I have to walk. If I wasn't sure that the distance was closing in, I'd suspect I was experiencing 'Ghost-Hitting-the-Wall.' But then again... did I forget to use the 'Book of Fate'? Never mind, I won't use it for now..."

As he hurried along, Colin talked to himself to ease the oppression of being alone in the dark.

After another hour of walking, he suddenly stopped, his pitch-black vertical pupils scanning the surroundings, his face showing a humanized shock.

Just after an inadvertent blink, the surroundings suddenly brightened. The previously pitch-dark scene turned into an uneven plain with no animals in sight, but there were not a few low shrubs. Overall, it resembled areas on the edge of a desert with vegetation as seen on TV.

But that's not the key point. The key point is...

Has day broken?

How did it suddenly become daylight?

"Is this another of this world's unique natural phenomena? Just like flicking on a light, it suddenly brightened?"

Unable to figure it out, Colin eventually chalked it up to the peculiarities of this world.

After all, this is a world with magic...

Many things that feel strange to him might just be common sense here.

However, during the day, the stone pillar in his hand, resembling a torch, seemed to lose its presence.

Colin didn't throw it away, because if it could suddenly become light in an instant, who's to say it won't turn dark again just as quickly?

He did not want to know, nor did he want to experience what happens when entering darkness without light...

Looking into the distance and feeling his colleague drawing nearer, he buried his head and quickened his pace.

...

Meanwhile, at the dungeon entrance, the Warden with a bruised face cautiously poked his head out from within.

Good, no sound of that creature outside, and a trail of footprints seemed to indicate the other party had already left long ago...

"He stole one of the 'Nightwatch Lights'... This shows that, even in that state, he still maintains his rationality. And what form was that? The third stage? Just who is he? And where is he heading to next?"

The Warden strained to open a slit in his swollen eyes, looking in the direction the other had left towards, which seemed to be...

Uninhabited zone?

"Warden, what should we do... Should we pursue?" a subordinate asked softly.

The Warden fell into silence upon hearing those words, and only after a dozen breaths did he speak, "Return to the city, find the City Lord, and have him request the 'Virtue Knight Order' to dispatch members to organize a hunting party."

In this region, only knights who mastered the power of "Virtue" and the Church Priests were capable of hunting that monster.

He was well aware that if the other party had gone on a killing spree yesterday, there wouldn't be a single living person in the dungeon now.

Having said that, he remembered something, touched his face swollen like a pig's, sucked in a breath of pain, and asked his subordinate with great confusion:

"Before, did I ever mistreat him? For instance, press him down and beat him?"

"Never! Your conduct is like that of a true knight, never once mistreating others like the executioners of the Tribunal of Judgment—we all respect you sincerely from our hearts," his subordinate said, moved.

It had already spread within the dungeon that, to avoid harming others, the Warden silently bore everything alone.

He fought a fierce battle with that monster in the dungeon for over ten minutes, the constant thwacking sounds echoing, depleting much of the opponent's energy and forcing it to flee, thereby saving everyone.

Had it not been for the Warden's restraint, perhaps not a single soul in the dungeon would have survived.

The Guard was deeply moved.

"Pah! What do you mean 'like'? I am a knight! A knight blessed by nobility!" the Warden cursed and complained, and then remembered something else—the other party had cursed him yesterday, but there was something else in his words that seemed to hold a great grudge against the 'Holy Healing Church'.

Especially that phrase "If you hadn't sent me over there, none of this would have happened"...

When had he ever sent the other party there?

And what did he mean by 'this would have happened'?

Could it be...

Was the other party subtly hinting at problems within the 'Holy Healing Church'?

Although this could be some kind of a divisive scheme... But just then, he suddenly remembered that some time ago, when he was in contact with members of the 'Virtue Knight Order' from higher up, those lords had a... slightly nuanced attitude when discussing the 'Holy Healing Church.'

Their demeanor was somewhat... subtly indescribable.

...

Colin was unaware that his outburst had aroused the Warden's suspicion towards the 'Holy Healing Church,' and he also didn't know that a hunting party targeted at him would soon be on its way.

At this moment, after another three hours on the road, he finally crossed the vast plains and entered a mountain forest.

The rescue signal from his colleague became clearer and clearer...

But it was not long after entering this forest.

Colin began to feel more and more that something was amiss...

Here... it was too quiet, and apart from himself, he didn't seem to see anything else alive, whether plants or insects; no sign of living activity at all...

Instead, withered plants and animal carcasses were not uncommon, and they could be seen from time to time.

The strangest thing was that these bodies were largely intact, covered with a thin layer of dust, as if they had never been touched after death, and there had been no signs of decay.

Colin's keen sense of smell told him that, perhaps on a microscopic level invisible to the naked eye, those tiny microorganisms were likewise given a 'clean' death, just like all the corpses he saw everywhere.

"Not even the sterile room in a hospital is this 'clean'... I haven't just left the wolf's den to enter the tiger's lair, have I..."

With his massive body, Colin traversed the mountain forest as if on flat land, looking at the variously sized carcasses of animals and plants that occasionally appeared as he moved forward.

He pondered curiously, but couldn't find any answers.

This world was too full of strange places.

Fortunately, apart from the traces of matter and death in the forest, there were no other encounters.

Half an hour later, Colin stopped in his tracks, squinting as he gazed at the small town that appeared ahead.