SCP Corporation: Contain Bonfire
Chapter 254 - 254 254 In the Quagmire of Natural Disasters_1

Chapter 254: Chapter 254 In the Quagmire of Natural Disasters_1 Chapter 254: Chapter 254 In the Quagmire of Natural Disasters_1 “This… no wonder my reputation is so bad; as soon as I come in, it’s all curses. It’s all because of you little trolls…”

Colin browsed through it briefly, feeling utterly speechless inside. Damn it, with all these seals showing off every day, everyone else was bound to resent him by association. It would be a miracle if his reputation hadn’t suffered…

After all, only a fraction of people obtained Talents; the rest could only watch with envy, jealousy, and hate.

The catch was, these people had spent just as many Points as everyone else, if not more…

Over time, this resentment naturally concentrated on him.

“Sigh, this won’t do. I haven’t even flaunted my original ‘Beastification,’ and you’re all having a great time showing off.”

Colin shook his head and sighed, reflecting on how the youth of today lacked steady temperaments—he made up his mind to ask Miss Bunny if she could come up with a name for his “Beastification” as well.

Preferably a name in orange, to put down these inflated egos.

However, not dwelling on it too much, Colin glanced over their words again, noticing there wasn’t much more discussion about “Gene Compensation Panel 1.0″…

He guessed it probably hadn’t gone into open beta yet; most likely, he was the only one using it.

He then proceeded to check out the various inquiry posts made by the “newcomers.”

There were all sorts of questions in the posts, but most were related to Bonfire Company…

So it was pretty certain that the people who joined recently, if not one hundred percent, then ninety-nine percent of them must be members of the Special Operations Department.

“No, that’s not right; there seem to be similar operations abroad; it’s just that I don’t know which ones they are.”

All the information on the parchment had gone through a high-level translation, and even if it were only a dog reading it afterward, they wouldn’t be able to tell.

Having taken a casual glance, Colin didn’t think much more of it.

If the leaders above didn’t care about people with ulterior motives sneaking in, then he had even less reason to pay attention.

After browsing for a while longer and finding no bigger “news,” he put away the parchment and closed his eyes to rest.

…

Meanwhile, in another land shrouded in grey mist, Shana, acting as a Saintess, was leading tens of thousands of refugees to rest and settle down.

Although this large group moved with great difficulty, sometimes not even managing ten kilometers a day, they had fortunately escaped the center of the disaster.

In another ten days or half a month, they should be able to leave this natural disaster quagmire behind and return to the normal world.

“People in this area really do love their pumpernickel…” Diana, the adjutant following behind the Saintess, couldn’t help but comment.

Lately, almost every rest stop had resulted in finding a considerable amount of pumpernickel within the ruins of towns…

Apart from affection, she really couldn’t think of any other reason why people here would store so much pumpernickel.

But regardless, if it weren’t for those, probably not many would have made it to this point.

Confronted with her adjutant’s remark, the Saintess neither agreed nor denied, simply lifting her delicate yet gaunt face, her ice-blue eyes fixing on a certain direction in the mist:

“Yes, I sense there might be some ruins not far from here. Given the integrity of this area, we might find more food. I’ll go check it out; you maintain order here.

“If there’s danger, I’ll come back quickly.”

Hoping for some other food, even an earthworm cake would do… Diana prayed inwardly while bowing to respond, “Yes.”

It wasn’t that she had anything against the sour-smelling pumpernickel, but… she really had eaten too much of it!

Now she was almost afraid to look at it!

…

Pure, flawless white light raced across the desolate land, arriving at an abandoned town…

Before long, Shana stopped in front of the town, ignoring the dangers within. Instead, she reached her right hand into the left sleeve of her dress and pulled out a yellowed, tattered piece of parchment—

The mission was settled.

[Congratulations on completing this mission.]

[Task evaluation: D.]

“You have earned ‘Bonfire Points*50’.”

“You have received ‘Staled Black Bread*999’.”

“Additional task reward ‘Bonfire Points 65’.”

…

“115 points.”

Shana blinked and smiled, her bad mood somewhat improved.

The overall time for this mission had been quite long, but the rewards were indeed very generous; the points alone could be exchanged for thousands of pieces of black bread, which would probably be just enough to support their departure from the Magic Fog afflicted area.

The main reason the team’s movement had been slow nowadays was due to the famine victims being too weak from hunger; now that they would have enough food to fill their stomachs, their departure time might be reduced by more than half.

Although she had paid a certain price for this mission, it was still within an acceptable range.

However, thinking of a certain person she had encountered during the mission, she closed her eyes slightly, and a thoughtful glint emerged in her exquisite pupils:

She seemed to have sensed the aura of some Holy Relic on that person.

If nothing went wrong, that lost Holy Relic which had not been seen for many years had appeared near Helena not long ago, and now it had showed up on this person, suggesting that the two might be the same…

Only…

After pondering for a moment, Shana shook her head; it was a pity that the other party wasn’t a bad person, so she couldn’t just snatch it away.

“The previous requirements were for an item with a sufficiently powerful offensive effect, but…”

Shana couldn’t help but feel a headache—due to historical reasons, the Church of Light was forbidden by the various holy orders and kingdoms from possessing such artifacts; even if they had them, they were sealed beneath the Great Cathedral of Rest by the Gods, completely inaccessible.

To obtain an item with matching offensive capabilities, she estimated a significant cost would be involved…

Before she could continue wrestling with her headache, Shana suddenly found that an old parchment seemed to have an activated feature—[Interaction Hall].

The feature had been there before, but it was greyed out; now, it seemed accessible.

Thinking it over, to be safe, a blurred shadow clone emerged from her body, took the parchment to another spot, and set up some protections before it opened the function that had suddenly become usable on Shana’s behalf.

Upon activation, it displayed some odd bars and boxes, and aside from that, it was empty…

An invisible guidance made her understand that this device seemed to enable communication with other people who possessed it.

“Are there others out there who have this thing?”

Shana was puzzled for a moment; the parchment had been with the Church of Light for a very long history, only in the distant past, it was sealed by a godly being of great stature, but even such a being could not truly seal it away, much less destroy it.

Because as long as a Saint appeared in the “Church of Light,” it would break through all seals to appear beside the Saint, offering assistance, as it was doing now.

Without the parchment, the number of people who could have survived and made it this far was probably less than one in ten.

For this, her heart was filled with gratitude.

And through various tasks, Shana knew there was likely more than one parchment, yet she had never seen a second one appear; not only had she not seen it, but the descriptions about it from other records were the same.

In this world, it seemed to be truly unique.

At the moment, looking at the empty chat room, out of curiosity, she composed a message and sent it.

“Is anyone there?”

After a long time, the room remained deserted with only that single message and no response whatsoever.

.

.

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