“Alright, all attention over here!”
A loud voice snapped Zoey out of her thoughts. She dropped her phone onto the desk and sat up straight, eyes fixed ahead as the Section Chief appeared, disheveled and groggy, absently scratching at the unkempt stubble on his face.
He was holding onto several papers that he waved.
“I’ve just received a Gate report. I’m sure most of you are aware of what Gate I’m talking about. It’s a ranked gate, so it’s nothing too big. I’ll need any third to fourth orders to lead a team.”
The Section Chief then looked through the papers.
He clicked his tongue while mumbling, ‘Kyle… He’s not here, so I can’t drop this annoying thing off to him. If that’s the case, then…’
The Section Chief raised his head and eventually locked eyes with Zoey, who felt her heart sink. She could already see where this was going.
“Zoey!”
He smiled. It was a disgusting smile that Zoey had seen too many times by now.
It was disgusting.
“No.”
“You don’t even know what I’m about to ask.”
“…I do actually.”
You already made it quite obvious.
“I don’t have time to babysit the operation. I am trying to gather enough fragments to advance to the next order.”
“What are you missing?”
“…I’m missing 10 fragments of light, an essence of light, and the heart of a fifth-order light attributed anomaly.”
In short, she was missing a lot of things. But this couldn’t be helped. The more one advanced, the harder it was for them to go to the next order.
Depending on the Decree chosen, one would need to follow a specific list of items and fragments in order to stimulate the next node. And even if she did manage to acquire all of the necessary items, there was no guarantee she’d be able to succeed in unlocking her next node.
She didn’t really have time to invest in a ranked gate.
“Ooof.”
Even the Section Chief looked a little sorry for her.
The number of items wasn’t low.
Still, it wasn’t as though he didn’t have a way around this.
“I’ll give you ten thousand points. Will you take the job then?”
“Make it twelve thousand and I accept.”
“…..”
“So?”
“….Fine.”
The Section Chief clicked his tongue while Zoey smirked. This was what she had been aiming for the entire time.
The Guild had a specific merit system that came through points. With enough points, she’d be able to purchase the necessary items for her advancement.
It just so happened that 12,000 was just enough for her to purchase one of the items that she needed for her advancement.
It would still take her a while to advance, but she’d at least be one step closer.
“Make sure you don’t fail the mission. You won’t be the only one who will go inside. You must pay absolute attention to those fuckers from Ivory and Crownfall. You know what happened the last time we were with them.”
“I got it.”
Zoey reached forward to grab the file from the Section Chief’s hands. In it, she could see all the detailed reports from the scouts.
———
Test XXXX-12:
Subject: D-9341, armed with a combat knife.
Result: After 4 minutes, SCP-XXXX-1 instances overwhelmed D-9341. Last transmission: “They just keep coming… oh god, they’re—” [REDACTED]
Test XXXX-19:
Subject: MTF Operative Gamma-7 (“Mothmen”), equipped with heavy weaponry.
Result: Operatives held for 17 minutes before being overrun. Final message: “We’ve killed hundreds… there’s thousands now. It’s not stopping.”
———
Her brows furrowed the moment she read the first part of the report as she sat up in her chair.
As expected, this didn’t seem like an easy scenario.
“How troublesome…”
***
In the end, I didn’t buy anything. I just spent most of my time looking through the items and memorizing their description.
There were just too many good items. I couldn’t make up my mind.
But more importantly…
[Trauma Consultant]
I looked at the shiny metal plaque that rested on my desk with mixed feelings. This was merely a customary plaque given to me by the guild in order to make my job look ‘official’, but I was worried if people actually took it seriously.
What then…?
‘Don’t tell me I’d have to actually give them counseling. Can I reject them? They won’t get angry for rejecting their mental traumas, right?’
I had plenty of mental trauma myself.
If anything, I was the one who needed counseling.
“Well, if it really does come down to it, I’ll just tell them the truth. Either way, they should be aware of it… I’m not qualified to be some sort of consultant.”
Then again, this could also be a good opportunity for me to gain some connections.
“Ah, whatever.”
I brushed those thoughts aside and shifted my attention back towards the painting in front of me.
I stood up from my seat and took a good look at it.
The young girl was now in the position she had been when I had first received the painting, and there didn’t seem to be anything strange with it anymore. I sighed in relief then.
“…Since I no longer have to look at it at night, it should be a regular painting now.”
I thought about keeping the painting hung on the wall, but then I recalled something extremely important.
This painting…
It was actually stolen.
“Ah, shit.”
I silently groaned when I realized this. Although I was confident that not many would recognize the painting, now that there was a gate that had happened in the area where the museum was, I was sure that a few of the people had done some research on the place.
Those guys would definitely recognize it in an instant.
But there was something else more important than that. I thought back to the scenario and how the museum had been abandoned because the painting had been stolen.
‘If those weird cult people already had the girl’s body, why would they care to stop funding the museum once the painting got lost? Surely they could’ve just made another one, right? A coincidence? Or… is there more to it than I know?’
The thought left me unsettled as I stared at the painting intently.
“For now, it would be best if I take it down.”
As I reached out to grab the edges of the painting and take it down, my fingers brushing against the old frame that supported the painting, something else caught my eye, just in time to make me pause.
“…..?”
Slowly, I looked back at the painting, my chest growing heavier.
And then—
I saw it.
“…..!?”
The face of the little girl, her face pale and eyes wide, staring at me point blank.
My mind blanked at the sight. I couldn’t even scream before her small hands shot out, unnaturally fast, seizing my head and yanking me forward.
Into the painting.
Everything turned dark from that moment.
By the time I woke up again, a large notification appeared in front of me.
[Scenario starting…]
“Ah, shit.”