Shrouded Seascape

In the damp, cold darkness of the room, Charles stared at the information on the computer screen and sank into a deep silence. Not only did the Foundation's data fail to answer his questions, it even deepened his doubts about becoming a god.

It seemed that the idea of becoming a god was far from being a good option. Merely acquiring divine power was likely the path to destruction as well.

At this thought, Charles became more cautious about the wishes 005 promised to grant him. Recklessly attaining power that didn't belong to oneself was a highly risky gamble and would definitely be accompanied by disaster. He could not afford to forget the lesson learned from Experiment Dawn carried out by the first generation of the Foundation.

Yet at the same time, Charles also understood that if he wanted to solidify his position in the Subterranean Sea, he needed formidable power equivalent to that of a god. There had to be a trade off.

Charles pondered for a long moment before he opened his journal again. Stroke by stroke, he wrote down his final wish. Finally, he had decided on his three wishes.

Staring at the three wishes jotted down on the page before him, Charles' gaze was calm and unreadable. Perhaps these three wishes wouldn't be able to solve all his problems but they were the best he could come up with after much meticulous deliberation.

"Good or bad, this shall be it," Charles muttered to himself, his voice with a hint of calmness. He didn't want to hesitate any longer; he had spent far too long hesitating over this.

After settling the wishes, Charles didn't leave immediately. He stayed and looked up again at the holographic interface before him. After a moment of thought, his fingers danced across the keyboard again.

This time, Charles attempted to search for more useful intel from the Foundation's database. Yet, the returned results were far from ideal.

The computer was filled with mostly useless data. Everything Charles needed to know had already been known, and the others that he didn't couldn't be found in the computer either.

Charles lingered in the cold, damp room for two hours. When he looked away from the computer screen and at the new watch on his wrist, he decided to search for one last item. His fingers moved quickly over the keyboard and he typed the search term: 001.

Within seconds, a series of neatly arranged files rapidly appeared on the screen.

Without hesitating for even a single second, Charles clicked on the first file. A new window appeared and a completely new, unseen document about 001 opened up before his eyes.

Project ID: 001

Project Name: Genesis of Chaos

Project Containment: 001 cannot be contained. There is absolutely only one Project 001.

Description: 001 is the combination of two single-digit projects. It was first mentioned in the ramblings of Dr. L3, who had already gone completely mad.

It represents an extremely terrifying possibility. We initially wanted to dismiss this as the delusional ramblings of a madman. However, Dr. L3 managed to convince every member of the GK Council with his unsettlingly precise set of data.

Note: At the time of record, Dr. L3 is in a severe state of mental deterioration. Any grammatical or linguistic errors in his statements are faithfully recorded.

Statement: We... we were wrong... all of us, wrong! Every single assumption, every thought, it's all wrong! We always thought—no, we knew 003 and 002 were separate, independent, but no, it's a mistake, a mistake!

Yes, yes, from what we can see, what we think we see—one's this purple-glowing thing up on the surface, and the other is... this thing, this monster in the deep, down there in the sea, but... but... listen to me!

We, our human senses—they're broken, useless! We cannot see, we can't perceive the gods, not like they really are! They're not... they're NOT WHAT WE THINK!

003 and 002...the radiation, the data, look at the data! (see Appendix 1) It's in the data! I was wrong, we were wrong! They're one, they're not isolated! They're connected, they're one thing!

Imagine 001 as a snake... YES! A snake! 003 is its head, and 002 is... is its tail!

NO! NO! NO, THAT'S WRONG! It's worse, it's far worse! We're thinking too small… too small! 001 isn't a snake, it's... it's a hand! YES! A hand! The purple glow on the surface is only... only the pinky finger! The thumb, the Great One! And, and between them, between the fingers is us, Earth. We are trapped between THEM!

We... we don't even know what 001 is! They call me crazy, but LOOK AT THE DATA! I am NOT crazy!

We have to tell everyone! Everyone has to know! Not to worship— no, no, no, it doesn't want that, it doesn't need our worship, no! What we need is to... to get AWAY! To get FAR AWAY! We have to leave! Escape! This planet, this ticking bomb!

Charles' brows furrowed as he scanned through the information on the screen. Yet another new 001.

He quickly recalled the intel the Foundation had once told him—every 001 document was true, but only a portion of each spoke the truth.

One would need to sift out the authentic portion from every single 001 document, piece them together to get the full intel of 001.

Fragments of the different 001 files flashed through Charles' mind. The perhaps-true-perhaps-false information clashed and merged.

Several different conjectures revolved in Charles' mind, but he couldn't discern which was the real deal. Or worse, maybe none of them were real.

As his thoughts spiraled, the tentacles wrapped around his head tightened ever so slightly, sending a dull pressure through his skull.

"Fuck this!" Charles cursed in frustration. "Forget it! What does 001 have anything to do with me? Why the fuck am I so concerned over it? My only goal is to find my scalp and skull."

With that, Charles turned away from the screen, ready to leave the room.

Just then, the soft scraping of boots on ice resonated in the room. Charles turned his head sharply toward the remnants of ice on the right wall.

Though the sensation vanished as soon as it appeared, Charles' heightened senses had caught it for that mere fraction of a second: something was watching him.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Charles slowly walked toward the source; the translucent ice sheet before him grew larger with each step.

The triangular sheet of ice was about half his height, its apex connected to the ceiling above.

A hint of confusion rose in Charles' eye as he stared at the ice before him. I thought I had cleared the ice from the surrounding walls earlier with my tentacles? How did this patch form again?

Charles pondered on his next move for a brief moment before he raised his steel prosthetic arm and hooked it around the edge of the ice. With a gentle tug, the ice cracked and splintered. The sheet of ice on the wall, along with the icicles on the ceiling, fell away with gravity and crashed onto the ground.

As the ice shattered, a circular mirror about the size of a human head was exposed before Charles. Due to the darkness in the room, Charles' reflection couldn't be reflected in the mirror. The mirror only showed a deep blackness.

Recalling the earlier gaze that vanished rapidly, Charles became more wary of the mirror before him.

Is that one of the Foundation's relics? Charles thought to himself.

He circled around the room cautiously but found the idea to be rather unlikely. No matter how he looked at it, the place he was in looked more like an office than a containment cell for a relic.

Moreover, even if the Foundation were to truly contain a relic, they would never just hang it so simple and open on a wall without any security protocols.

Charles couldn't figure out what the mirror was or why it was here. And since he couldn't discern it, the safest route was to not touch it. With that thought in mind, he kept his eye on the mirror and took a series of slow, measured steps back until he was out of the room.

The moment Charles was out of sight, the temperature in the dark room plummeted. First, a fine layer of frost spread across the floor, followed by a creeping thin sheet of ice. Then, a chilling cold began to enveloped everything in the room.

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