Chapter 80: Dr. Bright
Chapter 80: Dr. Bright
Three days later. Zhang Jue sat in front of Shirley's bed, and her gaze was dull. She had deep sunken eye sockets and a puffy face as if she was terminally ill. Shirley was lying on the bed, breathing steadily. But after an examination, she had entered a deep coma. Zhang Jue had already used various methods but was still unable to wake her up.
Thinking about Shirley's condition, Zhang Jue's heart twisted like a knife. There was a monster sealed inside her, and Shirley had to fight against it. After this slumber, she might never wake up.
Zhang Jue's fists were clenched, his nails almost pierced into his skin. The door to the holding room was opened, and Cain walked in. After the experiment, he had been allowed in and out of Shirley's containment room. He was also the only person Zhang Jue had been willing to see in the past two days.
"Shirley doesn't want to see you like this." Cain said, "I think her brother would have made her happy."
Zhang Jue didn't understand this, but once a person had fallen into certain emotions, it wasn't that easy to move on. Cain patted him on the shoulder, "Let's take a walk."
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Zhang Jue stepped out of Shirley's containment room for the first time in three days. Outside Site-17, the sun was shining, and the birds were singing. However, Zhang Jue was not in the mood. He washed his face and sat on the steps, staring blankly at the distant sky.
Those fellows who knew each other well knew what had happened recently, and none of them went over to disturb him.
"Hey, man, come to play cards?" A noisy voice rang out from overhead, which Zhang Jue did not heed.
"Hey, don't blank out over yourself. Come play cards with me!"
Zhang Jue looked up listlessly and saw a monkey half-hanging from a tree, holding a deck of playing cards. Yes, a monkey was inviting him to play cards. If this were in his world, Zhang Jue would have thought it was some zookeeper's prank. But this is the SCP World, and anything could happen, especially when Zhang Jue saw the ruby pendant on the monkey's chest.
"You're Dr. Bright?" Zhang Jue asked.
"Oh ho? You know me?" The monkey swung onto the tree, did a somersault in the air, and then landed firmly in front of Zhang Jue. Apparently, he had excellent control over his current body. Zhang Jue barely managed to pull up a smile.
Jack Bright, one of the SCP Foundation's famous Doctors, is known by anyone who has ever known about SCP. His expertise in the field of bioengineering and abnormal genetics was at his peak. He was recruited by the SCP Foundation at a very young age and talked about Dr. Bright. We have to talk about the ruby pendant on his chest - SCP-963.
SCP-963 is a decorative amulet of about 15 cm in circumference, made of white gold with thirteen brilliant-cut diamonds that surround an oval ruby in a starburst pattern.
At the time, the young Dr. Bright was studying the nature of SCP-963 before he was killed by SCP-076-2 (Able, Cain's brother), who broke through the containment, after which his soul was stored in SCP-963.
After an extensive experiment, the Foundation found that when any humanoid body comes into direct contact with SCP-963, the subject's consciousness will be erased, and Dr. Bright's consciousness will be transferred from SCP-963 to the subject. His memories will be passed between hosts.
Apparently, the host that Dr. Bright chose this time was a monkey. He has a deep grudge about it.
"Hey, let me tell you this, my last body was physically very strong, a young guy, kind of [REDACTED]. Don't blame me for it, either this or a girl body."
Dr. Bright was talking like nobody's business, a normal person would probably find him a bit noisy, and the human voice coming from the monkey's vocal cords was indeed a bit harsh.
But Zhang Jue's mood was a little better for no reason. "Dr. Bright, what are you doing here?" Zhang Jue asked.
"Nonsense." Dr. Bright spat, "This doctor is now the head of personnel for several sites, so why shouldn't I be here? But if it weren't for you making such a big deal out of it, I'd be at Site-19 playing cards with the others right now."
Zhang Jue shrugged. He had known that the O5 Council would send someone to keep an eye on this experiment he was leading, even though it was approved and passed by the O5 Council. He hadn't expected it to be Dr. Bright.
How spirited he had been when he had guided others in their experiments. When it was his turn, he had let his sister fall into a deep sleep. Zhang Jue lowered his head, a little sad.
Dr. Bright played with his tail, "It's just one failure. Who in the Foundation dares to say they've never had a failure? Besides, the little girl is still alive, so there is hope, right? Ah, if I remember correctly, there seems to be also a sleeping girl on this site. Why do all girls like to play the sleeping beauty act, hmm?"
Dr. Bright crackled a lot of words. He spoke very fast and didn't seem to be thinking at all about what he had just said. He was talking about everything that came to his mind. But Zhang Jue could hear that he was comforting himself.
Dr. Bright had come with good intentions, and Zhang Jue also knew that what Dr. Bright referred to as a "sleeping little girl", it was SCP-239. She was the very person at the heart of the chaos that led the four of the most famous Foundation doctors to fight over it.
This seemingly nonsensical, knowing every word he said lies a secret message. Zhang Jue quickly understood what he meant. Needless to say, that sleeping young girl was an extremely dangerous character, and having her wake up might not be a good thing.
Seeing that Zhang Jue seemed to have understood the implications of his words, Dr. Bright laughed and let out a strange "giggle". The researchers who passed by them looked at Zhang Jue with sympathy - he had just suffered a failed experiment, and now he was being mentally destroyed by Dr. Bright.
Seeing that Zhang Jue's mood had improved, Dr. Bright shook his head, "Young man, you should look ahead. Not like us, the old guys with an aura of decay that exudes all over our bodies despite tragically wanting to die but can't. Well, you continue what you're doing. I'm going to go work on my files. Those brats, they all wanted to go to Pandora's Box to meet SCP-105. If they get their way, I'll possess a female gorilla next time." Dr. Bright was walking further and further away as if he was talking to himself while still allowing Zhang Jue to hear a few keywords.
"Dr. Bright!" Zhang Jue called out to him, "Did you just say that SCP-105 is still in Pandora's Box?"
"Right." Dr. Bright nodded, seeing Zhang Jue's serious face. He asked, "What's wrong?"
From early in the morning, Zhang Jue knew that this SCP world he had crossed over to was slightly different in the timeline from those documents he had read. A lot of information the Foundation didn't have, and a lot of things didn't happen. To him, this was an advantage. He could stop things that hadn't happened yet.
Zhang Jue asked again, "Is SCP-076 still in Pandora's Box?" The fact that Able was serving in Pandora's Box was a secret of the Foundation, but Dr. Bright wasn't surprised that Zhang Jue knew about it.
However, he saw a bad feeling in Zhang Jue's eyes. "Yes, Able is still in Pandora's Box." Dr. Bright said, "They are now stationed at Area-25." Sure enough. Zhang Jue tightens his fist.
"Doctor, whatever method you use, please take me there as soon as possible. Before disaster strikes and we have to stop it. I hope it's not too late."