Chapter 122: Adonis

Katherine stared intently at the computer monitor. The young man on the screen had a quintessential Greek face and was wearing a generic black hoodie. It was as if he knew Katherine was watching him through the surveillance feed; he knocked on the door slowly while looking directly into the camera. He spoke a sentence to Katherine, who was separated from him by only a wall, moving his lips so slowly that she could understand every word he said.

"I have no malice."

Katherine repeated the words, then looked up at her team members. "He knows we’re watching him through the monitor. He says he has no malice."

Katherine hesitated. She did not know the identity of the man outside; he might be the dangerous psychic they were hunting, or he might not. If it were the latter, they shouldn't be giving the guy a surprise attack through the door.

After a brief exchange of glances, the group in the room made a decision. Zhao Tianxing pressed down on the handle with his left hand, his right hand gripping his blade tightly.

Adonis watched calmly as the door began to push open bit by bit. He had long since sensed the tension in the room from the aura of emotions emanating from within. Even as the black-haired Chinese man pushed the door halfway open, Adonis remained perfectly still, allowing the man to see him while he himself could not see into the room.

He knew the man’s companions were likely hiding in his blind spot, ready to strike at any moment, but he did not care. "My name is Adonis Keith. I am the person you are investigating."

The door was fully opened, and the five people inside stared at him with varying expressions.

"You must be the ones responsible for dealing with..." Adonis paused, then continued, "...dealing with matters in the supernatural realm." He had thought long ago that if entities like Isogda could exist, then why was the world so peaceful? The only explanation was that there were people in this world quietly handling these affairs.

Adonis had guessed that it wouldn't be long before someone found him, but he hadn't expected it to be this soon. From the moment he sensed the existence of this group, he realized that he was not the only one who was different; those who maintained the world's stability were not ordinary people either. They were anomalies just like him. He could clearly see the colors radiating from them, so distinct from those of ordinary people.

The "Seekers of the Forgotten" team was currently at an utter loss. Perhaps they were the only team ever to have their target kindly knock on their door.

"Are you a psychic?" Katherine did not bring up Yvette Joyce or the others. She cautiously kept her position within the defensive barrier, ensuring she could respond to any energy fluctuations.

"Psychic? Is that what you call it?" Adonis repeated the term several times and nodded.

"What did you do to those people?" Afra stared at Adonis with vigilance. From the moment he admitted to being their target, she had been prepared to draw her gun and put a few rounds into him.

This question was sensitive. At the moment Afra asked it, not only were Zhao Tianxing and the others ready for a fight, but even Ji Ning began to call upon SCP-CN-655.

Adonis spoke with absolute calm: "Salvation."

Ji Ning couldn't help but mutter to himself, wondering if all villains were like this—leaving people half-dead while claiming it was for their own good.

"Are you joking? Those people were supposed to have beautiful lives. Just because of your wishful thinking, they’ll spend the rest of their lives like vegetables. They had their own jobs, their own families, and now they just lie in the hospital waiting for death to release them. You think this is the salvation you gave them?" Afra remembered that she had just sent Ophelia's mother to a nursing home that evening, and an inexplicable sense of justice made her glare at Adonis.

Adonis’s gaze remained calm, indifferent to Afra’s interrogation. "Life itself is a void. Individual existence has no meaning. You think they look like they’re dead in this world, but from their perspective, I have given them a second life—a life controlled by themselves, no longer filled with pain and regret."

Adonis's words left the others in the room confused. He did not continue the discussion; most of his short life had been spent being misunderstood.

"Did you come here to make us have that kind of 'second life' you speak of?" Katherine asked, expressionless.

"If you need it," Adonis replied flatly.

He was answered by Zhao Tianxing’s blade. Before Adonis had even finished speaking, Zhao had already slashed horizontally, but Adonis did not dodge. He simply stood there until the blade passed through his body and struck the wall behind him.

Zhao Tianxing frowned. "A spiritual projection?" He withdrew his blade; Adonis’s body was like a hologram, and he hadn't felt the slightest contact with his sword.

"I know you come from some organization and represent them here to deal with me. You think I’m a madman, that I turned those people into vegetables out of some chaotic or evil impulse. But I have never forced anyone. I only heard the cries within their hearts and felt pity." Adonis extended his right hand, as if opening an invisible door before him.

Inside the door was a world strikingly similar to reality, yet those outside felt a familiar sense of unreality, as if they were watching a dream.

"This is a space I created with my psychic power. Those you believe have fallen into a coma are all in a world they imagined for themselves."

The scene in front of Adonis flickered. When it stabilized, everyone saw Yvette Joyce. She was sitting on a hillside holding two children by the hands, the breeze blowing through her hair. She laughed as she spoke and fed pudding to the children.

"Whatever they yearned for in the real world can be realized, and any regret can be rewritten." Adonis waved his right hand again, and the scene shifted to a man performing in grand attire.

A child who had just been picnicking with Yvette was now sitting in the front row of a concert hall. On stage, a man was playing a drum solo. When the man finished and stood to bow, the entire hall was drowned in applause. The child standing backstage looked incredibly happy; anyone seeing that smile would be infected by the child's genuine joy. When the man finished his acknowledgments, the child ran toward him like a happy little pony, shouting "Daddy" while reaching out to hug him. The man smiled and picked up his son...

"But no matter how beautiful the world you create is, it’s fake." Afra still felt this guy was just trying to use one lie to patch up another.

Adonis shook his head. "And what is the boundary between fake and real?"

Before Afra could speak, Adonis continued, "There has never been anything fake, nor anything real. You think they are living in a dream, but how do they know you aren't living in one? The world is a giant vat filled with nutrient solution; you are all just brains in a vat."

"I know you belong to an organization that specializes in handling anomalies like me, but I am not a bad person. You stop me, thinking my so-called salvation is just self-deception, but at least they can leave this painful world and live a happy life in a dream. You can kill me, but can you save those who are being tortured? No, you won't do anything. You are high and mighty, only watching the ordinary people of this world from above. You don't think you should do anything for them. To you, it’s just someone else’s inconsequential experience, but for those tortured by fate, this is a struggle in a long, hopeless night."

"Most people in this world don't want the truth; they only want peace of mind. If lies bring them peace, they will choose the lies. If you tell them the truth, they will spit in your face."

"Hypocritical gods sit high above, coldly watching this world, letting the ants in their eyes struggle between pain and regret, and taking pleasure in it. I only want them to live on, holding onto hope." Points of light, like sparks from a fire, began to drift from Adonis.

"There are too many things in this world I am powerless to change, but at least in this city, I am the god."

With every word Adonis spoke, the light grew more intense. Adonis now looked like a burning deity, watching the people in the room.

"Tell those who sent you: this is my city, my utopia, my Garden of Eden. It is the first era created by a god, and the golden age of humanity."

"Will everyone in the city be included in your utopia?" Ji Ning suddenly asked.

"Of course, everyone has the right to enter." Adonis returned to the appearance he had when he first entered the room.

"Isn't it you who does the screening? There are so many people in this city; will you appear before them one by one and ask if they want to live in paradise?" Ji Ning asked unhurriedly. The reason he was so composed was that his calling had been answered.

What SCP-CN-655 said was brief, but it put Ji Ning at ease.

"He has no hostility toward us."

Adonis did not hesitate, clearly having thought about this question long ago. He slowly recited a passage from the Bible.

"And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. (Rev 20:11) And I saw the dead, small and great