Chapter 294: 294

The SCR Foundation might not be the only anomaly containment organization in this world, but they were certainly the oldest, and most powerful.

They had been passing their batons down since aged-old history, containing numerous anomalies in the process. A portion of these anomalies were studied and understood thus becoming mundane, after which more anomalies were then contained.

A lot of the E5 council members didn’t even know what S-1-1 was, as such, for the longest time, the oldest and most powerful anomaly they had contained was S-1-2, [REDACTED].

S-1-2 was an anomaly that existed in nonexistence. Essentially, it was something that didn’t exist in this world.

For that reason, each time S-1-2 was used, something that had never existed in this world would come into existence, thus causing a change in the world’s timeline.

Within the SCR Foundation’s records, they had only managed to stop this change in the world’s timeline a total of three times, one of which was only a partial success, as it left a certain religion to prosper in this world.

But before these three times, the world’s timeline had been altered an unknown number of times, the traces of which could only be found from certain anomalies.

For example, the Devil Goat seemed to have been the product of one of these timeline alterations, while S-1-2 itself had clearly pointed out that it had caused a timeline alteration a total of 21 times. Due to this, S-1-2 was officially designated the Nonexistent 22nd [REDACTED].

…

The original form of the world is a complete mystery now. Perhaps an anomaly that represents its existence still exists, or perhaps such a thing has also been erased as well.

Standing in front of a containment chamber, the tall and burly director of Site S1 was carrying a black box as his thoughts wandered outside of his mind.

In another timeline, he might have been a Lizardman, a destitute beggar, a D-class personnel, or any one of the infinite possible ‘what ifs’; but it was now impossible to observe how the previous timelines used to be, they only draw inferences from various anomalies related to them.

After accepting a series of 42 passwords, the door to S-1-2’s containment chamber was opened, revealing ‘nothing’ inside, because the 22nd [REDACTED] didn’t exist on this world, it was the embodiment of the Inexistent World.

Having drunk a unique serum, the director of Site S1’s thoughts continued to wander, as this was part of the necessary preparation to obtain the 22nd [REDACTED].

A timeline alteration is an occurrence when a new reality replaces the previous one; and whenever this occurred, the previous timeline could sometimes leave behind representations of their existence. Some of these representative anomalies could even trigger another timeline alteration and lead to the re-emergence of a previous timeline.

For example, the demoted B-6-13: Lizardman’s Head. When it was still an A-class anomaly, during a containment breach, it created a small-scale timeline alteration that introduced the Lizardmen that only existed in a previous timeline back into this world.

There were very few of them, but their technology used to be more advanced than what was available to humans even now. Furthermore, due to the timeline alteration, a certain portion of humans had become a Lizardman and human hybrid. The Lizardmen then took control over the hybrids, established a mutual aid organization, then attempted to take control over human society through economical means.

Their goal was to make humans kill off one another, cause a drastic decrease in the human population, then finally enslave this world and force it to undergo another timeline alteration, reproducing the Lizardmen timeline.

It was the harshest re-containment operation that the SCR Foundation had to conduct, both of the World Wars were related to this single containment breach. Through economical manipulation, they managed to put the few Lizardmen they had onto the positions of country leaders, many historical figures were actually Lizardmen in disguise, and even the SCR Foundation was infiltrated by a large number of Lizardman hybrids.

In the final month of 1999, the Lizardmen’s plan had almost reached fruition, a majority of the world’s countries had fallen under their control, the third World War was right around the horizon, the clueless humanity would have destroyed itself and handed the seat of the world’s dominant species over to the Lizardmen.

Fortunately, the Lizardmen’s plan was discovered, and the SCR Foundation resorted to the drastic measure of using S-1-4: The Extinct Species Records to eradicate every Lizardman in existence, thus preventing their plan. Regretfully, S-1-4 was very similar to the Death Note in that it required very detailed information being written about its target in order to activate, otherwise, the SCR Foundation would have already used S-1-4 to bring Negary to extinction.

At the same time, that activation of S-1-4 caused the Lizardmen representing anomaly, the Lizardman’s Head, to lose its ability to alter the timeline; it was now only capable of creating mindless reptilian monsters, which was why its rating was decreased to B-6-13.

Naturally, there were very few timelines that were the same as the Lizardman timeline. The majority of them had already been thoroughly destroyed, leaving bits and pieces of remnants that gradually sank to the bottom. The remnants of all the previous timelines had gathered in one place, becoming the other side of this world’s coin, the so-called Inexistent World.

The 22nd [REDACTED] was the representation of the Inexistent World, which was why it existed as an object that didn’t exist in this world.

At this point, quite a few anomalies had slipped from the Inexistent World into this world through the 22nd [REDACTED], like the two C-class anomalies C-4-27: Ashy Granny and C-4-32: Vampire Flag.

The 22nd [REDACTED] was a top-secret among top secrets, and so was the Inexistent World. In fact, the number of people who knew about the Inexistent world could be counted with both hands, with the director of Site S1 being one of them.

Information regarding the Inexistent World continued to spread following his wandering thoughts, which finally caused an irregular reaction from the space within the containment chamber. The Inexistent World was a space created from the piled-up remains of previous timelines, but since these remains weren’t supposed to exist after the timeline had been altered, the people of this world were unable to perceive the Inexistent World’s existence. Not even S-2-5: Omniscient Eye, who was connected to the Akashic Records of this world, contained any description of the Inexistent World.

To obtain the 22nd [REDACTED], one must have information regarding the Inexistent World, but since this world couldn’t possibly observe the existence of the Inexistent World, how this information came into existence in the first place was a mystery. Some had said that it might be related to S-1-1, but not even the members of the E5 council, the highest authority of the SCR Foundation, were really clear about what S-1-1 was, since there wasn’t a single scrap of information regarding its existence except for its codename.

A large volume of indescribable ‘something’ was moving within the containment chamber. The outline of what appeared to be a claymore appeared in the middle of the room, hovering between the fine line of existing and not existing. At this point, Site S1’s director had already closed his eyes to not observe this claymore, otherwise, the simple act of looking at the claymore’s outline would have caused him to shed tears.

As it embodied all failed and fallen timelines, it also contained the sorrow and grudge of each timeline’s innumerable beings, so whenever the 22nd [REDACTED] manifested in this world, the sorrow it contained would move every individual who laid eyes on it.

Suppressing his own sorrow while continuing to let his thoughts wander, Site S1’s director put the black box he was carrying down.

A-1-3: Schrödinger’s Black Box. Whenever an item was put into it, it would be in both states of existing and not existing. The object would either come out as existing or remain non-existent inside the box.

Since the 22nd [REDACTED] definitively did not exist, once it was put into A-1-3, it could only come out as ‘existing’.

Once again picking up the black box, Site S1’s director wiped the shameful tears off this face. Even though he had tried to endure and only touched the outline very briefly, the infinite sorrow coming from the destroyed timelines still caused him to unconsciously shed his tears.