In his most desperate moment, facing death, Luo Shu's only hope was the Anomalous Item Catalog.
He flipped to the first page and frantically clicked the "O" next to SCP-173's entry.
This was his only way out.
Just as he was about to lose consciousness—the bald man blinked.
In the next second, Luo Shu appeared behind him, hands twisting sharply.
CRACK!
Neck-snap kill!
The bald man's head spun 180 degrees, his face frozen in shock as he stared at Luo Shu standing where he shouldn't be.
Dead.
Luo Shu pried the man's hands off his throat and gasped for air, finally able to breathe again.
But now, a new problem emerged.
He looked up at the surveillance cameras lining the hallway.
His use of SCP-173's ability had definitely been recorded.
In any other place, people would call it supernatural.
But this was the SCP Foundation. Nothing was "supernatural" here—just anomalous.
Anyone with half a brain would realize Luo Shu was something abnormal.
And if they did?
He'd be contained.
Branded a new SCP, dissected, tested, toyed with by the researchers…
Absolutely unacceptable.
He checked the Anomalous Item Catalog again. Both abilities he had borrowed were now "X"—unusable.
What now?
But Luo Shu wasn't one to give up.
He rushed back into his room, dug out the tissue-wrapped Rainbow Lollipop from under his pillow, and carefully unfolded it.
The lollipop was now no bigger than half a grain of rice.
But the moment he held it in his hand—
The "X" on the third page turned back into an "O."
Perfect.
He pocketed the lollipop and bolted out of his room, heading straight for the nearest security officer.
The guard immediately drew his pistol when he saw a D-class running toward him.
"Halt! One more step and I shoot!"
Luo Shu mentally clicked the "O" next to SCP-3329.
Instantly, the taste of the Rainbow Lollipop filled his mouth.
Persuasion mode: activated.
"I have urgent intel to report! Let me approach."
The guard hesitated, then lowered his weapon. "Fine. Come here."
Luo Shu leaned in and whispered, "The surveillance feeds near the dorms are malfunctioning. Take me to the monitoring room to fix it."
"Alright, follow me."
The guard didn't even question why a D-class would need to access the high-security monitoring room.
That was the terrifying power of the Barnum Effect—it overrode all logic.
They rushed to the monitoring room, where Luo Shu smoothly convinced the staff to let him in.
Once inside, he pointed at the screens showing his fight with the bald man.
"These cameras glitched. They recorded false footage. Delete the last five minutes and patch the gap with normal footage."
The technician frowned. "We don't have clearance for that. Only Security Chief—Level 4 clearance—can authorize it."
Luo Shu sighed. "Then get me the Chief. Now."
Time was running out—the lollipop's effect wouldn't last forever.
When the call connected, Luo Shu spoke like an O5 Council member.
"This is a priority directive. Report to the monitoring room immediately to handle anomalous footage."
Minutes later, the Security Chief arrived and, under Luo Shu's "orders," edited the recordings.
Now, no one outside this room would ever know Luo Shu had used SCP-173's ability.
But the people inside the monitoring room had still seen it.
Even though Luo Shu had convinced them it was a "system error," they were still loose ends.
If questioned, they might slip up.
Ideally, he'd erase their memories.
But he couldn't.
So he went for the next best thing.
"By order of the O5 Council, this incident is classified. You will not speak of it—not to the Site Director, not to MTF commanders. Violators will self-terminate."
They all nodded obediently.
Luo Shu pressed further.
"The bald D-class in my neighboring cell died from a freak accident—he tripped and snapped his own neck. Dispose of the body immediately."
With everything handled, Luo Shu finally relaxed.
His throat was dry, but the crisis was averted.
Back in his room, he considered his next move.
Could he just… escape?
With the Rainbow Lollipop's power, he could persuade his way out of Site-19 and live a normal life.
But reality wasn't so simple.
The SCP Foundation never let D-class personnel go free.
Even if he convinced everyone in Site-19, he was still a marked man.
The O5 Council would hunt him down.
And who even were the O5 members?
No one knew.
Not even Site Directors had that intel.
In his past life, the SCP lore had multiple conflicting canons—some said O5-1 was a 150-year-old white man, others claimed he was a 10,000-year-old Sumerian woman, and some even said he was a mummy.
Without knowing which timeline this was, finding the O5s was impossible.
And without neutralizing them, escape was pointless.
As both an escaped D-class and a death row inmate, he'd spend his life running.
Maybe it was better to stay put and use the lollipop to make his life in Site-19 more comfortable.
For now, at least.
He took out the lollipop again, careful not to let his sweat dissolve it further.
Even now, it was shrinking.
He needed to conserve it.
Activating the persuasion ability once more, he turned his attention back to SCP-173's page.
How could he reactivate the neck-snap power?