I’m In Charge of SCP

Chapter 45: The Truth about The Hanged King

Zhang Jue knows little about the Hanged King. Only knew that he was once a tyrant, greedy for pleasure, exploiting his people, and killing his people. After being hanged by the angry mobs, he was resurrected into a God, destroyed his own Kingdom, and through SCP-701, he was immortalized so that he could continue his murder spree. The place where he ruled was called the Kingdom of Alagadda.

Zhang Jue wondered why this King, who had been hanged to death, had brought him here. Zhang Jue floated in the air, unable to speak and move his body. Only his mind could move. He was like a camera, passively remembering everything he saw.

The time seemed to have rewound for a long time, and the Kingdom of Alagadda was still thriving. Contrary to his imagination, instead of being hell, the Lost Kingdom of Alagadda was very rich, with merchants and politicians, including peasants living a prosperous life.

He saw the Hanged King who was alive, working night and day diligently to govern Alagadda in an orderly manner.

What is going on?

Zhang Jue's mind hit a big question mark.

This was not like the story he knew. But he immediately understood - the information he had learned before was not the truth. Someone had tampered with history.

Time flew by as a scene played out before Zhang Jue's eyes. The most important scene came. The Hanged King's son had plotted a rebellion. He bought the army, bribed the ministers, and together with his own mother, imprisoned the Hanged King.

They falsely claimed that the Hanged King had a disease and was possessed by ghosts and gods that needed to be killed. Those brain-damaged folk believed their words. They burned his palace and killed all the people who were loyal to him.

The Hanged King was knocked off his jaw, put in chains, and was brought to the Kingdom's market. He was forced to crawl through the streets of Kingdom, mocked by his former servant, kicked him, bashed him with filthy objects, and cheered loudly.

It seemed to be a festival that belonged to everyone. Eventually, the Hanged King was hanged on a deserted hill outside the city. Until his death, he muttered that he could not forgive his son, much less his foolish servants.

He was dead, but not quite dead. A man of unreadable appearance - perhaps not a man? It didn't matter - made a deal with him. The Hanged King offered his soul in exchange for great power and eternal life. He returned to his palace.

The next day, the rivers flowing through the Kingdom turned red and smelled like human blood. Many of the Kingdom's citizens became ill, began to bleed and tremble. Those who were involved in the rebellion suffered the most, and their strength gradually decayed. They became weaker and weaker and eventually died.

By the third day, the disease was lifted. But people began to commit suicide, cut their own faces and throat. Their blood flowed in the Kingdom through the Red River, spreading wildly, and most of the animals, except the crows, fled away from the Kingdom.

The whole city of Alagada turned into a hell on earth. But even this could not quell the raging fire in the Hanged King's heart.

He wanted revenge. He let the scholars and artists go and gave them nightmares every day. He made them see the tragic images of the Kingdom of Alagada and forced them to create plays or literary works from them.

As soon as these scenes were materialized, he could use them to manifest himself and take revenge on those he considered foolish on their act.

-----

So that's how it is. Surprisingly, it was always like this.

Zhang Jue could not help but smile bitterly. History is always written by the victors, and there was no telling how much truth has been buried. On top of the stage, the lines he said to keep the plot going turned out to be the closest to the truth.

Probably this was the reason why the Hanged King brought him here. The scene in front of his eyes gradually blurred, and Zhang Jue came to his senses. He was still standing on top of the stage while the Hanged King had long disappeared on the opposite side.

At that moment, all the audience watching the performance, including Yang Xue and Lei Shan, felt their brains were in a state of confusion. Their memories suddenly became altered, only vaguely remembered that they saw a very exciting performance.

At the end of the play, the character played by Zhang Jue, comes out and defeats the main villain. Other than that, they couldn't remember all the other details of the show.

-----

"Wow..." The applause thundered.

The entire audience applauded Zhang Jue's wonderful "performance". Zhang Jue's head was thinking, and he probably guessed what had happened. It seemed that the Hanged King had given up his revenge because of what he had done.

He used the remote control in his hand to bring down the curtain and then released the actors from his Pocket Dimension. Sure enough, although their memories had all been altered, and they didn't know what they had performed, their weird behavior had all returned to normal.

Zhang Jue opened the curtain again and let them receive the audience's applause.

"What just happened?"

Yang Xue covered his forehead. Most of the SCP Foundation staff had received sufficient training, and this means of memory alteration was effective for ordinary people, but they were affected by it.

Lei Shan returned to normal before she did, "We should have been affected by SCP-701, but it looks like Advisor Zhang completed his mission successfully."

Yang Xue looked at Zhang Jue on the stage, "Seeing that smug look on his face, I guess so."

The MTF member beside Lei Shan said, "Mr. Lei, should we apply to headquarters for a mnestics (sedation to recover memories) to aid us in recovering our memories."

"You can apply for them, compile the whole thing and make a report and send it back to the headquarters. I don't need it." Lei Shan said and then smiled, "Life is better with a little white space in your head."

----

The entire cultural performance ended successfully with big applause, the high standard of which was unanimously affirmed by the leaders and the audience. The play ended, Zhang Jue walked to the backstage from the audience, Yang Xue rushed to welcome him.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Just kidding, what could possibly happen to me?" Zhang Jue waved his hand and stinkily said, "Don't even look at who I am."

Looking at his appearance, Zhang Jue seemed to be fine, and Yang Xue's heart was finally relaxed.

Zhang Jue turned to Lei Shan: "There's no mess down there, right?"

Lei Shan said, "The audience is fine, except for him-"

Lei Shan looked in the direction of Zhang Shijia, and Zhang Jue looked with him. Only to see Zhang Shijia covering his face with his hands, tears streaming down his face.

Zhang Jue shrugged, "Who told him to copy someone else's script? If he still can't recover from it, you guys should do a memory deletion on him."

Lei Shan nodded: "Don't worry, it's not just him. The Foundation will do a full mental evaluation of all those who attended the performance and watched the show today and will claim it as a public service medical examination."

As expected from the secretary of the O5 Council, thoughtfulness was the key. Zhang Jue gave him a thumbs up.

"Since you've thought of all that, then I'm relieved." As Zhang Jue spoke, his body suddenly swayed, and he involuntarily fell backward.

"Hey, are you okay?" Yang Xue was quick on the uptake and held him up.

Zhang Jue leaned into Yang Xue's arms, feeling a little soft, and he rubbed against it.

Meeting Yang Xue's worried eyes, he pulled up the corners of his mouth with difficulty, "Don't worry. I'm just...a little...tired..."

Zhang Jue closed his eyes before he finished speaking, snored slightly, and fell asleep. The frequent use of his abilities, especially the final face-to-face confrontation with the materialized Hanged King, had consumed a lot of his energy.

After confirming that the incident was over and everyone was safe, his spirit suddenly relaxed, and he eventually fell asleep in Yang Xue's arms.

Yang Xue gently stroked his hair, and his eyes were full of warmth and pain.

Lei Shan looked at Zhang Jue and shook his head, laughing, "This Advisor Zhang, is indeed an interesting person."

Yang Xue sighed.

"An idiotic person."