[Don't eat that, Host.]
Immediately after the warning ensued by the system rang—Sam's body jerked backward involuntarily and froze in place like a deer in headlights.
"What do you mean by that?" Sam muttered under his breath, barely a whisper. "And where the hell have you been??" He continue, his tone interrogating.
[It is not recommended to consume a trap disguised as harmless food, Host.]
"Huh—?" Before Sam could say another words, the system cut in sharply.
[As your system bestowed upon you, i've never leave your side voluntarily even for a moment, Host.]
[There was an unknown powerful external interference responsible for causing problems with the synchronization rate between me and you even as we speak right now.]
[System Note: You won't be able to use some features as it's been locked out temporarily, the cause was due to problem I addressed before. Hence now, the system could only operate at 50% capacity.]
Sam looked down at the harmless spaghetti and meatballs, the lovely scent and delicious looks still as captivating as ever to the point his saliva began to build up inside his mouth.
Fortunately when he's about to get captivated to the allure, he snapped out of it immediately and shook his head then wiping the drool that's dripping down from the side of his mouth.
"Goddamn! Get a grip man! " Sam said to himself as he quickly put his fork down on the plate, he turn his face away from it a bit reluctantly and continue. "What kind of food could induced such a strong attraction? I mean i'm hungry and all but that's not normal."
Sam wait for some minutes to passed as he busy his mind to distract the feeling he felt earlier, once he confirmed he's back to normal—Sam stood up and grabbed the foldable menu on the table, opened the said menu to cover the meal from view.
He began to walk away from the table without sparing another glance to the 'meal', his gaze scanned the surrounding like the eyes of a hawk hunting for prey to spot any abnormalities or 'uncle Patrick' as he approached closer to the exit door.
But no matter how hard he tried to find anything out of place he couldn't find it, everything in this place was the same as he remembered it, the same decorations, wallpaper, painting, and even the layout hasn't been changed at all.
'Wait, nothing change at all? That can't be right.' Sam's mind spun into action, what if the abnormalities he's searching for is already in front of his eyes, hiding in plain sight?
Sam eyes darted around in a quick succession and after he took a moment to process it, his eyes went wide as saucers and the hair on the back of his neck immediately stood on end.
He quicken his pace to the door, not daring to look behind him in fear of something popped out of nowhere due to this realization. The deathly silence surrounding the also didn't help Sam's imagination to not run wild.
When he's right in front of the door, without any hesitation nor second thought Sam push the door and get out of the place as quickly as possible.
Outside, Sam looked at the silent and eerie empty surrounding whilst still maintaining his pace. Fortunately the streets lamp are still brightly lit up, chasing away the darkness from reaching him.
At this moment, Sam's mind bounce back to the pizzeria, he realized the oddities he's searching for back then is not within the changes itself, but on the perfectly normal place.
"Fuck." Sam cursed under his breath, he wanted to slapped his past self for being an idiot.
Not even an hour has passed after he gets out of that man space or whatever that is, this kind of bullshit happens. At the same time Sam felt frustrated at himself, how could he forgot the man's advice before sending him away?
"Don't. Trust. Anything."
He let out a long sigh, and thought to himself. 'It's okay, don't beat yourself up now. As long as nothing bad happened you're good, note to self: don't do this shit again.' Sam tried to reconcile with his self, to cool his head from anger.
"System, can you explain what's happening here?" Sam called out to thin air, in which a blue hologram window immediately soon after.
[Affirmative.]
[Currently you're in a dimension similar to the space created by SCP-990 or commonly known as "Dream Man".]
"SCP-990? Dream Man? Who the hell is that??" Sam asked incredulously at the floating interface.
[SCP-990 is a Keter-class SCP that appears as a man in a Cold War-era suit through a dream, hence the title Dream Man.]
[Based on the data logs on the system archive, the man you met before coming into this place was extremely likely to be SCP-990 based on the faint energy residue on you Host.]
[However, there is one glaring differences: The energy signature between SCP-990 and this place were vastly different, only the constructed space hold similarities in quality.]
"W-wait, hold on—come again?Keter class?" Sam blurted nervously, cold sweats began to formed on his head. His thoughts then briefly flashed to the memories of his getting chased and cornered by Roghul, the dangerous Keter class SCP.
Shiver ran down his spine, Sam tried to compose himself and ask with a firm voice. "Am I going to get hunted again? Please don't say yes, cuz you might as well kill me if that were the case."
[Correction. The definition of Keter class host thinking about currently is incorrect, allow me to briefly explain.]
[Keter class SCP are anomalies that are exceptionally difficult or impossible to contain, oftentimes requiring an extensive, complex, and high-resource containment procedures. While often dangerous, the classification of Keter itself does not inherently mean "deadly," but rather signifies a high likelihood of containment breaches due to unpredictable behavior, high intelligence, or uncontrollable nature.]
[SCP-990 is more likely to fit the category of being impossible to contain rather than outright dangerous or lethal, it was recorded that this SCP have some history of helping a certain foundation personnel by giving a warning or a sign about future event through premonition and mostly being cryptic with its words.]
[However, SCP-0-020 or known as "Roghul" has the complete opposite regarding the lethality in comparison of SCP-990. The difficulty range of SCP-0-020 containment is said to be outrageously difficult to near impossible due to its feral and dangerous nature, either they eliminate the living in the vicinity or adapting to whatever is trying to pressuring/containing them.]
[There are sufficient data on various classification ready to be use for study in the database, say the word and I'll have it ready for you, host.]
"Well I'll be damned, that's a lot of things to process." Sam whistle, blankly stared at the rows of information on the screen with a straight flat face.
Sam would love to dive into the various classification, but it doesn't sit right with him to do it now. There are tons of things more important than that, for example what exactly is this place? Why does it take place based on his memory? And most of all, who's the one responsible of doing this?
Perhaps it was the work of SCP-990 to prank him out of his wits, but knowing the man albeit briefly alongside the information provided by the system earlier... Sam believe that man is not the sort of guy to play prank just for shit and giggle, and if that weren't enough his gut feeling also telling the same thing.
"Hey system, do you have any guess who's the one responsible for creating this space?"
[There's 99,9% probability of this space created from a byproduct of host accidentally consuming the blood of SCP-0-020 before the state of collapsed occured.]
[According to the partially successful data collected, an anomaly called SCP @$&*+#$@ was responsible for the spatial corruption.]
[Current data acquisition rate of SCP @$&*+#$@: 0,4%]
[Spatial Corruption rate: 10% > 11%]
"Fuuuuckk! Is it really damn too much asking for a break!? What even is this shit!" Sam wail in defeat as he clutches his throbbing head.
What kind of depraved man throwing all of these nonsense upon his way?! No, really, he knew the SCP world is filled with all kinds of anomalies, but for it happening after one another at him again and again without breaks is weird! What are they? Cabbages?! Screw your cabbages i don't want it, stop sending them to me for god sake!!
"Ahhh... I need to sit down for this..." Sam muttered tiredly, sitting on a nearby wooden bench near the water fountain.
His posture was that of a tired man that has given up upon the world, his shoulder slump heavily and his face absentmindedly stared at the ground below for a few moments.
'Sigh... Well, there's no use dwelling on the situation. The more i stood still and did nothing will only make whatever that's coming more unpredictable.' Sam thought with a cool head. He can't just wait around hoping for a miracle, if he wants the way out or any hope of resolving whatever this is then he can only rely on himself whether he wants it or not.
He straighten up his back, closed his eyes, and take a long deep breath. "Huuu...." The air he exhaled faintly turned into white mist due to the cold temperature.
After that long exhaled, Sam nerve felt more or less ready to tackle anything in his way. He opened his eyes then scan his surrounding, unexpectedly his feet unconsciously take him into the place where he met the street performer. The only difference is there's not a single performer nor a crowd around.
'Alright, first issue: what should I do now?' Sam pondered in seriousness. He then ask the system for advice or clue to his situation. "System, what should I do now? As much as I would like to solve this on my own, I don't have any leads nor a starting point here. Help me will you?"
[Affirmative.]
[Calculating possibilities...]
[Most effective tactic available...]
[Result: After some calculation, things such a as exploration of this place is highly recommended. There are several reasons why this was the case.]
[1. Investigating whether this place has any limitation in its spatial recreation and if its possible in finding any natural living being present.]
[2. Based on the system observation, your body right now seemed to be in under slow and silent qualitative transformation. The exact reason of this happening is not yet concrete, however it is suspected that this phenomenon is tied to the space created from the side effect of consuming the Roghul blood.]
[3. Gathering more information about your surrounding and finding any kind of oddities or anomaly is better to know beforehand rather than not knowing about it and not having any countermeasure plan to ensure your survival]
Sam read the wall of text the system provided thoroughly, not daring to miss anything. He even written it down as he tried to memorize every bits and pieces into his mind.
*Click*
The sound of his pen echo in the air after he finished writing it down on his notebook, he unconsciously twirl the pen between his fingers with an impressive nimbleness and said:
"Alright, Exploration, investigation, and planning countermeasure huh? Seems to be simple enough, but where should I go?" Sam rubbed his chin as he thinks of the next place to visit. The pizzeria is a no go, well, he could go there but it's not seems like a good idea.
The pizzeria itself is not the main problem, hell he could chill there as far he's concerned, but the 'Uncle Patrick' he encountered still remained a big mystery. Is he an anomaly? if so what kind? is it the bad kind or the good kind? And currently Sam was not in the mood of fuck around and find out, his plate is still full of things to take care of.
"Wait, shouldn't the System know whether he's an anomaly or not?" Sam thought out loud, blurting out the words unintentionally. Surely enough, the system responded to him without missing a heartbeat.
[Negative.]
[My function is only available when you're about to eat the meal, Host. Therefore, I can't acquire the data on what I didn't see.]
[More precisely in this case about 'Uncle Patrick' of yours.]
"That's a bust huh? Well at least it cleared up the confusion.." Sam pondered some more, thinking of every places he could think of.
A few moments passed in silence, then after some careful consideration he decided the places he needed to go: The park, his house, and a place he never went before: The great forest in the east.
He didn't know what kind of surprises or abominations he would encounter in this made up reality, but he's ready to face whatever fate have in its magic bag for him.
Sam shook his head and let out a wry chuckle. "well, what could go wrong anyway?"