WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.590 --> 00:00:02.419 Hello, everyone, Dr. Bob here. 00:00:02.419 --> 00:00:06.509 I know you’re not used to seeing me here at the start of videos, but that’s because 00:00:06.509 --> 00:00:09.969 today, we have an extremely pressing matter to attend to. 00:00:09.969 --> 00:00:14.429 One that cuts to the deepest core of one of the SCP Foundation’s deadliest contained 00:00:14.429 --> 00:00:18.680 anomalies: SCP-096, the Shy Guy. 00:00:18.680 --> 00:00:23.400 It’s a creature that needs no introduction, because it probably haunts all of your nightmares 00:00:23.400 --> 00:00:24.520 already. 00:00:24.520 --> 00:00:29.539 Close your eyes and picture it in your mind’s eye: That gaunt face with the slack jaw and 00:00:29.539 --> 00:00:31.730 the lifeless white eyes. 00:00:31.730 --> 00:00:34.719 The face you hope never to see as long as you live. 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:37.880 The pale skin, pulled tight against bone. 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:41.130 Those impossibly long, gangly limbs. 00:00:41.130 --> 00:00:46.199 It sits there in its airtight containment cube, covering its face and quietly sobbing, 00:00:46.199 --> 00:00:50.860 always sobbing, as though cursing something beyond even its own understanding. 00:00:50.860 --> 00:00:57.490 Perhaps, when thinking about SCP-096, you feel a pang of sympathy mixed with the terror. 00:00:57.490 --> 00:01:00.280 After all, this anomaly is no sadist. 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:04.070 Why would a sadist cry as it kills, like SCP-096 does? 00:01:04.070 --> 00:01:06.530 You’re not alone in asking this question. 00:01:06.530 --> 00:01:11.380 I’ve spent many a night poring over classified files with an ever-freshening pot of coffee, 00:01:11.380 --> 00:01:14.010 trying to piece together the answers. 00:01:14.010 --> 00:01:19.650 SCP-096 is considered one of the most dangerous Euclid-class creatures in containment, and 00:01:19.650 --> 00:01:24.300 yet, so little about it is known beyond its capability to do great harm whenever someone 00:01:24.300 --> 00:01:28.440 is unlucky enough to see its face and send it into its rage state. 00:01:28.440 --> 00:01:29.440 How did this happen? 00:01:29.440 --> 00:01:34.430 It’s a question for the curious, like you or me, and after months of strenuous research, 00:01:34.430 --> 00:01:37.100 I believe I may have an answer. 00:01:37.100 --> 00:01:40.570 Whether you choose to believe it is up to you. 00:01:40.570 --> 00:01:44.810 Just be warned, when you hear what I believe to be the heartbreaking, tragic origin of 00:01:44.810 --> 00:01:49.270 this terrifying and pitiful monster, you may never be able to look at him the same way 00:01:49.270 --> 00:01:50.340 again. 00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:54.670 Not that “looking” at him should ever be high on your list of priorities... 00:01:54.670 --> 00:01:59.869 It begins in a tavern in a small Nepalese village, a few miles away from the Chinese 00:01:59.869 --> 00:02:05.270 border, where Mount Everest - The world’s tallest mountain above sea level - waits. 00:02:05.270 --> 00:02:08.759 Its mere existence is like a challenge to the brave and foolhardy. 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:11.680 “Conquer me,” it seems to whisper. 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:16.970 “Conquer me, and declare yourself above all those I have conquered. 00:02:16.970 --> 00:02:19.849 Become a God among men.” 00:02:19.849 --> 00:02:24.970 It’s always whispering like this, but few, in the grand scheme of things, can actually 00:02:24.970 --> 00:02:25.970 hear it. 00:02:25.970 --> 00:02:30.180 And sadly for him, the Explorer is among those few. 00:02:30.180 --> 00:02:34.390 He’s sitting in one of the tavern’s many cozy nooks, picking away at a plate of mutton 00:02:34.390 --> 00:02:39.400 curry while sipping from a brass bowl of white Chyang, a popular local drink. 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:43.630 The Explorer, living up to his name, has come a long way to get here. 00:02:43.630 --> 00:02:48.470 The rest of the village locals in the tavern eye him with a variety of knowing glances. 00:02:48.470 --> 00:02:53.680 They’ve seen so many like him before - Smug smiles and puffed chests, thinking they’ll 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:57.870 be able to count themselves among the exalted few who’ve conquered the mountain to end 00:02:57.870 --> 00:02:59.310 all mountains. 00:02:59.310 --> 00:03:04.220 The bodies of many men like this are still frozen to the mountain’s surface. 00:03:04.220 --> 00:03:08.730 One brave local - an older man who can speak English fluently - slides in across the table 00:03:08.730 --> 00:03:10.200 from the Explorer. 00:03:10.200 --> 00:03:14.890 The old timer tells him that whatever he thinks he’ll find up on the mountain - honor, glory, 00:03:14.890 --> 00:03:19.060 recognition - he’d be better off searching for it elsewhere. 00:03:19.060 --> 00:03:22.319 Death awaits on the icy rocks above. 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:27.040 The Explorer, young, fit, and still feeling mighty smug, replies that death is there for 00:03:27.040 --> 00:03:29.010 the people who haven’t worked hard enough. 00:03:29.010 --> 00:03:30.220 Who haven’t prepared. 00:03:30.220 --> 00:03:35.400 He’s scaled other mountains before, all across the globe, from Scotland to Peru. 00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:40.410 Everest would hold no surprises for him, just a new, compelling challenge. 00:03:40.410 --> 00:03:45.760 The old man is, as you could probably imagine, unamused by the Explorer’s hubris. 00:03:45.760 --> 00:03:50.720 “All confidence and bluster now,” he says with his thin, raspy voice. 00:03:50.720 --> 00:03:55.840 “But what will you say when you’re face to face with the King?” 00:03:55.840 --> 00:04:00.980 The Explorer, assuming that this “king” refers to the mountain itself, smiles and 00:04:00.980 --> 00:04:03.680 replies, “I’ll ask him for his crown.” 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:08.140 With that, the old man leaves, content that he at least tried to dissuade the Explorer 00:04:08.140 --> 00:04:10.610 from going on this doomed journey. 00:04:10.610 --> 00:04:13.340 If nothing else, his conscience would be clear now. 00:04:13.340 --> 00:04:15.920 He had done all that he possibly could. 00:04:15.920 --> 00:04:20.660 The Explorer, not bothered by the grim prophecies of superstitious locals, finishes his curry 00:04:20.660 --> 00:04:23.610 and Chyang and retires to the room he rented upstairs. 00:04:23.610 --> 00:04:29.320 He’s so excited, tomorrow, it will finally be time, all his months of training will pay 00:04:29.320 --> 00:04:30.320 off. 00:04:30.320 --> 00:04:32.020 He will climb to Mount Everest’s peak. 00:04:32.020 --> 00:04:37.730 It would be an achievement to last a whole lifetime - one he would never, ever forget. 00:04:37.730 --> 00:04:40.450 No matter how much he wants to... 00:04:40.450 --> 00:04:45.160 The next day, the tip of his ice axe cleaves into the mountainside as he grunts, strains, 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:47.290 and pulls himself up another few feet. 00:04:47.290 --> 00:04:52.260 He’s about 2000 meters up, and every additional meter is fighting him. 00:04:52.260 --> 00:04:56.690 It’s the bitterest cold he’s ever known - A freeze so deep it makes his incredibly 00:04:56.690 --> 00:05:01.720 expensive thermal-locking clothes feel like he’s wearing wet, one-ply toilet paper. 00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:03.639 But the pain doesn’t matter. 00:05:03.639 --> 00:05:05.229 The cold doesn’t matter. 00:05:05.229 --> 00:05:06.530 He finds it exhilarating. 00:05:06.530 --> 00:05:12.250 Of course, just as the old man had warned, death could be waiting for him on this mountain. 00:05:12.250 --> 00:05:16.190 But the truth is, the Explorer has never felt more alive. 00:05:16.190 --> 00:05:21.040 He winches himself up a few feet more, trying to regulate his breathing as his icy fingers, 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:24.910 wrapped in thick gloves, struggle to find purchase on what feels like a sheer cliff 00:05:24.910 --> 00:05:25.910 face. 00:05:25.910 --> 00:05:29.669 There are many times when he’s supporting his full body weight with only his hands. 00:05:29.669 --> 00:05:33.790 It often takes the kind of Herculean strength that only a lifetime of training can give 00:05:33.790 --> 00:05:34.919 you. 00:05:34.919 --> 00:05:39.500 After all, there’s no room for error on Mount Everest. 00:05:39.500 --> 00:05:43.620 One wrong move and you’re either plummeting to your death, or becoming a permanent frozen 00:05:43.620 --> 00:05:45.229 fixture of the mountainside. 00:05:45.229 --> 00:05:50.919 And because Everest is so dangerous, nobody comes to collect the bodies of dead mountaineering 00:05:50.919 --> 00:05:52.100 hopefuls. 00:05:52.100 --> 00:05:56.530 Their corpses, coated in often colorful winter jackets, litter the mountain. 00:05:56.530 --> 00:05:58.569 Some look at them as a tragic warning. 00:05:58.569 --> 00:06:03.130 Other, more morbid mountaineers use them as mile markers for their own more successful 00:06:03.130 --> 00:06:04.450 ascents. 00:06:04.450 --> 00:06:09.600 Whether the Explorer would be lucky, or become just another dead, frozen mile marker, is 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:12.450 still entirely up to chance. 00:06:12.450 --> 00:06:16.960 He climbs for a few more hours, pushing past his body’s complaints, his physical limitations, 00:06:16.960 --> 00:06:19.699 until he reaches a well-earned plateau. 00:06:19.699 --> 00:06:24.259 Here, he establishes a small base camp and eats some of his rations. 00:06:24.259 --> 00:06:28.880 The area is thankfully guarded enough to keep out the worst of the sub-zero winds, so he 00:06:28.880 --> 00:06:31.820 can at least get some sleep without freezing to death. 00:06:31.820 --> 00:06:35.979 Mount Everest cannot be conquered today, and even someone with the Explorer’s bravado 00:06:35.979 --> 00:06:38.009 wouldn’t dare to try. 00:06:38.009 --> 00:06:42.699 But as he settles down to sleep for the night, he can’t help but look up, and the enormity 00:06:42.699 --> 00:06:46.560 of what stands before him, he finds utterly terrifying. 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:52.810 The mountain just keeps going, and going, and going, stretching up into the misty heavens, 00:06:52.810 --> 00:06:55.259 like the tip would only be a short jump from the moon. 00:06:55.259 --> 00:07:01.349 For the first time, the Explorer begins to genuinely wonder: Will I scale this mountain, 00:07:01.349 --> 00:07:02.580 or will I die on it? 00:07:02.580 --> 00:07:08.370 What he never even considers is that there may be a third option that’s so, so much 00:07:08.370 --> 00:07:09.750 worse. 00:07:09.750 --> 00:07:12.910 Over the next few days, he keeps climbing further and further. 00:07:12.910 --> 00:07:17.430 Hundreds, then thousands of meters, pass under him as he breaks past even the boundaries 00:07:17.430 --> 00:07:19.450 biology seemed to set for him. 00:07:19.450 --> 00:07:20.789 He’s impossible to deter. 00:07:20.789 --> 00:07:26.250 An engine of pure, burning willpower, going because he knows he cannot stop. 00:07:26.250 --> 00:07:30.449 Because he knows that if he throws in the towel now, it will have all been for nothing. 00:07:30.449 --> 00:07:34.080 He’ll be just another failure, one spec among billions. 00:07:34.080 --> 00:07:36.319 He’ll have no meaning, no legacy. 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:40.730 He’ll just be another average Joe, forgotten. 00:07:40.730 --> 00:07:46.289 And that honestly scares him even more than the prospect of freezing to death up here. 00:07:46.289 --> 00:07:51.430 Eventually, even though it costs him almost everything to do it, he reaches 8000 meters 00:07:51.430 --> 00:07:56.080 - an area known as the “Death Zone”, where it’s believed to be impossible for humans 00:07:56.080 --> 00:07:57.840 to acclimate. 00:07:57.840 --> 00:08:02.379 This is the thin, rarefied air that few have been permitted to breathe, and he’s seen 00:08:02.379 --> 00:08:05.810 so many brightly-colored “mile markers” on the way to here. 00:08:05.810 --> 00:08:10.160 The ground is slippery and the air chews into the Explorer’s skin, but he knows he’s 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:11.510 made it this far. 00:08:11.510 --> 00:08:13.669 Less than a thousand meters from the peak now. 00:08:13.669 --> 00:08:16.360 He has almost conquered the mountain. 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:21.360 So you can only imagine how surprised he feels when he sees another mountaineer walking down 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:24.979 the side of the mountain towards him with an eerie kind of casualness. 00:08:24.979 --> 00:08:28.699 He’s wearing standard mountain climbing gear, including white thermal pants and a 00:08:28.699 --> 00:08:31.510 hooded coat, zipped up to the chin. 00:08:31.510 --> 00:08:36.240 The Explorer can’t make out the stranger’s face, beyond the pair of thick, black goggles 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:37.969 he’s wearing over his eyes. 00:08:37.969 --> 00:08:40.630 What the hell is going on here? 00:08:40.630 --> 00:08:44.970 The second the stranger’s eyes fall upon him, he feels a frightening sensation. 00:08:44.970 --> 00:08:47.450 The bite of the cold is gone. 00:08:47.450 --> 00:08:49.589 The chilling winds can’t reach him. 00:08:49.589 --> 00:08:55.450 Instead, he feels warm, cozy, and content, like he’s sitting in front of a warm fire 00:08:55.450 --> 00:08:57.440 in a well-insulated log cabin. 00:08:57.440 --> 00:09:02.440 In any other circumstance, these sensations might be welcomed, but a seasoned mountaineer 00:09:02.440 --> 00:09:05.640 knows that this is actually one of the worst things you can feel. 00:09:05.640 --> 00:09:11.029 It means that death is creeping in, and your body is opening the front door and welcoming 00:09:11.029 --> 00:09:12.029 it. 00:09:12.029 --> 00:09:18.500 And if this stranger is causing that feeling, then one thing is certain: He’s bad news. 00:09:18.500 --> 00:09:21.900 The Explorer wants to turn and run, but he finds that he can’t. 00:09:21.900 --> 00:09:26.880 It’s almost as though he’s frozen in place, entranced by the warm, inviting feeling that 00:09:26.880 --> 00:09:30.490 the other mountaineer seems to exude as he gets closer and closer. 00:09:30.490 --> 00:09:35.760 That’s when the Explorer notices something strange about him: Something is glowing through 00:09:35.760 --> 00:09:39.220 his goggles, like hot embers, burning a bright, luminous orange. 00:09:39.220 --> 00:09:40.610 Are those eyes? 00:09:40.610 --> 00:09:43.000 Dear god, are those his eyes? 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:47.350 The Explorer can feel their terrible stare, literally feel it. 00:09:47.350 --> 00:09:49.350 It hurts to be looked at by this monster. 00:09:49.350 --> 00:09:51.600 Yes, that’s what it is. 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:52.600 A monster. 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:54.310 A monster in the shape of a man. 00:09:54.310 --> 00:09:57.870 “Why are you here, mortal?” 00:09:57.870 --> 00:10:00.570 comes a booming voice from the inhuman mountaineer. 00:10:00.570 --> 00:10:03.240 “Do you wish to challenge me?” 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:05.769 The Explorer can’t form words. 00:10:05.769 --> 00:10:10.300 He’s quaking, his body acknowledging the cold that his mind can’t as those two glowing 00:10:10.300 --> 00:10:12.040 eyes bore into him. 00:10:12.040 --> 00:10:14.800 “Speak,” the stranger commanded. 00:10:14.800 --> 00:10:15.800 “Who... 00:10:15.800 --> 00:10:16.800 What... 00:10:16.800 --> 00:10:18.320 Are you?” 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:21.070 The Explorer forced out between chattering teeth. 00:10:21.070 --> 00:10:22.490 The stranger laughed. 00:10:22.490 --> 00:10:26.610 “I am the King of the Mountain.” 00:10:26.610 --> 00:10:29.810 Though to the SCP Foundation, he’s better known as SCP-1529. 00:10:29.810 --> 00:10:36.010 And he’s the worst possible thing you can run into while trying to scale Mount Everest. 00:10:36.010 --> 00:10:39.350 The Explorer remembers his conversation with the old man in the tavern. 00:10:39.350 --> 00:10:40.560 The question he asked. 00:10:40.560 --> 00:10:43.450 “What will you say when you’re face to face with the King?” 00:10:43.450 --> 00:10:47.220 And his own foolish answer, “I’ll ask him for his crown.” 00:10:47.220 --> 00:10:53.029 Now, really, truly face to face with the King of the Mountain, all the poor, terrified Explorer 00:10:53.029 --> 00:10:56.500 can do is whimper and beg for mercy. 00:10:56.500 --> 00:11:00.700 “Please...” he says, the tears freezing on his cheeks as they fall. 00:11:00.700 --> 00:11:03.089 “I just wanted to climb...” 00:11:03.089 --> 00:11:06.800 The King of the Mountain gives another booming laugh, his eyes burning. 00:11:06.800 --> 00:11:10.940 “Then you will climb,” he says. 00:11:10.940 --> 00:11:15.170 “And climb... and climb... and climb...” 00:11:15.170 --> 00:11:20.139 The King of the Mountain must have wielded truly unspeakable power to do what he does 00:11:20.139 --> 00:11:21.190 next. 00:11:21.190 --> 00:11:25.579 With a simple nod, the Explorer is suddenly hanging off of the mountainside, his fingers 00:11:25.579 --> 00:11:30.240 digging into the craggy rocks, the only thing supporting his weight. 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:35.010 It was like being back at square one all over again, except with added pain, terror, and 00:11:35.010 --> 00:11:37.980 cold so deep he can feel his bones rattling. 00:11:37.980 --> 00:11:41.470 And all the while, he feels those eyes upon him. 00:11:41.470 --> 00:11:46.500 Those burning, fiery eyes, staring with absolute malice. 00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:47.820 He keeps climbing. 00:11:47.820 --> 00:11:52.570 Every time he reaches a plateau, a place where he might camp and find even momentary comfort, 00:11:52.570 --> 00:11:57.279 the King of the Mountain is already waiting there, staring that horrible stare. 00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:01.850 And just like that, the Explorer was climbing again, wind whipping against him like forty 00:12:01.850 --> 00:12:04.230 lashes from a Cat O’ Nine Tails. 00:12:04.230 --> 00:12:09.320 That, coupled with the endless strain of the climb on his muscles, is the worst agony he’s 00:12:09.320 --> 00:12:10.320 ever felt. 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:11.320 And yet... 00:12:11.320 --> 00:12:13.089 He never dies. 00:12:13.089 --> 00:12:19.560 Even though he hasn’t eaten in days, months, weeks, years, he never, ever dies, he just 00:12:19.560 --> 00:12:23.420 fulfils the same torturous loop, over and over again. 00:12:23.420 --> 00:12:27.570 It’s like the King of the Mountain is just keeping him alive for his own amusement. 00:12:27.570 --> 00:12:30.300 A toy that’s impossible to break. 00:12:30.300 --> 00:12:36.010 But while the Explorer never breaks, as time goes on and the torments never cease, he does 00:12:36.010 --> 00:12:39.740 begin to change, like rock being molded by the tide. 00:12:39.740 --> 00:12:43.240 First, from the endless stress, his hair falls out. 00:12:43.240 --> 00:12:46.120 His skin goes pale from the lack of sun. 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:50.110 His body becomes thin and wiry from starvation and malnourishment. 00:12:50.110 --> 00:12:55.010 The endless physical strain even warps his limbs - his arms and legs begin to stretch, 00:12:55.010 --> 00:12:58.040 his body becoming elongated and grotesque. 00:12:58.040 --> 00:13:03.300 All the way through this horrific, dehumanizing ordeal, the King of the Mountain stares at 00:13:03.300 --> 00:13:04.300 him. 00:13:04.300 --> 00:13:10.019 One day, the Explorer, now changed, reaches a plateau, and as can be expected, the King 00:13:10.019 --> 00:13:12.930 of the Mountain stares at him with his burning eyes. 00:13:12.930 --> 00:13:17.490 The Explorer cowers and covers his face with his hands, sobbing from exhaustion. 00:13:17.490 --> 00:13:22.070 He just wants the King of the Mountain to look away, to leave him be. 00:13:22.070 --> 00:13:23.820 He babbles incoherently. 00:13:23.820 --> 00:13:26.130 He doesn’t want to be seen anymore. 00:13:26.130 --> 00:13:29.200 His pain simply makes the King of the Mountain laugh. 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:35.339 “I gave you your wish,” the Mountain King says, his voice oozing with contempt. 00:13:35.339 --> 00:13:37.279 “You climbed, didn’t you? 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:40.920 You thought that your climbing would elevate you. 00:13:40.920 --> 00:13:42.440 Make you more than human. 00:13:42.440 --> 00:13:46.570 But now... you’re so much less. 00:13:46.570 --> 00:13:48.340 Our business concludes here. 00:13:48.340 --> 00:13:51.850 I am tired of playing with you.” 00:13:51.850 --> 00:13:53.709 And with that, the King is gone. 00:13:53.709 --> 00:13:58.480 The Explorer is alone, stranded among the snow and the whipping winds of the death zone, 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:00.200 but very much alive. 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:02.900 He’s finally able to go. 00:14:02.900 --> 00:14:07.740 At long last, after what felt like an eternity, he’s escaped. 00:14:07.740 --> 00:14:11.940 When the Explorer arrives in the village again, he is not the Explorer at all. 00:14:11.940 --> 00:14:15.550 It’s been years since he went missing on the mountain - The old man who had warned 00:14:15.550 --> 00:14:19.679 him not to go up onto Mount Everest had passed peacefully in the interim. 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:24.459 The other members of his small village would not be afforded the same luxury. 00:14:24.459 --> 00:14:29.430 Instead, the Explorer stumbled back through the village limits, still covering his face. 00:14:29.430 --> 00:14:34.709 The only sounds he can hear are the wailing wind, and his own pitiful sobbing. 00:14:34.709 --> 00:14:35.709 Everything hurts. 00:14:35.709 --> 00:14:37.720 He’s so terribly afraid. 00:14:37.720 --> 00:14:39.360 He needs somebody to to help him. 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:41.370 Why will nobody help him? 00:14:41.370 --> 00:14:44.940 The sun begins to rise and the village shakes itself awake. 00:14:44.940 --> 00:14:47.279 People leave their homes to go about their daily tasks. 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:52.320 None of them are expecting to see a monster loping through their streets, a pale, gangling 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:54.810 monstrosity, stretched and hairless. 00:14:54.810 --> 00:14:59.420 It engenders a mix of fear and curiosity, as it stumbles around, audibly sobbing with 00:14:59.420 --> 00:15:00.880 a loud, warped voice. 00:15:00.880 --> 00:15:03.780 It’s like nothing any of them have ever seen before. 00:15:03.780 --> 00:15:06.000 Like something out of a myth or a folktale. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:10.290 But for the monster that was once the Explorer, it’s so much worse. 00:15:10.290 --> 00:15:13.880 At first, he thinks the villagers might be there to help him. 00:15:13.880 --> 00:15:14.980 But then... 00:15:14.980 --> 00:15:16.550 He sees their eyes. 00:15:16.550 --> 00:15:20.949 That same intense, burning, fire-pit orange as the King of the Mountain. 00:15:20.949 --> 00:15:25.259 That same horrible gaze that the Explorer thought he’d escaped when he left the mountain, 00:15:25.259 --> 00:15:29.230 the gaze that meant pain, torment, and madness. 00:15:29.230 --> 00:15:33.060 Even when he tries to cover his face, when he wails at them to go away in words that 00:15:33.060 --> 00:15:37.840 make sense to no one but him, he can still feel those terrible eyes on him. 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:39.209 Is he still on the mountain? 00:15:39.209 --> 00:15:40.850 Is he still at the mercy of the Mountain King? 00:15:40.850 --> 00:15:43.880 Are these all just illusions, or projections? 00:15:43.880 --> 00:15:45.300 Another awful trick? 00:15:45.300 --> 00:15:48.320 What did he ever do to deserve this kind of torment? 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:52.839 Was the crime of wanting to climb a damn mountain worth this kind of everlasting suffering? 00:15:52.839 --> 00:15:55.850 Did it earn him the gaze of all these monstrous eyes? 00:15:55.850 --> 00:16:01.580 The Explorer begins to feel his anguish being replaced by another feeling: Rapidly-rising 00:16:01.580 --> 00:16:02.580 rage. 00:16:02.580 --> 00:16:08.589 The kind of pure, blistering hatred that inexorably leads to one result: Violence. 00:16:08.589 --> 00:16:10.970 First, he screams. 00:16:10.970 --> 00:16:13.009 Then, they scream. 00:16:13.009 --> 00:16:15.769 And finally, the killing begins. 00:16:15.769 --> 00:16:19.430 The creature that had once been the Explorer leaves no stone unturned. 00:16:19.430 --> 00:16:22.980 Even when they try to run away, he still feels their eyes on him. 00:16:22.980 --> 00:16:24.769 He needs to kill them all. 00:16:24.769 --> 00:16:26.410 To annihilate them quickly. 00:16:26.410 --> 00:16:27.410 Leave no trace. 00:16:27.410 --> 00:16:30.480 It’s the only way he can feel anything close to at peace again. 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:33.540 It becomes a kind of terrible chain reaction. 00:16:33.540 --> 00:16:37.760 The sound of the horrors going on in the street only entices more to come outside and see 00:16:37.760 --> 00:16:42.010 what’s going on, to look at the creature causing all this carnage, to see its face. 00:16:42.010 --> 00:16:46.579 They have no idea that this very action is dooming them. 00:16:46.579 --> 00:16:51.589 And within the hour, the village is empty, save for one creature - The creature that 00:16:51.589 --> 00:16:58.410 had once been the Explorer, now just afraid, confused, and alone. 00:16:58.410 --> 00:17:02.529 He will always be alone. 00:17:02.529 --> 00:17:08.199 The anomaly that will soon be known as SCP-096 simply bows its head... 00:17:08.199 --> 00:17:09.199 And weeps. 00:17:09.199 --> 00:17:13.720 If you want to support our important mission here at Dr. Bob, check out the Dr. Bob Patreon 00:17:13.720 --> 00:17:16.000 and become a junior researcher today! 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:23.070 Now go and watch another entry from the files of Dr. Bob, like SCP-3063 - A Fly Is Your 00:17:23.070 --> 00:17:27.819 New Telepathic Therapist, for another anomalous tragedy that will tug at your heartstrings. 00:17:27.819 --> 00:17:32.340 And make sure you subscribe and turn on notifications, so you don’t miss a single anomaly, as we 00:17:32.340 --> 00:17:36.190 delve further and further into the SCP Foundation’s classified archives.