Back to the matter at hand. I would tell the story of the Zoo from the beginning.
It all began eight years ago, when our organization received word that a zoo had appeared out of nowhere in the suburbs. Many people had entered it and never come out again. The organization took the report extremely seriously and sent the five of us to investigate.
Back then, the Zoo was not as large as it was now. It was probably only as big as the area outlined by the dotted line on the map, so investigating it was relatively easy.
Before long, we encountered "it." Through a series of tests, the quick-witted Old Chen soon uncovered the truth. It used memetic contamination to turn humans who wandered inside into all kinds of animals.
We also discovered that, left unchecked, the Zoo would gradually expand and might one day swallow our city. Its power would grow as well, and even the entire world could become its playground.
Once we learned this, we hurried to contact the organization and secured a large amount of funding. For humanity's future, we decided to destroy it!
Initially, it was Old Chen who proposed a plan. Since its method was memetic contamination, we would play along. We would expand the Zoo and bring in every kind of animal it needed to attract large numbers of visitors, hoping to exhaust its energy through sheer numbers.
But that made the visitors' safety our top priority. Once a visitor became completely contaminated and turned into an animal, not only would we fail to weaken it, we would actually add to the number of its accomplices.
Before long, however, after many days of observation, we fully understood its behavioral patterns and how it perceived things.
We then used that information to draw up an extremely safe set of Visitor Rules. As long as visitors followed those rules, they were guaranteed to leave the Zoo safely. To guard against accidents, we also offered exceptionally generous pay and benefits to recruit a large staff. Through the provisions of the Employee Handbook, we gave visitors a second layer of protection.
That way, even if some visitors ignored the Visitor Rules and fell into danger, staff members would arrive in time to save them.
And for the first five years, things went exactly as we had expected. Every visitor remained safe.
Even those unfortunate enough to fall victim left the Zoo safely with the staff's help.
In their lives afterward, contact with normal people soon restored them completely to normal, without any lasting effects.
But in the sixth year, that balance was utterly shattered.
After five years of effort, continually weakening its abilities, we had thought victory was within reach. Reality slapped us hard across the face.
Its power had not diminished. It had grown even stronger.
We simply could not work out where we had gone wrong or why things had turned out this way.
July 23, 20XV. I would always remember that day.
That day, I witnessed a sight I would never forget for as long as I lived.
Old Zhang and I were patrolling the Elephant Enclosure when something suddenly happened. A strange elephant appeared out of thin air among the herd, looking glaringly out of place.
Its snow-white body, long rabbit ears, and crimson eyes shook me so deeply that, for a time, my very perception teetered on the edge of collapse.
The normal elephants in the enclosure were even more panicked, running wildly in every direction as though that bizarre elephant were a carnivorous beast.
There were quite a few visitors in the enclosure at the time, too. They were frightened senseless and stood rooted to the spot. They never even noticed the terrified elephants charging toward them.
At that critical moment, Old Zhang was the first to come to his senses. Using his ability, he transformed into a massive elephant and charged at the frightened herd and the bizarre elephant.
After a bitter struggle, Old Chen finally won. All the elephants calmed down, and the bizarre elephant vanished after it was killed.
Just as Old Chen was about to transform back, a child's scream suddenly erupted in our ears.
Then Old Chen's body vanished into thin air. I was stunned and hurried to contact Old Chen and the others. They were equally shocked by the news and immediately arranged a search.
Finally, that night, we found Old Zhang's body. He was still in the form of an elephant, floating in the Aquarium's Whale Area.
From the state of his body, we could tell he must have suffered terribly before he died.
At the sight, Old Zhao could no longer contain his rage. He erupted and had a fierce argument with us, shouting that Old Chen had gotten Old Zhang killed! We should have listened to him from the start and gathered all our strength to destroy it. If we had listened, Old Zhang would not have died such a miserable, helpless death!
In the end, the argument resolved nothing, and Old Zhao stormed out, slamming the door behind him. That night, lions' roars shook the entire Zoo.
But Old Zhao failed too. It was not killed.
From then on, the Zoo had a White Lion Area, a place it dared not enter.
That, I suppose, was the legacy Old Zhao left us.
Over the following days, I reported what had happened to the organization, but it had no personnel to spare.
Strange phenomena were appearing in ever greater numbers elsewhere, and the organization was stretched beyond its limits.
When we received that news, we too felt despair. For a time, we even gave up on ourselves.
But in the end, Old Chen stepped forward once again.
He took sole control, established the position of director, and shouldered every responsibility himself.
In the days that followed, he began telling all the employees the truth. He knew that the three of us alone could no longer defeat it.
After learning the truth, quite a few employees chose to leave, but even more chose to stay.
It was at that moment that I regained my confidence. Because we were not alone.
No matter what dangers they faced, humans would always hold on to hope, stepping forward one after another, willing to sacrifice themselves.
Unity, courage, and unwavering loyalty were humanity's greatest strengths!
And so, things gradually improved. Once again, we used the rules to restrain it.
Just as we were preparing to celebrate our victory, reality slapped us across the face again.
We had been too naive. Once again, we had underestimated its power.
But we simply could not understand why it had grown stronger again after so many years of weakening it.
July 23, 20XW.
On the same date as the year before, it broke free of the rules' restrictions once again.
It was no longer merely using memetic contamination. It began twisting the rules.
Every copy of the Visitor Rules in the visitors' hands was altered without their knowledge.
That day, not a single visitor escaped the Zoo alive.
Every last one died!
By the time we learned what had happened, it was already too late. All the visitors had become animals.
Old Chen broke down emotionally. Years of pressure erupted all at once, and he felt that everything was his fault.
If he had listened to Old Zhao and gathered our strength earlier for a fight to the death, perhaps the tragedies that followed would never have happened.
His eyes red, Old Chen handed me the director's badge.
Then he walked out of the director's office, and Old Li followed him.
Before leaving, Old Li patted my shoulder and said helplessly, "Old Zhou, don't follow us. You're our last hope. I still believe there was nothing wrong with Old Chen's method. If we fail, you must do everything you can to keep protecting this Zoo!"
I said nothing at the time. I simply watched, dazed, as the two of them disappeared into the night.
That night, lions' roars split the sky once again. In those furious cries, I could hear Old Chen's unwillingness to accept defeat.
The next day, there were two more white lions in the Lion Enclosure.
We had failed again.
Before you continue