Screenshot of SCP-9951 gameplay depicting Betobeto Bishou. Click to enlarge.
Item #: SCP-9951
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-9951 has been successfully removed from public view and replaced with an equivalent game devoid of anomalous properties.
Online discussion of the Touhou Project series is to be monitored for references to SCP-9951. Offending materials are to be traced and their distributors amnesticized. All digital copies containing SCP-9951 are to be wiped following discovery.
For the purposes of reducing collateral damage of public and private property, the Foundation will maintain no less than 10 containment specialists possessing high strategic and mechanical proficiency in “bullet hell” video games. In the event that an individual in possession of SCP-9951 has already engaged the anomaly at the time of Foundation interception, one of these personnel will be dispatched to their location with the goal of training the individual in the “one credit clear” completion of SCP-9951.
Description: SCP-9951 is a difficulty setting found within Touhou Fuminkyou ~ Echoes of Insomnia (不眠の響), a 2018 fan-made video game based on the larger Touhou Project series.
SCP-9951, presented as "Insomniac" difficulty, is entirely absent from the game’s code. The Touhou Fuminkyou development team similarly displayed nescience towards the game mode’s existence during Foundation interrogation.
SCP-9951 is not accessible through ordinary gameplay, and its activation requires the player to recite a spoken-word invocation while making visual contact with betobeto.jpg, an image file of a fan-created character downloaded alongside the game. The contents of the invocation and the mechanics of SCP-9951 as a game mode were rapidly spread through various online imageboards prior to Foundation interception, touting itself as a challenge for expert players.
The English contents of the invocation have been reproduced below. Containment efforts discovered 8 language variations of the following text.
Dear Betobeto-san,
These games are too easy. Please give me an actual challenge.
My life contains too many pleasures, and I do not want to have fun.
I devote all parts of myself and my earthly possessions in service of the great people of Gensokyo and all of its surrounding territories.
Please, go ahead, Betobeto-san.
Upon correct recitation, SCP-9951 will become accessible through the game’s difficulty selection menu. Concurrently, the player will gain implicit awareness of three conditions associated with beginning the game within SCP-9951:
- The player will become cognizant of their total number of deaths within SCP-9951, which are counted by the number of times a continue screen has been reached
- The player will understand that consequences will occur in reality for incurring further deaths within the game
- The player will remain awake until the "one credit clear" completion of SCP-9951, meaning that all of the game's stages are successfully finished without a "continue screen" loss
If the player begins SCP-9951, the game's consequential anomalous effects, detailed below, will remain active until the successful "one credit clear" completion of the difficulty.
Addendum.1.9951: Mechanics
SCP-9951 Gameplay. Click to enlarge.
Touhou Fuminkyo is a danmaku shooter, more commonly known as a bullet hell, a subgenre of video game whose core mechanic involves the player navigating their character through a series of complex, moving patterns of small, bullet-like shapes without getting hit. The genre has achieved notoriety for being challenging, requiring frequent repetition in order to master.
The game’s narrative is structured in the style of the other mainline Touhou Project games, and involves a plague of sleeplessness affecting Gensokyo, the fantasy setting the series takes place in. Reimu Hakurei, a shrine maiden tasked with resolving “incidents” within Gensokyo, as well as the avatar of the player, journeys through seven total game stages. Each stage ends in a fight against a “boss” character, whose danmaku patterns are significantly more difficult to avoid than the rest of the stage’s enemies.
Touhou Fuminkyo’s primary antagonist, Betobeto Bishou (ベトベト美翔), an original character created for the game, hopes to finally cure her insomnia by causing Gensokyo’s inhabitants to push her to the point of exhaustion through danmaku combat. In a non-diagetic context, this provides cause for the game’s intense mechanical difficulty, even when compared to other games within the genre.
SCP-9951 features an even larger increase in difficulty from the base game, with enemy bullet patterns taking on more rapid, erratic designs and lasting for longer durations. The mode also induces a series of 10 anomalous effects, occurring at increments of 10 total continues. Details of these effects have been included below.
| 10 Continues |
|---|
| Upon reaching 10 continues, the player's computer will instantaneously hit its maximum storage capacity. All available local storage will become dedicated to hosting as many copies of EZ.jpg as possible. EZ.jpg is an anomalous image file showing the Betobeto character gripping a drawn depiction of the player by the hair, and shoving a squeeze-bottle of "easy juice" down their throat. Subsequent losses will result in the proliferation of this file, requiring manual deletion each time. Further investigation has revealed EZ.jpg's contents to be a reference to a popular Touhou Project fan image depicting Marisa Kirisame forcefully squeezing a bottle of mustard into Alice Margatroid's mouth. |
| 20 Continues |
|---|
| At 20 continues, the player computer's audio will begin manipulating itself at indiscriminate intervals, increasing SCP-9951's volume to its maximum settings. This effect most commonly occurs during stage sections requiring heightened concentration, such as boss fights. Attempts to mute or manipulate audio settings will automatically be undone. This effect continues until SCP-9951 is adequately completed. |
| 30 Continues |
|---|
| At 30 continues, the player's computer will be rendered temporarily non-functional, and unable to respond to inputs. During this period, text will be displayed on the monitor informing the player that various characters from the Touhou Project series are becoming increasingly disappointed with the player's in-game performance, and in order to continue playing SCP-9951, the player must write a handwritten apology note addressed to "all of Gensokyo". The computer will be restored to previous settings upon the completion of this task. |
| 40 Continues |
|---|
| All continues beyond this point fine the player their local currency's equivalent of $10.50 for each subsequent death. If the player does not have adequate funds within a bank account or within their possession, they will begin to receive billing statements delivered via post until the debt is adequately paid. All bills contain a return address leading to a small donation box within the Kiso Valley in the Nagano Prefecture, Japan. |
| 50 Continues |
|---|
| At 50 continues, a small image of series protagonist Reimu Hakurei becomes burned into the player's peripheral vision. This visual depicts a stylized rendition of the character staring at the player with tears in her eyes. Subsequent continues will increase the size of this image, heavily obfuscating the player's field of vision. |
| 60 Continues |
|---|
| At 60 continues, players will be forced to play a randomly selected stage from a previous Touhou Project game on "Lunatic" difficulty before beginning another attempt at SCP-9951 completion. The dialogue in these stages has been altered, with the characters remarking on various personal anecdotes from the player's life, often of an embarrassing or otherwise demeaning nature. |
| 70 Continues |
|---|
| At 70 continues, all available local law enforcement from within the jurisdiction closest to the player will compulsively gather at the player's present location and arrest them. Upon being brought to a local station, the player will spend the next 24 hours within a holding cell before being released. All attempts to interact with law enforcement during this period will be met with the repeated self-identification of said law enforcement as "scarlet police". |
| 80 Continues |
|---|
| At 80 continues, a small tumorous growth will appear on the top of the player's left hand, resembling the character Koishi Komeiji from the torso-up. This growth is capable of autonomous movement and rudimentary vocalization. Due to the left hand's proximity to the default keyboard movement controls, the growth will attempt to sabotage gameplay by grabbing, biting, and bending the player's fingers while playing. |
| 90 Continues |
|---|
| At 90 continues, a concentrated mass of direct energy consisting of hundreds of small, multi-colored projectiles will be launched from an unknown source at the player's current location. Analysis of debris and incident footage has found correlation with several "spell card" attacks within SCP-9951. |
| 100 Continues |
|---|
| At 100 continues, the player will be physically relocated to an extradimensional space containing a scenic, open-air field populated by several large groups of entities resembling characters from the Touhou Project series. These entities will physically batter the player, taking turns individually assaulting them. When one entity finishes, the player will be restored to their previous physical conditions before the next entity takes their place. This process has been observed to last for periods of up to 10 hours. Notably, the number of entities present within this space has continuously grown to incorporate characters from the latest Touhou Project games.1 Subsequent continues beyond this point will repeat this scenario, as well as the other compounding effects previously mentioned. |
"One Credit Clear" completion of SCP-9951 will result in the discontinuation of these effects. Upon winning, the player will receive the following items, distributed via extraphysical manipulation of their computer screen:
- A large trophy made of 24 karat gold, modeled in the shape of Reimu Hakurei's head
- The equivalent of $500,000 in their local currency
- A multitude of personalized thank-you notes purportedly signed by various characters from the Touhou Project series, presently totaling 102 letters
Foundation interviews with players who successfully completed SCP-9951 during containment efforts have discovered a near unanimous positive reception of the game mode, with players finding it to be an enjoyable challenge. This is not believed to be compulsory.