The Chase

The entire "hospital" is a tower-shaped building. Inside it, there's an intricate arrangement of rooms, and it seems to be arranged in some kind of formation. The handwork made by Lei Shui is really unique. Zhang Jue just threw his shoes at the center of the whole building and randomly chose a direction to search.

After all, without being able to contact the Foundation, it was not very realistic for the two of them alone to search the entire building. The signal shielding source had not been found, and the shielding range was unknown. Since the Foundation would come sooner or later anyway, Zhang Jue simply did not intend to go out and take his chances here first.

"Smith, what's wrong with you? Your face seemed to be different."

"Nothing, Advisor Zhang."

"Do you have any problem with my method? It's okay. You can say what you have to say. People who know me have always been modest, cautious, and selfless, and I usually don't beat people to death."

"Uh..." Smith was confused by Zhang Jue's words and hesitated for a while before frowning, "Advisor Zhang, you didn't just... chose a random direction, right?"

"Ah, how could that possibly happen?" Zhang Jue's eyes widened at once. "Smith, you've just joined the Foundation. You probably don't know that throwing shoes are a directional pointer method, just like a GPS."

"Uh..." Although Smith didn't have much knowledge, Zhang Jue's words couldn't even fool a three-year-old child.

He was just about to retort when he saw Zhang Jue pointing at a closed gate ahead, "Look, isn't that our head point?"

Smith followed Zhang Jue's finger and saw the distinctive door. This door was different from all the doors they had seen before. Smith's face was full of question marks.

Could it be that what Advisor Zhang said was true? How else could he have pointed out a random direction, and they found the door? Asian people really knew some secret techniques that were not known to anyone.

Zhang Jue laughed: "See, what do you mean by weird ability? This is my ability! Smith, you still have a lot to learn."

...

The designer that Lei Shui had hired was proficient in the art of the five elements and eight trigrams, and the rooms and corridors of the entire building were arranged according to a certain pattern, just like a formation.

Without a map, if someone came in for the first time, they would have to go back and forth in some useless rooms, and the direction Zhang Jue had thrown his shoes in hand, by mistake, led them to the center of the formation.

It was a huge room with an elevator in the center of the room. The elevator was still operating normally. Zhang Jue tried entering his Foundation number as well as his password, and the elevator opened.

The two men glanced at each other and stepped into the elevator. There were 3 buttons inside the elevator, red, blue, and green. Zhang Jue hesitated for a moment and pressed the red button. A rumble sounded, and the two felt the elevator travel downward.

The above-ground portion of the building only had seven floors, yet Zhang Jue felt that they had descended at least ten floors. In other words, there were at least three floors or so below the ground. It was probably the corresponding three buttons.

The elevator opened. The smell of blood came again. This time they saw the corpses of many other people, corpses that didn't belong to the Foundation's employees. It looked like they had been ambushed here after coming out of the elevator.

The bodies were all dressed in black, with no markings all over their bodies to tell what they were. But anyway, it meant that they had found the right place. Ahead of them was a very long corridor that led to nowhere in sight.

Smith glanced at Zhang Jue. This Advisor Zhang looked like he was unreliable, but he was actually very good at his work. Just now in the elevator, although three buttons were not many, he was able to find the right one at once. Extraordinary.

Smith asked in a small voice, "Advisor Zhang, how did you know it was the red button?"

In his opinion, Zhang Jue must have had his reasons for doing so. He thought it was another secret ability of some kind.

Who knew that Zhang Jue said, "I guessed it blindly."

...

Zhang Jue had chosen red because it represented danger. Based on his observations, only the red button had no fingerprints on it. It means that it was almost barely used. Putting it all together, Zhang Jue guessed that this corridor should be an escape route. It would only be used in the event of an emergency.

As it turned out, he was right.

Judging from the traces on the corridor, both sides had engaged in very fierce battles here. He would see a few corpses every ten or twenty meters, both those of the men in black of unknown origin and those from the Foundation.

But what surprised Zhang Jue was not this. Until now, he had seen the bodies of the security personnel, he had seen the bodies of the medical staff, but still not a single body of the MTF Squad members.

Does it mean that they weren't here? It shouldn't be.

Zhang Jue's brow was furrowed. It always felt like something was fishy.

"Advisor Zhang, do you know what these people are?" Smith asked in a small voice. He had just joined the Foundation not long ago and did not have a systematic understanding of these things yet.

Zhang Jue recalled that during the Site-14 infiltration, he and Yang Xue seemed to be walking in the same corridor like this, talking about the same topics.

"There are many groups of interest for the Foundation, like the GOC (Global Occult Coalition), the Serpent's Hand, the Chaos Insurgency, etc. Many of them have records of invading the Foundation's site, but there is no second organization that would be so heartless as the Chaos Insurgency to take down an entire base like this. They didn't have this kind of manpower and were able to do such a thing. "

"Chaos Insurgency..." Smith thought about the name. He had crammed a lot of information after joining the Foundation. He was no stranger to this organization that always went against the Foundation.

They were the dark history of the Foundation. Since the event, they had invaded the Foundation's site several times, causing great damage almost every time.

Smith made his own analysis on one of them from the Foundation data. The order of events after the accident is very organized, so it is for him to understand the situation. Another thing is that he is afraid that the Foundation is not fully clean.

That's why the Old Smith chose to trust Zhang Jue instead of asking for the Foundation's help.

"Advisor Zhang, what is the purpose of the Chaos Insurgency? I've read a lot about them, but it seems to be very vague, and I can't seem to see an obvious goal."

Zhang Jue laughed, "Out of all people in the world, I'm afraid no one knows what they want except their bosses."

Smith looked at Zhang Jue, "Advisor Zhang doesn't know it either?"

"I'm not a god. How would I know?" Zhang Jue said, "But I can irresponsibly guess that people like them generally think highly of themselves and set very ambitious goals. They simply do not seek how to marry a rich white woman to live their life happily. They only care about what will happen to the world. Then the answer is very obvious. Either to save the world or destroy the world."

As they walked and talked in the corridor for nearly twenty minutes, suddenly there was a little light ahead at the end of the corridor. They went up and found that it was a set of stairs going up. The two men were silent at the same time and carefully looked up the stairs. But apart from a few corpses, there was still nothing special to find. Zhang Jue confirmed again that they hadn't found any bodies of MTF Squad members along the way.

Seeing his reaction, Smith said, "Advisor Zhang, you seem to be very concerned about it."

Zhang Jue nodded, "When this happens, either none of the MTF Squad members died in such a fierce battle or weren't here. Which do you think is more likely to happen?"

It didn't even need to be said. They had seen an unknown number of security personnel and doctors' corpses along the way. It means that the enemy had retreated, and it is simply unreasonable for the MTF Squad to retreat in one piece in this situation.

But now, there is no point in discussing these things. The two of them can only follow the traces of the battle all the way to the chase. The stairs went all the way up, and fewer and fewer corpses were lying around.

Zhang Jue looked at Smith as if he was thinking and said, "Do you have something in mind?"

Smith hummed. "Advisor Zhang had never fought in a war, so you may not understand the situation. We just walked all the way up here, and at a few corner locations, the security team had arranged for ambushes, and both sides exchanged casualties. Overall, the Foundation's people were still evacuating in an orderly fashion. But the further we got, fewer counterattack signs were found, and the bodies of those doctors began to multiply. This meant that after reaching here, the Foundation's people had almost lost the ability to counterattack, and the situation was uncontrollable. It seems they were likely.... to have been completely wiped out."

Zhang Jue nodded gently. This was consistent with his judgment. His reasoning was a bit more straightforward. The enemy was clearly prepared, and if the MTF squad was indeed absent and only relied on ordinary security personnel. Then there was no way it would be a match for them.

Without the special design of that building, they wouldn't have been able to escape this far. But Zhang Jue didn't give up because he hadn't seen Yang Xue yet.

The two of them walked toward the steps, and at the end of the stairs was a metal door that had been violently broken open and shattered into regular pieces, just like the corpses they'd seen in the hospital.

The door was made of mixed metal and was so thick that if they didn't carry enough measured explosives, they were afraid they would have to be blocked in, which was probably why the Foundation's people had fled towards it. It seems that they underestimated the enemy's power. Among these intruders, there was definitely a very powerful person present.

They entered that heavy door. It was found that inside was actually a room made of metal all around.

"Advisor Zhang, this seems to be a vault," Smith said.

Zhang Jue looked around and nodded. The two of them walked out of the vault and found that the outside was really a bank hall.

Smith said, "I see. This is the abandoned town we passed by before!"

Zhang Jue nodded his head again. Someone had to admit that Leshui was indeed a genius. He blocked off that town but secretly left the exit to the hospital's back door here. As long as the people in that hospital weren't all wiped out, there was room to maneuver again in this decrepit town.

But the situation is still not good. From the situation, it seems that despite they were under attack, the people from the Foundation couldn't organize an effective resistance, and it looks like there are not many people left. Even if they reached here, it was only a matter of time before they were found.

But that gave a little confidence for Zhang Jue, that perhaps they could get a step ahead of the enemy and find the rest of them.

On the other side, Smith and Zhang Jue thought of something, and he said, "Advisor Zhang, let's split up."

It was too inefficient for two people to search together in a large town. They had to split up if they wanted to get ahead of the enemy.

Zhang Jue looked at him, "Are you sure?"

Although Smith had excellent skills and guts, he was, after all, not like Zhang Jue, who had so many abilities to protect his body that one bullet couldn't take him away. He hadn't followed Zhang Jue for a few days, and Zhang Jue didn't want to lose such a powerful assistant.

"It's okay." Smith said, "Advisor Zhang, you don't have to worry about me. When I was a mercenary, I fought most of these alley battles. I can't say if I can find anyone, but I will definitely not be easily defeated."

Zhang Jue pondered for a moment, knowing that this was indeed what seemed to be the best approach at the moment, and he chose to trust Smith.

"Be careful." He patted Smith's shoulder, then handed him a submachine gun. Smith didn't even see where Zhang Jue had taken this submachine gun from. But he also had the good sense not to ask.

He took the gun, and it screamed. Surprisingly, the gun was writhing, and it was alive. It was good that Smith was not too bold to throw it away at once.

SCP-127 – The Living Gun. This is one of the things Zhang Jue stole from the headquarters. He couldn't use it himself, but it would be appropriate to give it to Smith.

"60 rounds, no need to change magazines when you're done shooting." Zhang Jue said, "It grows out on its own."

"That's quite disgusting." Smith said.

"It takes three to five days."

"..." Smith paused, his expression was helpless, "60 rounds is enough."

Smith was just about to leave. Zhang Jue suddenly called out to him.

"From now on, this weapon is yours. Try not to be found by the Foundation, if it is accidentally found-"

"Then I'll say I picked it up."

Smith thought he had guessed what Zhang Jue meant, but it turned out that he was still too young to understand

Zhang Jue grunted, "Hell no! Just say that I gave it to you, then tell them that I said so. I'll go and plow their ancestor's graves if anyone dares to take it back!"

...

After the two separated, Zhang Jue chose a direction to push forward and kept looking around for clues. It was gradually getting dark. From the time they entered that hospital, he and Smith had searched for a day and a night. Although the chances were slim, they still hoped that those Foundation members would survive.

Suddenly, a circle of light appeared on a tall building in the distance. The entire town lit up like daylight. Zhang Jue looked up into the sky.

"Holy shit, something has ascended to heaven."