Everyone is a Hero

The time was 4:30 am. Huang Xingwen and Zhang Jue had a conversation with each other while Yang Xue followed behind them. Looking at Zhang Jue's back, her emotions were a bit complicated. She had to experience the most excruciating moment in her life. The containment breach, an enemy intrusion, and Site-14 were in jeopardy.

In the end, the enemy had not succeeded, and they had completed their mission perfectly, but she knew that it was all because of Zhang Jue. She didn't know how many times Zhang Jue had saved her life, and she hadn't even thanked him properly.

The accident's aftermath was under control within a reasonable degree, and the whole Site-14 staff was relieved. She was a little sleepy, but all the people in front of her struggled to handle the anomalies that were being freed with full dedication.

Yang Xue couldn't help but shake her head and chuckle. She still had some energy to help them. Not knowing if it was an illusion, she saw that Zhang Jue's back seemed to be faintly emitting light.

"Yang Xue, are you alright?"

Yang Xue was lost in thought when Guan Peng rushed up from behind. He and Yang Xue's uncle, Yang Wenbai, were old acquaintances and took a lot of care of Yang Xue.

"I'm fine, Uncle Guan." Yang Xue said, "Thanks to Zhang Jue."

Speaking of Zhang Jue, Guan Peng frowned, "Yang Xue, there's a question I wanted to ask you regarding your journey. Have you been with Zhang Jue for the whole time?"

Yang Xue nodded, "Yes. Except when we encountered SCP-106, he put me in the containment room. Other than that, we were together all the time." She noticed that Guan Peng's expression was a little off and frowned slightly, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong?"

Guan Peng said, "Can you tell me in detail what happened after you were being put into the containment room, I'm a little curious."

Outsiders saw the fun, and insiders saw the doorway. Unlike Yang Xue and Huang Xingwen, Guan Peng has worked at the Foundation for decades. Starting as a security officer and working his way up to the MTF captain position, he has experienced countless battles, as evidenced by his half-burnt face.

The reason he had survived so long in such a dangerous place as the Foundation was because he has a habit – thorough analysis.

After each battle with the enemy, he replayed the scene in his head. He was analyzing his own and enemy's strategies, tactics, various choices at key moments, and even the moves used during the fight, whether right or wrong.

After this accident, he surveyed the scene and tried to substitute himself into Zhang Jue's role. He had found that even though Zhang Jue helped her go through the conflict they had, there was no way for him to survive the accident.

Not to mention how he stopped the enemy, completed the mission, and brought Yang Xue back in one piece. He was very curious about how Zhang Jue had managed to do it.

"At that time, we were just about to get on the elevator when suddenly the ground under our feet collapsed, and we fell to the B3 floor..."

Yang Xue slowly recalled, saying everything she could remember in detail. During this period, Guan Peng asked several critical questions, especially how he apprehended Mr. Samuel.

After listening to Yang Xue's story, Guan Peng sighed in admiration. He had examined the wounds of those security members and knew how powerful the enemy was; without knowing their abilities, even he could have been killed in seconds.

The fact that Zhang Jue had been able to maneuver around it and even predicted Mr. Samuel's movement to defeat it could only be described as a miracle. It wasn't until then that Yang Xue realized how remarkable was Zhang Jue back then.

The person who Yang Xue would like to call "Uncle Guan" was very strict and not the kind of person that would easily praise others. Even Yang Xue herself had been reprimanded by him quite a lot as a child – to ensure protection, of course; working at the SCP Foundation, any negligence or carelessness was fatal.

She was convinced that Zhang Jue was powerful and reliable. After listening to Guan Peng's analysis of him, Yang Xue was able to pinpoint just how "powerful" Zhang Jue really was.

"There was only one thing that made me feel very strange." Before leaving, Guan Peng frowned, "When my team was cleaning up the scene, they had found a dozen human teeth in the containment room. According to you, these are the enemy's teeth. Did Zhang Jue uh... have any unique fetish or some sort? Knowing that a normal fight shouldn't end like this."

"About that… I can't say for sure." Yang Xue told a small lie.

"Strange, really strange...." Guan Peng shook his head, still confused about the fight. It looks like the problem will haunt him for a long time.

-----

When several people had returned to the ground, the sky was already glowing with pearl white sunlight. Site Director Yang Wenbai personally greeted them at the exit, and behind him was the whole staff of Site-14.

Seeing several people return safely, he was relieved. Quickly coming to the crowd, he grabbed Zhang Jue's hand and shook it hard with a serious expression.

"Advisor Zhang. On behalf of hundreds of the Site-14 Staff and the SCP Foundation. I thank you for everything you did tonight!"

Yang Wenbai said and bowed deeply, followed by the whole Site-14 Staff to bow down and show their appreciation towards Zhang Jue. It lasted for a full five seconds before Site Director Wenbai stood up again to face Zhang Jue.

Zhang Jue not only saved Site-14 but also saved hundreds of thousands of innocent people's lives in the surrounding area. Although the staff at the site did not know the details, there was no doubt that Zhang Jue had saved everyone's life.

After the incident, Yang Wenbai's hair turned white as if he had aged for ten years. It seemed that this incident had hit him hard. Zhang Jue held Site Director Wenbai's hand and patted his shoulder. Followed by a bow to the entire Site-14 staff members.

He found a large rock and stood on it. All eyes focused on him. "Gentlemen, you don't need to thank me, you don't need to thank anyone. What you need to thank are yourselves."

Zhang Jue looked around. "Humans have been around for over 250,000 years by now, and only the last 4,000 years have been meaningful for us, so what have we been doing for almost 250,000 years? We huddled in caves and around small fires, fearful of the things that we didn't understand."

"Humans are so small and helpless in the face of those powerful beings, but we can't live in fear forever. No one else will protect us, and we must stand up for ourselves."

"And with that reason, we established the SCP Foundation."

"We work in the dark to serve the light."

"We used our weapons and equipment to contain The Immortal Lizard again and again."

"We blocked that statue in a corner with our intertwined sight."

"With cruel rituals, we sealed that evil god that might appear."

"We served before and after the countless terrible XK-Class End-of-the-World Scenario."

"We, the children of our fathers, the wives of our husbands. We're just ordinary people."

"We will eventually be afraid, scared, cry, and certainly will die."

"But remember that we are resilient!"

"We are the last line of defense for humanity!"

"We Secure! We Contain! We Protect!"

"We are everyone's heroes!"

"We, each one of us, are heroes!"