Chapter 1 As a Well-Informed Individual

As someone relatively familiar with the SCP Foundation's setting, Feng Bujue immediately understood many things upon hearing the broadcast.

First, the term "dim_sector." As Jue-Ge knew… [sector] represented "a large facility with many special functions, usually used to house safe and euclid-level SCPs"; and [dim] was an abbreviation of dimdimensional, a prefix indicating "that the Foundation facility was used to study and isolate SCP items with special spatial abilities, such as those capable of jumping and warping ordinary space."

From this keyword, two things could be discerned: first, the scale of this base must be enormous; second, this base housed at least one SCP project with spatial abilities.

Secondly, the sentence "multiple containment measures have failed and casualties have been reported"... was undoubtedly a very clear hint.

Obviously, in addition to SCP-173, at least two or more SCP projects within the facility had gone out of control. The power outage just now was very likely caused by other projects going haywire. And the chain reaction caused by this situation was difficult to predict... God knows how many SCP projects' containment would fail due to that one-second power outage.

"Sure enough... it's far from that game..." Feng Bujue muttered thoughtfully after running for a while in the corridor.

The "game" he was talking about was a doujin game made more than forty years ago (in Jue-Ge's era) called *SCP-173*. Although the game was a sincere masterpiece, it was still a low-budget work, and in every sense was relatively "streamlined."

Whether it was environmental detail, map size, NPC count, SCP quantity, overall difficulty, and plot... the SCP world created by *Thriller Paradise*'s "system" was clearly much larger and more complex.

"Huff... finally found it..." After running along the corridor for a full five minutes, Feng Bujue finally arrived at the stairwell.

Along the way, more than a dozen forks in the road had appeared on both sides of the corridor. There were corresponding signs at the corners of each fork, and there were also multiple arrows in the corridor indicating the direction of the stairs, so Jue-Ge couldn't possibly go the wrong way.

"Speaking of which, this base is a bit ridiculously large..." Jue-Ge gasped, walking to the electronic door of the stairwell, "From the laboratory where SCP-173 is held to this stairwell... the straight-line distance is more than 360 meters. And the signs at the forks in the road indicate... that there is a space for containing an SCP project at the end of each road. Calculating this way... the area of this floor alone is conservatively estimated to be tens of thousands of square meters..."

As he muttered, he pressed a red button next to the electronic door.

*Dee—*

After a beep, the door opened, revealing the stairwell behind. The lights in the stairwell were also red, completely consistent with other places.

At this time, several researchers wearing white coats were running down the stairs from the upper floor. When passing in front of Jue-Ge, they only glanced at this armed D-class personnel with a panicked expression, without saying anything more. It seemed... that there was something else that frightened them more than the armed criminal in front of them.

"Is the emergency evacuation area below..." Feng Bujue made such a judgment from the movement of these people, "Well... that's right, once certain projects lose containment, they must be dealt with by strategic nuclear strikes. It is meaningless to escape from the ground or the air, only hiding underground is possible to survive."

Just as he was thinking, the electronic door behind him opened again. A second later, a researcher ran out of the door and rushed downstairs.

"Hey!" Seeing this, Feng Bujue immediately stepped forward, grabbed the man, and pointed the gun at him, asking, "Is the emergency evacuation area below?"

"Yes... yes." The researcher stared at the muzzle, replying with a nervous expression.

"Where are the Anomalous projects in this base?" Feng Bujue asked again.

"Uh..." The other party hesitated obviously.

*Tu-tu-tu—*

Feng Bujue took the opportunity to raise his gun and swept a few bullets at the ceiling. Then, he pressed the muzzle against the man's chest: "I hope you can understand... in the current situation, I have the courage, the ability, and the reason to do anything."

The researcher swallowed, glanced at the stairs leading to the upper and lower floors, and confirmed that there was no one nearby for the time being, before lowering his voice and saying: "My authority does not allow me to access Anomalous projects, and I cannot go to many areas in the base... What I can tell you is... there shouldn't be what you're looking for on the first, second, and fourth floors underground."

Before he finished speaking, a strange sound of... *Zzz... Zzzzzzz...* came from the other side of the electronic door.

The researcher was immediately shocked and said, "It's coming! Run! Otherwise, you will die too!"

Hearing this, Feng Bujue released the man and moved the muzzle away. The researcher ran wildly down the stairs without looking back.

Jue-Ge stood calmly on the spot, muttering, "Tch... what's there to be afraid of." He looked at the closed electronic door behind him, "It can't open the door by itself."

Feng Bujue knew very well that the "zzzz" sound was the sound of SCP-173's body rubbing against the wall, but 173 did not have the intelligence to "press switches."

"Let me see... where is this..." Saying this, he had already moved his gaze to the sign next to the electronic door, seeing the words [B2], "Oh... so this is the second floor underground..." As he spoke, his mind raced, and the signs beside the forks in the road just now flashed back in his mind, "Okay... this floor really does contain known SCP projects, no Anomalous..."

As he thought this, he had already stepped forward and walked downwards.

After stepping over dozens of steps and turning 180 degrees, he arrived at the electronic door of the third floor underground [B3].

However... there was no protruding red button on the side of the door here, replaced by a card reader.

"Hmm... should I wait and see..." Feng Bujue immediately thought, "If the people on this floor haven't all left, then I just need to stand here for a while, and someone will open the door from inside. Then I will use my gun to force the other party to hand over the access card and enter this floor..."

As a result, he only waited for two seconds before abandoning this idea, because... in those two seconds, he heard a beep.

The sound came from above, indicating that the electronic door on the [B2] floor was opened at this moment.

But... after the door opened, there was no other movement...

No footsteps, no panting... nothing.

Feng Bujue quickly realized something. He suddenly turned around, his eyes widened.

In the same second, SCP-173 had already appeared in front of him, the distance between the two was less than one meter.

"Heh..." Seeing such a scene when he turned his head, a normal person would have jumped up in fright, but Feng Bujue could still laugh, "If I had turned my head half a second later, I would probably have had my neck snapped..." Feng Bujue said in a relaxed tone, and while "staring" at SCP-173, he bypassed the other party, walking step by step towards the upper floor.

When he walked past the corner of the stairs, although he didn't blink, SCP-173 still left his sight.

In that instant, Jue-Ge turned his head and glared without hesitation. Sure enough... 173 just happened to use a blink to arrive behind him, and was once again "stared" at by him.

"Sigh... I don't know what's going on, did everyone on B2 die? How did it chase me here?" Feng Bujue stared unblinkingly at the other party, and reached back to touch the button of the electronic door.

After the door opened, he walked back into the corridor of B2, until the electronic door automatically closed, blocking his line of sight, before he blinked his eyes.

Next, he stood in place and waited for a while, listening carefully... This time, there was no sound at all on the other side of the door, and the "zzzz" sound didn't sound again.

"This guy..." Feng Bujue quickly came to a conclusion, "Must have accidentally touched the button when he was 'scraping the wall'."

He guessed right, 173 would not actively "press" the electronic door switch. The opening of the door just now was completely a coincidence.

"In any case, it shouldn't be able to catch up with me again in the short term..." After a few more seconds, Feng Bujue left the electronic door and walked slowly towards the other end of the corridor, "I'll just wander around on this floor first."

His strategy and actions always remained calm and rational...

In the kind of sudden accident in the stairwell just now, if someone else had to deal with it... they would probably have died, but he handled it in an orderly manner.

First of all, he did not "go down" according to inertial thinking, but chose to turn back.

Because he didn't know whether the door on B4 used a button or a card reader. If that floor also required a card to enter, he would have to go down another floor, but the situation on B5 was also unclear. You must know... in the stairwell, every time you move one floor, you will inevitably let SCP-173 out of sight once, and every time you let 173 out of sight, the player will face a deadly threat. It was precisely to minimize this risk that Jue-Ge returned to B2.

Secondly, there was another reason for Feng Bujue's return - he had remembered all the "signs" beside the forks in the road on both sides of the 360-meter corridor. Therefore, he could be sure that, apart from 173, there were no other particularly threatening (if you don't actively provoke them) projects on B2.

In summary, all of his actions... were the result of calm thinking and weighing the pros and cons.

In the midst of danger, Feng Bujue showed a kind of ease that was enough to amaze onlookers.

…………

Three minutes later, Feng Bujue arrived at the B2 staff lounge.

Although it was a staff lounge, there was also an SCP project here...

[Item #: SCP-294]

[Object Class: Euclid]

[Special Containment Procedures: There are no standard special containment procedures on record for Item SCP-294. However, only personnel of security clearance level 2 or higher are allowed to interact with it. SCP-294 is currently located in the 2nd floor employee break room and is guarded at all times by two (2) Level 3 security personnel. All attempts to interact with it must be authorized.]

[Description: Item SCP-294 appears to be a standard coffee vending machine, the only noticeable difference being an input touchpad to the side with a full QWERTY keyboard.

Upon depositing fifty cents US currency into the coin slot, the user is allowed to input the name of any liquid using the touchpad. Upon pressing the enter key, a standard 12-ounce paper drinking cup is filled with the liquid requested. ]

[Ninety-seven (97) initial test runs were performed… including requests such as water, coffee, beer, soda, etc., non-consumables such as sulfuric acid, windshield wiper fluid, and motor oil, as well as substances that do not usually exist in liquid state, such as nitrogen, iron, and glass… All were successful. Testing of solid materials such as diamonds however, resulted in failure, as it appears SCP-294 is only capable of producing liquids. ]

[It is also interesting to note that after approximately fifty (50) uses, the machine will no longer respond to input. Similar results appear after approximately ninety (90) minutes have passed. The machine seems to replenish its inventory automatically. Also interesting is the fact that many caustic liquids that would ordinarily dissolve a paper cup have no effect on the cups dispensed by the machine.]

"Aha!" Jue-Ge showed an excited smile when he saw this coffee machine.

However, he did not eagerly use the machine. What he did first... was to search the pockets of the corpses in the room.

After Feng Bujue returned to B2, he had already found many corpses in the corridor, and he treated these corpses equally. Whether they were researchers, security personnel, or D-class personnel, he searched them all.

Although the items on these people were indeed limited, collecting them together still amounted to a lot of resources.

For example... LeveL3 access cards, for example... 50-cent coins, and for example... pistols, pistol ammunition, submachine gun ammunition, walkie-talkies, and so on.

In short, they were all things that were better to take than not to take...

"Okay, it's better than nothing..." Feng Bujue walked to the front of the coffee machine, first calculating how many 50-cent coins he had in his hand, "Three coins are also fine..."

In fact, he was lucky to find three such coins. D-class personnel usually had nothing on them, while the personal items of researchers and security personnel would be centrally placed in a storage room within the facility. People who brought "change" into the test area were mostly careless and forgot to empty their pockets.

"So... the first cup..." Feng Bujue inserted a coin, and after seeing the prompt, quickly typed a sentence on the keyboard - [A cup of Woody].

It should be explained here... the things that SCP-294 can produce are not limited to human creations, and may not even be limited to human knowledge.

For example, a Foundation agent named Joseph once entered the command "A cup of Joe (Joseph's nickname)" as a joke with a friend. Shortly after confirming the selection, this agent began to sweat profusely, complaining of dizziness, and soon fell to the ground...

After transferring him to the infirmary, the medical team extracted the contents of the cup dispensed by SCP-294 and found that it was a mixture of blood, flesh, and other bodily fluids, with a foul odor. Most disturbingly, tests showed that the DNA sequence of the tissue sent by SCP-294 was completely identical to Joseph's.

There are many similar examples or experiments... Commands such as "a cup of music," "my life," and "give me a surprise" have all been answered by this coffee machine, although some experimental results were not very good...

Feng Bujue was naturally well aware of these, so he entered seemingly nonsensical content like "a cup of Woody."

*Buzz buzz buzz—*

After receiving Jue-Ge's command, the coffee machine began to roar and shake...

This process lasted for about twenty seconds, then SCP-294's input panel displayed the following sentence: "Hehehe..."

"Tch... did it fail..." Feng Bujue showed displeasure, "But shouldn't it display 'Out of range' when it fails... what's with the 'hehehe'..."

Disappointed as he was, he still inserted the second coin and entered - [A liquid that can prevent SCP-173 from moving even when not directly observed].

Some people may ask, why didn't Jue-Ge simply enter "a liquid that can kill SCP-173?" There was of course a reason for this, because... he remembered that there was such a record in the relevant appendix of SCP-294:

Appendix [SCP-294y]: Computer logs on the SCP public server show that researchers once typed in "something that can destroy SCP-682". Recovered video footage showed a dazzling liquid flowing into the cup, its light intensity continuously increasing until the camera could no longer record. At the same time, all connections with the facility were severed. The conclusion of the subsequent investigation was that the site had been completely vaporized, leaving only a small cluster of trees surrounding SCP-294. So SCP-294 was quickly transferred to another regulatory site and placed under the same management procedures. Information about the accident is only available to O5 level personnel. Any further testing involving SCP-682 is prohibited, and violators will be demoted to D-class.

The above appendix is a bloody lesson...

Perhaps 173's hostility and intelligence towards humans are not as exaggerated as 682, but its strength may not be worse than the latter. Feng Bujue estimated that... if he made a liquid similar to the one in that accident, even if it didn't evaporate the entire base, even evaporating a room... he wouldn't be able to withstand it. Therefore, he used a safer and more stable method.

*Buzz buzz buzz—*

The machine soon rang again. Before long, a paper cup fell from the machine, and a small cup of liquid was immediately poured into the paper cup.

"Hooray~ It's done!" Feng Bujue picked up the cup of stuff and put it on the table in the lounge, "Now it's easy, I'll find 173 later and splash it on its face."

After putting down the paper cup, Jue-Ge returned to the machine and inserted the third coin.

If the liquid specified by the second coin could not be generated, Feng Bujue's backup plan was... [A liquid that prevents my neck from being snapped] or [A liquid that allows me to never blink], but now, he had obtained something that could suppress 173. Therefore, he had one more excellent opportunity to try.