Chapter 383: Underground
The oppressive red glow looked familiar to Charles, as he had seen them before on Elizarles Shores, where he had encountered 1002. The intermittent flickering of the red glow was a sign that a Foundation project had gone rogue.
The crew exchanged worried glances and started whispering among themselves upon seeing the staircase.
Future Charles pointed at the staircase and turned to Present Charles, saying, "Take your crew down with you and lead them all the way to the bottom floor. Look for 010 down there, and then come back out. That is your next mission."
010? What does he mean by '010'? Is he talking about a relic? Charles frowned and was about to ask questions when Assistant Cook Eggers asked in a trembling voice, "Future Captain, is this where we disappeared?"
Future Charles ignored Eggers and added, "You have to go down. This is necessary to complete the time loop, and you also have to find something down there, which is very important."
"Wait, answer me first. What is 010? 003 is God Fhtagn, so 010 must be incredibly powerful. Did 010 create that temporal chaos bubble we saw prior to getting onto the island?" Present Charles asked.
"You'll know it once you go down. There are some dangers inside, but you just have to keep exploring, and you'll eventually safely come out to become me right now," Future Charles replied. Then, he turned around and left with his crew.
Future Charles didn't even look back as he disappeared into the distance.
Charles knew that he had no other choice but to go down. His future self had emerged alive, so the underground had to be relatively safe, and he would be able to get out alive as well.
Having made up his mind, Charles passed down some orders; the mice went ahead of the group, and Charles then went down the staircase with his crew following closely behind him.
The narrow staircase was short, and a thick, automatic steel door was at the bottom.
The thick steel door was at least half a meter thick, and Charles' heart, which had just settled down, began to pick up its pace when he saw the text on the steel door. Judging by the name itself, it was definitely a less-than-friendly place.
V4 Containment Site: Gate B2
Charles knew from his encounter at the V12 Containment Site that anything that had to be contained by itself was anything but good.
The automatic steel door opened to reveal a corridor. The bright lights overhead forced everyone to squint their eyes to adjust to the brightness, as they had just emerged from a dim place.
"I've been here before," Tobba blurted out.
Charles turned to his Navigator in surprise. "Do you know what this place is, then? What was that 010 my future self was talking about?"
"I said I've been here before. I didn't say that I remember what's in here," Tobba said, chuckling while holding a mouse. "It's useless to ask me what I don't remember."
Charles had no idea what to say in response. There were times when Charles would feel that bringing along the lunatic was tantamount to dragging along a deadweight; Charles felt that way at the moment.
Charles continued walking forward, no longer paying any attention to Tobba.
Soon, Charles stumbled upon what looked like an employee break room. There were coffee machines in the room, and they were powered on, which made it seem as though someone had just used them not too long ago.
Charles poured a coffee for himself and was about to make a mouse taste it just in case when he saw Tobba holding a cup of coffee. Tobba cast a curious gaze upon Charles as he took a sip of the coffee in his hand.
At the sight, Charles decided to pour away the coffee in his hands. Testing the coffee was meaningless, as it definitely wasn't poisoned. Charles realized just then that this place was the same outside, seemingly frozen in time.
Recalling Future Charles' words, Charles didn't bother exploring the nearby rooms, as he decided to go straight down, making a beeline for the bottom floor. His top priority was to go to the bottom floor and get out of the underground facility alive.
Charles' decision to ignore everything and focus on getting to the bottom floor bore fruit as he found an elevator. Charles summoned the elevator, and more than ten people stuffed themselves inside the elevator as it went down with a chime.
Seeing the number -38 on the display left Charles in awe of the extraordinary engineering used to build the V4 Containment Site. It had to have been incredibly difficult to build such a structure underground than a skyscraper aboveground.
The elevator soon came to a halt, and the door opened with a chime. The air outside brought with it a strong smell of rust, and the corridor outside the elevator could only be described with the word "strange."
The two walls of the corridor were made out of steel, but one half was covered with thick rust, while the other half was sparkling clean. However, the rusted and clean state of both walls seemed to be ever-changing.
The rusted half was becoming cleaner at a rate visible to the naked eye, while the clean half was rusting at the same rate.
The flow of time here is even more chaotic than outside. The culprit must be nearby, which is most likely 010. Charles thought. Then, he turned to his crew and said, "Be careful, everyone. It must be nearby. We just have to find it, and we can go back afterward."
Charles took a step forward and led everyone out to the bizarre corridor. The crew members dared not to speak even a word, which made the atmosphere extremely oppressive as they walked down the corridor.
The group walked for about five minutes before they stumbled upon a double door on the left side of the corridor. Charles wasted no time and opened the double door, revealing a pitch-black circular staircase that led downstairs toward what seemed like a pitch-black abyss.
Charles peeked at the open shaft of the staircase, and he couldn't see the bottom, even with his night vision.
"Give me a flashlight," Charles said. He then took away Dipp's flashlight and threw it straight down the open shaft. The flashlight continued falling until it disappeared; everyone waited for a long time, but they didn't hear the flashlight land.
It seemed as though the staircase truly led to the abyss.
010 was at the bottom floor, so 010 was definitely down below.
Charles took the lead once more, but it seemed that the eeriness of the facility had scared some crew members out of their wits. Charles heard multiple footsteps behind himsome of his crew members were running away.
Charles rushed out of the corridor and found Eggers as well as two sailors running away in the opposite direction. The two ordinary sailors with Eggers were the ones with no future versions of themselves.
The three couldn't outrun Charles, and the latter knocked them to the ground with a kick before they could go far.
Eggers was trembling as he sprawled out on the floor, and his voice trembled similarly as he cried out in despair, "I really can't do this anymore, Captain! I'm about to die anyway, so you might as well kill me now!
"I'd rather die now than keep waiting anxiously for my impending death!"
"Stop whining, and get the hell up! Did you not hear what Bandages said earlier? You're not going to die here," Charles said. He proceeded to help Eggers up, but a purple light flashed on his right.
"Captain, watch out!"
Screams erupted behind Charles along with gunshots as the crew immediately decided to attack. Charles responded by grabbing Eggers and doing a few backflips in a row to retreat back to his crew.
With his foot on the ceiling, Charles managed to take a good look at the target. His crew members were shooting at what looked like a translucent purple tentacle.
Charles managed to rescue Eggers, but the other two sailors weren't so fortunate. The two sailors had decided to run desperately toward the elevator, but the translucent purple tentacle found them and swept past them.
The translucent purple tentacle had merely grazed them, but the two sailors vanished into thin air.
Damn it, so this is what Bandages meant when he said that they're not dead? Charles immediately kicked into action. He took out his flesh revolver and started shooting at the distant tentacle. However, the white bone bullets of his flesh revolver simply passed through the translucent purple tentacle.
To make matters worse, the attack seemed to have infuriated the translucent purple tentacle as it writhed violently and turned into a beam of purple light that made a beeline for Charles. It moved so fast that it even left afterimages in the air.
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