Chapter 173 The Database

For Feng Bujue, reciting the data of ten SCP projects in full was not difficult… even taking the factor of "future" into account.

Anyway, he had data on over two thousand SCP projects in his mind, giving him a very wide range of choices.

He just needed to pick out some "SCP projects that were almost impossible to change over time" and summarize them.

Of course, Brother Jue was also careful in his narration… Although he could recite the entire file from beginning to end verbatim, he didn't do that.

He deliberately used very simple, highly generalized ways to describe the project information he knew.

For example: SCP-173, Brother Jue described it as "a concrete creation that will instantly move over and snap your neck as soon as it leaves your line of sight"; while SCP-222, Brother Jue said it was "a sarcophagus located in a tunnel in the Dolomites (the White Rock Mountains, located in Aviano, Italy) that can replicate living people"... He only mentioned the number and characteristics, without even mentioning the project's level.

This approach was undoubtedly a manifestation of Feng Bujue's meticulousness.

Although the things he picked out were already projects unlikely to be affected by time, after so many years, the files on these projects would have been revised several times to varying degrees.

Perhaps some of the wording in the document would be modified, perhaps a few experimental records would be added to the document, or perhaps... after thorough research, the project's level would be raised or lowered.

These… Feng Bujue had also considered them.

Therefore, when reporting information to Dr. Cox, he generally used a more general approach.

Originally… even people within the Foundation couldn't possibly know all of this information (many project files have viewing level restrictions), and even if they did, no one would recite the entire document in detail; basically, everyone just remembered a "concept" after reading it. So, as long as the project number and basic characteristics that Brother Jue said matched, the other party wouldn't be able to hear any flaws.

…………

"Okay… I've said more than a dozen already, do you want me to continue?"

Two minutes later, Feng Bujue had continuously spoken about the characteristics of more than a dozen projects at a speed like a crosstalk performance. Throughout the process, he had been staring at the changes in Dr. Cox's facial expressions; when he finished the twelfth project, he felt that the other party definitely believed him, so he stopped and asked this question.

"This intelligence…" Dr. Cox's expression was very solemn now, the kind of solemnity that couldn't be concealed or hidden, "...where did you get it from?"

"Since your Foundation can do extradimensional research, then individuals or organizations in other dimensions... can naturally also study you." Feng Bujue gave another ambiguous answer.

"It seems…" Cox tentatively asked, "You have a considerable understanding of our research…"

"No comment." Feng Bujue imitated the tone of D19 before and gave this answer without thinking, and immediately changed the subject, "Anyway, I've proven that I don't need to spy on your information; as for whether you show me the observation records of SCP-3232… to be honest, I don't care." He paused, "You were the one who asked me to explain the principle of 3232, and now it's your problem that I can't explain it because you don't provide me with the necessary conditions."

Although Feng Bujue added a "to be honest" in his words, he basically wasn't telling the truth.

He really played the art of confusing the public and bluffing to the point of perfection.

And the demeanor and behavior he showed... was indeed the appearance of "not caring," which was very convincing.

"Hoo…" Cox heard this, let out a long breath, and leaned back in her chair.

At this moment, she raised her hand to gently push the black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose, looking at Brother Jue's face with a burning gaze, without saying a word…

Obviously, she was thinking, hesitating…

And Feng Bujue continued to respond to the other party's every scrutiny with a profound and cheap smile.

"Answer me one more question." After a moment, Cox reopened her mouth, "If your answer is reasonable, I'll show you the observation records."

"Ask away." Feng Bujue replied.

When he said these two words, Brother Jue was already prepared to deal with all kinds of questions.

"Why do you want to cooperate with me?" A second later, Cox asked, "Since you can leave our dimension at any time, what reason do you have to stay here and negotiate with me? What benefits can you get from it?"

"Ha…" Feng Bujue laughed, "I thought you were going to ask something else…" He picked up the coffee on the table and drank the last sip, "It's very simple, because SCP-3232 suggested that I do that."

His answer this time was a mix of truth and falsehood, and... he didn't need to explain it further, because he had said before that to explain the principle of 3232 in detail, he had to see the information first.

Therefore, this answer once again cornered Dr. Cox.

In this round of communication, Feng Bujue only reported a dozen or so pieces of known information that were meaningless to both parties; and through a series of lies that were logically sound and temporarily unable to be verified or exposed... he successfully forced Dr. Cox to submit.

"Okay… I can show you the observation records." Dr. Cox said, standing up, "But we have to go somewhere else."

"Sure~" Feng Bujue also stood up, "Anywhere is fine."

…………

Dr. Cox didn't directly take Brother Jue out of the office; even if she wanted to, it wouldn't be in accordance with the regulations.

In the end, in the eyes of the doctor, Feng Bujue was still an "SCP-3232-1," no matter how eloquent he was, he was also a project, or rather, a derivative of a project.

Therefore, the doctor still had to follow the procedure…

First, she issued an order to the outside world through the communicator, summoning several guards responsible for escorting the subject.

Then, she said hello to Brother Jue and quickly left the room.

In the next few minutes, Feng Bujue and the guards stared at each other in the office, waiting for the doctor to arrange the next steps.

A few minutes later… Dr. Cox returned to the office and called Feng Bujue, at which point, he and the guards set off for their destination…

This time, at the doctor's request, the guards didn't put handcuffs on Brother Jue again.

And so… everyone left the office, walked for a while, and entered an elevator; the elevator finally stopped on the second floor above ground (they were just on the fourth floor). Subsequently, still under the leadership of the doctor, they walked into a cylindrical corridor with three transparent sides (except for the bottom).

When passing through this corridor, Feng Bujue saw the scenery outside the building through the glass around the corridor (it may not be glass, but other transparent building materials).

Within the range of vision, he saw a forest; although the forest was not dense, it could be seen that… this place was definitely a wilderness far from the city, where normal people would never set foot in their lives.

In addition, it could also be seen… that the top, bottom, left, and right of this corridor were all exposed to the outside of the building, and the two ends of the corridor were connected to two large buildings hidden under optical camouflage.

"I see… using such a corridor to divide the base into two parts, in this way… in the event of a containment failure of certain projects, the loss of facilities and casualties can be minimized." Before they finished walking this section, Brother Jue commented.

"Hmph… to put it bluntly, isn't it just that in an emergency, all the personnel and equipment in half of the base can be immediately abandoned?" Dr. Cox replied, "I personally am very opposed to this approach, it's just a pity that most of the higher-ups… or rather, most 'men'…" She said here, raised her hand to make quotation marks, and turned her head to glance at Brother Jue, "...think this design is 'the most reasonable' and 'the most rational'."

The tone of the doctor's words clearly revealed dissatisfaction; even the guards could see the difference between her and the decision-making level, as well as her own slight discrimination against women…

"Heh…" The next second, Feng Bujue sneered and replied, "Dr. Cox, do you think… this approach is a bit lacking in human touch?"

"Isn't it?" Cox asked back.

Feng Bujue didn't answer the other party's question, but replied, "In that case… the decision to detonate half of the base in the event of an emergency… is not made by 'people'."

"Hmm?" As soon as Dr. Cox heard this, she realized something, "You…"

Although she had realized that Brother Jue was testing her, and had adjusted her expression before turning her face, unfortunately… the three guards standing to the left, right, and behind Brother Jue had already given Brother Jue an answer with their facial expressions (the guards were not assault team members and did not wear helmets).

"How did I know?" After completing the test, Feng Bujue wanted to show off a little, he quickly took over the doctor's words and said with a smile, "Hehe… isn't this obvious." He paused for half a second and continued, "In the event of an emergency, it would undoubtedly be unreasonable to let someone or a group of people outside this base decide whether to blow up half of the base. At that time, it would be a problem whether the situation here could be successfully and promptly reported; not to mention… even if it was reported promptly, the people outside this base would not know the specific situation here, and their decisions would likely be wrong."

As Feng Bujue spoke, he made a shrugging gesture. This move made the three guards nervous for a while, and they almost grabbed their electric batons and stabbed him…

Fortunately, they soon realized that Brother Jue was just using body language to cooperate with his narration…

"Then, is it okay to hand over the decision-making power to destroy half of the base to someone within this base?" Feng Bujue's words continued, "Without a doubt… that's even worse." He turned his head and looked at the guard on his left, "For example, this brother, if I give you this right, what would you do if you were in the facility where the containment accident occurred in an emergency?"

The guard naturally heard Brother Jue's question, but he didn't respond; according to regulations, he had to avoid communicating with such escorted people or things unless absolutely necessary.

"Or… you are not in the facility where the containment accident occurred, but 90% of the other personnel in the facility are on the other side, there are your colleagues, friends, or other people you care about… what would you do?" Feng Bujue added another sentence, but he didn't intend to listen to the other party's reply, because it was the same whether he answered or not, it was good as long as the point was clear.

"So… it's not okay to let the people in this base make the decision." After a few seconds, Feng Bujue said emphatically.

"Hmph… okay, I guess you guessed it right." Having said that, Dr. Cox had nothing to hide, anyway, Brother Jue already knew, "The base's self-destruct program is completely controlled by the computer, the computer will not hesitate, as long as the 'trigger conditions' are met, it will immediately start the corresponding process."

This… was a very important piece of information.

It was also the biggest breakthrough Feng Bujue had made in testing and intelligence gathering so far.

After knowing this information, the plan that originally had many variables in Brother Jue's mind instantly became clear…

"It's not my habit to rely on guessing." Two seconds later, Feng Bujue said to the doctor in the same deliberately pretentious tone as before, "I call that reasoning… reasoning, do you understand?" When he said the last half of the sentence, he also used the Shanghai dialect and the Sichuan dialect, and the strange accent added a bit of cheapness to him.

"It's just picking one in a limited number of assumptions, and seeing from the reactions of the guards that you guessed correctly." Dr. Cox was not to be outdone, she glanced back at Brother Jue and said, "Anyone can do this kind of reverse reasoning and self-justification…"

"Ah ya ya… you saw through it ah." Unexpectedly, Feng Bujue actually smiled shyly and admitted it.

His seemingly ever-changing and unpredictable personality really made Cox very depressed… because she never knew what the other party would do next.

…………

Not long after, the doctor led the four men behind her through the corridor.

After passing through an electronic door, they entered the "left half" of the facility.

And just as they entered that area less than five seconds later, suddenly…

"Ah! That's right!" Feng Bujue suddenly stopped and said loudly.

The doctor and the guards all turned their heads to look at him as if they were facing a formidable enemy… three electric batons were already raised.

"That what…" Brother Jue looked at them, putting on a very serious expression, "I want… to go to the toilet."