Clown Game
Chapter 362 - 349: The Gate

Chapter 362: Chapter 349: The Gate

Meanwhile, at the end of the corridor.

"Hey! There’s a sign here!" the Courier shouted, pointing at several plaques on the wall. One of them, in various languages, read "Containment Area" and pointed to the right side of the road.

"Huff, huff— we’re finally here." The Locksmith was older and already breathless from the prolonged run.

At this moment, it seemed that the nurse had noticed something, she turned around to look and, with alarm, called out: "Hey? Where’s Lin Fan? Why hasn’t he caught up?"

Everyone was startled and realized that Lin Fan’s figure was absent from the group.

"Not good! Something’s happened!" Bai Xiong immediately sensed that something was amiss.

"Should I go back and look??" The Drunkard, seeming to have sobered up, made a not-quite-sensible suggestion.

"No!" Chen Xiao immediately interjected, "After blowing up the elevator just now, anyone with a brain would know our target is the containment area. If you leave and run into field agents coming our way, you’ll definitely get stuck in a stalemate, making things even more difficult!"

Reina shouted furiously, "What do you mean? We don’t want you Foundation jerks to be selfish. We won’t leave any comrades behind!"

"What? Are you a child?" Chen Xiao shot back immediately, "If the Drunkard leaves, not to mention whether he can be of any help, what if he gets captured? Besides, with him gone, we’ll be down one fighter here. What if we get into combat later and face annihilation?"

A look of disdain flashed across Reina’s face: "Pfft! I know you have a grudge with Lin Fan, but don’t think you can stir up trouble among us!"

"Stir up trouble? Use your brain first! Would you really endanger everyone just to go back for one lost guy? Are you helping your teammates or harming them? This is a Foundation division; any mishap could trigger a chain reaction, resulting in an uncontrollable situation. You, dimwit, get all muddled up the moment loyalty and righteousness are brought up..."

"Enough!" Song Xuan spoke up calmly, her voice not loud but enough to stop the argument, "Courier, you go look. He shouldn’t be far. Hurry back once you find him, and if there really is an emergency, hold out until you can contact A-ming!"

"Right!" Without another word, the Courier appeared a short distance down the corridor they had come from and then disappeared again... It seems the Foundation’s special materials had greatly reduced his ability, allowing him to move only short distances.

Having arranged things, Song Xuan turned around, her gaze coldly sweeping over Chen Xiao... "You’d better behave. Don’t think I’m just monitoring you; I also want to catch you slipping so I have a reason to kill you... When I say ’I don’t like you,’ I’ve always meant it!"

After speaking, she took the lead towards the direction of the containment area.

Chen Xiao frowned. Song Xuan’s words had been unmistakably resolute and, moreover, her aversion to him seemed to heighten after she had revealed that she was ’The Splitters’ planted inside the ’Foundation’. Or, to put it another way, there was no longer any need to hide her dislike.

"Why does she hate me so much?" Chen Xiao wondered, muttering to himself.

The Drunkard, who happened to be beside him, must have heard Chen Xiao’s mutterings: "Eh? You don’t know...?" He asked, "Because of our initial encounter with you, our ’Guardian’ paid a hefty price..." he said contemplatively.

"A price?" Chen Xiao was taken aback.

"Yeah... Although I can’t say for sure, it’s certainly not as simple as life." The Drunkard said, then quickly caught up with the others’ pace, leaving Chen Xiao standing there.

"What’s that? For my sake... a significant price was paid?" He grumbled with a grimace: "This feeling... really sucks..."

...

...

Without further ado and following the directions on the signs, the group quickly reached the entrance to the containment area, passing through a circular tunnel. A near five-meter diameter blast-proof circular iron door appeared before their eyes.

The containment and active areas of the Pacific Division were completely separate, connected in the middle by a tunnel made of decompression panels. Just five centimeters beyond the tunnel’s walls lay the lightless deep sea, and there was only this one route in, unless, of course, you had some way to drill directly through the sea floor right next to the containment area, penetrate the Foundation’s special protective walls, and somehow let yourself in while keeping out the flooding seawater. Yeah, if you could pull that off, hats off to you... Oh, right, all the containment chambers here are built separately, meaning that even if some lunatic did manage to flood the containment area, only the unused spaces would fill with water, leaving all the contained objects completely unaffected.

Naturally, the door didn’t need to be mentioned; it was obviously designed to withstand immense force without damage. More importantly, the tunnel material wasn’t as durable, meaning if you tried to use violent means to blast through the door, you’d likely shatter the tunnel first and instantly sleep with the fishes.

So, such a design meant that apart from entering through normal means and walking in quietly, there seemed no way of forcibly breaching it.

Of course, when it was designed, they hadn’t considered someone like the "Locksmith."

The group quickened their pace, hurrying through the tunnel.

At the huge door at the end, the Drunkard had already started using his finger, desperately scratching at the door, making a noise akin to nails on a blackboard that sent chills down everyone’s spine.

After a while, the Drunkard wiped the sweat from his brow... "No use!"

He stepped aside to show a shallow depression on the door which had barely formed; at this rate, it would take a whole day and night to drill deep enough to fit a lock cylinder.

The Locksmith hurried over and started rummaging through his apron pocket before drawing out a doorknob...

Yeah, just a very ordinary doorknob with a lock, nothing special.

Then, taking his time, he observed the large door, finally seeming to find a suitable spot... and next pulled out a tube of silicone sealant from his pocket...

Chen Xiao was taken aback, "Hey, hey, hey... aren’t you overdoing it?" he started to protest, unable to control his outcry.

What followed was exactly what he had anticipated: the Locksmith skillfully bit the cap off the sealant tube, smeared it messily around the inside of the doorknob, then, after pushing his glasses up his nose, carefully pressed it against the door... The doorknob was now stuck to the door. He next fumbled with his hefty bunch of keys, selected one, inserted it into the doorknob, and gave it a turn.

"Done!" He turned around, his face serious as he said to everyone.