Given the financial and material resources of the Order Foundation, the cells were made to look quite proper, so this temporary resting room was definitely not bad at all. It was somewhat like a miniature presidential suite, I guess.
Chen Xiao, bending over with his hands in his pockets, took a walk around the room, thinking, "Did I just go from a white lab rat awaiting execution to a field agent of this organization?"
No matter how unbelievable it was, it had indeed happened.
"Who was that call from, anyway? What was said? I need to find out the ins and outs of this whole thing!" thought Chen Xiao as he made his way to the bed.
"Hmm... this bed is so soft it could be a trampoline!" thought Chen Xiao, and immediately, he acted on that thought, leaping onto the bed and bouncing up.
"Wow, it's even softer than I imagined!"
After completing the utterly meaningless "bed elasticity experiment," Chen Xiao sat down contentedly and casually picked up something resembling a writing tablet from the bedside.
"Hmm... this thing looks quite high-tech!" he muttered to himself. Then, with a spread of his fingers, as if he were an old Taoist priest in the movies summoning a treasure, he pressed on the "writing tablet" and loudly exclaimed, "Open!"
With a flicker of light, the electronic screen on the writing tablet lit up...
"Damn, it actually turned on!" Chen Xiao thought to himself, though, of course, he knew it was just a touch-activated setting.
"This must be the communication device that the guard was talking about!" Chen Xiao murmured to himself, then began earnestly browsing the files on this light screen.
...
The content displayed on this light screen was very simple, with no fancy backgrounds. The first item, "Personal Information," was clicked by Chen Xiao, and a page appeared prompting the input of a fingerprint. Chen Xiao frowned and placed his index finger on it.
"Access denied!" A line of red text appeared on the screen, along with a blinking red cross.
Chen Xiao nodded, meaning, "Ah, I see."
If a normal person saw "Access Denied" light up for the first time, they should realize it wouldn't open, but who knows what Chen Xiao was thinking. Regardless... he tried all ten of his fingers!
Of course, that was clearly futile, and after some hesitation, Chen Xiao abandoned the idea of using his toes.
"It's probably because I haven't reported in yet!" he muttered.
He then clicked on the second option, "Information Search."
This option contained three sub-options:
"Field Team Information"
"Containment Item Archive Query"
"Containment Area Introduction"
Chen Xiao clicked on each option several times, and as expected, he couldn't open any of them.
But he didn't get any negative feelings and went on to open the third option,
"Mission Declaration"!
Within this option, there were selections "S," "A," "B," "C," "D"; sure enough... none of them would open!
So, looking at the last and most intriguing option to Chen Xiao, "Foundation Exchange"! He looked at these four words, feeling like a private company hustling to sell almost expired products.
Then, of course... he couldn't enter it either.
Chen Xiao calmly placed the utterly useless electronic screen back in its place and started organizing information.
Firstly, it was certain that the field teams were mostly organized in small groups, though he didn't rule out the possibility of lone wolves. As for the form of each team, the number of personnel, and whether there were rankings, he didn't know yet.
Then, the classification from S-D for the containment items was quite intriguing. This meant that something like "D-391" would be the least dangerous category of items. What would items in the S category be like...
"I really want to see them!" Chen Xiao thought and chuckled gleefully to himself.
Last, the "Foundation Exchange" option. Back in the orphanage, he had seen Mr. Zou's extraordinarily skilled movements. If he wasn't mistaken, this exchange system could greatly improve and enhance human attributes, and most likely, it had a whole bunch of black technology available for exchange.
So, what was this "Foundation"? Even a fool could figure it out—it definitely wasn't regular money; it must be a kind of point system limited to circulation within the organization.
How to obtain this "Foundation"? No need to think; just work overtime, in other words, complete more missions!
Thinking about this made Chen Xiao grin, and with his hands behind his head, he comfortably lay back on the bed. He was very excited at that moment—the array of bizarre "anomalous items," the mysterious "exchange system," and this enigmatic "Order Foundation"...
Just as he had said before, Chen Xiao was a man with aspirations. He longed for "fun!" And now, fate seemed to have placed him in the most interesting place in the world.
So he was happy, very excited.
"Hehehehe~~"
"Giggle, giggle~~~~"
"Hahahahaha——"
He laughed excitedly, with a sound as unpleasant as could be. Fortunately, the temporary resting room was soundproof; otherwise, one might think a monster had broken out of its containment cell.
"So interesting!!!" he couldn't help but shout.
...
...
Early morning, sunshine—okay, let's skip this part since Chen Xiao is underground and can't see any sunlight right now.
He hadn't slept all night, too excited to rest. The excitement felt like he was injected with adrenaline. He tossed and turned all night, paced around the room, scratched at the door and walls, bounced on the bed, and poked at the useless display screen—he picked it up to poke it, set it down, picked it up again, and, oh yes, during all this he obediently took a bath, because for Chen Xiao, stepping into this intriguing world was a sacred process, and bathing was absolutely necessary!
At 8:07:45 AM, the temporary rest room door was knocked. Yes, Chen Xiao had been counting the seconds all night because he couldn't sleep and had nothing else to do!
"Sir, are you up?" a guard outside shouted in a standard reporting voice, strong and resonant, that would have woken up anyone, awake or not!
But Chen Xiao didn't mind; he had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
He opened the door impatiently, staring at the guard with an excited expression that was somewhat fierce, "Let's go! Let's go register!!!"
The guard couldn't hide a "Is this guy crazy?" look on his face! But since he was wearing a riot helmet, Chen Xiao couldn't see it.
"Yes!" The guard might have been annoyed, but still struck his chest in standard salute and said, "This way, please!"
Chen Xiao eagerly followed him.
After turning through several nearly identical corridors, the two arrived in front of an electronic door.
"Reporting, sir, this is the 'New Field Staff Registration Office'!" the guard shouted.
Chen Xiao nodded, without asking further, and stepped forward. The electronic doors automatically parted to each side.
————————
This "New Field Staff Registration Office" was actually quite small, just a little room, but the room was divided by a large radiation-proof door similar to those in hospital CT rooms, and right now Chen Xiao was standing on one side of this small room, facing a simple desk with a slightly chubby lady in a white lab coat sitting behind it.
The lady saw him come in and asked indifferently, "Chen Xiao?"
"Yes!" Chen Xiao responded, and from the setup and the lady's tone, it was apparent that not many people usually came here.
The lady didn't really look up at him; she just clattered away at the keyboard in front of her, and then the radiation-proof door opened.
"Go in," she said nonchalantly.
Chen Xiao didn't mind the sloppy service, chuckled to himself, and walked in.
"Wow~~~" Chen Xiao took a look inside and couldn't help but draw out his exclamation.
Although this part of the room wasn't large, the machines inside were enormous, a chaotic mess, like a pile of junk electronics thrown together, then randomly connected with wires and tubes, filling the space completely, leaving just a narrow path barely wide enough for a person.
"Sit down!" came the impatient voice from behind.
Chen Xiao was startled, half afraid she would add "do it yourself" next.
Fortunately, she didn't.
"Where do I sit?" Chen Xiao muttered to himself, searching through the junk until he finally found a spot that looked like it could accommodate a person.
Then he squeezed himself into that tiny space and shouted, "I'm seated!"
No sooner had he spoken than a large glass dome came down from nowhere, and immediately a pale green liquid began filling it from below!
"Shit, what is this now?" Chen Xiao was stunned for a brief moment, half thinking he was about to be executed, perhaps all part of Mr. Zou's plan to prevent him from causing trouble.
The strange liquid filled the dome almost instantaneously. Then the lady outside yelled, "Breathe!!"
Chen Xiao followed her instruction and took a breath... no, he sucked in a mouthful of water. The pale green liquid rushed into his lungs through this action, but miraculously, he felt no choking or coughing, and he discovered the liquid was directly supplying oxygen in his lungs, sparing him the need to breathe.
"This 'Order Foundation' has plenty of dark technology, huh!" Chen Xiao mused inwardly.
Suddenly, all the liquid began to bubble and swirl, and beams of light shot down rhythmically onto Chen Xiao's body.
He had no idea what all these chaotic devices were for, but he didn't resist, simply letting the machine do its job.
Then, several robotic arms emerged, attaching themselves to Chen Xiao's body.
Jolts of electricity traveled between his muscles... it felt like numerous tiny needles were penetrating his skin, though whether extracting or injecting something, he couldn't tell.
A wave of dizziness washed over Chen Xiao, soft and comfortable.
He gradually wiped the disgusting smile off his face and quietly closed his eyes.
He wanted to sleep.
And when he woke up again, an array of fascinating stories awaited him.
Just like it was said in the first chapter, life, must be interesting!
...