I created a foundation

As soon as the door closed, there was a slight vibration under my feet.

Then, a strong feeling of weightlessness came over me without warning.

The elevator did not descend smoothly, but fell straight into the depths of the earth at an astonishing speed that was almost like free fall.

call--

I seemed to be able to hear the dull sound of wind caused by high-speed travel, or maybe it was just an illusion caused by the feeling of weightlessness.

Kato Megumi's body shook slightly due to the sudden high-speed fall.

She subconsciously stretched out her hand, trying to hold onto the wall next to her, but in the end, her fingertips only lightly touched the cold metal surface, and then she retracted her hand, trying to maintain her balance.

Her breathing seemed to stop for a moment.

His expression, which had always been as calm as the surface of a lake, completely lost its composure and ease at this moment for the first time.

"Ding."

A slight prompt sound, like a stone dropped into a calm lake, broke the suffocating silence in the elevator and the dizziness brought about by the feeling of weightlessness.

The high-speed fall that lasted for who knows how long finally came to an abrupt halt at this moment.

Kato Ena's body, slightly tensed by the sudden weightlessness, swayed slightly as inertia vanished. Her dark eyes, slightly blurred by the high-speed movement, regained their focus.

The elevator doors slid open silently, like the curtain of a stage play slowly opening, ready to reveal the amazing scenery hidden behind it.

There was no blinding light, only a soft yet deep light that poured in from outside the door and instantly filled the entire narrow elevator room.

The light did not come from a single light source, but was diffused in the air, evenly illuminating everything outside the door.

Then, Kato Megumi saw it.

At that moment, her breathing seemed to be strangled by an invisible hand and stopped quietly.

What comes into view is a huge space that cannot be accurately described by any known words and is extremely magnificent.

It felt like the interior of a hollowed-out mountain, or perhaps a steel city buried deep underground. Above the seemingly unreachable dome, a soft, shifting light shone, mimicking the heavens. Sometimes it resembled the dawn, sometimes it resembled starlight, making one almost forget that they were hundreds, even thousands, of meters underground.

Countless aerial corridors, gleaming with faint blue lights, crisscrossed like a spider web, connecting to vast buildings of varying styles and unknown functions in the distance. Within these transparent tubes, unmanned magnetic levitation vehicles could be seen shuttling silently and rapidly, transporting various packaged supplies or...some unidentifiable objects.

On the ground, the scene was so busy that it was dazzling.

This place doesn't look like any company, any research institute, or even anything like... a high school "club" activity room.

Eriri glanced at Kato Megumi secretly.

This classmate, known for her thin presence and minimal emotional fluctuations, stood there quietly. Her body didn't move much, but her dark eyes, always tinged with laziness and aloofness, widened slightly. The incredible scene before her was reflected in the depths of her pupils, gleaming with an unprecedented, almost glazed light.

Her fingers, which always hung naturally at her sides, were now unconsciously curled up slightly, and her fingertips were slightly white.

A subtle, faintly amused smile curved the corners of Kasumigaoka Utaha's mouth. She was clearly very pleased with Kato Megumi's reaction. This was how an ordinary person—no, even an extraordinary person—would behave when faced directly with the Foundation's tip of the iceberg for the first time.

"Okay, Kato-san." Kasumigaoka Utaha's voice broke the silence. Her tone was still elegant, but with a hint of indescribable guidance. "The real

There's more to headquarters than meets the eye."

She was the first to step out of the elevator.

Eriri followed closely behind, and when she passed by Kato Megumi, she could even hear her breathing, which was almost inaudible but obviously a little faster than usual.

Kato Megumi's body seemed to stiffen for a moment, and then, like a robot with delayed instructions, she slowly followed them out of the elevator, step by step.

The ground beneath my feet was cold and hard alloy. With every step I took, I could feel a slight echo, spreading throughout this overly empty and huge space.

Her gaze was involuntarily drawn to the deepest and most disturbing area of ​​this underground city.

There, rows of enormous metal structures, resembling ocean-going cargo containers, stood. They were arranged in neat rows, each one exceeding ten meters in height and incalculable in length, stretching to the very edge of the field of vision, lost in the hazy light and shadows of the distance.

The surfaces of these metal creations gleamed with a cold luster, and were engraved with various complex symbols and numbers, from [001], [002]... and so on, as if there was no end.

Even more alarming was the fact that each of these "containers" was adorned with several warning lights of varying sizes. Some flashed a steady green, signifying safety or control. Others glowed an ominous yellow, seemingly foreshadowing potential danger. Further away, certain numbers pulsed with a dazzling red light. Even from such a distance, one could sense the terror and danger lurking behind them.

Kato Megumi's throat was a little dry. She swallowed subconsciously, but didn't feel any moisture at all.

What...are these?

A prison? A laboratory? Or... something even more unimaginable?

Directly in front of them lay an even larger and more complex structure. It was a completely open, fan-shaped platform, roughly the size of several football fields. It was densely packed with operating consoles and equipment with flashing indicators.

In the center of the platform is a huge screen wall made up of hundreds of giant LCD screens that almost covers the entire field of vision.

At this moment, the screen wall was scrolling at a dizzying speed, displaying encrypted intelligence from all over the world, real-time satellite cloud maps, extremely complex data flow models, and reports written in various unknown languages ​​and symbols.

Countless staff members in white or light blue uniforms are sitting in front of their respective operating tables, staring intently at the screen in front of them, their fingers tapping rapidly on the keyboard, and occasionally giving or receiving instructions in a low voice through the headset.

The entire scene was like a space command center of the highest standard. No, it was even larger, more complex, and more... awe-inspiring than that.

This was completely beyond Kato Megumi's understanding.

She once thought that the so-called "club" of Kasumigaoka-senpai and Eriri-san might just be some kind of fantasy product of the late stage of Chuunibyou. At most, it was some unknown secret channels that could access some "gray area" information that ordinary people could not access.

But everything before her completely shattered all her guesses and cognitions.

This isn't some "society" store.

This is not something that can be easily built and maintained by any one country, or a group of countries together.

This is an unimaginable and terrifying existence that transcends secular power.

Kasumigaoka Utaha's voice sounded beside her, calm but with a barely perceptible smile.

"Kato-san, welcome to the P Foundation."

Kato Megumi's lips moved, but no sound came out. Her gaze was fixed on the huge circular emblem composed of three inward-pointing arrows above the central command hall in front of her, and on the three words engraved in cold, inorganic font below the emblem.

Secure.Contain.Protect.

Chapter 60 The True Face of the World

Kasumigaoka Utaha pushed open a secret door that was almost integrated with the surrounding metal walls.

The door slid open silently, revealing a completely different scene behind it.

It was not any of the small offices or meeting rooms that Kato Megumi had previously rehearsed in her mind, but a more open but extremely dimly lit space.

The air was filled with a cool, faint ozone scent, peculiar to the prolonged operation of sophisticated electronic equipment, and it carried an inhuman cleanliness and solemnity.

"Please come in, Kato-san."

Kasumigaoka Utaha's voice still retained her characteristic elegance, but now it was imbued with a subtle solemnity. She turned sideways and gestured "please."

Eriri followed closely behind Kato Megumi. She could clearly feel that the atmosphere here was completely different from the huge and busy underground hall outside. It was more condensed and more... core.

Kato Megumi's steps were a little shaky. She felt like she was stepping on a thick sponge. Every step lacked the sense of reality, as if she would fall into an unknown abyss at any time.

The layout of this room is extremely simple, even empty.

Facing them was a huge one-way porthole that almost took up the entire wall.

Through this porthole made of special material, one can take in the entirety of the breathtakingly huge command hall of the underground base below, just like a sand table model.

Countless flashing indicators on the operating terminals, like the brightest stars in the night sky, flickered in the vast space below. Personnel in various uniforms shuttled through the space like worker ants, working efficiently and silently.

At this moment, a figure was standing quietly in front of this huge porthole.

The back of a young man in his 410s wearing simple black uniform.

With his hands behind his back, his figure stood straight as a pine tree, like a peerless sword about to drink blood, its edge restrained; or like a solitary mountain that had weathered the vicissitudes of time and remained unmoved, steady and majestic.

Just a back view exudes a majestic aura that is difficult to describe in words, as if it has completely merged with the entire huge underground base.

It was as if he was the beating heart of this place, the absolute core that enabled this huge machine, which was so precise to the point of being terrifying and so cold to the extreme, to run endlessly.

Kato Megumi's breathing involuntarily stopped again the moment she saw that figure.

Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri stopped about a few meters behind him, lowered their eyes slightly, and did not make any unnecessary sounds. Like the most loyal and pious guards, they waited quietly for instructions.

On the other side of the room, another massive screen wall hung. Although slightly smaller than the one in the center of the command hall below, its image clarity and detail were significantly superior.

At this moment, a series of terrifying images were being played on the screen in real time.

Under the lead-gray sky, the black waves slammed against the rugged rocks like angry beasts. The pouring rain was like a river pouring down from the sky, shrouding the entire world in darkness and blur, like a precursor to the end of the world.

At the focal point of the picture, one can vaguely see some figures in uniform dark combat uniforms, relying on simple shelters, and engaging in an extremely fierce conflict with some inhuman silhouettes that are looming in the surging waves, with distorted and terrifying shapes.

The dazzling flames produced by the explosion flashed on the screen from time to time. Even though there was no synchronous transmission of any sound across the screen, one could still feel the heart-wrenching tragedy and despair from the violently shaking lens and flying debris.

Izu...coast?

At that moment, Kato Megumi's heart sank suddenly, as if it was being tightly grasped by an invisible big hand.

She vaguely remembered that when the elevator was rapidly descending, Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri seemed to have mentioned this place name in a low voice, as well as words such as "abnormal phenomenon" and "high-level alert incident".

It turns out that those conversations that sounded like settings from fantasy novels were not some kind of late-stage role-playing by them, but... a real, bloody battle that was happening right now.

Just as her heart was shocked and her mind was in chaos.

The man who had his back to them the whole time, as if completely immersed in his own world, seemed to have countless pairs of invisible eyes on his back. He had clearly sensed her arrival the moment she stepped into the room, accurate to the millisecond.

He didn't look back.

There wasn't even the slightest movement to indicate a turn.

His voice, like the perfect pitch of the most delicate musical instrument calibrated in a constant temperature and humidity environment, was calm and unwavering, yet possessed an undeniable penetrating power. It echoed slowly in the somewhat empty and silent room, each word carrying a strange, irresistible power, striking precisely at Kato Enagan's heartstrings, strained by the shock of her heart.

"Kato Megumi, welcome."

The voice was not loud, and could even be described as gentle.

But when Kato Megumi heard it, it felt like her eardrums were hit hard by an invisible siege hammer, making a buzzing sound.

Every cell in her body froze completely at this simple greeting, as if frozen in an instant.

The tall figure still did not move.

His eyes seemed to still be fixed on the underground base outside the porthole that looked like a steel forest, or perhaps he was concentrating on examining the extremely tragic battle situation in the distance on the screen.

It was as if her arrival was just an insignificant, pre-set program node in the precise operation of this unimaginably huge machine.

Then, the second sentence, like a tsunami with tremendous force, came one after another in a seemingly slow but unstoppable manner.

Her worldview, which had been shattered by the magnificent base and the terrifying atmosphere and barely maintained a trace of coh rence, was completely crushed into flying dust.