While Achilles' Heel and Site-CN-02 were reaching their agreement, Luoshu had already quietly relocated to Tianjin.
As a strategic northern stronghold of China guarding Beijing's maritime gateway, Tianjin had historically served as the capital's protective barrier. Consequently, it housed one of the China Branch's earliest-established sites—Site-CN-06.
Unlike the overambitious and overreaching Site-CN-02, Site-CN-06 operated with greater professionalism. It focused solely on anomalies within Tianjin and its surrounding areas while specializing in biomedical and memetic pharmaceutical research. Additionally, it handled medical treatment and rehabilitation for personnel across all Chinese sites.
However, none of this mattered to Luoshu. To him, every site was the same—a treasure trove of new pages for the Anomaly Archive.
But in the Foundation's official documents from Luoshu's memory, Site-CN-06 had another critical research focus—parallel universes!
The project in question was SCP-CN-146—Parallel Universe Storm.
SCP-CN-146 was a special containment chamber located in Sector C E-2 of Site-CN-06, essentially a door embedded in the wall, first discovered on March 29, 2017.
According to official records, this door led to a place called Aedis Space—a technology developed by Foundations in other parallel universes to facilitate interaction and communication between them.
Rumors suggested that Site-CN-06 had once participated in this exchange until one day, the first Aedis Space, codenamed AIs-000, collapsed, transforming into the Parallel Universe Storm.
Yet all of this remained only on paper. Not a single staff member who had entered or participated in AIs-000 could be found.
Thus, the authenticity of these records had never been confirmed.
Site-CN-06 had only placed SCP-CN-146 under strict containment and deployed a Scranton Reality Anchor to suppress it as a precautionary measure—to prevent cross-universe contamination and potential CK-Class Reality Restructuring Events.
If this memory and the document's contents were real, then this was extremely important.
It might hold the key to part of this world's truth!
If Luoshu truly had crossed over from a parallel universe, this place might explain the haziness of his memories.
But just as infiltrating Site-CN-02 had taken him over ten days, making progress here would likely require at least another fortnight.
Before that, Luoshu needed to settle his living arrangements.
The identity of "He Tu" could no longer be used—Luoshu didn't believe Site-CN-02 was foolish enough to ignore such an obvious lead.
Once the police station opened tomorrow, he would have to forge another identity.
He also decided against staying in hotels again. Chinese hotels were under tight government surveillance, and while Luoshu could change his identity, his face remained the same.
If the Foundation invested enough time and manpower, they would eventually track him down via facial recognition.
Considering all factors, Luoshu settled on renting an apartment.
Private landlords only cared about rent money—they wouldn't bother checking whether their tenant was wanted by the government or the Foundation.
After browsing local real estate listings, he quickly found a suitable fully furnished studio apartment near Tianjin Shichangpu Hospital, just a 10-minute walk from Site-CN-06.
That's right—Site-CN-06's above-ground facade was Tianjin Shichangpu Hospital, a privately owned tertiary hospital specializing in infectious diseases.
The landlord had initially been annoyed by a midnight viewing request, but when Luoshu paid six months' rent upfront without haggling, he handed over the keys with a grin.
"The lease will have to wait until tomorrow—I don't have my ID on me."
"No problem at all! The contract can wait. Make yourself at home!"
By the time Luoshu settled into the apartment, it was already late.
In just one more hour, a new day would begin, and all his exhausted abilities would reset.
But Luoshu wasn't in a rush to infiltrate Site-CN-06. Instead, he chose to rest properly.
Learning from last night's experience, he realized that operating around midnight would be more efficient—all abilities would have four uses, especially Unobservable State.
Factoring in travel time, this approach would maximize efficiency.
If he stuck to his old habit of nightly infiltrations, he'd only have two uses of Unobservable State, totaling one hour.
With 20 minutes spent on commuting, his actual exploration time would be just 40 minutes.
But if he switched to one infiltration every two nights, departing at 11 PM and returning at 1 AM, he'd have a full 100 minutes of usable time.
Meanwhile, in Beijing...
As night deepened and most people in Beijing and Tianjin slept, the streets grew quiet.
At that moment, an Antonov An-225 transport plane touched down at Beijing Capital International Airport.
This was the world's largest operational cargo aircraft, dwarfing even the C-5 Galaxy with a 250-ton payload and a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tons.
Soon, the An-225 taxied to the largest apron at the airport, where a group of Foundation personnel stood waiting—including Luoshu's old acquaintance, Barbie!
Without a doubt, this An-225 carried the reinforcements the O5 Council had promised her.
Back when Luoshu accompanied Mobile Task Force Hammer Down from Area 51 to Kandahar, Afghanistan, the entire helicopter squadron had been transported on just one C-5.
This time, the Foundation had deployed an An-225!
Had Luoshu witnessed this, he would've been extremely curious about what kind of force the Foundation was bringing against him.
The An-225's rear cargo ramp lowered, and a fully armed Mobile Task Force unit marched out, followed by a modified Peterbilt 389 heavy-duty truck.
The truck's trailer, over 3 meters wide, carried a square container welded from specialized alloy steel plates, with extra axles to support its estimated 80-ton payload.
A Mobile Task Force commander in officer's uniform approached Barbie and saluted.
"Mobile Task Force Omega-7, reporting to Omega-12-C-003 as ordered!"