Luo Shu noticed something odd—the "O" at the end of SCP-173's page was still active.
Wait…
He'd already used this ability to teleport behind the bearded commander.
Why wasn't it marked as "X"?
A bug?
Didn't matter. An unexpected surprise!
Perhaps The Anomaly Archive had a rule: If the neck-snap kill isn't completed, the ability isn't consumed.
Only one way to test—use it again.
No time to hesitate.
Teleport behind Marion Wheeler!
But just as Luo Shu was about to tap the "O", the old woman whirled around and fired two shots backward.
Damn it, you crafty hag!
This was entrapment!
Marion had blinked on purpose, baiting Luo Shu into attacking.
Luckily, his flipping through the Archive had been slightly slower than her blink—otherwise, he'd be dead already.
Now, he froze, not daring to move.
Marion paced near the stairwell door, scanning the shadows.
Then Luo Shu realized—she'd been bluffing the whole time.
From her lit position, she couldn't possibly see him in the dark.
Her first shot was a guess.
Her taunts were an attempt to lure him out.
When that failed, she blinked to tempt him into teleporting.
After these three tricks, she finally concluded no one was there and relaxed her guard.
Luo Shu exhaled in relief. Now, he just had to wait for her to leave so he could ascend.
Sure enough, Marion turned to go—
But then she pulled out a hand mirror from her bag, angling it to monitor the stairwell as she walked deeper into Sublevel-5.
Luo Shu could only admire her thoroughness.
The old fox is always sharper.
If he stepped out now, she'd spot him instantly in the mirror.
Thankfully, he'd anticipated her tricks, moving slowly and deliberately to avoid traps.
But this stalemate couldn't last.
Once the D-Class cafeteria search concluded and D-20915's absence was noted, he'd be trapped.
He had to move—fast.
Flipping to Page 5 (SCP-131 - Eye Pods), Luo Shu focused on their vertical climbing ability.
He looked up.
The Site-19 stairwell shaft ran straight from Sublevel-5 to Sublevel-2.
Eye Pods never used stairs—they scaled walls directly.
Now that he'd unlocked their ability, it was time to put it to work.
Tapping the "O", he stepped onto the shadowed wall—
And instantly, gravity reoriented perpendicular to the surface.
He began walking vertically, carefully ascending.
Marion's mirror showed nothing.
By the time she reached SCP-055's corridor, Luo Shu was already 50 meters up, emerging on Sublevel-4.
Here, cameras were everywhere—he needed anti-memetic protection.
To be safe, he didn't activate SCP-055's ability yet, instead shifting from the shaft wall to the stairwell landing.
As expected, anti-memetic suppression canceled the climbing ability, dropping him to the floor.
Good thing he wasn't over the shaft—that fall would've been fatal.
Marion's paranoia had rubbed off on him.
Near-death experiences teach the best lessons.
It also showed how many dangers Marion had survived.
We're all just trying to stay alive.
Brushing off dust, Luo Shu continued upward.
On Sublevel-3, he encountered a squad of MTF Epsilon-11 ("Nine-Tailed Fox") descending from above—the bearded commander at the rear.
Their sweep was almost done.
Luo Shu pressed against the wall, letting them pass.
The commander even thanked him politely.
"You're welcome!" Luo Shu replied.
The commander frowned—something felt off—but without anti-memetic resistance, he couldn't pinpoint why.
Similarly, the Site Director, watching via cameras, saw nothing amiss.
To them, Luo Shu's bright orange jumpsuit was invisible and indescribable.
Long live anti-memes!
After bypassing Epsilon-11, the rest was smooth sailing.
The Sublevel-2 stairwell guard let him through with another swiped keycard—no reaction.
Sublevel-1 had no door, just security personnel watching the exits.
Luo Shu strolled past them openly, even waving goodbye—some waved back without realizing.
Later, they'd vaguely recall something odd:
"Who was that guy you waved at?"
"What guy?"
"You waved at someone."
"Did I? I don't remember..."
By then, Luo Shu was back in the D-Class cafeteria, where the roll call was wrapping up.
He slipped to the end of the line, flattening against the wall.
The guard checking names stopped at the second-last D-Class, ignoring Luo Shu entirely.
"One missing—D-20915 isn't here!" he announced, circling the name as "suspicious."
"Hey! I'm right here! You can't just pretend not to see me!" Luo Shu wailed.
The guard glanced at him but processed nothing, still marking him absent.
Luo Shu groaned.
SCP-055's ability was the problem.
The guard couldn't recognize his identity.
Damn anti-memes!