How to use paginate_links on front-page.php with a custom post type?

Hello!

How do I use the function paginate_links in front-page.php or, if I cannot use it as it should be used in front-page.php where it should be better to put it? I have found this post https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/a/254200/182585 and it helped me a lot, but the only issue I see is that, e.g., the link to the second page goes to http://localhost/page/2 and that page gives the user HTTP error 404.

The code inside front-page.php that is relevant is this:

echo paginate_links(array(
    'base' => str_replace(999999999, '%#%', esc_url(get_pagenum_link(999999999))),
    'total' => $the_query->max_num_pages,
    'current' => max(1, get_query_var('paged')),
    // 'format' => '?paged=%#%',
    'show_all' => false,
    'type' => 'plain',
    'end_size' => 2,
    'mid_size' => 1,
    'prev_next' => true,
    'prev_text' => sprintf('<i></i> %1$s', __('...', '...')),
    'next_text' => sprintf('%1$s <i></i>', __('...', '...')),
    'add_args' => false,
    'add_fragment' => '',
));

The posts I show in the front-page.php are cases of ill or poor people, and for these types of post I have made a custom post type. I wish to show them in more pages and display the first page on the home page of the website.

Thank you!