Chapter Four: First Encounter with Biochemical Warfare (II)

Chapter 4: First Battle in Biohazard II

Thank you all for your support. If you could take a moment to tell your friends about this story, it would give me even more motivation to keep updating. If you have a recommendation ticket, please give one, and if not, a bookmark would be just as helpful. Motivation is what leads to explosive updates!

Now, onto the main story.

“Has the plot begun?” Schuster and Lolita thought to themselves.

The mercenaries immediately stopped what they were doing, all of them looking at him with strange expressions. The bespectacled girl, Jan Lan, sighed, released his hand, and moved away to stand beside the heroine, Alice.

Matthew Addison walked out of the passage, his gaze fixed silently on Zheng Zha. After a long moment, he finally spoke: “Fine. You, and you, come with us inside.” He pointed at Zheng Zha and the middle-aged man, Mou Gang.

Anyone who’s seen this film knows the passage is a death trap; anyone who enters is doomed, even the most skilled mercenary captain, who died gruesomely when the lasers sliced him into countless pieces.

Suddenly, Mou Gang clutched his head and screamed, “No, I don’t want to, I don’t want to go in!” He turned and ran back the way they had come, shouting. Before Zheng Zha and the others could react, the mercenaries had already drawn their guns and shot him down. By the time he hit the ground, he was already a corpse riddled with bullet holes.

“That fool!” Lolita sighed from the side.

“Ugh—”

Zheng Zha and Li Xiaoyi retched violently. A living person had just been gunned down before their eyes. It hit Zheng Zha especially hard, because the man had essentially died due to his own meddling.

Matthew Addison looked at him coldly. “I suspected you from the start. Although your identities are registered in the company records, you don’t seem like company security at all. Now you’re trying to stop us from restarting the Red Queen? Enough. Zheng Zha, come with us.” Without any courtesy, Addison grabbed him and led him along with the other mercenaries down the passage.

No sooner had they entered than, just as in the film, the doors slammed shut at both ends. Addison had no time to worry about Zheng Zha; he and the other mercenaries raised their weapons, on high alert. He spoke into the communicator: “Kaplan?”

Kaplan’s voice came urgently: “Some kind of dormant defense system. If too many people pass through the door, it activates once they’re inside.”

Addison said, “Then keep it dormant!”

Kaplan was sweating profusely, frantically typing. “I’m trying!”

Addison had no choice but to order his team, “Stay where you are. Don’t move.”

Suddenly, the lights along the walls dimmed, and a thin laser appeared between the glass walls, slicing toward them!

Addison reacted first, tackling two people to the ground. Zheng Zha, having watched this scene intently, dropped to the floor the instant the laser flared to life.

“Medic! Medic!”

Addison’s shout jolted Zheng Zha out of his daze. Turning his head, he saw the female mercenary medic’s head slowly sliding off, falling right at his feet. Her wide, dead eyes seemed both a curse and a mockery.

“No, please, no! I don’t want to die!” Zheng Zha screamed in terror, and yet, the more he shouted, the calmer he became. He began to recall every detail of this scene from the first Resident Evil film.

Addison was supporting a mercenary whose fingers had been severed by the laser. Another mercenary shouted, “Sir, here comes another one!”

This time, the laser appeared at leg height. According to the plot, it would slice the first mercenary, then rise as the second one jumped, cutting him apart as well.

The laser streaked toward the four of them. The mercenary on the ground was unable to move and was quickly killed. The other two kept retreating. Zheng Zha stared intently at the mercenary’s movements—one second, two seconds. In this life-or-death moment, time seemed to slow, and he could hear nothing, the world moving in slow motion.

*Thump* ×4—a series of heavy pats on his shoulder, then a powerful force seized Zheng Zha and pulled him back. The world blurred as he was whisked away, and when everything stopped, he found himself outside, safe.

*Gag* ×4—four voices retched in unison, a result of the violent motion and the shock to their insides.

Let us rewind the scene to ten seconds earlier.

When the mercenaries outside heard Addison's cry, they immediately realized it was a trap. However, Kaplan still couldn’t open the steel doors quickly enough.

“Out of the way!” someone shouted. Two shadows darted to the door, and in the next instant, the steel door was blown apart. The two shadows rushed inside, each grabbing someone and hauling them out.

It all happened so fast that no one could react. One moment, the door was intact; the next, it had fallen in pieces, and four voices retched, bringing everyone to their senses.

“Rescuing the mercenaries from the laser corridor: C-level side quest accomplished. 1,000 reward points,” echoed the voice in Schuster’s mind.

“Rescuing the mercenaries from the laser corridor: C-level side quest accomplished, twice. 3,000 reward points,” said the voice in Lolita’s mind.

“That was rather easy. Let’s hope the system won’t make things harder for us because we’re here,” Schuster said through the psychic link.

“Perhaps, but the system is even more mysterious than that AI,” Lolita replied.

Jan Lan walked over and patted Zheng Zha on the back. “You deserved that. I warned you before not to change the plot, but you wouldn’t listen. Zhang Jie was right—for us, the greatest advantage here isn’t luck, but our knowledge of the plot. You can’t count on luck forever. Don’t be so reckless next time; none of us wants to die here.”

Zheng Zha recovered in about half a minute, thanks to his good constitution. The mercenaries, even hardier, were back on their feet in about fifteen seconds, busy piecing together what had happened.

“Thank you both for saving us. And you, kid, I misjudged you,” Matt said gratefully to Schuster, Lolita, and Zheng Zha.

“It was nothing. At the very least, I can’t just watch someone die,” Schuster replied with a mild smile, the upward curve of his lips barely noticeable.

Meanwhile, Kaplan tapped at his computer. “All right, all the defense systems are shut down. We can walk straight out of the Hive now.”

“All of them? Are you sure?” Addison asked.

He didn’t wait for Kaplan’s answer and, grabbing his equipment, strode toward the other end of the corridor.

Kaplan kept tapping away, but this time the entrance doors didn’t close again. The heroine, Alice, just as in the plot, followed them inside. Soon, the doors to the Red Queen’s central room shut once more. The Reincarnators exchanged glances—they knew the core theme of Resident Evil was about to begin: zombies!

“All right, relax. These low-level undead are easy to handle; even ordinary people can take one down,” Schuster said, drawing his Paradise Spark.

“Fine, just kick them away if they get close. We’ll cover you. Need any weapons?” Lolita checked her equipment before asking.

“Um, give me something with less recoil,” Zheng Zha said after thinking a moment.

“Heh, interesting guy. I thought none of you would need one. Here! One mag, fifteen rounds. If you run out, get more from Lolita. Don’t tell me you don’t know how to reload—just like in the movies,” Schuster said with a laugh, reaching into the infinite space behind him and tossing over an M1975 9mm and two magazines.

“Of course I can handle it,” Zheng Zha replied confidently.

Jan Lan suddenly smiled. “By the way, do you feel sick after killing someone?”

Li Xiaoyi spoke first. “At first, yes. I wasn’t used to it or the atmosphere here. But after throwing up just now, I actually feel fine. If I closed my eyes, I think I could do it.”

Zheng Zha didn’t speak, but nodded firmly.

Jan Lan continued, “Good. If you see a lone zombie, try to take it out. They’re all worth reward points. Remember—the head! That’s their weak spot!”

“Don’t worry,” Lolita said with a smile. “These things are no threat to us at all.” Her smile was so charming that the boys around her were momentarily stunned.

As they spoke, the lights in the room suddenly dimmed. They all knew Addison had shut down the central computer. At the same time, the defense system that had kept the zombies and Lickers contained was now disabled. The entire lab belonged to those monsters, and, having learned the dangers of changing the plot, none of them dared to interfere this time. They could only watch as the Red Queen was powered down, and now, death awaited them all.

In the darkness, Zheng Zha felt Li Xiaoyi trembling uncontrollably beside him, even Jan Lan was visibly shaking. He couldn’t help but whisper, “Are you scared?”

Li Xiaoyi answered, “Yeah. Really scared.”

But Jan Lan said, “I’m just too excited…”

A few dozen seconds later, the lights came back on, and the battle was about to begin.

PS: In a few chapters, I won’t be writing those pleas for fans at the top anymore. I won’t pad the word count, though I’m rather unlucky. But—since ancient times, lancers have never been lucky, nor have I ever been. I’m just the most miserable little black sheep in Gensokyo.