The wound was not small, but because the fight had just sent Luo Guang’s adrenaline surging, he did not actually feel any pain.
There was only a slight numbness around the gashes on his right arm.
“…”
Jill saw the state of Luo Guang’s arm too, and her heart tightened.
She knew about viral infection.
So, seeing Luo Guang scratched by a zombie dog, she could not think of anything to say for a moment.
That dishonorable zombie dog that had ambushed Luo Guang was the very same one Luo Guang had managed to wound with a sneak attack when the pack had been surrounding Jill.
After being injured, it had disappeared somewhere.
Because the battle had been so urgent, Luo Guang had focused all his attention on the zombie dogs charging at him and Jill and never noticed that one had gone missing.
For some reason, the system also failed to warn him, after the brief lull in the fight, that one zombie dog was still unaccounted for.
When the ambush happened, Luo Guang had swung his right arm and smashed the dog aside, preventing it from biting him.
But in that brief instant when the zombie dog was knocked away, its claws still managed to leave three wounds across his right arm.
“Jill, looks like I can’t go with you to the substation after all.”
The silence did not last long.
Luo Guang sighed and broke it first.
He saw Jill look like she wanted to say something and hurriedly cut her off, as though he already knew his time was short.
“There’s no time.
Find a way out of Raccoon City, fast.
Those civilians need you to finish the mission.
That’s their only chance to stay alive.”
“Luo…”
In the end, Jill said nothing.
It was as if she also understood that Luo Guang knew what zombie infection meant.
Of course…
anyone who had managed to survive this long in Raccoon City would know what happened after a bite.
Maybe the zombie dog’s claws had not carried virus-laced body fluids, and maybe Luo Guang might get lucky and escape infection.
But saying that now would only be hollow comfort.
Jill had already seen plenty of people get infected after being scratched by zombies, including former S.T.A.R.S.
teammates.
At a moment like this, comfort was not what an infected person needed.
Looking at the wounded, infected Luo Guang, hearing him urge her to leave quickly, Jill’s lips moved.
She gripped the weapon in her hand tightly, but in the end, she still did not say what was on her mind.
In truth, not long after Luo Guang left, Carlos had slipped away under the excuse of taking a piss and found a place with signal where no one was around, trying to contact Jill.
Jill had just spoken with Robert Kendo and was about to continue toward the substation, so she happened to receive Carlos’s call.
Carlos had contacted Jill specifically to tell her that Luo Guang was, in fact, an Umbrella intelligence agent.
At the same time, he also warned her that Nemesis’s target was Jill herself, telling her to stay alert.
As for Nikolai, Carlos considered that Umbrella’s internal business, so he did not mention it to Jill.
If Carlos had not immediately slipped away first, and had instead spoken to his captain beforehand, he might have learned that Umbrella’s observers were not there merely to watch U.B.C.S.
personnel.
To Captain Viktor, the fact that Nikolai was an Umbrella observer was far more important.
When Jill first heard that Luo Guang was an Umbrella intelligence operative, she found it hard to accept.
After hearing Carlos’s information, she turned off the radio without saying whether she believed it or not.
She merely stopped in Kendo’s gun shop and began replaying all the events since meeting Luo Guang.
She had once been hot-blooded and idealistic.
But after the life-and-death betrayal of the Mansion Incident, she was no longer the kind of person who charged straight ahead in the name of justice without thinking.
An intelligence operative.
They had met behind her apartment building.
Luo Guang had reacted faster and more strongly than either she or Brad to Nemesis’s footsteps.
The second time he encountered Nemesis, he had remained frighteningly calm…
One tiny point of suspicion after another had already been buried in her mind.
But she had been chased from one danger to the next the entire time, leaving her no chance to think deeply about any of it.
Now that Carlos had said it, Jill began connecting all those earlier doubts.
And little by little, she found herself believing—if only halfway—that Luo Guang really might be an Umbrella intelligence agent.
But then Jill reconsidered.
Back when she had first taken Luo Guang to the S.T.A.R.S.
safe house, if Luo Guang had handed her the fire axe instead, then while walking behind her, he could have pulled that telescopic dagger out at any time and stabbed her in the back.
When she had gone back to fight Nemesis alongside Brad, Luo Guang had also tried to stop her from going to her death.
For Umbrella, wasn’t combat data from an elite S.T.A.R.S.
member fighting a bio-weapon exactly the kind of intelligence they would love?
Nemesis had also attacked Luo Guang first in battle, even before he opened fire.
And before Carlos arrived, Luo Guang had done his best to draw Nemesis’s attention away from her, allowing her to “harvest” its tentacles.
The U.B.C.S.
had, in fact, been protecting civilians.
And when she, blinded by her rage at Umbrella, had nearly started arguing with Carlos despite not knowing the whole situation, it had been Luo Guang who stepped in to smooth things over.
At that time, she had shown obvious hostility toward Umbrella, yet Luo Guang had hardly reacted at all.
And then there was just now—when she had been caught in an almost certain death trap surrounded by zombie dogs, it had once again been Luo Guang who appeared…
Luo Guang had never deliberately tried to build up goodwill, but his actions really had left Jill with a faint favorable impression of him.
That was why, even after learning his identity from Carlos, she had not immediately believed it.
It was also why she had still worked together with Luo Guang with such tacit understanding to kill the zombie dogs.
Jill let out a quiet sigh.
A trace of sadness flashed through her eyes.
Even at the very end, Luo Guang had still not admitted that he belonged to Umbrella. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
But Jill did not tear through that final layer of paper either.
Looking at the urgency in Luo Guang’s eyes, she simply nodded and, without looking back, headed straight for the substation.
…
She’s finally gone.
Luo Guang watched Jill leave.
Around them, shapes of zombies were already beginning to appear.
Gritting his teeth, Luo Guang looked around once, then, with the system’s help keeping his adrenaline at a high level, he ran without slowing into an apartment building.
His body had begun to heat up, leaving him feeling miserable all over.
He found an unlocked room, spent the last of his strength checking that it was safe and locking the door, then his body went limp and he collapsed straight onto a red sofa.
“Host infected with T-Virus.
Please find a safe location immediately.”
The system’s emotionless voice repeated itself over and over inside his mind, finally stopping only after Luo Guang passed out on the sofa.
“Confirmed safe environment.
T-Virus load within controllable range.
T-Virus analysis may now begin…
Matching with database…
Cross-checking adaptability…
“Mm…”
The system diverted all of its processing power toward the analysis and no longer regulated Luo Guang’s hormone levels.
As his adrenaline finally dropped back to a normal level, a sudden tearing pain shot through his right arm, drawing a groan from him.
“Matching viral type found in database.
Predicted compatibility: 89.44%.
Determined to be suitable for evolution…
“T-Virus analysis complete.
Recommended controlled evolutionary pathways: rapid healing and enhancement of limit-breaking capabilities—surpassing the limits of one’s abilities.
Please choose whether to initiate evolution.”
“…
“Adaptee currently unable to choose independently.
According to Clause Thirteen of the Adaptee System Regulations, the Adaptee is judged to be in an emergency state.
This system will therefore make a prioritized and conservative choice, carrying out limited evolution to ensure the Adaptee’s survival.
“Reconstructing T-Virus…
Simultaneously adjusting Adaptee’s body…
Reconstruction complete…
Adjustment complete.”
“Evolution, begin.”
…
“Congratulations.
Adaptee has completed evolution.”
His body was burning.
Half-conscious, Luo Guang felt as though his whole body had caught fire, every inch of him unbearably uncomfortable.
Then, all at once, he jolted awake from a nightmare of being consumed by flames.
Luo Guang sat bolt upright, gasping for air.
His head was still a little foggy, but the first thing he did after sitting up was scan his surroundings to confirm he was safe.
The impression was faint, but it looked more or less the same as before he had passed out.
The door lock was still engaged, and no unsettling sounds came from outside.
“Congratulations, Adaptee, on your successful evolution.” Seeing that Luo Guang was once again capable of normal thought, the system repeated its congratulations.
“Evolution?” Luo Guang was baffled.
Before losing consciousness, he had heard the system’s infection warning, and that had already made him suspect the system could do something about viral infection.
But he had never expected the first thing it would mention afterward to be evolution.
The system understood his confusion and immediately explained:
“A large number of artificial edits were detected within the virus infecting the Adaptee.
This environment is therefore assessed as one in which bioengineering-based evolution predominates.
In addition, because the Adaptee possessed no viral antibodies, and to prevent the virus from mutating or destroying the Adaptee’s body, this system independently chose—under applicable regulations—to make the necessary adjustments.
The virus has now been successfully integrated.”
Luo Guang had read those Adaptee Regulations before.
Clause Thirteen basically covered the circumstances under which the system could independently choose whether to evolve the host and what evolutionary direction to take.
A life-threatening situation like his was exactly one of the cases in which the system was allowed to decide on its own.
After explaining, the system displayed Luo Guang’s current data before his eyes.
Adaptee ID: 00001s
Name: Luo Guang
Adaptability Rank: S(-)
Strength: 12 (10)
Agility: 10 (10)
Endurance: 15 (15)
Intelligence: 8 (8)
Willpower: 10
Luo Guang noticed that all his personal attributes had risen significantly.
His Strength and Endurance had respectively reached, and surpassed, the human limit the system had previously described. The source of this chapter is g.com.
“My Intelligence went up, but my Willpower didn’t?” Luo Guang asked curiously.
To him, intelligence felt like something that should mostly be decided at birth.
“Because the brain’s capabilities have been enhanced, part of the combat-related knowledge has been integrated through the compiled virus.
The Adaptee can therefore become proficient in new combat techniques relatively quickly.”
After a few more lines of explanation, the system made its meaning clear.
In simple terms, the system had used the T-Virus as a carrier to engrave a portion of that knowledge directly into Luo Guang’s mind.
Only after the system pointed it out did Luo Guang notice that there really was a great deal of new knowledge in his mind.
There was no concrete memory of studying it, but it felt as though his body had already mastered it.
What remained was only for Luo Guang himself to learn how to actually use it well.
It felt like learning to swim or ride a bike—once a person had learned those things, even if they went years without using them, they would not forget them.
Once they started again, it would all come back quickly.
“Willpower is an attribute influenced purely by postnatal factors.
The system recommends that the Adaptee pay attention to training Willpower as well.”
After explaining that point, the system continued on to another detail Luo Guang had not noticed:
“Because the T-Virus possesses powerful plasticity, the Adaptee’s Adaptability Rank has also changed.”
Only then did Luo Guang notice that his Adaptability Rank had changed from S- to S(-).
“This indicates that the Adaptee’s Adaptability Rank now has the potential to improve further,” the system explained directly, without trying to be mysterious.
That sounded like a good thing, so Luo Guang did not dwell on it any further.
Still talking with the system, he got up and walked into the bathroom.
There was no hot water.
The icy cold stream washed over his body.
Luo Guang looked himself up and down, then touched the bicep on his arm.
His muscles felt more defined.
He threw a punch at empty air and immediately felt that it carried far more force than before.
Can I punch a little zombie’s head off now?
Luo Guang wondered.
His stats had clearly reached the peak of human limits, but the increase in strength did not feel all that dramatic.
“Not yet.
Although the Adaptee’s attributes such as Strength have already reached the human limit, the Adaptee’s body has not yet fully adjusted to the mutated power,” the system replied.
“Oh.
So right now I can only actually use the values inside the parentheses, right?” Luo Guang turned back to check his attribute panel and immediately understood.
“Yes.
In order to protect the Adaptee, the system has prepared an adaptation process.
This process is not long.
Based on current environmental estimates, it will take only three to four hours.”
“All right.” Luo Guang did not ask the system to cancel the process.
Asking if he could punch a zombie’s head off had only been a joke anyway.
He reached up and touched his right arm.
The scars on it had already disappeared without a trace.
If the system had not informed him that he had evolved a form of rapid healing that consumed energy when activated, Luo Guang might have started believing he had never been injured at all—that everything before had just been a nightmare he had while passed out on the sofa.
But thinking about how much energy that rapid healing would consume, Luo Guang suddenly felt hungry.
In the bathroom mirror, his overall appearance had not changed much.
At the very least, he could not tell that he had grown taller, and his hair was still there—not like certain other bio-weapons, such as Tyrants, going bald.
Nor had he grown any extra body parts or lost any, which made him let out a breath of relief.
Thankfully, when setting up the system earlier, he had chosen the option that evolution must preserve a humanoid form.
After all, he still had to live in human society later.
If merging with the T-Virus had made him stop looking human, that would have been a huge problem.
As for possible viral detectors in the future, the system stated that the T-Virus inside Luo Guang had already been altered into something different from its previous form, allowing him to evade viral detection.
After washing the black grime from his body and drying off, Luo Guang dressed himself in his gear once more.
The only difference was that the partially loaded Glock 17 was now relegated to backup weapon status.
His main weapon became the first gun he had acquired after transmigrating here—the Beretta M92F.
Once fully equipped again, Luo Guang wolfed down instant food, then checked the time on his watch.
It was already around three in the morning on September 29.
There were roughly two days—or less than two days—left before Raccoon City was destroyed.
Not much time remained, and there was no telling what the situation at the subway station looked like now.
Luo Guang did not simply assume that Jill would definitely succeed just because this world resembled the game.
On top of that, going back to the subway station now and running into Jill face-to-face would only make things awkward.
He had not even figured out what explanation he would give.
So, for the time being, he had no intention of heading back there to check the situation.
He had already told that kid Carlos about Nemesis targeting Jill.
Whether Carlos had passed that information on to Jill or not, he did not know.
But if he had, then Jill would probably choose another escape route rather than ride together with a group of civilians.
Luo Guang opened another can of tomato soup and began drinking it.
Then that would leave only a few possible ways out: a helicopter belonging to who-knows-which side, the underground train in Umbrella’s secret research facility, or perhaps…
he could use Umbrella’s own channels and ride one of Umbrella’s helicopters out?
Luo Guang thought as he opened yet another can, this one sardines.
Looking at the sardines’ blank white eyes, he took a huge bite.
Then Luo Guang made up his mind.
He would head to the police station first and try his luck there.
That place should have information about official evacuation points.
It’s not really mandatory—I’ll eventually upload all the chapters here—but it helps a lot in supporting me and allows me to dedicate more time to it.