“There’s a very high chance of it.
But one thing is certain: we can still get out of Raccoon City right now.” Luo Guang cut Jill off and continued, “No matter what, you have to leave Raccoon City on September 30, Jill.”
The actual launch time of the nuclear missile was 7:00 a.m.
on October 1, but when Luo Guang told Jill, he deliberately moved the deadline forward.
The whole point was to make sure she left as early as possible.
“September 30…” Though she had no idea why Luo Guang was imposing that specific deadline, Jill repeated it under her breath and committed it to memory.
“That’s the real reason behind everything I’ve been doing.
Just to stay alive.
If it weren’t for your rescue signal, Jill, Marvin and the others and I would’ve left Raccoon City already.
We’d probably be drinking hot cocoa by now.”
Luo Guang launched a small counterattack of his own.
“I…
At the time, I thought I’d already blown Nemesis to pieces with explosives.” Jill stumbled over her words for a moment before finally managing that explanation.
It was true.
If she had not called for rescue, the helicopter Luo Guang and the others were on would never have been brought down by Nemesis.
Looking at the result alone, she really had dragged Luo Guang and the others into danger.
From one angle, that helicopter pilot—whom she had never even met—had died indirectly because of her.
Because Carlos had told Jill that Nemesis’s targets were Brad and herself, the last two S.T.A.R.S.
members still left in Raccoon City, Jill had ultimately chosen not to board the subway train with the other civilians.
Before the train departed, the injured Captain Viktor had handed her a bundle of remote explosives.
Not long after the train left, Jill ran into Nemesis again and successfully used those explosives to blow it into a paralyzed state.
And because of Luo Guang’s influence, Jill had even gone so far as to put a few follow-up rounds into Nemesis’s head.
Only after confirming that it showed no reaction despite being hit in the vital area did she head to the evacuation point at the clock tower plaza.
She had just never expected that the rescue call had barely gone out before Nemesis recovered that quickly, transformed into that hideous monster, and came after her again.
“In any case, finding that professor is only a side objective.
And since Raccoon City is surrounded by mountains on three sides, almost any helicopter rescue still active now will have to pass through that area.” Luo Guang looked at Jill, still bent over him with both hands on his shoulders, and continued, “Worst case, we can still find a car and take the main road out of Raccoon City.”
Raccoon University happened to sit near the main transport route connecting Raccoon City to the outside world.
“Is it really only a side objective?” Jill kept her posture and asked.
“Yes.
After all, the intelligence I received is already outdated.
But no matter what, the vaccine absolutely cannot fall back into Umbrella’s hands.
Otherwise, these biohazards will never stop.”
Every time Luo Guang spoke, he kept his eyes fixed on Jill’s.
“Even without the vaccine, biohazards will probably become the new normal in this world anyway,” he thought to himself, even as he said the opposite out loud.
Seeing that Luo Guang’s gaze seemed to waver ever so slightly, Jill looked down, coughed once, then turned around and sat beside him instead, leaning back until she was lying on the bed.
“I understand.
And I’m willing to believe you.
But what about the vaccine at Raccoon General Hospital?
Even if that information is outdated too, we can’t just ignore it, can we?”
Thinking back to what Luo Guang had said—two different researchers, two different vaccines, both of them no longer wanting to work for Umbrella—Jill scratched her head and could not help thinking that Umbrella really did seem to produce an astonishing number of traitors.
As she thought that, she glanced toward Luo Guang’s back.
“There’s only one of me.” Luo Guang shrugged, stretched lazily, and then lay down on the bed as well.
Turning his head toward Jill, he said, “Escaping is still our top priority.
And if both sides end up with a vaccine, then Umbrella won’t be able to monopolize it.
If the government gets hold of that technology, I think most people would rather take a government vaccine than buy one from Umbrella.”
“No.”
Jill rejected the idea immediately.
Luo Guang was not a pureborn American, so he could not understand government corruption in the same instinctive way Jill did.
So in Jill’s eyes, that was nowhere near safe enough.
She knew exactly what the U.S.
government was like.
To her, the only truly safe outcome was for Umbrella not to get a single vaccine at all—and for Umbrella, the leader in bio-weapons research, to be brought down completely.
“Jill…
you’re not planning to go to the hospital…” The moment Jill rejected his reasoning that firmly, Luo Guang immediately guessed what she intended.
“Yes.
You’ll be the one taking Marvin and the others to Raccoon University.”
Jill did not hide it.
She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again and met Luo Guang’s stare directly.
“You handle that side.
I’ll deal with the hospital.”
Luo Guang knew there was no talking Jill out of it.
She was the kind of person who was fiercely independent and stubbornly strong.
Once she decided something, she would carry it through without wavering.
Was Umbrella’s Luo Guang perhaps conquered by exactly this sort of unyielding strength while he was monitoring Jill?
The question flickered briefly through Luo Guang’s mind.
Instead of trying to stop her, Luo Guang actually chose to support the plan the moment she voiced it.
“Carlos is someone you can win over.”
“Carlos?” Jill looked puzzled.
Hearing Carlos’s name come so suddenly from Luo Guang’s mouth caught her off guard.
“He only joined U.B.C.S.
not long ago.
He takes pride in U.B.C.S.’s mission of rescuing civilians, sure, but he doesn’t have much loyalty to U.B.C.S….
no, to Umbrella itself.” This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Luo Guang searched his memory as he spoke.
“He’s an Umbrella mercenary, but Umbrella doesn’t hold any leverage over him personally.
He’s just using his skills to make a living as a hired gun.
So he’s worth trying.”
“But how do I win him over?” Jill was not particularly good at this kind of verbal maneuvering.
“Carlos may be a bit flippant, but he’s still hot-blooded, and he’s got a solid sense of justice.
As long as he starts digging into the vaccine issue, he’ll eventually see Umbrella’s ugliness for himself.
“And if he somehow doesn’t find enough…” Luo Guang pulled open his backpack and handed Jill a notebook.
Not the “stalking diary.”
This one was Nikolai’s “data log.”
“You found this on that bastard?” Jill had not seen Luo Guang take the notebook off Nikolai at all.
She glanced at the name on the cover and asked the question sharply.
Luo Guang nodded, which immediately earned him another burst of Jill’s displeasure.
“You were hiding this from me too.”
Jill snatched the notebook right out of his hand and gave him an annoyed look.
“That’s slander.
I found it right after you grabbed my grenade, then happily played with it for a bit before hanging it on your belt.” Luo Guang protested loudly, pointing out exactly what Jill had been doing at the time.
“Doesn’t matter.” Jill made it clear that she would not accept any rebuttal.
With a swing of both legs and a twist of the waist, she sat up and opened Nikolai’s notebook.
“The combat data in here is on the Tyrant T-103…
and the opponents were U.B.C.S.
Beta Team?” Jill sounded puzzled.
Luo Guang had only skimmed the first page himself.
Hearing Jill’s question, he sat up too, leaned over to look, then shifted back a little before answering, “I only read the first page.
What you’re looking at now is probably combat data from a battle between a mass-produced Tyrant and a U.B.C.S.
squad.
That alone should be enough to let Carlos understand that Umbrella never saw those mercenaries as anything but disposable cannon fodder.
And it also gives you a way to expose some of the things Nikolai did.”
Luo Guang had not expected that, after all the changes this world had gone through, Jill would still end up moving along such a similar path to the game’s route.
The process had changed enormously, but in the end she was still headed for Raccoon General Hospital—only in this world Carlos was not carrying her in.
With Nikolai, the nuisance constantly scheming in the shadows, now gone, Jill’s overall difficulty curve would probably drop quite a bit.
That was what Luo Guang thought as he watched her.
“It really is just like you said…
But have those difficult Tyrants already been mass-produced…?”
The monster she herself had struggled so hard against had apparently already entered mass production.
Jill frowned, and the overall situation looked even grimmer to her now.
All it did was harden her resolve to expose Umbrella’s ugliness to the world.
Unfortunately, Jill still had no clear idea how to do that.
She had no media power, no public voice.
Even if she dumped these materials into the open right now, they would not accomplish anything.
This was not her area of strength.
She closed the notebook, let out an irritated sound, and flopped back onto the bed with her eyes shut, feeling only frustration and the sheer difficulty of it all.
“Jill, all fear comes from insufficient firepower.”
Luo Guang offered her that classic line.
Jill froze for a second after hearing it.
Then she thought back to the countless times she had escaped Nemesis’s pursuit and gave a slow nod.
On this point, she truly did understand from personal experience.
Luo Guang lay back down beside her, closed his own eyes, and relaxed.
Then he continued, “One more thing.
If there really is no rescue to be found, try contacting your former S.T.A.R.S.
teammate—Barry Burton.”
“Barry Burton?
Didn’t he already leave Raccoon City to get his wife and kids settled in Canada?”
By now Jill was almost numb from the constant flood of things Luo Guang knew.
One piece of information after another kept hitting her.
Back when he was facing Nikolai, she had assumed the whole talk about an intelligence network was nothing but bait to deceive him.
But now she could not help starting to think that maybe some of what Luo Guang had said back then had actually been true.
“He’s your old teammate.
If Barry knows you’re still in Raccoon City, and he learns a biohazard has broken out here…”
“He’ll definitely come get me out,” Jill finished for him, while silently adding in her heart, “and Brad too.”
“Exactly.
So get some sleep while you can.
What comes next is going to be rough.”
Luo Guang paused a little in his talking, giving Jill time to process the information, and only then finished the thought.
“…”
But Jill did not answer.
Luo Guang turned his head and found that, at some point, the strong-willed woman beside him had fallen asleep.
Seeing that the tightness in Jill’s brow had finally eased, Luo Guang reached out and gently brushed a stray strand of hair away from her face.
…
“I didn’t know you had this kind of skill, Marvin.”
Luo Guang left the bedroom, giving the quiet room back to Jill, and as he ate the food Marvin had prepared, he commented on it.
“I only know how to make curry.” Marvin looked a little embarrassed.
He was now sitting in a chair in the living room, eating the meal Marvin had cooked.
“How are your injuries?” Luo Guang asked Elliot and David.
“I’m all right.
Elliot’s arm, though—he can’t put any strength into it.” David answered for both of them.
“Good enough, then.” Luo Guang nodded, then turned to Marvin.
“What about you?
Earlier it looked like your chest was hurting.”
“Looks like it’s fine now.
Even pressing on it lightly doesn’t hurt anymore.
Just some bruising.” Marvin twirled some curry spaghetti around with his fork, answered Luo Guang, and only then lifted the pasta to his mouth and chewed slowly.
“That’s good.”
Luo Guang nodded and took a bite of the curried beef.
“What did Jill talk to you about?”
It was not only Marvin who was curious.
The others were watching Luo Guang too.
As for suspecting he and Jill had gone into the bedroom to do something secret and scandalous—Marvin and the others were not so oblivious that they could not tell from the lack of any suspicious sounds what had really happened.
“Jill plans to go to Raccoon General Hospital and secure the other vaccine, or the formula for it.”
Luo Guang did not hide that.
In any case, the others would know once it was time to move.
“By herself?” Marvin clearly did not think Jill going alone was a good idea.
“There are U.B.C.S.
people pursuing the same objective.
They can work together.” Luo Guang explained.
“U.B.C.S.?
But that’s Umbrella’s force, isn’t it?”
Marvin knew U.B.C.S.
and had cooperated with them before, so he had once had a pretty good impression of them.
But after learning some of Umbrella’s darker truths from Luo Guang, Marvin no longer trusted Umbrella—or the U.B.C.S.
units under its command.
Then he continued:
“Luo…
you’re not going with Jill?”
“I have to take you all to Raccoon University.” Luo Guang gave his reason directly.
“I’m the only one here still operating at one hundred percent combat effectiveness.”
“My injuries aren’t that serious,” Marvin shot back.
“We’re still police officers.
How can we let a civilian protect us?”
“But you are injured.
If it were only bruising, that’d be one thing—but right now I’m worried about internal damage.”
This was one thing Luo Guang really would not compromise on, and his voice rose noticeably.
“That kind of thing could cost you your life, Marvin.
And Jill’s technically a civilian too now, but she still didn’t hesitate to go do what she thinks is right.”
A strange irritation was building inside Luo Guang.
He wanted to get out of Raccoon City as fast as possible.
Yet some voice inside him kept insisting that he wanted to go with Jill to Raccoon General Hospital.
Taking a deep breath, Luo Guang calmed himself a little, then said, “I trust Jill’s abilities.
And there are still people worth trying to win over among the U.B.C.S.
group.
I’ve already given Jill all the intelligence I could.”
Hearing that, and remembering again that Luo Guang was an Umbrella intelligence agent, Marvin assumed that Luo Guang had also planted people inside U.B.C.S.
That was enough for him to nod.
“My injuries really aren’t that bad.
As long as I’m careful, I’ll be fine.”
Just as both Luo Guang and Marvin fell silent, David spoke up.
Luo Guang looked at him, but said nothing.
David saw the distrust in Luo Guang’s eyes, and he knew he deserved it.
But perhaps because Brad’s story had affected him, David genuinely did want to change that cowardice in himself and become the kind of upright officer willing to carry responsibility.
“…What I’m worried about is you running into something like a Tyrant,” Luo Guang thought.
“I may not have the firepower to kill a Tyrant myself, but I can still kite one around.
At the very least, if I lure one away, I can probably come back alive.
Marvin and the others?
That’s a lot less certain.”
“David, it’s good that you’ve finally found the courage to face fear.
I’m not saying that to tear you down.
Against ordinary zombies, fine.
But if it’s something like a Licker—or something even worse—then bravery by itself won’t do a damn thing.”
So as not to crush David’s budding resolve, Luo Guang chose to say plainly that what he lacked faith in was David’s combat ability, not his courage.
David was at least self-aware enough to glance down at the belly he had grown from years of office work and nod in defeat.
Still, hearing that Luo Guang’s concern was not about him running away again made him unexpectedly happy.
“Damn it.”
At the side, Elliot—still injured—could only shovel another furious bite of food into his mouth, venting his frustration that way.
“Everyone, I’ve thought of a plan.”
Luo Guang finished eating, put his spoon down, and, without any warning at all, suddenly addressed Marvin and the other two.
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.