Following Jill, who clearly knew the terrain and routes by heart, Luo Guang finally ran out of the maze-like alleys.
Outside the alley, the scene was already straight out of hell.
Zombies wandered through that living inferno in groups of three or five, tracking the scent of food before swarming over it and devouring it to the last scrap.
Just as Luo Guang had expected, Jill was extremely experienced when it came to dealing with zombies.
In only a few seconds, Jill had already figured out that they could sneak through.
They only needed to quietly deal with the few zombies blocking the necessary path.
So, without alerting the others, Jill borrowed Luo Guang’s telescopic dagger and, following the route she mapped out in her head, led Luo Guang along while taking down the zombies blocking their way one by one.
When Jill first asked Luo Guang to lend her a weapon, what she had actually wanted to borrow was his fire axe.
But Luo Guang, perhaps because he had some kind of fixed impression from the Resident Evil games, instinctively handed her his telescopic dagger instead and said, “This one’s more suitable.”
Jill took the dagger, snapped the blade out, and after confirming it was not some street punk’s toy, nodded at Luo Guang and said, “Yeah.
This weapon suits our current situation better.”
What Luo Guang had meant was that it suited Jill, while Jill had clearly misunderstood what he meant.
What Jill meant was that, since the zombies had not noticed the two of them yet, a dagger—which saved effort, struck quickly, and could be used for stabbing—was indeed better than a fire axe that could only really be used for chopping.
Seeing Luo Guang looking like someone experiencing a biohazard incident for the first time, Jill could not help recalling that she had once looked much the same when she first ran into one herself.
But Luo Guang’s grasp of the finer details was actually pretty good.
Sure enough, most people who had survived until now had not done so on luck alone.
With that thought, Jill began teaching Luo Guang some practical knowledge on how to deal with zombies.
“Luo, stay behind me in a bit.
Watch your step, stay quiet, and pay attention to how I handle these zombies.”
Luo Guang nodded in response, thinking, “So Jill’s doing field instruction now?”
He was very interested in it.
After all, up until now, he only had theoretical knowledge.
Compared to Jill, who had fought bio-weapons with real blades and real bullets, he was still little more than a paper strategist.
For example, everyone knew a zombie’s head was its weak point.
But in reality, the skull—already one of the hardest parts of the human body—still provided substantial protection to a zombie’s brain in the early stages of mutation.
After infection with the T-Virus, that skull would only become even harder.
Never mind the cases of pistol rounds getting lodged in skulls; blindly hacking and stabbing with a small knife would only make someone miss their best chance to kill a zombie.
So Luo Guang put aside his other thoughts and followed behind Jill, seriously learning from her.
Things like how to avoid wandering zombies and how to kill one in a single strike all gave him a great deal to think about.
After making it safely across two streets and one alley, Luo Guang and Jill arrived in a narrow side alley.
After examining the wall for a moment, Jill said to Luo Guang,
“This is a S.T.A.R.S.
safe house.”
After that, Jill pulled out one of the bricks embedded in the outer wall, took a key from inside, and opened a door hidden in the alley.
“Jill.”
The moment Jill and Luo Guang stepped inside, they heard a man’s voice.
Luo Guang gently shut the door and turned to look into the room.
A man in a yellow warning jacket was sitting on the sofa, with several handguns laid out on the table in front of him.
Luo Guang keenly noticed that the gun in the other man’s hand was faintly but unmistakably angled toward him.
Luo Guang, however, acted as though he had not noticed and very calmly tucked himself behind Jill.
“This is Brad Vickers,” Jill said, then introduced Luo Guang to Brad.
“And this is Luo Guang.”
“Jill.”
The man named Brad spoke again, but this time there was a trace of dissatisfaction in his tone, and the way he looked at Luo Guang carried open suspicion.
“Hello, Vickers.” Luo Guang, on the other hand, took the initiative to greet Brad.
Brad did not respond.
He merely turned away and continued fiddling with the guns on the table.
“Sorry.
Brad’s been through a lot lately, so he’s a little jumpy.
He’s S.T.A.R.S.
too, just like me.” Seeing that the two of them did not seem to be getting along, Jill quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
Jill had already mentioned her own identity before they entered the alley.
After all, the place she had brought Luo Guang to was a S.T.A.R.S.
safe house, so naturally she had to tell him first that she was with S.T.A.R.S.
“Former S.T.A.R.S.,” Brad corrected, sounding a little irritated, though the irritation in his voice seemed directed at someone who was not present.
Although the police station still retained a S.T.A.R.S.
office, after the Mansion Incident the entire S.T.A.R.S.
team had gone their separate ways.
On top of that, because the S.T.A.R.S.
members had disobeyed orders and continued investigating Umbrella Corporation, the police chief had ultimately disbanded the unit altogether.
Jill shrugged and said, “Now’s not the time to chat.
Did you get the weapons ready like we discussed?”
This S.T.A.R.S.
safe house had been set up under Brad’s direction after the Mansion Incident.
In Raccoon City, a place effectively “ruled” by Umbrella Corporation, putting together a safe house like this had already cost Brad over a month of effort.
To avoid alerting Umbrella, Brad had only been able to carefully evade the people watching him while buying weapons.
As a result, the weapons in this safe house were mostly small personal arms—handguns and melee weapons.
From where Luo Guang stood, he did not see any firearms other than pistols.
Brad lifted his chin toward the other side of the safe house.
Following the direction indicated by Brad’s chin, Jill saw a compact and delicate Glock 19, a Glock 18, and several fully loaded magazines laid out on a wooden table beside a dark green gun cabinet.
“Thanks,” Jill said casually, then walked straight over.
Those weapons were what Jill had told Brad to prepare, so she did not waste any thought on them.
She directly fastened a tactical belt around her waist, then slotted the weapons and ammunition from the table into place one by one, finally holstering the Glock 19 at her thigh.
“Luo, thanks for the knife.”
Jill handed back the telescopic dagger Luo Guang had lent her to clear the way.
“Don’t mention it, Jill.
I learned a lot just by following behind you,” Luo Guang replied quickly with a dismissive wave of his hand.
Jill understood that Luo Guang meant the techniques for killing zombies, and she could not help feeling a little impressed by his learning ability.
More than once, Jill had checked on Luo Guang out of the corner of her eye while he followed behind her.
It was obvious that his movements were still a little green, but at least in terms of stealth, he was already barely passable by her standards.
To avoid giving Brad any reason to suspect him and shoot him in the back, Luo Guang followed Jill over to the table.
After hearing Jill speak, Luo Guang set the fire axe aside, took the telescopic dagger back with both hands, slipped it into his pants pocket, and then heard Jill say, “There are still quite a few guns here.
Pick one.
Any experience using firearms?”
Luo Guang did not tell Jill that he already had a gun hidden on him.
He shook his head and said, “I don’t really know much about guns.”
“Jill, we’re short on time.”
Seeing Jill and Luo Guang seemingly about to get into a conversation, Brad immediately reminded them.
As he spoke, Brad strode directly between the two of them and said, “A gun’s a gun.
As long as it fires, it’ll do.”
As he said that, Brad looked Luo Guang up and down, paying special attention to the shape of his hands.
Seeing no calluses, he turned around, took a Glock 17 and several matching magazines from the gun rack, set them on the counter in front of Luo Guang, and said, “Use this one.
Easy to maintain, reliable quality, low malfunction rate.
Seventeen rounds a magazine, which is more than enough.
You know how to load mags?”
“I more or less know the theory, but I’ve never done it in practice.”
So Brad’s the cold-on-the-outside, warm-on-the-inside type, Luo Guang thought.
Then, to stay in character, he quickly admitted he had never actually loaded bullets before.
“…Sigh.”
Brad let out a sigh, pulled out several boxes of 9mm ammunition from beneath the gun counter, and while loading magazines, began teaching Luo Guang how to use the Glock 17.
Meanwhile, Jill glanced at Brad, smiled a little, then opened another cabinet beneath the counter.
After looking through it for a moment, she took out a short knife.
Who knew where Brad had gotten it from?
There were no visible brand markings on the blade, so even the system could not identify what manufacturer it came from through its database, naturally leaving it unable to provide any relevant specifications.
Jill had not specifically asked Brad to prepare knives for her.
These blades had been left there by Brad as backup, just in case, so they had not been placed openly on the table in front of her.
Close-quarters combat was not exactly Jill’s strongest area, so she had no particular preference in knives.
But after what they had just gone through on the way here, Jill still decided to bring one for melee combat.
It might not do much against Tyrant-type bio-weapons, but it would be perfectly good for bullying a few small zombies.
Fully geared up, Jill was just about to ask Brad a few questions when—
Thud…
Thud…
Thud…
A rhythmic, oppressive sound came from the direction of the door Luo Guang and Jill had entered through.
Luo Guang’s first reaction was that Nemesis had come after them.
At that moment, he had no time to care about anything else.
Using both hands, he snatched up the Glock 17 on the table in front of him—already loaded with a magazine—along with a box of 9mm rounds, then immediately sprang away from the direction of the entrance and hurriedly asked,
“Which one’s the back door?”
Besides the rusty blue iron door they had come through, there were also two other doors inside the room—one red and one black.
Neither had any label on it.
Luo Guang did not want to pick the wrong one, waste precious time, and then find out he had opened a bathroom door.
“The black one!” Brad had also heard the footsteps outside and naturally understood the identity of the unwelcome visitor.
He too had once been pursued by Nemesis.
After finally escaping the enemy, he had immediately found a way to contact Jill and have her meet him at this safe house so they could flee Raccoon City together.
Brad reacted quickly to Luo Guang’s behavior and shouted to both Jill and Luo Guang.
There was a trace of resolve in the eyes of Brad, who had once abandoned Jill and the others out of fear of zombies and fled in the helicopter alone.
“I made it once.
I can do it again this time,” Brad told himself inwardly.
Even with Jill added in, Brad still did not believe the weapons here were enough to take down Nemesis.
Just because Nemesis had a huge body did not mean it had lost its agility.
Brad had originally tried to escape Nemesis by running, but he had failed.
No matter how he ran, Nemesis would always find him again—and by then Brad still had not recovered the stamina he had lost.
In the end, Brad had erupted with an overwhelming will to survive, tangled with Nemesis, and finally used some explosives left behind by the police to blow it up and force it to temporarily cease moving.
There was still a little explosive left now, and what they were lacking was something with more stopping power, so Brad had brought the remaining explosives into the safe house.
So Brad was not recklessly planning to sacrifice himself just to delay the enemy.
As for the fact that Luo Guang was not Nemesis’s target, when faced with a bio-weapon he plainly had no way of dealing with, choosing to run was only natural.
So Brad did not blame Luo Guang at all for wanting to bolt.
That was just human nature.
As for why Luo Guang had reacted so quickly, Brad explained it to himself like this:
Since Luo Guang had been brought here by Jill, then Luo Guang had probably encountered a Tyrant before as well.
That would explain why a civilian like him had such a strong reaction the instant he heard those footsteps.
Jill, seeing that Brad—the same man who had abandoned everyone and fled during the Mansion Incident—was now thinking first of covering her and Luo Guang’s escape, parted her red lips slightly.
But in the end, she did not say anything.
Every second counted.
Jill turned her head sharply and was about to leave the safe house together with Luo Guang.
The moment Luo Guang heard Brad, he dashed straight for the black door.
Planting his left hand, he vaulted over the sofa, skimmed across the smooth tabletop, then rolled on the ground to shed momentum before reaching the black door in no time.
To keep from getting killed the moment he opened it, Luo Guang threw the door open with force, sent the gun out first to aim, then only stuck his head out afterward, quickly checking left and right to confirm whether any zombies were waiting in ambush.
“Clear.”
After confirming it was safe, Luo Guang immediately turned back to check the situation inside.
Brad let out a furious shout to draw Nemesis’s attention, then raised both guns without hesitation and continuously pulled the triggers.
Since the mission target was obligingly rushing to die, Nemesis naturally would not let the S.T.A.R.S.
member in front of it go.
Shielding the area around its eyes with its left hand and angling its right shoulder toward Brad, who had not fled, it strode forward into a charge.
Luo Guang did not linger.
After confirming that Nemesis had not put its focus on him and Jill, he immediately urged Jill to leave.
But after they had only gone a few steps away from the safe house, Jill suddenly said to Luo Guang,
“That Tyrant’s target is probably me.
If you stay with me, it’ll only get more dangerous.”
What Jill had originally wanted to ask Brad about was the Tyrant-type bio-weapon pursuing her.
Maybe it was only a woman’s intuition, but Jill felt that when the Tyrant crashed into the safe house, its eyes had landed on her almost instantly.
Most zombies moved slowly.
As long as one avoided their close-range lunges, they were not much of an issue compared to the threat posed by the Tyrant that had been tracking her all the way here.
Jill weighed it over again and again in her heart before finally taking the initiative to suggest they split up.
Luo Guang feigned ignorance of what a Tyrant really meant, but time was too tight, so he could only try to persuade her briefly.
“Tyrant?
But no matter what, moving together means we can at least watch each other’s backs.”
Jill had already made up her mind.
She shook her head and, in a few short sentences, explained her guess clearly.
She told Luo Guang to go to the police station for help, then turned around and ran back toward the safe house without even looking back.
Luo Guang’s free hand stretched out in the direction Jill had left.
“Wait—”
Before he could finish, a hoarse roar came from behind him.
Luo Guang did not hesitate for even an instant.
The moment he heard movement behind him, he drew the knife, thumbed the switch, and snapped the sharp blade out, turning to face the zombie shambling toward him on its underweight, half-ruined body.
Perhaps because Jill’s decision to run back and throw herself into danger had left him feeling slightly irritated.
Luo Guang rolled his wrist, strode quickly toward the zombie, closed the distance, then sidestepped to evade the lunge he had already anticipated.
Right in front of the zombie’s eye socket, waiting there in advance, was the telescopic dagger.
Drive it in.
Twist the wrist.
Then, with the pistol in his right hand, he gently shoved the zombie aside with the muzzle and smoothly pulled the dagger back out.
The zombie collapsed with a heavy thud, landing behind Luo Guang as he stepped out of the alley.
In the original Resident Evil 3, Brad did not really grow as a character the way he did in the remake—he was still that same coward.
But anyone who made it into S.T.A.R.S.
could not be all that bad to begin with, and after fleeing during the Mansion Incident, Brad still did come back and rescue his teammates, so this version chooses to follow the remake’s portrayal.
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.