Luo Guang did not rush inside.
Instead, he first looked around the area, trying to gather more information.
There were no splashes of blood or corpses on the roads or walls nearby, nor were there shell casings scattered on the ground.
At least on the surface, it did not look like any fighting had happened at the entrance.
From this, Luo Guang inferred that after the disaster broke out, no one had come here to hide from zombies.
Or, more conservatively, this place had not yet been attacked by zombies.
But that was only the situation outside.
It was entirely possible that the inside of the R.P.D.
Youth Activity Center had already turned into a living hell.
So Luo Guang did not lower his guard so easily.
If anything, he became even more cautious as he tried pushing the front doors open.
As expected, they would not budge.
The doors were locked tight.
At that moment, Luo Guang thought of the key he had picked up earlier.
Figuring there was no harm in trying, he switched the weapons in his hands again.
With the middle, ring, and little fingers of his left hand hooked around the telescopic dagger, he used his index finger and thumb to insert the key into the lock.
The size fit, but Luo Guang did not turn it right away.
Keeping the pistol in his right hand close to his waist, he eased a little away from the door, turned his body about thirty degrees to the right, and angled the gun so that its muzzle would cover the gap the moment the door opened.
This was not something the system had taught him.
Luo Guang had picked it up from movies.
After watching those films, he had even gone and checked whether the move was actually real and practical.
Keeping the pistol tucked close to the waist was to prevent it from being grabbed if it was extended too far out.
At close range, a pistol held tight to the waist could still stay stable and deliver enough stopping power against a nearby target.
Because the pistol was held at his waist, what Luo Guang was guarding against here was not zombies, but humans.
So there was no need to aim for the head.
Only after he had finished preparing did Luo Guang slowly turn the key.
With a click, the lock gave way.
He did not push the doors open immediately.
First, Luo Guang listened carefully.
After confirming that there were no sounds coming from behind the door or nearby, he gently pushed open the front doors of the R.P.D.
Youth Activity Center.
Inside the building, it was just as quiet.
The only sound was the creak of the doors being pushed open.
Luo Guang still did not rush in.
Instead, he used the widening field of view exposed by the opening doors to aim his pistol ahead.
Probably people inside.
No zombies.
That was the conclusion Luo Guang drew from what he saw.
The interior was brightly lit, which meant someone had definitely come through and turned the lights on.
That person might still be hiding somewhere inside the building.
And the fact that they had not turned the lights off while hiding meant that, compared to zombies, humans needed sufficient light more.
In other words, the lights were only meant to guard against zombies.
Otherwise, if a pitch-black place suddenly lit up, it could distract a person instantly and leave them unable to react to an attack in time.
At the same time, as Luo Guang scanned the inside, he saw no signs of fighting here either, just like outside.
For now, he could tentatively conclude that this place had not been ravaged by zombies yet.
The lobby is basically safe.
Luo Guang did not relax.
He quickly slipped inside, spun his body one hundred and eighty degrees, and aimed his pistol behind the door.
Safe.
Only after confirming it was safe did Luo Guang pull the key out, slip fully into the building, and shut the door behind him.
Because he had developed good habits, Luo Guang instinctively locked the front door again.
By the time he reached the front desk in the lobby of the R.P.D.
Youth Activity Center and began scanning the countertop for a map or any other useful supplies, he suddenly heard a noise—a sound like glass shattering.
Luo Guang immediately became alert.
This was not an apocalyptic world.
Human morality had not completely collapsed yet.
But people could still be good or bad, and in Raccoon City right now, who could say zombies were definitely more terrifying than humans?
After all, this biohazard had been caused by human hands.
Having been thoroughly educated by games, movies, and novels, Luo Guang naturally knew the lesson well.
At this moment, he did not feel even the slightest excitement over the possibility of meeting other survivors.
Come to think of it, it would be better to run into the protagonist group.
At least most of them were upright, heroic types.
Thinking that, Luo Guang pointed his gun toward the direction the sound had come from and listened carefully, staying on guard.
The lobby fell quiet again.
Luo Guang held steady.
He did not casually assume that a rat had knocked over a glass or something.
To be honest, unless a rat was running around in utter panic, he had not seen many cases in his whole life of rats actually knocking things over.
And in a moment like this, for that to happen by sheer coincidence was just a bit too perfect.
So Luo Guang was not about to lower his guard.
The other party had already made a sound and lost the initiative, but Luo Guang was unfamiliar with the building.
So he chose a corner position, hid behind a pillar, and exposed only half his body while aiming at the corridor the sound had come from.
Perhaps the silence after exposing themselves had made the other party uneasy, because they were the first to lose patience.
Before long, Luo Guang heard the sound of a door opening, followed by a voice.
“Frank?”
The voice was a bit far away, and Luo Guang could not hear it very clearly.
He could not tell whether it was male or female, only barely making out a person’s name.
Frank?
Luo Guang thought of the half-body corpse.
That body had been holding the key to this place, so there was indeed a good chance the dead man had known whoever was inside and had left here looking for help—or for some other reason—only to lose his life in the end.
After thinking it over, the situation did not seem particularly malicious.
If anything, the other party had been on the defensive all along.
So Luo Guang advanced slowly, keeping his gun trained on the corridor where the voice had come from.
“Anyone here?” Luo Guang called out.
He did not want someone to mistake him for a zombie and shoot him dead on sight.
The other person did not respond immediately.
Their first reaction was to shut the door again.
“Who is it?”
The voice was even less clear through the door.
Fortunately, Luo Guang had already moved into the corridor by then, otherwise he might not have caught it.
“A survivor.”
Luo Guang felt there was no identity more appropriate than that one right now.
The other person’s situation was probably the same as his.
Saying that would make them feel that Luo Guang stood on the same side as they did, which would help close the distance between them more effectively.
“How do you have the key to this place?”
The other person was still questioning him.
Probably because they were inside the room and worried Luo Guang might not hear, they raised their voice a little.
But the room seemed to be fairly soundproof.
Judging by how faint it still sounded to Luo Guang outside, he still had to listen carefully to catch it.
Without realizing it, Luo Guang had already made his way to the side of the door where the other person was hiding.
When they spoke again, it let him pinpoint the room at once.
“There was an injured police officer who died.”
To make the other person feel that he had not gotten too close, Luo Guang lowered his voice slightly when he answered.
Before he had even finished speaking, the other person flung open the door.
The moment they came out, they ran straight into Luo Guang, who had been waiting there like a hunter for prey.
Luo Guang reacted fast, and as if by coincidence, struck the other person’s right wrist with his hand, knocking the pistol from their grip and sending it clattering to the floor.
He did not bend down to pick up their gun and point it at them.
Instead, he remained standing, his own pistol held in a way that casually—but unmistakably—covered them.
Apparently having bumped their head, the other person was now kneeling on the ground, one hand on their head and the other braced against the floor.
Their face was tense as they looked up at Luo Guang.
Their gaze flicked to the pistol pointed at them, and they instinctively started to raise their own gun—only to realize their hand was empty.
“Did you know that dead officer?”
Seeing the tension and fear on the other person’s face, Luo Guang knew he had already intimidated them.
But he did not press the advantage with threats.
They were not really enemies right now.
So instead, he brought up the thing they were most likely to care about first and asked.
At his question, a flash of urgency and grief passed across the tense face of the other party.
“He was my brother.”
“My condolences.
And please understand my caution.”
Luo Guang lowered his weapon.
Since the other person did not seem malicious and posed no threat, he bent down and picked up their pistol, but he still did not offer them a hand up.
Their eyes flicked toward the gun, and just as they were about to say something, Luo Guang spoke first.
“This is your brother’s gun, isn’t it?”
After picking it up, he took a closer look.
The model was similar to his own.
According to the system, it was a Beretta 92FS, an improved version of the M92F Luo Guang had.
There were initials engraved on the gun—”F.K.” Coupled with the other person’s connection to the police, Luo Guang guessed it had been a weapon her brother had given her for self-defense.
Sure, it was possible she was lying.
But Luo Guang remembered that the first thing she had said had been “Frank.” At that point, Luo Guang had not spoken yet, so there was no point performing for zombies.
If anything, that would only attract them while exposing her own position.
And then there was the way she had rushed out defenselessly the moment she heard that an officer had been injured, which further dispelled Luo Guang’s suspicion.
“Yes,” she replied carefully.
Luo Guang looked at her, thought for a moment, then switched on the safety and handed the gun back.
Perhaps because of the blow of losing a family member, grief still lingered on her face.
When she took the gun from Luo Guang, she did so with extreme care, then hugged it to her chest.
If that was an act, then she deserves an award.
That was what Luo Guang thought, though he kept his own gun ready in hand while saying aloud, “My name is Luo Guang.
I came here looking for a map of Raccoon City and any other useful supplies.”
“My name is Lin.”
After giving her name, she held her brother’s pistol tighter and then asked, “Did my brother say anything at the end?
How was he hurt?”
“I don’t know how he was injured.”
Luo Guang paused, as though recalling the scene.
But in the end, he felt it would be better not to tell her the condition her brother’s body had been in, so he continued, “At the end, he was trembling as he handed me the key.
He only mentioned the youth center, and then…
that was it.”
“Is that so…”
Lin was not questioning him.
Nor was she doubting his story.
She had simply fallen back into memories of her brother, and tears welled up in her eyes again.
“Are you the only one here?”
Luo Guang frowned slightly.
If the girl in front of him could not pull herself together, that would be fatal in this hell.
“Yes.
Not long after those monsters started appearing in large numbers, my brother brought me here.
After that, he went out to look for help…”
She did not finish.
Her voice caught in her throat.
“Is there a map of Raccoon City here?”
Luo Guang did not try to comfort her immediately.
Lin nodded and told him where the map was.
Looking at the girl who was still sniffling, Luo Guang sighed and offered a word of encouragement.
“Your brother left to protect you.
You should live well.
That’s the only way you won’t be letting him down.”
Luo Guang did not turn his back on Lin.
Instead, he faced her and backed away slowly.
The map was in a drawer beneath the front desk.
That made Lin recall how her brother had looked at her the same way when he left to search for help—reluctant, worried for her, and slowly walking away in the end.
Lin knew in her heart that Luo Guang was not her brother.
But her feet still began moving on their own, and the words she had not managed to say when her brother left came spilling out of her mouth:
“Don’t leave me behind.”
Hearing that, Luo Guang stopped and nodded, signaling for her to follow.
The two of them walked back to the front desk side by side.
Before Luo Guang could say anything, Lin opened the drawer on the right side of the desk and took out the map inside.
The map was still quite new.
Under the light, Luo Guang immediately found the routes leading out of the city.
Seeing where Luo Guang’s finger had landed, Lin asked, “Luo, are you trying to find a way out of Raccoon City?”
“Yes.”
Luo Guang did not deny it.
If she had the same idea as him, that would be even better.
It would mean they now shared common interests.
Between a strange man and woman, love at first sight was nowhere near as reliable as mutual interests.
“The highway and the regular roads between cities are either jammed with cars or sealed off by the lockdown.
At first, my brother planned to take me out of Raccoon City first, then come back here to help…”
Lin did not finish the sentence, but Luo Guang understood what she meant.
The two of them must have been forced to return to Raccoon City and hide here while seeking help.
Catching one word in what Lin had said, Luo Guang asked, “Lockdown?
The military?”
After wiping away her tears, Lin answered, “Probably the National Guard.
The orders they received from the military were to contain the scale of the disaster and wait for the regular army to arrive.
Because they didn’t know how those monsters had appeared, the National Guard didn’t dare let us leave.
They told us to go back home for the time being and wait for the situation to calm down.
“Later, after the city council gave a public statement, they went silent.
That’s why my brother started thinking about whether he could get us out through police channels.”
“So that leaves rail or air…” Luo Guang murmured, immediately discarding the idea of escaping on foot or by bicycle.
He did not know Resident Evil’s plot by heart, but he remembered enough.
The main cast basically escaped by those two methods.
Didn’t that center-part guy and the college girl drive into Raccoon City?
Someone might say that.
But that was using roads that led into the city.
The two of them got in during a gap in the military cordon.
What Luo Guang and Lin needed was to get out of Raccoon City.
Finding a car and trying to drive against the blocked flow would probably mean not even making it out of the city limits.
Luo Guang also had no desire to gamble on whether he would find a usable vehicle after somehow reaching the outskirts.
“The subway has a direct route out,” Lin said from beside him.
Yeah…
but that train is a death train.
That was what Luo Guang thought, though he could hardly say it out loud.
Still, he understood that the reason that subway train ended up destroyed was because it carried Jill—the one Nemesis was pursuing.
So what if Jill never boarded it in the end?
Suddenly, Luo Guang wanted to see just how great a storm his tiny butterfly wings could stir up in this Raccoon City.
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.