Yes.
I can’t win.
That was Nemesis’s conclusion.
This was a sparring match, and the fact that his opponent had caught his punch one-handed proved that the other Tyrant’s strength and mobility were at least equal to his own—possibly greater.
That last exchange had only been a probe.
If Huo Xiu had used his full strength, Nemesis suspected his entire arm might have been torn off.
The battlefield was also a smooth, open testing floor.
Without ranged weapons or supporting B.O.W.s, Nemesis had no realistic path to victory.
More importantly, this was neither a fight to the death nor a mission he was required to complete.
There was no shame in conceding a meaningless battle when victory was impossible.
And so Nemesis surrendered.
“Sedation protocol will begin shortly.
Exit unlocked.
Please evacuate the chamber.” A mechanical voice filled the room.
Huo Xiu immediately moved through the exit, which sealed behind him.
Jets in the ceiling and walls flooded the chamber with anesthetic mist.
Nemesis collapsed soon afterward.
A team of staff members approached with extreme caution, lifted him as though they were handling fragile cargo, and transferred him into a dedicated stasis pod.
The anesthetic had been developed specifically to target the nervous system of the NE-α parasite.
Because the parasite had hijacked the nervous system of its T-103 host, it had actually made sedation easier.
Putting a Tyrant under was considerably more difficult than sedating the parasite controlling it.
Once the compound contacted the NE-α parasite, it suppressed the parasite’s nervous system and reset its active mission parameters—the biological equivalent of restoring factory settings.
It was a failsafe designed to keep the Nemesis-T Type from going berserk after completing an assignment.
The original proposal had called for injectable sedatives, but the risk was deemed unacceptable.
The method was changed to an aerosolized compound: Nemesis would be flooded with anesthetic mist, then placed inside a carefully regulated stasis pod and kept dormant.
The pod’s internal parameters were extremely stable.
Its shell had also been reinforced with as much shock absorption and vibration dampening as practical, yet violent impacts could still disturb the system and wake Nemesis prematurely.
Transporting him therefore required absurd levels of care—almost as though the eight-foot bioweapon were made of glass.
“So that’s it.” At some point, Huo Xiu had appeared on the observation platform.
The observers felt their stomachs tighten.
How long had it been since the door opened?
A few breaths?
His speed was even more alarming than Nemesis’s.
No wonder Nemesis had surrendered.
He must have recognized the gap between them.
Nemesis might have been capable of moving even faster, but none of the researchers wanted to find out.
If he truly went berserk, the anesthetic could no longer be relied upon to recover and reset him.
Under the combined influence of the NE-α parasite and the T-Virus, his body could mutate beyond operational limits and turn him into an unusable mass of B.O.W.
tissue.
“Yes.
You are free to leave.
Any expenses you incur will be covered by the company.” Christine was undoubtedly the most shaken person in the room.
Faced with a being like Huo Xiu, she did not dare play even the smallest game with him.
She could not bring herself to request something as seemingly harmless as a blood sample.
A self-aware B.O.W.
demanded the utmost caution, and Christine valued her life far too much to test his patience.
Huo Xiu’s body began to change again.
His skin brightened to its original blue, the claws retracted, the swollen musculature receded, and his height returned to roughly six feet.
Even the hair follicles that had been removed during Tyrant production regenerated across his scalp.
With actual hair, he looked considerably more human.
“Huh.
That actually worked.” Huo Xiu had tried it with the attitude of a man throwing one last treatment at a hopeless patient.
Reverting toward his first form had sounded almost impossible.
Hypnos cells only evolved toward superior traits—why would they willingly regress?
So he changed the premise.
Instead of shifting from “stronger” to “weaker,” he shifted his evolutionary priority from combat to camouflage.
Camouflage was an evolutionary advantage too; otherwise creatures like chameleons would never have survived.
To his surprise, the idea worked.
His claws became ordinary hands, his hair grew back, and apart from the color of his skin he looked almost completely normal.
That alone would make people far less likely to suspect what he really was.
Thanks to Nemesis’s lightning-fast surrender, the test ended quickly.
Huo Xiu even managed to freeload an employee meal at Laboratory Six before leaving.
No wonder so many people are willing to work for Umbrella.
This food is actually good.
The company had been founded by old-money aristocrats and was currently rolling in cash, and apparently it showed.
French cuisine certainly did not disappoint.
Huo Xiu had heard Umbrella even maintained a British branch.
Those poor employees.
Afternoon arrived soon enough.
Strangely, ever since acquiring a Tyrant’s physiology, Huo Xiu had barely felt fatigue at all and seemed to have little biological need for sleep.
He still enjoyed resting whenever possible, of course.
Lower activity meant lower energy consumption, allowing the Hypnos cells to retain more reserves.
He boarded another familiar helicopter, and the aircraft gradually lifted away from the pad before setting out across the Atlantic toward Colorado in the United States.
When Umbrella logos began appearing below, Raccoon City was already close.
Seeing it in person made it difficult to believe that only thirty years earlier it had been a modest second-tier town.
Under Umbrella’s investment, it had grown into a genuine city, with a level of industrial development that even Huo Xiu, judging by twenty-first-century standards, found impressive.
Mayor Michael Warren clearly had real ability—and Umbrella clearly had money to burn.
Much like Sheena Island, roughly half the city’s residents worked for Umbrella.
Even Raccoon’s largest hospital was named Spencer Memorial Hospital.
“Here will do.” Huo Xiu ultimately chose to disembark at Raccoon Zoo.
Fortunately, the grounds behind the zoo offered enough open space for a helicopter to land, which was one reason the zoo would later be designated as one of the military’s first evacuation points after the outbreak.
For now, however, Raccoon City was still intact, and the zoo was operating normally.
“Don’t miss it!
Raccoon Zoo’s two biggest stars—Oscar the elephant and Max the lion—together on one stage!
Max, his girlfriends, and Oscar will bring you the most spectacular dance show in the city!
And don’t forget the limited-edition animal-star toys, brought to you by a special collaboration between Toy Uncle and Raccoon Zoo!” The advertisement covered a nearby wall.
A comically oversized picture of Mr.
Charlie occupied the upper-right corner.
In the lower left stood Oscar, draped in colorful lights, beside Max surrounded by several lionesses.
The two were the zoo’s celebrity animals and enormous favorites among local children.
During holidays, Oscar was decorated in strings of lights and paraded through the zoo and along Ennerdale Street; on ordinary days, he performed dances inside the theater.
“I’ve still got plenty of time…
Might as well watch one of the zoo’s star-animal shows.” It’s not like I’ll get another chance.
In a few days, neither animal would be nearly this docile.
And since Umbrella was paying the bill, Huo Xiu saw no reason to restrain himself.
Raccoon City was not enormous, but its zoo was surprisingly complete, with rainforest and tropical exhibits as well.
The hornbills and crocodiles were still perfectly calm.
Even when Huo Xiu walked past, the birds merely remained perched quietly in the trees.
Students in Raccoon City were dismissed fairly early, especially children in elementary and middle school.
Plenty of younger kids—and others who had grown up watching the animal shows—headed straight to the zoo with their parents after class, gradually turning the place lively.
As the sun sank, lights of every color flickered on.
Spotlights illuminated the theater, and Oscar and Max made their grand entrance alongside the rhinoceros and lionesses, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
“All right…
next stop, Raccoon University.” The university possessed the equipment needed to synthesize a vaccine.
Professor Greg Mueller, who had defected from Umbrella after the Mansion Incident, was there as well.
The vaccine he developed—Daylight—would later prove to be one of the most effective countermeasures ever created against the T-Virus.
If Huo Xiu could collect the necessary materials in advance, then once the outbreak truly began, he might be able to bring Daylight into existence ahead of schedule.
Two days remained before the biohazard erupted.
Two days was enough time to accomplish a great deal.
First, Huo Xiu would tour the city and learn the terrain.
Once he understood Raccoon City properly, he could start making arrangements.
What happened over the next ten days would determine the city’s fate.