The iron gate slowly creaked open, revealing the main hall beyond.
Leon saw Marvin again, but things were not looking good.
“Oh… no.”
Marvin was clearly starting to turn, slumped in a chair and utterly exhausted.
Leon didn’t know what to do.
Alan Han placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t be sad, Leon.
You’ve already done everything you could.
Now our goal is to get out of here and not let Marvin down.”
Claire stepped forward as well.
“I’m really sorry, Leon… That officer must have meant a lot to you, right?”
Leon silently pulled out the dagger Marvin had given him.
Its blade still gleamed with a cold sheen.
Marvin must have taken great care of it.
(It loses durability after just a couple of swings… seriously, I can’t deal with that.)
“I will.
Han, Claire, we should go.
As for Marvin… let’s leave him here.
Hopefully, he’ll be better by the time we come back.”
“Let’s go.
I can’t wait to solve the puzzle.”
A sharper edge crept into Leon’s gaze.
The kid’s gotten fierce.
I’m actually getting emotional.
The three of them headed to the corridor on the other side of the first floor.
“It’s so quiet.”
“No, Leon.
Look closely.
It’s actually very lively.”
Claire glanced at the nearby windows.
Leon paused, steadied himself, and looked again.
Outside the doors and windows, zombies crowded restlessly, while wooden boards had been nailed across the openings.
“I saw those wooden boards with tape earlier and just stuck them up as I passed by.
Didn’t expect them to actually work.”
Alan Han replied with a hint of pride.
Watching the zombies outside, who couldn’t even push the boards loose, Alan Han felt a flicker of curiosity.
Is this some kind of game mechanic?
They moved quickly, avoiding drawing attention, and soon arrived at the records room they had visited before.
There was another door here, chained shut.
Alan Han cut through the chain with bolt cutters, then casually tossed them aside.
This was the last chained door in the game that needed them.
“Han, we found the Detonator components!”
Leon held up the part to show him before clipping it onto his belt.
“That’s not all.
There’s also a code here.
CAP.”
“But more importantly, it looks like we can go blow up the C4.”
“There’s actually C4 here?”
Claire looked surprised.
They opened a locked door nearby and stepped out.
Leon and Alan Han immediately recognized the area near the darkroom, with the stairs right beside it.
Leading Claire, who wasn’t familiar with the layout, the three hurried upstairs, kicking aside the legless zombie they had disabled earlier.
It howled hungrily, but that was its problem.
On the second floor, following Alan Han’s suggestion, they didn’t head straight to the third floor.
Instead, they continued exploring inward.
They opened a door, and a burst of steam rushed out.
“Feels like a sauna.”
Alan Han removed the valve he had been carrying, fitted it onto a nearby pipe, and turned it firmly to the right, shutting off the steam.
“Nice.
But that was a little too convenient, wasn’t it?”
Leon sounded pleased, but puzzled.
“You wouldn’t get it, Leon.
There’s a saying.
Better safe than sorry.”
“Yeah… I see what you mean.”
They stepped through the area that had just been cleared of steam and searched around, picking up handgun ammo and gunpowder.
There was also a locker with a combination lock.
The code was CAP, just like the one written on the whiteboard earlier.
Inside were shotgun shells.
They even found a small safe with a puzzle mechanism.
Leon tested it and realized that wherever a light lit up, he just needed to press the corresponding button.
It opened quickly.
Claire watched the whole process from the side.
So what exactly is this safe protecting?
Inside was a button, apparently for the Safety Deposit Room on the first floor.
After organizing their gear, the three opened the door leading to the second-floor corridor.
At first, everything seemed normal as they walked.
Then suddenly, a zombie’s howl echoed ahead.
Leon and Claire immediately raised their guns, but Alan Han pushed them down.
The next second, something dark red emerged from the shadows on the ceiling.
A long, thick tongue lashed downward, snatching up a zombie and dragging it back up into the darkness.
“What… is that thing?”
Leon stared at the creature as it revealed itself.
Alan Han looked at him with mild exasperation.
“Remember David’s note?
That’s a Licker.
We move like the old lady.
Got it?”
Leon nodded and said nothing more, following Alan Han into the room on the left.
Claire glanced up at the creature on the ceiling, curiosity flickering in her eyes, before quickly entering the room as well.
It was an office.
Leon looked at the emblem displayed in a large frame on the wall and silently read the letters.
S.T.A.R.S.
“Special Tactics and Rescue Squad?”
Claire walked over to the row of desks beside it.
Her gaze moved to the jacket hanging on the wall and the electric guitar leaning nearby.
“This is where my brother works.
Ha, found it.
My brother’s work journal.”
She brushed her hand over the jacket before rummaging through the desk.
So there are clues here about where he went.
Umbrella?
An Umbrella facility?
Looks like he went off on some dangerous mission on his own.
Just wait until I find him.
Chris: Sis, I didn’t do anything, I swear!
He actually went and did something dangerous without telling her.
Claire closed the notebook, determination settling in her eyes.
Fine.
Then I’ll do the same.
I’ll go find you.
Meanwhile, Leon found a battery in one of the office cubicles.
So this is Wesker’s office?
I remember there being something here…
Alan Han grinned mischievously as he opened the lower drawer of the desk.
Inside was a wooden box.
He opened it to reveal a scope for the Lightning Hawk.
He set it on the desk for now.
No need for it yet.
There was another drawer.
Alan Han opened it to find a roll of film inside, which he pocketed.
Leon installed the battery into the detonator.
It powered on, displaying 00:00.
After putting it away, Alan Han picked up a memo from the desk with a combination for a first-floor safe.
If I remember right, that should be a hip pouch.
Leon continued searching outside and even found more shotgun shells.
Claire picked up a flashbang from a box near the jacket.
There was also a computer terminal controlling the Safety Deposit Room.
Inside, a Lightning Hawk was displayed, and a letter rested on a nearby chair.
But it couldn’t be accessed yet.
It required a USB drive.
After finishing their search, the three quietly retraced their steps and headed up to the third floor.
At the C4-locked door, Leon took out the detonator and connected it.
“Ten seconds.
Han, Claire, get behind cover.
I don’t want to go flying like that time with the tanker.”
“Got it, sir.”
“Yeah, that one really hurt.”
Leon activated the detonator, and the three ducked behind a pillar.
When the countdown ended, the C4 detonated.
Flames burst outward, and the metal gate was blown apart, the steel bars twisted and warped.
Once the smoke cleared, they stepped out and cautiously approached the blasted doorway.
“That took some effort.
So… what’s this?”
Leon and Alan Han stared at the dial beneath the statue and fell silent.
“Did you remember it?
Or find it somewhere?”
“No.”
“Then… go look again?”
They looked at each other.
Clearly, both of them had forgotten about Officer Elliot’s notebook.
Claire: I’m starting to think these two are unreliable.
“Forget it.
Let’s brute force it.”
After a couple of minutes of trial and error, they actually got it right.
Woman.
Bow.
Snake.
The medallion on the statue loosened and dropped.
Both of them let out a breath.
Good thing we guessed it.
Otherwise, who knows where we’d have to look.
They picked up the medallion, pushed the fallen bookshelf back into place, and prepared to return to the main hall through the library.
As the shelf was set upright, a zombie hanging from above suddenly came into view.
Claire and Leon both flinched, but quickly fired and took it down.
“Leon, that was fast.
Claire, you too.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
“Han, I hope that was a real compliment and not sarcasm.”
The three of them laughed, then checked their ammo.
They stepped out and made their way through the library, circling around to the corridor on the other side, where they spotted another statue.
Looks like they had missed this place earlier while rushing to find Marvin.
Alan Han admitted he didn’t remember the exact location very clearly.
This place really was a maze.
Staring at yet another combination puzzle, Alan Han felt like something was off.
He asked Leon what he was carrying.
Only when Leon pulled out Officer Elliot’s notebook did it hit him.
Damn it, the code was in the notebook!
Claire: These two really are unreliable, aren’t they?