pertwk Chapter 61: Killing Victor at the Start
Chapter 61: Killing Victor at the Start
Chapter 61: Killing Victor at the Start
"Lyon? Lyon?"
Li En turned her gaze back.
The windshield wipers swung back and forth on the windshield, making a squeaking sound as the blades passed over the glass.
Every few seconds, the gray street scene outside the window is switched back to clear edges.
"Yeah, I was spacing out just now."
"So, tell me, is this time the same as before?"
The female voice in the headphones paused for a moment, and the sound of keyboard typing came from the background.
"The black bruises are exactly the same; they are not lividity formed after death."
Li En reached out and adjusted the angle of the rearview mirror.
The mirror reflected an elderly face, with large patches of gray hair mixed in with the golden hair, stretching from the temples to the forehead like frost-bitten wheat stubble.
Silver streaks were mixed in with his stubble, sparsely protruding between his chin and Adam's apple.
The skin around my eyes is loose, and the crow's feet radiate from the outer corners of my eyes toward my temples, much deeper than before.
He pushed the rearview mirror back into place and clenched his fist.
The familiar clicking sound came from between the joints; the grip strength was still there, even stronger than before.
"This is the sixth Raccoon City survivor, and the manner of death is exactly the same."
Li En loosened his fist and tapped his fingers lightly twice on the steering wheel.
"This isn't good, Lyon."
The liaison officer's voice was filled with barely suppressed worry.
"Yes." Lee Eun glanced at the street ahead.
The drizzling rain pattered on the hood, and the splashes of water were blown to the side by the wind.
Several police cars were parked on the roadside, their blue and red lights flashing in the rain.
Several police officers stood beside the cordon, holding umbrellas and tucking their shoulders into their raincoats, waiting for reinforcements.
"And I have a bad feeling, so Sherry, could you send someone to give me a sample of your serum?"
The keyboard typing in the headphones stopped for a moment.
A moment later, the tapping resumed, this time at a slower pace.
The liaison's voice belonged to Shirley Birkin, the twelve-year-old girl who was curled up on the mattress in the underground cell of the Raccoon City Police Department.
After being taken away by the government, she underwent eleven years of research.
It's not just about the selection and testing of research subjects, but also about her own learning.
She is now an expert in the field of biopharmaceuticals and has a deeper understanding of the G virus than anyone else alive in the world.
Lee En was well aware that the G-virus serum he made himself possessed a certain degree of self-healing ability.
But Bright suffered a spinal cord injury.
Serum's regenerative effect can only heal damage at the cellular level; it is powerless against severed nerve bundles and shattered vertebrae.
Serum alone is not enough to cure a person with lower body paralysis.
But if we could find scientists more capable than those in the bio-world to study this serum.
Finding someone who can make a breakthrough based on this biochemistry might have a miraculous effect.
That's why he decided to enter the instance early.
"Lyon, do you think there will be another G-virus appearing in this incident?"
Shirley's voice trembled slightly.
"No, the survivors of Raccoon City are dying one by one. It's better to be prepared. Perhaps the more original version is more useful."
Li En removed his fingers from the steering wheel and placed them on the gearshift lever.
"After all, these survivors had all used serum."
At this point in time, the G virus serum is no longer considered a top secret.
Leon S. Kennedy's current status is quite high.
He is now a seasoned agent who has experienced several bio-terrorist attacks in Raccoon City, South America, and other locations.
To apply for standard serum directly, you only need to fill out one form.
But Shirley's original serum was different; that serum contained the G virus.
While being studied, Shirley was also studying herself.
Her serum had a different formula than the government-produced version.
The original serum is more dangerous and closer to the true form of the G virus.
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, long enough for Li En to hear the sound of raindrops hitting the metal roof of the car outside the window.
"Leon, has it come to this?"
Shirley's voice calmed down; she understood.
If he only needed the standard serum, Leon wouldn't have come to her.
His coming to her indicates that he doesn't want the standard formula, but something closer to the source.
"Oh, just send someone to deliver it to me."
Li En shifted his gaze from the windshield and glanced at the spatial warehouse interface in the corner of his field of vision.
The 3x3 grid currently contains a Glock with unlimited ammo, a dagger with unlimited durability, a full set of special operations gear, and a few empty slots.
"Oh right, I also need weapons, an RPG rocket launcher, along with grenades, all packed in a box, the total weight shouldn't exceed 100 pounds."
Since there are support channels available this time, we should make the most of them.
The way this world works has been fully confirmed after the previous copies were verified.
It can be played like a real game.
The plot points, character appearances, and event sequence follow the order of memory.
However, the physical rules are intact, and the characters have autonomous consciousness.
Given his current position and status within the government system, applying for 100 kilograms of weapons and equipment would not be difficult for him.
There was another moment of silence.
"Understood. The investigation team has a lead, and they've sent you the picture. This person is connected to Umbrella."
Li En opened his phone. The photo showed a man wearing a leather trench coat and black tactical goggles. His skin color was a little off, somewhere between gray and white.
Victor Gideon, a former T-virus researcher.
After Umbrella collapsed, he was marked as missing in government databases and never appeared again.
Li En placed his phone next to the dashboard and reached out to open the silver-white metal box on the passenger seat.
An alligator pistol was embedded in the molded foam inside the box.
He picked it up and weighed it in his hand; it was quite heavy, with the weight of the barrel concentrated towards the front.
Press down the magazine catch with your thumb, and the magazine slides out, full.
Push it back and pull the slide to check the chamber.
It has a 9mm caliber, can fire three shots in a row, and is extremely stable.
He holstered his gun and took two boxes of ammunition from the box, stuffing them into the side pocket of his tactical vest.
This box can be placed directly into the storage space, but it must be placed in as a whole; you cannot open the box to search for weapons during an encounter.
"We just received news that a police officer has gone missing near the fifth body."
Shirley's keyboard typing paused for a moment.
"Are you still there, Leon?"
Li En turned the key and started the engine. The pointer on the instrument panel jumped up, the fuel gauge pointed to full, and the deep roar of the engine came from the front. The steering wheel vibrated slightly in his palm.
"Send me the address so the people delivering the medicine and weapons can meet at the destination."
Shift gears and step on the gas.
The Porsche Cayenne slid from the roadside into the driveway, its tires splashing up two streams of water as it ran over the puddles.
As the wipers accelerate, they automatically increase their oscillation frequency, cutting the rain curtain on the windshield into segments of clear vision.
The buildings on both sides of the street slid past the car window; street signs, streetlights, closed convenience stores—everything was shrouded in a layer of gray rain.
Shortly after entering the city, the car slowed down and eventually stopped in front of an intersection.
The red light of the brake lights reflected on the wet asphalt road. A long line of cars was ahead, some people were honking their horns, and others were rolling down their windows and peering ahead.
"Have you arrived?" Shirley's voice came through the earpiece. She saw on the tracking screen that Lee Eun's signal had stopped.
"No." Li En's gaze passed over the line of cars ahead and landed on the exit of an alleyway by the roadside.
A faded missing person notice was pasted on a lamppost at the alley entrance. The rain had wrinkled the paper, and the photo on it was blurry.
A man emerged from the alley, wearing a leather trench coat and black tactical goggles, with a blonde woman slung over his shoulder.
The woman did not struggle; her arms hung down on the man's back and swayed back and forth.
"I've found my target."
"What?" Sherry's voice rose for a moment, then was replaced by a very soft sound of something hitting the table.
She probably covered her mouth with her hand.
Li En pushed open the car door, his combat boots stepping into the puddles.
Rain pelted his shoulders and bulletproof helmet, trickling down the shoulder straps of his tactical vest.
He drew his pistol, stood at the edge of the sidewalk, raised the muzzle, and aimed the sights at the back of Victor's head.
Victor was carrying the woman toward a van, walking slowly, unaware of what was behind him.
Li En slid his index finger inside the trigger guard from the outside and pressed it on the first travel of the trigger.
The crosshair was tilted slightly downwards, pressing down below the occipital bone.
Then someone screamed.
"gun!"
A middle-aged woman wearing a raincoat stood at the entrance of a convenience store, her shopping bag falling to the ground.
Several oranges rolled out of the bag, bouncing on the concrete of the sidewalk before rolling into the drain.
Her mouth was open, her finger pointing in Li En's direction, and rainwater was running down her finger.
Victor turned his head.
His black tactical goggles reflected the rain.
But the direction he turned was exactly where Li En was, and then he saw the muzzle of the gun.
boom.
The bullet flew from the Alligator's gun muzzle, through the rain, and entered Victor's forehead directly, penetrating the front layer of his skull.
It tumbled, deformed, and shattered between the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain, then emerged from the back of the head, bringing with it a small piece of grayish-white debris and dark red liquid.
Victor leaned back slightly, his hand loosened its grip on the woman, and she slipped off his shoulder and fell to the ground.
His body fell down as well, his leather trench coat spreading out in the rain.
Screams erupted one after another.
The glass door of the convenience store was pushed open, and people inside ran out while those outside hid inside. Several pedestrians who were waiting to cross the road squatted down and covered their heads with their hands.
At the intersection, several car doors were pushed open simultaneously while people jumped out and ran to the back of the cars.
Li En quickly crossed the sidewalk and walked to Victor's body.
Raindrops pattered on the deceased's overcoat, the leather surface making a soft, pattering sound as the water droplets hit it.
In Li En's view, there were two glaring red marks on the gray-skinned body.
Head and heart.
The redness on the head is slowly fading, but the redness around the heart remains bright.
This is the effect of the Biochemist entry: significantly increased damage to mutated organisms, and the ability to discover their weaknesses.
Victor isn't completely dead yet.
boom.
Lee En fired a second shot at the red marker on the heart.
The bullet pierced through the rain-soaked leather trench coat, went between the ribs, and struck the still slowly beating heart.
Victor's body twitched a few times, then remained completely still.
The red mark on the head disappeared completely, and the red mark on the heart area also went out.
"Leon, what's the situation on your end?"
Sherry's voice came through the earphones.
"Send reinforcements; Victor's body is here."
"Judging from the color of his skin, he has likely been infected with the virus."
"There's another victim, kidnapped by Victor, who might have issues."
Li En squatted down and pressed his fingers against the side of the blonde woman's neck as she lay on the ground.
The carotid artery pulsed steadily under my fingertips, though it was a little cold from the rain.
The woman's name was Grace Ashcroft.
It can be said that the entire story of Resident Evil 9 revolves around her.
However, in this realistic game world, Li En won't obediently follow the storyline.
Have Victor capture Grace, and then free Erpis in the laboratory.
Victor is now lying on the ground, his head pierced by a bullet, and he's been shot in the heart.
He decides what happens next.
"Support is on its way!" Sherry's keyboard clicked rapidly as she dispatched nearby personnel.
Li En put his phone into the pocket of his tactical vest and crouched down to quickly search Victor's body.
There was a specially made pistol in the inside pocket of the leather trench coat.
The gun is slightly smaller than a regular pistol, and the magazine contains not ordinary bullets, but several tubes of light blue medicine.
T-virus variant.
He put the gun into his spatial storage, filling an empty space in the nine-square grid.
Then he stood up and looked down at Grace Ashcroft.
Rain fell on her pale face, her blonde hair clung to her forehead, and her breathing was steady.
Her FBI agent badge should have been in the inside pocket of her coat.
A sharp alarm sounded from afar.
Several police cars were parked at the edge of the intersection, their blue and red flashlights spinning rapidly in the rain.
Several people wearing full biohazard suits jumped out of the back of the vehicle, carrying body bags and disinfection equipment.
They wrapped Victor's body in a bag with practiced, mechanical movements, and then one of them turned to Lee.
"Sir, your order has been delivered."
Li En stood up and brushed the rain off her knees.
"This woman is an FBI agent who has been attacked. Please find her a place to stay nearby."
He walked to the open trunk of the police SUV, grasped a heavy metal weapon case and a silver-white medicine box with both hands, and turned to walk back to his Porsche.
He opened the trunk lid, put the two boxes inside, and as he closed the trunk lid, he stored the two boxes in the space warehouse interface.
A weapon box icon and a potion box icon have been added to the nine-square grid.
"Leon, how do you know she's with the FBI?"
Shirley's voice came through the earphones, carrying a subtle tone that was hard to tell whether it was surprise or admiration.
"Face recognition just completed. Grace Ashcroft, FBI logistics officer."
"She has a work permit." Li En closed the trunk lid and glanced at the police cars that were still flashing their lights.
Grace was being helped onto a stretcher by two medical personnel; her eyelids were twitching, she was probably about to wake up.
"Victor has been recalled. Check if there is any other information about him."
"I found it. After Umbrella went bankrupt, Victor bought a property—Mount Rhodes Chronic Infirmary. I'll send you the address."
Shirley didn't ask for any more details.
With a roar, the engine restarted.
Following the navigation, Li En turned out of the city and onto a winding mountain road.
The rain gradually subsided, and the vegetation outside the car window transitioned from gray city buildings to deep green coniferous forests, with a damp, resinous smell filling the air.
Mount Rhodes Chronic Disease Sanatorium appears at the end of the road.
An old brick building, its exterior walls covered with withered ivy vines, and all the windows were dark.
Only the old-fashioned chandelier above the entrance still shone with a dim, yellowish light.
He opened the car door, took the weapon case out of the storage compartment, placed it on the hood, and opened it.
The RPG rocket launcher's launch tube reflected a matte black sheen under the gray-blue sky after the rain.
He hung the grenades one by one on the ammunition ring of his tactical belt.
The alligator was held in his right hand, while the unlimited ammo Glock was tucked into a spare holster on his left side.
"Let's play a game."