svetikya Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Following the echoes of gunfire and explosions, the team moved swiftly through the dimly lit, damp, blood-stained, and wrecked Hive tunnels. The pervasive smell of gunpowder and the increasingly strong stench of decay in the air foreshadowed the fierce battle ahead.
"Speed up!" JD took the lead, his face grave. Only intermittent static and muffled roars came through the communicator; Captain Matthew's situation was clearly dire.
Wang Lin followed closely behind the mercenary, having replaced the metal pipe in his hand with a tactical dagger he had "picked up" from a zombie—it was still shabby, but much more handy than the metal pipe.
His basic combat skills allowed him to hold it relatively steadily. Zheng Zha, on the other hand, gripped the blood-stained fire axe tightly, his eyes wary. Bound by the contract and after their cooperation, he seemed to have calmed down a bit, at least no longer easily "losing his temper".
The other newcomers followed anxiously in the middle of the group. Zhang Jie remained at the back, unhurried as if taking a stroll, but his sharp eyes scanned every corner.
Soon, they passed through the area surrounding Restaurant B. The cold shipping containers stood silently, but Wang Lin noticed that the doors of several boxes seemed... slightly deformed, as if something had struck them from the inside. His heart skipped a beat—the Licker!
"Watch out for those boxes!" Wang Lin whispered a warning to JD ahead.
JD nodded and made a gesture, and the mercenaries immediately dispersed their guns, some pointing at the shipping containers.
Fortunately, there was no unusual activity inside the container until they passed through the area. Perhaps the Lickers had been drawn away by Captain Matthew and his team? Or was the timing just not right?
The gunshots grew clearer, accompanied by Ryan's signature angry curses. Turning a corner, the scene before them made everyone gasp.
This area, which appeared to be a connecting area of a large laboratory, was now a scene of utter chaos. Broken experimental equipment, overturned shelves, bullet holes riddled the walls, and numerous zombie corpses lay scattered on the floor, several of whom were dressed in mercenary uniforms—members of Matthew's team!
Captain Matthew, Ryan, and two other mercenaries (one of whom had an injured arm) were using several overturned lab tables and support pillars to form a fragile defensive line to hold off the zombies pouring out from the three passages! Alice, Matt, and the security guard Spence (who was still in disguise at this time) hid behind the defensive line. Alice also had a gun in her hand, and her marksmanship was surprisingly good.
There were even more zombies than when they had previously blocked Wang Lin's group! And among them seemed to be some faster-moving "researcher zombies" wearing white lab coats. Matthew and his team were clearly running low on ammunition, their firepower was sparse, and their defenses were in grave danger!
"Captain! We're here!" JD roared, leading the remaining mercenaries to join the battle from the flank! The fierce firepower instantly relieved the pressure on Matthew and the others.
"JD! What are you doing..." Matthew was both surprised and delighted, but immediately gave the order, "Left passage! Suppress it!"
With the arrival of fresh troops, the battlefield situation temporarily stabilized. Zombies fell in droves, but more kept coming.
"Kaplan! Find a way to block these passages!" Matthew shouted as he changed magazines.
"I'm trying to activate the area's emergency isolation doors! It will take time!" Kaplan hid in a relatively safe corner, the light from the computer screen reflecting on his anxious face.
Wang Lin quickly surveyed the battlefield. He saw that Alice and Matt were temporarily safe, while Spencer's eyes darted around, his intentions unclear. More importantly, he noticed that several sections of the ventilation duct grilles on the ceiling of the experimental area seemed loose, emitting a faint, unsettling scraping sound…
Lickers! They might be launching an attack from the ventilation ducts!
"Watch out above! The ventilation ducts!" Wang Lin shouted again, issuing a warning.
The words had barely left his mouth!
With a loud crash, a ventilation grille was smashed open! A huge figure, pale with blood-red muscles, shot out at an astonishing speed, heading straight for a mercenary who was focused on shooting at the left passage!
The monster, on all fours, possessed an agility and strength defying common sense; its long tongue was like a whip, and its claws were menacing! It was the Licker!
"Watch out!" Ryan reacted the fastest, turning his gun around and firing, but the Licker twisted strangely in mid-air, and most of the bullets missed. Only a few hit its tough skin, spurting out a few flowers of blood, but it failed to stop it!
The mercenary was about to be tackled!
"Zheng Zha!" Wang Lin shouted sharply, and at the same time threw the dagger in his hand with all his might in the direction from which the Licker was attacking—not to hit it, but to disrupt it!
Upon hearing the sound, Zheng Zha almost instinctively relied on the tacit understanding they had developed during their brief cooperation and the implicit sense of constraint brought about by the "mutual assistance" clause in the contract. He roared and swung his fire axe, fiercely slashing at the Licker from the side!
The Licker's attention was slightly diverted by Wang Lin's dagger and Zheng Zha's roar, causing its attack trajectory to veer slightly off course. The mercenary seized the opportunity to scramble away.
laugh!
Zheng Zha's fire axe struck the Licker's shoulder blade hard! The axe blade pierced the flesh, but the Licker's muscles and bones were extremely tough, so the blow did not cause a fatal injury; instead, it enraged the Licker!
"Roar—!" The Licker hissed in pain, its long tongue flashing towards Zheng Zha's face!
In his horror, Zheng Zha only had time to turn his head slightly before the long tongue grazed his cheek, drawing a trail of blood that stung painfully! He hurriedly retreated, but the Licker's claws had already struck!
At the critical moment, a series of precise shots struck the Licker's head and neck! It was Captain Matthew and Ryan! The bullets hit the Licker's eyeless head, and although they were not fatal, the impact made it momentarily stun its movements.
"Smash its mouth! Or break its spine!" Wang Lin shouted, picking up a piece of broken metal from the ground and throwing it out again to interfere.
He didn't know if this common sense would be useful, but he had to give the mercenaries a hint!
Matthew's eyes narrowed, and he and Ryan coordinated to focus their fire on the Licker's wide-open, tooth-filled mouth and the relatively vulnerable neck joint!
The Licker, though formidable, was not invincible. Under the concentrated fire of several automatic weapons, especially focusing on its mouth and neck, it finally let out a mournful howl, its movements became unsteady, and then a lucky bullet pierced its mouth, shattering its brain. It convulsed and fell to the ground, motionless.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Clang!" "Clang!"
Two more ventilation grilles exploded simultaneously! Two more Lickers burst out! One lunged at Kaplan's location, while the other swooped down towards the newcomers' gathering place!
"Scatter!" JD shouted, his eyes wide with rage.
The scene instantly descended into extreme chaos! Gunshots, screams, and shouts mingled together.
The one that lunged at Kaplan was intercepted by several mercenaries who fought desperately with firepower and was temporarily suppressed behind a pile of equipment, but its ammunition was being used up very quickly.
The one that pounced on the newcomer had a terrible outcome. The female student reacted a little slower and was pierced through the chest by the long tongue, collapsing to the ground before she could even scream. The middle-aged woman was so frightened that she slumped to the ground, her shoulder mangled and bloodied by the licker's claws, screaming in agony.
Zhang Jie... remained standing in the relatively safe rear, watching coldly, raising his gun slightly before lowering it again, seemingly assessing something.
Having landed a successful blow, the Licker turned and pounced on Zhan Lan, who was closest to it, without pausing.
"Don't even think about it!" Zheng Zha's eyes were bloodshot. The thrill of the previous encounter, the binding force of the contract, and his instinct to protect his teammates gave him incredible courage and speed. He charged forward again, swinging his axe! This time, he learned his lesson and didn't fight head-on. Instead, he used the length of the fire axe to sweep across the Licker's lower limbs, trying to trip it up!
At the same time, Wang Lin moved as well. He had no weapon, but his gaze was fixed on a glass cabinet containing some kind of chemical reagent that had been tilted over not far behind the Licker. He rushed over and, with all his might, pushed the heavy cabinet toward the direction where the Licker and Zheng Zha were fighting!
"Zheng Zha, get out of the way!"
Upon hearing the sound, Zheng Zha almost reflexively abandoned his attack and fell to the side and backward!
Whoosh—!
The glass cabinet crashed heavily to the side of the Licker, shattering and spilling out colorful chemical reagents, most of which drenched the Licker!
"Hiss hiss hiss—!"
A sickening corrosive sound rang out! The unknown chemical reagents were clearly highly corrosive! The licker's tough skin was corroded, emitting puffs of white smoke, letting out painful screams, and its movements instantly twisted and deformed!
"A good opportunity!" Matthew and Ryan were not about to let it slip by. Bullets rained down on the Licker's corroded and weakened body, especially its head and spine!
The other Licker, which had been temporarily suppressed, was also targeted by JD and his team, and its head was finally blown off.
Within a minute, all three Lickers were wiped out!
The cost was heavy. Two new recruits died (a female student and a male office worker), and one was seriously injured (a middle-aged woman, who was also on the verge of death). Another mercenary was killed (the one who was initially attacked; although he dodged the fatal blow, he was scratched by the Licker's subsequent attacks and was seriously injured). Kaplan escaped unharmed, but his computer was hit by a stray bullet and started emitting black smoke.
"Kaplan! Isolation door!" Matthew roared.
"The computer is broken! But I remember where the manual switch is! It's on the control panel over there!" Kaplan pointed to a control panel deep inside the laboratory.
"Raine! JD! Cover me! The rest of you, hold this place!" Matthew made a decisive move, leading Raine and JD, and under the cover of fire from the remaining mercenaries, braving sporadic zombie attacks, and rushing toward the control panel.
Wang Lin, panting heavily, looked at the chaotic scene. He had saved Kaplan, indirectly averted two fatal crises for Zheng Zha, and severely injured a Licker with chemical reagents. But he knew that the biggest threat—Zhang Jie—had not yet truly made a move, or rather, had not yet shown any obvious malice. What was he waiting for?
Taking advantage of the chaos as Matthew and the others went to activate the isolation door, Zhang Jie slowly strolled over to Wang Lin and Zheng Zha.
"Good teamwork." Zhang Jie flicked his cigarette ash, looking at Wang Lin. "Especially you, you always manage to find... clever ways." His tone was ambiguous, neither praising nor sarcastic.
Wang Lin smiled warily: "Just lucky. Brother Zhang is the one who's hiding his true strength."
Zhang Jie gave him a deep look, then suddenly lowered his voice: "A smart person knows when to keep quiet. Knowing too much about some things isn't necessarily a good thing. The Main God Space... isn't that simple." After saying that, he ignored the two of them and turned to walk away.
This was clearly a warning, but it also seemed to carry a hint of...a reminder?
Wang Lin's mind raced. Zhang Jie's attitude was ambiguous, but at least for now, he didn't seem to intend to turn against him outright. Was it because of the "value" and "controllability" he and Zheng Zha had demonstrated? Or did Zhang Jie have ulterior motives?
Soon, a low rumble resounded, and several heavy metal gates fell from the ceiling and the side walls, completely sealing off the three passages from which the zombies were pouring out! The sounds of impact and roars outside were immediately cut off by most of them.
"The passage is closed! Go back the way you came! Go to the platform! The Flame Queen must be shut down, but we need to get out and replenish our ammunition and personnel first!" Matthew walked back, his face tired but his eyes resolute. "Take the nameplates of the wounded and... the fallen."
The team was reorganized, and the atmosphere was heavy. The team that arrived with nearly twenty people (including mercenaries and newcomers) now had only a little over ten left.
They cautiously retraced their steps. Along the way, they encountered several more scattered groups of zombies, but managed to defeat them all without serious harm. Wang Lin and Zheng Zha remained vigilant, especially in the ventilation ducts and shadowy corners. The existence of their contract made their cooperation increasingly seamless, and Wang Lin effectively restrained Zheng Zha's impulsiveness with his eyes and simple instructions.
Finally, they returned to the platform where they had first entered the hive, where the train heading to the ground was quietly parked.
"Kaplan, try to restart the train system! Everyone else, establish a defensive line and inspect the train!" Matthew ordered.
Kaplan began operating using the spare, makeshift equipment. The others dispersed to keep watch.
Wang Lin knew that, according to the original plot, there was supposed to be another fierce battle here—zombie dogs, and the Red Queen might launch a counterattack in other ways. But perhaps because they triggered the laser channel in advance, causing it to overload and malfunction, or perhaps because Matthew's team suffered heavy casualties, changing the plot's weight, the expected zombie dogs did not appear until Kaplan successfully activated the train system.
"System reboot successful! We can leave now!" Kaplan shouted.
Everyone immediately boarded the train. As the whistle sounded, the train slowly started moving and headed towards the ground.
Inside the carriage, the survivors sat or lay down, exhausted, their relief at surviving the ordeal intertwined with the grief of losing their companions. Alice and Matt spoke in hushed tones, while Spencer's gaze wandered. Matthew, Ryan, and the other mercenaries silently checked their dwindling supplies.
Wang Lin, Zheng Zha, Zhan Lan, Luo Li, Li Xiaoyi, Ling Dian, and two other surviving newcomers (a young male employee and a silent girl) gathered together. Zhang Jie sat alone in the corner of the carriage, resting with his eyes closed.
"We...we survived?" Zheng Zha murmured in disbelief.
"For now," Wang Lin said in a low voice, glancing at Zhang Jie. The main quest was "survival," and escaping the Hive with the main characters should have been enough. But Zhang Jie was still a variable.
Zhan Lan looked at Wang Lin with a complex expression: "Wang Lin, you seem to... know a lot. You knew from the beginning that the passage was dangerous, and you knew the weaknesses of those monsters..."
Wang Lin had already prepared his explanation: "I've seen many similar movies and games, and I'm especially familiar with the Resident Evil series. Add to that a bit of observation and deduction, and... luck." He paused, "Now that we're a team, we can exchange ideas more often."
Zhan Lan nodded, not delving into the matter. Under the threat of death, having a seemingly reliable teammate was more important than investigating secrets.
The train continued its ascent, the light gradually returned to normal, and the atmosphere of the ground drew ever closer.
Finally, with a slight jolt and a hiss of deflation, the train came to a stop. The doors opened, revealing the platform of the Umbrella Corporation's underground base. Further away, the elevator shaft leading to the surface could be seen.
[Main Mission: Survive the events of Resident Evil 1. Complete.]
[Task Reward: 1000 reward points.]
[Hidden Mission: Change the Laser Channel storyline to save at least three important mercenaries (Matthew, Ryan, and Kaplan) to their lives.]
[Hidden Quest Reward: 1500 reward points, one D-rank side quest.]
Teamwork Rating: Medium. Bonus: 300 Reward Points.
Total Rewards: 2800 reward points, one D-rank side quest.
[The reincarnator Wang Lin was detected carrying the special item "Fragment of the Contract Paper," which was successfully used in this mission, establishing initial rule-based constraints. The item's experience value has slightly increased.]
A chilling notification sounded in Wang Lin's mind, instantly invigorating him! 2800 points! A D-level side quest! More than expected! Especially the hidden quest, the rewards are generous!
Almost simultaneously, he noticed that Zheng Zha, Zhan Lan, and others also showed expressions of surprise or relief, clearly indicating that they had also received reward notifications. Zhang Jie kept his eyes closed, but the corner of his mouth seemed to twitch almost imperceptibly.
"We're out!" Alice took a deep breath of the relatively fresh air.
Captain Matthew's expression was grave. He looked at the communicator, then glanced into the depths of the base: "The mission is only half complete. Red Queen is still operating, and the source of the T-virus leak has not yet been identified. Headquarters will send follow-up troops. You..." He looked at Wang Lin and the other survivors, "Leave here as soon as possible. It's not safe here."
Umbrella Corporation personnel quickly arrived and began taking over the scene, evacuating survivors, and handling the wounded and the deceased.
Amidst the chaos, Wang Lin and the others were guided towards the elevator leading to the ground. Just before stepping into the elevator, Wang Lin glanced back.
He saw Zhang Jie standing at the edge of the crowd, nodding slightly to him, then turning and walking towards another passage—the direction of the Umbrella Corporation's internal personnel.
He did indeed have another identity and mission.
The elevator doors closed and it slowly ascended.
The feeling of weightlessness returned, but this time, it was a sign of returning.
The scene before my eyes began to blur and spin.
"Return to the Main God Space".
……
A pure white hall, an eternal sphere of light.
Wang Lin appeared. Immediately afterwards, flashes of light appeared around them, revealing Zheng Zha, Zhan Lan, and two other newcomers (a male employee and a silent girl). Zhang Jie was not among them.
"Where am I...?" Zheng Zha looked around in surprise.
"The Main God Space. This is where we return after completing our mission," Wang Lin explained, while looking at the orb of light. "Main God, repair your physical damage. Deduct the reward points from me."
A beam of light descended, and the scrapes and fatigue on their bodies quickly disappeared. Zhan Lan's complexion also improved significantly.
"This is amazing..." Zhan Lan exclaimed.
"Wang Lin, we owe you so much this time!" Zheng Zha said gratefully. "If it weren't for you, we might have died in that passage or the laboratory long ago."
"Teamwork." Wang Lin smiled, then said seriously, "Now, it's time to consider strengthening. The Main God here offers various abilities, bloodlines, and items. But remember, reward points and side quests are extremely valuable, so plan them carefully."
He brought up his attribute panel and simultaneously had the main god display the list of exchangeable items to others.
[Reincarnator: Wang Lin]
[Number: 7341]
[Permission Level: 0]
Overall Rating: E+ (Haved one formal mission, showing some growth)
Strength: 10 (+2)
Agility: 11 (+2)
Constitution: 13 (+4)
[Spirit: 14 (+2)]
Perception: 13 (+2)
[Willpower: 16 (+2)]
Energy: None
[Skills: Basic Combat Proficiency (Level E), Micro-expression Analysis (Knowledge-based)]
[Items: Fragment of Contract Paper, Pen]
[Reward Points: 2870 (originally 70 + 2800)]
Side Quests: 2 D-Rank (1 original + 1 new)
Attributes naturally increase during quests, especially Constitution and Willpower. 2870 points from two D-rank side quests is quite a sum.
Zheng Zha and the others also checked their own gains, exclaiming and discussing incessantly.
Wang Lin then began to calmly screen options. Having experienced the mysterious resurgence and the biohazard crisis, he had a clearer understanding of his own position and needs.
"God, show me enhancement options that suit me, focusing on survival, control, support, and dealing with supernatural/rule-based threats, priced at 3000 reward points or less, within the D- or C-level side quest range."
Information flows on the light screen.
His strategy was clear: continue down the path of the "wise man" and the "master of the field." His direct combat ability could be compensated for by teammates (such as the infinitely potential Zheng Zha) and weapons and items, but his unique survival and control abilities were his irreplaceable value in the team and the foundation for dealing with various bizarre mission worlds.
In particular, he was also concerned about the further development of the "Contract Paper" and... how to better "deal with" those "square mirror-like idiots" that might appear in every world.