Chapter 37 The Shortest Path
Fang Ge opened his eyes, half-asleep, half-awake.
His vision had undergone a massive change, revealing the outlines of a laboratory, with the streets outside filled with cacophonous sounds.
The sky was gradually darkening, the modern city was filled with the chaotic wail of police sirens, people hurried by, and the sound of car crashes echoed intermittently…
Besides that, there were also some indescribable, eerie noises.
Resident Evil had descended, and chaos became the main theme of Raccoon City.
【Pre-entering the horror movie world's pre-plot, difficulty coefficient increased to maximum. Upon completion, double side-plot counts and reward points will be received. Escort Alice out of Raccoon City before the nuclear explosion. The entire team is rewarded with 2 D-rank side plots and 2000 reward points. If Alice dies, the mission fails, and the entire team is deducted 2 D-rank side plots and 2000 reward points.】
The plots of Resident Evil One and Two were seamlessly connected.
Before the Central Continent Team members could even take two breaths of 'free air,' the Main God had already issued the 'Main Mission.'
This didn't surprise Fang Ge. He immediately looked at his watch, where the kill rewards had subtly changed compared to before.
【Zombie: 1 Reward Point / 50】
【creeper: 50 Reward Points / each】
【Tracker: D-rank Side Plot * 1 + 1000 Reward Points / each】
“The kill rewards have dropped by more than half! And that’s fine, since we’re more than twice as strong… But what’s with this forced, highest difficulty mission?”
Before they even started moving, Zheng Zha complained:
“We haven’t even seen a shadow of Alice, and they want us to help her escape?”
Upon hearing this, everyone looked at him speechless.
“When you confirmed the teleportation, did you not pay attention to the coordinates Fang Ge chose?” Zhan Lan couldn't help but ask a soul-searching question.
Zheng Zha, however, looked perfectly at ease. He jutted out his neck and said, “You wouldn’t harm me, so why would I pay attention to that?”
“First the Golden Bell Shield, then the Iron Cloth Shirt… Now my mind is full of those twelve leg techniques, my mental state has reached its critical point, I don’t want to bother thinking anymore.”
These past few days, Zheng Zha had already come to a great realization. He summarized:
“Anyway, I have no decision-making power, I don’t need to act alone, and if I offer an opinion, you’ll all just reject it… So why don’t I just do what I’m good at?”
“Don’t you know the principle that no matter how hard a bad person racks their brains, it’s not as good as a foolish person’s sudden inspiration?”
“Who calls themselves a foolish person…” Zhan Lan covered her face helplessly, unable to comprehend Zheng Zha’s thought process.
—Is his pig brain overloaded…
Fang Ge put his arm around Zheng Zha's shoulder, motioning him to look forward, and said softly:
“Is there a possibility, and I mean a possibility… that this is the entrance to the ‘laboratory’ where Alice woke up in the plot?”
Fang Ge was very particular about choosing the teleportation coordinates; he didn't want to waste a single moment of extra time.
Whether it was the doctor's daughter, Angel, or Jill from the police department, or Carlos from the mercenaries.
As long as they approached a certain distance, the main mission would be forcibly triggered.
Choosing Alice was because she had high combat power, excellent physical qualities, and powerful Telekinesis.
At the same time, Alice was indispensable for convincing Umbrella Corporation's major shareholder, Alicia.
Currently, the Central Continent Team's primary goal was to quickly deal with the Umbrella Corporation executives in the lower levels of the Hive, thereby preventing the nuclear bomb from falling.
Then, they would release that 'special antidote' to completely end the Resident Evil!
Stopping the nuclear explosion alone was a team C-rank side mission, and triggering it early doubled the reward, making it 2C-rank.
Completing the 'Final Chapter' content early and ending the series would even earn the entire team a B-rank side plot reward.
In fact, the Central Continent Team did not intend to escort these plot characters away, and Alice was no exception.
Firstly, they were scattered across Raccoon City, and gathering them one by one would consume a lot of time and energy, and escorting all of them out would only reward 4 D-rank side plots.
Secondly, if the nuclear explosion was stopped early, and the world line changed drastically, the 'Escort Plot Characters Before Nuclear Explosion' mission would become invalid.
Fang Ge had fallen for such a trick before, spending a lot of effort only to get one reward.
The two were essentially different ways of achieving the same goal: 'protecting plot characters.'
The Main God was not a philanthropist; he wouldn't let you get two rewards at the same time.
2C and 4D, only one could be chosen.
The answer was clear: of course, they would choose the former, which matched their path and ultimate goal, and offered more generous rewards!
“The nuclear bomb will be dropped on the morning of October 1st. It’s currently the evening of September 29th, so we have a day and a half. Based on information and news from the internet, we can conclude that this is the ‘movie version’ storyline…”
Chu Xuan pulled out a laptop and began typing furiously on the keyboard.
“Now, I will disable Raccoon City’s entire surveillance system. At the same time, I will expose Umbrella Corporation’s private research on biochemical viruses and weapons to the whole world through saturated network exposure, thereby pressuring Umbrella Corporation.”
Fang Ge knew that in the game timeline, Umbrella Corporation had ultimately collapsed due to the combined sanctions of the United States and other economies, influenced by this incident.
Even if the movie version of Umbrella Corporation had far greater power than the game version, even to the extent of privately possessing nuclear weapons.
Such a huge scandal couldn't possibly not affect them!
Umbrella Corporation was, after all, a company, and it had to consider efficiency.
In the original plot, the virus swept across the globe, leading to the near extinction of humanity, taking several years in total—it was essentially boiling a frog slowly.
If Umbrella Corporation's stock plummeted now and it couldn't last much longer before collapsing, could the high-ranking officials who were frozen remain calm?
Even if the frozen high-ranking officials could remain calm, could the 'clones' who were active outside and unaware remain calm?
The clones didn't know they were clones! Once they fell into disarray, the Central Continent Team would have an opportunity.
“Evidence? Where did you get the evidence?” Zhan Lan was surprised.
They were indeed eyewitnesses to the Hive incident, but they neither obtained the 'Red Queen motherboard' nor had the opportunity to capture any footage.
Where would the evidence come from?
“P-shopped,” Chu Xuan stated bluntly.
“There’s no need to talk about ‘morality’ when dealing with these wicked capitalists!”
Fang Ge said, kicking open the laboratory door and shouting:
“FBI! Open the door!”
Unfortunately, what greeted him was not a group of panicked researchers, but a horde of hideous zombies!
—It looks like the plot has changed, forcing us to rescue Alice quickly.
Swish!
The high-frequency long blade hummed as it unsheathed. Fang Ge lightly swung it, and it extended an invisible air blade over three meters long!
Only the vibration of the air proved its sharpness.
The air blade swung out, encountering no resistance whatsoever when it came into contact with the zombies. Human flesh and blood, in front of such high-tech weapons, were no different from tofu!
Dozens of zombies were cut in half, falling like mown wheat.
Fang Ge had no intention of finishing them off; he couldn't care less about such meager rewards. With a few more slashes, a section of the wall collapsed with a roar!
Through the hole in the wall, Fang Ge saw that familiar figure, a move both exhilarating and violent.
“Zheng Zha, use the Symbiote to grab Alice out, and we’ll head straight for the Hive!”
“Swish!”
Zheng Zha flicked his hand, and the crimson Symbiote shot out from his palm, like a flexible tentacle, coiling around and grabbing the naked Alice by her torso.
Much like Spider-Man, Alice was in Zheng Zha's hand in an instant.
Chu Xuan stepped forward indifferently, took out a syringe from his spatial bag, and without hesitation, injected it into Alice.
“Whoa!”
The moment the medicine entered her body, Alice suddenly woke up, looking blankly at the members of the Central Continent Team.
“Fang Ge, Zheng Zha, Chu Xuan… What’s going on? Why am I here?”
“The virus has completely leaked, and everything is Umbrella Corporation’s conspiracy. We must stop them.”
Chu Xuan casually tossed her a battle suit, motioning her to quickly get dressed: “We need to go to the Hive to stop this tragedy. Any questions can be discussed on the way.”
“Where did you get that from? That bag is clearly so small…”
Alice was still immersed in chaos, a bit unclear about the current situation.
“The Umbrella Corporation executives have gone mad, they want to destroy the entire world!”
Fang Ge spoke then, his voice filled with emotion: “Listen, Alice, right beneath the Hive, there’s an antidote that can stop all of this, and only you can retrieve it, do you understand?”
“Only you can save this city. Save millions of people from this abyss of death, from the mushroom cloud of the nuclear explosion!”
As a classic protagonist with a 'saintly' personality, coupled with the trust they had already built, Alice, even though she didn't fully grasp the situation, still took on the responsibility: “OK! OK! What should I do?”
“To the Hive, we need a vehicle… and someone just delivered one to our doorstep!”
Fang Ge looked up and saw an armed helicopter approaching directly.
“Chu Xuan, can you fly a helicopter?”