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In the air, an indescribable scent lingered—a bizarre mixture of burning stench, gasoline, and the smell of some protein being completely carbonized.
That hellish experimental zone was now reduced to nothing but a silent, pitch-black expanse of scorched earth.
Noah and Claire stood before the thick bulletproof glass, silently watching the monster named "Rosépines de Versailles" on the screen.
The high-definition 3D model seemed to possess some evil power that could penetrate the screen; every detail exuded a heart-palpitating, pure malice.
The body of a hornet, magnified dozens of times, was covered in a carapace that glinted with a dark, metallic luster.
Those giant, hideous bone claws, shaped like a grim reaper's scythes, looked as if they would tear through the screen at any second to harvest the lives of living things.
Claire felt her throat go dry.
She had just used flames to purify those poor victims and the unhatched evils gestating inside them.
But now, the computer screen told her that the source of it all—the true, mature monster that had evolved into its complete form—was somewhere in this base.
It might even be just a wall away.
This realization sent a cold chill creeping silently up her spine.
Noah and Claire both inhaled sharply almost at the same time.
This biological weapon, which looked indestructible and filled with a sense of violent aesthetics, was likely the final enemy they would face in this "NE-Alpha Incubation Nest."
Noah slowly leaned back in his chair. He looked up, his gaze passing through the thick bulletproof glass toward the experimental zone that was now nothing but charred blackness after being purified by fire.
"We have to be careful."
Noah's voice was very low, as if talking to himself, and yet also reminding Claire beside him.
"From now on, try not to cause any more large commotions."
He didn't want to disturb the Queen that was sleeping somewhere, or rather... breeding.
Once it and its entire swarm were awakened, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Claire nodded heavily, her lips pressed tight. The fire in her eyes had died down, replaced by an unprecedented solemnity.
She understood what Noah meant.
The Flamethrower could no longer be used lightly.
That massive roar and those violent flames would be enough to attract every monster in the area.
"The chip."
Claire spoke, her voice somewhat raspy.
"We must find the area's chip as soon as possible and then leave this place."
This was their only and clearest objective now.
Noah gave an affirmative grunt and stood up.
He quickly copied all the important data from the console onto the IBM ThinkPad that Trant had given him.
Information was a weapon.
Especially data regarding the monsters' weaknesses and the "Infrasonic Matrix Generator"; such information could save lives at a critical moment.
Having done all this, he closed the laptop and put it back into his tactical backpack.
The two exchanged a look and turned in unison, walking toward the other end of the observation area corridor.
There should be a passage leading to other parts of this area.
The corridor wasn't long, and the cold metal floor reflected the dim light of the emergency lamps beneath their feet.
Several electronic signboards hung on the walls.
They marked different directions with simple arrows and text.
「Main Control Room」
「Ecological Zone」
「Specimen Cold Storage」
Noah and Claire's gazes fell on the "Main Control Room" entry simultaneously.
According to the standard layout of the base, the regional permission chip was usually stored in the terminal of the Main Control Room.
Without hesitation, they followed the direction of the sign and turned into a side path.
At the end of the passage was a heavy electronic door with a red locking indicator light flashing.
The door was stamped with Umbrella's loathsome Umbrella logo.
Noah stepped forward, habitually raising his wrist to press Sophia's bracelet against the identification scanner beside the door.
This time, the expected "beep" did not sound.
The red light on the scanner flashed relentlessly, emitting a piercing alarm that signified "Insufficient Permissions."
"Beep! Beep! Beep!"
[ACCESS DENIED]
Cold electronic font appeared on the scanner's small screen.
The door was locked from the inside.
Sophia's permissions were invalid here.
Noah frowned.
There were only two possibilities for this situation.
Either the security level here was higher, requiring permissions at Durand's level.
Or someone inside had manually activated the highest level of lockdown.
Claire stepped forward and somewhat helplessly raised her hand, knocking on the cold alloy door with her knuckles.
"Thud, thud."
The sound was exceptionally clear in the dead silent passage.
"Looks like nobody's inside."
She turned to look at Noah and shrugged.
"We have to..."
Before she could finish her sentence,
A voice suddenly came from behind the door.
It was a man's voice.
The voice wasn't loud and sounded somewhat muffled through the thick metal plate.
But the emotion contained in that voice clearly penetrated the alloy barrier.
It was ultimate terror.
And a sort of morbid, ecstatic excitement, like someone catching a life-saving straw in the midst of despair.
"Is... Is someone there?"
"Is it... Is it a rescue?!"
This sudden voice caused Claire's body to stiffen instantly.
She instinctively took half a step back, placing her hand on the samurai edge at her waist.
Noah also tensed his body in an instant, his gaze becoming sharp.
He turned back toward Claire and quietly gave her a thumbs-up.
A somewhat wry expression was on his face.
He had originally thought that Claire's unintentional act of knocking would expose their position and lead to unnecessary trouble.
He hadn't expected that she would actually knock out a living person.
Seeing Noah's gesture and expression, Claire was first stunned, then understood.
A hint of triumph finally appeared on her tight, pretty face, and she even gave him a subtle, proud chin-up.
Noah suppressed his helplessness, cleared his throat, and shouted toward the door in a deep voice.
"We are the rescue team."
His voice was steady and powerful, deliberately creating a sense of trustworthiness.
"How many living people are still in there?"
The inside of the door fell into a moment of dead silence.
Immediately following that, a rustling sound came through, as if a chair were being pushed aside and someone was scrambling toward the door.
"Beep—"
A soft click.
The red locking indicator light on the electronic door turned green.
The heavy electronic latch made a "clack" sound as it unlocked.
The door slowly slid to one side with a low hum.
A wave of stagnant, sour air—mixed with the smell of sweat, fast-food packaging, and the lack of ventilation—poured out from the gap.
As soon as the door opened,
A figure in a white lab coat was shivering, curled up in the corner by the door.
He looked to be about thirty or forty years old, a Caucasian man.
His hair was oily and matted together, as messy as a pile of dry grass.
He wore a pair of thick, gold-rimmed glasses, the lenses covered in smudges.
His complexion was a sickly pale from a long lack of sunlight.
His eyes were deeply sunken and filled with fearful bloodshot veins.
When he saw the fully armed, weapon-wielding, and alert Noah and Claire, a frantic light of survival instantly erupted in those bloodshot eyes.
"Great! This is great!"
He almost leapt up from the floor, his movements exaggerated like a marionette.
"Someone finally came! I can finally leave this godforsaken, man-eating hellhole!"
He spread his arms, seemingly wanting to give Noah a hug, but seeing Noah's cold gaze and the black muzzle of the magnum, he sheepishly lowered his arms.
His excitement came quickly and left just as fast.
After a burst of ecstasy, a hint of doubt and scrutiny surfaced in his eyes.
He looked Noah and Claire up and down.
Their equipment looked professional, but they didn't look like the company's internal U.S.S. units.
"You... how many of you came?"
He asked cautiously.
His gaze drifted past Noah's shoulder, peering into the corridor behind him as if expecting a fully armed squad.
"That madman Durand... is he dead?"
Noah's expression didn't change in the slightest.
"Two people."
His answer was concise and clear.
The smile on the white man's face froze instantly.
"What?"
His voice jumped an octave, becoming sharp and somewhat grating.
"Just... just two people?!"
He looked as if he had heard the funniest joke of the century, his expression shifting between shock, doubt, and disbelief.
"Are you joking? Two people? You think you can break out of this... this Hell with just two people?"
He began to get agitated, the flicker of hope in his eyes quickly replaced by a new kind of fear.
"Wait... who... who are you people, exactly?"
He finally noticed a key detail.
Neither Noah nor Claire had any Umbrella insignia on them.
The Umbrella logo, representing identity and affiliation, was nowhere to be found on their persons.
His body jerked back, his vigilance reaching its peak in an instant.
He looked at Noah and Claire as if they were two wolves in sheep's clothing that had snuck into a sheepfold.
"Who we are isn't important," Noah's voice remained calm.
He didn't like this man.
From the first second he appeared, his selfishness, cowardice, and a certain disregard for life hidden beneath his fear made Noah feel an instinctive disgust.
But for now, they needed to get information from him.
"What's important is that we can get you out of here alive."
Noah's words were like a stone cast into the man's heart, instantly stirring up a thousand waves.
Leaving alive held a fatal allure for him.
His eyes, hidden behind thick lenses, darted around quickly, his vigilance replaced by a shrewd calculation.
"Yes, yes, yes!"
His attitude did a complete 180-degree turn, and that fawning, sycophantic smile returned to his face.
"Young man... young man, you're right! Getting out alive is what matters most!"
He leaned in and lowered his voice, adopting a tone of forced familiarity.
"Where are you from, young man? Looking at your features... are you from East Asia?"
Noah didn't answer his pointless question.
"Tell me first, what exactly happened here?"
Noah subtly pointed the barrel of his gun toward the interior of the Main Control Room.
"That way, we can be prepared."
At the mention of this topic, the white man's face was instantly shrouded in an uncontrollable fear.
His facial muscles contorted violently, as if he were recalling some extremely terrifying images.
"Durand..."
His voice became hoarse and trembled with fear.
"It's that madman Durand! He did it all!"
"A few days ago, he suddenly used the internal comms to tell all of us Researchers in the Ecological Zones to gather at Central Sector D immediately, saying... there was some 'major discovery' he wanted to show us."
A hint of lingering fear and relief flickered in the man's eyes.
"My colleagues and I just happened... just happened to be observing the corruption of a test subject. You know, the corruption process of that NE-Alpha parasite is very... very fascinating. The data at every stage is crucial, and we didn't want to miss it, so we... we were delayed for a bit."
When he mentioned "test subject corruption," his face even showed a morbid, fanatical academic excitement.
As if it weren't a life being cruelly devoured, but a fine work of art worthy of careful appreciation.
Claire couldn't listen any longer.
The fury she had just managed to suppress flared up once more.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing?!"
Her voice rose with anger, carrying an uncontrollable tremor.
"They are living human beings! They have families, they have their own thoughts! They are people!"
"How could you... how could you treat them like insects for observation?!"
However, the man just paused for a moment, then impatiently waved his hand, cutting Claire off.
His face bore a condescending, intellectual arrogance.
"You don't understand, little girl."
His tone was full of preachy condescension.
"Science always requires sacrifice. Besides, they were just a bunch of heinous criminals who deserved to die anyway."
"There's nothing wrong with using their filthy, worthless lives to serve the great cause of human evolution."
"It's an honor for them."
This twisted logic completely ignited Claire's rage.
"But..."
She wanted to say more.
A warm hand gently patted her shoulder.
Noah shook his head slightly at her, signaling her not to argue with someone like this.
Because it was meaningless.
To argue about humanity with a madman who had completely lost his own was a ridiculous endeavor in itself.
Claire took a deep breath, her chest heaving.
She glared at the man, her disgust and anger almost tangible.
But in the end, she forced herself to shut her mouth.
Noah gestured for the man to continue.
The man also seemed to find arguing with Claire tedious. He nodded and swallowed hard, the look of fear reappearing on his face.
"We were delayed for about... about ten minutes or so. But those ten minutes saved our lives."
"When we were getting ready to gather, the security outside suddenly started... started grabbing people!"
"They were like madmen, grabbing everyone they saw, trying to drag everyone into that godforsaken Sector D!"
"We deal with NE-Alpha parasites often. One look at those security guards' eyes and their stiff, uncoordinated movements, and we knew—they were finished!"
"They were all controlled by parasites! It must have been that madman Durand's doing!"
"We reacted immediately and closed the entrance to our Observation Room. The isolation door there is specially made; they couldn't get in. They pounded on it for a while but eventually gave up."
The man's speaking speed grew faster and faster, as if he were back in that heart-pounding moment.
"We hid in the Observation Room, not daring to make a sound. We thought we'd wait for things to blow over and then find a way out through the backup passage."
"But then..."
A fear even more intense than before, one that seemed ready to consume him entirely, appeared on his face.
"But then... Durand... he actually... through the Central System, he released control of all the test subjects in this area!"
"My God! He's crazy! He's completely lost it!"
"He let all those monsters out!"
Claire's brow furrowed deeply.
"Released control? But... when we came in from outside, we didn't see any other..."
Before she could finish, the man let out a long sigh.
That sigh was filled with the relief of a survivor, but also a detached indifference.
"It's the Queen," he said.
"The 'Queen' Blood Lily Wasp. It only has two basic behavioral patterns."
"Feeding and reproduction."
"Normally, to conserve energy and reduce unnecessary wear, it and its swarm are kept in a forced hibernation using cryogenic technology."
"Durand released all control..."
He paused, a cruel light flashing in his eyes behind the lenses.
"I'm afraid... I'm afraid that in this area, except for those of us who hid, every other living thing—whether Researcher, security, or those released prisoner test subjects..."
"...has been eaten clean by it."
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