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On the other side of the lift gate was an airlock.
The metal door slowly closed behind them.
"Boom—"
The final dull thud completely sealed off that Hell filled with fire, screams, and death.
The world instantly fell silent.
All that remained was the sound of their violently beating hearts and gasps so ragged they felt like they were tearing their lungs.
Noah leaned against the cold metal wall, his chest heaving violently.
The g-virus within him had been stimulated to an unprecedented level of activity during the extreme dodging and bursts of speed just now.
Now that the battle was over, that savage power was slowly receding.
What followed was a bone-deep exhaustion.
He could feel his muscle fibers faintly trembling in post-excitement spasms.
Claire was not doing much better.
She dropped the Flamethrower, which had nearly run out of fuel, and the heavy metal canister struck the ground with a loud clang.
Relieved of the heavy burden, her body went limp, and she slid down the wall to the floor.
Sweat had soaked the strands of hair on her forehead, sticking tightly to her pale cheeks.
Her eyes, which usually shone with a fiery brilliance, were now somewhat vacant.
She just stared blankly at the tightly shut door opposite her, as if she could still pierce the thick alloy and see the monster's corpse, blown to pieces, behind it.
And that white Researcher.
His distorted face, filled with absurdity and despair in his final moments, flashed through her mind again and again.
That was not a judgment of sin.
It was just... a senseless, pure massacre.
Noah's breathing calmed slightly. He turned his head and looked at Claire's distraught appearance.
Then, silently, he took a bottle of water from his tactical backpack, unscrewed the cap, and offered it to her.
Claire did not take it.
She did not even look at him.
Noah did not urge her, just quietly waited with his arm extended.
Time seemed to solidify in this small, enclosed space.
He did not know how long passed.
Claire's eyelashes fluttered gently.
She slowly raised her head, her gaze finally focusing on Noah's face, stained with traces of gunpowder and dust.
Then she saw the bottle of water in his hand.
She reached out and took it, her fingertips accidentally brushing Noah's warm palm.
She brought the water to her lips and drank in small sips.
The cool liquid slid down her parched throat, carrying away some of the heat, but unable to wash away the sickening, cold dread in her heart.
Noah withdrew his hand and also drank a few mouthfuls of water.
He looked at Claire, his voice low, yet carrying a sense of calm.
"That was not your fault."
Claire's grip on the water bottle tightened abruptly.
"I know," her voice was hoarse.
Of course, she knew.
She was just... angry.
Angry at that Researcher's disregard for life.
Angry at Umbrella's inhumane experiments.
And even angrier at herself... for finding no other way to end it all except through more violent means.
This feeling of powerlessness suffocated her.
Noah placed his backpack on the ground.
He took out two energy bars, tore open the packaging, and handed one to Claire.
She silently took the energy bar and mechanically chewed it bite by bite.
The food tasted like sawdust.
The words of the white man in the main control room echoed in her ears once more.
"Science always requires sacrifice."
"Using their filthy, worthless lives to dedicate themselves to humanity's great evolutionary cause—there's nothing wrong with that."
"It is their honor."
Claire's chest began to heave violently again. She buried her head deeply between her knees.
Her shoulders trembled slightly with uncontrollable anger and sorrow.
Noah did not try to comfort her further.
Some emotions she needed to process herself.
He simply sat quietly beside her and picked up her samurai edge, which had fallen to the floor and was stained with the monster's green blood.
Then he took a clean cotton cloth from his backpack and meticulously, bit by bit, wiped the sickening stains from the gun body.
His movements were slow and steady.
The faint'shush' sound of metal rubbing against cotton became the only noise in this confined space.
That sound carried a peculiar, soothing power.
Claire's breathing gradually stabilized.
She finished the energy bar.
She raised her head again.
Although her beautiful eyes still showed traces of bloodshot, the vacancy and confusion were replaced by a renewed, resilient fire.
She suddenly grabbed Noah's arm.
Before Noah could react, she threw herself into his arms, burying her face deep into Noah's chest, which smelled of sweat, gunpowder, and faint blood.
She was like a small injured animal seeking shelter.
She took a deep breath, using all her strength.
That familiar scent, which made her feel incredibly safe, instantly filled her nostrils, driving away the lingering stench of death that clung to her mind.
Noah's body stiffened slightly.
He immediately put down the samurai edge in his hand and wrapped his arms gently around her back.
He could feel her body still trembling slightly.
He did not speak.
He simply stroked her soft, reddish-brown hair, tied in a ponytail, with his palm, stroke after stroke.
After a long time.
Claire finally, slowly lifted her head from his embrace.
Her pretty face, streaked with tears and dust, looked exceptionally moving under the dim emergency light.
She stretched her slightly stiff body.
Then, facing Noah, she gave a relieved, even slightly mischievous smile.
"Let's go."
That smile was like a bolt of lightning cutting through the gloom, instantly illuminating Noah's entire world.
Noah looked at her and smiled back.
He nodded.
"Okay."
The two stood up and began to reorganize their gear.
They swapped out all the empty magazines.
Then they reloaded the magazines with cold, brass-colored bullets.
The crisp, pleasant 'clack' of metal casings hitting the magazine.
That was the sweetest music belonging to a warrior.
It represented that they would continue to fight.
Noah returned the wiped-clean samurai edge back into the holster on Claire's waist.
Claire carefully checked the Quad Grenade Launcher and secured it in the most accessible position on her back.
Everything was ready.
They left the small airlock and returned to the main area.
The final destination was another massive electronic door, gleaming with cold metallic luster.
The name of the area was marked on the door.
"Nemesis Fusion Chamber"
The two stopped simultaneously in front of the door.
Noah stared at the door, his brow slightly furrowed.
He turned his head to look at Claire.
"Do you feel like something is strange?"
His voice broke the silence in the main area.
Claire's gaze moved away from the text. She thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Indeed."
A trace of solemnity appeared on her face.
"Up until now, we've caused such a huge commotion, but Durand still hasn't appeared."
Since they entered this "Incubation Nest," they encountered hiding Researchers, burned down the entire Test Zone, and even personally killed the area's top bio-weapon, the Queen of "Anjou Blood Lily."
Every disturbance was enough to shake the entire base.
Yet the mastermind behind the scenes, the madman who orchestrated all of this, Durand, has never shown his face.
He was like a phantom hiding in the shadows, coldly observing everything they did here.
This feeling sent chills down their spines.
"Either he is controlling everything from the shadows,"
Claire analyzed.
"And is planning to give us a... 'big surprise' after we let our guard down."
When she said the words "big surprise," her tone carried cold sarcasm.
Noah nodded, taking over the conversation.
"Or, he is currently preoccupied with something more important and cannot pay attention to us."
His gaze fell back onto the door.
"Or..."
Claire's eyes also deepened.
She thought of the third, and most unsettling, possibility almost simultaneously with Noah.
"Or, everything he needed to do has already been completed."
"What we do here is already irrelevant to him."
The air fell silent once more.
If it was truly the third possibility, it meant they were about to face a final product far more terrifying and unpredictable than the Queen of "Anjou Blood Lily."
But what did that matter?
Noah turned his head and looked at Claire's face, which was solemn yet fearless.
He smiled slightly.
"No matter what it is, we face it together."
Claire saw the certainty and tenderness in his eyes, and the slight unease in her heart vanished instantly.
She also smiled sweetly, her smile bright and radiant.
"We face it together."
This promise gave them greater strength than any weapon.
Noah took a deep breath, no longer hesitating.
He raised his wrist and pressed Sophia's Bracelet against the Identity Scanner next to the door.
"Beep—"
[ACCESS GRANTED]
[WELCOME, Researcher Sophia Bellini]
The cold electronic voice was exceptionally clear in the empty corridor.
The door lock emitted a heavy unlocking sound.
Immediately after, a low "hiss" sound of the hydraulic mechanism starting up was heard.
The heavy alloy door in front of them did not slide open to the sides.
Instead... it slowly lifted upwards.
As the door opened, a burst of disinfectant spray jetted out from both sides of the door frame, carrying a faint scent of chemical agents.
The door rose higher and higher.
The scene behind the door was revealed to the pair, little by little.
The expected carnage and Hell did not appear.
This place... was very clean, unnaturally so.
A cool, fresh breeze blew out from within the door.
The ventilation System here was still working diligently and faithfully.
Beneath their feet was a spotless, reflective white composite Materials floor.
Above them, bright, soft shadowless lights illuminated the entire space as if it were daytime.
This did not look like a wicked laboratory used to create monsters.
Instead, it resembled a... cutting-edge medical research center.
The lift gate finally rose completely.
Noah and Claire exchanged a glance, tightened their grips on their weapons, and stepped one after the other into this brand new, unknown space.
However, when they clearly saw the scene before them.
Their footsteps involuntarily halted.
Their breathing also stopped.
The space was exceptionally vast.
But what appeared before them was not precision instruments or complex control panels.
Instead, there were rows and columns of massive glass Cultivation Tanks, lined up as neatly as an army.
Each Cultivation Tank was over three meters tall.
Inside the transparent, reinforced glass tanks, a viscous, pale green liquid glowed faintly.
Countless tiny bubbles were slowly rising from the bottom of the tanks.
Within those liquids.
Giant, distorted, sleeping... figures were silently suspended.
Noah and Claire's pupils suddenly contracted.
They slowly approached the Cultivation Tank closest to them.
Through the thick glass and the pale green liquid.
They saw the true appearance of the "thing" inside.
That was a... Tyrant.
A Female Tyrant with an exceptionally balanced physique, even possessing a strange, streamlined aesthetic beauty.
She had the basic outline of a human female, but every inch of her body's muscle had been terrifyingly enhanced.
Her skin displayed a sickly, grayish-white pallor.
A head of silver-white long hair slowly drifted in the viscous liquid.
Her face was expressionless, her eyes tightly closed, as if she was merely asleep.
But her exposed, continuously beating heart, and her right hand, which had evolved into a massive bone claw, silently proclaimed her terrifying destructive power.
Claire felt her throat go dry.
She instinctively took half a step back. Noah reached out and held her shoulder, signaling her to remain calm.
His gaze swept towards the adjacent Cultivation Tank.
The thing inside was even more... deformed.
That was also a Tyrant.
But its body had undergone severe asymmetrical mutation.
Its left half still retained the basic Tyrant form.
However, its right half seemed to have been consumed by countless tumors and sarcomas, swelling into an enormous, constantly writhing, shapeless mass of flesh.
Countless thick, vein-like tentacles stretched out from the mass of flesh, swaying gently and unconsciously in the liquid.
That sight was enough to make any sane person break down instantly.
Noah forced himself to look away, turning his attention to the Cultivation Tanks further away.
But his heart sank bit by bit.
This place was practically a... Tyrant museum.
A monster showroom submerged in culture fluid.
They saw Tyrants fused with animals.
That was a monster with a Tyrant's torso but the hideous head of a shark.
Its skin was covered in fine, grayish-black scales.
It even had a pair of ragged, bat-like fleshy wings growing from its back.
They also saw Tyrants modified specifically for underwater combat.
Its body was more slender and smoother, and it had a ring of gill-like respiratory organs on its neck.
Translucent webbed membranes had grown between the fingers and toes.
Its eyes were huge and protruding, without eyelids, staring motionlessly ahead in the liquid, like deep-sea fish.
Female Tyrants, deformed bodies, animal Fusion bodies, underwater bodies... all manner of strange and bizarre ultimate bio-weapons that could only appear in the most insane nightmares.
Were quietly submerged in these massive glass tanks.
Like perfect works of art waiting to be awakened.
The entire space was utterly silent.
Only the faint "gurgle" of tiny bubbles rising in the Cultivation Tanks could be heard.
That sound was like countless sleeping devils murmuring contentedly in their dreams.
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