On the monitor screen was a confined space filled with oppression and despair.
A familiar figure wearing a blue tactical suit and sporting a capable, chestnut-colored short haircut was kneeling on the ground. With hands trembling slightly from tension, she was frantically prying at a heavy metal door lock.
Above her head, a massive ceiling made of solid rock was emitting a tooth-grinding 'rumbling' sound as it slowly descended!
That terrifying shadow was nearly on the verge of completely swallowing her body!
"Jill!"
Claire recognized the woman struggling for survival in that desperate situation at a glance; it was Jill Valentine, her brother Chris's most trusted partner!
So, the so-called 'collectible' that Alexia had mentioned turned out to be Jill!
An indescribable surge of fury instantly rushed to Claire's head!
Without the slightest hesitation, she dashed toward the monitoring console that Alfred had abandoned.
Her azure eyes rapidly scanned the dizzying array of buttons and levers on the control panel.
Claire's brain was working at high speed.
"Found it!"
Her index finger pressed down hard on an inconspicuous red button hidden in a corner!
Almost at the same time.
From the monitor displaying Jill's desperate plight came a muffled 'humming' sound.
The deathly ceiling that had been slowly sinking suddenly jerked to a halt, and then, amidst an even more intense mechanical roar, it began to slowly rise back up!
Immediately following that.
The wall on the other side of the room opened to both sides, revealing a metal staircase leading to a higher floor... "Hmm?"
Jill, who was buried in her struggle with the door lock, keenly sensed the strange sound coming from above.
She instinctively looked up and saw the deathly ceiling slowly ascending.
Her taut nerves finally relaxed.
She let out a long sigh of relief, feeling as though she were about to collapse from exhaustion.
At that moment, the giant display on the wall flickered again.
A familiar young face, filled with worry and anxiety, appeared on the screen.
"Claire?"
An undisguisable look of pleasant surprise appeared on Jill's face.
She immediately stood up and walked quickly to the display.
"Claire, I'm so glad to see that you're safe."
Her voice carried the relief of someone who had just survived a disaster.
"Jill!"
Seeing Jill safe and sound on the screen, Claire's heart finally settled.
But she immediately remembered the question she cared about most.
She leaned close to the microphone and asked in an urgent tone that bordered on pleading: "What about Chris? How is my brother? Is he here too?!"
The string of questions exposed the fear and unease deep within her.
"Your brother is fine."
Jill's voice came through the speaker clearly, carrying a reassuring power.
"He's very worried about you. He has already landed on this island and is looking for you somewhere."
As Jill spoke, she instinctively lifted her wrist to check her specially modified tactical communicator.
The signal bars on the screen were still at zero.
"The signal interference here is too strong."
She shook her head somewhat helplessly.
"As soon as I get out of here, I'll contact him immediately and tell him the news that you're safe. Don't worry."
"Mm!"
Claire nodded heavily, her eyes instantly turning red.
Her heart, which had been exhausted by the torture of fear and anxiety over her brother, finally found complete peace the moment she received this definite news.
A wave of immense joy, like warm tide water, instantly flooded over her.
"Then we'll meet in the garden outside the mansion!"
Claire spoke to Jill on the screen, forcing back the tears that were about to spill over.
Jill gave her an 'OK' gesture and then quickly synchronized her communicator's backup channel with Claire's communication System.
After doing all this, she didn't waste any more time. She just gave Claire one deep look through the screen before turning and rushing into the newly opened upward staircase.
Watching Jill's figure disappear into the darkness of the screen.
Claire's nerves, which had been constantly taut, finally relaxed completely.
She spun around, no longer able to suppress the emotions in her heart.
Like a weary bird that had found a safe harbor, she plunged into Noah's broad and warm embrace.
"Ugh... that's great..."
A muffled sob, heavy with tears and suppressed for a long time, came from his chest.
"Chris is okay... he's really okay..."
Noah didn't say anything.
He just reached out his arms and held the delicate body, trembling slightly from joy, firmly and gently.
His palm gently stroked her smooth red hair, which was full of life like flames, soothing her turbulent emotions in his most silent yet reliable way.
Not far away.
Leon watched this tender scene, then turned to look at Ada, who was leaning against the doorframe observing it all with interest.
A brilliant, perhaps even slightly exaggerated, smile suddenly appeared on his handsome face.
He opened his arms and spoke to Ada affectionately in a dramatic, operatic tone.
"Ada, let's have a warm celebration too!"
Ada didn't even lift an eyelid.
She merely spat out a few words from between her sexy red lips without a hint of emotion.
"Go scout the path ahead."
Leon's open arms instantly froze in mid-air.
The expression on his face was as if he had been struck by lightning; it was a sight to behold.
"Oh..."
He let out a long sigh in a tone filled with sorrow and loss, as if he had been betrayed by the whole world.
"I'm so heartbroken..."
As he spoke, he dragged his feet as if they weighed a thousand pounds, walking with an exaggerated splayed gait and looking back every three steps as he headed toward the pitch-black secret passage.
His aggrieved appearance, like a large dog abandoned by its master, made one want to laugh.
Ada watched his lonely back, which was full of performative traces, and a gentle smile finally couldn't help but ripple in the depths of her almond eyes, which were usually as deep and calm as an ancient well.
Just then.
Noah's gaze was drawn to a document carelessly discarded in a half-open drawer of the dressing table.
He gently patted the back of Claire, whose emotions had gradually stabilized in his arms.
Then he stepped forward and pulled the document out of the drawer.
It was a mission report printed on Umbrella Corporation's special stationery.
And the flamboyant signature at the end of the report gave Noah a slight start.
Hunk.
The content of the report was very concise.
It roughly recorded some data from a combat test of a new B.O.W. conducted by the U.S.S. unit led by Hunk.
At the end of the report, Hunk used an extremely rare tone tinged with personal emotion to briefly reminisce about the days when he received 'Grim Reaper' training here.
This was the training base Umbrella used to cultivate its most elite and cold-blooded secret units.
Noah looked up at Ada, a hint of doubt in his eyes.
"Doesn't Hunk work for Umbrella?"
His voice was kept very low.
"Why did he come to pick us up in Raccoon City that day?"
This question had been lingering in his mind.
A man who should have been an enemy had reached out to help them at the most critical moment.
There must be some unknown secret hidden within this.
"Noah."
Ada met his gaze, the corners of her mouth curling into a mysterious and charming arc.
"In this world, many things are not as simple as they appear on the surface."
Her words were ambiguous and full of hints, but she didn't give any substantive answer.
"Who is Hunk?"
Leon's curious head popped out of the dark passage entrance again.
However.
His question, which was about to burst out, was forcibly blocked by a cool and soft slender index finger suddenly pressed against his lips.
Ada had appeared before him like a ghost at some point.
Her deep eyes gazed into Leon's from inches away as she said softly in a cold tone.
"Curiosity killed the cat sometimes."
...Claire, leaning in Noah's arms, took all of this in.
She looked up at Noah's profile, which still carried a hint of contemplation, and seemed to understand something.
She reached out her fair, slender arms and proactively wrapped them around Noah's waist.
Then she gave him a firm nod.
Some secrets don't need to be spoken.
Some trust doesn't need any words... The four of them wasted no more time and entered the pitch-black and deep secret passage opened by Alfred one by one.
At the end of the passage was a downward staircase.
Following the stairs all the way down, they soon returned to the main hall of the castle, which was filled with an eerie and ominous atmosphere.
However.
The moment the four of them stepped onto the cold, hard black marble floor of the main hall.
"Rumble... Rumble rumble rumble..."
A dull, violent vibration, like the precursor to an earthquake, suddenly surged up from beneath their feet without warning!
The entire castle began to shake violently!
The giant crystal chandelier on the ceiling swayed wildly, letting out a series of tooth-grinding 'creaks'!
Countless dust and rubble fell like raindrops from the cracks in the roof!
"Not good!"
Noah's expression changed abruptly!
"Quick, scatter!!"
The moment the words left his mouth!
"BOOM—!!!!"
A deafening, terrifying roar that seemed to tear the world apart exploded from the very center of the hall!
The hard, thick black marble floor was violently flipped up as if a heavy bomb had been detonated from underground!
Countless giant stones mixed with soil sprayed wildly in all directions like a volcanic eruption!
Immediately after.
A suffocatingly massive two-headed serpentine monster, a fusion of two deformed bodies, broke through the giant hole and lunged out from that endless darkness!