Chapter 5

It had been a few hours since they came into the Resident Evil world. The point of entrance was an inconspicuous alley. Lan used psyche scan to locate themselves. This area was on the border of a crowded city. There was a long way to the city center. The time was late in the day so they casually selected a decent looking inn on the street and checked in.

Zheng didn’t use up all the USD from Jurassic Park. These cash didn’t take up much space so he kept them in the bottom of the storage bag. He took the cash out as they came to this world. The cash belong to different worlds but were the same currency after all. The inn owner pinched them then gave them the keys with a big smile. He also asked if they needed any services or dinner.

“We only have twenty days. In fact, this is five days more than I wanted. Fifteen days is the ideal time frame.” Xuan said to the team.

They weren’t in an assigned mission so as long as they didn’t go looking for dangers intentionally, these twenty days would be very safe. However, they weren’t here for vacation. Their goal was unimaginable to the people of this world. They were going to sneak into the headquarter of the Umbrella Corporation and steal the T-virus prototype that was hidden deep within, then head back to that same alley. No one should die in this process, or at least that was what they wished for. Their current knowledge of this world was only the time limit of twenty days.

“We first need to know where the headquarter of the Umbrella Corporation is, how big it is, how many people are in there, if there’s any bio weapons, what kind of dangers we might encounter, where the T-virus prototype is, how to obtain it, and last, how to escape from the Corporation’s chase or perhaps their nuclear attack.”

The process was similar to regular movies except for the lack of a field restricting them from leaving the area in the beginning. The team of ten gathered in Zheng’s room to discuss their plan. Of course, it was mostly just listening to Xuan than actual discussion.

Since there was no immediate danger, Zheng entered the third stage and simulated HongLu.

“I have some ideas.” He twirled the hair on his forehead. “The situation is simple. We don’t know anything about the world. The only connection we have with it is we finished the movie, actually two movies. We didn’t have a specific place we wanted to go to when we entered so God probably wouldn’t put us too far away from its theme. Which means the headquarter of the Umbrella Corporation wouldn’t be too far away. It may be in the center of the city, or under where we are standing, or even above us.”

Xuan nodded. He picked up a bright red tomato and took a bite. “The issue isn’t the whereabouts of its location. Based on the movie, the Corporation had resemblance of the government and its responsibilities. Its headquarter should be easily recognizable just like the landmark of a country. Every country wants to display its magnificence to people. The Umbrella Corporation will do the same to increase its publicity. What we are searching for is their research facility for secret bio weapons inside the headquarter.

“Judging from the current situation, we have three things to verify. First is the current time. How long has it been since the second movie? Second is our location. How far away are we from the headquarter? That will determine the order we do things because the distance represents the security strength of the Corporation and affects whether or not they will use nuclear weapon during our escape.

“The third thing is more complicated. That’s the interior map of the headquarter. It will affect how we go about sneaking into the headquarter and obtain the virus. If my speculation is correct, this should be worth a rank B reward for the team.”

Contrary to Xuan’s certainty, Zheng who was still simulating HongLu frowned. He thought about it and said. “Do you remember Alice being brought away at the end of the movie by people disguised as staffs of the Umbrella Corporation? They were obviously familiar with the inside of the headquarter. Can we ask them for help? Just like how we asked the characters for help in The Mummy? Those people had fought together with us after all.”

Xuan took another bite off the tomato. “You are putting too much emphasis on human nature. It may be taken into consideration but human nature also involves the most uncertainty. If possible, you should abandon such considerations at the beginning of any plans. If we were to include the movie characters into our plan, there will be too much variance. First of all, do you still remember the scene where they sneaked into the Corporation?”

Zheng looked at Xuan with surprise. The man finished the tomato two more bites then said. “Judging from the scene, the movie characters definitely borrowed powers from another big force in this world. That was how they were able to bring Alice away under the disguise as the Corporation staffs. As for the big force, I suspect it may be the government. Understand? The more forces we get in touch with, the higher the variance becomes. Most importantly, human nature has the biggest effect on variance. Do you want to leave your future up to fate?”

It took Zheng quite a while before he smiled bitterly. Those words gave him Deja vu. It was like when he first met Xuan back in Alien. Xuan grouped himself among the major group and asked if he would leave his future up to fate. His reply was to decide on his own future. This was how Xuan was, always had been.

“I get it. We will do this by ourselves. The first thing is we need are your computer skills. I know you are good with computers. Find out the time we are in. The second thing is find out where we are and where the Corporation’s headquarter is. The last step may be more difficult since we only have twenty days. Once we have the locations, YinKong and I will sneak into it.”

Zheng then assigned them other tasks. Xuan and YinKong was responsible for the computer related tasks. YinKong also had amazing computer skills, only second to Xuan. She said that as an assassin, there were more ways to killing the target aside from weapons and combat. She was the only one that could help Xuan with this.

Lan had to scan the whole area around them then draw it down. WangXia would then set up traps based on the terrains and plan the escape route. Once they got to the point when they get chased by large groups, they would run back here and use the traps to delay the enemies. WangXia had a lot of such experience from being in the special forces so he agreed without hesitation.

“Now we wait for Xuan and YinKong.”

The Resident Evil movies, both the first and second, were the turning points for Zheng. He went from a normal person into a member of this world in the first movie. That was when he came to realize what it meant to fight to live on. That was the beginning of his transition from a normal person to a warrior that struggled between the line of life and death. The second turning point was the battle against team Devil in the second movie. The loss of his comrades made him understood what they meant to him. The him before that point became a leader due to the dangers and responsibilities. It wasn’t after the battle that he considered himself a real leader. One that wish to lead his team to the top, never lose to another team, and hope to win against team Devil without losing anyone!

“The first two times were turning points for me. Will this third time be a new turning point?” Zheng lightly asked himself as he stared at the night sky after everyone left.

Zheng had to admit that efficiency was an important factor for Xuan and Yinkong. The addition of the sense of urgency from the mission made they place even more importance to the task. By noon the next day, they had gotten down the basic situation.

“First, the time is only a week after the end of the second movie. The newspapers reported the largest meteorites strike of the century on Raccoon City a few days ago and wiped it off from the map. This was obviously an attempt by the Corporation to cover up the nuclear attack. There needed to be some time for buffer between the event and the report, so the actual time should be around ten days after the movie. The difference won’t be five days apart.” Xuan said calmly as he looked at the paper in his hand.

Yinkong also had a piece of paper on her hand. She looked slightly different from Xuan in that she seemed tired. Xuan had always shown himself as a machine that had no concept of feeling tired. Yinkong’s display was more like that of a normal person. Even the toughest person would show weariness from working overnight.

“Uh. We are indeed near the headquarter of the Umbrella Corporation. The center of this city is a massive building. That’s what the Corporation announce to the public as their headquarter. Inside the building are research facilities, weapon development facilities, material development facilities, medical center, food and even stock brokerage firm. Umbrella Corporation is a world class company on nuclear weapon development but its businesses extended to every category. It won’t take much time to get into the city, about half an hour if we drive.” Yinkong said. Then she opened up the paper revealing a map of the terrain of this city.

Her handwriting was surprisingly neat, nothing what you would expect from an assassin. Her fingers were delicate and white. ChengXiao was dripping his saliva when she explained the map as her fingers ran over the paper. When she finally finished and pulled back her hand, he sighed.

“What a piece of masterwork! And she’s a baby face with big breasts and an emotionally pure woman waiting to get developed! I can’t hold…” After Yinkong stopped talking, he finally couldn’t contain himself and shouted. It seemed like he had been holding these words to himself for so long.

Just then, Yinkong grabbed at the air as if she was holding onto something. ChengXiao’s eyes immediately fixed on the map and asked Kampa some questions like those weren’t his words.

Zheng smiled bitterly. He came to have a deep understanding of the members due to the revivals. A kind of understanding beyond what each person knew about themselves. So he knew ChengXiao was only acting. He was a very reliable man.

Similarly, even though Yinkong was an assassin, an extremely talented one, she had a soft side to her. That was how she treated her comrades. She had always trusted her comrades. Although she couldn’t express herself well through words, Zheng learned this through her inner thoughts during the revival. That was why he hugged her. He felt a bit of pity for her and thought of her as a little sister.

“Ok. Back to our topic. Yinkong, can we enter this building? Are there any restrictions?” Zheng coughed and asked.

She nodded first then shook her head. “The building has an unusual design. It’s split into two parts. The outer part is open to the public and is where the office to the public is located. At the back of this part is a large area that’s heavily guarded. That is where the research facilities and where the secrets of the company are located according to what they said to the public. This area is extremely big. The headquarter included almost the whole center area of the city.”

Zheng thought for a moment then turned to Xuan. “What about you? Did you get into their internal network?”

Xuan gave him a weird look then brought out a tomato. “You put too much confidence on me, more than my ability. The Umbrella Corporation’s firewall is very advanced. It’s almost on par with the U.S.’s network defense for their nuclear weapons. Do you think I am a main character of those fantasy novels WangXia reads to hack into it using this kind of computers? The hardware isn’t sufficient and there are no already made software. Although we could exchange supercomputers from God at a low cost but their sizes are massive and consumes too much energy. It takes too long to modify the energy system, at least a dozen days, so I only exchanged this one.”

He took out a metallic box the size of his palm and threw it to Zheng. “Install it on the Corporation’s internal network. When the lights turn green, it will have copied all the information from the network. It will take from ten to twenty minutes. This thing is a future tech device but it’s still programmed in 0s and 1s. If a red light comes up, that means you are discovered by the network. Then just run.” Xuan focused on eating his tomato.

From bright red apples to bright red tomatoes, Zheng couldn’t understand why Xuan chose bright red for his food. However, tomatoes had more juices than apples so he always ended up with his hand covered in red juices after eating one.

Zheng shook his head. “Switch to something green next time. So Yinkong or I need to sneak into the Corporation? Which one are we getting into? The outer part or inner?”

Xuan casually replied. “The outer part is good enough. This is a future item. If it can’t even accomplish this little task, then the 500 points are a waste.”

Zheng nodded. Luxurious items were the cheapest in the exchange system. Things like wine and even drugs were extremely cheap. Next up were raw materials. Most of them were cheap except from magical ones that didn’t exist in the real world. Then the next tier was non weapons like the Xian needles ChengXiao had or the core of the Sky Stick. These items were cheaper than their actual value.

This little device was neither a weapon or defensive item and costed 500 points so it must be very effective. Since Xuan said it could intercept information from the Corporation, Zheng believed the device had these functions.

He looked over the box then said. “I will sneak into the headquarter and install this. There shouldn’t be any problems if I be careful. Lan assist me from outside. WangXia and Kampa protect Lan. Zero find a place and stay on guard. Everyone else stay in the inn. You have to protect Xuan and Yinkong while they work. Don’t let anyone get near them.”

Zheng stopped as a thought came into mind. “Gando, how is the robot? Can you fight a large group of armed helicopters?”

Gando was taken aback. He had kept quiet since he entered the movie. The movie didn’t have anything to do with him so he remained low key. However, now that the leader asked, he casually replied. “The robot is obviously much better than the bear robot even though it’s not the one I know. It’s a sci-fi product after all. It has three modes. Its armor is also made from an alloy from the OverTechnology. Xuan said his analysis shows the armor is only slightly softer than the bodyguard bug’s exoskeleton. Even your Tiger’s Soul will take a few strikes…”

“Is that so? Which means there isn’t any danger if you go fight a large number of battle jets or armed helicopters?” Zheng suddenly smiled.

“Eh?”