Chapter 105: Alice, Save Me

Raccoon City was in chaos. The ordinary people, living their lives filled with happiness and comforts, had no idea that a virus capable of annihilating humanity was hidden right beneath their feet. Even now, the citizens had no clue as to the cause.

The Raccoon City television station had dispatched street reporters to provide the latest updates. A female anchor stood before the camera, microphone in hand, her face etched with panic. As she reported, she kept glancing back at the chaotic streets. "We still have no explanation for this sudden outbreak of violence sweeping through our city."

On screen, the scenes of panicked crowds, frantic police, and the ever-multiplying zombies painted a portrait of the apocalypse. The Umbrella Corporation, the architect of this catastrophe, seemed entirely devoid of remorse. Instead, they had turned the entire city into an experiment, treating this massive disaster as a live-fire exercise.

Outside Raccoon City, Umbrella had set up a temporary command post and activated pre-prepared facilities, such as the towering walls designed to seal off the city. At the same time, they released Alice, eager to see the extent of her abilities following their experimentation.

Minutes ticked by. The number of law enforcement officers—police, firefighters, and others—was vastly insufficient compared to the rapidly growing horde of zombies. The situation finally spiraled out of control. Government systems collapsed, and the surviving citizens scrambled to flee. The lucky ones, having reacted quickly, escaped before Umbrella sealed the city, but far more were trapped inside.

The authorities required individual screenings to ensure no one was infected before allowing passage, but the process was agonizingly slow.

In an office on the top floor of a commercial building, Ma Jun sat in his chair, smoking a cigarette and watching a tablet on his desk with a leisurely gaze. His equipment, including his electronic devices, were products from his bases in other dimensions. Powered by superconducting ore, these micro-chip devices were incredibly powerful yet compact; a tablet no larger than two palms possessed the computing power of a supercomputer built from silicon-based chips. Consequently, even though the computer industry in the Resident Evil dimension was highly advanced—boasting even artificial intelligence—Ma Jun could easily bypass their security with his superior hardware. He had never meticulously studied hacking, but his tablet contained user-friendly software that could do the job for him.

The screen displayed surveillance footage from across Raccoon City. Umbrella had installed cameras on every street—perhaps in anticipation, or perhaps out of a desire for the elite to maintain control over the populace. Regardless, these cameras now made Ma Jun’s work effortless.

As the tablet received the footage, it automatically scanned for human figures, comparing them to Alice’s likeness with a seventy percent accuracy rate. The lack of a perfect match was due to the relatively low resolution of the surveillance cameras. With such equipment, Ma Jun only needed to wait patiently; he even had the leisure to brew a cup of tea. Although zombies were constantly battering the office door outside, creating a racket, he remained unbothered, having reinforced the frame with steel. It had taken five or six hours since the afternoon for the zombies to pick up his scent, meaning the interruption was minimal.

After taking simple food from his Qiankun ring for dinner, he looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows and saw that night had fallen.

"Beep, beep, beep..."

Suddenly, the tablet emitted a notification. Ma Jun looked down to see a single feed showing a woman in the middle of an empty street, dressed in what looked like hospital pajamas, clutching a shotgun as she scanned her surroundings.

"Ha, you’ve finally emerged!"

After stowing his gear, Ma Jun rose. With some effort, he dismantled the door reinforcements. The original wooden door had already been decimated by the zombies; as the barrier vanished, dozens of them surged toward him with excitement. Ma Jun stepped back rapidly to create space and, in an instant, an automatic rifle appeared in his hand. He pulled the trigger in a continuous burst; with a series of cracks, over a dozen zombies fell with bullet holes in their foreheads. Clearing a path, he continued his steady, lethal fire.

Soon after leaving the building and reconfirming Alice's location on his screen, he began to advance rapidly toward his target.

At this point, Alice had just escaped the Umbrella research facility—or so she believed. Having been stripped naked for her examination, she wore only a research gown she had scavenged. Upon seeing the chaos in the streets, she realized the virus was running rampant. Overcome with fury, she found a shotgun in a discarded vehicle and began to roam the streets.

Most uninfected humans were huddled at the Mayor’s Bridge, waiting for screening to flee, while the zombies naturally gravitated toward them. Consequently, most streets were empty of people, littered only with wrecked vehicles and flickering flames. Alice moved alone, her strange attire making her look like a phantom.

Suddenly, her expression sharpened. She heard cries for help.

"Is anyone there? Help me! Is anyone there?"

She hurried across the street, rounded a corner, and found a young man of Asian descent in a narrow alley. He was panting, his face pale with terror as he stumbled forward. Behind him, dozens of zombies were in pursuit.

"Help me! Please help me!" The boy shouted with joy upon seeing Alice, though he seemed briefly puzzled by her appearance.

Alice did not hesitate. With effortless grace, she raised the shotgun and fired while running toward him. The power of the blast sent a wave of zombies to the ground, but despite their injuries, they did not abandon their prey; they crawled forward, undeterred by the blood pooling beneath them.

"The zombies will keep gathering. We have to go!" Alice said sternly. She fired a few more rounds until the shotgun was empty, then grabbed the boy’s hand and began to run.

After sprinting through two blocks, Alice pulled him into a gun shop. Only when they were safely away from the zombies did they catch their breath.

Following the Umbrella experiments, Alice’s speed, strength, reflexes, and regenerative capabilities far exceeded those of a normal human; she could no longer be considered an ordinary person. Although she had intentionally slowed her pace during their flight, it was still faster than an average person could maintain, yet Alice remained oblivious to this discrepancy.

"Are you alright?" Alice asked, watching the boy lean over, gasping for air.

"Thank you, thank you!" The boy was emotional, tears welling in his eyes. "They ate my father, I thought... I thought..."

He threw his arms around Alice, seeking comfort.

"Don't worry, it's all over now," Alice said softly, patting his shoulder with genuine pity.