Chapter 57: Swallowing the T-Virus at the Start

A group of people stared in utter shock deep down the aisle: a chubby man standing a little over two meters tall was being beaten as if he were a sandbag by a young Asian man.

A store clerk couldn't help shouting, "Hey! What are you doing! This is violent assault! Stop right now, or I'm calling the police."

Ruo Ke paid his cries no heed, raised his right leg, and delivered a flying kick that sent the fat zombie soaring over a dozen meters away, knocking over one display shelf after another.

The fat zombie raised its flesh-mangled face, revealing a sunken pit in its belly. Even so, it still wasn't dead.

"How can you treat a poor soul like this?" At that moment, the white youth who had previously mocked the Black man approached the fat zombie and began to criticize Ruo Ke. "He's just a little heavy, but his skin is as pure as an angel's, and his heart must be unimaginably pure too. How could you—what? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

He was dumbfounded, unable to understand why the people opposite him kept retreating step by step. He wasn't a monster, and there was nothing terrifying behind him, right?

The man turned his head in bewilderment, and in an instant, he was pinned to the ground by the fat zombie, which bit deeply into his neck as a fountain of blood sprayed into the air.

Ruo Ke smiled, turned away, and continued to scavenge for other supplies in the supermarket.

*Boom—*

The sound of shattering glass echoed, and the others turned pale with alarm. Sure enough, a dozen zombies came jogging in at a pace that was hardly slow.

"Ah!!!"

A dozen was manageable, but a moment later, even more zombies were drawn over by the shrill screams of a few foolish women.

The couple that had just been rescued also collapsed to the ground, convulsing violently.

The incubation period of the virus varied in every human body, lasting several hours for some, and only ten or so minutes for others, depending on individual immunity and physical constitution.

The supermarket turned into a carnival; the survival game of tag had begun. Ruo Ke wove methodically through the littered corpses.

Reaching the checkout counter, three zombies were pinning a blonde, voluptuous female clerk onto the counter, ravaging her frantically. The female clerk wasn't dead yet; she looked at Ruo Ke in despair, her lips opening and closing.

*Kill me!*

*Thud—*

Ruo Ke picked up a ballpoint pen and threw it with force, accurately piercing the center of the female clerk's brow.

The delicious aroma instantly lost half its appeal, and the three zombies roared in fury.

Looking at them, Ruo Ke felt a sense of utter boredom. With a few kicks, he sent them sprawling and walked out of Walmart.

By this time, Raccoon City had already descended into riots. At least two-thirds of the urban area had witnessed the appearance of zombies, and the number of people bitten was countless.

The most terrifying thing was that many people had no idea the virus could be transmitted through bodily fluids!

No, they didn't even know this was a virus leaked by the Umbrella Corporation.

The Umbrella Corporation acted swiftly. Early in the morning, they dispatched an exclusive fleet to pick up the company's senior executives from various locations, and then established walls and gates at the city exits to prevent the situation from spinning out of control.

They had even prepared to announce to the outside world that Raccoon City had suffered an explosion triggered by a nuclear leak and was ultimately destroyed, thereby covering up their crimes.

To this, Ruo Ke only wanted to say: utterly shameless.

According to the plot, the initial leak was an accident, but from the mid-stage onward, the spread of the virus worldwide was the Umbrella executives adding fuel to the fire, secretly releasing the toxin and disrupting the global order. They intended to shuffle the deck of the world and re-establish a new Umbrella regime.

It was an incomparably cliché ambition and conspiracy, yet it attracted countless people to follow one after another.

Ruo Ke was not obsessed with killing zombies; only those lacking eyes who provoked him would get their heads blown off. According to the analysis of the side quests, keeping these zombies around might still prove useful to him later on.

Besides, he hadn't come here to be a zombie hunter.

He leaped between towering buildings, searching for mutated creatures worth targeting. Unfortunately, on the very first day of the outbreak, he didn't encounter any Lickers or the like.

Helicopters from Umbrella flew across the sky one after another. They were not searching for or rescuing civilians; instead, they were evacuating trapped high-ranking company members from the city, along with powerful politicians and wealthy elites.

The rich live, the poor die.

*Pfft!*

On the rooftop, Ruo Ke pulled the tab of a soda can and took a refreshing gulp.

In his field of vision, a dashing and spirited woman emerged from the Raccoon City Police Department. It was the female secondary lead from the first movie—Valentine. She should now be heading toward the city exit checkpoint.

As for Alice, she was most likely still lying in a laboratory, fast asleep. Ruo Ke didn't intend to team up with her either, though he could occasionally linger around her later on. As Umbrella's primary experimental subject, all kinds of monsters would inevitably appear in her vicinity.

After a moment of thought, Ruo Ke tapped his feet, extended his tail-wings, and soared into the clouds.

Who would have thought that the moment he ascended, he would come face-to-face with a helicopter.

"Is that a person?"

"What is that thing on his back! He's a virus mutant!"

Inside the cabin, several men wearing Umbrella combat uniforms couldn't help shouting in alarm and confusion. Coincidentally, a researcher who understood the T-virus experiments was seated inside.

"Fire!"

*Bang, bang, bang!*

With a burst of jet propulsion, Ruo Ke resolutely crashed into the cabin and flew out the back.

The helicopter exploded in a ball of fire, leaving the occupants torn to shreds.

As dusk approached, by the time Ruo Ke arrived, the area below was already a churning sea of humanity. Countless vehicles had converged into a massive dragon, jammed so tightly that not even water could pass through.

The towering walls and heavily armed special operations forces forced the citizens to calm down and slowly evacuate this city of death. A metal gate wide enough for only a single car to pass through was the object of everyone's yearning.

Valentine converged with the Black police officer Peyton, working together to maintain order.

Suddenly, turmoil broke out among the crowd.

A man collapsed to the ground, convulsing, while his terrified daughter explained to everyone that he suffered from a heart disease.

Peyton hurried over, attempting to administer CPR to the man, but the very next second, the man mutated and bit down hard on Peyton's ankle.

*Bang!*

Quick-witted and fast-handed, Valentine ended the man with a single shot.

The gunshot made every heart present quiver.

At that, the crowd rioted, surging forward in a restless and agitated attempt to force their way through the checkpoint.

On the city wall, the commander issued an order: "Close the gates!"

When the metal gates completely slammed shut, the people began to violently resist.

"This has become a bio-containment zone. Because of the risk of infection, you cannot leave here. We are taking measures, and the situation is well under control. Please return to your homes!"

After repeating this several times amidst a barrage of curses, the commander helplessly ordered the troops to open fire. The piercing sound of gunfire finally shocked the crowd into retreat, and they fled in all directions, scrambling back to that true city of hell.

Just as chaos erupted ahead, a figure dropped from the sky and sneaked into the interior of Umbrella's temporary base.

He reached a cluster of tightly sealed tents; they unmistakably served as a temporary virus research facility, with a few people in hazmat suits entering and exiting.

"The situation is critical now. Raccoon City cannot be held. We will evacuate shortly as well. This is the last vial of T-virus reagent stored in Raccoon City. For safety's sake, you will operate alone and deliver it directly to headquarters." The two conversed, and one of them handed over a small security briefcase.

The man who took the briefcase hurried toward a helicopter, which immediately took off.

High in the sky, a fierce gale raged, as if a storm of blood and slaughter were imminent.

Suddenly, the pilot rubbed his eyes. He leaned forward and asked his teammate beside him, "Is something floating over there?"

His teammate looked over. "Where? There's nothing at all."

Just as the pilot thought he was seeing things, a terrifyingly chilling voice sounded from outside the window.

"Are you looking for me?"

The men turned their heads to look, only to find a human being running after the helicopter!

Amidst flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder, that face broke into a ferocious smile.

The pilot's heart skipped a beat on the spot; his eyes rolled back, and he fainted from fright.

Before the others could react, the helicopter's rotor blades were sliced off by Ruo Ke's bone blades.

Following that, he snatched the briefcase from the researcher's hands.

The helicopter dropped and crashed.

While still mid-air, Ruo Ke opened the briefcase. Inside was indeed a vial of mesmerizing blue liquid.

The T-virus, whose legendary name he had revered since elementary school!

*Hiss, hiss...*

His devouring claws shot out, swallowing the vial whole, glass and all.