Chapter 59: Spreading the Scarlet from Raccoon City

"Roar... oof..."

The two skinned rabbits were thus cruelly torn apart and devoured. In terms of sheer horror, there were few sights in the Resident Evil world that could rival this.

+6
+6
Evolution Value [972/2000]

"Devoured Licker. Host's hearing has been enhanced!"

Well, well!

Roke raised an eyebrow. He certainly hadn't expected that a mere long-tongued, skinless rabbit could offer him such a pleasant surprise.

Never mind that it only added 6 points; it came with a brand-new ability!

Roke coughed, first clarifying that he had no hidden intentions toward anyone in particular.

He settled his mind, his ears twitching. Driven by his consciousness, countless chaotic and noisy sounds flooded in.

There were the low roars of zombies, the hoarse weeping of women, the sorrowful prayers of old men, police sirens, and gunshots. Sound alone composed a world of utter despair and terror... Huh? Why was the sound of a motorcycle rapidly approaching?

Was it her?

Bang!

The stained-glass window of the church was shattered by a motorcycle, and Alice made a dashing entrance.

She looked at the concluded battlefield, the crater caused by tremendous force, and the remaining terrifying bloodstains, before glancing at Roke. Her mouth twitched. "Who are you?"

Roke curled his lips and smiled. "Roke."

Alice wore a look of feline vigilance. Her intuition told her that this tall young man was extraordinary, but she still replied, "Alice."

The group gathered together. Although Valentine and the others were strangers to Alice, in times of apocalypse, more teammates meant more help.

Besides, Alice's entrance was truly impactful, and coupled with her invincible aura, it was safe to conclude she was a reliable and powerful woman.

"Coming with us?" Alice invited Roke.

"I'm used to walking alone. See you around." Roke waved his hand and leisurely strolled out through the main entrance.

He had business to attend to and wouldn't wander aimlessly around the city with Alice and the others. He needed to infect more zombies before dawn and then have them hide underground before the nuclear missile arrived.

He walked onto the main thoroughfare of Raccoon City, where the "people" were most numerous and the liveliest.

Behind him, a crowd of zombies gradually gathered. They showed no hostility toward Roke; instead, they adopted a submissive posture.

Upon closer inspection, faint red mist could be seen drifting from around Roke's body, enveloping the entire street and spreading outward.

Under his control, the Crimson Virus would only infect zombies and animals; the temporarily surviving humans were spared. As a half-human entity, Roke still possessed a baseline of conscience and saw no need to be overly ruthless. After all, the number of zombies was already vast enough to cultivate a vanguard army for him.

"Roar!"

A dozen zombies leaped up from the ground. Compared to the severed limbs and rotting flesh on the ground, they preferred moving, fresh meat.

Yet, the next second, they all stiffened in place. The Crimson Virus clung to their skin, instantly invading their bodies, shattering the T-virus, and taking its place.

Furthermore, the Crimson Virus began altering the genes within the zombies, reorganizing, mutating, and frantically enhancing them.

Some of the earliest infected zombies had already undergone noticeable changes: their movements became more contorted and ferocious, devoid of any stiffness; their speed and agility multiplied several times over; and even their eyes gleamed with a touch of cunning.

They no longer shuffled forward; some crawled on the ground on all fours, others leaped about and crouched atop cars, while a few ran amok like madmen, shrieking "Ah, ah, ah!"

Their comprehensive abilities skyrocketed dramatically, making them resemble the parkour zombies from World War Z or 28 Weeks Later.

Roke gave this type of zombie a name: Erratic Zombies.

Doesn't that instantly paint a vivid picture!

Leaving the avenue, he arrived at Raccoon City's most bustling commercial center. The intersecting crossroads were congested not with cars and urban elites, but with something else entirely.

Bang, bang, bang!

Inside the opposite shopping mall, over a dozen fully armed SWAT officers were making a bitter last stand.

The intense gunfire gradually grew sparse. They were running out of ammunition, and two of them, unable to bear the pressure, committed suicide by shooting themselves.

The horde of corpses piled layer upon layer. One wave fell, and another immediately rushed in to fill the gap, endless and boundless.

This was the ultimate terror of a zombie apocalypse!

The corpse tide devoured not only lives, but also the already faint hope of the survivors.

Roke leaped onto the traffic light at the intersection, squatted down, supported his chin with his left hand, and flicked the index finger of his right hand forward.

"Roar—"

The Erratic Zombies charged forward fanatically, displaying a completely different aura.

The T-zombies (for short) caught the scent that these seemingly identical creatures were not allies, and driven by residual instinct, turned around to snarl and engage in a chaotic melee.

The SWAT officers inside McDonald's froze instantly. A second earlier, seeing a larger and more terrifying horde of corpses lunging toward them, they had felt almost entirely hopeless.

Yet the plot progression of the very next second blinded them.

Zombies were actually turning on each other?

And engaging in an extraordinarily fierce battle?

Roke entered through a side door, feigning the role of a passerby with a terrified expression. "Officers! It looks like they're fighting! Run while you still can!"

"Right, this brother makes a lot of sense. Why aren't we running instead of standing here watching the show?" One SWAT officer slapped his bald forehead.

The rest snapped to their senses, scrambling away on all fours while remembering to thank Roke.

Thus, Roke found a chair, sat on the terrace, and conveniently ordered a cocktail from the bar.

He pulled a few dollar bills from a corpse's pocket and placed them on the table. Behind the bar counter, the bartender—whom Roke had sliced in half at the waist—was emitting sounds of dissatisfaction.

A wisp of red mist drifted over, and the bartender instantly quieted down. His withered muscles took on a new lease of life, swelling to a horrifying degree.

From his severed waist, in a deeply sanity-defying manner, sprouted two small child-like legs. Staggering forward with his fully muscled torso, he rushed out and joined the melee below.

There were at least a thousand T-zombies, while the participating Erratic Zombies numbered only two or three hundred.

The numerical disparity was massive, but the combat situation told a different story.

A single Erratic Zombie could easily take on two or three opponents. Their suicidal fighting style meant that if someone bit them, they would frantically bite back a dozen times until their opponent was reduced to a skeleton wrapped in tattered flesh.

Too ferocious!

Roke loved it immensely. Wasn't he practically the legendary King of Zombies now?

"Why does this feel a bit like a mastermind pulling strings from the shadows?" he muttered to himself, finishing his cocktail.

Ten minutes passed, and the battle concluded.

Not a single T-zombies remained. Only twenty or thirty Erratic Zombies had fallen, but their total number had surged from a few hundred to a thousand.

Because those T-zombies that had been bitten by Erratic Zombies without having their brains destroyed defected moments later.

This was the terrifying nature of the Crimson Virus—its infectivity was several times fiercer than that of the T-virus.

Roke waved his hand, instructing these Erratic Zombies to head toward an underground shelter he had found in advance. Estimating roughly, tens of thousands of Erratic soldiers would eventually gather there.

Tens of thousands wasn't much, but this was merely Raccoon City. As Umbrella Corporation's conspiracy unfolded globally, Roke's foundation would experience explosive growth.

It wasn't that Roke hadn't considered stopping the conspiracy, but Umbrella's facilities were everywhere. While he feared nothing in combat, he simply didn't have the reach to meddle in everything else.

"Huh? What's that?"

From afar, he caught sight of a helicopter flying in, dropping a large crate.