Chapter 1: A Hellish Start

"Alright, brothers, we've finally cleared Resident Evil 9: Requiem on the highest difficulty. Not bad, not bad at all!"

Watching the credits slowly roll across the screen, Lu Qi lightly clapped his hands toward the livestream camera.

He was a gaming streamer and an absolute die-hard Resident Evil fan. Ever since he got hooked with Resident Evil 2 Remake, he had been completely obsessed with Leon S. Kennedy. Hearing that Leon would return in the ninth installment, he pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition immediately and dove straight into Madhouse difficulty as soon as he started streaming.

"Overall evaluation: this title is Capcom's usual standard. The sandbox map of the sanatorium in the early game, the sense of pressure, and the horror atmosphere were excellent. But returning to Raccoon City in the late game, especially The Ark area, clearly shows signs of being rushed."

He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his aching temples, his tone tinged with a bit of helplessness.

"Raccoon City feels more like a scrapped open-world project; it completely lacks the intricate design of a sandbox. The Ark is even more of a letdown—it's nowhere near as oppressive as the NEST from the RE2 Remake."

"And then there's the final boss fight... Grace just goes invisible? Zino's character design is as thin as a tool; it feels like his only reason for existing is to pave the way for Wesker in the future RE5 Remake. If you skip the cutscenes, you wouldn't even know this guy existed."

Lu Qi laughed at the scrolling comments. "Exactly, just like the chat says: skipping the story is equivalent to skipping 'Old Man Zino's' entire life. Hahaha."

"OK, that's all for today. Thanks for watching, everyone. I'm Wu Liuqi, aiming for a million followers. See you next time, bye-bye."

After ending the stream, Lu Qi instantly slumped into his gaming chair, barely having the strength left to lift a hand.

Nineteen hours of clearing the map on Madhouse difficulty, a zero-death run, and being constantly on edge in a horror environment kept his heart rate consistently high. Now that he had relaxed, his head felt as heavy as lead.

After resting for a moment, he reached for the water cup at the corner of the desk, but his fingertips slipped.

Crash—!

The entire cup of cold water poured out, surging into the PC tower through the gaps in the keyboard and dripping down the edge of the desk onto the floor.

"Crap..."

Lu Qi cursed under his breath and braced himself against the chair to stand up and wipe the water. But as soon as his foot stepped on the wet spot, he instantly lost his balance. His body fell backward uncontrollably, and the back of his head slammed hard against the sharp edge of the chair's armrest.

The moment the sharp pain exploded, his vision went black.

Even his groans were stuck in his throat, leaving only faint gasps of shallow breath. His consciousness receded rapidly like a tide, sinking completely into endless darkness.

An hour later, his vital signs vanished completely.

Three days later, the property management discovered his cold body, and the medical examiner ruled it an accidental death.

On the internet, there was one less gaming streamer about to hit a million followers.

Meanwhile, in 1990, on the outskirts of Raccoon City, at the Umbrella Corporation's secret Orphanage...

...there was one more variable that shouldn't have existed.

...

Clang—! Bang!

The piercing sound of metal colliding jolted Lu Qi awake from the chaos.

His head was splitting with pain. He groggily propped himself up and sat up, freezing the moment he opened his eyes.

A dilapidated, moldy ceiling, mottled yellowish walls, a whole row of crude iron bunk beds... the emptiness was hair-raising. There were clearly dozens of beds in the room, yet not a single soul was in sight.

"Where... is this?"

He spoke subconsciously, but as soon as the words left his mouth, his expression changed drastically.

It wasn't the familiar voice of a young man, but a slender, childish, and even slightly soft loli voice.

Lu Qi abruptly looked down.

What entered his vision was a pair of small, tender, fair, and slender child's hands.

They weren't the hands he used to hold a mouse for years, with thin calluses on the knuckles.

Not at all.

...?!

His heart suddenly constricted.

Just then, a sharp scream came from the other end of the corridor in fluent English. Lu Qi had passed the CET-6 exam and had no trouble with daily communication; he instantly understood the content.

"Don't come over! Stay back!"

Bang—!

A piercing gunshot.

His whole body tensed up. Instinctively, he quietly slipped off the bed, rushed to the door along the wall, and peeked out through the ajar door.

With just one glance, the blood in Lu Qi's body almost froze.

In the room at the end of the hallway, a foreign researcher in a white lab coat was cornered by a group of bald children. The man fired his gun frantically, but it jammed at the critical moment. The next second, the children pounced.

Crack.

The crisp and terrifying sound of bones snapping.

The researcher's neck twisted at a bizarre angle, and his body slumped to the ground.

The group of children slowly raised their heads.

Lu Qi clearly saw their foreheads and scalps covered in hideous surgical stitches, and their eyes were a deathly, frantic blood-red.

They weren't human.

They were test subjects.

This was the most desperate Orphanage escape level from Resident Evil 9!

Ugh!

He gasped in shock, and this slight sound instantly attracted the gaze of all the test subjects.

The blood-red pupils locked onto him in unison.

The children grinned, letting out eerie "he-he-he" chuckles as they approached him with stiff yet rapid movements.

"Oh no!"

Lu Qi was terrified. He slammed the door shut, panted frantically with his back against it, then turned and rushed back into the room, diving under the bed—the only safe point in the game.

She had transmigrated.

She had transmigrated into the original Chloe, the most fragile, marginal, and forgettable child test subject in the game, who would ultimately be 'disposed of' by the Umbrella Corporation.

The real Chloe was gone.

Now hidden within this tiny body was a gaming streamer from the 21st century.

Huff... huff...

Heavy, dragging footsteps sounded on the floorboards.

The test subjects had entered the room.

Unlike the pixelated, programmed threats in the game, the fear now was real and bone-chilling. The scent of death was like a cold snake, slithering through the gaps in the floorboards and tightening around her throat.

She covered her mouth tightly, not even daring to breathe heavily.

Closer.

Even closer.

The test subjects' small hands patted the bed, once, then again, each thud sounding like a hammer on her heart.

Fortunately, the momentum of the plot did not betray her.

Another noise came from the distance, drawing the attention of the test subjects. The dragging footsteps gradually faded until they disappeared completely.

Chloe slumped under the bed, gasping for air, cold sweat soaking through her thin hospital gown.

A certain-death start.

She clearly remembered the original plot: the test subjects in The Orphanage would eventually be neutralized. Even if she dodged this time, she couldn't escape Umbrella's cleanup squad.

Dying right after transmigrating?

"System? System, are you there?"

She tentatively called out twice in her mind.

Dead silence.

No mechanical voice, no status screen, no quests, no cheats.

A completely 'naked' transmigration.

"Fine... if there isn't one, there isn't one."

Chloe took a deep breath, her small palms clenching into tight fists.

Scared? Of course she was.

But she was a speedrunner, a streamer who had cleared Madhouse difficulty without taking damage, and a transmigrator who held all the knowledge of the next thirty years of this world.

"Since I'm living again..."

She bit her lower lip, and a calm, stubborn light that didn't belong to a child gradually ignited in her eyes.

"Why the hell should I die here?"

She slowly crawled out from under the bed, brushed the dust off herself, and raised those slender but firm little hands. Her path to survival officially began at this moment.

"Bring it on."

The young girl whispered softly, her voice quiet yet exceptionally firm.

"Horror Orphanage, one-life speedrun."