Chapter 69: Distinguishing Oneself by Protecting the Sovereign

The title describes the virus (-`v´-)

Darkness.

A boundless, viscous darkness, like the Isolation Pod in Basement Level 2 of the Arklay Research Facility that had imprisoned her for eight years—cold, deathly silent, as if even time had frozen.

Chloe's consciousness was dragged back from a void by a burst of heart-wrenching pain.

It wasn't the sharp pain of a G1 mutated claw piercing her chest, nor the ultimate agony of nerves being crushed as her body was torn apart, but a dense, burning pain seeping from her bone marrow.

It was like billions of venomous ants gnawing at her broken bones, torn muscles, and damaged blood vessels; every dying cell was screaming, dividing, and regenerating frantically.

She wanted to open her eyes, but her eyelids were as heavy as lead. She wanted to speak, but no sound came from her throat, only hot, rust-tasting bloody foam overflowed from the corners of her mouth.

In her ears, there was only the roar of blood rushing through her veins and the faint, almost imperceptible hum of the virus operating frantically within her body.

Chloe finally used all her strength to lift her heavy eyelids.

What met her eyes were four corpses in full-body hazmat suits scattered across the floor. Shattered helmets, twisted firearms, and splattered dark-red blood turned the cold concrete floor into a silent Shura Field.

Chloe stood in the center of the pool of blood, her blood-stained hands hanging down, her long silver-white hair matted into clumps by blood.

The gun in her hand clattered to the floor. She stumbled back a step, her back slamming hard against the cold wall. She clutched her head, letting out a suppressed, painful groan.

Everything just now had been instinctual; she didn't even know what she had done. She only felt a violent power rampaging through her body, and countless fragmented images stabbed into her mind like needles, the pain making her feel like she was about to explode.

Without giving her a moment to react, the double-helix structure within her body, which fused the T-Virus and G-Virus, completely broke through the final line of defense of the Genetic Lock under the continuous stimulation of VX Gas and the extreme environment of the host's near-death recovery.

Billions of viral particles surged frantically through her veins like a flood escaping its cage. Every cell was uncontrollably dividing, proliferating, and reconstructing. Her body temperature soared to 43 degrees within seconds, and the veins across her body bulged beneath her skin, glowing with a faint reddish hue like lava.

Her body trembled uncontrollably. The bones at her knuckles made a tooth-aching cracking sound as the finger bones instantly grew and elongated. Her five fingers were replaced by sharp, silver-white bone blades, forming two perfectly curved blade-claws that fit her palms. The blade surfaces glinted with a cold metallic luster, enough to easily tear through bulletproof steel plates and the thick hides of mutant creatures.

Then, a soft sound of bone piercing skin came from her elbows. Two symmetrical, thirty-centimeter-long prismatic spikes popped out from her elbow tips. The blades were covered in fine anti-slip patterns, like the most precise killing weapons.

Her long silver-white hair grew frantically, reaching her waist. Under the influence of the virus, the strands became as tough as steel wire yet retained a soft drape.

Her skull slowly proliferated. A layer of silver-white exoskeleton, fitting her face and the top of her head, extended from beneath the skin, forming a helmet with sharp lines like a reaper's mask. It only revealed a pair of eyes completely covered in deep blood-red, with no impurities in the whites—only the most primitive, cold killing intent remained.

The entire mutation process lasted less than three minutes. There was no out-of-control limb proliferation or organ mutation. The stable symbiotic characteristics of the T-Virus firmly anchored her human silhouette, while the G-Virus's infinite proliferation capability transformed her body into a perfect weapon combining extreme beauty and killing efficiency.

The moment the mutation was complete, Chloe's human consciousness, emotions, and memories were entirely suppressed by the virus's primitive instincts. Her world was left with only two primitive drive commands: first, hunt all threatening targets; second, follow the scent in the air that had already faded to near nothingness back to its source.

She slowly raised her head. Her blood-red pupils had no focus, yet they precisely locked onto the heavy alloy locking door at the end of the laboratory that was slowly closing. The ten-minute temporary opening limit was about to expire; the heavy mechanical bolts had already begun to slide out, and the gap in the door was less than half a meter wide.

The next second, her figure suddenly vanished from the spot.

Her mutated body erupted with a terrifying speed far exceeding human limits, leaving a faint silver-white afterimage. Almost instantly, 0.1 seconds before the alloy door fully locked and the closure program completed, she slipped sideways through the remaining gap of less than thirty centimeters and landed silently in the auxiliary corridor outside.

The alloy door behind her slammed shut. A series of cold mechanical bolts clicking into place echoed in the empty corridor. The secondary permanent locking program officially started. VX Gas would continue to act within the sealed laboratory for seventy-two hours, destroying all residual biological traces.

The red warning lights in the corridor flashed frantically, and the cold alarm sound looped through the narrow space.

Chloe walked slowly along the corridor, her steps as light as a ghost's, making no sound. Only the spikes on her elbows occasionally brushed against the wall, leaving thin, bone-deep scratches.

Following that residual scent, she went all the way down, finally stopping in front of a maintenance hatch leading to the Underground Sewage Network.

Just then, the sound of dense footsteps and the crisp click of guns being cocked came from the end of the corridor.

Six Umbrella Corporation Cleanup Crew backup members, wearing black hazmat suits and carrying assault rifles equipped with tactical rails, approached quickly in a tactical formation.

They were the backup that had rushed over after receiving the signal that the lead team had lost contact. Every face was alert, and their muzzles remained in a ready-to-fire state.

"Target spotted ahead! Identity unknown!"

"Use your discretion, permission to fire at will!"

The shouts echoed in the corridor, but Chloe didn't react. In her blood-red pupils, these six fully armed soldiers had already been automatically tagged as "threatening targets."

Seeing no reaction from the target, the team members immediately pulled their triggers. A barrage of bullets poured toward Chloe like a rainstorm, muzzle flashes flickering frantically in the dark corridor.

But in Chloe's perception, the bullets' flight paths were as slow as a frozen slideshow; she could even clearly see the rifling marks on every single bullet.

Her figure suddenly vanished again.

Only a series of crisp bone-cracking sounds, the metallic twisting of firearms being torn apart, and the screams the team members didn't have time to let out were left in the corridor.

In just eight seconds, all sounds ceased completely. The battle-hardened cleanup crew members all lay on the ground, not a single corpse intact. All the firearms had been twisted into scrap metal, and the corridor walls were splattered with dark-red blood.

Chloe stood at the end of the pile of corpses, blood droplets slowly falling from her blade-claws. There was no ripple in her blood-red pupils, as if she had just crushed ants blocking her path.

She turned and raised her hand, easily slicing through the rusted iron lock of the maintenance hatch with her blade-claws, then leaped into the pitch-black Underground Sewage Network.