Infinity, progressing from Arasaka

"No time to explain, run!"

In the smoke-filled room, Chris's voice came through the speaker mounted on the drone. Jill's life-or-death friendship with Chris during their time on STARS made her reflexively believe Chris's instructions.

"Run!"

Jill also hasn't forgotten Carlos, who saved her life just minutes ago, even though he's an Umbrella UBCS mercenary.

She tugged at Carlos.

Carlos reacted quickly as well, and the two of them rushed out of the doorway, which was charred black by the explosion. As they passed by, Jill finally saw the monster, which was engulfed in flames.

A humanoid, an undeniably small giant, nearly nine feet tall, with a blurred face covered in ripped bandages, devoid of skin, highlighting the exposed jawbone and swollen, massive facial muscles.

In the explosion, the pure black straitjacket-like outer garment was completely ignited. The torso, which served as the blast point for the self-destructing drone, was covered in blood. The monster's left shoulder and chest were blown open, with pieces of sternum protruding out, writhing with tendons, covered in flammable material from the explosion, turning a charred pinkish-black color.

Jill seemed to smell something like poorly prepared roasted meat, with a foul, burnt odor.

“Follow the drone. The roads in Raccoon City are all blocked. Survivors and zombies are mixed together. I’m at least three blocks away from you…” Chris’s urgent voice came from the hovering drone.

As Jill listened, she kept glancing at the monster with the rocket launcher across the street out of the corner of her eye. Suddenly, the monster moved. "Chris! There's more than one bio-monster."

"Roar!" Before anyone could react, another tracker let out a low growl and raised the rocket launcher in his hand.

“Stop it.” Chris’s voice came through the drone’s loudspeaker as he spoke to others.

In response, the drone leading the way suddenly veered off course and crashed straight into the tracker that was aiming at Jill. "Roar!" The tracker sensed the danger, and its basic intelligence made it change target. Whoosh! A rocket was launched, blasting the drone flying in front of it to pieces.

Why isn't this one as powerful as the previous one?

A giant hand sliced ​​through the smoke, the tracker tossed aside the rocket launcher, and a single, eyeless eye stared intently at Jill. Thump! Thump! An exaggerated speed, completely disproportionate to its size, clang!

Seeing the pursuer, who was like a bull, pulling up a fire hydrant from the ground and slamming it at her, Jill lunged forward, feeling the gust of wind almost graze the back of her head, and she was completely numb.

Why is she so difficult to deal with? Just keep targeting her!

Da da da--

First, Carlos pulled Jill up, then grabbed an M4A1 carbine with one hand and fought his way back, even throwing grenades, but the Nemesis completely ignored him. Even after the grenades he threw were entangled by tentacles growing from the Nemesis's hand, they still slammed towards Jill?

boom!

Using both hands and feet, Jill managed to dodge the explosion by smashing through the glass of shops along the way. She was quite disheveled, with injuries to her face, shoulders, and arms. She ran out from another direction, throwing stun grenades as she yelled, "Fuck, if you can't throw them, don't throw them! Do you have flashbangs or stun grenades? These BOWs should be afraid of high temperatures and strong light."

With a loud bang and a burst of bright white light, the pursuer's movements were indeed affected.

"But I didn't bring it!"

"Fuck! What do you have then?"

"They have offensive grenades, tear gas, flares, signal flares..."

These two temporary teammates dodged the pursuers' attacks while fighting back and running away. From their initial awkwardness, their teamwork was rapidly improving.

"Hey, miss, where are your teammates? Get their flying contraptions to rescue me! I'm almost out of bullets..."

"Roar--!"

Before Carlos could finish speaking, an even more exaggerated inhuman roar resounded—it was that one!

In the distance, the tracker, charred and burning, which had been blasted to its knees, suddenly began to move again.

puff.

A substance resembling pus gushed from its charred and damaged body, and its muscles and bones writhed and swelled rapidly like proliferating fungal plaques.

The monster knelt on the ground, howling. Its bulging, muscular arms, which had burst through its clothes, pounded the ground repeatedly. Carlos wasn't sure how much force it was exerting, but judging from the way the car next to it was shaking, a solid slap would surely send him to meet God.

"Oh no, they're all still alive."

Then, thud! thud!

Heavy footsteps echoed again, and several people wearing black top hats and black trench coats—but judging from their dark faces and builds, they were definitely not normal people—came from the alleyway at the corner of the street and began to speed up towards them.

His lips moved slightly, and Carlos revealed an expression more like a grimace. "Beautiful lady, did you blow up the Umbrella chairman's house, or do you have his shareholding agreement in your bag?"

"They just blew up that damn mansion! And it wasn't me who blew it up, it just exploded on its own!"

Jill was so frustrated that she couldn't speak.

First the silence squad, then the BOW trackers, the tyrant... they really think highly of her.

hum...bum...

The humming of the propeller.

"Jill! You go first. We'll cover you with suicide drones."

The drone—that's Chris's voice.

As they were speaking, rows of bulging iron boxes with propellers at the four corners flew overhead, buzzing.

"Go through the alley on your left first. The zombie horde hasn't come yet. From the drone's perspective, I just saw a group of sneaky people trying to flank you from behind. Run towards the open area on Raccoon Avenue. Zombies aren't a problem. There are several sniper positions set up by our own Umbrella forces on the high ground there. They can cover you!"

After that, the sound from the drone changed to Chris seemingly arguing with someone else:

"...That BOW, the explosion didn't seem to kill it?"

"It's alright. The small suicide drone didn't have enough explosives. I've already notified the evacuation point, and the large suicide drone has been deployed. It'll definitely kill it! It can't get out."

"You guys, get the rocket launchers ready. You, set up the recoilless rifle... delay them, control the firepower, and let them come over to take care of them."

"Captain, Director Russell just sent us some information. This is travel data obtained by her informant in Paris. The Paris headquarters has also transferred a large number of experimental subjects from the research institute, which should be these BOWs."

...

"The Tracker, at least two; the mass-produced T-103 Tyrant, more than seven have been discovered so far... Countless other T-virus mutations and derivative BOWs..."

In San Francisco, Vera, who was monitoring the situation in real time, slapped her forehead in fear.

Although the image was not clear, she could still make out the outlines of two pursuers surrounding a man and a woman on a street.

This is really her fault.

Although she was neither objectively nor subjectively involved in any work related to virology or BOW, nor did she design any prosthetic implants specifically for deformed creatures, she still made money for Umbrella.

Regardless of which department makes money, with money, Umbrella's annual income increases.

Although a significant portion was taken by Vera, and some was even diverted to other areas due to her presence, the board will certainly increase investment in the Raccoon City, Paris, and African research institutes with the increased value of the money.

Not to mention that old bastard Spencer also liked to embezzle company funds and secretly divert them to virus research.

Vera has found another angle to exploit.

Some things may seem insignificant on the scale, but can weigh a ton even on a scale.

Before the Umbrella scandal, what's wrong with the chairman embezzling some money? After the scandal, in Western money-driven societies, many people will surely sympathize with Vera, who was betrayed by someone like Spencer.

"Someone, prepare the car, we're going to the airport. I need to fly to Washington."

Vera picked up the microphone and notified the secretariat, her gaze fixed on the footage captured by the reconnaissance drone as she spoke.

The Nemesis-α parasite inside the stalker that had its clothes ripped off has begun to secrete a certain biochemical substance; it's about to enter the 'second stage'.

"Andreilov, prioritize dealing with that mutating BOW. My AI analysis model suggests that we eliminate BOWs while they are still humanoid, destroying their head, torso, and parasites. Allowing them to mutate often means uncontrollable and unknown risks."

Vera couldn't resist making a small adjustment, using the AI ​​model as an excuse to remind her.

It couldn't stand by and watch its own minions fail to finish off the enemy properly, allowing the opponent to "grow" unchecked.

"Yes!"

Andreilov's voice came through the receiver from USF Mobile Squadron 4.

...

Boom boom boom boom——

Explosions continued to rang out, and the surrounding blocks seemed to be engulfed in some kind of chaotic symphony.

Bang bang.

The sound of running quickly.

"Hey, miss, your partner's got money... That thing, it's a drone, right... A drone carrying bombs... I heard them mention it when I was at UBCS training base; we might get some of this stuff for reconnaissance. But you know, once I was sent here, that plan was obviously scrapped..."

Carlos knocked a zombie that had climbed over the barbed wire fence with the butt of his rifle.

boom!

“Hey buddy, just call me Jill.” With that, Jill fired another shot into the zombie’s head. “I have no idea where Chris got his Umbrella troops.”

"OK, Jill."

Carlos said definitively, "I think your guy must have hitched a ride with the California branch. Only the California branch has that kind of deep pockets."

As he ran, Carlos looked back at the sky at the end of the alley. There, thick smoke billowed and explosions continued. A swarm of bomb-laden drones was being used to slow down the bio-monsters... He really had a premonition of how tragic it would be for a pure infantryman like him on the future battlefield.

"Stop looking, we're almost at Raccoon Avenue."

Following Chris's advice, Jill and Carlos deliberately chose alleyways, traversing the blocks and buildings towards Raccoon Avenue. A zombie dog infected with the T-virus stopped eating a corpse upon hearing the noise, and as soon as it raised its head, Jill shot it in the head twice!

Then, boom—!

An exceptionally loud explosion came from the back of the street, deafening and sending a jolt through the air. They felt the ground tremble. Jill and Carlos turned around and saw a mushroom cloud of smoke and flames rising, with broken gravel falling from the sky like a light drizzle.

"That's really cool, it must be an aerial bomb."

...

"Hold!"

On the top floor of a building a hundred meters away from Jill's location, amidst the shattered window glass, a silver-haired man wearing a UBCS tactical jacket angrily brushed the glass shards off his clothes and slammed his fist heavily against the wall.

About fifty meters directly below his location, the figure of the tracker, who had removed his restraints and suppression device and was mutating and repairing his damaged body just half a minute ago, had disappeared.

The streets were completely unrecognizable. The surrounding utility poles and roadside trees were uprooted, and the collapsed buildings, scattered rubble, and overturned vehicles left the scene in a mess, filled with smoke and dust.