A Real Man Must Keep His Cool!

A real man absolutely had to keep his cool!

Amid Ada's faintly amused smile, Kevin shot her a threatening look before slowly pulling the glass door shut.

"It's fine. Umbrella Corporation has just made me a little paranoid..."

Since the bathroom lights were off, the narrow gap Kevin had opened was basically outside Alice's line of sight, so the savior suspected nothing.

"I just finished running the bath. If you hadn't come, I was about to wash up and sleep."

Kevin shrugged, answering as though he did not care.

"That makes sense. We'll be busy tomorrow, so get some rest early."

Alice considered the commander's unspoken meaning and realized she really should not disturb him any longer, so she got up to leave.

To avoid overdoing things, Kevin naturally did not dare put on any reluctant farewell act. He calmly and properly escorted Alice to the door.

Bang! The moment Kevin shut the door, the commander turned and walked into the bathroom with a cold snort.

"You did that on purpose!"

Ada scooped up a handful of foam and gently blew it away. Her delicate collarbones exposed above the water and her graceful body submerged beneath it made Kevin instinctively avert his gaze.

"You drank the champagne I worked so hard to bring, and you even touched my things without permission. Aren't victims allowed to speak up, Your Honor?"

"What's mine... will always be mine. No One can take it away..."

Hearing the female agent's loaded words gave Kevin a headache.

If he had to name one specific field outside strategy where he had a weakness, the commander's answer would be only one.

That was... guessing what women were thinking... especially beautiful, intelligent women.

Unfortunately, Ada had both qualities...

"Hurry up and get out when you're done! I need to sleep too!"

Kevin realized he could not intimidate Ada at all. After barking a few hollow threats, he obediently shut the bathroom door, even placing a pair of slippers outside it.

Just as the commander sat down on the sofa and prepared to continue savoring the champagne, the life-threatening doorbell rang again.

What now...? After once again going through the routine of cleaning up traces and warning Ada, Kevin helplessly opened the door.

"Jill? Didn't you go home? Why are you still here?"

The person knocking at the door was none other than Police Woman Jill, who had supposedly been ready to leave by car. This left Kevin even more surprised.

"You both only had your stitches removed recently. It's always better to have someone nearby to take care of you."

"So I booked a room too, right next to yours..."

Jill's answer sounded somewhat lacking in confidence. Then, at the end, the Police Woman gritted her teeth and added a vague sentence.

"If you need anything, you can call me anytime..."

Need anything? What could he possibly need? Why were these three women acting stranger than the last today? Had they taken the wrong medicine?

Kevin muttered to himself, but out of politeness, he nodded slightly before asking tentatively.

"Do you want to come in and sit for a while?"

There was some struggle in Jill's expression, but in the end, she dejectedly refused.

"Maybe it's too soon. Next time..."

"That's good, that's good..." Kevin muttered in relief.

"What's good?" The extremely sensitive Police Woman asked instinctively.

"Uh..." Kevin's mouth twitched before he forced a fake smile.

"Of course I mean it's good that you came... Having you around really makes me feel secure..."

At least she was not a Causality Weapon like Leon and Alice, who brought disaster upon their teammates and kept everyone on edge; nor was she like that Vixen inside, with a heart riddled with seventy or eighty holes, forcing him to stay on guard at all times.

A sense of joy at being acknowledged filled Jill's heart. She began to regret her restraint and started to waver.

"It's still early. Why don't we go inside..."

Kevin was extremely sensitive to certain words. Sensing that something was wrong, he immediately changed the subject.

"Is that the smell of nicotine? You've been smoking again?"

Just as Jill was about to explain, an unexpected sweetness filled her mouth.

"Strawberry flavor. They sell them downstairs. Smoking is bad for your health, so you should keep that bad habit under control."

"If you ever want to quit smoking, you can trade every cigarette you want to smoke for one of my candies. Slowly, you'll get used to it..."

After smoothly delivering his lecture, Kevin subconsciously reached out and patted Jill on the head, as though he were luring an ignorant little girl with candy.

"Wait, you only just enrolled at Raccoon City University, right? You're only twenty?"

"I'm twenty-three this year. Don't treat me like Dr. Charles's little girl. Remember to call me big sister from now on!"

Kevin's reliability and sharpness had made Jill overlook the matter of their ages.

Now that the Police Woman thought about their respective ages, she suddenly felt proud that she had surpassed the commander in at least one area.

For some reason, Jill had regained her confidence. As naturally as she would with colleagues at the police station, she familiarly patted Kevin on the shoulder.

Just as the commander was about to toss out a few more perfunctory remarks and end this cross-server small talk at an appropriate moment, the corner of his eye suddenly caught sight of the bathroom door, already half-open.

"Days are long ahead. You can call me whatever you want later! You have a flight to catch tomorrow, so go back and get some rest early!"

Kevin immediately cut off the conversation, forcing a smile as he shoved the shifty-eyed Jill out the door.

Bang! The door slammed shut. The commander charged toward the bathroom furiously, his teeth itching at Ada's obvious attempt to stir up trouble.

"You're taking a bath, not scalding feathers off a chicken. Hurry up!"

At that moment, Ada had already Slowly Stood Up in the bathroom. Her relaxed Nasal Voice suggested she was quite satisfied with this bathing experience.

"Turn around. I need to get dressed."

"Oh..." The commander responded instinctively and obediently turned around, even handing Ada her clothes one piece at a time at her request.

So obedient? It seemed... women... were your greatest weakness.

The corners of Ada's lips curled upward, like a Vixen about to steal a chicken.

Ten minutes later, Kevin leaned against the sofa that had been moved out, Picked Up his wineglass, and Drank It All in one go.

Beside him, Ada, dressed in a flowing red gown-like dress, naturally refilled his glass.

Just as the commander Picked Up his wineglass, he seemed to realize something, and his face darkened.

"Wasn't I supposed to be telling you to head home? Why did it end with us watching the night view on the balcony?"

Ada lightly clinked glasses with Kevin. Her smile remained unchanged as she Did Not take up the commander's words.

"It's rare to meet a peer as outstanding as you, so I hoped to get to know you better."

Kevin's sharp tongue resurfaced. He gave a self-deprecating smile and politely declined Ada's praise.

"No, thanks. Not many people who get on your radar live long... Have you forgotten the saying, 'Peers are enemies'?"

Ada did not care in the slightest. Supporting her chin, she turned sideways and Gazing At Kevin's face.

Only when that curious Scrutinizing Gaze had nearly made Kevin's skin crawl did the female agent finally murmur softly.

"Then there's nothing to be done. After all, excellence is always inadvertently drawn to something even more excellent..."

"In This Game, your performance in gathering information, reading people, judging situations, planning strategies, and carrying them out was practically flawless. Or perhaps it could be said that you were creating the art of the battlefield..."

This appreciation, like that of a kindred spirit, inadvertently eased Kevin's inner vigilance, and the corners of his lips rose slightly.

People always longed to be acknowledged and accepted. As one of the masses, he was naturally no exception—especially when such praise came from the lips of such a pleasing beauty.

"Your strategies are wildly imaginative, yet remain within the bounds of reason..."

"Your methods are unscrupulous, yet you always retain a bottom line..."

"But what intrigues me most is your past..."

"Like a blank sheet of paper, an unsolved mystery—chaotic and unknown, yet filled with infinite possibilities..."

Kevin Picked Up his glass, Took a Sip of champagne, then narrowed his eyes and shook his head with a soft laugh.

"At night, a woman all alone comes to a man's residence and says she's curious about and admires him. Do you know what that means?"

"Right, and she even brought a bottle of wine..."

Ada rested her chin on her right hand, as though she were genuinely pondering it.

"Curiosity killed the cat. If a woman develops that kind of feeling toward a man..."

"Could that be the beginning of her falling for him?"

Slightly tipsy, Kevin's smile was brilliant, as though he had seized the initiative in some game.

"Bingo! Correct! Cheers!"

Ada smiled and casually clinked glasses with Kevin. As she watched the commander drain his entire glass of champagne, she merely Took a Sip herself.

You only care about that sense of psychological superiority? What an idiot...

Tonight, big sister would teach you one final lesson: often, the one who acted first was the one who held the initiative, Kiddo...

Watching the commander, who had gulped down nearly half a bottle of champagne, gradually drift into sleep with unfocused eyes, Ada Slowly Stood Up. The straps of her long dress silently slipped from her bare shoulders.

P.S.: Ending it here feels like I'm going to get beaten to death. Just kidding. Alright, if you want an extra chapter, either 5,000 in donations, 50 monthly tickets, or 50 blades will do. Today only.

I'm a teacher by profession, and my students need extra classes during summer vacation. I don't have much of a backlog, so extra chapters are a bit difficult for me. Please understand.

My head hurt so much! My body too—weak and sore.

At six thirty in the morning, Kevin woke from his sleep and Could Not Help But lean against the headboard, gently stretching his stiff muscles.

Wait... a bed?!

When did I get into bed? And why wasn't I wearing a single piece of clothing?!

The commander turned on the bedside lamp and sat blankly against the headboard for a long while. Then, when he lifted the blanket in horror and saw his naked body and the faint red stain on the sheets, a bolt of lightning seemed to flash through In His Mind.

Last night... Ada and I... You've got to be kidding me?

Yet the scratches from fingernails on his chest, along with a letter on the bedside table still bearing a lip print, all hinted that something far beyond friendship had happened.

"As an agent, I won't fall for anyone, so remember: nothing happened last night, darling."

"Also, don't look for me, and don't contact me. I'll be very busy for a while..."

"And... sorry..."

All those transparently evasive excuses only made Kevin more certain that some wonderfully mistaken thing had happened between him and Ada.

He could even still vaguely recall the soft sensation that had brushed against him while he was drunk.

What attitude should he take the next time they met? Enemies, yet friends?

You've really given me a difficult problem, woman...

With a troubled expression, Kevin prepared to get out of bed, dress, wash up, and destroy some evidence that could be used against him.

However, his empty pocket made the commander's expression change drastically. He immediately searched through the entire set of clothes again, inside and out, several times.

But in the end, the Modified T-Virus data stored on the USB drive had vanished without a trace.

He had only made two copies of that thing. One was an abridged version, which he had sent to Dr. Charles.

As for the original bioweapon experiment data and the Modified T-Virus formula, the commander had kept them under his own secret control.

Kevin closed his eyes and pondered. A moment later, his expression turned grave and conflicted. Was this why you apologized?

Ada!

The commander took out the mints in his pocket and chewed them one by one, swallowing them down. Only after he had finished an entire box did the fingertip resting on his phone's call button slowly withdraw.

Getting the data on the artificial AI Red Queen was enough for you to report back with. But greed knew no bounds—was it really necessary?

Since this was the reason for your apology... then take care of yourself!