Jill

Yinsen looked at the English sign and felt the urge to turn around and head in the other direction.

Raccoon City, from the famous Resident Evil franchise, had appeared directly or indirectly in many entries of the series. It was a city steeped in disaster.

So, he was now wondering which version he had arrived in.

If it was the Game World storyline, Raccoon City should have been a small town in northwestern North America, not some major city. The Umbrella Corporation had kept its research facility there for a long time without being discovered.

In fact, if this was the Game World, Yinsen was not worried about his or Arthur's safety. Biohazard incidents might be difficult to handle, but they were always contained within manageable areas. As long as they actively stayed away from where things happened, most of this world was still safe. It was not much different from the Earth of his Past Life, and its technology was even slightly more advanced—for the same era, at least.

If it was the Movie Version storyline, though, things would be troublesome. Even if he and Arthur turned around and left immediately, they would not be able to escape the Bio-Virus that would spread into a global disaster.

What made matters worse was that he had strengthened his control over the energy during this crossing. The Space-Time Energy was now obediently stored within the Magic Array on his Left Hand, so he and Arthur could not leave this world anytime soon—at present, he could only keep the energy from leaking away and dissipating. He could not actively trigger it and have it send him back to the Sea of Tranquility.

Standing beneath the sign, he could vaguely make out the city in the distance. The skyscrapers soaring into the clouds were particularly conspicuous, indirectly telling Yinsen which version of Raccoon City this was.

"I remember that in the Game World... the city wasn't this advanced, and it didn't have so many skyscrapers."

Yinsen turned to look at Arthur, who had been quietly waiting for him, and suddenly noticed Arthur's armor.

"We need to change clothes first."

"Why?" Arthur only knew that Yinsen possessed the ability to travel between planes; he had no idea that Yinsen was deeply familiar with many of them. "Is this world very safe?"

Yinsen found it difficult to explain, so he could only brush it off with, "The way we're dressed now is too likely to draw attention." This involved another great secret of his, one he had never shared with anyone and kept buried deep in his heart.

"Then should we wear ordinary Casual Clothes?"

Yinsen suddenly began to feel a headache coming on. Never mind Arthur—even the Casual Clothes Yinsen had brought were all old-fashioned styles. The clothes he himself had packed were much the same, and would stand out just as badly in this modern city.

After thinking it over, Yinsen finally decided there was no point in changing.

"Forget it. We'll just wear the armor."

They could simply pretend they were young people going to a cosplay convention. This country had plenty of such events, no less than that island nation in Asia. Besides, one of them was not yet eighteen, while the other was only around fourteen. It was hardly strange for young people to attend something like that.

The only thing they needed to watch out for was letting people get too close and realize that what they wore were the real thing.

"Where are we going now?"

"There..." Yinsen pointed toward the faintly visible edge of the city. "The city called Raccoon City."

Just as they were about to set off, Yinsen remembered that Arthur could not speak English.

"Is your dizziness better?"

Arthur shook his head. "There's still some, but it won't affect my fighting."

In that case, there was no way to "teach" Arthur English knowledge. So Yinsen could only have him continue pretending to be mute for a while longer. With Arthur looking thoroughly displeased, the two headed toward Raccoon City.

In truth, he could leave this place. Even if the outbreak of Resident Evil was inevitable and would eventually become a global disaster, it would still take time to ferment. No matter how long Yinsen stayed in this world, he would not remain until the day the entire world became a wasteland.

But what was the purpose of his travels through all these planes? Was it merely to find food and water? That would be far too wasteful of such an ability.

More importantly, he needed to gather the unique resources of various planes and grow stronger faster. Resident Evil might be a science-fiction world, but that did not mean its things were useless to Yinsen.

The various viruses in the Resident Evil world were merely one kind of Raw Materials in a mage's eyes. The T-Virus from the Movie Version in particular had a certain chance of greatly stimulating the growth of Mental Power. How could he not be tempted?

The only concern was whether this potion would contaminate his Mental Power. The other Side Effects would actually be easier to deal with—what he had learned in Magic Potion crafting was how to isolate a particular property of an ingredient. He only needed to extract the effect that enhanced Mental Power; he could discard all the other effects carried by the T-Virus.

Of course, that was possible in theory. Whether it would actually work depended on getting a Physical Object to test. Besides that, he needed to determine the current Timeline and figure out what period he was in.

From what he had seen so far, Raccoon City still existed. As they gradually approached, the number of vehicles coming and going increased. It was now certain that Resident Evil had not fully broken out yet.

"By the way, when you left, did Merlin prepare any gold, jewelry, or anything like that for you?" Yinsen had no money on him, and since Resident Evil had not yet erupted, Raccoon City was still a normal city. They would need cash if they wanted to live here.

"I brought a little gold."

Merlin had truly been thorough. He had considered that currencies such as copper and silver coins might not circulate in Other Worlds, so he had directly given Arthur some gold—if even gold could not be used, then there would be nothing they could do.

Fortunately, gold could still be exchanged in this world. However, when Yinsen tried to turn it into cash, he discovered it was far more troublesome than he had expected.

Legitimate shops would not accept gold of unknown origin. Especially since these two young men looked so young, people suspected that these "delinquent teenagers" had melted down stolen goods into several pieces of gold and were trying to sell them off.

Only a few private shops were willing to take it, and the prices they offered made Yinsen sick. Still, he sold it without hesitation. They urgently needed cash for food, lodging, and clothes, so he could not afford to haggle with dishonest merchants.

Naturally, two young men peddling gold everywhere inevitably attracted the attention of some unsavory people. Even though they had already sold the gold, they still had cash on them! Thus, before Yinsen and Arthur had gone very far, several burly men surrounded them.

The result went without saying. They were beaten up thoroughly.

If Yinsen had not wanted to avoid dealing with the Raccoon City police, those men would not have been let off so easily.

What surprised Yinsen was that he found a Beretta on one of them. It was the only Spoils of War.

"Truly worthy of the Land of the Free."

He checked the magazine. It held a full load of fifteen rounds, and Yinsen casually put it away.

He suddenly remembered that he could collect more Firearms in this world. Such things were well suited to his current needs. He doubted anyone on the Sea of Tranquility could withstand guns.

Ignoring the punks, Yinsen and Arthur found a small inn nearby. Since they had no identification, they had to spend extra cash before they could successfully check in. This made Yinsen realize that whenever he entered a world with a modern setting in the future, he would need to resolve the issue of identity as soon as possible.

Over the next few days, Yinsen first bought clothes for himself and Arthur to wear, then purchased quite a few convenient modern items.

After living in ancient-like worlds for several years, what he missed most were the many convenient goods of modern society. He even had the urge to buy everything he saw and bring it all back to the Sea of Tranquility.

Unfortunately, that was an impossible task. Many things could not be used at all on the Sea of Tranquility, and even consumables like toilet paper could only be carried in limited quantities, no matter how hard he tried.

He also took a trip to the Raccoon City library and used the Book of Inheritance to copy a large amount of Modern Knowledge. He focused especially on materials concerning navigation, the development of ships, and their construction.

He had originally planned to wait until nightfall and search the Outskirts of Raccoon City for the villa that served as the entrance to The Hive. But he had barely stepped out of the library when a woman stopped him.

The woman before him had short brown hair and wore blue-black training pants tucked into black boots. On top, she wore an ordinary blue short-sleeved T-shirt. Looking more closely at her face, Yinsen finally remembered who this increasingly familiar-looking woman was.

Jill Valentine—or perhaps Jill Valentian.

A member of STARS, the Special Tactics and Rescue Service under the Raccoon City Police Station.

Compared to the Movie Version characters, Yinsen had a deeper impression and understanding of the game characters. Besides, she was not wearing that short-skirted outfit from the movie, so he had not recognized her immediately.

"Raccoon City police. Jill Valentine."

After showing her badge, Jill pointed to the side, indicating that she wanted to talk to Yinsen and that they should move away from the entrance first.

"Alright, Officer." Yinsen cooperatively stepped aside, then looked at Jill as she kept studying him. "What can I do for you?"

"Someone has accused you of assaulting another person and taking their property."

"Huh?"

Yinsen had thought she was investigating the gold he had sold from an unknown source, or perhaps that his staying at the hotel without any identification had aroused suspicion. He had never expected someone to accuse him of assault and robbery.

He immediately remembered the punks he had taught a lesson. "Seriously..." Yinsen racked his brains but could not think of an appropriate word for this situation. Those bastards had deliberately called the police just to disgust him. It seemed he had gone too easy on them that day.

"I should remind you that you are standing before an experienced police officer. I really can't pretend not to notice that look on your face—the one that says you want to go find trouble with someone."

Yinsen turned back to the policewoman in front of him, then finally shrugged. "I didn't say anything, and I haven't admitted to anything. You said someone accused me, so are you arresting me now?"

"No. I know better than you what kind of person that guy is." Jill's expression suddenly became extremely serious. "What I want to know is, who exactly are you?"