Shut Down the Red Queen

The Red Queen suddenly vanished, then opened all the sealed doors, seemingly making her stance clear.

Umbrella Corporation's plan could not be allowed to go awry. Since they could no longer make it look like a pure accident as originally planned, they might as well eliminate everyone who knew the truth. As long as everyone present was dead, later developments could naturally be guided back onto their original track.

Yinsen shook his head helplessly. The Red Queen was not truly an Artificial Intelligence with self-awareness after all. She merely followed her preprogrammed instructions strictly, so these negotiations could be considered a failure.

"Doesn't matter. We can just force our way through!"

Yinsen casually drew his longsword. Arthur, who had remained silent all this time, did the same. Jill had kept her pistol in hand the entire time and had never let her guard down.

"Don't stand by the door. Leave some distance..."

Before he could finish, a red shadow shot in through the doorway. No one even saw clearly what it was, but Yinsen realized that the Red Queen had lied.

"Licker!"

It had almost no skin, with its muscles completely exposed. Its senses were extremely sharp, its speed astonishing, and it had claws capable of tearing through steel, as well as a tongue that could snap out several meters in an instant with enough force to punch a hole through a human body.

Lickers were already mature biological weapons. One or two were dangerous enough, but when they appeared in groups, their threat increased exponentially.

Unlike the Lickers from the original game, which lost their vision during evolution and relied entirely on hearing, the Lickers in the Movie Version seemed to possess thermal vision. That allowed them to locate hidden prey far more easily.

Therefore, Yinsen could not rely on staying quiet and controlling his breathing to make the Lickers ignore him. In this world, there was only one path when encountering a Licker: either kill it, or be killed by it!

He raised his hand and fired a Flame Arrows to distract the other one, then lunged at the first Licker that had rushed in and slashed fiercely with his sword.

His blade struck the Licker's claws and actually produced the sound of metal colliding. As the edge scraped across the claws, it even threw up a trail of sparks.

How the hell did these claws evolve like that?

Silently complaining that this thing had been modified far too much, he sped up his movements.

After sliding his blade along the Outer Side of the claw, Yinsen used the momentum to swing downward, then abruptly changed direction and unleashed a diagonal slash. If it landed, it would hit the Licker directly in the chest, where its greatest weakness lay: its nearly fully exposed heart.

As long as its heart took a hard hit, a Licker would die immediately. It was even more lethal than attacking its brain, which was exposed to the air.

But precisely because of that, a Licker's heart was not easy to strike. Its usual crouched posture was also meant to protect that weakness.

However, this Licker was in midair. Yinsen's sword struck solidly, and his considerably improved strength sent it flying backward without losing momentum after cutting through its heart. It crashed into the second Licker following close behind.

At the same time, the Licker that Yinsen had distracted with a Flame Arrows paused for a moment, allowing Captain James and his team to react and riddle it with bullets.

"Attack the heart and the head. Hits anywhere else won't kill them."

The tough Rain held up her gun and cautiously approached the Licker lying motionless on the ground. She fired several more shots into the corpse before removing her empty magazine and replacing it with a new one.

"Wasn't this thing supposed to have been cleared out by the Red Queen? That damn computer lied to us?"

When Yinsen killed the first Licker, Arthur had already charged forward. In terms of swordsmanship and close-quarters combat, Arthur was much stronger than him. Though he had acted a little later, he had resolved his opponent almost instantly, especially after learning the enemy's weakness.

Only then did the mercenaries notice that the two young men had killed two monsters with longswords. They had needed a barrage of automatic fire to kill just one. Wasn't that gap a little too large?

But no one was in the mood to discuss that now. The Lickers had not been cleared out as the Red Queen claimed, which meant more monsters would be coming. On top of that, there were the zombies created from all the personnel in The Hive. Individually, they were not dangerous, but if a huge swarm came pouring out, no one could say what might happen.

"Let's remove the Red Queen's mainboard first."

No matter what, the Red Queen had to be shut down. But the passage to the Main Control Room was tightly sealed, and even if they opened it, they all remembered that the corridor contained defensive equipment capable of killing every one of them.

"Kaplan!"

"I'm trying!"

Kaplan, the computer expert, was sweating profusely, but no matter what he did, the door in front of him remained completely still. Every attempt he made was effortlessly neutralized by the Red Queen.

"Damn it, I can't seize control at all!"

Yinsen watched the mercenaries. Though somewhat impatient, they were not panicked, and their movements were highly coordinated. He knew they had steadied themselves.

He stepped back slightly to clear the doorway and avoid obstructing the mercenaries' line of fire. With one hand free, Yinsen drove his sword straight through Spence, who had been pinned to the ground.

"What are you doing?"

The righteous police officer Jill had not expected Yinsen to suddenly kill Spence. She knew the man deserved to die and was not worthy of sympathy, but she did not think Yinsen had the right to kill him like that. "He should be taken outside to stand trial! And his existence can prove Umbrella Corporation's many crimes..."

"Don't be ridiculous. Do you think Umbrella Corporation will give you that chance?" Yinsen had brought Jill along for a reason. It was not because she was a woman, nor did he think she had any right to criticize him. "Besides, our first priority right now is protecting ourselves. Do you think having someone like this in the group won't get one of us killed?"

Arthur had initially felt that Yinsen killing Spence after he had lost the ability to resist was somewhat inappropriate. But after hearing Yinsen's explanation, he also realized that under the current circumstances, it truly was not suitable to keep a potential danger by their side.

"When facing a powerful external threat, you must ensure unity within your own team. Otherwise, it may lead to extremely serious consequences."

He was beginning to feel that Merlin had sent him traveling through different worlds with Yinsen for more than just the chance to see all kinds of worlds. It could also help him understand many truths Merlin could not normally teach him.

He did not necessarily have to agree with them, but he had to understand them and distinguish their merits and flaws. Yinsen happened to be an excellent reference point—by observing whether the results of Yinsen's decisions were good or bad, he could understand the merits and flaws of those actions. That was far more intuitive than merely explaining things with words.

Yinsen had no idea what Arthur was thinking beside him. After killing Spence and eliminating that danger, he walked straight over to Kaplan. "Stop wasting your effort. Blow the door open."

He did not believe these mercenaries had come down without bringing demolition equipment. What would they have done if they encountered a damaged door blocking their path?

James agreed with Yinsen's suggestion and directed two mercenaries to prepare for demolition... but before they reached the door, it opened automatically.

Yinsen ignored it and continued, "Don't mind it. Even if it opens the door, we still need to blow it up. First, blast this door away. Otherwise, once we go in, that naughty little girl can lock the doors on both sides..."

James nodded, signaling his two subordinates to proceed. Then they watched as the Red Queen closed the opened door again.

"Pointless struggling!"

Having made up his mind, Yinsen would not give the Red Queen another chance. Since she had been judged to be a pure program incapable of communication, he could not be bothered to waste words on her. Blowing her up would settle it—he remembered that the Red Queen in the Main Control Room was only a Subroutine. The true main program should be hidden in the lowest-level computer room.

"Could the Red Queen be so determined to carry out the world-ending plan just because she's a Subroutine?"

The moment he thought that, Yinsen wanted to slap himself. Why was he looking for excuses for a broken computer? Since she insisted on opposing them, he needed to firmly treat her as an enemy. Whether she was a Subroutine made no difference to him.

They set the charges and detonated them!

At the same time, they destroyed the Laser Emitter in the passage. The entire corridor was blown into a complete mess. After blasting apart the door on the other side as well, everyone finally dared to enter the passage and proceed into the Main Control Room.

Yinsen did not go in. There was nothing in the Main Control Room worth his attention anymore. He remained on guard outside, urging Kaplan to search for the hidden control program that would allow them to reach the lower levels.

But Kaplan searched for a long time without finding anything. Combined with the zombies that had begun appearing and the nonstop gunfire, the computer expert became even more agitated.

"Are you sure such a thing really exists?"

"It definitely does."

The Red Queen's previous reaction had already confirmed it. It was merely hidden well.

Just then, the Red Queen, who had been playing dead, suddenly projected herself before Yinsen and proposed a deal. "If you stop them from shutting down my program, I can send you to the lower level."

Yinsen was stunned at first and nearly agreed, but then he remembered the Red Queen's earlier actions... so he firmly rejected the proposal. "I already gave you a chance, but you refused! I never negotiate with enemies I'm about to kill, and you don't have the leverage to bargain with me!"

Almost the moment he finished speaking, all of The Hive suddenly lost power. Then the Emergency Backup Power activated, and the brightly lit Hive was left with only its emergency lights still on.

This meant that the Red Queen had been shut down.

At almost the same time, Kaplan, who had been working with his head lowered, reconnected to the rebooted control computer. Before long, he suddenly cried out in delight, "I found the activation program you mentioned!"