Shut Down the Red Queen

The Red Queen suddenly vanished, then opened all the sealed doors, seemingly showing its stance.

Umbrella's plan couldn't afford any deviations. Since it couldn't be a purely accidental incident as originally planned, then they would simply eliminate all the witnesses. As long as everyone present was dead, the subsequent events would naturally be guided back onto the original track.

Ethan shook his head helplessly. The Red Queen was not a truly self-aware AI after all; it merely followed pre-programmed instructions strictly. So, this negotiation could be considered a failure.

"Doesn't matter, charging through by force is the same!"

Ethan casually drew his Long Sword. Arthur, who had been silent the whole time, did the same. Jill had also kept her pistol in hand, never relaxing.

"Don't stand by the door, keep some distance..."

Before he could finish speaking, a red shadow shot out from outside the door with a whoosh. The group didn't even get a clear look at what it was, only Ethan realized the Red Queen had lied just now.

"Licker!"

Almost no skin, muscles completely exposed, extremely sharp senses, astonishing speed, and a pair of claws that could tear through steel, as well as a tongue that could shoot out several meters in an instant, with enough force to rip a large hole in a human body.

Lickers were already mature bio-weapons. One or two were very dangerous, and if they appeared in groups, their threat increased exponentially.

Unlike the Lickers in the original game, which lost their sight during evolution and relied entirely on hearing, the Lickers in the movie version seemed to have thermal imaging vision, which allowed them to find hidden prey more easily.

Therefore, Ethan couldn't 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!

Raising his hand, he fired a Flame Arrow to distract the other one, while simultaneously stepping forward and charging towards the Licker that had shot out first. He swung the Long Sword fiercely.

The sword struck the Licker's claw, actually making a sound like metal colliding, and as the blade scraped across the claw, it even sent up a shower of sparks.

"How did these claws evolve!"

He complained inwardly about how much this thing had been changed, while his hand movements quickened.

After sliding along the outside of the claw, Ethan used the momentum to swing downwards, then sharply turned and swung a diagonal slash. If this hit, it would land right on the Licker's chest, where its biggest weakness lay – its almost completely exposed heart.

As long as the heart took a heavy blow, the Licker would die instantly, even more lethal than attacking its exposed brain.

But precisely because of this, the Licker's heart wasn't easy to attack. It usually stayed in a crouching position to protect its weakness.

However, this Licker was in mid-air, so Ethan's sword struck solidly. He had even increased his strength slightly, and after hitting the Licker's heart, the momentum didn't decrease, sending it flying backward and crashing into the other Licker right behind it.

At the same time, the Licker that had been distracted by Ethan's Flame Arrow, because it paused for a moment, was riddled with bullets by the quick-reacting Captain James and his team.

"Attack the heart and head, hitting other parts won't kill them."

The tough woman Rain held her gun and slowly approached the Licker that had been shot and was lying motionless on the ground. She then fired a few more shots into the body before detaching the empty magazine and replacing it with a new one.

"Didn't the Red Queen clear these things out? That damn computer lied to us?"

When Ethan killed the first Licker, Arthur had already charged forward. In terms of swordsmanship and close combat, Arthur was much stronger than him. Although he moved a little later, he almost instantly dealt with his opponent, especially after knowing the enemy's weakness.

The mercenaries finally noticed that the two young men had killed two monsters with Long Swords. Thinking about how their group had used automatic weapons to concentrate fire and only killed one, the difference was too great, wasn't it?

But at this moment, no one was in the mood to discuss this. If the Lickers hadn't been cleared out as the Red Queen said, then more monsters would come, as well as the Zombies that all the Hive personnel had turned into. Those things weren't dangerous individually, but if a large group surged out, no one could guarantee what would happen.

"Let's take down the Red Queen's mainboard first."

Regardless, the Red Queen had to be shut down, but the passage to the Main Control Room was tightly sealed. Even if they opened it, they remembered that there were defense systems inside the passage that could kill all of them.

"Kaplan!"

"I'm trying!"

The computer expert Kaplan was sweating profusely, but no matter how hard he tried, the door in front of him remained still. All his attempts were easily thwarted by the Red Queen.

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

Ethan watched the mercenaries, who were a bit anxious but not panicked and moved with great coordination, knowing they had stabilized their position.

Stepping back slightly to clear the area in front of the door so as not to obstruct the mercenaries' line of fire, Ethan, with a free hand, directly ran Spence, who was pinned to the ground, through with his sword.

"What are you doing?"

The righteous police officer Jill didn't expect Ethan to suddenly kill Spence. She knew the guy deserved to die and wasn't worth pity, but she didn't think Ethan could just kill him like that: "He should be taken outside to face judgment! And his existence can prove Umbrella's various crimes..."

"Don't be ridiculous, do you think Umbrella will give you a chance?" Ethan had a purpose in bringing Jill along, it wasn't because she was a girl, and he certainly didn't think she had the right to criticize him: "Besides, our top priority now is to protect ourselves. Do you think having a guy like this in the team won't screw one of us over?"

Arthur had also felt it was a bit inappropriate for Ethan to kill Spence, who had already lost the ability to resist, but when Ethan explained it like that, he also realized that in the current situation, it was indeed not suitable to have a hidden danger nearby.

"When facing a huge external threat, it is crucial to ensure internal unity within the team, otherwise it is very likely to lead to extremely bad consequences."

He was starting to think that Merlin sending him and Ethan to travel through various planes together was probably not just to experience different worlds, but also to help him understand more principles that he couldn't teach him normally.

He didn't necessarily have to agree, but he had to understand and distinguish the pros and cons of these actions. Ethan just happened to be an excellent reference – he only needed to observe whether the results Ethan got after making these decisions were good or bad, and he could understand the pros and cons of these actions, which was much more intuitive than just talking about it.

Ethan didn't know what Arthur was thinking next to him. After stabbing Spence to death and eliminating the hidden danger, he walked directly to Kaplan's side: "Don't bother, just blow the door open."

He didn't believe that this group of mercenaries came down without even preparing demolition equipment? What would they do if a damaged door happened to block their way?

James also agreed with Ethan's suggestion and ordered two mercenaries to go forward and prepare for demolition... but before they even reached the door, it opened automatically.

Ethan ignored it and continued to demand: "Don't pay attention to it, even if the door is open, we have to blow it up. First, blow this door away, otherwise as soon as we go in, that naughty little girl will lock the doors on both sides..."

James nodded, motioning for his two subordinates to comply. Then they watched as the Red Queen closed the open door again.

"Futile struggle!"

Having made up his mind, Ethan wouldn't give the Red Queen any more chances. Since the Red Queen had been judged as a pure program incapable of communication, Ethan was too lazy to waste words and just blew it up – he remembered that the Red Queen in the Main Control Room was only a sub-program; the real main program should be hidden in the machine room on the lowest level.

"Could it be that the Red Queen is obsessed with executing the apocalypse plan simply because it's a sub-program?"

Thinking this, Ethan wanted to slap himself. Why was he making excuses for a broken computer? Since it was determined to be an adversary, he should treat it as a firm enemy. Whether it was a sub-program or not made no difference to him.

Install, detonate!

At the same time, the Laser Emitters in the passage were destroyed, leaving the entire passage a mess of wreckage. Then, the door on the opposite side was also blown apart. Only then did the group dare to enter the passage and go into the Main Control Room.

Ethan didn't go in. There was nothing in the Main Control Room worth his attention. He remained here, urging Kaplan to find the hidden control program to enter the lower levels.

But Kaplan fiddled around for a long time without finding anything. Coupled with the Zombies that were starting to appear, the constant sound of gunfire made the computer expert even more anxious.

"Are you sure there's really something like that?"

"Definitely."

The Red Queen's reaction earlier had already confirmed this; it was just hidden deeper.

Just then, the Red Queen, who had been playing dead, suddenly projected in front of Ethan and proposed a deal: "If you stop them from shutting down my program, I can send you to the lower levels."

Ethan was startled at first, then he almost agreed, but immediately remembered the Red Queen's previous actions... So he firmly rejected the offer: "I already gave you a chance, but you refused! I never negotiate with enemies I'm about to eliminate, and you have no capital to negotiate with me!"

Almost at the same moment he finished speaking, the entire Hive suddenly lost power. Immediately after, the Emergency Backup Power activated, leaving the Hive, which had been as bright as day, illuminated only by emergency lights.

This situation meant that the Red Queen had been shut down.

Almost simultaneously, Kaplan, who had been busy with his head down, reconnected to the restarted control computer. It didn't take long before he suddenly shouted in surprise, "I found that startup program you were talking about!"