Floating Island Incident (Part 2)

"It worked." The doctor who arrived afterward couldn't help but exclaim after finishing his examination of Chris. This hospital wasn't an ordinary one—it was established by the United Nations specifically for biochemical viruses, and basically, patients infected with such viruses from all over the world were sent here.

"Then hurry up and prepare the vaccine." Hearing the doctor say that, Chris urged immediately.

"Well, the current results are good, but we don't know if there are any side effects yet. It's best to observe a bit longer." The doctor hesitated.

"If we keep observing, people will die." Under the strong insistence of Chris and Jill, they ultimately administered the vaccine to everyone infected with the virus. Just as Chris said, people were on the verge of death—why worry about side effects?

If there really were any side effects, they could observe after the injection just the same. So to avoid potential side effects, Chris and his teammates wouldn't be able to return to the front lines for a short while.

"Thank you." Jill's gaze at Shen Fei was filled with gratitude.

"No need to be polite. I came here to do exactly this. Without you all fighting on the front lines, we wouldn't be so at ease doing research in the rear." Shen Fei said.

After expressing her thanks again, Jill hurriedly left. After all, the emergence of a new biochemical virus was hardly good news for the BSAA and FBC organizations.

"What did you say? A vaccine for the virus has appeared?" The sudden appearance of a vaccine for the new virus shocked all the biochemical experts on the island. The speed was simply too fast.

"I got a message from Jill. This time, it's all thanks to you." Soon, Rebecca contacted Shen Fei. Ever since she learned Chris had been infected, she had been staying in the lab conducting research, trying to save him.

"How did you do it?" Rebecca asked the biggest question on her mind.

"I just discovered the structure of this virus, and then I got a bit lucky." Shen Fei laid out the general idea. It sounded simple, but achieving it was extremely difficult—it required constant trial and error. The reason Shen Fei was so fast was that his Op-Op Fruit allowed him to skip those attempts.

The T-Abyss Virus held no value for Shen Fei whatsoever. It was nothing more than a pure biochemical virus. Strangely enough, Umbrella Corporation's T, G, T-Veronica, and Uroboros viruses were all initially aimed at self-improvement—to create new humans, as Umbrella put it.

The viruses that came after were purely biochemical weapons.

At some point, the research into biochemical viruses had strayed from its original direction. In that regard, Umbrella Corporation's goal was far nobler than these people's. It was, one had to admit, a tremendous irony.

"Damn it, how is this possible?" Somewhere on Terragrigia Island, a leader-like figure, upon hearing the news of the vaccine's appearance, angrily hurled a military knife to the side. The knife embedded itself deep into the wall.

"Should we continue the plan?" A subordinate asked.

"Let me think about it." The leader said, then kicked all his men out of the room. Immediately after, he contacted someone on his phone.

"Didn't you say there was no vaccine? So what's going on now?"

"Just a minor accident. We'll have to move ahead of schedule now. Start the operation tomorrow night. I'll cooperate from my end." The person on the phone said.

"That's too rushed. My people aren't ready."

"It has to be tomorrow night." The person on the phone emphasized again.

"Since you say so, it's not impossible. But this time, I want triple the price."

"No problem."

"Hello, Mr. Shen. Our boss wants to see you. Please come with us." On the second night, Shen Fei, who had been alone in his room watching a movie, was suddenly visited by four fully armed, uninvited guests.

"I don't think I know your boss." With three guns pointed at him, Shen Fei raised his hands and said.

"You'll know him once you go." The leader-like figure gestured to the man standing behind Shen Fei. The man immediately pulled out a syringe and walked toward him.

"Trouble comes fast, doesn't it?" Just as Shen Fei was about to make a move, a barely audible gunshot rang out in the room. The man behind Shen Fei suddenly had a blood hole appear in his head, then collapsed.

By the time the other three reacted, it was already too late. Three muffled thuds, and they too fell.

"Didn't expect you to be so popular." From the adjacent room emerged a person Shen Fei found very surprising—Ada Wong. She was holding a silenced pistol in each hand; she was the one who had taken out the four men.

"Your line of work really is unpredictable." After a moment of stunned silence, Shen Fei smiled.

"Your reaction surprised me too." Shen Fei's attitude made Ada instinctively wary, and she immediately aimed her gun at him.

"Are you here to invite me to see some boss, just like them?" Shen Fei seemed completely unconcerned by Ada's actions.

"That's right. Please." Ada nodded lightly.

"But what if I don't want to leave? If your boss wants to see me, let him come here himself."

"Do you really think I won't shoot?" Ada said, shifting her aim as if looking for a non-lethal spot to fire.

"You would, but—" Shen Fei raised his right index finger, and the twin guns in Ada's hands flew upward. To his surprise, though he had intended to use this move to disarm her, Ada herself was also lifted off the ground. But the next moment, she immediately released her grip on the guns and dropped down. The instant she landed, she drew another gun from behind her waist.

Just as she was about to fire, she found the gun in her hand sliced in two, as if by a sharp blade.

"Don't move anymore, or I won't be polite." Holding a scalpel in his left hand, Shen Fei spoke up when he saw Ada preparing to act again.

He had activated his Op-Op Fruit ability back when the four men had their guns on him, and had already sensed an extra person in the room. That was why he hadn't used the fruit to kill the four outright. What he hadn't expected was that the extra person turned out to be Ada Wong.

What had sent Ada's guns flying was the Baton.

"A Superhuman." Ada stared at Shen Fei in surprise. Though this world didn't have mutants, there were plenty of people with superpowers—some due to radiation and such, the rest being anomalies.

"Something like that." Shen Fei said, moving his right hand. The two halves of Ada's broken gun and the two guns in the air all flew toward him.

"Looks like my luck is really bad today." Ada had dealt with Superhumans before, but none of them could compare to the ability Shen Fei had just displayed.

"I think my luck is pretty good. Have a seat." Shen Fei walked over to a sofa and sat down, then gestured for Ada to sit across from him.

"What are you going to do with me?" Ada said, obediently sitting down opposite Shen Fei.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything to you. Actually, I've been needing someone to help me with some things. Are you interested?"

"You want to hire me."

"That's right." Shen Fei smiled.

"At this point, it looks like I can't refuse." Ada seemed to resign herself to fate.

"Of course not. As long as you agree to keep my abilities a secret, you can leave anytime." Shen Fei said, raising his hand to point at the door, his expression calm.

"You trust me." Ada countered.

"Of course." Shen Fei smiled and nodded.

"Then I agree." Ada said as she stood up and walked toward the door, glancing back at Shen Fei's reaction as she went. Even after she stepped outside, Shen Fei showed no response at all.

"Looks like Wesker has his eye on me. That's only natural—if you want to study the virus, how can you do it without a biochemical expert? Quite a few specialists in this field have gone missing over the years." As for where those experts ended up, one guess was enough.

"I hope Wesker comes to find me in person later. Red Queen." The only things Shen Fei wanted from the Umbrella Corporation now were the Stairway of the Sun and the Red Queen. Once he found Wesker, both should be within reach.

"I wonder who those four were." Looking at the four corpses on the ground, Shen Fei immediately opened a small Mirror Dimension, enclosing the bodies inside. Disposing of evidence, simple and convenient.

"What happened over there? A fire?" After cleaning up the bloodstains, Shen Fei looked through the window at the distant city, where a massive blaze seemed to be raging, catching him by surprise.

But the alarm that followed immediately made Shen Fei understand what was happening—a biochemical virus alert. This was a new alarm system established only after the Raccoon City incident.

Under normal circumstances, this alarm never sounded. Now that it had, it meant the entire city was unsafe.

"A repeat of Raccoon City? What the hell is S.H.I.E.L.D. doing?" Just as Shen Fei was grumbling about S.H.I.E.L.D., Jill arrived with the Strike Team to escort the biochemical experts living here out first.

From Jill, Shen Fei learned that the situation had already spiraled out of control. Inside the city, the virus, Hunters, and panic had turned everything into chaos.

"To smuggle this many Hunters in here, it looks like Hydra couldn't resist making a move." The FBC was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s turf. For this to succeed under such circumstances, only Hydra, hiding within S.H.I.E.L.D., could have pulled it off.

In the Marvel world, when you can't find the source of a problem, blaming Hydra is never wrong.