S.H.I.E.L.D. (Part 2)

Bang bang bang.

For some reason, on Shen Fei's way back, the number of zombies had increased noticeably, forcing him to fire his gun and carve out a path.

"Zombie dogs, zombie cats—why the hell did people keep so many cats and dogs?" Spotting three zombie dogs and two zombie cats ahead, Shen Fei had no choice but to set down the rocket launcher case and pull a grenade from the pouch at his waist.

The grenade came from an airdropped supply crate he'd found earlier.

The reason Raccoon City fell so fast, aside from Umbrella Corporation's deliberate actions, was the zombie animals. Unlike humans, who turned slowly, zombie animals didn't lose their speed. Add in their grotesque appearance, and most people's first instinct upon seeing them was to run—but how could they escape?

Zombie dogs, zombie cats, zombie crocodiles, zombie sharks, and zombie snakes—these were plentiful inside Raccoon City. The reason was a zoo in the city center, operated by Umbrella Corporation.

Beyond those creatures, there were also zombie tigers, zombie elephants, and more. This zoo served as Umbrella's source of experimental animals.

"Room." Just as the zombie dogs and cats lunged at him, Shen Fei muttered under his breath. Though his Op-Op Fruit's range was still small, as long as he stayed within that domain, he could protect himself.

Bang bang.

Shen Fei targeted the zombie cats first. After all, they were smaller than the zombie dogs. In this situation, smaller meant harder to dodge, so he had to take them out quickly.

Thankfully, there were no zombie rats. If those showed up, that would be truly disgusting—the T-Virus's primary transmission vector was exactly that.

After two shots killed both zombie cats, the three remaining zombie dogs lunged at Shen Fei. Fortunately, he'd anticipated this. As the dogs moved, he shifted his feet and retreated rapidly, dropping a grenade in his original spot.

Boom.

As Shen Fei ducked behind an abandoned delivery truck nearby, the grenade exploded, catching all three zombie dogs square on.

Bang.

Two of the dogs had their heads blown clean off—no coming back from that. But one only lost half its head, so Shen Fei finished it with a follow-up shot.

"Whew." After confirming no other zombie animals were nearby—though dozens of meters away, zombies drawn by the noise were shambling toward him at a sluggish pace—Shen Fei took the chance to catch his breath.

The fight had been short, but it drained a lot of his stamina.

Only the T-Virus's boost to his metabolism, which increased his speed considerably, had let him get behind that truck in time.

"I wonder if I'll ever reach Quicksilver's speed someday. And speaking of which, if Wesker raced Quicksilver, who'd be faster?" Hoisting the rocket launcher case back onto his shoulder, Shen Fei muttered to himself.

Of course, he already had an answer in mind: Quicksilver would win. Wesker was fast, but nowhere near Quicksilver's level. The reason was simple—they gained their super speed through different methods.

One got power from a virus, the other from the Mind Stone. That was a gap as wide as heaven and earth.

If there was one ultimate goal for Shen Fei in the Marvel world, it was the six Infinity Stones. But for now, he only let himself think about it occasionally. Simple reason: with his current strength, he had no right to covet the Infinity Stones. That would be suicide.

"Who's there? Come out." Having finally made it near the milk truck, Shen Fei's expression shifted abruptly. He aimed his pistol at the other side of the vehicle and barked coldly.

"Who are you?" Jill emerged from the other side, her own pistol trained on Shen Fei.

"It's me." Seeing it was Jill, Shen Fei quickly pulled off his mask.

"What are you doing here? What happened to Rebecca and the others?" Spotting Shen Fei, Jill looked visibly shocked but lowered her gun anyway.

"They were safe when I left. I came out to find weapons." Shen Fei gave a brief rundown of what had happened after Jill left.

"Let's head back." Though Jill had plenty of questions, worry for Rebecca and the others pushed her to drive back with Shen Fei immediately.

"You're both okay—that's a relief." Back at the villa, seeing Rebecca safe, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But as Jill recounted what she'd seen in Raccoon City, both she and Rebecca's faces darkened.

They never imagined the Military was involved in this.

With the Military's involvement, Jill immediately started worrying about Chris. But since all contact with the outside was cut off, there was no way to reach him, leaving Jill to fret in silence.

As for what Shen Fei had done earlier, including killing people with a sniper rifle, Jill said nothing. After all, given the circumstances, the issue of killing could wait until they were safe.

Even so, Rebecca later offered Shen Fei some comfort about the killings.

At Rebecca's concern, Shen Fei just kept nodding.

Feeling guilt over killing—even bad people—was a common trope in Western TV shows and movies Shen Fei had watched. But he didn't have that problem. It wasn't emotional numbness; in his view, killing bad guys was simply carrying out justice on heaven's behalf.

So he couldn't understand that guilt. If it were killing good people, guilt would be normal. But bad people? Maybe that was just the difference between East and West.

Like the differing views on speed versus strength. The West valued strength heavily, with speed taking a backseat—hadn't Wesker traded speed for strength in the end?

And for power, they didn't mind abandoning their humanity.

Roar.

Shen Fei, who had finally fallen asleep, was jolted awake by a loud roar. Rebecca woke up too. With Jill back, the three of them had decided to take turns on watch, and it was Jill's shift.

"Tyrant. Thank god we brought back the rocket launcher." Seeing the Tyrant in the distance, carrying a Gatling gun, Shen Fei silently thanked his luck. Without the rocket launcher, facing that Tyrant would have meant total annihilation.

Boom.

Just as Jill was about to fire the rocket launcher at the Tyrant, a flash of light streaked past, and the Tyrant vanished without a trace. A crater several meters wide appeared on the ground in its place.

Then a blinding beam of light shone down on the villa. A plane had appeared in the sky, marked with an eagle's head facing right. Shen Fei recognized it instantly: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Quinjet.

"We're finally safe." The arrival of S.H.I.E.L.D. told Shen Fei that no matter what happened to Raccoon City next, he had survived.