The Red Queen's Mainboard

Hao Shuai noticed that Alice, standing beside him, was looking at Spence with a strange expression. Her gaze shifted between confusion and anger.

He knew that the moment Alice saw Spence, memories had begun returning to her, bit by bit. They must have been memories of the times she and Spence had been married. Naturally, she assumed that of everyone there, Spence had been closest to her. But the memories were only fragments, coming back in fits and starts. So Alice felt more anger than anything else and didn't stop what was happening.

The train sped through the passageway and soon reached its destination: the underground entrance to the Hive.

"Get off."

James jumped off first, raising his gun as he warily scanned their surroundings. The others followed one by one. When it was Alice's turn, she glanced back at Spence, who stood behind her, and at Hao Shuai, who was at the very back. Then she jumped down from the train.

After everyone had gotten off, Hao Shuai told Rain he needed to take a leak. Under Rain's watch, he walked to the rear of the train and looked around. Before long, he spotted a backpack Spence had hidden in a corner just outside the rear door.

Taking advantage of the moment when Rain turned away, Hao Shuai stowed the backpack in his pocket space. Then he pretended he was done and went back.

By the time Rain escorted Hao Shuai back to the others, James was explaining the Hive to Alice. Once he finished, the passageway opened.

They filed inside. The walls displayed a view of a city's high-rises beneath bright sunshine and a deep blue sky, complete with the bustle of the city and the sound of police sirens. It was almost exactly like working aboveground.

The medic studied the readings on a detector for a while before confirming, "The toxic substances have dissipated."

The others visibly relaxed. Matt went over to the window and looked at the computer-generated scene on the wall. "This setup is meant to make working underground more comfortable. You can see what's happening aboveground."

Hao Shuai thought Umbrella's technology was impressive. And when he considered its even more advanced cloning and artificial intelligence technologies, he already thought of them as his.

Elsewhere, James and JD opened the elevator doors. But it was pitch-black inside, and they couldn't see a thing. JD took out a flare, twisted it open, and tossed it down the elevator shaft. As it fell, they saw an elevator with its cables snapped.

JD turned to James. "Looks like we'll have to take the stairs."

Hao Shuai followed the mercenaries down the stairs, filled with emotion. Good thing I came here on my own. If I'd ended up in a mission world like Terror Infinity, I'd probably have bought the farm on these stairs.

When they were nearly at the bottom, Kaplan suddenly reported, "The Red Queen has locked onto us. She knows we're here."

"Who's the Red Queen?" Alice asked, puzzled.

"The Red Queen is the world's most advanced artificial intelligence, a computer that controls the research facility," James explained.

They descended to the office level. Both the labs and the administrative areas were now flooded.

Watching the water pouring out, Kaplan said helplessly, "This will slow us down. To reach the Red Queen, we'll have to pass through a lot of labs."

"Rain, JD, go check how bad it is. Kaplan, keep looking for another way to the Red Queen."

Spence couldn't hold back any longer. "What exactly happened here?"

At the puzzled looks from Alice and the others, James hesitated for a moment before answering, "About five hours ago, the Red Queen suddenly started killing people. After sealing off the Hive, she killed everyone inside. When we found out what had happened, my team was sent here to shut her down."

"Why would she do that?" Hao Shuai asked, pretending not to know.

"We don't know. She might have been affected by something outside."

James had barely finished speaking when a panicked cry interrupted him.

"Oh my God!"

Matt cried out, and everyone looked over. A corpse was floating in the water across from them, startling the group.

Hao Shuai had been watching that spot from the start, so he noticed the woman's body immediately. Even when he'd watched the movie, it had given him goosebumps.

"Something's not right here. Stay behind me," Hao Shuai said, turning to Alice.

"Have you remembered something?" Alice asked urgently.

"No. I just have a vague impression," Hao Shuai said, continuing to act.

"Captain, there's no way through. The whole level is flooded," Rain reported after returning from scouting ahead.

"Fine. We're already behind schedule, so let's move."

After taking a long detour, they reached a large hall filled with rows upon rows of incubation tanks.

Seeing the tanks, Hao Shuai knew that Lickers were inside them. These are the tools the veterans who traveled through the Main God Space used to rack up points. Countless predecessors had made their fortunes with these Lickers and risen to prominence in the Main God Space.

"What is this place?"

"Restaurant B. That's what the map says," Kaplan replied.

Everyone was suspicious, including Kaplan himself. JD said, "Maybe you read it wrong."

Matt chimed in, "Maybe the company's hiding some secrets here. The whole thing's classified."

James stared at Matt. "JD, you and Rain stay here and guard the prisoner."

"Wait. Something's very wrong here. We shouldn't split up." Since Rain had been decent to him earlier, Hao Shuai knew she'd be attacked and infected if she stayed behind, so he spoke up to stop them.

"Do you know something?" James asked, staring at Hao Shuai.

"I only have a vague impression. I know there's something dangerous in there, so we shouldn't split up."

Looking at Hao Shuai's frank expression, James said, "We'll stay together. Head for the Control Room immediately."

Once they reached the central control room, Kaplan quickly breached the Red Queen's defenses, and the door to the laser corridor swung open.

The captain turned to Hao Shuai and the others. "Stay here. We're going to deal with the Red Queen."

"If you're determined to get yourselves killed, go on in." Hao Shuai stopped James and the others. "This is the most advanced security system. You can call it a laser corridor. If you go in and the door closes, then a row of lasers comes at you—what do you think will happen?"

Hao Shuai's words made everyone shudder, but they couldn't tell if he was telling the truth. They could only turn to the technician.

"I-I think I've breached its defenses," Kaplan said, not sounding very sure of himself.

"Are you certain? Are you confident your computer skills are better than the Red Queen's? If I were you, I'd go over everything again and check whether there's some kind of dormant defense system."

In the end, Kaplan took Hao Shuai's advice and carefully went over the Red Queen's defenses again. He successfully found the dormant defense system.

When Kaplan discovered it, sweat immediately streamed down his face. He thought about what would have happened if the captain and the others had entered the corridor without Hao Shuai stopping them and giving his advice...

After hearing Kaplan's explanation, even a tough guy like James broke out in a cold sweat. He looked at Hao Shuai gratefully and unlocked his handcuffs.

After Kaplan disabled the dormant defense system, James still didn't feel safe. He wedged a steel pipe in the doorway to keep the corridor from locking them in.

But there was no need to worry. The door to the Red Queen's mainframe room opened without a hitch.

Inside the room, Kaplan took out the device he'd use to shut down the Red Queen. She appeared before Hao Shuai and the others as a hologram. "Get out, get out! You must leave. Please move aside. I'm begging you."

But the mercenaries were determined to follow their orders, and James and the others still decided to shut her down. When the Red Queen saw she couldn't stop them, she left them with a warning that sounded almost like a threat: "You will all die here." Then she canceled the hologram. Kaplan successfully shut her down and removed her mainboard.

When Hao Shuai saw Kaplan take out the Red Queen's mainboard, he used his telekinesis to pull it over.

"I'm very interested in this mainboard, so it's mine. Anyone have a problem with that?" After taking the mainboard, Hao Shuai stowed it in his pocket space and addressed James and the others.