The Virus Itself

"Rod of God? Isn't that still in the testing phase? What if you accidentally kill me in the process?! Not everyone is willing to be resurrected through cloning technology like you!"

Captain Kromi, upon hearing that his superior Wesker, sitting in the office, intended to use him as bait, immediately roared in indignant rage.

"Heh, for a captain of the U.S.S. unit, you certainly have a cowardly perspective. Making a sacrifice for the company is your honor. Besides, are you so sure you aren't a clone yourself?" Wesker said with a cold sneer.

"I am... a clone???"

Captain Kromi was suddenly stunned by the other's words, his mind straining to recall past events.

Yet, he discovered his memories only extended to his time within the company; everything before entering the apocalypse was a complete blank...

His eyes instantly turned dull and vacant.

He... was actually just like the cannon-fodder soldiers he looked down upon, merely a clone...

Seeing no response, Wesker continued, "Don't worry. Even if you sacrifice yourself now, we can still transfer your memories to the next clone body. After all, combat experience is extremely valuable."

From these words, it was clear that Captain Kromi had already been cloned many times, only the memories of his deaths had been deleted, allowing him to continue believing he was a special existence unlike the other clones.

After this death, he would likely forget how he died again and continue to lead troops for the company with his usual arrogant posture...

Captain Kromi stood dazed for a moment, his dim eyes gradually returning to their original cold, murderous intent. Perhaps he had come to terms with it, or perhaps he knew this was an inescapable fate, and he resigned himself to it.

"Floor the gas. Lure that guy near the Rod of God's preset strike zone and stall him. Try to drag it out for five minutes," Captain Kromi told the driver, then turned to look at the Black Hawk Helicopter chasing them from the sky behind the vehicle.

Why didn't that bastard just fire and blow up the vehicle he was riding in? Was he trying to capture him alive?

Captain Kromi's suspicion was correct; Xia Tianming did indeed want to capture him alive.

After all, if the commander's brain were blown to pieces, he wouldn't be able to extract any useful memories from it.

However, Xia Tianming did not yet know he was being lured into a trap and continued to pilot the Black Hawk Helicopter, diving in pursuit of the speeding jeep.

It was only natural that what ran on the ground could not outpace what flew in the sky. Soon, the distance between them closed, and the Black Hawk Helicopter hovered directly above the jeep!

The adjutant sitting in the back, his face deathly pale, mounted the vehicle-borne machine gun and opened fire at the helicopter overhead, attempting to slow down the pursuit.

Suddenly, he noticed that the guy had left the cockpit, leaving the helicopter on autopilot. Half of his body was exposed outside the cabin door, looking down at them.

Was he planning to jump down from a hundred meters in the air?!

Xia Tianming gripped the cabin door, looking coldly down at the open-top jeep below. Bullets were constantly firing upward, trying to obstruct him.

His original fear of heights seemed to have been erased by the Blacklight Virus.

Calculating the landing point, without a moment's hesitation, Xia Tianming leaped out of the helicopter!

Then, with the speed of a diving bullet, he plummeted from a hundred-meter height straight toward the jeep on the ground!

Facing the bullets flying toward him, he transformed his hands into sharp claws in mid-air, batting the incoming rounds away!

In just one second, Xia Tianming landed directly in front of the jeep with the force of a meteorite striking the earth!

The massive kinetic energy instantly smashed a five-meter-wide crater into the ground and sent the vehicle flipping 720 degrees into the air, throwing the men inside out!

Before one of the soldiers could hit the ground, Xia Tianming swung his claws, slicing him in half mid-air and consuming him!

In the end, only Captain Kromi, the adjutant, and the driver remained, slammed hard against the ground, spinning like tops for a dozen rolls before finally coming to a stop.

Xia Tianming walked toward them as they lay on the ground groaning.

Captain Kromi endured the intense pain racking his body, rolled over, pulled out a pistol, and fired at the man.

Xia Tianming didn't even bother to dodge such low-caliber fire, letting the bullets strike his body without causing the slightest hindrance to his advance.

Xia Tianming's calm footsteps brought an indescribable pressure with every stride, causing Kromi's pupils to tremble!

"I'll fight you to the death!!!"

The driver, having lost several teeth, found courage from somewhere. Holding two high-explosive grenades, he charged at Xia Tianming with a ferocious expression, pulling the safety pins in an attempt to take him down together.

Just as he reached the man, the driver suddenly felt his body go light, and then he realized he was flying into the air, but the two grenades were still in his hands...

BOOM!!!

Xia Tianming had instantly tossed the suicidal driver dozens of meters into the sky. He didn't even lift his eyes as he watched him explode into a brilliant, bloody firework.

The massive explosion brought the adjutant, who had been stunned nearby, back to his senses. He tried to reach for the heavy machine gun that had fallen to the side to make a final stand.

Before he could pick up the gun, a foot suddenly stepped onto it, crushing the heavy machine gun into two pieces!

The adjutant looked up, trembling with fear. It was the hooded youth. Backlit by the moonlight, his face was shrouded in shadow, making his features unclear and his presence even more oppressive!

"You..."

The adjutant managed only a single word.

With a dull thud, his chest was pierced by a claw, and he was lifted off the ground!

Xia Tianming didn't let him suffer for long; he twisted his claws, thoroughly shredding and consuming the adjutant, thereby obtaining his memories.

Afterward, he turned his head to look at Captain Kromi, who was slumped on the ground not far away, and spoke in a calm tone: "So, you are the commander of this unit."

"Who... who exactly are you..."

Kromi, clutching the empty pistol, asked in a mechanical, numb tone.

Watching his entire detachment wiped out by one man without the slightest ability to resist had dealt a massive blow to his usually arrogant self.

"Human... can I even still be considered human?"

Xia Tianming froze at these words, muttering to himself as he walked toward the other person with an expressionless face.

Ever since he first obtained the Blacklight Virus, to say nothing of this bizarre body, the emotions that a human should possess seemed to be drifting further and further away from him.

He, who once didn't even dare to kill a chicken, had now easily decimated a small army, his heart remaining completely unmoved even after killing a person.

Perhaps he could no longer be considered human; he was merely a vessel for the virus, or perhaps, the virus itself.