Fusion Strike Detected!

Ren Ze slowly walked toward the plaza, ignoring the gun barrels subtly aimed at him by the more than a hundred Umbrella Corporation special forces soldiers surrounding it.

The assault team members had no idea why the higher-ups were so wary of a man who was unarmed, carrying nothing but a bladed weapon on his back.

Watching Ren Ze arrive alone, a young Umbrella Corporation executive stepped forward. He gave Ren Ze an elegant bow and said with a smile, "At last, we meet, Mr. Ren! I wonder, are you satisfied with such a grand welcome ceremony?"

As his words fell, the more than a hundred special forces soldiers scattered around the area all racked their weapons, filling the air with a crisp chorus of clicks.

Yet Ren Ze was utterly unaffected. Instead, he smiled.

"Are you threatening me? Or do you think that just over a hundred men, plus five helicopters in the sky, are enough to make me surrender?"

"No, no, no. I think you've misunderstood, Mr. Ren!"

The young executive shook his head.

"This isn't a threat. Umbrella Corporation bears no deep-seated grudge against you. After the incident at The Hive base and everything that happened in Raccoon City, I'm sure you understand just how powerful Umbrella Corporation is. So, I would like to make a deal with you. If you are willing to join Umbrella Corporation, wealth and power will be yours for the taking!"

"Those who walk different paths cannot make plans together."

Ren Ze shook his head. Along the way, he had witnessed far too many tragedies. Though his abilities were limited and he could not save more people, though his own hands were stained with blood, he still had his own bottom line and conscience. He could not bring himself to stand with Umbrella Corporation. Besides...

"I don't want to become like him."

Ren Ze glanced at Nemesis behind the executive.

"How could that be?"

Hearing Ren Ze's words, the young executive shook his head with a smile. "Mr. Ren, you are different from Nemesis. He is merely a half-finished product of our company. You, however, were never modified, yet possess such tremendous power. That truly intrigues us. We very much want to know how you achieved it."

After a pause, he looked at Ren Ze with complete sincerity. "So if you agree to join Umbrella Corporation, you will join as a partner. You will possess unimaginable wealth and authority within the company. Naturally, you will not receive the same treatment as the half-finished product behind me!"

"That does sound tempting."

"Then, what is your decision?"

Ren Ze did not answer. He was waiting—for Alice to deal with the sniper, the greatest threat.

Just as he was about to spout more nonsense to stall for time, he saw a graceful figure descend from the high-rise behind the young executive like a divine soldier descending from the heavens, stepping down the steel cable from the building!

At that moment, Ren Ze smiled.

Before the people in front of him could react, Ren Ze pulled out a handful of coins and flung them with both hands. People began to collapse throughout the crowd.

Before the remaining soldiers could open fire, Ren Ze stepped into Lingbo Micro-steps, his body becoming a blur of afterimages. At the same time, his hands moved without pause, striking with precision at every soldier who tried to aim a gun at him.

On the other side, Alice descended from the sky and began indiscriminately mowing down the crowd from the rear with a submachine gun in each hand.

The young executive knelt on the ground with both hands clutching his throat, but nothing could stop his life from draining away. Until his death, he could not understand it—how had Ren Ze dared?

If it had been a frontal assault, Ren Ze truly would not have dared. A firepower net formed by more than a hundred men could certainly have threatened him, perhaps even killed him!

But Ren Ze had correctly anticipated Umbrella Corporation's desire to capture him alive. With this sudden attack from within the crowd, combined with Alice's fire support, the remaining special forces soldiers could not even clearly see Ren Ze's phantom-like movements. Worse, they did not dare fire recklessly in the crowd for fear of hitting their own men. The outcome of this battle was beyond doubt.

Just as the special forces squad in the plaza was about to be wiped out, the five helicopters in the sky no longer needed to worry about hitting their own people. The cannons of four helicopters opened fire on Ren Ze and Alice.

"Matt! If you've regained your memories, hurry up and use the rocket launcher to take down those helicopters!"

The reason Ren Ze had not used his blade to finish Nemesis during their earlier battle was precisely because Umbrella Corporation's methods of controlling Zombies were not yet airtight.

Whether it was Nemesis or the mutated Zombies from Resident Evil 3, both had slipped their leash before.

Sure enough, Matt—the Nemesis who had remained indifferent as Ren Ze and Alice slaughtered Umbrella Corporation personnel—moved at last.

A single rocket directly shot down one helicopter that was firing. The resulting explosion took out another helicopter flying too close to it.

Before Ren Ze could worry about how to deal with the remaining three helicopters, the one that had remained inactive suddenly opened fire on the other two. After that burst of betrayal, the world became quiet.

When the helicopter landed, James jumped down and gave Ren Ze a hug.

"Buddy, I finally paid back the life I owed you. Honestly, ever since I learned about the biohazard experiments beneath The Hive, I haven't wanted to work for them anymore. But when I realized Umbrella Corporation had been asking us about you, openly and secretly, I figured I'd stay in the company and act as your mole. Looks like I finally came in handy!"

Ren Ze took one look and saw that the people stepping down from the helicopter were none other than James's squad. James, Rain, Kaplan—every one of them was there.

"We can catch up later. Alice, get everyone aboard. We need to get out of Raccoon City first. Once Umbrella Corporation loses contact with this place, they could launch a nuclear missile at any time! Does your squad have an extra pilot? Someone come help us fly this one!"

As Ren Ze gave instructions, he pushed Dr. Ashford forward.

"I'll do it!"

Rain volunteered.

"You're not coming with us, Matt? Don't worry. None of us are afraid of you, and none of us will reject you!"

After everyone had boarded the helicopter, Ren Ze looked at Matt, who stood off to one side in desolation.

Matt, the Nemesis, shook his head. A trace of darkness flashed through his eyes as he looked at his own hands, then let out a roar at the corpse of the young Umbrella Corporation executive.

"All right. I respect your decision..."

Ren Ze nodded. Matt did not want to go on living as a monster like this.

The helicopter gradually flew away, shrinking into two black dots in Matt's savage eyes until it finally vanished...

The sky was slowly brightening as well. Watching the rising sun and feeling the morning breeze, no one knew what he was thinking.

Just then, a nuclear missile came screaming through the air. Matt raised a hand and waved toward the direction where the helicopter had disappeared. Then he closed his eyes. Perhaps... this was the best ending for him.

Boom!

With a deafening blast and a flash of intense light, a powerful shockwave swept through all of Raccoon City. Beneath the rising sun, the city was reduced to ruins in an instant.

Thanks to Ren Ze killing that Umbrella Corporation executive with a coin at the first opportunity, preventing him from giving the order to launch the nuclear missile, they had bought the helicopter enough time to evacuate before the other side realized contact had been lost. Aside from being jolted around by the shockwave, it had not crashed outright like it did in the movie.

After flying away from Raccoon City, Ren Ze turned back to look at the distant city, now reduced to a field of ruins, and gently shook his head.

"What's wrong?"

Alice asked curiously.

"Umbrella Corporation thinks this is the end, that it can contain the spread of the T-Virus. But it doesn't know that this is only the beginning!"

"Why? That nuclear missile turned all of Raccoon City into ruins. The Zombies couldn't possibly have survived the nuclear blast, right? As long as Umbrella Corporation controls the surrounding area afterward, it should be able to contain the T-Virus, shouldn't it?"

The ever-curious LJ asked, and the others largely agreed.

"You're thinking too simply. Even if the nuclear blast wipes out every last Zombie, what about water sources contaminated by the T-Virus? What about rats that happened to hide underground from the blast, then came out to gnaw on corpses? What about scavenger birds flying in from other places after the explosion? And so on, and so on. It can't be stopped. Within a month, the areas around Raccoon City will be the first to fall. Within three months, the entire world will be reduced to scorched earth."

Ren Ze shook his head with a sigh.

"Then... what are we supposed to do?"

Even naturally optimistic LJ wore a miserable expression after hearing Ren Ze's words.

"We can't go to cities anymore. We need to settle somewhere far from them—preferably somewhere with water and food, easy to defend and hard to attack, somewhere Zombies can't easily overrun. We'll hold out for a few months and use the opportunity to gather and rescue some people. Once the T-Virus fully breaks out across the world and Umbrella Corporation is too busy to worry about us, I'll find a way to take over one of Umbrella's underground bases. Then Dr. Ashford can focus on researching an inhibitor to stop the spread of the T-Virus. That's the only way we'll have any hope of ending this catastrophe."

"Um... my uncle's family has a farm on the outskirts of Salt Lake City. It's in a valley, and they draw their own water from an underground well. But I don't know whether it counts as easy to defend and hard to attack."

Terri's words, spoken while holding her DV camera, immediately lifted everyone's spirits.

"Then what are we waiting for? Rain, inform James. Before Umbrella Corporation reacts, we need to fly to Salt Lake City right away, then find a way to get to Terri's uncle's farm in groups."