Slaughter Mode Begins

Chapter 48: Slaughter Mode Begins

In a residential neighborhood near the edge of the city, Li Wei sat on a soft leather sofa, drinking coffee. The owner of the house had clearly been a coffee lover, leaving behind plenty of premium coffee beans. One of the newcomers had worked at a coffee shop, so the beans had come in handy for Li Wei and the others.

His left arm still hurt, but Li Wei didn't care.

Regeneration was rare, but not especially difficult to obtain. It was even easier to get in a game world dominated by biotechnology. Once he acquired regeneration, his severed arm could grow back.

As for the Slaughter Mode mission, which required him to kill five enemy reincarnators, Li Wei had already made his own plans.

"You've been here for quite a while, but you still haven't introduced yourselves. Tell me your numbers and abilities now. That way, I can plan our operations based on your actual circumstances. Of course, it'd be even better if you could tell me your names!" Li Wei lifted the steaming cup with his only hand and took a satisfying sip.

The first to speak was the middle-aged man skilled with firearms. He cleared his throat. "I'll go first, then. You can call me Luo Cheng, number 3980. I used to be a military instructor in the real world, so I'm familiar with firearms. I also know a bit of basic martial arts, though I'm still far behind the captain. If anyone wants to learn marksmanship or martial arts, I can teach you..."

The captain Luo Cheng mentioned was Li Wei, and Zheng Yutong had naturally become the vice-captain. They had witnessed the abilities of the two qualified players, Li Wei and Zheng Yutong, during the previous escape mission. After discussing it among themselves, they'd decided to follow Li Wei.

The next to introduce herself was a woman with a neat short haircut. Her movements carried a distinctive air of confidence.

"Xue Yan. Just call me Swallow. Number 5609. My specialty is throwing knives. I've learned Throwing Weapon Mastery..." As she spoke, she produced a small knife from who knew where, flicked her wrist, and struck the doorknob several meters away with perfect accuracy.

This girl's good! Li Wei and Zheng Yutong thought at the same time.

"My name is Chen Dali, number 7031. I used to carry sandbags at construction sites. My specialty... I guess I'm pretty strong. But Captain Li is way stronger than me, haha. He can punch straight through a concrete wall. I haven't had any enhancements at all!" said the tallest young man among the newcomers, looking honest and simple.

Li Wei had already noticed the calluses on Chen Dali's palms. He nodded in satisfaction, thinking that if Chen Dali proved trustworthy, he might as well give him the Primordial Origin Skill he'd taken from Guo Jian to practice.

"Yang Ming, number 10421. I'm a businessman. I haven't had any enhancements."

"Wang Xiaomei, number 36090. I can make coffee and cook a few things. I haven't had any enhancements."

Once everyone had introduced themselves, a flicker of amusement crossed Li Wei's eyes. One of those who had just spoken was clearly lying. But he didn't want to call the person out yet. He'd watch a little longer. If the liar showed any ill intent, he could deal with the problem then.

"Good. Let's talk about the second mission now: Slaughter Mode. The explanation on the Yellow Paper is very clear. It's meant to make us fight the second batch of players. As for this mission, I've decided..."

By the time Li Wei left the house, an hour had passed. Zheng Yutong followed him out.

"I'll remember everything you said. You need to be careful, too!" Zheng Yutong had no idea what was going through this man's head.

He'd just said he wanted to split the seven of them into two groups, while he returned to Raccoon City alone. Zheng Yutong had initially objected, but when Li Wei said he was going to look for a way to obtain Regeneration, she reluctantly agreed.

Li Wei's missing left arm weighed heavily on her. She kept thinking that if she'd gotten back faster, he might have been able to keep it. She felt she had a duty to help him get Regeneration. Li Wei had told her that if she wanted to help him, she should follow his arrangements.

Just as Li Wei was about to leave, he suddenly seemed to remember something and came back.

"Keep an eye on that Yang Ming. He wasn't telling the truth just now. He said he hadn't had any enhancements, but my Eye of Perception showed that he has a skill called Viper Guard. If he makes any suspicious moves, then..." Li Wei made a gesture. His meaning couldn't have been clearer.

Zheng Yutong nodded. She'd spent more time on Shadow Street than Li Wei had, and dealing with a newcomer was easy for her.

Li Wei got into a car and started the engine.

He needed to get back to Raccoon City as quickly as possible. Since this was the Resident Evil game world, the legendary Umbrella Corporation had to be here.

The T-Virus was a biological weapon created by the company. In the game, it also possessed the more advanced G-Virus. That was Li Wei's target.

In the previous mission, Wang Kai, who had Regeneration, had been enhanced by the T-Virus. Li Wei had casually drawn some information about the Resident Evil world out of him. During a Resident Evil mission, Wang Kai had saved a scientist from Umbrella Corporation and received an extracted, modified T-Virus from him. This improved version wouldn't turn people into zombies. Instead, it greatly enhanced their physical abilities and gave them Regeneration.

If that was the case, why shouldn't Li Wei follow Wang Kai's example?

Based on his analysis, Raccoon City definitely had a secret research facility belonging to Umbrella Corporation. If he could find it, there was a good chance he'd find the modified T-Virus—or even the G-Virus.

Thinking of his lost left arm made Li Wei's anger flare.

"Right, after killing Shao Yang, I also got a Skill Book and a Guardian Yellow Paper. How could I have forgotten?" After parking the car, Li Wei took out the Skill Books and Yellow Paper.

He only needed one glance at the information on the Yellow Paper to see that Shao Yang had been much better off than Guo Jian.

"Guardian, No. 114, Status: Free, Storage Space: 38,000 Points, Mental Strength Potion ×7, Fire Crystal ×3, Thunder Crystal ×3, +5, +12 Leather Armor Set, +3 Skeleton Staff, Blessing Gem ×1..."

What a haul. The items in the Guardian's storage space alone were things Li Wei had never seen before, never mind the points. The Fire Crystals and Thunder Crystals were probably materials for forging weapons and armor.

The +5, +12 Leather Armor Set was definitely the defensive armor Shao Yang had been wearing. He hadn't expected it to drop, too. As for the +3 Skeleton Staff, it was said to be the weapon used by mages in the MU World.

A mage. Li Wei remembered that he'd never encountered anyone with that class on Shadow Street. Where had Shao Yang gotten all this stuff?

The Blessing Gem could raise the item level of objects and weapons below +6 with a 100% success rate. It was definitely the kind of gem people would fight over.

Without hesitation, Li Wei chose to fuse with Guardian No. 114. This time, he only gained a +3 increase to each of his four basic attributes. It seemed that the more times he fused with someone else's Guardian, the less effective the attribute increase became. No wonder Shao Yang's four attributes hadn't changed much when Li Wei had seen him.

After fusing twice, Li Wei's attributes had reached Strength 30, Agility 21, Mental Strength 26, and Stamina 16. His overall rating had jumped from D3 to C1.

Surging power filled his body, giving Li Wei confidence like he'd never felt before.

All that remained were the two Skill Books he'd gotten. Li Wei already knew about one of them: the terrifying attack skill Mind Impact. The other was called Shift Displacement.

Both were mental-strength skills. Li Wei learned them both without hesitation. Once golden light sank into his body, he hurriedly checked their properties.

"Mind Impact": Consumes 5 points of mental strength to drive the power of thought against an enemy. Range: 15 meters. Enormous power.

"Shift Displacement": Instantly moves the caster to any place they have previously visited, as long as it's within the same plane of existence. Consumes 17 points of mental strength.

Li Wei had already seen the power of the first skill, Mind Impact. It was nothing short of a cannon. As for the second skill, he wanted to try it right away.

"Picture the place you want to reach, and the route to get there. But it has to be somewhere you've visited before. Then..." Li Wei followed the instructions and used Shift Displacement.

Suddenly, a tremendous pulling force spun Li Wei around. He was swept into a black hole the size of a ping-pong ball, like a ball of thread being wound up. The next second, he appeared on a rooftop.

"Where is this?" Li Wei froze at the sight around him. This was the rooftop of the building where he'd first entered the Resident Evil world.

"Incredible!" After confirming that he'd learned Shift Displacement, Li Wei's heart raced. The skill seemed to belong to the magic category. Though his current mental strength only let him use it once a day, its benefits were undeniable.

Just imagine: when you were trapped in a situation that meant certain death, Shift Displacement could get you out of danger in an instant. It was unquestionably the ultimate escape skill.

It was already late at night. The rooftop was deserted. The first batch of reincarnators had probably all found a way to leave by now. A gentle night breeze blew away some of the stench from the city. Looking down from the rooftop, Li Wei saw that there were far fewer zombies surrounding the building. He made his way down the stairs.

On the stairwell below the twelfth floor, he began to see human and zombie corpses here and there. In some places, there were so many bodies that the passage was nearly blocked. Fortunately, Li Wei had grown used to such bloody scenes. By the time he reached the lobby on the first floor, everything in sight was stained bright red. Severed limbs littered the floor, though most had belonged to zombies.

"Looks like quite a few people in the first batch of reincarnators are pretty capable."

Li Wei wasn't entirely without a lead on the Umbrella research facility hidden in Raccoon City. According to the game's real-world backstory, the crisis had begun when someone tried to steal Dr. William's work on the T-Virus. Before dying, William had injected himself with the G-Virus, turning into a monster and killing almost all the armed personnel. It had happened at an underground research facility.

And the facility had belonged to Dr. William!

Li Wei only needed to find the police station's population records and look up Dr. William's property in Raccoon City to figure out where the research facility was.

So the first thing he needed to do was find the police station. Li Wei stepped out of the lobby and immediately drew the attention of more than a dozen zombies. These living corpses, mutated by the T-Virus, had rotting skin and let out low growls from their throats every so often. An ordinary person would have been scared witless, but they were facing no ordinary man this time.

"Remote Cloud Piercing Palm!"

A zombie charging at Li Wei with a hoarse yell was smashed in half by the Cloud Piercing Palm. And Li Wei's performance had only just begun.