Truth

The damp stench of mold seemed to clog their nostrils, mixed with rust and rotten flesh until it made them gag. They sprinted through the dim, suffocating corridor, their feet crunching over shattered glass and slick stains, every step accompanied by a teeth-grating scrape. Dark green slime occasionally seeped from the pipes overhead, pooling into winding streams on the floor. Where it met Wanda's dripping blood, it spread into an eerie purplish red. The New-Type Licker's howls sounded like rusted gears grinding inside their ears. Each cry made their hearts skip a beat, as if it would burst from the darkness and tear them apart at any second.

The veins bulged in Li's arms as he carried Wanda. The nanomaterials in his Protective Suit gave off a faint hum under the strain. Her body was growing colder in his arms. Blood still clung to her pale lips, trembling faintly with the jolts of their run, while her disheveled hair stuck to her forehead, damp with cold sweat. Li could clearly feel her weak breaths against his neck, each one reminding him that time was running out.

"There's a storage room ahead!" Ada Wong suddenly grabbed Li's Protective Suit. The hem of her red cheongsam swept through the slime on the floor, trailing a dark red streak behind her like a bloody tail. Natasha immediately lowered her gun and shielded the others behind her. Her tactical boots crushed the broken glass, producing a series of crisp cracks. She narrowed her eyes at the iron door, its entire surface covered in rust. Thick cobwebs filled the keyhole, and dried blood remained along its edges. It had clearly been abandoned for a long time, though no one knew how many lives and deaths it had witnessed.

The instant Natasha smashed the lock with her gun butt, flakes of corroded metal scattered like dust, glinting eerily in the dim light. The group had barely filed inside when the iron door let out an overloaded creak, as though it were groaning. Li gently laid Wanda beside an iron rack piled with discarded lab equipment. The rack shook violently at his touch, knocking several cracked glass bottles to the floor. A pungent chemical odor instantly filled the room, mingling with the bloody scent leaking from Wanda's wounds into a suffocating stench.

Gwen frantically searched through the first-aid kit, her nails digging deep into her palms and leaving crescent-shaped marks. When alcohol-soaked cotton touched Wanda's wounds, the unconscious Wanda twitched involuntarily, pain surfacing on her pale face. "This can't go on. Wanda won't last much longer." Gwen's voice trembled as beads of sweat dripped from her forehead onto Wanda's bloodstained skirt, blooming into dark flowers. "These wounds were infected by the Licker's claws. Ordinary treatment is useless." She raised a pair of tweezers covered in pus and blood. Several strands of unknown black tissue still clung to them, like remnants of some mutated creature, gleaming with an eerie luster in the dim light.

Natasha abruptly turned, pressing the muzzle of her gun precisely against Ada Wong's temple. The metallic scrape of the trigger being pulled was especially clear in the silent storage room, like Death's footsteps. Veins stood out on her neck, and her bloodshot eyes seemed to burn with twin flames of rage. The killing intent accumulated over years as an agent nearly burst from her body. "This is all your doing! If we hadn't believed your bullshit, Wanda wouldn't have been hurt like this! Tell me, how much else are you hiding from us?" Her voice was low and dangerous, every word forced through clenched teeth.

Ada Wong, however, remained remarkably calm. She slowly raised both hands, leaning back against a wall covered in mold beneath her red cheongsam. The rats in the corner were startled and scurried into the shadows with faint rustling sounds. "Madam, I expected you wouldn't trust me so easily." She paused, her gaze sweeping over Li's tense jaw, Gwen's trembling fingers, and Ashley, curled up in a corner and shivering. A trace of barely perceptible sympathy flickered in her eyes. "Umbrella Corporation's ambitions are far more terrifying than you imagine. They plan to release the Ultimate Mutant Virus and turn the entire world into a breeding ground for zombies. The document I'm looking for records the virus's weakness and critical vaccine data."

"Then why didn't you explain it from the beginning?" Li suddenly stood up, and the smart materials of his Protective Suit gave off a faint hum as they rubbed together. He closed in on Ada Wong, Wanda's blood nearly brushing against her collar as his breath came hot and rapid. "Do you have any idea that she saved us..." His voice cut off. His Adam's apple bobbed painfully as he turned his face away, unwilling to look at Wanda's increasingly pale face, afraid that one more glance would destroy his last hope.

Ada Wong gave a bitter smile and pulled half of a yellowed photograph from the lining of her cheongsam. Its edges were charred black, clearly scorched by flames. The outline of a laboratory and several people in white coats could barely be seen. "Three weeks ago, my informant brought this document to me. At our meeting, Umbrella's hunters disemboweled him." Her fingertips gently brushed the bloodstains on the photograph, and a painful memory flashed through her eyes. "In this world, trust is more precious than gold. I had my concerns too. Umbrella Corporation's eyes are everywhere, and I wasn't sure whether you were working for them. It wasn't until I saw you risk your lives to save Ashley and this girl that I decided to take a gamble." Her gaze suddenly sharpened. "That document may not only save the world. It might also contain a way to suppress the infection in this girl's wounds."

The storage room wall suddenly shook violently. Dust and plaster rained down, covering Wanda's face in a layer of deathly pale powder, as though draping her in a veil of death. Ada Wong immediately pressed herself against the iron door, her ears catching the sounds outside like radar. Her brow tightened further and further, her nails scraping harshly against the metal in the silent room. "They're gathering. This door won't hold for long." When she turned around, a signal flare strapped to her thigh showed through the slit in her cheongsam, its metal casing gleaming coldly. "I know a secret passage, but someone needs to draw their attention."

"I'll go." Natasha snatched the signal flare without hesitation, the knife tucked at her waist flashing coldly. She quickly spat into her palm and rubbed her hands together, years of combat instinct snapping her into action. "But you'd better not try anything." The moment she pushed open the door, a foul gust carrying the stench of Lickers hit her in the face, nearly suffocating her. She fired at the ceiling, and the red flare streaked like a meteor before exploding above the dark corridor, illuminating one hideous face after another.

Ada Wong dragged Li into the ventilation duct in the corner. Its rusted metal edge cut open her palm, and blood dripped onto the back of Li's hand, leaving a string of dark red marks. "Umbrella Corporation has hidden the virus's original strain and mass-production equipment deep in the underground laboratory." Her voice echoed through the duct, every word carrying undeniable urgency. "Once they complete the final calibration, the virus will spread through water supplies around the world. I infiltrated the laboratory before to destroy those things, but I failed. My entire team was wiped out during that operation. I was the only one who came back alive." Her voice trembled slightly, pain flashing in her eyes. "This time, with your help, there may still be a chance."

When the group finally reached the exit of the secret passage, Ada Wong suddenly pressed a hand onto Li's shoulder with enough force to make him frown. Through the gaps in the vent, more than a dozen guards armed with new pulse rifles were patrolling. The infrared detectors on their helmets flashed like the eyes of venomous snakes, every scan sending chills down their spines. Ada Wong pulled a walnut-sized jammer from a hidden compartment in her backpack. Data streams raced wildly across its display like her anxious heartbeat. "Their equipment all has tracking and communication systems. I'll jam them first, then we finish this quickly. Remember, we can't let them raise the alarm."

The instant the jammer activated, the guards' equipment emitted piercing alarms, shattering the silence. Li was the first to smash through the vent, his Shock Gauntlet slamming into the chest of the nearest guard. The tremendous impact blasted the guard straight into the wall. Flesh and blood flew as the sound of shattering bones rang clearly through the air. Natasha's twin pistols had already taken out the three guards on the right, bullets piercing their brows with flawless precision. Her movements flowed like water, proving she was an agent hardened by countless battles. Ashley hid behind Gwen, picked up a pistol from the floor, and pulled the trigger for the first time with trembling fingers. The bullet grazed a guard's helmet, leaving a scorched mark on the wall. The powerful recoil nearly knocked her over.

The sounds of battle alerted the defense systems deep within the laboratory. The ceiling suddenly split open, and dozens of bacterial insects fell like rain. Their bodies were pitch-black, their pincers glimmering with an eerie blue light as they sprayed corrosive liquid. Wherever it landed, deep pits were instantly eaten into the floor. Gwen's detector was corroded through in an instant, billowing smoke. "Run!" Ada Wong's cheongsam was burned full of holes by the liquid, exposing fair skin that immediately flushed with red burns. Yet she still sprinted toward Laboratory B-07, her eyes filled only with determination and resolve. Behind them came the roar of the virus mass-production equipment activating, like the death knell of the apocalypse. It shook the entire underground complex—and every heart within it.