"Die!"
Xu Long pulled Rain aside and kicked out in the same motion.
Pfft!
The kick landed with tremendous force, snapping the Zombie Dog's neck.
[Zombie Dog killed. Obtained 200 points!] [Hidden mission: 8. Save Rain! Complete! Obtained 300 points!]
Two notifications sounded, but Xu Long had no time to talk to her and kept firing.
A dozen or so Zombie Dogs looked like a lot, but Xu Long quickly killed every last one of them.
With that, the last danger standing between them and the exit from the Hive had been eliminated.
"Thanks! I'll buy you a drink when we get back! We'll drink for ten days!"
The survivors looked at Xu Long with gratitude. If he hadn't displayed such might, several of them would probably have been bitten to death.
"Go on without me. I can't go back!"
Xu Long waved a hand and gently pulled up his pant leg.
A peanut-sized wound near his ankle had already scabbed over.
He had gotten it while fighting the Zombie Dogs just now. He hadn't been bitten; a dog's tooth had grazed him.
Xu Long's kick had been so vicious that it had broken the dog's tooth clean off.
The tooth had then flown through a hole in his pants and scraped an insignificant cut on his leg.
Such a small wound had scabbed over on its own after a little blood seeped out.
But this was the Hive, where any wound could be fatal.
In other words, Xu Long had now been infected with the T-virus.
Then again, this was actually better.
Xu Long had already decided to stay in the Hive, so there was no way he could leave with them.
He still had to go back for the Red Queen's motherboard. With this wound, he was spared the trouble of finding an excuse.
"Take care! We'll remember you!"
Matthew and the others came over to hug Xu Long one by one, then prepared to leave.
"Wait!"
Just as Alice was about to leave too, Xu Long called her back.
"What is it?"
Seeing the ardent look on Xu Long's face, Alice couldn't help shivering.
She wouldn't have minded granting her savior's last wish before he died.
But there were so many people here, and viruses everywhere...
Xu Long pulled a syringe from his storage space. "Give me some of your blood!"
"Okay!"
Alice breathed a sigh of relief when she heard him.
She didn't know what he wanted it for, but as long as they weren't doing it out in the open, it was fine.
"Take care, my friends!"
Xu Long glanced at the others, then forced down his "reluctance" and turned to leave.
Of course, he didn't forget to take the circuit breaker from Kaplan.
It was the only way to control the Red Queen, and he didn't want to be surrounded and attacked by zombies again.
"I'm curious. Why did you stay behind? A creature's instinct is to seek benefit and avoid harm. If you stay here, you'll surely die. If you went outside, you might still survive with the medical care available there."
Xu Long had only just returned to Dining Hall B when the Red Queen's voice came from the speakers.
"The T-virus is too powerful. There's less than a one-in-ten-thousand chance of mutation, and even then, you mutate into a monster. The chance of retaining your consciousness and human form is less than one in a hundred million."
Xu Long waved the circuit breaker at the camera, warning the Red Queen not to try anything. "The T-virus came from the Hive, so there has to be a serum here. Staying is my only chance of survival."
"There is indeed a serum in the Hive, but it's all in the culture room. There's a Licker in there. If you're not afraid, I can show you the way."
The Red Queen answered.
"No need. I have the serum, and I have Alice's blood too. The virus can't kill me."
As Xu Long spoke, he strode toward the central control room.
There were less than ten minutes until his return, but Xu Long still had time.
After infection with the T-virus, injecting the serum within half an hour would completely cure it. After an hour, the chance dropped by half; after two hours, all you could do was gamble on whether you were a child of destiny.
Besides, as long as he returned to the Reincarnation Temple alive, even the gravest injuries could be completely healed.
Xu Long didn't intend to use the serum here. He would wait until after his return.
With the Main God watching over him, absolutely nothing could go wrong.
And he had obtained the blood of Alice, the protagonist. There might even be additional benefits!
"You have the serum? Was it the one Spence stole?"
Hearing Xu Long's words, the Red Queen immediately knew what had happened.
But precisely because of that, she was thoroughly puzzled.
She couldn't understand what Alice's blood had to do with the T-virus, since Alice was only an Umbrella employee who had no access to its core research.
Xu Long, however, clearly had no intention of explaining it to her. He ran all the way to the central control room, removed the Red Queen's motherboard, and waited to return.
[Main mission: Survive for two hours! Complete! Obtained 1,000 points!] [Hidden mission: 8. Keep all mercenaries alive until the end of the mission! Complete! Obtained 1,000 points!] [Teleporting to the Reincarnation Temple!]
As the countdown ended, a feeling of dizziness quietly came over him.
Xu Long's vision went black, and when it returned, he was back in the Reincarnation Temple.
But before he could react, a string of notifications sounded in succession.
[Warning: A dangerous object has been brought in! Danger level: high! There is an extremely high chance it will destroy more than 90% of this world's living organisms!] [According to the rules, the dangerous object will be forcibly destroyed!] [Conscript authority detected. Forced destruction waived!] [Warning: A masterless consciousness has been brought in! Danger level: high! There is an extremely high chance it will have a tremendous impact on this world!] [According to the rules, the masterless consciousness will be forcibly destroyed!] [Conscript authority detected. Forced destruction waived! Initiating forced master recognition!]
The Main God's notifications left Xu Long utterly bewildered, and it took him quite a while to understand what was happening.
The T-virus!
If it ever got out, this world would be finished.
Humanity in this world had already nearly been wiped out by monsters pouring up from underground. If the T-virus were added to the mix, that would be eight lifetimes' worth of bloody bad luck.
At that thought, Xu Long silently swore to keep the T-virus safe and never take it out in this world.
As for the masterless consciousness, that was probably the Red Queen.
Xu Long had previously been considering how to persuade the Red Queen to help him.
Now there was no need. The Main God had forced her to recognize a master. Whether the Red Queen liked it or not, she had to submit.
[Teleportation complete! Conscript has returned to the Reincarnation Temple! Calculating mission rewards!] [Main mission: 1. Survive for two hours. Obtained 1,000 points!] [Side missions: 1. Killed 259 zombies. Obtained 259 points! 2. Killed 17 Zombie Dogs. Obtained 3,400 points! 3. Killed 1 Licker. Obtained 500 points!] [Hidden missions: 1. Obtained the T-virus stock solution. Obtained 800 points! 2. Obtained the T-virus Serum. Obtained 700 points! 3. Saved Matthew Addison. Obtained 500 points! 4. Saved the medic. Obtained 300 points! 5. Obtained the Red Queen's motherboard. Obtained 800 points! 6. Saved Kaplan. Obtained 300 points! 7. Saved Rain. Obtained 300 points! 8. Kept all mercenaries alive until the end of the mission! Obtained 1,000 points!] [Total points obtained: 9,859. Overall evaluation: S. Obtained one E-rank authority card!]