Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

'Tear—' A mass of flesh and blood, a streak of light. The bluish-gray giant, whose shoulder had a small piece of flesh ripped out, remained expressionless. It raised its hand and deflected another volley of shotgun fire from the parted-haired officer, while its other large, fan-like hand swept across, creating a gust of wind and accurately striking the lamppost that Sirin had erected to block!

The not-solid steel pipe snapped in two, but the broken spear transformed into a pair of short spears in Sirin's hands. She seemed to have anticipated this, the newly formed spears thrusting out repeatedly, creating a series of bloody holes in the gray-blue giant's arms in less than half a second—these holes, along with the lacerations on the giant's shoulders, healed rapidly at a visible speed in the next second. However, the behemoth's movements were ultimately somewhat hampered.

Obstruction is used to buy time.

She executed a set of dual sword techniques—a technique she herself wouldn't even remember unless she activated the fourth-level memory retrieval—with effortless grace. Slicing fingers, slicing wrists, stabbing elbows, she moved with the agility of a cunning cat, dodging the gray-blue giant's punches and kicks, piercing its sturdy outer armor and leaving bloody gashes. The battlefield shifted rapidly: walls were breached, handrails broken, beams shattered, and the ground shattered. The fighting area moved from the monitoring room to the corridor and then to the storage room, and in those few dozen seconds, the giant was struck at least thirty times.

Thirty times, no pain or itching.

Having unlocked the second stage of her genetic lock, Sirin could only manage a prolonged fight, while the bluish-gray giant grew stronger with each passing second. Its speed increased, its reactions became more agile, and traces of martial arts techniques gradually began to appear in its movements!

It was learning, learning incredibly fast. But its physical growth was even faster than its skill refinement—the stabbing attacks that used to pierce its armor and tear away flesh were now only able to rip at its skin, while slashing and cutting had become completely ineffective!

The officer, cursing under his breath, reloaded his shotgun as he followed. Having unlocked his genetic potential, he was the only marksman capable of using firearms to restrain the gray-blue giant while Sirin was locked in combat, without causing friendly fire. A fist-sized pull-ring grenade was already discreetly dangling from his fingertips. He could clearly see the giant's bald head, riddled with bullet holes from over a dozen shots, healing at a visible speed. Steel pellets were being expelled, and keratin was growing from the wounds—undoubtedly, in a little while, the giant's head would no longer be able to be pierced by a mere size 12 shotgun shell; only more powerful weapons would be effective. But until then, his weapon could still buy him time.

Buy some time.

This gave Claire time to settle Sherry down and, at the same time, to open and use the black package he had thrown over.

Just as he finished reloading his shotgun and was about to continue restraining the giant, Sirin discovered that her twin spears could no longer pierce the newly formed keratinous protection on the giant's arms—her movements inevitably created a negligible, but for some creatures, pause that was long enough!

'Bang—' He fired repeatedly, but the shotgun that had just been able to make the giant's body sway now only had a negligible effect of slowing it down. He saw the giant snap the twin short spears that Sirin had thrust out into pieces as if they were two toothpicks, and then the giant's deadly fist slammed into Sirin's head!

next moment--

"Hello--!"

A clear female voice came from the other side, accompanied by a red-labeled grenade that traced a beautiful line through the air. Before even hearing the sound, Sirin abandoned any intention of engaging in close combat, instead using the force-absorbing ability granted by her second-tier gene lock to forcefully withstand the attack and dodge backward. Just as a sharp pain shot through her blocking arms, spreading along the muscles of her arms upwards throughout her body, a searing explosion followed!

'boom--'

'boom----'

'Boom—Boom—!!'

The first fire grenade knocked the giant backward and ripped through its thick coat.

The second fire grenade burned away the not-yet-fully-grown keratinous armor on the giant's chest, while simultaneously engulfing the giant's body in flames.

The third incendiary grenade passed through the gap in the giant's outstretched arm and exploded directly in its face, completely disrupting its balance as it shattered the giant's protective arms. Then, just as it fell backward, Sirin, who had been retreating, lunged forward, caught the grenade thrown by the parted-headed officer, and slammed it into the giant's scorched face!

*Click—* The ring was removed, and Sirin used the momentum to somersault behind the giant, quickly taking cover behind a combination of cabinets and a desk. And immediately afterward…

'Bang!'

The grenade detonated, unleashing a shockwave that shattered the brick and wood floor, which had been battered by continuous fighting. The giant, engulfed in flames, plummeted to the lower level and was then crushed by collapsing shelves. With a deafening 'BOOM,' the falling debris seemed to ignite something below, triggering another explosion. The group clearly heard the giant struggling, and then quickly, only the pure flames remained.

"Huff—" The officer with the parted hair gasped for breath. The blank look in his eyes disappeared, and the side effects of unlocking the gene lock swept over his body. He sat down heavily on the ground, panting heavily while sweating profusely. It seemed that this was not the first time he had unlocked the lock. In just a few seconds, he broke free from the severe backlash, and his previously pale face gradually regained some color.

Sirin emerged from behind cover, enduring the backlash from the genetic lock—a feeling she'd almost forgotten—while tossing him two Snickers bars. "Eat them; you need to recover your strength."

She walked over to the officer with the parted hair while munching on a Snickers bar and extended her hand to him.

"Cirin," she introduced herself.

“Leon.” The officer with the parted hair didn’t stand on ceremony, casually tearing open the Snickers bar and stuffing it into his mouth. While chewing, he answered in a voice that didn’t become slurred as a result: “Leon Scott Kennedy, a rookie cop in Raccoon City. Today is my first day on the job.”

He took the hand that Celine had extended.

“This job must have left a deep impression on you.” Celine smiled, and with a slight effort, she pulled the slumped Leon to his feet—every muscle in her body was twitching in pain. But she was certain that, given her current persona, this persistent pain was still within her tolerance level.

“Believe me, I’d rather this were a dream, the kind I could forget as soon as I woke up.” Mr. Kennedy shrugged, making a helpless gesture. He looked at Celine, who stood before him, marveling at her beauty while also feeling a pang of regret. “Uh, Ms. Celine…you seem to have recovered quite well? I was like a superhero in a movie when I saw you fighting that monster just now.”

"You want to know what's wrong with that strange state you're experiencing, right?" Celine saw right through the young policeman's ambiguous words. She wasn't shy about explaining. "It's called a gene lock, but at your stage, it can also be called adrenaline release. It's actually—"

"Leon!" Claire, carrying a grenade launcher, ran over from the other side of the combat zone. While the two were talking, she immediately called out to Sherry, whom she had told to hide—the little girl timidly hid behind her, only half her shy face showing. "Oh, thank goodness, it's so good to see you again… This child is Sherry, I met her at the police station. She said her father is here at the police station…"

“Then we’ll have a new mission, Claire.” Leon swallowed the last bite of his Snickers bar, his gaze passing over Claire and Sherry, and landing on Chief Marvin, who was carrying a backpack in one hand and a submachine gun he had taken out of the backpack in the other. His eyes were filled with undisguised joy. As his gaze moved down, he easily noticed that Marvin was no longer clutching his injured back as he walked.

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Officer Marvin,” he said with a friendly smile. “It seems you finally overcame it.”

“While I’d love to boast a little, it’s a shame I couldn’t defeat it,” Marvin said with a smile, glancing at the crater where the gray-blue giant had fallen as he approached. “I’m standing here thanks to Ms. Celine. She’s a senior FBI agent, and she’s in Raccoon City to…”

“FBi?” Leon recalled the FBI agent he had met not long ago who called herself Ada Wong, and a question arose in his mind. But just before he was about to ask…

He suddenly felt that something was wrong.

Celine jumped up even faster than him, grabbing him, Claire, and Sherry, whom Claire instinctively picked up, and ran outside!

"Run! That guy's not dead yet!"

A heartbeat, like that of a dragon awakening, suddenly resounded.

Chapter Nineteen: Accept it, the best heart in the village.

Raccoon City is located in North America, and between North America and Antarctica lies the vast expanse of South America. As the chaotic Raccoon City gradually evolves in an unpredictable direction, the reincarnators and the main characters of the story are about to come into full contact. Alice... or rather Alexia Ashford, sets foot on the soil of South America.

South America, a backward continent, a developing city, where a reincarnator is conducting an experiment. When Alexia randomly chooses a relatively modern city and lands in her aircraft, she doesn't hear much of the noise that should be under the cover of night.

There was no sound of cars, no talking, no walking, no mechanical noise. Even the small animals and insects that were active at night remained silent in this indescribably eerie atmosphere. Apart from the rustling night wind, there was an unusual tranquility in the city.

"The total population of this city should be 3,351,492. And the number of people still awake now... well, probably less than 20,000."

She landed at an ordinary intersection, her gaze sweeping casually across the road. There were many cars, both new and old, parked on both sides of the road. Through the car windows, she could clearly see that the drivers and passengers were all fast asleep in their cars. Compared to these people who had comfortable places to lie down, many more pedestrians were lying down fully clothed in the middle of the road or on the side of the road, their faces peaceful and their breathing steady as they drifted off to sleep.

The moonlight was dim, the night wind chilly, yet the sleeping ones felt no cold. Perhaps they were oblivious to the cold of reality in their dreams, or perhaps their slumbering thoughts had shut down their bodies' defenses. Some people fall asleep not in a safe situation—they may have been hit by a car, fallen from the road, tumbled down stairs, or been run over by a heavy object—some are dead, some are barely alive, but whether dead or alive, they are all remarkably quiet at this moment.

In the distance, faint sounds of explosions could be heard, along with some noise, but silence soon returned.

"There are probably only a little over ten thousand people still awake now." Alexia randomly picked a bar and went inside. He found that all the men and women who had come out to have fun late at night were lying quietly at the bar or on the dance floor. Whether they had strange hairstyles, wore strange clothes, had pierced faces, had tattoos on their backs, were alcoholics, on drugs, energetic, old, young, flirtatious, or pretending to be innocent... everyone was lying or sprawled out very quietly, their chests rising and falling slightly as they closed their eyes.

"It's around five thousand now." She went to the bar, chose a seat she liked, and casually pushed the guy who was sleeping on it aside. The TV on the bar was playing a recording of a program, but after a few seconds, the screen became static and the lights in the bar flickered.

The signal was lost, and the power supply became unstable.

“There are 230 people left. The non-automated electricity and water systems have mostly stopped working. This might cause some unnecessary deaths in their sleep,” Alexia said softly, her gaze drifting casually to the empty bar across the street. “I need a coffee.”

With a 'whoosh', as she spoke, accompanied by the sound of the bottom of the cup scraping against the table, a steaming cup of coffee slid from the other side of the bar to her.

"Your coffee." Zhan Lan, holding the Chanting Spear, appeared where the coffee was being pushed towards her, and nodded slightly to Alexia as she took the coffee. "Is there anything I can do for you at my experimental site, Miss Alice?"

“Alexia.” The girl raised her coffee and took a small sip, emphasizing, “My name is Alexia Ashford.”

“Alright then, Miss Alexia.” Zhan Lan deliberately avoided using her surname. “Do you have any objections to my experimental plan? As far as I know, you are not a woman with a strong sense of morality, neither the one who calls herself Alexia nor the one I accidentally called by the wrong name before. I think you are not the kind of person who cares much about the wear and tear of equipment.”

"Equipment wear and tear... I don't really care about that, but I do have some concerns." The girl slowly sipped her coffee, steam rising from her lips. "After all, there's a difference between normal wear and tear and unnecessary waste. And as far as I know, your experimental plan mainly involves the dream realm, while you haven't done much to deal with the physical bodies of the test subjects. You're just waiting for the Grand Library to send over the hibernation pods for unified placement."

“I think this is good,” Zhan Lan replied, pouring herself a glass of water. “My experiments are limited to dreams; other elements are beyond my control—I only want to control the dream world of all mortals on this continent for my experiments, just as when I attempted to unlock the fourth stage, I only intended to confuse the will of the cell groups rather than completely dominate them. This is the path I, as a mental controller, have chosen for myself, and I don’t want more. In short, it is…”

She scooped up the water, held it to her chest, but didn't drink it.

“Don’t interfere with my path, Ms. Alexia Ashford.”

“I didn’t intend to interfere with your path, I’m just proposing a small amendment.” Alexia held out her hand, and a crystal the size of her little finger appeared in her palm. “This is the algorithmic structure of the mimic soul. I’ve removed all the plugins, leaving only the underlying data platform—you can take some time to check it yourself to see if there are any problems, or you can simply create a new template yourself—and you only need to fill in some basic action data to make it work, allowing the mortals of this entire continent to function independently even without nutrient tanks.”

"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, unto God the things that are God's, unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, unto the body the body, and unto the soul the soul. Once this is implanted into the mind network, you can pull everyone into your dream space without needing to allocate even a little bit of computing power to maintain their bodies—the pseudo-souls will automatically manipulate the bodies of these dreamers and keep them in place to maintain the basic functions of society and their own energy supply. Isn't that much easier and more resource-efficient than simply stuffing everyone into nutrient tanks?"

"Is the Great Library currently facing a shortage of resources?" Zhan Lan took the crystal, remaining noncommittal.

“The Great Library has no shortage of resources, but this world has its own rules of operation,” Alexia replied. “The main body of this world is ‘zombies,’ or ‘the living dead,’ or ‘the walking dead.’ Your experimental plan is barely an artificial creation of a group of ‘vegetative people,’ which deviates slightly from the theme of the world. As a result, the backlash from the world itself may be more severe than expected, and you are not the type of person in the team who is good at fighting.”

"...Am I holding everyone back?"

"Judging from the current groupings, yes." Alexia nodded slightly. "You have the largest scope of interference, covering a population of 300 million, though not the largest. At the same time, your current genetic lock level is only barely touching the edge of the third stage, not yet fully entering that level. This world still poses a danger to you."

Zhan Lan remained silent. She pondered for several seconds before finally deciding to put the crystal in her pocket. Just as she did so, the quiet city suddenly came alive again. The sounds of cars and footsteps returned to the streets, and the various advertising loudspeakers along the roadside resumed playing. Not only on the streets, but also in the bars where everyone had been asleep just two seconds before, activity returned. The bartenders who had collapsed got up and started mixing drinks, the lights in the dance halls continued to flash, and the young people dressed in fashionable or eccentric styles continued to dance and enjoy their nightlife. The static on the television screen quickly transformed into a normal program.

Everything is recovering, everything is rapidly returning to normal. However, if an ordinary person from out of town were to enter this city, they would be terrified within ten seconds, or even faint, because while the city's inhabitants have regained their ability to move and interact with their surroundings, every single one of them keeps their mouths and eyes tightly shut!

They drive with their eyes closed, walk with their eyes closed, shop with their eyes closed, and chase with their eyes closed. In the entire city, apart from Zhan Lan and Alexia—two individuals whose humanity is questionable—no one's eyes are open, and no one's lips can utter words. They live, reside, play, and move like a group of puppets, without conversation or dialogue, yet the entire society strangely functions normally.

“The eyes are excellent sensors, but since the simulated souls can form a perceptual network, there’s no need to rely on the optical sense that captures a wider range of data. With a perceptual network, the necessity of language is naturally eliminated. There’s no need to see or hear, and all the institutions outside the dream can already function.” Alexia put her coffee down and gently crossed her fingers. “While doing this, the concept of ‘zombies’ in your social experiment is also reinforced in this city. As a result, the backlash on your side will naturally be suppressed to a minimum. Perhaps after a while, the ‘protagonist’ from the original story will still appear to cause trouble, but the probability of a new ‘protagonist’ appearing in your experimental field should drop to a negligible level.”

"...You mean to say that new 'protagonists' will appear in other people's testing grounds?"

“This is one of our experimental targets, but you don’t need to worry about these things for now. After all, you’re still too weak, and I happen to have something you’ve been keeping for a long time that I need to return to you.” A space beside Alexia’s hand rippled slightly, and then a transparent container holding a mass of flesh and blood appeared before Zhan Lan’s eyes—it was a heart that was still beating, and when the heart appeared in Zhan Lan’s eyes, she almost jumped out of her skin!

This is her heart!

"Do you remember? In the world of Final Destination 2, when the last day arrived, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse attacked us. One of them, in the form of a parasite, eroded your heart and was killed by Patchouli in a dream. Your heart was removed but preserved and disinfected by the Supreme God, completely sweeping away the will and path of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from your heart."

"This is a perfect tonic for you. You are the only one in the world who can take it without rejection to strengthen yourself. In the past, you were too weak and had poor control, so using it would have been a waste. However, now, it should be able to help you push your gene lock level to the limit of the third tier and give you an additional enhancement of AA grade, or even close to S grade. In this way, your weakness of unstable foundation can also be eliminated, and perhaps the chance of advancing to the fourth tier will also increase."

With a casual push, she presented the precious heart to Zhan Lan... who instinctively abandoned all restraint and embraced it.

"...Thank you." Zhan Lan only realized her lapse in composure as she grabbed the container, and apologized softly, somewhat embarrassed.

“It’s alright, just helping each other out.” Alexia stood up from the bar, waved, and headed out of the bar. “Now you should believe that I have no interest in interfering with your path, and just want to help out. Honestly, even though I know my reputation in the group isn’t great, you don’t have to make it so obvious.”

"I'm so sorry!" Zhan Lan's face flushed red. She didn't even know what had just happened to her; she had just felt a surge of anxiety when she heard that Alice... or rather Alexia was going to interfere with her experimental plan. By the time she realized her blunder and tried to make amends, Alexia had already walked out of the bar.

"It's alright. After all, I am Alexia now. As a villain, it's inevitable that I will feel a sense of rejection once I adopt this character's mindset. This is an effect caused by the working mechanism of this world itself, and it's impossible for you to resist... or notice, until you become a firmly established third-order limit."

She arrived at the bustling street, looked up, and saw a commercial airliner flying by at a low altitude of about three thousand meters. With a sudden push of her toes, the force of her foot propelled her directly into the air at a height of three thousand meters, and with a slight sway, she landed firmly on the top of the airliner.

The last missing piece had been filled, and aside from sowing the seeds of magic, there was nothing else for her to do. With a flick of her finger, the potions from the several exploding test tubes spread out, creating a narrow cloud in the air along the plane's trajectory. Before long, this cloud, which would stretch from South America all the way to North America, would turn into falling rain!

Section 20: You are entering a dangerous area. Please upgrade your level.

Scene changes to Raccoon City.

As Alexia traveled to North America on a commercial airliner, Sirin and her group scrambled away from the police station where the gray-blue giant was located. Perhaps because the giant's transformation required time, or perhaps because the giant was being held back by something else, until they rushed into the garage, used Marvin's car keys to open a large police car, broke through the security door, and entered the street outside the police station, the group encountered no obstacles other than the zombies disturbed by the sound of the car.

"That guy didn't catch up, what should we do!"—This was Leon, who was driving in the front seat. He was in terrible pain all over his body. Although he might still be able to fight another battle, if he had a choice, he would prefer to take on some less strenuous work for the time being.

"Let's find somewhere to resupply our ammo!"—Claire exclaimed after breaking open her grenade launcher and discovering she only had three acid rounds left. Hugging the huddled-up Sherry, she soothed the little girl while yelling, "Who knows how many of those things are still in this city? We can't handle another one right now!"

“I know! Listen to me, turn right ahead, go across a bridge and two streets, there’s a gun shop there, I know the owner well!” — This was Marvin, who was standing guard by the car window with an assault rifle in hand. He quickly made hand signals while using his rifle to take out the zombies that were too close to the car in bursts.

"We'd better hurry, I suspect that guy will catch up soon!" — This was Celine, who had switched back to her small pistol. She used her 1911, which had terrible power but was quite accurate, to blow up the zombie dogs mixed in with the horde of corpses one by one in mid-air. She even saw through a red muscle monster that was hiding on a street lamp and trying to assassinate it from the air, and set it off with a grenade.

The four worked together, and the zombie horde retreated in response. The large police car, similar to an SUV, easily rammed through the zombies that weren't standing too close together. Marvin then pushed back those that were standing too close together, while those that were not too close together but were dangerous were executed by Celine. As for those that were both close together and dangerous... well, Claire still had three acid grenades in her grenade launcher. Even if one shot didn't kill them, it would make them scream as they lost an arm or a leg, temporarily losing their ability to resist, or rather, to hinder them.

By the time they recovered from their terrible situation and staggered to their feet, preparing to launch a second attack on the pieces of fresh meat wrapped in the iron box, the police car carrying four people—four adults and one child—had already passed them and gone to a faraway place that they could not perceive at all.

So they could only roar, uttering resentful, hungry, and terrifying cries like demons. Just as they were about to turn around and search for other prey, the crushing weight descending from above instantly turned them into a bloody, mangled mess!

A slender and elegant figure slowly descended from the sky.

"Telekinesis, the projection of mental power, interfering with reality with will and generating distortion... I never expected that this protagonist, no, I, Alice, would possess such a powerful force. The 'me' of the past was unaware of her own treasure, and her fate of being studied can only be attributed to her own fault... Oh well, after all, she is the protagonist, perhaps she will develop to some extent in the future... When this matter is over, when I return the body to her, I will leave her the method of using this power as rent."

Alice gently clenched her fist, and the phantom of Red Queen, shrunk to the size of a palm, floated lightly onto her shoulder. Feeling the immense power surging in her mind, equivalent to an AA-level telekinetic enhancement, but not even a tenth of what her predecessor had used, she stretched out her right hand towards the police station and clenched her fist tightly.

Space distorted to a visible degree—no, it wasn't space that distorted, but the atmosphere within it, and the light traveling through it. Like placing a photograph in water, the entire part of the police station facing her visibly warped and collapsed; the sturdy, smooth exterior walls, the finely crafted doors and pillars cracked within seconds, then shattered into pieces.