Umbrella had deployed a large number of personnel around the hotel, conducting a frantic, thorough search, leaving no corner unchecked. Yet, they still couldn't find the target they were looking for.
Zhou Yi seemed to have vanished completely; there was no trace of him, not even the slightest clue.
This made Raymond extremely anxious. He was worried about Zhou Yi's safety, or rather, he was worried that Zhou Yi might encounter something in this city that he wasn't supposed to find out about. If that thing appeared before Zhou Yi and caused him harm, then, aside from the investment, the punishment from Umbrella's higher-ups and Zhou Yi's retaliation would be enough to make his life miserable.
Thinking of this, a chill ran down his spine. Umbrella's ruthlessness towards failures was enough to make even the coldest person fear, and he was no exception.
"Have the security department deploy personnel to completely seal off all the passages from the outskirts to the city center. Don't let any of that thing slip into the city. Also, conduct a sweep in the city and eliminate the infected as quickly as possible. And give me twenty-four-hour surveillance of the satellite footage; find him before he discovers any problems."
He issued the orders rapidly, setting the entire Umbrella branch into motion. Beside him, his assistant began to suggest:
"Sir, perhaps we could start with his secretary. Find a reason for the young lady to contact him, and we can pinpoint his location."
"And then what? Tell him we're watching him, and make him leave in a rage? And the higher-ups will take their anger out on me?" Raymond said coldly. "Don't treat others like idiots. A guy who can build himself up from nothing to achieve what he has now is not someone we can measure."
"Don't cause me any trouble at this critical moment. If I fail because of this, don't even think about getting back alive. Understood?"
"Understood, sir," the aide replied, sweat dripping from his brow. He knew Raymond was serious, which made him even more afraid. However, for the sake of his own life, he still had to mention another important matter.
"Sir, should we postpone the opening of the Hive as requested by headquarters? If something unexpected happens at this time..."
Hearing this, Raymond's face twitched.
The Hive was Umbrella's biggest secret here, and also the highest-level research institution in Raken City. But a huge accident had occurred at this research institution, and the entire underground laboratory had been sealed off by Umbrella's artificial intelligence, the Red Queen. Moreover, it had transmitted a crisis message of the highest level to headquarters.
This meant the complete fall of the Hive, and also meant that all the researchers inside had been killed. Upon receiving this message, headquarters immediately issued him the highest priority order, requesting him to restart the Hive and the Red Queen, and retrieve the research results inside.
As a high-ranking executive of Umbrella, he naturally knew what was in the Hive. Umbrella's masterpiece, a biochemical weapon capable of changing the world. But this weapon was extremely dangerous, so dangerous that they could hardly control it anymore. If they were not careful, it could lead to a huge disaster.
Originally, he had made all the necessary preparations to open the Hive according to the orders of the higher-ups. But now, because of Zhou Yi, he had to divert the manpower that had already been arranged. This made his plan completely unable to proceed normally.
"Put the Hive matter on hold for now. Focus our resources on what I just mentioned." After some thought, Raymond finally made his decision. With his authority, he could delay the Hive matter for a couple of days, and the worst that could happen was a reprimand. But if something went wrong with Zhou Yi, he was finished.
In this situation, the choice was obvious.
And while Raymond was still fretting over Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi himself had quietly appeared in the place Raymond least wanted him to be: the forest on the outskirts of Raken City.
This place had now become a forbidden zone in Raken City. Even the loggers and hunters who used to frequent the area no longer dared to appear here. Because, there were terrifying beasts here.
There had been no less than twenty cases of beast attacks in this forest. Rumor even had it that the recent incidents of people biting people in Raken City originated here. Almost overnight, this forest had become the protagonist of a terrifying urban legend.
It was absolutely impossible that some people weren't behind all of this. But since such rumors could spread, there must be some suspicious circumstances. Zhou Yi even suspected that some of Umbrella's experimental subjects were hiding here.
After all, a considerable amount of time had passed since Alfred had sent him the message. He supposed that those guys he mentioned last time had already done some unspeakable things.
Thinking of this, he began to scan the forest, hoping to find something useful. And soon, he found something strange.
A group of walking corpses wandered aimlessly through the forest. It was clear from their appearance that they had been decaying for a long time and must have been turned this way after being attacked by something strange. Most of these corpses could only be described as fragments, and even the few that were relatively intact were missing arms or legs.
The moment Zhou Yi saw them, he thought of the information he had seen before. Only those deformed creatures, the evil experiments of Umbrella, could cause such wounds, and only that virus could turn corpses into these walking corpses.
Something must have happened here. After making this judgment in his heart, Zhou Yi immediately ran towards the wandering corpses, he wanted to find more information from them.
The wandering corpses operated according to their most primitive instincts; their only purpose was to eat, and their broken bodies provided more energy. Therefore, any living creature was their target.
So when Zhou Yi appeared in front of the corpses, they immediately pounced on him, like true beasts.
However, it was almost unnecessary to think to know what the outcome would be. Corpses were still just people turned into this, and despite having become this ghastly appearance, their strength would not change much. Zhou Yi didn't even need to use his hands to deal with this group of corpses.
With telekinesis, he easily snapped their necks. Without the connection of their spines, they became almost real corpses. Besides their mouths opening and closing, they had nothing left to attack others with.
Of course, just the heads with their jaws wriggling were enough to scare many people to death. Zhou Yi experimented on these corpses for a long time before discovering that only by crushing their brains could he completely eliminate their ability to move.
This was terrifying, because ordinary people would find it difficult to mount effective attacks against these corpses. Bullets that didn't hit the head were useless, and how many sharpshooters were there in the world capable of headshots every time? It was almost imaginable what would happen to ordinary people when facing such monsters.
What's more terrifying wasn't this ability to mutate people into monsters, but its horrifying contagiousness. Bites, bodily fluids, even through water and food could spread it among the population, and the possibility of airborne transmission couldn't be ruled out. Once this thing broke out, it would be devastating. Humanity's fragile social system couldn't withstand its impact.
Fortunately, someone had already begun preparing to stop it before it happened. S.H.I.E.L.D. had recognized its danger, and they wouldn't let this thing erupt in the world. Naturally, he wouldn't either.
He rummaged through the bodies, which had truly become corpses. Aside from a couple of guys wearing S.T.A.R.S. tactical police uniforms, the others were mostly dressed as civilians. They looked like either lumberjacks or hunters. However, the name S.T.A.R.S. was already the clue Zhou Yi wanted.
S.T.A.R.S., Special Tactics And Rescue Service. An elite tactical police department.
Although this elite combat group officially belonged to the local police department, it was actually under the US Federal Protection Department. Therefore, in terms of administrative power, they were independent of the police force. Every member of S.T.A.R.S. could be called an elite, because they were elites drawn from various departments.
So they generally wouldn't be deployed. They would only take action when faced with extreme criminal activities and terrorism. In nature, they were almost the same as the American special forces S.W.A.T.
Since the corpses of S.T.A.R.S. members had appeared here, it was almost certain that they had already launched an investigation into this area. But it seemed that their actions had ended in failure, and there had been many sacrifices. These corpses were the proof.
What happened next was entirely predictable. The S.T.A.R.S members wouldn't accept their comrades dying in such a strange place. They would want to come back, find the real culprit, and avenge them. But in Umbrella's city, even they could only be suppressed.
They'd be forbidden from taking any action, and all reports would be intercepted. They might even be diagnosed with mental issues. Umbrella was fully capable of this. The remaining S.T.A.R.S members would have no recourse but to complain. Even if they revealed what they'd seen, Umbrella would twist it into spreading rumors.
They couldn't stand against Umbrella and could only use the internet to spread this information and warn others.
Zhou Yi was indeed a true capitalist. Everything he thought of aligned perfectly with what Umbrella did. Of course, Umbrella was even harsher, because in their plans, S.T.A.R.S was essentially an experiment. So their experiences were far more complex than Zhou Yi imagined.
However, this didn't matter much to Zhou Yi. He'd obtained the clues he needed, and the rest would be much easier.
Find S.T.A.R.S; as long as they hadn't become too entangled with Umbrella, they would certainly try to avenge their comrades. If that was the case, Zhou Yi wouldn't mind lending them a hand. But before that, he had one more thing to do.
-----------------------
Completed English PDF of this fan-fic on my Patreon shop if you want to support and own the full fan-fic in one go. Just grab the PDF and binge the entire story from start to finish!
Guys, I've uploaded some High Quality english translated fanfic on my Patreon shop! Feel free to check it out-if you're interested, you can grab a copy and support me there.
Here are a few titles of recently uploaded fanfics:
New Addition
" Master of Souls in the Marvel Universe "
" Marvel: The Supernova "
" Marvel: Sign In at the Start to Obtain Chibaku Tensei "
" Marvel becomes a knight starting from Drive "
" The Marvel Universe in Meiman I Opened a Supermarket "
" Marvel: I Control Dreams in the World "
" Marvel: Starting Sign-ins from the World "
" Marvel: The Speedster "
" Marvel: The Kryptonian "
" Marvel: Iron Man, Mechanical Armies Sweep All "
" American Comics: Copying the Strong "
" Marvel: Endless Superpowers "
" Marvel: Venom Devours the Myriad Worlds "
many more are available 110+
Your support means a lot-thanks in advance, legends!
patreon.com/SuperTL
(End of Chapter)