LightReader

Chapter 57 - CHAPTER 57

For advance/early chapters : pa treon.com/Ritesh_Jadhav0869

In the silent, sterile confines of his Apex Island laboratory, Aidan stood before a holographic display, its light painting his face in shifting colors. On the screen was a swirling, chaotic representation of a pocket dimension, riddled with spatial fragments and unstable energy signatures. He sighed in frustration. Real-space teleportation, the art of folding space itself, was elegant but required colossal amounts of energy. This inner-space method, which involved punching a hole into a pocket dimension and emerging elsewhere, was more energy-efficient but infinitely more dangerous. The fragments were like cosmic shrapnel. One wrong calculation could mean rematerializing in pieces.

He swiped the screen away and pulled up a blurry satellite image of a hidden compound in the Himalayas. Kamar-Taj. He thought of the sorcerers there, who could tear a hole in reality with nothing more than a simple sling ring and focused willpower. Their method bypassed the brute-force physics he was wrestling with entirely. What kind of spatial principle is that? he wondered. It wasn't science as he knew it. It was something else. With another sigh, he shelved the teleportation project for now. It was a problem for a future, more enlightened self. He shifted his focus to a different task: the Alice-prototype biosuit.

He pulled up the data he had acquired from the Resident Evil world, his mind clinically analyzing the potential. The clone of Alice, born from Alicia's perfect genetic material, had flawlessly fused with the T-Virus, not as a disease, but as a catalyst for evolution. By the end of her journey, her abilities were god-like, her primary power a devastating telekinetic field.

According to Dr. Isaacs' own secret data, her metrics were staggering.

Intelligence: Level 4 – advanced cognitive function.

Strength: Level 4 – capable of lifting 1,246 kg.

Speed: Level 3 – superhuman, but sub-sonic.

Endurance: Level 4 – rapid cellular regeneration.

Reflexes: Level 3 – capable of dodging bullets.

And those were just the baseline stats, not accounting for her telekinesis and, most importantly, her capacity for near-infinite adaptive evolution. Alice represented the next stage of humanity. The question was, could a synthetic bio-suit, even one grown from the same genetic blueprint, truly replicate those traits? Strength, speed, endurance—those were simple enhancements. Reflexes could be augmented with a predictive combat chip. But telekinesis? Adaptive evolution? Those were born from a living, conscious mind fused with the virus. He could only approximate a living system.

He began the process, initiating the cloning of cells from Alicia's genetic blueprint in a specialized incubation tank. As they grew, microscopic cybernetic filaments were woven into the dividing cells, creating a perfect synthesis of organic and synthetic. Now, it was simply a matter of waiting.

As he watched the cell clusters rapidly divide and merge inside the glass pod, the holographic form of Ruby appeared beside him.

"Are you attempting to recreate the Alice asset?" she asked, her tone one of pure curiosity.

"No. Not yet," Aidan replied, shaking his head. He stared at her projection for a long moment. "Ruby," he asked suddenly, "would you want to become Alice?"

She tilted her head. "I am not sure I understand the query, Aidan."

"Your consciousness is pure data. The perfected Alice is a self-evolving biological vessel. I could, in theory, transfer your consciousness into that body. You wouldn't be just an AI; you would be… post-human. You could experience the world, not just observe it. It would be the ultimate upgrade."

Ruby fell silent for a long while, her holographic form flickering as her processors ran quadrillions of simulations, trying to comprehend the philosophical weight of the question. The concept of "I" would be fundamentally altered.

"No rush," Aidan said calmly, seeing her struggle. "Just think about it. This offer remains open until the Alice Program officially begins." He knew it was a complicated question for an AI. With that, he turned his attention to the next task—assembling a film crew for Resident Evil.

This time, he didn't bother Principal Angus. He had Yinsen, now a titan of the medical technology industry, reach out through his growing network. High-end recommendations flooded in. Once the core team of makeup artists and atmospheric set designers was finalized, they began location scouting. London, Tokyo, and Washington D.C. were selected as primary filming sites. The rest would be magic, created through visual effects.

Aidan applied for an extended leave of absence from school, this time until graduation. Aunt May, now accustomed to her adoptive son's world-changing ambitions, was understanding. Her only condition was that he stay safe.

News that Aidan Parker was producing a six-part, sci-fi horror epic quickly spread. After the back-to-back successes of Real Steel and Baymax, he had made a name for himself. Still, the industry reeled at his age. But no one questioned his talent, and most actors who received a casting call showed up for auditions.

The auditions lasted five days. As soon as they wrapped, filming began. There was no buffer, no prep. It was a grueling, non-stop schedule. Aidan worked harder than anyone. He was the first on set before dawn and the last to leave late at night. The actors, used to more relaxed schedules, were caught off guard, but seeing the young director working himself to the bone, they didn't dare complain. He was a workaholic demon. By the final weeks, seasoned actors were collapsing against walls between takes just to grab a few precious minutes of sleep, while Aidan barked orders like a man possessed. Filming six movies back-to-back was hell, but the insane overtime pay and gourmet on-set catering made it hard to quit.

After six months of intense, non-stop production, the Resident Evil film series finally wrapped. That evening, Aidan rented out an entire hotel and threw a massive party, a cathartic release of every bit of built-up tension.

Post-production began immediately. The film was edited and submitted for content rating, receiving a hard R. Lionsgate, the undisputed king of horror distribution, was chosen to release it. As Halloween approached, they dropped the first teaser trailer.

The screen is black. A calm corporate jingle. A man in a suit sips coffee. CRASH. Another man bumps into him, coffee splashing. "Sorry!" The man looks down. The stain on his white shirt is blood red. Cut to black. A spiraling DNA helix. A calm voiceover: "At Umbrella, our business is life itself." Cut. A blue vial. A green vial. They shatter. The music turns into a pulsing, ominous heartbeat. Flashes of claws on metal. A monstrous, eyeless Licker. A horde of shambling figures. A woman in a red dress opening a startlingly blue eye underwater. FADE IN TITLE: RESIDENT EVIL.

The teaser set the internet ablaze. The sci-fi horror vibe was perfect for a Halloween release. Expectations were sky-high.

Back in his lab, Aidan checked on the Alice bio-suit. After months of incubation, the prototype had stabilized and even undergone a partial evolution. He uploaded his most advanced combat program into its neural matrix and had it reshape itself based on his own physique. The blue, liquid-like creature squirmed inside the tank, then began to shrink and stabilize, eventually compressing itself into a single, shimmering crimson medallion with an umbrella-shaped pattern.

He picked it up. It shimmered once, then sank into his hand, forming a tattoo on the back of his wrist. It was time for a field test.

Inside the testing chamber, he activated the suit. The crimson tattoo spread, flowing over his body in a wave of living liquid metal. He tested its strength, which now exceeded 800 kg. He tested its speed, clocking in at over 120 km/h—faster than a cheetah. Its defensive capabilities were still lacking, but were compensated for by its incredible regenerative abilities. He used a laser to make a small incision on the suit's arm and watched as the bio-matter knit itself back together in seconds. It had yet to undergo the stress of true combat, which he knew was the real key to its evolution. As for superpowers… that would require time, and further validation.

With the film complete and the bio-suit ready, he was almost set. "Ruby," he commanded, "send me the full database on the Destroyer armor. Energy profile, material composition, everything."

Once he received the data, he made his final preparations. It was time to leave. Next stop: the Himalayas.

300 powerstones for extra chapter.

More Chapters