"Zombies can be considered a horror movie genre in some sense, right?"
Xu Lun pulled out two shotguns, handed one to Saeko Busujima, and followed her down the stairs. They finally saw the first corpse in the Hospital.
Yes, a corpse, not a zombie.
He was lying in front of the morgue door, his hands in the motion of prying open the door crack, his rotting face filled with pain.
"Let's go in. We're already here, so we have to check if this is indeed the entrance to the Umbrella Corporation's base."
He only had seven days. Although this place was already abnormal enough, there was no definite evidence that this was the Umbrella Corporation's base. He had to confirm this; if it turned out to be fake, it would undoubtedly waste a lot of Xu Lun's preparation time, and he wouldn't have time to find out where the real base was.
The iron door had been torn open with a hideous crack, and the cold air inside seeped out.
Walking further in, the space here was quite spacious, but the smell of blood was exceptionally strong, and the floor had completely turned crimson.
"It seems someone filmed an unboxing video here." Xu Lun looked at the violently damaged refrigeration units.
"That joke sounds a bit cold." Saeko Busujima said with some helplessness.
"Are you here to play with Alice?"
Suddenly, a child's voice came from above, attracting the attention of Xu Lun and Saeko Busujima.
"The ceiling again…" Xu Lun looked up. A monster was hanging there, and it was the one that made the sound.
At the same time, the Paradise's information was updated.
["New Task - lv3 - Escape from Death: Escape the pursuit of the special mutated Hili Alice (Completing this task will bring additional settlement rewards)"]
There was no time to think. Although this monster said it wanted the two of them to play with it, several snake-like flexible tentacles had already swept down from the ceiling, piercing towards the two like lightning.
Bang!
The shotgun fired. The tentacles were broken by the buckshot and fell to the ground, struggling. The monster also fell from the ceiling, landing before the two.
This was a hairless creature resembling a dog and an ant. Its body was twisted and deformed, with no skin covering its muscles and bones, making it appear extremely bizarre and terrifying.
"Your name is Hili Alice?" Xu Lun asked the monster with some surprise.
"You know me?"
The monster froze in place, seemingly pondering something. The childish voice coming from its ugly body was extremely jarring.
"Have you forgotten? I'm your second uncle. I even held you when you were little."
Fortunately, this Alice was not the one Xu Lun was familiar with, otherwise, under her psychic abilities, there would probably be no chance of escape.
"Tell second uncle, have you seen any special places here?"
"Special?"
A few drops of saliva flowed from the monster's dog head, and it looked at Xu Lun angrily.
"You look especially delicious."
"You seem to have angered it."
"Obviously, it has a bad temper."
The several-meter-tall monster pounced. Saeko Busujima dodged sideways, her wooden sword already swinging towards the monster's side.
No defense penetration!
Watching her palm tremble continuously from the recoil, Saeko Busujima exclaimed in disbelief, "What kind of monster is this?!"
"Busujima, don't get close, use firearms."
Xu Lun estimated that this monster's strength was at least several tons, and its thick flesh outer shell was completely different from the fragile zombies outside.
This existence, which was only rated as lv3 for merely escaping its pursuit, was clearly an over-leveled character for him as a provisional player. No wonder Paradise suddenly issued a task and stopped playing dead.
Bang!
The shotgun fired again, tearing the skin at such close range and embedding itself in the flesh. However, the damaged area quickly repaired itself, and the enraged monster spread out several tentacles, making it even harder to dodge its attacks.
High attack, high defense, high recovery, and even control. Going back, there were only narrow stairs and passages, with no space to dodge at all. The escape difficulty rated by Paradise was only lv3!
Is Paradise's difficulty so high?
So, is there a chance to escape to the Workshop?
Firing another shot to force the monster back, Xu Lun glanced at Saeko Busujima, who was also dodging everywhere and occasionally firing shots to harass it.
Just three steps: contact Saeko Busujima, send her into the Workshop, and then enter the Workshop himself.
Leaving aside the extreme difficulty, what's the difference between completing these three steps and putting an elephant in a refrigerator?
Moreover, according to the situation in the morgue, this monster clearly resided here. If this monster was still outside after entering the Workshop, he would be essentially spawn-camped by the BOSS, completely losing the chance for a higher score.
Cannot enter the Workshop in the morgue!
"Busujima, you leave the morgue first, I have a way to leave."
Xu Lun shouted to Saeko Busujima. He could only stall, let her run and survive first, and then he would rush back to the Hospital alone to find a chance to enter the Workshop and avoid attacks.
Fortunately, Saeko Busujima did not say something foolish like "If you don't go, I won't go either," like a tragic, idiotic female protagonist. Instead, she chose to trust Xu Lun, decisively fighting and retreating, gradually approaching the door.
"Xu Lun, if you die, I'll avenge you."
"No need at all. According to the flag you've set, I will live."
"At a time like this, you're still saying such strange things."
This monster named Hili Alice clearly didn't want to let anyone go and chased after Saeko Busujima at high speed. To stop it, Xu Lun used his ancestral dog training skills.
"Tsk tsk tsk."
Clearly, this zombie dog from Japan could not be tamed, and it even became more berserk, activating its second form.
"Alice will defeat you!"
A pair of fleshy wings unfolded from its back, soaring into the sky. With an angry roar, it even spat flames from its mouth. The surrounding air temperature instantly rose, as if they were in a furnace.
"You make it sound like I'm the evil BOSS who commits all sorts of atrocities."
Having suddenly evolved again, it hadn't adapted to its new form yet. Its wings flapped chaotically, and flames sprayed randomly, causing it to fall into a "weakened" state instead.
This made Xu Lun's eyes light up. The opportunity to leave had arrived.
Bang!
Another shot. This shot hit the base of its wing, creating a bloody hole, causing the freshly evolved Hili Alice to fall heavily to the ground, groaning in pain.
"Go!"
Xu Lun and Saeko Busujima rushed out of the morgue one after another.
The Paradise's information updated again.
["Task - lv3 - Escape from Death Completed"]
I just got out of the morgue, and the task is completed?
"Wait a moment, Busujima, we're not running anymore."
Xu Lun stopped and shouted to Saeko Busujima.
"Not running? Do you have a way to kill it?"
Though surprised, Saeko Busujima still turned around trustingly.
"No, it's that it won't chase us anymore."
Xu Lun motioned for Saeko Busujima to look inside.
In just a moment, Hili Alice's wounds had already healed, but it looked at Xu Lun not far away, then glanced at the door, struggling, and finally did not chase after them.
No wonder the escape difficulty was only lv3. It turned out this guy couldn't leave the room at all.
Everything boiled down to a lack of information. Xu Lun was still a provisional player and didn't understand the specific difficulty levels, nor what a "lv3" level actually meant, causing Xu Lun to misjudge the difficulty.
So what was stopping it from coming out? This wasn't a game, and Hili Alice didn't have a detection range. Everything it did must have a reason behind it. Grasping that connection was the key to victory.
Xu Lun looked at the corpse in front of the door. All the corpses in the refrigeration units had been eaten by it, but this one was right in front of it and hadn't been touched.
"It's a gunshot wound."
Saeko Busujima apparently also thought of the reason, stepped forward to examine it, and found the bullet hole in the corpse's forehead.
"Don't touch him!"
Hili Alice discovered their movements and roared, its eyes blood red.
"Hili Alice, you wouldn't want anything to happen to this corpse, would you?"
Seeing the monster attach such importance to it, Xu Lun slowly spoke.