"So, what do you think?"
"Should we go in? We don't even know where this elevator is going to take us."
As the three of them looked at each other, the old-fashioned elevator in the facility slowly opened after Javier pulled the lever. According to their plan, they had successfully bypassed the church and reached the other side of the facility. And here, there was indeed a door leading to a new path. But the problem was that they didn't know what was waiting for them inside. This was why they were hesitant. But it was only a moment's hesitation.
Seeing their hesitation, Rebecca, a master of setting the mood, didn't hesitate for a second. She stepped into the elevator and said with a smile, "We don't have a choice, do we? We've already started to take down the Umbrella Corporation, which means there's no going back. We can only move forward from here, right?"
Rebecca spoke calmly, without any worry. No matter what awaited them, they had to move forward. They had no way out now. Javier and Billy smiled and shook their heads. When it came to being fearless, Rebecca was in a league of her own. They had been hesitant because they were afraid of getting Rebecca involved. She was a young woman in the prime of her life and shouldn't be risking her life with two men. But since she had said so, they had no choice but to enter the elevator with her.
"Ding—!"
A crisp sound echoed as the elevator doors closed. This old-fashioned elevator had no floor buttons, so they had no idea where it would take them. During this short time, Javier and his companions loaded their weapons, ready for a fight at any moment.
"..."
After a while, the elevator doors slowly opened. The elevator had brought Javier and his team to Marcus's private lab. This was the real place where Marcus conducted his research on leeches and the T-virus. The previous facility was just a front; it didn't have many of the research results. This was the real core of the operation.
The proof was in the rooms around them. There were no messy,杂乱 rooms here. Instead, there were large and small bookshelves filled with books on various fields of biology. All kinds of small instruments were neatly stacked. This was a true research lab.
"..."
"It seems we're lucky. We've entered the true core of the facility. This must be the real place where the Umbrella Corporation was researching the T-virus. What we've experienced so far was just the tip of the iceberg," Javier said with a sigh. Rebecca and Billy also looked around with curiosity. Indeed, this was the real core.
Soon, as the trio searched the area, they found a tattered piece of a diary. It seemed to contain some information about the T-virus and leeches. "To be safe, I've hidden my treasure, but it's not safe to keep it on me. So I've hidden it in a container. To open the container, you need a special stripper solution. 'To hide a leaf, you must hide it in a forest.' Spencer and his lackeys will never find it!"
The familiar handwriting was probably another one of Marcus's little journal entries. What made Javier speechless was that if he wanted to hide it, why would he write it down in his diary? Was he afraid that others wouldn't know about his clever plan?
Afterward, Javier crumpled the paper and threw it into a trash can. Despite his annoyance, this was important news. It meant that Marcus had hidden some kind of treasure.
In addition, the trio also found a new piece of equipment in the lab: a simple item transport elevator. It was like a mini-storage cabinet embedded in the wall. This elevator was relatively small and couldn't carry people, but it could transport items, which was very convenient for the staff. They could use this simple elevator to split up and collect items. Without further ado, Javier and his companions quickly got to work. Billy stayed put, guarding the small elevator, while Javier and Rebecca split up, one going up and the other going down.
Rebecca successfully arrived at the T-virus and leech cultivation lab. The environment was as she had imagined: smooth walls and dim lighting. The only things that glowed were the cans of leech culture embryos. In rows of transparent glass jars, green nutrient liquid was filled, and inside were disgusting leech mutant embryos. In addition, there were also some embryos that looked like a combination of lizards and human infants, which seemed to be the predecessors of the Hunter B.O.W.s.
"This..."
"This is insane. I have to expose your evil deeds!"
Rebecca stared blankly at the rows of embryo jars in the lab. A look of disgust appeared on her face as she muttered to herself. This sight reignited Rebecca's compassion. She couldn't imagine that the research here was so evil. Leeches and the T-virus were one thing, but these monster embryos, which combined humans and animals, violated human ethics and morals. This was an unforgivable crime! So, Rebecca was not going to give the Umbrella Corporation any mercy. Even though the medications the Umbrella Corporation had developed might have improved the lives of some people and contained many diseases, these crimes were unforgivable.
"Plop..."
Just then, a strange sound was heard. A Leech Man hidden in the lab slowly crawled up from the ground. Its body was twisted and it limped toward Rebecca, all the while making a piercing sound. It looked quite terrifying and bizarre.
If this were the old Rebecca, she would have been scared out of her mind. But the anger was still in her heart, and she was looking for a place to vent her anger on this Leech Man that had suddenly appeared.
"Click—!"
"You're the one who walked into my line of fire. Die!"
With a face full of anger, Rebecca's cheeks were flushed. She quickly took out a high-explosive grenade from her waist, pulled the pin, and threw it towards the Leech Man. It was a very graceful arc, and it hit the Leech Man right on its ugly face. Based on her experience of killing the Hunter earlier, Rebecca was already very good at throwing grenades.
As for the high-explosive grenade, it was a last resort that Javier had given to Rebecca before they split up. He told her to only use it when she was in a life-threatening situation. He didn't expect this girl to use it on a single Leech Man just because she was angry. If Javier had known, he would have cursed her for being a "spendthrift"! A Leech Man might be difficult to deal with using a handgun, but with enough accuracy and bullets, it could be killed with a headshot. There was no need to use a high-explosive grenade. That was too luxurious!
"Bang!"
"BOOM—!!!"
With a bang, the Leech Man was blown to pieces. There was no sign of life left. The surrounding culture jars were also affected by the grenade's explosion and shattered. Green nutrient liquid flowed all over the floor, and some leech and lizard embryos slid onto the ground with the liquid. But luckily, these embryos didn't come back to life. The facility had been abandoned for over ten years, and these embryos had become specimens. There was no way they were still alive.
"Clang!"
At that moment, a glass jar the size of a kettle rolled to Rebecca's feet with the flowing nutrient liquid. She looked at the special glass jar and the leech statue specimen inside. Rebecca realized that this was probably the special item she was looking for!
She had so much luck! Marcus's diary had said, "To hide a leaf, you must hide it in a forest," which meant the treasure was hidden among the countless embryo jars. She didn't expect that one grenade would blow all of them open and reveal the special container inside.
This was so typical of Rebecca. Her luck was incredibly strong. She smiled disdainfully at the yellow glue-like liquid sealing the special jar. She knew what the liquid was: a chemical sealing agent. Once hardened, it was incredibly tough, like a hardened candy shell. A dagger couldn't pierce it, and fire couldn't melt it. It was the best sealing material for boats to waterproof them. The glass of the jar was also bulletproof and couldn't be easily broken. But if you were too violent, you might damage the item inside, so you had to use a special stripper solution. For an outsider, this would be very troublesome!
But for Rebecca, it was different. She was a proud expert in chemical preparations, not just in medical solutions. She was also very good at other chemical agents. After finding some materials in the lab, Rebecca easily concocted the stripper solution and opened the glass jar with ease. She took out the leech statue specimen inside.
The leech inside wasn't a statue; it was a leech ornament carved from jade. It should be some kind of key. Thinking this, Rebecca sent the leech jade ornament to Billy, who was still waiting at the elevator, through the simple elevator in the lab wall.
...
On the other side, while Rebecca had completed her task, Javier's progress was also very smooth. After overcoming various obstacles, Javier arrived at another room that contained a leech jade. Unlike Rebecca's lab, this room had no sophisticated instruments, no rows of nutrient solution culture jars, and no disgusting embryos. There were only some antique picture frames and beautiful statues. In addition, there were some luxurious and exquisite sofas. It seemed this was a special resting room that Marcus had set up, with very luxurious decor. At the end of the room, on a statue of the Venus de Milo with a broken arm, Javier found another piece of leech jade. Unlike Rebecca's green one, this one was a darker gray-black color and seemed to be some kind of special gem.
Without hesitation, after finding the leech jade, Javier used the simple elevator in the room's wall to send it to Billy, who was waiting at the elevator.
At this point, Rebecca and Javier had both completed their tasks. The only one left was Billy.
"..."
"It looks like it's my turn now," Billy said to himself as he looked at the two leech jade keys in his hand. He then grabbed the M1887 shotgun and went to complete his final task. These two leech jades were actually two keys.
After carefully inspecting the floor and rooms he was on, Billy quickly found the key slots for the leech jades in front of a bronze statue of Marcus. After placing the leech jades in the slots, Billy successfully activated the mechanism and obtained a golden key. It was the key to the breeding room. Unlike the cultivation lab where Rebecca had been, which was for cultivating and observing embryo formation, the breeding room was a place to put the already-mature B.O.W.s.
In other words, it was a place to feed the monsters and to observe their every move. This sent a shiver down Billy's spine. He could already imagine how disgusting and terrifying this so-called breeding room was. There were likely some mature monsters still alive inside. Thinking of this, Billy tightened his grip on the M1887 shotgun.
He wasn't as well-equipped as Rebecca. Javier had only given him two weapons. He didn't have the luxury of a high-explosive grenade like Rebecca. The 9mm pistol was confiscated from the soldier who had been escorting him, and the shotgun was temporarily borrowed from Javier. He also had a Desert Eagle that he hadn't returned yet, with only seven bullets left in the magazine. If he were to run into any danger in the breeding room, it would be a big problem. He didn't have any powerful means of self-defense and could very well die in there. But when he thought of how Javier and Rebecca had entrusted the most important keys to him, Billy knew he couldn't disappoint them. He took a deep breath and went into the breeding room.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
The sound of crisp footsteps echoed in the silent, dim room. Billy held the M1887 shotgun and looked ahead with caution, ready to pull the trigger at any moment. At that moment, a shadow quickly darted in front of him!